"Jia~" The landlady chimed once again, her voice even more patronising than the last time they had spoken. Jiahao didn't give the landlady the privilege of a response. Instead she just looked at her, waiting for the woman to continue her rambling.
"I hope you'll find that I've fixed your little, floorboard issue." She smiled proudly, as though she had won this little battle.
"The ceiling is still leaking." Damien spoke.
"And there's that broken window in the back of the room." May added.
"And putting a piece of cardboard over a hole in the floor doesn't count as fixing it." Max said with his usual bratty tone. Jiahao let out a small sigh of relief, at least Max was back to normal.
The landlady's face flushed with anger once more as the group walked past her into their flat. And to nobody's surprise, Max's assumption that all the landlady did was put some cardboard over the hole was correct.
May quickly removed it from the floor and placed it against the smashed window. "It'll help with the draft, probably." She shrugged before retreating to her corner of the flat.
The flat was drab, with puke green walls and four mattresses scattered around it. May kept some waterlogged books in her corner of the room, whereas all Max has is a small tin on the windowsill with different tools for tinkering. On what should be the kitchen counter, Jiahao keeps a handful of supplies for sewing; A few pieces of loose threads, and fabric scraps.
Jiahao would love nothing more than to use these materials to patch holes in their clothes, but unfortunately, she spends more time patching the holes Damien gets in his body than the ones in his clothes.
The rest of them plopped down on the floor in the middle of the room. Damien and Max knew they were in for an earful. Jiahao called May over and began her lecture.
"First, May, you should know better. Second, Damien I told you if you're going to act like an idiot keep the twins out of it. And finally third, all of you stop fucking stealing!" She raised her voice towards the end.
It was well known amongst all of them that Jiahao had a thing against stealing. She has already given many lectures about how stealing only gets you into more trouble than what you gain, and all her anecdotes back this point up. But Damien had a plan.
"Okay, but Jia, I have an idea, one that should keep us set for at least a few months." He smirked, feeling as though his initial pitch was brilliant, and show stopping.
But Jia just scoffed and rolled her eyes. Damien continued despite this, feeling as though he could really convince Jiahao to go along with his newest, flawless scheme.
"Just hear me out Jia, you know that abandoned manor at the end of town-" Jiahao immediately cut him off.
"Okay let me think… No."
Damien rolled his eyes but kept on speaking, determined to convince Jiahao to come with him. "It's abandoned! We've– I mean, I, I've checked it out, it's definitely abandoned, and there's a bunch of stuff inside."
Jiahao was about to respond, until her own stomach cut her off with a loud growl. She couldn't remember the last time she had an actual meal. With a sigh, she speaks once more, "Go on, Damien."
He smirks at her, feeling pretty accomplished, this is the first time he's really gotten Jiahao to agree to something like this in a while. "So you're in?" He asks excitedly.
"Not yet, you're sure it's abandoned?" She queries, with clear scepticism in her voice.
"Yeah, we've been watching it for days now, no one goes in, no one comes out!" Max pipes up seeming excited, before Damien gives him a smack in the back of the head.
"She wasn't supposed to know that you were also watching it!" Damien whispers, but he never could really whisper, so naturally, Jiahao hears him.
She begins to massage the bridge of her nose, almost in awe at the combined stupidity of Damien and Max. Damien starts talking again, trying to rescue the pitch. "But, two pairs of eyes are better than one! And both of us are 100% sure it's abandoned." Damien nods, as if agreeing with himself.
Jiahao sighs once more, the allure of being able to afford food and rent is too good, finally she gives in. "We can break in, but you all listen to me no matter what."
"But, we're all adults-" Damien cuts Max off.
"You heard the woman, don't question her. We listen to Jia and that's the end of it. You don't know what kind of person she was back in the day, she has more experience than the three of us combined." Damien tries to sound stern, but it just comes out sounding aggressive.
Max knows better than to try to argue with Damien, so despite his wishes, he backs down.
May finally looks up from one of her books to join the conversation. "Y'know, the kids around the town say that mansion is haunted, or that a vampire prince lives in it. All kinds of crazy stuff. Are we sure this is a good idea?" May asks with a raised eyebrow.
None of them have ever been superstitious, but there's something about the way May presents these rumours that makes a chill run down Jiahao's spine. Usually when May has a gut feeling, it's right.
"Do you think it's a good idea?" Jiahao asks May in return.
"It's bad manners to answer a question with another question, but as long as we're quick and don't linger where we're clearly unwanted. I don't see the harm." She shrugs before going back to her book. She's read this book countless times, but entertainment is scarce around these parts.
"It's already become pretty dark out, and there's no time like the present, so I suggest we get a move on!" Damien exclaims with his signature smirk. Looking almost ecstatic that they're going to go rob a mansion together.
The town is split into two clear sections, one for the poor and one for the rich, and as one would guess, the manor sits right at the end of the rich side of town. The division of the town is like night and day, old, almost broken down buildings sit at one end, while at the other sits a manor that would make even a king gasp. It's a bit of a trek, but they aren't strangers to walking long distances. Without any more discussion on the topic, they agree to leave, each of them with a tattered rucksack in hand.
"We only take small things, things that can comfortably fit in the rucksacks, and when they're full or if we realise someone is actually in there, we run." Jiahao states quietly as they exit the flat building.
"Let the adventure begin!" Damien exclaimed, clearly excited. Despite being the second oldest, he was unarguably the easiest to excite.
They meandered over to the manor in silence, avoiding any main roads. Just taking side streets and alleyways to avoid attention, they didn't see any other person until they had almost made it to the manor.
An old, drunken man was slumped over in one of the alleyways, he seemed to be asleep until Jiahao approached him. He awoke with a loud gasp, his eyes crazed, as though he had seen something horrific.
The group all looked at him, startled by his gasp, soon the man began to speak. "The manor," he mumbled, slightly out of breath.
The alleyway was too thin for all of them to walk as a group, forcing them to walk in single file, Jiahao stuck her hand to Damien's chest, signalling to him to stop. They waited a moment but the old man didn't speak again, just as they began to walk away, he finally decided to pipe up.
"Don't go to the manor, there's something in there that they don't want to get out…" The man's sentence trailed off into an almost crazed laugh, ending with a hiccup, before he passed out once more.
Damien thought this was nothing more than a drunkard, who had one too many, but something about it rattled Jiahao. Not enough to deter her from entering the manor, but just enough to make her more cautious.
They reached the main gates of the manor, just under an hour since they had left their flat. There was something unsettling, and intimidating about the building. It was made out of light bricks, and the architecture was more akin to a gothic church than any sort of manor. Yet, at the same time, it was clearly not a place of worship. Jiahao and the others knew quite well what a church looked like, every Sunday the orphanage would drag them all to the local church to repent. This thing was no church, no holy building, it was almost otherworldly.
This was the closest Jiahao had ever been to the manor, it made a deep pit of dread form in her stomach. The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand, she was even more on edge than before.
Damien went to open the front gate but Jiahao stopped him. "We jump the wall."
"How are we supposed to get over that?!" Max basically shouted, Jiahao glared at him for being overtly loud.
"Don't tell me you, and idiot number two over there have been walking through the front gate?" Jiahao asked without looking at Damien, but the question was obviously directed at him.
"No, there's a chunk of the wall missing towards the back of the manor, it's a tight squeeze, but manageable." He shrugged, and without saying anything else, he began leading the group to the entry point.