The Haunted Mansion

CHAPTER 1

Search For Mystery.

Mill city was a small town in the south, not to far from the gulf, but not near enough to be bombarded by tourists.

Jill Baker and Betty Thorn grew up on Oak street, living just across the street from each other since they started kindergarten. They were best friends all through school.

Jill was the leader, the more adventuresome of the two. Betty was more docile, more into studies. However, she wasn’t beyond egging Jill on when the opportunity presented itself.

Three houses down the street lived Jill’s heart throb, Jeff Brown. She saw him every day at school, and at church on weekends. By the time they reached the last year of high school, she had became quite attached to him. A secret she kept from him, but not Betty, because they shared secrets.

One blustery day on their last year in high school, they were walking along Oak street to where it intersected with Maple. One end of Maple led to Main street, one block from the school. The other end passed several vacant lots and dead ended at a huge old mansion that had been vacant for as long as the girls could remember.

One November day, with the wind howling from the north, making it cold enough to bundle up, Jill turned left down Maple, toward the dead end, instead of toward Main street.

"Where’re you going?" Betty asked, when Jill continued to go down the street.

"Just wanted to have a look."

"At what?"

"The old Kimball mansion."

"Oh no you don’t! I’m not going any where near that place." Betty stated, holding back, while Jill tugged at her hand.

"We’ll be late."

"Baloney! We have an hour yet." Jill stated, looking at her watch to confirm it.

"Everyone says the place is haunted!" Betty complained, still holding back.

"You don’t believe all that stuff, do you? That’s what they tell kids, to keep them away form the place. My father says the town owns it now. Something to do with taxes, and no known owner. He says it’s been condemned as an abandoned property." Jill ran on hastily, continuing to tug at Betty’s arm.

Reluctantly Betty trailed along, to the huge wrought iron gate that barred the way to the front drive. The drive circled around a huge fountain, passed the front entrance, and back to the gate. There was a statue of some kind in the center of the fountain, but time and erosion had made it impossible to identify.

The girls peered through the bars of the gate, Jill leaning anxiously against the bars while Betty hung back wide eyed, and looked in, as if she expected something to jump out of the overgrown hedges at any minute and grab her.

"Geez! It’s big!" Jill exclaimed. "It must be as big as the hotel down town."

Suddenly, the gate gave way under her weight and Jill sprawled full length on the gravel.

"It’s open!" Jill shouted in dismay jumping to her feet, ignoring the skinned knee, and soiled skirt.

"Someone’s coming!" Betty shouted, pulling Jill to one side, she hastily pushed the gate closed to hide behind the ornate stone pillar. It was only then Betty realized she and Jill were on the wrong side of the gate.

"Oh Gosh! What will we do now?"