she said.

Darkness filled the inside of the house. With night approaching steadily, the place took on an eerie quality.

The door opened into a high-ceilinged room. A staircase followed the wall leading to the second floor. On every side of the room were doorways. All but one sat open; it was the only light on this floor. They walked toward the room.

The room was decorated with a mixture of decor from the early mysterious to the traditional weird.

A stuffed animal that Tess was mostly sure was a dodo sat on one side of a giant fireplace that occupied most of the far wall. Above the mantel hung a painting of a young man dressed entirely in khaki, standing among African natives. Other oddities of all shapes and sizes cluttered the room. Knickknacks lined a case positi...

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