You Can't Escape

Clues And Traps..

The next morning, the sun rose as if new hopes awoke. But with these hopes, there was anxiety and fear.

Everyone was ready and on the dining table at 8:30. Everyone was quiet. Myra was eating her cheese sandwich and Katherine was sipping coffee. Eric and Casper were already done with the breakfast. They had a glance at the girls and then looked at each other.

Eric said, "Come on girls, don't you have to go to your college? You are missing your college since 2 days."

"Eric is right. You both attend your college and we'll go to the library." said Casper

"Stacy called me today. We have a vacation for Christmas. So no college." said Myra.

"So you both better go to your jobs and we'll go to the library." said Katherine.

"No Kat." continued Casper, "this time i wont let you go alone. I'll come with you. "

Finally they decided that all four of them would go. They were about to leave when Eric received a call. A few seconds of conversation and Eric ended the call.

"It was Mr. Sam". Said Eric.

"The cop?" asked Myra.

"Of course Myra. He said that he is coming right now to ask some questions. That day Myra and Katherine were too shocked to tell things, so he'll investigate today."

"What about library?"asked Casper.

" I think we four should get divided. 2 of us will handle Mr. Sam and the other 2 will go to the library. We cannot delay this. " said Katherine.

" I think you are right. I and Myra will be here and you and Casper go to the library."

" Fine." said Casper.

Soon Casper and Katherine left for the library.

The library...

There was just an aged man, the librarian sitting on the desk at a corner of the library near the entrance. A huge library with seemingly every kind of book, but not a single person around. Maybe it is because it is a very old library, no one comes there. Only a few journalists or students needing information for their projects may arrive at weekends.

"Excuse me." said Katherine

The librarian peeked through his spectacles having a look at Katherine and Casper.

"Ya. What do you need?" asked he in an old, shaky voice.

"Old newspapers, of year 1995. I hope you have them." said Casper

"Ya. Go straight and the 4th shelf from left." said he.

"Thank you." said Katherine and they headed towards the shelf.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At home..

Cop Sam had arrived. He was seated on the sofa with Eric sitting beside him and Myra, opposite them.

"Where is the other girl Katherine?" asked the cop.

"She and Casper have gone to the library for some work regarding Katherine's project." replied Myra.

"Seems quite important, so much that they couldn't stay for our enquiry!" said Sam.

"No sir. They had already left when you called up. I have informed Casper, they'll try to finish their work fast." Eric said, trying to cover up.

"Ohh! They are so thoughtful. I must be thankful that they will try to complete their work faster for me." Sam commented in sarcasm. So Myra, what happened that day? "

" We went their for some enquiry. First, everything was normal. But then, suddenly Mr. Simon started acting weird. He started shivering. When he turned back normal, he jumped from the balcony." Myra explained everything.

"Didn't you ask him anything? " he asked.

"We called him many times, but he did not reply. And then before we could do anything, he jumped. " Myra tried to remain calm.

" What was it that you enquired? " Cop asked now with suspicion.

"We wanted a new house. He was an agent. So of course they went to ask about a house." Eric interfered.

"Mr. Eric, I asked this question to Myra. So please don't interrupt. By the way." he now asked Myra again. "Why do you want a new house?"

"Maybe because, this is a quite huge house and we don't need such a big house. We have to pay a nice amount of rent for this. So we were trying for some better options." Myra lied. She couldn't afford telling the truth.

"Is it this reason or the rumours about the house being haunted?" Sam questioned.

"Haunted... No. No... Not at all sir! We..we are staying here since a couple of months. Noth...nothing like that." Myra could feel herself stammering whole saying this.

"Why didn't you go Eric?" the cop had a bag full of questions.

"Job, sir" he said.

"Fine. I think thats enough. I'll trouble you again if needed." he said and stood up.

"Sure sir, anytime." said Eric and led him towards the door.

He finally left and Myra sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At library..

Katherine and Casper had a look at the shelf. An old, shabby and dusty shelf was in front of them. It seemed as if it was untouched since years. Katherine moved a few papers and coughed. She began finding papers of around mid June 1995. She glanced through all the headlines. Finally she got one paper : 'Four Girls Became the Victim'

She quickly grabbed the paper and showed it to Casper. They kept it aside. Casper found one more paper with related article. Finally they got some 5-6 different papers of different dates and publications.

"Kat, see this." : 'Major Peter Hudson left with no heir!'

Katherine took out a folder from her bag and kept all the articles in it.

"Lets go Casper." said she.

As they went towards the librarian, they could see that a portion of the library had started burning. There was no sign of the librarian. The area near the door of the library was burning. It seemed difficult to go out of the library. So, the siblings were stuck.

"Casper, how will we go out?" Katherine asked in a nervous voice.

"Don't worry Kat. We will find a way out." said Casper.

But there was no other way to exit!