The Mansion in the Woods

As the sun begins to rise over the quiet village of Dorson, I start to get up and begin my everyday routine.  Of course the usual to what normal human beings do; wash, dress, etc. Whilst the kettle was brewing I leant against the window pane thinking back to the recent event which had taken place.

“Sakura Cross, are you present?”
“Yes sir!”
“Kato Nagasaki, are you present?”
“Yes sir!”
“Elizabeth Smith, are you present?”
“Yes sir!”
The list continued till the others were all accounted for, I had a team of six; Kato, Elizabeth, Sam, Me, Sue and John. We worked for the police, only we base our work on the death side; such as murders, suicide, etc. We were all called in for a meeting about a certain investigation which was being taken place.

“Excellent, we have the entire team assembled. As you may have received information already on the recent death of a Laura Jane Smith, we still haven’t found any clues or intel on what exactly was the cause of her death. We did send in a team to investigate the mansion which she was living in however, they didn’t return. We’re sending you in to find any clues or information on the victim or if there was murderer; you will all be leaving in a week’s time.”

I snapped back into reality when I heard the kettle start to boil, I took it off the stove and returned my attention to my packing. Of course, today was the day. Kato was going to be contacting me when he was going to pick me up. We were to leave at dawn in hope to arrive to the mansion faster. No one wanted to be left in the woods at night.

In case you didn’t pick up, I’m Sakura Cross. My team call me by my last name “Cross” however due to my heritage they prefer to use the Japanese version of my last name, Kurosu. I’ll admit doing this job is risky and my life is put on the line day after day, but it has to be done. I am Justice.

The phone rang just as I’d finished packing; I knew on instinct that it was Kato.
“Kato?”
“Yo Kurosu! I’m at your apartment, the others are getting real impatient don’t want to hold them up now do we?”
A smile tugs at my lips, even though I’m not happy about this whole trip, Kato always seems to lighten the situation.
“Don’t worry solider, I’m on my way down.”
“Yes sir! I mean Madame”

I hung up and drop the phone into my bag; I take a deep breath and walk out my apartment. It will be a while till I return back; we were informed at late notice that we were to stay at the mansion till we gathered enough information needed. That was the last thing I wanted to do.

As I step outside I’m greeted with a slight cool breeze, I see Kato sat on his motorbike. It was a sleek black one which I loved, of course speed yet stealth was the key. He throws me my helmet.
“Hop on Kurosu, we’re a bit late, that’s my fault, again”
“When is it not your fault Kato?” I say with a sigh.
“Still uneasy about the whole trip?” Kato enquires
“Yes, mainly due to how dangerous this whole thing is, if I was on my own fine. But the fact that I have my whole team, my family; it’s kept me on edge.” I reply with sadness in my voice.
Kato revs his engine and we take off at high speed, the noise of the motorbikes engine is loud compared to the silence of Dorson that morning.
“You’re not the only one whose like this Kurosu, I’m not happy about this trip either” Kato admitted.

I was struck by his words, Kato seemed to be the one most excited about this trip, and now he’s telling me that he’s dreading it?

“You?” I say shocked “But after the meeting you seemed happy to go, the fact that the whole team was being assembled made you seem to go over the moon so to speak.”
“Yeah well, when your whole team’s lives are at risk the trip seems to be more like a death sentence.” Kato says grimly.

The rest of the journey is met will ill silence; luckily it only took us half an hour to arrive at the entrance to the woods. We were met by the impatient faces of Sue, John, Sam and Elizabeth.

“Finally!” John says “What took you so long we’ve been waiting ages!”
I was about to retort that we were still rather early when Kato cuts in “It was my fault, I was thinking about this whole journey, you know; our lives being at risk and such. I lost track of time.”
Elizabeth and Sues faces barely held back the shock as Kato actually blames himself for something. He rarely, in fact never blames himself. Sam hears his words and saunters over.
“Our lives being at risk? Kato, we’re going to a dead person’s house, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? We’re going to be killed by some freaky ghost?”
Sam makes a wailing sad noise of a ghost and raises his arms above his head. He earned a few giggles from Sue and Elizabeth; however he stopped when he saw my face. I was not amused.
“So, are we going to head on or burn daylight?” I ask rather curtly “Because I don’t know about you, but I’d rather try and get this investigation done and over with.”
The team separate into pairs and drive off in their own vehicles, obviously aware I wasn’t in the mood for joking around. We soon meet up again in about an hour maybe two hours tops at the coordinates given; we were at the entrance of the mansion.





No one knew what to say, we did expect the mansion to be old, more of a Victorian style. However we weren’t able to hide our shock and disgust. You could see the walls black and crumbling with age, the over grown grass, ivory laced across the walls, the windows coated in dust, heck even the gate was barely was on its hinges.

We all stood there in silence.
“I guess we should go in?” Sue suggested as she turns to me “This investigation will only take longer if we stand here.”
“Someone should wait outside you know, to keep watch?” Elizabeth said.
“I’ll keep watch!”
“No I’ll keep watch!”
“In your dreams Sam”
“I’m stronger than you”
“No you’re not I am!”
“No I am!”
“I am!”
“I am!”
I sighed, this was getting old. As Kato and the other tried to quieten the bickering boys I held my gun in the air and fired. An eerie shot echoed throughout the woods as the birds took to the skies. All eyes were on me.

I place my gun back in my hoist and look back at my team.
“No one and I mean no one is to be left alone outside.” I say quietly “We will all go into the mansion, split off into pairs and search the main floor and ONLY the main floor. Understand?”  

They all nodded unable to speak, fear laced their bones. I turn around to head through the gates when I pause.
“The reason why I say this is because I don’t want to lose any of you. We’re no longer in camp where we have unlimited lives. We only have one, use it wisely.”

And I continue to walk ahead with my team right behind me.