There had to be something there, and he studied everything, and what he did and the way he did it.
Some of the things he had heard about Howard Eisenberg in newspapers and the rest of the media was unbelievable, and most surely created for some effect, and he realized he might never fully grasp what he was like, but he knew he might get what he wanted elsewhere, and clues about the treasure he hid.
He sat strangely deeply staring at him, and he wondered what the hell he was up to, and what a top businessman like him thought like and would want to achieve.
He seemed different somehow and doing something else that he could not quite grasp and he looked everywhere trying to grasp it, and saw strange reactions from him to things, and he followed his eyes straight down, and nervously reacted to something, and he watched him move something not on the screen away to the side of him as though he realized he had put something in the picture that he had not noticed.
Eisenberg immediately rushed up to the screen and replayed it back until he got the best picture of it, and of a piece of paper that looked older than it should, and altered the controls of the video player trying to clear the picture up and saw it was a sort of map, and Eisenberg took a photo of it, and turned on the video again.
As Howard Eisenberg looked through documents on his table Eisenberg sat staggered and recalling what he had heard of him back then from newspapers, and wondered why he had never allowed any of them to get involved with his businesses or him.
To his surprise the lawyer rushed up behind him, and told him, “We saw you examining what was on the table on the video ...”
Eisenberg wondered if he had cameras monitoring him as well.
“After considerable thought,” the lawyer explained, “I’ve decided to help you out! Which I’m sure your uncle wanted … I’ve seen a similar item you examined in documents he left in our vaults. Which rightly are yours anyway!”
Eisenberg was slightly confused, wondering what he thought he had been looking for, and what was there, and he realized there could very well be something he wanted in the vaults, and he wondered why he had not told them of it and if the person that found the treasure and got the ownership of the businesses would be given everything.
While he followed him down to the vaults, going down in the lift, he considered what he would do if he got the businesses and if he would be given someone to run it for him, who did what he wanted, and again he wondered how Howard Eisenberg had managed to accumulate so much wealth, and recalled all the stuff he had heard about his accomplishments.
In the dim vault room Eisenberg sat with the documents he was given and examined them surprised, and surprised there was so few, as he had expected to be sitting for hours, perhaps days there searching through them, and realized by what he was given that the lawyer had given him only the documents he thought he needed, and he searched through them noting information about Howard Eisenberg and his companies, which amazed him that they gave nothing about what he wanted, but at the bottom of them he found an sealed envelope, and opened it, wondering why the lawyer thought the document that he had seen on the video was there, and he found a small map inside, with writing on the top saying fourth clue.
Chapter 10
The Return to the Mansion
Eisenberg turned pale when the mansion appeared at the front of the taxi, seeing it emerge out of the night.
The driver smirked, when he examined his face in his mirror, and Eisenberg watched with amusement as his face changed and he gasped when he saw the mansion emerge out of the blackness ahead in his headlights, and the vehicle slowed and he shifted along the farm lane.
He was transfixed when it stopped outside, and Eisenberg wondered what the hell he was doing, and felt a sensation of sadness thinking of his uncle living at the place.
With his bags resting at his feet, he watched the taxi race away into the horizon and saw the furniture truck with the rest of his stuff appear.
He watched the speed they started removing all his furniture and gear into the building and he wondered why the hell he was moving there, and recalled he was keeping his old place, and he would surely sell the old mansion quickly after it was cleaned up, and he realized that the workmen had entered the building and never used any keys, and he wondered why the door was unlocked when he had locked it.
At the door he examined the lock and door, as the workmen rushed in and out with his stuff, giving occasional gasps at the place, and he tried to grasp why the place looked so deadly, and he had never really seen anything like it before.
When they had finished, he watched them shut the vehicle up and leave, and the moon emerge overhead and glow over the road, and deep into the surrounding clouds radiating it, and watched the vehicle as it rushed away.
He stared up at the dark mansion Howard Eisenberg had given him and wondered if it would be the end of him, and he was furious it was so far out in nowhere, and so deadly, realizing how hard it would be selling the thing.
In the darkness and moonlight it looked dangerous, and he recalled searching for all the information he could get on it, and if there had been any deaths.
In the end he decided use his idea of bringing in someone else, and Kurt, and he realized the others might surely have realized he was up to something, because he had not turned up to search with them, and he was sure that the lawyer might tell them, but he now had the map.
Chapter 11
The Historic Building
The following morning, after breakfast, Eisenberg explored the mansion using the plans of the building the lawyer sent him in the parcel, and he wrote in details about things on it in pencil, and realized how enormous the place was, and the size of a colossal football pitch, and as high as a high five-story building.
