JULIA

When Julia woke up, Kathryn was standing near the window. "Julia, you're awake," she said as she turned, smiling briefly. "Come and look at the sunrise."

Julia rubbed her drooping eyes and yawned. When she rose from her bed, her head felt a little dizzy. It was too early to wake up. She wanted to go back to sleep. But Kathryn was waiting.

Julia forced her feet to carry her across the floor to where Kathryn was standing. When she reached her, Kathryn pointed outward. The stained glass window had been opened to let in the full light and the real colors of the sunshine. Even so, the sunrise was red and cast its crimson rays across the fields and the treetops.

"Do you know the saying?" Kathryn asked, still gazing out at the sight.

Julia blinked her eyes to keep from dozing off. "What saying?"

"The one that goes 'Red sky at morning, sailors take warning'."

Julia shook her head. "I never heard it."

"It means there's another storm coming," Kathryn said with a faint smile. "It means that we probably won't easily get a chance to explore the grounds outside today."

"And that means?" Julia asked.

Kathryn turned to her. "It means that if we want to look around we have to do it now, before it starts raining." She walked over to her suitcase and pulled her shoes out. Putting them on, she flicked her head in the direction of Julia's pajamas. "You'd better change before we go."

Julia's mouth hung open in protest. "Who says I'm going? I just woke up!"

"You don't have to," Kathryn said with a shrug. "But I am."

Julia sighed and stared at her own suitcase. She didn't really want to go, but she couldn't help being curious. If the sunrise was right, she wouldn't have an opportunity to look around until the storm settled. She might even have to wait for days before she saw the full extent of Murray Mansion. Slowly, she walked over to her suitcase and pulled out new clothes.

Kathryn jumped to her feet and smiled. "I'm ready. When you're finished, meet me in the hall." Then she turned and strode out the door.

Julia wearily pulled on the clothes she had chosen, staring out the window. She didn't know how Kathryn expected them to see all of the land of the mansion before the predicted storm came. From her own window she could only really see about a fourth of the property, and even that was beyond her imagination. The green fields stretched out in all directions. A meadow of wildflowers fringed the field, then beyond that, the vast forest. She could count at least two small ponds from where she stood, and if she leaned a bit, she could catch a glimpse of the silvery, reflective surface of a lake.

By the time Julia was done readying herself, she was very eager to get outside. The blanket of scarlet light that the sun had cast over the world had faded and was now shining in pure brightness. The birds sang, the flowers swayed in the soft breeze, and the water of the ponds and lake reflected the sky, turning a light, glittering blue.

Besides this, Julia was still aware of the clouds that were approaching.

She was glad that they looked far away. It would give them time to see most of the property.

Julia averted her gaze from the world outside and closed the window. She opened the door and came into the hall. There Kathryn was leaning patiently against a wall and shuffling her cards.

"Do you always have those cards with you?" Julia asked.

Kathryn laughed. "Obviously. I must have them at all times, just in case I want an impromptu game. Which reminds me, do you want me to teach you solitaire?"

Julia held her hands out politely, but on the inside she wanted to refuse. Cards were so boring, and she had grown tired of them ever since she'd set foot in the mansion. "Maybe another time. Didn't you get me up early to explore the grounds?"

Kathryn shifted her weight off the wall. She took out a metal case, set her cards in it, and gently tucked them into her pocket. "I guess I did."

Julia followed as Kathryn navigated the long hallways with ease. She wished that she had paid a bit more attention on the tour, for without the help of her friend she would not have been able to make it out of the mansion.

Without much trouble, Kathryn lead them past the classrooms and other branching hallways, and they finally came upon the waiting room in which they had spent their first few hours at PITY.

Julia sighed as she surveyed the room. It seemed so empty without all the students in it. There was nothing very welcoming about it any longer; the face cards on the walls seemed to follow her every movement with their expressionless eyes, the low hum of chatter had vanished, and the fire had been extinguished.

"It's too early to wake up," Julia said aloud. "It's too early to walk around in this awful place."

"I agree," Kathryn said with a grimace. "I do like cards, but those portraits are creepy."

As they spoke, they drew nearer to the front doors and stopped. The doorway loomed over the two of them in an almost threatening way, daring them to come any closer.

"Do we have to go out this way?" Julia asked quietly.

Kathryn looked around the room with a wide sweep of her head. "Well," she said, "there are other doors. We could check them out and see where they lead."

"You mean we're going to explore the inside of the mansion before we go outside?"

"I didn't say that, but yes. I guess it's the only way to get outside if you insist on being afraid of a door."

Julia crossed her arms. "I'm not afraid of a door! I just...well... something about it feels weird...."

"All of this mansion feels weird," Kathryn said with a smile. "Let's just stay inside for now. We can start with the door to the left of the hallway we just came through, then work our way around this room."

Julia nodded and followed Kathryn anxiously across the dark threshold, into a new and strange place.

The door they went through led into a hallway. It was nearly identical to the one they had already seen, but instead of hearts on the wallpaper, there were diamonds. On each wall hung intricate glass candle holders, each presenting a tall, glowing candle. There were very few doors, mostly bare walls and assorted knick-knacks. The hallway ended soon, opening up into a wide room that was about half as big as the entry lobby, with a few pieces of furniture scattered around, as well as a few diamond-shaped vases that held sprays of white roses and carnations. On the wall directly across from where they had entered in the hall, there were three doors.

Kathryn stepped forward and tried the first door's knob. "Locked," she said when it wouldn't turn. The second one was also inaccessible, and after a final try, the third was the same.

"This is not the way we want to go," Julia concluded.

Kathryn walked away from the doors and entered the hall once again. "Then let's hurry and check the others. We don't have much time to waste."

