Read The Mansion for Free Online Page B

the light grey clouds and whiteness of the
untouched snow. Its eyes catching glimpsed a woman banging against
a window, but there was no sound.
    The cold wind increased in strength—as did
the voices. They no longer called for her to stay; they now
screamed at her in anger that she wanted to leave.
    Phoebe felt the hands grab her body once
more. This time they pinched at her skin and pulled at her hair.
She screamed as she continued to fight against the invisible force,
once again clinging to the frame of the window by her fingers. The
voices got louder and louder, shouting and screaming at her.
    ‘You are like the others!’
    ‘You will stay here forever! You will not
leave us!’
    Amongst the young childlike voices were a few
deeper, older ones. These shouted at her and bullied her
senses.
    ‘You whore, we won’t let you leave.’
    ‘You are going to suffer like all the others,
you bitch.’
    Tears flowed freely down her face as she
fought to hold onto the window frame. She managed to scream and
shout for help before using her remaining energy and fight to pull
against the hands that tugged at her.
    Out of the corner of her tear-filled eye, she
noticed a bright light begin to grow. She didn’t want to look, but
she couldn’t help herself. From within the pile of toys, a bright
white light began to shine. The toys surrounding it all held out
their hands towards her as if it was they who were pulling her
towards them. The light grew in size and brightness, and she could
make out several figures standing on either side of the mountain of
toys: boys and girls all laughing at her. She turned her face and
looked to the window and her fingers. Standing in front of her was
a young girl, her hair not being disturbed by the strong wind that
circled the room, her dress, white with embroidered red roses, had
a red stain around its neck. As Phoebe stared into the young girl’s
pale face, she could see the long red open wound running around her
throat. The young girl smiled at Phoebe and then began prying her
fingers from the window frame. Each time the girl pulled a finger
from it, Phoebe could feel the iciness of the girls touch. When the
strength of the pulling hands over came the last two of her
resisting fingers, Phoebe was pulled towards the light and the pile
of toys. Phoebe’s wide eyes stared at the young girl, who waved at
her. She tried to let out a final scream, but nothing escaped her
mouth before her body was pulled into the space between the toys
created by the bright white light.
    Phoebes’ last vision of the outside world
before all went black was several children’s faces peering into the
hole she was being sucked into and smiling.
    The moment the light died, the door burst
open. Tony stood at the doorway breathing heavily. He had been
wrestling with the door for a few minutes, fighting against either
a strong wind that pushed the door closed each time he attempted to
open it or an invisible force that teased him by allowing him to
open the door slightly only to push it shut again.
    Tony’s eyes scoured the room. For the
briefest of seconds, he saw the figure of a young girl standing by
the window. He did a double take, but what or whoever he saw was
gone. He walked over to the window and peered out. The snow covered
landscape encapsulated him. Even though it was night, the light
from the snow clouds and snow on the ground enabled him to see most
of the garden. His moment of solace was broken by the giggles and
laughter of children and the echoing cry for help from Phoebe.
    He called her name and waited, and her cry
for help came again. He found it hard to pinpoint where her cry had
come from due to the reverberation. He ran out of the room, into
the corridor, and on to the next room.
    Jeremy and Michael paused outside the next
bedroom door. They both put an ear to it and listened. When they
heard nothing, they smiled to each other and removed their ears
before Jeremy turned the handle and pushed the door