The Shady
Mansion Mystery
By John
Chapter 1: The Discovery
It was a cold October
day, and the Arnold, Gerald, and the whole class were walking to
Gerald Field from school. They were taking a different route due to construction on other roads.
Rhonda was telling Nadine about her new dress. Harold was
complaining about how he was hungry. Brainy was, well... wheezing.
Walking by the numerous office buildings and stores of the down
town area, they came by an old, broken down mansion on a dead
grass lot.
"That mansion sure does look out of place among all those
newer buildings," Phoebe commented.
"I wonder what's inside..." Stinky wondered out loud.
"Let's go check it out!" suggested Arnold, always the
leader.
The kids agreed, and ran towards the door. Arnold slowly pushed
open the door, which felt like it was about to come off its
hinges. The kids entered into the dusty old mansion. In the
center was a banister staircase, which spiraled up to the top
floor. Hallways were to the left and right of it.
"Wow!" said Phoebe. "What an exquisite old house!"
The kids heard footsteps coming. A man ran to where the kids were
from the right hallway. In his hands, the man held a rifle.
"What are you kids doing here?!? This is private property!!!"
the stout man yelled.
"We were just..." Arnold started to explain,
"GET! GET OUT NOW!!!" the man yelled louder than before.
So, the kids hurried out of the mansion, not wanting to take a
chance that the man just might shoot. The kids were shaken by the
strange event.
"What a psycho!" Helga exclaimed once they were away
from the mansion.
"For real," Gerald agreed. "It's almost like he
was trying to hide something..." Gerald speculated.
"There's something really suspicious about that guy."
commented Arnold. "I say we come back tonight, when no one's
around, and check this place out."
So they all agreed to meet that night around midnight.
That night, Arnold set his potato-powered clock to 11:45 and
tried to get some sleep...