Winterbranch Camp

[Rye]

(Not to worry ,everyone can gets like that around November and March , exam time and the time for depression , lines up with when the clocks change forward and back. But yea I'm still interested , you know me I take a long time to reply anyway. Seems a little too much standing around though to have them too scared to leave , a wet bed though from something like that is fine)

"Well I guess we can wander about until we find them" he said with a grin "maybe we'll find a secret passage of some sort" he added as he went past into the main reception room and then out another door into the room that housed the painting of the her Grey Eminence. In all her pale glory. "I think up the main stairway is just more bedrooms , we should look for a second staircase. There's got to be other rooms about. Like a library or something" he suggested , looking back up at the painting. It really did look like the ghost he had seen watching from up high. Looking around there were wooden doors all around them.n The room itself was fairly blank bar a few pieces pushed against the sides , tables , drawers and a few chairs. Other than that it was a blank room "this must be the centre room" he said , guessing it was right in the middle to have all these doors leading off. "Wouldn't kill them to put up some signs though" he said feeling rather lost , all the walls being the same dark vanished wood panelling , gave it a very cosy hunting lodge kind of look , regal yet relaxed. "Okay then , I've led us here. You pick next" he said , letting Justin pick the next direction. Who knew how many rooms there were on the first floor. They already knew the hallway and the reception room at the front. There was the long hallway to the changing rooms from under the stairs and their bedroom on the first floor. But the place looked so much bigger on the outside there must have been more to see.

[Sundial]

Justin let a grin touch his face as he heard Luke buy in to the whole 'getting lost' idea. Sure, they'd look like complete clumsy morons if Danny had to come find them a second time, but Justin was confident that was not going to happen. The house was big, but they'd have to be real forgetful to lose their way in here. He silently made a mental note not to shut any of the wooden doors behind them, just in case it locked behind them.

Justin winced a little as he saw they had to go through the room that housed the Grey Eminence. After all that had happened today, and how much fun he had been having just hanging out with Luke, more creepiness was the last thing he wanted to get involved in. He shuffled his way past the painting, averting his gaze as he went. "I mean, it's a super big house. They didn't just build rooms for nothing, they must all have some purpose."

He breathed a small sigh of relief as they exited, nodding along with Luke's observations. He too was frustrated by the lack of signs. Then again, they weren't really meant to be in here anyway, so they sort of had to take what they could get. He slowly began moseying his way around the room, checking drawers and cabinets. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust, which Justin hurriedly brushed off his fingers distastefully. Much to his disappointment, aside from a bunch of mothballs and cobwebs, he didn't really find anything. "Would it kill them to clean this place every so often?" He asked before a fun idea struck him. "Man... Imagine if we found some old, really rare antique or something. One of my friends once found a box of really old coins in his uncle's attic, and sold them for like, a hundred dollars on eBay." He said, letting his imagination go a bit.

"Hmmm. I pick this one." Justin said, pointing to a door opposite to the one they had just entered from. He excitedly rushed up to it and pulled it open, poking his head inside and taking a look around. The room was small kind of crowded. A large wooden desk took up most of the space, with a tall, carved wooden chair sat behind it. The walls were again lined with cabinets and shelves, some filled with books and other curiosities. Justin quickly ducked his head back out. "It's like some kind of study or something?" He called to Luke, gesturing him to come over, before walking into the room himself.

[Rye]

Luke picked the next door , it seemed the further back you went the most disused the building was. A lot of it seemed dusty but now that he thought of it there couldn't be many rooms that were used in the main building. He imagined maybe offices bedrooms and few of the big hall like rooms would be used but the catering was another building as were a lot of the other activities. That left the rest of the place relativity unused. The blond picked a room and went in , inside was a kitchen , an old one , light coming in through a dirty window into a large preparation room with shelves , jars and other things all around. Apart from the cast iron he spotted some chairs stacked up to the side , wooden high chairs , normal chairs and tables. From where he was they looked huge. He guessed it was just perspective. Trying the light got him nowhere, he guessed this bit only had the old fashioned gas or candle lighting , it was an old house it would make sense.

Heading back out he met back up with Justin "kitchen back there. Yea , seems they didn't clear everything out. Think they belonged to her?" he suggested , nodding back at the picture of the grey lady herself. "So we've got her , and the tragic one at the bridge. Seems there's more than one lurking around. Maybe we can find something out about them and how to avoid them" he suggested , feeling rather keen on his dry undies "maybe some way to break the curse and get the ghost away?" he suggested taking another route down a hallway

[Sundial]

Justin was busy looking over some of the various objects in the study room, taking care not to touch anything that looked too expensive. Even if these rooms were mostly abandoned, he doubted anyone would be too happy with him if he smashed something. Like the previous room, everything had a fine coating of dust. Checking the books, they all seemed to be long, drawling descriptions of military campaigns and politics that Justin had never heard of. He frowned a little, chewing the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. There was hardly any point in sneaking around here if they weren't going to find anything cool.

"Yeah, nothing's really back here either." He called out, before meeting back up with Luke. Luke's next point took him off guard a little. He hadn't really made the connection that, at some point in time, the woman in that horrible painting, actually lived here once a time. She would've sat in the same rooms, used the same stairs, read the same books he'd just been touching. "Yeah..." He replied slowly. "...They definitely could've... It gives me the creeps." He said, giving Luke a weak smile.

