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As Avarice marched up through the woods in tow amidst the group of school colleagues he had met, he began to wonder how exactly it was he managed to get roped into this venture. He had no intention of even remotely being a part of this nonsense...yet here he was. The chimera had only passed by the group's conversation and picked up on their half-witted plans of exploring a supposed haunted house that once belonged to the Bowman widow. He knew of that place and knew that it had been allowed to fall into disrepair over the years and it sounded like these guys were about to get themselves into a world of trouble and hurt.

He had only interjected to inform them that their ill-conceived plans to frighten one another (which was, frankly, better left to children in the Academy) would likely get themselves injured or arrested but, apparently, they had taken that as his way of volunteering to be part of their ridiculous escapade. Avarice gladly told them no and had been ready to leave it at that....well, he HAD until he got challenged by the notion that he was afraid of ghosts. He had informed them that he neither felt fear nor did he believe that spirits resided at the home...or that the existed at all. They collectively had laughed at him and mocked him, calling him 'chicken-s**t' and other similar insults. Normally he wouldn't have cared but they did not leave him alone; they had followed him around all day with it, to the point where it had gone beyond simply being an annoyance and genuinely made him peeved. "I'll go to the house and prove that what I say is true if that will satisfy you and shut you up." Those words were exactly why he was here, now, walking with the idiots up to the hill the house stood upon.


Another small group of nightmare were near the base of the hill, sniggering and chittering about someone getting scared within the first few minutes and running away. So these people had roped another unfortunate soul into entering the old house for the sake of their own amusement? How pathetic. Avarice didn't understand the point of these games. Still, he apparently had his own proof to provide here, breaking away from his own group and marching up the hill. He didn't even hear the mocking calls after him.

Stepping onto the veranda, he saw that the door had already been opened, likely by the person that came before him who the other group had goaded into coming to this wretched place. He pulled out his light crystal and shined it ahead of him as he entered, looking about; everything was dusty, it smelled musty and he could hear the wood creaking with every step and gust of wind. "If I get injured here, I'll make sure to sue each of them." He quietly grumbled to himself. Oh well.....now that he was inside, he was curious of what the rest of it looked like. Faced with a choice of where to go, he picked the door on the right. It led into a dining room that had what seemed to be the chairs pulled aside and covered in sheets but no table, an old serving cart rolled into a corner that was covered in cobwebs and, above him, a decrepit chandelier that was missing about half of the crystals and a good number of the ones left on it were broken or cracked. It, too, was dirtied by dust and littered with cobwebs that draped from crystal to crystal like dull, gossamer netting. He could have sworn he could see a discolored imprint where the feet of the table had once stood, possibly for many years until it was taken out of the house. Had it been given away as part of the estate? Or had it been stolen? He knelt down and brushed his fingers over one of the imprints, kicking up a small cloud of dust that drifted right into his nose. Unable to help it, the chimera let out a loud and powerful sneeze that threw his balance off, forcing him to sit with a thud upon the dusty floor. This was going to be a fun aftermath.

Ugh, this was just wonderful; not only was he certain that the wood of this house was rotting and worth condemnation but now he was going to have to deal with the after-effects of dust in his nose and eyes. He could already feel it tickling his nose again, reaching up to rub it firmly so as to dismiss the annoying sensation. That was what this was going to be; annoying. He stood slowly and was brushing off the dust that he'd surely landed in when he heard the thunderous SLAM coming from the entrance. Avarice raised an eyebrow and started to head back towards the door when he heard....footsteps? Hurried steps echoed through the empty rooms where none should be. Curious, he looked out the door in time to see what looked like a fallen dropping her light crystal and was now assailing the door to try and open it. She seemed....panicked. He walked closer calmly, reaching down to pick up the dropped crystal so he could give it back. "Is it stuck? Did a gust of wind come through?" His voice came low, level and dark yet smooth as he eyed both the fallen and the door with cold curiosity. He stepped over and attempted to open it, surprised that it provided rather firm resistance by comparison to the rest of the house. "Strange...." He murmured, then sighed and stepped back. "I suppose you're the other victim of your peers for the sake of entertainment?" He was a little surprised that she was still here, having thought that she might have been gone long before he and his group had come while the rest of her companions were having a lark over her reaction.

Just her luck the door wouldn’t open- then her light source moved and a voice spoke. She flung her back to the door with a scream, ready to face whatever had come up behind her. She was panting with her eyes wide as she stared at the being behind her, it taking her a few moments to recognize what was truly in front of her eyes rather than her brains horror images. As he stepped up to the door she moved away keeping a careful distance from the other. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat in order to answer the questions posed. Then the noise from outside penetrated. She covered another scream with her hand and shaking stepped backwards from the door that no longer represented safety. Eyes large and sparkling with near tears she looked to the other noting a vauge familiarity, she’d probably seen them around campus or such, but the recognition was chased quickly away by fear and pleading as she wondered what to do. It could be either of their group of friends making them panic- but what had closed the door? It had literally scraped a groove into the floor and stuck fast. Lowering her hand and keeping her voice at a whisper she spoke “ The door, I drove it into the floor, wind couldn’t have moved it..., some-thing else?”