Favourites on Fridays -The Haunted Manor letter reading (Patreon)

HULLO EVERYONE!

Today's excerpt comes from the following story titled The Haunted Manor

 https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8384762/1/The-Haunted-Manor 

I hope you enjoy my reading! For some reason today the audio cut out some of my words as I was speaking I noticed as I did a final playback before posting. The ones between transitions I can understand but the others mid-sentence!? ugh I'm sorry! :'( Sadly I have no way to fix it other than to rerecord the entire thing again at this point :( 

If you want to follow along, I'll put the excerpt below:

They walked up the staircase; Jamie taking the lead ahead of Emma and Ezra.

"Please don't drop me I'm very fragile!" Leota begged as Jamie finished ascending and began walking into the attic.

"Don't talk to me about being fragile. I'm feeling fragile right now!" he countered in agitation.

They walked through the piles of boxes and antiques lying around the attic. "Trunk…trunk…" Jamie repeated under his breath, looking side to side. After several seconds, he spotted one lying off to the side near the portrait now covered again. It was rather large and had one large keyhole between the clasps which held it closed.

"Is that it?" he asked gently.

"That's it," Leota confirmed.

"Will it fit?" Ezra asked.

"Hey!" Jamie chastised. It was bad enough the gypsy had to keep rhyming her sentences. "Hold her for a second," he requested as he passed the crystal ball to Emma.

She looked nervous and soon passed it off to Ezra. He finally placed Leota down on a nearby chair which had a plush seat cushion so the ball didn't roll off.

Jamie knelt down in front of the trunk and at once felt nervous. He pulled out the key and cast an anxious glance towards his ghostly "friends". Emma gave him a small encouraging smile while Ezra looked back concerned. Jamie turned again towards the trunk. "Okay," he muttered under his breath.

He placed the key into the keyhole and it fit perfectly. "Wait before I do this, what am I gonna find in here? I mean, nothing's going to pop out or anything –is it?"

"Nothing can be revealed should the trunk remain sealed."

"I'm going to take that as a no," Jamie muttered cynically to himself.

Taking a deep, nervous breath, he turned the key. At once, the clasps released and a bit of dust shot into the air as the trunk lid cracked open slightly once the lock was undone. Jamie slowly placed his hands on the lid and gently began to pull it up. The suspense was killing him but he didn't want to move too fast in case the trunk held something less than pleasant.

Finally, the lid was fully opened and Jamie saw inside as the light from the room around them permeated into the box. He breathed out; nothing sinister about the contents.

"Hey how do I know what to look for? This thing is full of junk," he inquired, looking over the several things at the top which included a few papers, a dusty old photo frame, an antique watch, a satchel and an ornate masquerade-styled mask.

"Find the thing that must be read lest your heart be filled with dread."

Jamie began to look through the things within the trunk but soon became frustrated. "Red? There's nothing red in here…" he murmured, moving aside an old book. "Wait here's a candle… No it's wax… Sealing wax? Oh! For letters!" he concluded excitedly, "Wait! A letter! There's a letter here!" he announced as he found it beneath the container the wax had been laying upon. "Read! Not red!" he mumbled to himself.

The letter was addressed in neat script: "Alexander" The air was thick with anticipation as Jamie turned it over and opened it. The letter had already been unsealed and Jamie pulled the paper delicately from its envelope and unfolded it. He read it, reading the last four sentences aloud to them all:

My Dearest,

I have given much thought to our conversation in the garden where we then talked at great length about our "secret".

My dear sweet Alexander, you see only the good in the world around you. You give me strength to give you the answer you asked for. Yes, my dear heart; I will marry you. I will love you for all eternity.

And tonight, at last, we will be together.

I do!

Forever Yours

Elizabeth

"She didn't kill herself," Emma murmured softly.

"She wanted to be with him," Ezra stated bewildered.

"Someone gave him the wrong letter," Jamie speculated as he folded the letter back into its envelope and tried to process this new development in the tragic events that had occurred at Gracie Manor.