He could not believe the value of it, and that he owned it, and thought of different ways of fixing the problems it had, and repairing and modernizing all the ancient, weather-beaten, damage, and he thought of turning it into a known historic building as well.
He studied sections of the walls that had fallen in, and estimated the repair costs. Some of walls were made of immense square boulders, which he could not recall seeing before.
He realized he would have to learn far more on restoration.
The surroundings had many trees, and he stared out windows writing down what trees should be removed, and realized he would have to check the surrounding landscape in every direction.
At the front there was a single door, but at the back he found there were two. One at its kitchen, which had been modernized at some point, and all the equipment still worked, and just needed cleaned up, and he started cleaning everything he would use and filled the cupboards and fridge with food and drink.
Further along he checked out the other door, at the corner of the mansion, at the right side, and was surprised none of the keys fitted it, and was surprised to find the lock had been actively used, and had fresh marks on the rusted metal.
The building had corridors everywhere on every floor going all over the place and he was surprised to find himself lost even with the building plan and he wandered around exploring rooms everywhere, and entered strange eerie rooms with strange furniture and objects, and entered them like he was visiting them, as though he never belonged there and wondered what their identities were, and he tried to grasp the origins of things he found.
A small staircase was next to the kitchen, as well as the other normal one near the front, and many of the rooms and floors left him confused as he wandered about, still getting regularly lost, and many times he gave up, and was left confused how he would find his way about and identify things.
To his surprise he found a room, directly above the front door, on the top floor, which was perfectly clean and with modern furniture, which he was sure belonged to Howard Eisenberg, which he realized he had wanted to find, and had forgotten, and in the end he decided to leave the room and explore it later.
The room fascinated him and it looked as though it had rec
ently been cleaned, and he started to believe that he had actually lived there, instead of at the other buildings he had, but in the end he realized he would have lived at many locations, and perhaps went there when he wanted to get away from the city.
Chapter 12
The Haunting
The place mystified Eisenberg, and he did not know what was there, and he started using a local taxi to visit the closest shops to it, for provisions, where he asked locals in a bar about the place, trying to solve something he could not quite grasp, and in the end was surprised when a taxi driver told him that he had seen Howard Eisenberg at the mansion about a year ago, and he believed he had been there alone.
Eisenberg questioned him all the way back to the mansion and was surprised that they thought the place had ghosts, and that a form of haunting took place.
Eisenberg did not know what to think, and left it open for investigation, and started searching for cleaners or a cleaning company to clean the place up, but the location was far too far out.
While rummaging around in a storeroom cupboard under the front stairs he was amazed to find a phone and that it was working, and he was able to make calls, and realized someone, surely Howard Eisenberg, had dumped the phone there from a nearby desk, where he placed it again.
He was sure Howard Eisenberg had lived there for the isolation and had perhaps got sick of the outside world and phone calls and dumped it there out the way.
He immediately phoned Kurt up and told him of his discovery of the third and fourth clue, and asked him to join him, and he realized after the call how happy he was that he would be there, and also realized that he now never thought he could solve the last clue on his own, as he had studied the treasure map many times over and had found nothing, and had no real ideas left about solving it, and he wondered if he should even try and take the lawyer into the deal, as he was sure he knew something.
He excitedly swiped away webs still over the front of the corridor and front doorways, and considered getting someone to put up a television aerial.
In what he considered was a living room he switched on the light and cleared out the dimness, and rested into the ancient form of sofa, which he had recently cleaned, which creaked and cracked when he moved, and his vision fell on the ancient painting over the fireplace, now cleaned of dust and webs, and he studied the figure in the portrait with some amazement when his imagination kicked in and he stared straight into the haunting eyes, and once again wondered when it was done.
It seemed extraordinarily ancient, and absolutely centuries old, and the person was wearing clothes from many centuries ago, and he knew the person had to be a distinguished nobleman of great wealth and power, and he was startled that it was real, and the person was painted while something tremendous was occurring.
His sword was fixed to him at his waist with blood on it, and he realized a way he might be able to trace it to a war.
Chapter 13
The Haunted Mansion
Something strange woke Eisenberg in the middle of the night, and he opened his eyes wide open, stunned by it, and felt something had occurred that he could not place and tried to recall if he dreamt of something and realized that he had not, and tried to recall why he had awakened and if something had influenced it, and recalled some form of sound, and when he recalled it more he realized just how strange it was, and could not grasp what it was or anything.
He had no recognition of anything or anything happening before he had gone to sleep, and rested against the bed, and tightly wrapped the blankets around him, feeling the cold. The building definitely now had a deep coldness from something and he tried to trace any winds getting through and felt some sort of breeze gently blowing against his face from somewhere, and he jumped out of bed and started searching the window for any gaps.
