"Don't move."

Everyone turned to look at Autumn who had spoken the words before going silent. Her face lost its colour, as if she had seen a ghost. Her breathing turned shallow and she felt cold overall.

"What is it?" Talia asked, worried. She was the only one from the friends who had experienced things the least and after hearing the stories from everyone, she felt paranoid even if hardly anything happened.

"I-I think something is going to happen. Something bad, or maybe unusual."

"Autumn, is everything all right? Why do you think that?" This time it was Katherine who asked the question in a soothing tone. Being the actual adult, she wanted to make the others feel as comfortable as they could get after everything that had happened to them.

Autumn gulped, "Since the day we came here, I've been getting this weird feeling inside me. It's... cold and suffocating. I didn't know what it meant, but then I realised that it came before something bad or unusual happened. Always."

All of them shivered and turned to look at each other.

"What if it's some kind of warning? Some kind of sign of help?"

"Do you think it is Joh-"

Raymond's question was interrupted when he felt Autumn's hand being yanked from his soft grip. A scream tore from her as she was suddenly raised in the air with a jolt. She felt something getting wrapped around her throat for strangulation purpose and she let her hands search around her throat to get rid of whatever was asphyxiating her.

As Raymond shot up from the couch to run to his friend's aid, he struggled to move. His feet were literally frozen and rooted to the ground. He looked up at the bluing face of Autumn and his heart pounded in trepidation. He looked at the others around the room, and saw them struggling like him against the force.

The crumpled letter fell down from Autumn's shaking hand, but before it could touch the ground, it was thrown back up in the air and was ignited in orange flames. Autumn watched the paper burning and turning into ashes before her droopy eyes when she was released from the choke hold. She was unceremoniously dropped to the ground with a thud.

Everyone was instantly released from the hold and they all ran to their friend in alarm.

"Autumn!"

The girl in question coughed and wheezed and gasped for air. She forced out a response indicating that she was okay, but her friends didn't listen to her. Raymond gently picked her up and laid her down on the couch, propping her head on a cushion. She was given a moment to control her breathing, but when she opened her eyes, she saw everyone looking down at her with a new look in their eyes. She couldn't figure it out. All of them were crouched down next to her with conflict taking over their features.

"What?" Autumn's voice was strained as she croaked, and Kaylee handed her some water to ease her throat.

All of them frowned and exchanged looks before Adam asked, "Autie, why were you... coughing blood?"

Autumn's face turned solemn, "I don't know. It... started when I was looking for all of you and I don't want any of you to worry about it right now. I'll be fine. Our first priority is to find the letter and those names and get out of here. Then you can worry about me as much as you want."

It looked like they all wanted to say something, but they also knew that their friend was right. The sooner they end everything, the better it would be for everyone. Their minds just couldn't accept their best friend staying in pain all through it.

"And," Autumn started as she slowly got up into a sitting position against everyone's opposition, "None of you are stopping me from looking for the letter and the will."

"No."

Autumn looked at Raymond and Talia incredulously, "What do you mean, no? I will be going! I will be helping you all!"

Everyone knew that Autumn was stubborn. And they also knew that she would never let them step into any dangerous territory alone. She had the rule of all or none. However, they did not want her to be hurt any more than she already was.

"No, Autie. You will be staying here while we all look for the letter and the will," Raymond expressed his disapproval.

Autumn was silent for a moment before she came up with another point. There was no way she was letting all of them leave her. She was hell bent on finding a way out for herself.

"What if something happens to me while all of you are looking for the papers?"

"I'll stay with you," Adam piped up.

Autumn groaned and rubbed her hands over her face in annoyance. She looked at them and tried again, "Okay, how about I look for only the letter with you and you can find the will on your own?"

Silence overlaid the room yet again as everyone pondered over the idea. Their minds travelled miles. Once they thought Autumn's idea to be a good proposition, they agreed. Both parties would be getting something out of it and they were fine with it, if not a little reserved still.

As the group started to prepare themselves for the search, a thought clicked Adam's mind and he turned to Autumn.

"Hey, where are those papers we found in the basement?"

Everyone's attention was on the girl whose lips turned down and she shrugged.

"They were in the bag, and you know how I lost the bag. The names were in the last entry but I wasn't able to read them before everything happened."

Adam pursed his lips before speaking again, "What if the letter is in the basement? We found the will and those papers along with the keys in the basement, you know. And John's body was also found in the basement."

Autumn raised her brows and looked at her friend in surprise, "Since when have you gotten so smart?"

Everyone laughed when Adam scowled. He shook his head and looked away, hiding the small smile that he couldn't hold back. He knew what Autumn was doing. He knew she was trying to make everyone loosen up by slightly joking around. And he was grateful for the effort.

"Hey, Adam? You didn't lock the basement that day, right? Because the keys were also in my backpack."

Adam shook his head- relieved that he hadn't.

"Imagine what would have happened if the door was locked," Kaylee mused and everyone else shuddered. They didn't even want to think about it.

“Wait. Which entrance did you both take that day?”

Autumn and Adam exchanged looks and turned back in Katherine’s direction. “The outside one. We couldn’t find the one inside.”

Katherine smiled. “That’s because it’s hidden.”

“Where?”

“Wait here.”

Katherine exited the room and by the time everyone else was in the stair lobby- with Adam and Raymond helping Autumn out even though she claimed that she could walk- she was standing there with some torches.

"I brought some things in advance. I had no idea what you guys might be needing, so I brought everything I could. I also have an umbrella cane if you want," she directed the last sentence to Autumn who gave her a positive response with a thank you.

