Chapter 1: Mirror, Mirror on the wall.

[Bitom]

Sunday, June 24th, 2012

The quest for explosives, as well as Jason's plan for a ghost hunt get somewhat delayed by Jason's Birthday, which both Murphys had forgotten about in all the excitement.

Shortly after his Thursday birthday, strange things start to happen in the Murphy house. It starts Friday morning when John can't find his keys. After an hour-long search, they are eventually located buried in the Tupperware container of flour. If Carolyn hadn't been making pancakes, they might never have been found. Naturally, none of the three boys take credit for this prank, so all of them get a stern, if brief lecture from the very-late engineer.

Saturday is full of trouble. Showers suddenly run extra cold or hot, Brian's toothbrush ends up in the toilet somehow, several vases get broken. All of which puts John on edge and looking for which of his boys has launched a prank war. His first hint that something very abnormal is happening is when he has all three boys in his study threatening to ground them, and then finds himself and his boys locked in, with a large book case having been pulled in front of his study door.

The next morning, John convinces his wife to take the two younger boys out to Range Pond park to go swimming, then calls the rest of the group to come over.

[TetNak]

Sam shows up, still thinking how bad an idea explosives would have been. He made his position known at the bar, making sure everyone knew the cave might support an underground water supply, power, gas, and many other potential hazards.

When he shows up, he knocks on the door, wondering what they will want to discuss next.

[MadVlat]

Normally Fred would be sleeping in on a Sunday, but the call from John breaks the construction man's momentum for the day. So Fred dresses out in jeans and flannel, kisses his still recovering wife on the cheek and walks out the door. Even though it is a short distance he takes his truck. For behind the seat in a heavily padded nylon case is his most recent purchase. Soon after John's doorbell chimes...

[JimBone]

Tom sits at his desk, watching the street outside through a gap in his curtains, normally closed tight to avoid any uncontrolled rays of light hitting one of his three monitors.

He sees Sam walk past his house towards the Murphy's. Knowing he now won't be the first to arrive, he gathers his things, takes one last look at his email inbox, then makes his way to his neighbour's.

[pygmaelion]

Dressed in Khaki Dockers and a pale pink wrinkle free shirt, John paces around between the kitchen table and the kitchen, peering out the window at the front walk occasionally, and trying to put aside the troublesome and inexplicable antics of the past few days.

With the doorbell chiming out, John heads the short distance to the front door, and opens it wide, leaving the storm door between himself and...

"Fred, Sam, come on in... Can I get you something?"

With a wave toward the kitchen, he indicates that he'd like his neighbors to have a seat around his table. For a moment, Murphy wonders if Fred noticed the custom cabinet doors, or the upgraded fixtures that had been installed in this upscale house... then he realizes that Fred is unlikely to care about much of anything like that. The money changed hands, and fixtures wouldn't be covered under the Home Owners Association compact.

"I'll warn you fairly, there have been some strange goings on around this place in the past couple days, so if you've got anything you want to keep on your person, you'd best keep it in eyesight. My keys went spare two days ago, and unless my wife has been pumping iron, I have no idea how a bookcase got moved yesterday... I thought it was the boys playing around, but it can't be. I think I've got a troll infestation in my house"

Laughing a little at the preposterousness of the idea... trolls, infesting the house... Silly.

Opening the refrigerator, John produces a cold can of Diet Coke, and pauses... "Really, anything at all, guys."

[Shadowwk]

Jason staggers down stairs, as though he had been up all night. He overhears his dad's requests, "Any coffee left? Hey Sam, hey Fred." Jason looks all the part of a high school student on the weekend; wrinkled, faded jeans and a red plaid shirt half buttoned.
"I'm guessing my reclusive friend isn't here yet?"

[MadVlat]

"Right. What are they invisible?", Fred growls while taking a seat at the table. "...Please don't tell me that their trying to move in with us. Because if that's the case I'll start looking for my explosives connection again and damn the sink hole that may result. This land has been a thorn in my ass since we first started the project. So if we're going down I'm going down swinging and I will take as many of the little bastards with me as I can". It quickly becomes evident that the man hasn't had his morning coffee fix yet...

[pygmaelion]

"No coffee quite like the cup someone else made." remarks John, closing the refrigerator, and opening the cabinet containing the coffee grinder and vaccum stay-fresh bag of genuine fair trade beans from wherever.

Motioning at Jason to fetch the French Press from the dishwasher, Murphy begins to measure out the beans into an overstyled metric demarked container.

"I didn't say they were invisible, but strange things are happening in this house, and despite there being 5 of us in the house at the time, there's very little explaining how that bookcase got moved. The keys I could've written off, things get broken and toothbrushes defiled, but I didn't piss off Carolyn enough for her to try to barricade four of us in the den."

Pausing to allow the precision grinding burrs to noisily crush the beans into fragments guaranteed to provide optimal brewing, John flicks on the electric kettle to boil some water.

"Fred... I never thought to ask. When construction was underway on the neighborhood, did you run into sabotage on your machinery? Did anyone go out on workman's comp because of an unlikely accident? It could be they've just been here the whole time."

[MadVlat]

"No, nothing out of the ordinary", Fred utters. "It was the economy taking a dive that hosed me/ us over. Why do you think whatever it is focused on your house, we all invaded those caves?"...

[Shadowwk]

Jason pulls out his phone to check messages and sends out a hasty text. Slamming it back into his pocket, "Maybe its a pissed off ghost? I know you don't believe in ghosts Fred but at this point, it makes about as much sence as anything else."