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CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

While Benjamin and his crew started planning out how to create a proper entrance for the room, Marie could not help but venture back inside. Even with the fresh, cold air circulating through the place, she could still smell the abundance of years, all piled up and stale. No one had moved or breathed down here in quite a while and the very scent the room gave off seemed to

want

her to know that.

She investigated the racks along the wall, looking for any real clues as to what the place might have been. There were some little nicks and scratches here and there, but no real clues as to their purpose. She was once again reminded of the structure of wine racks, only the angle of the shelves was somehow off—all interconnected to look almost like a huge honeycomb shape.

She then turned her attention to the chest on the far wall. It was rather plain-looking, though Marie guessed that if it had gold trim and some sort of skull embedded into it, it might resemble a pirate’s treasure chest. There was a lock in the chest itself and a rather old clasp lock reinforcing it. Experimentally, she tried sliding it and found that it was not very heavy at all. She tried to pick it up just a few inches off of the floor to shake it but got no clues as to what might be inside.

Well, the property is yours and there’s a good chance this belonged to June,

she thought.

Now you just need to decide if you’re okay busting the lock on a chest that is clearly meant to be kept closed.

There was a spark of excitement at this thought, but she suppressed it…for now. She looked at the chest for a moment and could not help but wonder if this had all been planned—the house, Boo, the hidden rooms, and so much more. Given the nature of her life lately, she did not think it was outside the realm of possibility that June had somehow orchestrated all of this. Or, and this would be much more like her, maybe she was some somehow doing it from…well, from wherever she was beyond this world.

Marie smiled…not only because the idea was not nearly as horrifying as it should have been, but because it did indeed seem like something June would do.

“Marie?”

She turned at the sound of Benjamin’s voice. He was standing at the ragged doorway with two men from his crew, obviously ready to get started on the proper entrance to the room.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll get out of your way.”

And even as she stepped out of the room, back into the cellar of June Manor, she could not help but cast one final glance back into the room and wonder what sort of secret it might one day reveal.


Thoughts of the newly discovered room clung to her mind for the rest of the day; it did not help that she heard Benjamin and his men working down in the cellar on the entrance for several hours. When she settled down for bed, the room loomed heavy on her mind, most noticeably that locked trunk. And though her speculations on the room kept her awake well into the night, she managed to wake up the following morning feeling surprisingly refreshed.

In the last three days she’d managed to once again clear her name in regards to yet another murder case and had discovered another hidden space within June Manor, but somehow, she was more energized than usual as she had her morning cup of coffee. As she doctored it up with creamer and sugar, she heard Benjamin downstairs, working with one of his crew members. They were currently discussing how to put a roof on the room as efficiently as possible, hoping to tie it in with some sort of ground-level add-in—maybe a garden or extended patio off of the new construction. He’d come in early to get started on clean-up and repairs related to the hidden doorway before turning the rest of his attention to the final stages of the new section of June Manor. That final stage, he’d told her this morning, would have to be put on pause for a few days while they figured out how to properly protect and tie the hidden underground room into the plans.

She sipped from her coffee as she headed down the stairs and watched Benjamin speaking with his crew member. The other worker looked just as anxious and excited as everyone else had yesterday. When they were done confirming their plans, Benjamin turned back around to her and smiled.

“This is the oddest house I’ve ever worked on,” he said.

“It’s the strangest one I’ve ever lived in, too,” she said. With a sigh, she said: “What sort of setbacks am I looking at?”

“A few days at most. I’m mostly concerned about getting a roof on that room. But you should still have it all done by the end of the year.”

“That would be the ultimate Christmas gift,” she said.

Benjamin smiled and said, “Then just call me Santa,” as he returned his attention to his waiting crew member.

Marie walked back upstairs, thinking of Christmas. It was only six weeks away, and Thanksgiving would also land in there. Thanksgiving, though, would be a rather chill collection of days. She had only three guests coming in the days leading up to and the days following Thanksgiving. She, Posey, and Rebeka had already decided they’d have a low-key Thanksgiving together and that would be the end of it.

But Christmas…that would be huge. She felt like her first Christmas at June Manor was going to be something quite special. Or, to be more accurate, she felt that she had to make it something special. She’d made the decision to stay open and had only two guests staying with her between Christmas Eve and December 27th. Still, she was excited to be a part of her guests’ Christmas and the more she thought about it, the more sentimental she became. She started to think of Aunt June in the house during Christmas, and that got her to thinking of Charles Dickens and his three Christmas spirits haunting a house not too different from June Manor.

She’d already thought about where she’d put the tree and how the garland would be wrapped around the railings on the staircase. This naturally meant that she needed to go out looking for all of those things, needing to buy them. And when the idea of a Christmas tree farm in Port Bliss crossed her mind, it felt almost too quaint and charming. It made her almost feel like a kid again, intoxicated by the thought of Christmas Day approaching.

And if Aunt June did happen to show up rattling chains or showing her visions of Christmas future, she was more than ready for it.

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