Episode 3: English Mansion

She had called Alison amidst her process of papers due, and she explained that the only way for Kacey to inherit full ownership of the mansion, was to permanently move to New England residency. It's something she would have to do, the eviction notice stated she only has till the end of January to move out.

To her dismay, it was something they wanted her to do.

In the early hours of morning, the crisp dew of the front lawn pierced her bare feet as she walked. Her eyelids squirmed against the penetrating rays of the sun.

Her legs ached and gave in at times. Breathing heavily, her heart pounded furiously in her chest. The echoing siren- like voice crept on her, calling to her in whisperers and gently getting closer to her.

"Mandisa..."

Kacey shot up in the comfort of her bed. Wide-eyed, she was searching around her bedroom then, arms and feet burrowed in the blankets. She dreamt of Mandisa, the girl who helped her with the car accident, and concluded that she was not only in her dream, but she was her.

"Almost as if I hitch-hiked a ride in Mandisa's head?" she questioned out loud, in hopes of an answer and only to be met with silence.

Flopping against her pillows behind her, she had an eerie feeling that seemed to have followed her from the dream. Slowly closing her eyes, she pondered, not wanting to leave for classes.

Her backup alarm on her phone went off laying on the bedside table. She reached for it, alarmingly read one 'o clock, and scurried out of bed like a rabbit out of its hole.

"Yeah, so like what are you going to doing now?" asked Alison and chewy on chocolate chip toppings from her green coffee cup. Kacey and Alison sat in the campus lounge at the end of the day, as Alison waited for her boyfriend to pick her up.

"I'm going to arrange an online- learning course with the University; I already made an appointment and everything else..." Kacey let out a sigh and attempted to carry on, but Alison got up, sprinting over to her boyfriend outside.

"Bye Kace," she added and with her boyfriend, Kacey waved to them.

"Yeah, uhm- bye" she softly said in return.

Kacey spent the rest of her afternoon in a meeting with the varsity board, managed to arrange schedule classes for her last year. They said she had to physically write her end of examination, and she was set to go. While she was on her roll, she called in a moving company to move all of her home's furniture and so on in advance.

All she had left to do was buy airplane tickets, box up her clothing and personal belongings and make sure her car was to be shipped over there as well.

In the last few weeks of her departure, Kacey took one last look at her empty house and bid farewell, she called on her parents in pray for strength and guidance on whether or not she was making the right decision.

A much-needed strength she would need for the adventure of a lifetime she was going to embark on.

New England

January

The drive had been no different from the one from her varsity to house and a murky scene of large forest trees blanketed in fog.

Kacey's family had organized for her a personal chauffeur to drive to and from the mansion. She usually would have chosen to get around herself, most definitely got lost along the way although enjoying her way of site seeing.

"Miss Troy, we have arrived," prompted the Englishman driver in a firm tone. She had been sitting in the backseat all this time and couldn't get a look at the man. His black and silver hair had been sleeked back and thick black sunglasses hooded the rest of his features.

Kacey got out to mist hovering around the house and lightly begun to clear up and revealing a massive, almost thirty-story high mansion. A décor exterior of antique late 1800s English building, large windows leading up to a single balcony on the highest floor. An off-white colour painted walls mingled in-between greenery vines latched against it and her sneakers meeting the clashing of rock and stone, crunching beneath her as she walked on.

She walked up to the concrete stairs with the sound of her suitcases trailing behind her by the chauffeur. The sound echoing into the surrounding trees that almost seemed to guard the house.

She awkwardly approached the huge door, not sure where to knock, as it was embedded with pointed white crystal like stone and intricate carvings of rose patterns. A silver thick chain hung above, but before she could grab hold of it the door creaked opened, slightly ajar. It only revealed a silt of the home inside before shutting again.

The next time, the door proceeded to open slightly further, however slowly shutting once more. Kacey, not sure what to make of this, put her hand on the door and halted it. The door was far heavier than she imagined. She found herself leaning against it to stop it from closing.

She turned to her side to beckon the chauffeur to aid her, but he seemed to have driven away after dropping her luggage on the stairs in front of her.

"Hey, can you push a little harder!" muffled a soft voice beneath her. Doing as the voice commanded, she put all her weight onto it and managed to completely open the door.

"Thanks," he said, and she looked down to meet a little boy aged seven or eight, she thought. It seemed he had been struggling to open the door, hence it was opening and shutting

"Aniki, is upstairs in the shower" he then told her and somewhat answering her mindful question of why he was opening the door for her.

The boy half her height stood in front of her, amidst what seemed to be a front desk from a luxury hotel behind him. In his accent and usage of the word 'aniki', Kacey related to Japanese.

She remembered working on an article based in Japan for one of her journalism classes, Aniki being a term used for an older brother or superior. His brown tinted hair lay a mess of a bowl cut, some parts waved and others straight under a rosy cheek face. He wore a striped line blue and white shirt and black jeans, with only white socks on his feet.

"Sincerest apologies, Miss Troy" a panting front desk worker said while rushed from behind the front desk and adjusting himself. A young man maybe a year or two older than her wore a green suit and his flushed pink face dabbed with a napkin from his front pocket. He stared quizzically at her up and down, before scrambling over into the rows of draws behind them.

The front desk's interior had been lit up by orange hues of fluorescent bulbs hung from the ceiling and large emerald green couch seat to one side and gold embedded frame of a mirror to on the other side of the room.

Kacey looked into the mirror, eyeing herself in red sneaker shoes, dark blue denim jeans and white long sleeved top. She left her messy caramel curls that framed her face. Realizing the man's judgment of herself, was as her fashion that clashed with the regal name of the Troy's.

Choosing to ignore his remark, she walked up to the desk and asked for the room's key.

A crashing sound interrupted them, both stare at the scene of the boy covered in black and purple suitcases. Kacey turned to face the man, looked at his gold nameplate on the pocket of his chest.

"Junior Pilloweather, do you mind helping me with luggage?" she asked with a flashed grin. He nodded a nervous 'yes', rounded the desk, and both headed over to help the boy.

"Little sir, Harada, where is your brother?" Junior asked through seethed teeth in annoyance, while gripping his forearm.

"I told you to call me, Jiro!" he responded, angry, and tried to free himself from the bellboy's grip.

"Well, uhh- Jiro thanks for trying to help me," noticing the silver key on the desk, Kacey grabs hold of it and walks back over to their quarrelling. She dangled the keys and Junior, distracted, rushed to her.

"Uhm- yes Miss Troy, that would be the keys to your suite, and I'll be taking you there in a minute" he rambled and attempted to pick up her luggage, heading to the elevator gate behind him. He seemed to be roughly the same height and build as Kacey, as he walks beside her.

Both him and Jiro, followed along with luggage in hand, and stepped into the elevator. All three inside, the lights flickered on and off once as the creaky elevator gate closed in front of them.

"So that's the go ahead, huh?" she asked, interpreting the lights a signal to when the elevator ride starts.

"No, Miss Troy, that never happens"