The gates creaked behind her, like a groaning ghost of old,  as she approached the manor house with fear in her heart. Each footstep she took felt like she was walking across burning coals. The fear crippled her whole body but somehow she managed to force herself forwards towards the manor. 

Suddenly, behind her she heard a tip tap of footsteps! A shadow silhouette was reaching towards her with long bone like fingers. She screamed but no noise came out. A silent scream like the world had pressed the mute button. As she slowly turned around she recognised the familiar face of her robotic butler ‘Brendon’. Her heart that had been racing like a train slowed down again and the world’s noise started to return slowly. The mechanical butler, rather than greeting her just walked otherworldly past her without even giving her a glance. It was like the butler was a zombie and she was invisible to the world. 

Just next to the garden path as she walked nervously along, she saw all the other mechanical servants frozen stiff, tickless, gone. Like a mechanical graveyard. Slowly, she noticed moss was growing all over the statues in the garden taking over them like ghosts possessing a human body. As she progressed towards the now spooky building she felt uneasy. 

Just then, as they reached the manor the butler reached his mechanical arm out and took hold of the old fashioned door handle. As the butler stepped inside a huge cloud of dust fell on him like thousands of tiny moths flying down from the sun. Then finally, he froze just like the other statues. Lily turned his cog three times clockwise. Suddenly he started moving again. “What is going on?” He said. He looked at Lily. He asked “What are you doing here Miss Lily? You should be at school.” He seemed confused as if time had never continued.

“ I ran away” Lily said

Without further conversation, the butler gestured with his hand up the stairs.

Lily sneakily crept up the stairs, taking small but heavy steps. She remembered one step covered by carpet had a hole in it. She did not wish to get her leg trapped in it. With each step there was a creak in a different tone “creak, creak, creak” like a horde of toads singing an opera. 

Just above the staircase, she stepped onto the grand landing with it’s long hallway ahead. She noticed all the portraits of her family history. These portraits had always fascinated her and as she was staring intensely at them time seemed to slow down. Bewildered at the sight she moved further down the long, haunting hallway. With each step she took a deep breath. She could taste the stale air.

At last she was aware she had reached her room where she noticed her brown damaged door. Carefully she turned the Georgian brass door knob. The room itself was like all the other bedrooms in the vast house. Each bedroom had a diamond patterned wallpaper, which was now faded with brown stains running down it. A deep velvet bed, which was now covered in a thick layer of muck. 

After she had taken in the sight of her room, she remembered the location of her secret box! She steadily walked over to her bedside cupboard with shaking hands and opened the frail drawer to find a red gypsy box. She remembered her dad had found it at the circus. She carefully picked it, as she did not want to damage it. With great care she opened the box….