Creating Scene
When you walk through the large garden cemetery, at the very edge of town, you might be surprised to find that it isn't occupied solely by the dead. If you venture to the furthest edge of cemetery grounds, just before the forest begins, you will discover a three-story house nestled amongst the maple and pine trees. In the fall the smell of wood fires and earth permeates everything; in the spring everything absorbs the clean scent of rain. In the winter the view is a of a world in white, broken only by the headstones that poke up through the snow; in the summer it is the trees and flowers in bloom scattered between the headstones that color the landscape.
The house is Victorian, with a coarse red brick foundation that reaches halfway up the first floor only to be hidden from that point forward by slick white vinyl siding. A white porch wraps from the front of the house to the back, and sailor's horn vines have been wrapped around all of the supports, giving it a cozy, enclosed feeling. From the porch there is a picturesque view of the small cemetery pond, where wild birds gather year round. Inside the house is all raised ceilings, gingerbread trim and moldings, and colorful floral wallpaper. The windows in every room are tall, spanning almost the full height of the room, and many are stained glass. The first two floors are living quarters, warm and cozy. The main rooms all have fireplaces, and these are employed year-round.
Entering through the massive French double doors a visitor is instantly enveloped in the warmth of the house. Once inside the foyer, the first thing to catch a visitor's eye is the crystal chandelier, a family heirloom featuring over 50 dangling polish tear-drop cut crystals. To the right is a sweeping staircase that leads to the second floor, and to the left is the spacious front parlor. Towards the back of the house is the dining room. In two of the corners of the dining room there are built-in wooden pieces; on one side a built in china cabinet, a sideboard and hutch on the other.
From the dining room, there is access to the back parlor, cozy and intended for family use, with a fireplace on one wall, an upright piano on another, and a TV on a third. The family parlor is full of soft, cushy armchairs, the kind that it's easy to sink into. Once in the dining room there is a short hallway leading to the kitchen and bathroom at the back of the house. The bathroom also functions as the laundry room and the pantry. The kitchen is filled with the newest stainless steel appliances, one of the few rooms in the house to break with the traditional Victorian style. It is from the kitchen that the smell of cake and muffins comes, filling the whole house. The kitchen also provides access to the dark and forbidden cellar, and to the upstairs.
When a visitor reaches the second floor from the kitchen they will find that they are in a long hallway that spans almost the entire length of the house. If they were to follow it all the way down to the front of the house they would find two guest suites and an office. Each of the quest suites offers a parlor, bathroom, and small balcony. But here at the back of the house is the master suite, which only the lady of the house has the key to. This set of rooms features a large master bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub, and a combined living area where the bedroom and parlor are separated only by a fountain stream built into the floor and walls. Everything in the master suite has a water theme. From this room there is access to a small back deck, which overlooks the rose garden behind the house.
Across the hall from the master suite is another staircase leading up to the third floor attic. This space is unfinished, and is neither heated or cooled, so its temperatures vary with the seasons. The attic is separated into two main areas, a storage space towards the front of the house, and a massive library at the back, housing a collection of more than 100,000 books on various subjects. There is a third room in the attic, access to which is gained only through the master suite, which is designated only for the use of the lady of the house, and serves as a chapel, complete with an alter dedicated to the Egyptian god Anubis.
Once a visitor has inspected the inside of the house, they might want to look at the gardens behind it. In a glade between the house and the surrounding trees there is a well tended rose garden, plotted out in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. In the very center of the fleur-de-lis there is a stone bench and an ornate fountain. Roses of every color and size form low walls, and in some places there are arbors that the roses have been trained to climb.
The lady of the house often entertains visitors, and there is almost always someone staying in at least one of the guest suites.