"Hmm... I've been thinking about that too. This place just gives me a weird feeling. I think there's definitely more to it than what we saw in the forest." He sighed. "Finding stuff about them is definitely a good way to go. Maybe their names, or how they died or something? I wonder if they can be talked to? Like, helping them find rest? I think there's a horror movie about that, but I'm not sure how it works in real life." He groaned and tossed his head back. "Ugh. This is so frustrating. I wish this could just be a normal summer camp. I wish we could just google 'How to get rid of ghosts', or 'How to not seem like a crazy person, when you're being haunted'. I just don't know what to do..." He said glumly, wandering down the hallway.

They eventually came to a corner, as the hallway briefly continued left, before leading to a second flight of stairs. "Well... There's your second staircase." He said, cautiously approaching. It was far smaller than the main stairway, far less grand, and looked like it had been maintained far less. He tentatively placed one foot on the first step. It creaked. Loudly. It seemed safe though. "Do we want to keep going? I don't know what time the activities are meant to finish." He shrugged.

[Rye]

Luke nodded "We could ask , get a history lesson , doubt they would tell us with any of the kids around though" Luke replied wondering who would know anything about the place before it became a camp. "Find them rest? No idea how to do that. I mean you heard the forest one's story, how do we solve a dead ghost's problems" he said shaking his head as they came to the stairway. Looking over the dark dusty wood he peered it. Seemed to go all the way to the top with what he supposed were many more rooms.

Heading back down he went back to the study , as he did he knocked something over that fell with a heavy thunk onto the carpeted floor. Kneeling down he picked up what had dropped. It was about the size of his palm , metal and dirty , he would need to wash it before he could see what it was. He went to show it to his friend when he heard a clock chime from somewhere else inside the house "I'm guessing that's the signal for us to get back before someone misses us" he said , thinking that class switch overs would be on the hour.

Luke lead the way back , waiting until they were back in the hallway before showing his friend what he had taken. It looked like a large silver broach. Circular with one large pale blue stone set in it for decoration. The pin on the back was simple enough except it wet from side to side rather than downward. There were markings of words but it was still caked in dust , he would need to wash it down in a sink before he could make out and of the details. "Found this back there. Knocked it over...." he said wondering if it was a good idea to take it , if not he could always put it back. "Where did Danny say the group was. I think they must be done with the arts and crafts by now" he said , pocketing the botch and heading through the house to try and find some sign of activity.

[Sundial]

(Hey, so I was thinking, unless there's anything specific you want to happen in the evening, we should just hurry along to the campfire. Maybe have their second accident so things move along. Let me know if there's anything you want to do to make it more interesting.)

Justin followed Luke back towards the other rooms, kind of glad they decided to not go up the staircase. But at the same time, he was painfully curious as to what was up there. He took one last look, before turning the corner, telling himself that they'd come back at a later time.

"Did you break something?" Justin called out half jokingly as he heard the clatter coming from the study. "I don't know if we should take anything..." he said seeing Luke picking up the small object. He was still paranoid about all the ghosts having lived here. He knew for sure he didn't want a ghost angry at them. On the other hand, maybe it could be a helpful clue. It was anyone's guess. He had to admit though, the brooch was very pretty, and clearly had writing on it. "Let's find out what it says." Justin decided. What was the worst that could happen?

Hurrying back to the entrance now, Justin could begin to hear voices and he shuffling of feet. He kept his eyes peeled for Danny, trying to avoid a telling off. It was fairly inevitable though. They couldn't avoid Danny forever and if he wanted to tell then off, he would find them. I think they were in the hall with the fireplace. But that was the last activity for the day right? So I think it's dinner time now." He said, following the other campers outside and heading towards the mess hall.

Inside, the welcome smell of cooking food greeted them. Between getting changed, showering, having hot chocolates and wandering around the house, nearly two hours had passed. "Wanna go and wash that jewelry thing you found?" Justin said, pointing over to a sink where other campers were currently washing their hands.

[Rye]

"No I didn't break anything" the blond replied , he did show him what he did find "Should probably put it back but we're gonna be late if we go back there and put it back." he explained as they followed the way back to the main hall. Sure enough it was a hive of activity with kids moving every which way to get to where they needed to be. Unfortunately everyone was new and still figuring out the layout of the place.

Sure enough they soon crossed passed with Danny who emerged from the crowd that he was trying to herd like sheep "there you two are. " he said putting one hand on his hip and sighing "don't know where you got off too but we've got some good news for you. You two are in the group going on the ghost story camp-fire tonight for the evening activity.Head over to the mess hall for some food and then meet up outside the house. We won't wait on you if you're late" he shouted over the hum of the other campers around them and then went to try and break up and small argument that was getting too loud to sound like a civil discussion.

Luke had a look out the window , sure enough it was getting dark , and it looked dry , seems the raid and mist was holding off for the night. It did look spooky out there , dark and foreboding , inspiring a little sense of adventure in him. "Hmm , I should give it a wash, tell you what. We should split up and meet at the front of the house after we've both taken care of things. You know I'm actually looking forward to this one , it ain't babies first arts and crafts either" he said with a cheeky smile.