Chapter 1
Two years later...
The shouts of excitement from the second graders filled the air as Aylani Hanson led the rambunctious group of children along with a few volunteers on their walking field-trip up to the Sycamore mansion overlooking the ocean. This was the first time the owners of the estate had opened the mansion for tours.
The mansion was owned by The Sycamore family, but they almost lost it after the family fell on hard times. However, one of the sons, Ted Sycamore, made a great fortune as a music writer for famous pop stars. Sycamore was pretty famous in his own right, not so much for his writing but for his behavior. "Infamous" would really describe him better. He was often in the news feeds for one scandal or another. It was hard to believe that such an unpleasant person could write such amazing music. The only person who had shown such a gift as a music writer was Masty Callaghan, a young man who had died tragically a few years back at or rather, near the mansion.
Masty Callaghan had actually been discovered by the mansion's owner Ted Sycamore, when Sycamore was a struggling young music producer looking to hustle a dollar to pay for his wild lifestyle. It was through the collaboration with Masty that Ted really started to make his mark. Unfortunately, their partnership came to an end when Masty was killed in a diving accident along with a diving guide just a mile out to sea from the estate. Masty's body had never been found, only that of the Diving Master.
Aylani, knew this history all too well since she had not only been a fan of the young Masty Callaghan's work, but had been the wife of the Diving Master. She had, of course been greatly saddened at the loss of Mr Callaghan, but the loss of her husband and the father of her young son was something she was only now coming to terms with.  As Aylani ushered her students into the beautiful old mansion, she couldn't help but think of her husband and of Masty Callaghan spending his last day in this very home. 
Aylani looked around the mansion, her eyes taking in all the different  rooms that were roped off and she was brought abruptly to the present.  "Ms. Hanson, Ethan keeps poking me!"  Maya said loudly behind her.
"I did not!" Ethan shouted "She's just saying that to get me in trouble."
"Ethan, why don't you and Maya walk up here with me, I want to show you this painting." Aylani said.  Unnoticed by the adults, as they passed by the rooms, one of the kids broke away from the group and snuck off in the opposite direction.
It seemed as though nothing had changed since the mansion had been lived in or the disappearance of the two boys two years prior. It was as though the place was frozen in time. The caretaker of the house tour had intentionally done this to lend an air of mystery to the tour. Ted Sycamore, being the hustler that he was, would never miss a chance to make a dollar even if it was incredibly distasteful. His idea for the tour was to take advantage of the missing boys and the death of Masty Callaghan and to turn it into a "haunted tour." Knowing this Aylani had avoided bringing students to the mansion until the pressure from the community to do so was to great. Aylani wasn't at all surprised when she heard the sound of screaming - assuming it was some cheesy attempt by the curator of the tour the make it extra scary. However when she realized the screams were coming from her son, Taylor, who was also one of her young students, she looked around in alarm. She immediately noticed that he was missing. She quickly and calmly called everyone together to wait while she went to look for Taylor. 
Following the faint sounds of whimpering back toward the front door where the sound was gradually increasing Aylani came upon the study. She called out "Tay, sweetie are you in here?" as she looked around. Then she suddenly spotted a little foot poking out from under the desk. She quickly hurried over and pulled Taylor out from under the desk.
Taylor looked as pale as a ghost and his eyes were wide with fear. "M-Mom, I-I thought I h-heard a gh-ghost!" he whimpered, as he hugged her. She stroked the shaking boy's hair, and wrapped her arms around her son.
"Everything's alright Tay, you just had a bad scare there's no real ghosts." she soothed.
Taylor only shook his head wildly. "M-Momma I-I'm seri-serious! I heard a g-ghost." he insisted, and she sighed.  Just then both mother and son heard a muffled thumping noise coming from beneath the floor in the corner of the room.  "What was that?" Taylor whimpered, as he peeked out from the safety of his mother's arms.
"it was probably nothing hon, it was probably just a raccoon or something." Aylani soothed.
She began to wonder about what had become of the missing boys  two years prior, and the death of Masty Callaghan and her husband. What had caused the disappearance of the boys. Did the two incidents tie together somehow? There was only one way to find out, she had some exploring to do. "Tay sweetie, we're going to head back to rejoin the group and finish up this tour." she told her son, who looked at her.
Just as they were rounding the corner and making their way down the hall a loud thumping noise came from below their feet. Taylor looked scared, "Mommy, I think the raccoons are following us." he whimpered.
"Those aren't Raccoons", she said and reached over and grabbed his trembling hand while quickening their pace. They could see the rest of the tour awaiting their approach at far end of the hall. The thumping noise became louder and louder beneath their feet and then suddenly stopped. "There must be some workers below the house - nothing to worry about sweetheart." Aylani soothed.  "Let's just finish up the tour and the head back to school."
Meanwhile her thoughts were racing - those thumps didn't sound anything like workers or raccoons to her. As far as exploring, she would definitely be doing that, but not with a group of children and certainly not with Taylor. She had a strange feeling that something was going on in this house that just wasn't quite right.