Elio had been lucky, lately. Very lucky. And that made him suspicious. When he read the letter, he was fairly close to the location it asked him to go to. The bus didn't arrive late, and arrived early at his next stop. He had even found an uneaten hamburger on the bus seat. Truly a blessed day. But if there was anything this curly haired teen knew, it was that blessings and curses came together.

As the teen meandered through the woods, he considered the shining square in front of him. The card, then. It had come with the letter. Elio had checked it, of course, and found a frankly reckless amount of cash for an unsecured card. He hadn't touched any of it. He didn't really need it, close as he was, and he didn't want to use it either, afraid of some hidden strings attached. There was no such thing as a free lunch. Well, except for the burger he just ate.

Elio put the shining card into one of his hidden pockets. He didn't trust it much, but that didn't mean he wouldn't take it. Who knows, whoever gave it to him might let him keep it. As he trudged down the forest path, he thought about that - who had sent the letter? Somehow they knew where he was before he had arrived. [color=orange][i]It was probably magic[/i][/color], he thought to himself. If he could shoot fire out of hands, knowing where someone was seemed rather simple. It was easy enough for ad companies to do, if you were stupid enough to keep your phone's location on. Well, Elio's phone was usually off anyway, so that couldn't have been it. A part of him was still sceptical of magic's existence. The incredulous and imaginative part, that seemed to think that his parents had slipped him some kind of hallucigenic mushroom while he wasn't looking. If only things were that simple.

The blue eyed teen came to some kind of driveway, snaking through the forest. A portion of the surrounding bushland met the road at a certain point, but it seemed as if someone had ripped a hole through it. Elio shrugged and walked through. Perhaps someone had come ahead of him. Someone with a bull dozer. As he walked forward, however, he began to notice a subtle pull. The longer he walked down the path, the stronger it became. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling, but not particularly repulsive. He didn't really know how to explain it. Finally, he saw it - in the middle of a clearing was a manor, old and decrepit. The closer he got to the mansion the more he doubted his eyes. It was like a house made by giants, excessively large for a place that was meant to be lived in by human beings.

Maybe it [i]wasn't[/i] meant for humans to live in.

He stopped in front of the manor. It was clear that it had been abandoned for some time. Elio was starting to believe that he was the victim of some kind of practical joke. Maybe he had been called to some kind of game show to go on an Alice in Wonderland-esque adventure. Yeah, maybe his parents had slipped in those mushrooms after all. Fortunately, if it was a prank, he wasn't the only one that got caught by it, judging by the black car in front of him. The driver was at the door - a woman, if the back of their head was any indication. Elio regarded the car. It was a rental car, high end. He was pretty familiar with these kinds of things. Perhaps whoever had arrived before him had paid for it using the card? If they could just casually give that kind of wealth to 2 complete strangers, they must be pretty confident in their financial power. But what if it was more than just 2?

Elio looked around. He disregarded the strange gravity of the mansion, the feeling that if he turned around he could spot eyes from the windows looking down on him. He had been invited because of his newly awakened magic, did that mean the woman was invited for the same reason? How many more of them were there? He turned to look at the woman crossing the threshold of the mansion. 
[i][color=orange]And what happens when you go in?[/color][/i] He thought to himself.