Tiêu đề The Haunting of Crawley Manor (A TBSOL Halloween) ✅

The Haunting of Crawley Manor (A TBSOL Halloween adventure) By Ingrid Díaz @tbsol | patreon Author’s Note: This story takes place some time after the final version of TBSOL, which will be published SoonTM. Rough, early drafts of the pre-publication version are available in their entirety on Patreon, along with more bonus content, and the on-going first draft of the sequel, Love in the Light. Thank you to all patrons for making stories like this possible. Happy Halloween! ❤️ “Are you sleeping with Leigh?” The gulp of coffee in Karen’s mouth went down a little more forcefully than intended, but she did her best not to cough before setting her cup down. “What?” Julianne shrugged, dumping sugar into her coffee cup. “I mean, you did go on a date a few weeks ago—” “A double date,” Karen clarified. “With other people.” “And then dinner on Valentine’s—” “Anti-Valentine’s.” “After which she spent the night...”
“We watched horror movies, and I fell asleep on the couch. I told you.” There was a distinctive arch to Julianne’s left eyebrow as she stared at Karen for several seconds. “You don’t have to pretend if—” “Oh, my God!” Karen shouted, annoyed and a little frustrated. Embarrassed, too, come to think of it. “I’m not having sex with Leigh Radlin!” “You want to, though.” Karen half-turned to glare at Purity, who was seated at Julianne’s dining room table, sliding autographed prints into envelopes. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” Purity wrinkled her nose apologetically. “My bad.” She gathered the envelopes on the table, and stood up, smiling cheerfully. “I’m going to go send these, and then go pick up lunch.” The annoying arched eyebrow was back in place when Karen turned back to Julianne, but she decided to ignore it. “Can we please talk about tonight?” Julianne stirred her coffee. “I’m not going.” Horror wasn’t Julianne’s favorite genre, and Karen was well aware of that, but Julianne had been offered the lead role in the film adaptation of one of the most popular young adult paranormal series to date, and Karen would be a terrible manager if she didn’t at least push her to consider it. The director had invited them to attend an exclusive, all-night event at what was arguably one of the most haunted locations in the country, an old mansion that would eventually serve as the setting for the film, and no way was Karen passing that opportunity up. “What if I told you that you could bring Kris?” Julianne set her coffee cup down on the island counter, her blue eyes flashing with annoyance. “I don’t need your permission to take Kris anywhere.” “It’s going to be a small gathering,” Karen carried on. “No press. No film crews. Not even cell phones are allowed. It would be a perfect opportunity to share more of your work life with her. Besides, our invitations say plus one. Would be a shame not to at least ask her.” The wheels were turning inside Julianne’s head, and Karen sipped her coffee in silence as she waited for an answer. “I’ll ask her,” Julianne said, finally, picking up her coffee again. “But if Kris is my plus one, who is going to be yours?”
*** “Four women were murdered at Crawley Manor between the years 1883 and 1896,” Leigh read from her phone screen. “The bodies were found dismembered, carefully placed in various areas of the house. Some were found hidden inside wooden panels in the walls, others were hung from fish hooks on the ceiling. Many body parts were never recovered, and it is said that the spirits of the dead still haunt the mansion, searching for the missing pieces of their bodies. To this day, the killer was never identified.” A heavy silence fell over the limo. “This is your idea of a romantic getaway?” Kris asked Julianne. “Don’t look at me,” Julianne replied. “I didn’t even want to come to this thing.” Leigh snorted from her place across from them, and put the cell phone back into her purse. “Well, I, for one, am grateful for the invitation.” An invitation she had mostly given to herself, but whatever. Karen had been weirdly hesitant about asking her, and Leigh wasn’t about to let an opportunity like this slide. An overnight stay at Crawley Manor, rubbing elbows with the crew behind the upcoming Shadow Crawlers series? Over her dead, dismembered body would she miss out on this. “The two of you have zero appreciation for the afterlife, and I’m confident the ghosts at Crawley Manor will sense your negativity.” “We should probably get a room really far from theirs just to be safe,” Karen said to her, in a faux whisper. “I’d like to keep all my body parts intact.” Leigh nodded. “Maybe in a different wing...” “We can hear you,” Julianne said. “If we get murdered tonight, who should we haunt first?” Kris asked Julianne. “Karen,” Julianne replied. “Seeing as this was all her idea.” “Hmm,” Kris said, glancing at Karen. “Getting your only client dismembered by vengeful spirits is potentially bad for business.” “Is it, though?” Leigh wondered. “I wouldn’t mind having a manager who could command the dead.” “Remind me to give you my card,” Karen said, and winked. The limo turned sharply down a narrow, tree-lined path that curved around for half a mile before the trees cleared away, revealing Crawley Manor in all of its Victorian splendor.
The occupants of the limo fell silent as they gazed out of their respective windows at the sprawling landscapes and meticulously maintained gardens. Gravel crunched beneath the wheels of the vehicle as the limo neared its final destination, rolling to a stop around a water fountain. Leigh pressed her nose to the glass of the window, staring up at the hundreds of windows that seemed to stare back at her, unblinking. Over three decades ago, Crawley Manor had been purchased by a wealthy business tycoon who’d invested many years, and many millions restoring the decaying building back to its original state, down to its most minute detail. Most of the early structure remained, cleaned up and freshly painted. Years of damage and neglect scraped away and wallpapered over, making it easy to forget the sinister history buried deep within its walls. “It’s way nicer than I imagined,” Julianne commented. “The dead here really know how to haunt in style.” “Rich white ghost privilege,” Kris said, shaking her head. Leigh glanced around, noticing that nobody was making any effort to get out. “So, do we just wait for the ghost butler to open the door for us, or—” The door flew open, and everyone jumped. Except for Leigh, who would never admit to fear. A white guy with a mohawk leaned down into the open doorway and smiled at them, showing perfect teeth. “Ladies, my name is Tuna, and I will be your domestic operative during your stay. Please,” he said, a sudden urgency in his tone as he stepped away from the car and motioned towards the doors leading inside, “the house has been expecting you. You mustn’t keep it waiting.” He leaned back down again, and grinned. “I’m just fucking with you. Drinks are inside and there’s a buffet spread all ready for you should you be hungry. I’ll personally see that your things are delivered to your rooms.” Leigh was the first to emerge from the limo, and she accepted the gift bag and a leather-bound folder Tuna handed to her. “Welcome to Crawley Manor, Ms. Radlin,” he said. “We’ll do everything in our power to ensure you never want to leave.” ***