Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 02:44:07 +0000 From: Jeff Langdon 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...