The House of Daggers

11:34 P.M.

Tuscan Countryside, Italy

Thursday, June 12^th, 2008

Part One

Chapter One

The door creaked closed, and the rain poured down heavily. The two girls walked out, putting up their hoods. They looked around; fresh leaves falling, tress rustling, and thunder striking.

“Are you sure it’s okay to go?” One girl said.

“Yeah, it’s almost midnight, my parents are in Cali and not coming back till the 20^th, and the caretaker is so lazy that he won’t even lift a finger.” The other girl answered.

Thunder struck again, the light flashing against the girl’s faces.

One of them looked scared, shutting her eyes and facing away, trying to get the huge amount of light out of her face, but unable to because of the only few strands of hair hanging over her face. The rest of it cascaded down the back of her head in a ponytail, like a chocolate waterfall. This is Brittany.

The other faced the light, looking straight into it, her hair rushing behind her, like sheets of gold and bronze. Her blue eyes pierced against the flow of white, the light fading away until her hair color turned into a dirty blonde, normal color. She dropped her head to look at the still afraid Brittany, her freckles showing in the remnants of the lights. This is Madeleine.

They got up, and walked away from the mansion. Away from all of it’s safeness, contemporariness, and ordinariness. They walked down the path, the ground crunching underneath their steps.

“C’mon Britt, walk faster.” Madeleine exclaimed.

“Coming!” Brittany responded.

They finally reached the great gate to the exit of Madeleine’s mansion. They shook the gate, vines snapping off, petals and flowers crashed down and the gates door finally broke open. The girls walked past it, shutting the doors on the way.

They were completely open now, completely vulnerable, completely defenseless. They thought that the place they were going to was nothing from the norm, that they wouldn’t need to be protected from anything. That was one mistake that would cost them greatly. They were going to a place that was definitely anything but ordinary. They were going to a place that had been shut down because too many people had disappeared and died. They were going to the only place that could fit that description… the House of Daggers.