THE MYSTERY OF STEELE HEARTS (Complete)

Chapter 36

DISCLAIMER: Fifty shades of Grey, any of its characters and other characters that I borrowed from other places do NOT belong to me. I own the plot and more than a few characters though. *I would like to remind you that this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or places is accidental; though I did borrow some names and characters from other places that are not mine.

Thanks so much to my awesome Beta, Ninkita.

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Chapter 36:

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Elliot ended up in front of a huge golden gate. Parking his car on one side, he headed inside the school gate. Since he did not know the location of the Manor, he thought he would look for it himself or ask one of the kids for it. There was a yellow building on his right and a huge field on his left. He looked ahead and saw that there was a narrow path with a blue building on its right and a flower garden on its left. The garden was located just beyond the field. It had three thick rows of three different colored flowers; red, pink and blue.

"Maybe it leads to the manor," Elliot said to himself, "Why else would there be a narrow path here?" he shrugged before heading that way.

He stopped in front of the door at the head of the narrow , he looked around and then thought he could climb over the garden fence to reach the manor. Grinning at his smartness, he crossed the garden boundary and started walking between the rows of bluebells to go to the other side of the garden. He had almost reached the far corner, when he stumbled and fell. It seemed that due to rain there were some soft patches on the land. When Elliot fell, his hand landed on one of those soft patches and his hand buried itself in the mud.

"Ugh...this day sucks," Elliot moaned shaking his head in disgust. He tried to stand up, but then he realized that his hand was really stuck in the mud. He wiggled his fingers and felt something against his fingers. Curiously he wiggled his fingers some more. He got hold of the thing, and then with a mighty tug, he freed his hand. When his hand became free, Elliot paled. He was holding the skeleton of a human hand. The terror-filled scream that tore through his mouth echoed across the night sky.

Caleb was in his office in the dorm when he heard the scream. His super hearing helped. Frowning, he closed his laptop and headed in the direction the scream came from. He was surprised when he found himself in the bluebell garden. No one was allowed to come here. Every student in the school knew that entering this garden would result in severe punishment. Even Bill, the rule breaker, avoided this garden. Narrowing his eyes, he entered the garden and switched on the torch. He was surprised to find Elliot on the ground, looking terrified. "Mr. Elliot? You...what are doing here?" he asked as he hurriedly approached the man.

"Ca..Caleb? T-thank god... I- I was going to the manor when I fell. I found that in a hole where my hand got stuck," Elliot replied in a trembling voice as he pointed at the skeleton hand.

Caleb glanced sideways at the bones with a peculiar look on his face. "Don't worry. That's just a scare tactic to keep the students away. This garden is a forbidden zone for them," Caleb stated blandly.

"Th-that's not real?" Elliot asked, almost relieved.

"No. Halloween is in a few weeks, so I put the fake bones here. It seems the rain made the soil soft and these bones went down," Caleb shrugged nonchalantly.

"Good lord! It scared the hell out of me," Elliot snickered, before wincing due to the bruises on his face.

"Did you hit your face hard? You're all bruised up," Caleb asked as he helped Elliot up and out of the garden.

"Kate and I had a fight," Elliot winced.

"Literally, I see," Caleb raised his eyebrow at the older man.