The town of Farbrook didn't have much to its name. It was in the middle of nowhere Iowa with the only truly distinct landmark being the looming Farfield Manor that sat at the end of town. While no one had lived in it for decades, the people of Farbrook considered it a landmark for the town's history.
Despite its historical relevance, the value of the manor to the town had come into question in recent years. Leading to a small group of filmmakers looking to advocate for maintaining the manor in its current form. Teaming up to make a short film about the manor and its history.
Ren had been the cam guy for the group for as long as it had existed. His short 5'5 height, combined with his thin seemingly frail body type leading to most of the other members pushing him around to get work off of their shoulders. The crowning moment of this was them sticking him on the job to get all the night time recordings done alone.
The forest that previously surrounded the manor had become more and more industrialized. The majority of it being transformed into housing for the expanding town. This left the manor at the end of one of the new high-end neighborhoods. The HOA potentiated for its removal in the name of progress.
Ren's family living on the same street that the manor inhabited. It loomed over the houses in the area as a constant reminder of the unmoving history of the town.
After dark Ren hopped in his run-down silver car wearing a black jacket and pants to fight the mid-october chill. After a short drive to the end of the neighborhood Ren parked out front of the dim gray manor pulling the camera equipment out of the back seat.
The manor's doors slowly creaked open, Ren struggling to even move the rusted hinges. After a solid minute of pushing the doors flung open with unusual ease in comparison to the effort, Ren had been putting in only moments before. "I can't believe they had me come here at night just to get b roll footage." Ren sighed, clutching his camera bag, and flicking on his flashlight. "This isn't fair..." He started his walk through the decrepit halls each step eliciting a squeak from the floorboards.
After wandering around the different halls at the front of the manor, trying to use the footprints in the dusty halls from earlier that week but struggling to track them due to dust having seemingly reappeared over everything. After wandering helplessly for a good ten minutes, opening random doors and finding very little of note. Ren arrived at the master bedroom. It was one of the only rooms that didn't have dust everywhere thanks to all the filming. "Ok... I just need to stay here a few hours and record the moon out the window."
After a solid half-hour of attempting to get just the right angle on the tripod and camera. Pointing it across the bed and out the window to properly catch the full moon's light from the bedroom window. "There we go perfect." Ren sighed, sitting down for a bit and watching the recording...before getting board and walking out of the room and back through the dusty halls.
Everything was eerie in how well it had been maintained. It looked less as if it was abandoned and more as if everything was just coated in a thick layer of dust. "Seriously... how does all of this never get stolen." He walked over to one of the bookcases rubbing his finger against a thick patch of dust to clear it off. "It's not like anyone's stopping you."
He chuckled, slipping a book out of the case and tossing it in the air before catching it. Causing a dust cloud to form from all the movement. "At least I can explore while I wait." Ren continued down the halls dropping the book as he went not truly caring about ransacking the place. "I swear I only even agreed to this because Ariel asked..."
Behind him, shadows from every corner of the manor twisted and distorted, catching the book and dragging it back to its rightful place. Ren simply continued his walk not even noticing the increase in shadows around him. Heading down another hallway, this one far less grand than the main halls of the manor.
He turned, opening a hard oak door, not even noticing that the handle had not a single speck of dust on it. "Welp, in we go..." He grumbled nearly half asleep because of how late it was, combining with the boredom of wandering through the hallways and waiting for the filming to finish.
It was a fairly simple and small bedroom, a dark oak desk with a few books on it, a dresser, a small vanity, and a twin-sized bed with black and white covers being the only things of note. "Well hello there. Why don't we see what they used to wear."
Ren chuckled a bit, walking over and sliding the drawer open revealing a maids outfit. "Oh well, that explains why this room looked so cheap." He picked the maid outfit up, snickering a bit as he walked over to the vanity, laying the outfit down on the table, before doing a little pose checking himself out in the mirror. His unbrushed and long blond hair, and hazel eyes being the only thing appealing about his rather average appearance.
Ren then took the maids outfit flapping it a few times to get it in a presentable state. It was the traditional black and white with a lot of frills around each seam. "What's something this nice doing in this dingy of a room." He playfully put the outfit in front of himself in the mirror making himself appear like a frilly maid.
"Oh, Mister Reginald I'm so very sorry that the manor is such a mess! It simply has been impossible to maintain!" Ren did a playful swoon before starting to snicker to himself. "God to imagine that someone would actually be that submissive." he threw the maid outfit onto the bed before pulling out and checking his phone.
"Fuck has it only been 15 minutes..." Ren groaned walking towards the door. His eyes were glued on his phone so he hadn't noticed the door had closed already leading to him slamming into it. Knocking himself to the ground. "Owe... why is the door closed..."
He picked his phone up, slipping it back into his pocket, before standing back up to try to open the door. As soon as he tried to turn the knob it was jammed in a way that he couldn't even get it to wiggle. "FUCK!" he kicked the door to very little effect other than making his foot hurt.
"Stupid fucking old house." Ren groaned looking around the room noticing a window in the corner. "Well, that could work." He walked over looking at the edges of the window and finding that there was no way to open it. "God damn it!"