"It's not you," JC assured his friend. "Sure, he LOOKS like you, but you've already told us that you've never been here. Plus, you said you've never even MET this aunt. Why would she have a painting of you hanging on her wall?"
"I don't know..." Chris answered breathlessly.
"Not to mention that it might be a relative who looked like you." JC pointed out. "This picture looks like it was painted a long time ago... probably way before you were born."
"True," Dianna agreed. "But why does it look so much like him?"
JC shrugged. "Let's try not to think about it. I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
"JC's right," Lance concluded. "Let's forget about the painting and go on exploring." He pushed some boxes away from a door and was about to open it when Joey spoke up.
"I don't know about you guys, but I just have this eerie feeling that we're not supposed to be here." There. He said it. It was now up to them to make the right decision and get out.
"I feel fine," Justin shrugged, looking around at everyone. "What about you guys?"
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Joey was being paranoid.
Chris, snapping out of his daze, pulled out his pocket knife and slashed open a box. "I wonder what my aunt has in these boxes," he mused as everyone gathered around him, watching.
He lifted the cardboard flaps and pulled out an old jewelry case. Everyone gasped when he opened it. There, dangling from a silver chain was a Celtic cross pendant, topped off with a small, conamara marble stone in the center.
Dianna took it from him and held it in her hands. "This is gorgeous. I wonder how old it is." She had noticed that the silver seemed tarnished.
"Probably pretty old," JC decided. "I bet everything here is old."
Chris pulled out some old clothes from the box and then stuffed them back in. "Why don't we split up?" he suggested. "That way we can cover more area. We're not staying here forever, you know."
"Thank God," Joey mumbled under his breath as he grabbed Lance's arm and led him back down the hall. JC trailed after them. "We'll head up the stairs and start on the second floor," he called over his shoulder. "You guys stay here."
Justin, Chris and Dianna watched their figures disappear around the corner and then looked at each other.
"Well, what next?" Justin asked.
"Let's keep going through these boxes," Dianna answered. "You never know what we'll find."
"That's for sure." Chris glanced back up at the painting. "On second thought... let's save the boxes for later. I want to see what are in these rooms." He gestured to the door that Lance had cleared the boxes away from.
Justin grabbed the door knob and turned it. They entered.
"There they are!" a soft voice whispered. "I told you I heard someone come in."
"Be quiet! They'll hear us."
Both of them almost screamed when they saw his face, but they held back. They knew that this day would be a dangerous one if they were seen.
"She said that her nephew would be coming one day. Do you think that's him?"
"It must be. LOOK at him."
"Don't worry... I am."
Justin grabbed Chris' arm and froze. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Chris wondered, raising his eyebrows as he looked around the cluttered room.
Justin didn't say anything. His eyes just flickered around the room as he looked for any sign of an intruder. Finally, he sighed, giving up. "I guess it was just my imagination."
"Yeah, I guess," Dianna chucked as she pushed away another stack of boxes and flopped down on a velvet red chair.
"Colleen! That girl... she's wearing the necklace!"
"Ooo... you're right! What makes her think that she has the right to wear it? You know, that was my great-grandmother's necklace."
"I know. The question is... how did she get it? Didn't you lock it up in the safe?"
"I thought I did."
Instead of moving on to the second floor, team two found themselves spiraling up a staircase. The banister was made of a dark brown wood that had seen its share of hard times and the stairs looked as if they might crumble.
Joey, the first one going up, turned around and looked at Lance and JC. "How much farther until we get to the top?"
"I don't know," JC answered, stopping behind Lance who got sidetracked by the sight out of a small window.
"Wow..." he sighed, looking out at the landscape. "Everything is so... green."
"What did you expect? We're in Ireland... aren't we?" JC pushed him up a few steps. "Keep going, Mr. Scenery."
Soon, they had reached the top only to find a rickety little door with a key sticking in it. Joey, determined to find out what was bothering him about this place so he could go home, turned the key and the door popped open.
Sitting in the middle of the small circular room was an old rocking chair. Next to it was a table with a candle holder but no candle. When the guys looked around, they also saw a small window identical to the one Lance had been peering out of minutes before with a tattered lace window covering blowing in the breeze. The floor looked rotted out, so the opted not to set foot on it.
"Well," Joey sighed. "So much for that."
Chapter 2
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