There were two other doors branching off from the lobby. The next one they went through had clovers on the wallpaper and led them to nothing but a few more locked doors and a staircase that only led up. The last door opened up to a corridor with spades on the walls and sweet-smelling candles standing on a banister that ran the entire length of the hall. There were a few dozen more doors along the way. Not all of them were locked, but ones that weren't only held storage spaces and a few little parlors behind them. There were no doors that went outside.

The end of the hallway was marked by another staircase, which spiraled upward as well as downward, disappearing into the ceiling and floor.

Julia caught Kathryn's eye. "This one goes down," she whispered.

Kathryn nodded in bewilderment. "I didn't know there were basement levels in Murray Mansion."

"Do you...want to go down?"

Kathryn looked thoughtfully at the steps, then shuddered. "No. No, there could be a whole set of new passages down there. We might get lost. Besides, I doubt that there would be a way to reach the outside of the mansion from a lower floor."

"And it's creepy," Julia added.

"That too."

Kathryn took the lead again and turned to go back the way they came. Julia was just about to follow when something caught her eye. Looking closer, she confirmed that she had definitely seen it. She ran forward, tugging on Kathryn's sleeve, and said, "Look, Kathryn! Look at that wall behind the staircase. I think there's a door there."

There was a small door, sitting in the wall, mostly concealed by the walls around the staircase. Julia wouldn't have noticed it if the light from the candles hadn't been caught on the reflective brass handle.

"What do you think is behind it?" Kathryn asked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

This time it was Julia who walked ahead. She turned the knob, apprehensively wondering. Would it be locked? If not, what could be behind it? The handle turned easily and the door swung open.

What Julia saw took her breath away. It was a large pavilion, encased by a roof and walls of glass that let in the light of the day and allowed a clear view of the land outside. The walls swelled gracefully out in elegant curves, then met together at a point at the very end of the room in the shape of a spade. The glass was clear and slightly tinted blue-green, and the wall was flanked by tall, white marble pillars. The pillars came out directly from the ground below the pavilion's gleaming birch wood floor, as did the vines of red flowers that twisted and curved across them. The pavilion held a few lounge chairs and flower pots, but what caught Julia's eye was the beautiful grand piano that sat in the left swell of the spade.

Like most other grand pianos, it was a shining, deep black. But, this one was carved with intricate patterns, with grooves painted with gold. Flowing vines and delicate golden flowers twisted in lovely patterns across the piano's surface--a line here, a curl there. It was the most elegant thing that Julia had ever seen.

She slowly stepped over to the piano, resting a finger reverently on one of the keys. She pushed it down.

A clear note rang out through the air. The shape of the room caught it and spread its sound throughout the walls and ceiling of glass. Julia caught her breath. She had never heard anything like it. It sounded like spring, like crystalline snowflakes, like the branches of a willow caught up in a breeze, like a cool brook on a summer's day. It sounded like an angel, singing songs of happiness and power and peace.

This is what music is, Julia thought in awe.

She had never really listened to music before. The only time she had come close was when she listened to the radio. But that was only recorded and played back, and mixed with static. It wasn't at all the same. Unlike the unseen people singing on the radio, the piano was real to Julia. The note that she had played was real. She pressed down another key.

While Julia marveled over her newfound discovery, Kathryn was looking around the room. When she found what she wanted, she walked over to Julia and tapped her on the shoulder. "Look," she said, pointing to the right side of the spade. Julia lifted her hand from the keys and looked up at the place she had indicated.

It was a door, the only one in the room besides the one the girls had come through. As Julia could see through the glass, it led outside and into a flower garden. Beyond that garden was the rest of the grounds.

"You found a way out!" Julia exclaimed.

Then Kathryn pointed upward. Following her finger with her eyes, Julia glanced up to the ceiling. The clouds she had seen earlier had gathered into a dark mass, and water droplets were falling and accumulating on the glass roof. Julia groaned. They were too late.

STEWART

It was only a little past sunrise. Stewart rose his face to meet with the sun's gentle rays, closing his eyes and breathing in the sweet air that came from last night's rain. He was outside of the mansion at the edge of the forest, sitting peacefully on a mossy boulder and admiring the scenery. The inside of Murray Mansion was a bit strange and, at times, a bit disturbing. However, on the outside it was a beautiful spot in the countryside, filled with all the wild splendor a person could ask for. It was a mask that hid the mansion's true nature well, for when Stewart retreated to the outdoors, he forgot all that hadn't seemed right about the mansion and J. Q. King.

Almost all.

Stewart had woken up much earlier than any other student that he was aware of, exited through the wide front doors, and walked the entire length of the property to the forest's rim. Meanwhile, he turned over all the recent events in his head, searching for what was out of place. No computers. That isn't too surprising. We're in an old mansion that doesn't even have electric lighting. Then there's J. Q. King. We can't reach him directly or go upstairs, where he probably spends all his time. Someone could find that a bit odd, though I guess it isn't. He just wants privacy; he probably has work to do.

When he thought about it, nothing Stewart had learned about the mansion seemed unnatural. Even the card decorations were probably just the result of J. Q. King living alone for such a long time. To him it was perfectly normal.

Nothing seemed not to make sense.

Maybe my first impressions were wrong, Stewart admitted to himself, gazing at the mansion from where he sat. I thought something was wrong, but it's probably just what an old institute in the woods is like.

Stewart's thoughts wandered elsewhere as his eyes moved across the landscape, taking in the fields and the flowers, the hedges and the garden paths, the lakes and the ponds. Why was I worried? PITY will be a good opportunity to improve myself. Maybe I'll even make friends. Maybe.

He rested his head against a nearby tree and looked at the sky, and held his gaze until the gathering clouds signaled that it was time to go in.