With torches in hand, all of them followed Katherine who walked to the staircase. She turned to the side of it and stopped in front of the wall. Handing her torch to Kaylee, she traced the wall and smiled when she paused her hand movement. There was an inconspicuous line that could only be seen from close. Katherine pushed at the wall there and all of the sudden, that part of the wall separated; the door opened.

Everyone stared at the woman dumbfounded and she just chuckled.

“Come on.”

As everyone walked ahead and down the stairs, Autumn looked at Katherine who was standing next to the open door.

"Are you okay?"

Katherine blew out a shaky breath and turned to look at the girl, "The last time I was here, I found a dead body. This is just hard to do."

Autumn placed a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder and gave her a sad smile, "You don't have to go down there if you don't feel comfortable. I, or anyone else, can stay up here with you if you want."

The fact that Autumn was offering to stay up with her instead of going down after arguing on it for so long, touched Katherine deeply.

"I'm willing to go down there. It's just somewhat hard."

Autumn nodded and started slowly limping down the stairs after Katherine. Raymond was right behind her, helping her. The wooden stairs groaned and screamed under so much weight as they struggled to not break.

Once everyone was safely in the basement, the search started. The huge area was plain except for the two couches and cupboards on the wall. This made the search difficult because there was nothing to search from.

Looking around, Autumn spotted the other staircase and realised that seeing this one would have been difficult from there because it was hidden by a small wall that merged well with the wall behind.

For a second, Autumn thought that the letter could have been in the pile she and Adam had found, but she dismissed the thought when she remembered that she had gone through every page's content. Almost all the content. All except for the names.

She limped around and about the place when something caught her eyes. She had just let her torch go over the wall under the stairs- the one that led outside, when she saw paint and plaster chipped from the wall, revealing the bricks. The spot was so small and concealed under the stairs in the dark that anyone would have easily missed it.

Autumn let her brows come together as she hobbled over to the wall under the stairs. There was darkness around her except for when the light from a torch would come her way. She kept her own pointed to the spot. When she was close enough, she bent down to keep her head from colliding against the stairs and her eyes widened.

There was a folded piece of paper shoved between two bricks in the wall. Autumn rested her weight on the umbrella cane and reached her other hand out to the paper. She pulled it out and when she opened it up, she found it to be the other half of the letter.

Autumn quickly straightened up and without taking her eyes off the letter, she called over her shoulder, "I found it!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed over to their friend. Their feet thumped against the floor and their hearts followed the same rhythm. When they stopped behind Autumn, she turned around to face them and showed them the letter.

"Should we go up or read it here?"

Autumn looked at Katherine- silently asking her because the letter was her belonging. She also thought that Katherine might feel uneasy if she stayed under there for another minute.

"Upstairs." There was a hidden plea in her voice and everyone agreed with her.

They all slowly moved up the creaking stairs and closed the door behind once their feet landed on the ground floor. No one's heart had calmed down and there was dread filling everyone to the brim. They didn't know what to expect from the letter and where it would lead them. Would it really solve the matters for them?

Back in the living room, all of them settled down and Autumn handed the letter over to Katherine, who refused.

"It's too much for me and I'm still overwhelmed. I want you to read it because I don't believe that I would be able to do that."

Autumn hesitated as she watched Katherine's uneven breathing. The woman had too much from her past dropped on her shoulders all of the sudden, and she had trouble absorbing everything in.

Autumn took a deep breath and looked down at the letter in her hand.

-

When you get to the mansion, I want you to look inside every locked room. The keys will be found in a box in the basement along with the will. The will would be torn. John gave me the torn part before he could die. The part that has the name of the granddaughter.

Being old has its disadvantage because I have forgotten which room I had hidden the names in. I knew that I had locked that room and I want you to look inside every locked room for the names because of that. There would be an antique table in the correct locked room and you will find a connected box under the table. The box can easily be opened and you will find the paper inside that.

Katherine, dear, I'm not mentioning the names in this letter because I'm paranoid someone else would still be able to find this. I know that you think anyone would be able to find the paper, now that I've explained everything, but that won't happen.

I mentioned before that anyone who comes here, never gets out. And that is because of the man who died as well. I also said that John protects the place. His way of doing it is by protecting the people closest to him. Anyone else who gets here would be harmed and hidden and would never be able to do anything, but those who are beloved by John will never suffer. They might get injured or harmed in some ways, but they will always come out alive.

I always came out alive and barely harmed. It was because John kept protecting me and will do the same for you or anyone else related to him or his loved ones. Either by blood or bond.

John protected me in many ways and always helped me and warned me. When I needed to hide something, he would take over my body. When harm was on its way, he would make me aware of it. He was always there fighting for me.

Love, before I get distracted, I want to tell you the way you can stop everything. I was never able to locate the girl. You're also the personal representative of the will and once you find the will, you have to find the granddaughter and read the will to her while at the mansion. The evil will try to stop you from accomplishing your goal, because your accomplishment would mean John's peace, and John's peace would mean Grace's father's defeat. Because the man was related to and hired by him, he would be gone from here forever once the will is read. He would finally vanish and John would be at rest forever.

I love you dearly, my child. Never forget that. I'll always be watching you and will be there with you on every step of the way.

Maria Acton

*****

Hey, Clumsies!

Did I just drop everything on you?

No, not yet. The next chapter would be a whole new ride.

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter once you take everything in!

I've actually been waiting for so long to write this chapter. This was the chapter from where the while story was originated. The letter finding scene was the first part of this story ever created.

There's a story behind the idea. I was out with my family in the old part of the city and there were some brick walled building. I saw a folded paper shoved between two bricks and the idea came to me from there.

My imagination is wild.

I'm also so sad that there are only two more chapters left before an epilogue.

*cries in a corner*

Anyway, don't forget to vote and comment!

Let me know all your thoughts!

Love you! ❤