Straight-Up Not Having A Good Time At Night Raven College: Prologue

Prologue Chapter 5: A Perplexing Puzzle

...What the fuck is this?

Kat wanted to say it out loud, but managed to restrain herself.
Shivering slightly, she stood with her hands in her pockets, looking at the building in front of her.

In design, it wasn't that bad-- it kind of reminded her of those Victorian houses in California, the ones called painted ladies or calico houses. It even had small turrets at all four corners. It was bigger than the ones she'd seen in San Jose, though.
It looked about half the size of your standard mail-order Mcmansion, squatting in a big yard made up of small hillocks and grassy knolls. A wrought-iron fence surrounded the yard, and a zigzagging path of stairs led from the gate up to the doorway, lined by lantern-topped pillars.

That was all well and good, except for the fact that it looked....
Abandoned.
No, not just abandoned-- derelict might be a better term.
Possibly even condemned.
Not to mention creepy.

Once again, that intense feeling of deja vu swept over her-- this was familiar to her, she KNEW it was.
For the life of her, though, she couldn't fucking place it...
It was like a scaled-down-- a smaller-- smaller.... Mansion, a-an eerie....
Spooky....
Haunting......

There was a sharp pain behind her forehead, in the notches of her brow bones, like a sudden sinus headache.
Putting a hand to her forehead, she hissed between her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut and wobbling slightly.

Crowley looked over at her, a worried expression on his face.
"Oh, dear... Are you alright?"

"I-- yeah, I'm... I'm fine..."
Shaking her head rapidly, she pushed her bangs back.
"Sorry... Probably just tired. Um..."
She hesitated for a moment, giving him a sideways look.
"....So.... Basically, you want me to live in Luigi's Mansion?"

Crowley gave her another blank look.
"Luigi? I'm afraid I've never met anyone by that name...."

Ah.
Yeah, made sense that this world probably wouldn't have the same pop culture as hers....
That put a damper on her sense of humor, though; that was gonna be a problem.

"It's a video-- look, n-nevermind..."
She shook her head, flapping a hand dismissively.
"Anyway-- um-- I know you said 'character', but.. This is... I mean--"

"I know, I know," Crowley interrupted her, crossing his arms and nodding sagely. "Isn't it delightful? Now then-- hurry along; get inside, my dear."
He put one hand on her back, pushing her lightly through the gates and herding her up the winding path of stairs.

"H--Hey-" she started to protest, but something cold fell onto the top of her head.
As she looked up, another droplet fell squarely onto one of the lenses of her glasses, turning her vision into a blurred smear.

"God freaking dangit--" she muttered, looking down and rubbing her forehead with the cuff of her sleeve.
Oh, and of COURSE it just had to start raining...  
It wasn't too bad so far, but-- well...
Giving the building another dubious look, she wrapped her arms around herself tightly.
If it did really start coming down, this was probably better than nothing....

Quickening her pace, she loped up the stairs, taking shelter under the eaves.
She felt a small flicker of satisfaction as she watched Crowley hurry to catch up, adjusting his hat and shaking a few raindrops off the feathers on his shoulders.

"Now-- give me a moment..."

The Headmaster patted himself down distractedly, then pulled a tarnished silver key from somewhere-- either from a pocket or from the mirror-adorned keyring at his waist.
She watched as he unlocked the door, then, with a quiet grunt of effort, pushed it open.