At the window he moved his hand about the edges feeling for anything, searching the hideous dark wood about the front, and suddenly realized the cold air was blowing against his neck, and he swiftly turned as though there was something there and slowly followed it over to the door where he felt it coming through gaps in the door.
In the outer corridor he felt it coming from inside the building somewhere and followed it, in the darkness, confused as it was not where anything was, and he wondered if it was an open window.
The coldness he felt there surprised him as it was far more intense than it should be, and it had not been there before, or had been marked on the weather forecast, and further along the corridor he looked in a room and saw nothing, and grew determined to trace the source and what was behind it.
He recalled a dream he had and it was strange and he believed that it and his other dreams were influenced by the mansion and its surroundings, and they were mainly incomprehensible and he kept wondering why they had occurred! They never made sense and were with freakish things, and he never did anything in them.
There were rooms all about his front that were on the left and right side of the corridor and he came to the stairs on one side, where he felt a more powerful breeze, and where the wind was coming from.
He noted the air was far colder and fresher and with a scent of vegetation from outside, and as he went down the stairs he remembered himself earlier and being in a huddled posture with his blankets tightly wrapped about him, and reacting to the cold.
At the bottom floor he walked along and watched the dark sky outside through a window near the door and the darkness and he tried to detect where the now vague breeze was coming from and realized it was not coming from there and was coming from behind him, and from further along the lower corridor, where he came to a torch he had, and walked along slowly behind its beam of light, and realized how peculiar the place was, compared to what he normally had, and he realized that he even liked it, and liked exploring it, even at night, and all the unexplored rooms and corridors and hidden mysteries, and its historical and unknown past and thoughts of the discoveries that could be there, and the fact that he had found one of the clues at the cemetery outside in the grounds.
He realized he had never known so much isolation and emptiness and had spent all his life in city regions, and it was mysterious and unexplored and great untouched things existed.
In his normal life things he encountered were too repetitive and he relished finding abnormal things to do and explore, especially when they had new outcomes and findings, and he wondered if it was why his uncle had bought the place, as he must have been stuck in congested cities and places packed with people.
He moved into a side corridor, going sideways, where the breeze came from, where he had not been before, and he soon realized nobody had been in a very long time, where there were ancient webs covering it everywhere, from one side to the other, and ancient dust covering the carpet that was untouched.
He came to a room and switched off his light and went up to the window and stared out into the darkness and ancient wood, with shivers running through him, from the breeze and cold, and thoughts of the cold outside, and the deadly things that he could encounter, and he spotted the small graveyard hidden away in the trees, and saw the moon appear through clouds and illuminate it.
It was like another world to him! It was also like he was put there to explore there, and it was like a world thousands of light years away and he wondered what existed out in the grounds and realized he should explore there soon as he had found the grave there and there could be more.
An array of loud door knocks made him jump and realize he was not alone there and he gasped and wondered who it could be, and he stood staggered with his mouth open, and considered if he should ignore it, and realized it had to be the front door, and that he should try to see who was there and as he shifted away he realized where the breeze was coming from and that the window had been recently partially opened and not closed properly, and he saw that it could not be used to enter there, as it never opened completely out.
He shifted back along the corridor, to the front door, and when the knock appeared again, but mor
e loudly, he came to a standstill, staggered, as he was starting to think it was just one of the strange sounds the place generated, and it left him confused at its identity.
The floorboards creaked and cracked far further than he noticed and he was reminded of the age of the place, and he wondered again who had constructed it and had done it to such an extent.
He shifted along and right up to the door, examining it, and unlocked the door and yanked open the thick heavy wooden door, which had been crafted by hand, and he stood staring out into the darkness, seeing nothing but consistent blackness, and slowly spotted a black figure standing glaring at him from the darkness at the side of the door.
Eisenberg stood silently, as he thought he saw a gunman with a gun in his jacket pocket pointed at him, about to shoot, and stood waiting to be killed, and then wondered who the hell was there, and for a few seconds thought it was an apparition.
“What’s up?” a voice spoke, and he recognized it straightaway and removed his light from his pocket and lit it and confirmed it was Kurt, standing there looking strange, studying him in an entirely different light, and Eisenberg wondered what the hell he was doing.
“Well, are you going to invite me in?” Kurt moaned, marching in the door, and he watched him turn on the inside light.
“How the hell did you get there?” he asked, curiously.
“Taxi! I had a lot of work, and left late … You got food supplies? If not I’ll get them tomorrow …”
Eisenberg examined him in the brighter interior light, and he seemed somehow different, and he just nodded and took him away over to the kitchen.
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