[Grand] House of Whispers and Screams

[Aesha]

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House of Whispers and Screams

There were several small estates at the northern end of the city, though most of the nobles preferred townhouses when they were in Daltina. There were a few however, who preferred a home from home, so the sprawling mansions had popped up. And of course, being a home away from home, they were not always occupied.

There was one, however, that was never occupied.

Rumour indicated it was haunted. Popular theories told of a nobleman who had gone mad and slaughtered his family. Its name had cropped up over the years, coined by local bards who liked to be flowery in their words. Though most stayed away from it, whether from the rumour or just because there was no purpose to visiting, tucked away in its corner like it was, it was sometimes a popular place for the swaggering nobile youths to prove their bravery, or conversely, the chaps from Cheapside to giggle and scoff over.

The manor certainly looked the part. The outer walls were ill-kept and covered in sprawling ivy, a lot of which seemed to have rotted away, though the onslaught of the plant did not stop. Most of the gates in the aera had been fashioned of popular wrought iron, but these gates were heavy wooden affairs, leaving passersby unable to see into the grounds, unless they scrabbled up the wall. Fortunately, climbing the wall wasn't too hard, since the old stone offered up a plethora of foot- and hand-holds. The only pre-requisite to getting over it was courage. The gates themselves were barred and looked with a huge iron padlock and chain.

Beyond the walls, a sea of grass could be seen. Clearly the grounds had not been maintained, and the varying sorts of grass that had seeded there would easily come up to waist height on an average sized man. Here and there traces of wildflowers could be seen in the right seasons; a splash of read denoted a poppy, and a little clump of blue indicated cornflowers. Sometimes in the spring dainty snowdrops could be seen if the eyes searching looked hard enough.

Very few people were actually brave enough to enter the estate, since reports of ghosts near the first outbuilding were popular. It had once been a stables, made of brick and wood, but now half of the building had collapsed, making entrance into it difficult and dangerous; not that anyone would actually want to get in there. The stables were usually the point were any brave soul wandering into the grounds would bottle it and run back to his jeering friends sitting on the wall.

Very few actually made it to the manor house itself, and reports stated that strange noises could be heard on the wind on a clear day, especially at night. Clinks of chains, moans of dispair, sometimes even the eerie giggle of a child. The manor sprawled. It was only one storey, and from a distance, looked in disrepair. The east wing in particular seemed on the verge of collapsing, and all the overgrown grass made finding the entrance somewhat difficult... not that anyone had actually wanted to do that, yet. Since the stories of ghosts kept visitors away, the mystery of the estate remained so. Perhaps it really was a haunted house.