Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 02:44:07 +0000
From: Jeff Langdon <jeff_langdon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Westlife Romance - Chapter 62

Westlife Romance -- Chapter 62

Mark and Annette ran into the manor just as a torrential downpour began.
"You're lucky we didn't get this equipment wet," Annette remarked as she
glared at Mark again.  "Poor Mark," she thought to herself as she saw the
pout on Mark's face, "maybe I was too harsh with him."

Annette was surprised when no smart remarks came her way.  Mark just sighed
and placed all the equipment on the floor.  He sat down and looked at his
watch.  "Shouldn't the lads be here already?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"This is really weird," Mark said to himself.  "The lads are never this
late.  And they would've called if they were stuck in traffic."  He reached
for his mobile to check whether or not the battery was dead.  It wasn't.

Mark was about to say something to Annette when suddenly, the front door
slammed shut, leaving them in total darkness.  Annette shuddered; she didn't
like this manor already, and she had only been here for several minutes.
"Mark?" she called out, unable to see anything.

"Stay where you are," Mark answered.  "Let me try to make my way over."
With some difficulty, Mark finally reached where Annette was.  He dug into
his pockets and produced a small flashlight.  Shining it around the room, he
could not find any light switches.  "Let's try to find where these light
switches are," Mark suggested.

As they walked around the manor, they could not help but feel like they were
being watched.  Then they heard the wooden floor creak.  Mark and Annette
stopped in their tracks, straining to hear where the sound was coming from.
The creaking sound continued.  Instinctively, Ann grabbed Mark's arm and
held on tightly.

"Don't make a sound," Mark whispered as he struggled to remain calm.  The
creaking sound stopped and there was dead silence.  After a few more
seconds, Mark and Annette continued to their search for the light switches.

The search continued fruitlessly for nearly half an hour.  Finally, Mark
emerged triumphantly from one of the rooms.  "Ah, much better," he said,
apparently proud of his accomplishment.

"A candle??" Annette remarked with disappointment.

"Better than nothing, right?"

"I guess..." she answered sullenly as Mark's goofy smile failed to lift her
spirits.

The sudden reemergence of the creaking sound caused Annette to gasp.  Mark,
too, shuddered at the sound and the two once again held onto each other.
"Where are the lads?" Mark wondered in desperation.

The sound grew louder and louder.  Soon they could hear sounds that
resembled someone whispering.  They couldn't make out what this voice was
saying, but they didn't want to wait to find out either.

Immediately, Mark led Annette towards the stairs and headed to the main
floor.  The manor was so big that they had no idea where they were or where
the front entrance was.  All they wanted to do was move away from the sound.
  Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they were faced with two doors.

"Damn!" Mark cursed as he found both doors locked.  The sound was coming
closer, and Annette was trembling.  Mark desperately tried to open one of
the doors, but to no avail.  Finally, Mark decided to throw his body at the
doors in an attempt to knock it down.  After two unsuccessful tries, he put
all his strength into a final try.  The door crashed to the floor under the
assault of Mark's weight.  Grabbing Annette's hand, the two made their way
down a long corridor.

For the next few minutes, they weaved through a confusing maze of rooms and
hallways, not really knowing where they were going.  All this time, the
whispering sound followed them.  An eerie laughing sound could now be heard,
frightening Annette and Mark even more.

Running out of breath, the two slowed to regain some strength, only to be
spurred by the horrifying sound to run for their life again.  After what
seemed like hours of running, when in fact it was only a few minutes, Mark
and Annette found themselves in a large room.  To their horror, however, it
was a dead-end room.  Annette clutched Mark tightly, her face ghostly white.
  Mark tried to put on a brave face but his heart was pounding so hard he
was getting a chest ache.

They soon made out the shadow of a person slowly walking into the room.
"Who are you?" Mark demanded, his voice coming out at a slightly higher tone
than usual.  "What do you want?"

The only answer that they received was another chilling laugh.  As the
shadow of the mysterious figure drew nearer, Mark put himself in front of
Annette, opting to face the enemy head on.

Both Annette and Mark struggled to see who their enemy was, but all they
could make out was the shadow.  Suddenly, Annette let out a scream.  Mark
tightened his hold on her hands, his eyes widening in horror as he saw the
figure in the shadow raise its arm, as if it was about to throw something at
Mark.

...to be continued...