47,Limekiln Road,

Leeds N.Yorks,

YO11 197

12^th September 03

Dear Mr.Brown,

I am willing to stay in Darkwood Manor for a night .Is it true that you are giving away £500?I myself would like the opportunity to win the money.For I am hoping to open a new homeopathic shop, but I haven’t got the right amount of money, but your £500 will give me more than enough.

I have some questions to ask you: Does Darkwood Manor has any electricity and will I have to pay?

Yours sincerely

A.H.S

Andrea .H. Simpson

I was looking through my post", Bills, bills, bills! Eh, what’s this?

Oh a reply from that Mr. Brown guy"

"Sis anything for me?" asked my younger sister.

"No sorry! Yes I got in, Swan Hotel, Darkington 8pm, ok but it’s a long way, but that’s OK.

I arrived at The Swan Hotel at ten to eight. The hotel was a bit run down and tatty. I stepped in to the hotel and followed signs for ‘Darkwood Manor trip’. I found myself in a red velvet

lounge full of people, I found a place to sit and asked for a cup of tea with no sugar. There were two other women sat at the table. I asked them their names and where they came from: the first one said "Hi my name is Lucy and I m from Scarborough,"

And the other one said" Hi and I ‘am Iraina and I come from The Lake District, I draw cartoons" as soon as she had finished what she had to say Mr. Brown slammed the door open

He was a tall skinny man, wearing a leather jacket and jeans. He came in to the middle of the room and shouted over the noise "I ‘am sorry but the trip has been cancelled so you will have to come back next, same place, same time" And with that he went.

We walked over to The Manor and Mr. Brown took out a huge rusty key, and then turned it with a click in the huge gold and black gates, bigger than a bus.

There was a gravel drive up to a roundabout, and off the roundabout there were two stone wolves about the same size as me, then there were some broken down steps.

Mr. Brown shouted, "Watch out for the steps!" Just as he said his words some of the step fell off, everybody jumped back.

There was a big bang! Crack! As Mr. Brown pushed open the big oak panelled doors and walked in to the dark and dusty old entrance hall.

The floor was covered with plaster board and rubble. I thought to myself "Why am I

Doing this? I hope it not a joke"

Mr. Brown gave a guided tour, but most of the rooms were bare,

dirty, dusty and dark, apart from the music room which had a grand piano and some old instruments. Also there was a painting of a strange man.

Then Mr. Brown took the group to the ballroom; there was a portaloo in one dark corner, the floor had been swept , there was a glittering chandelier hanging proudly above a dusty old table .Someone asked "Is the chandelier safe ? "

"Yes, very safe" Mr. Brown replied "You may put your things down." With that he slammed the door and locked it. Then we heard the big outside door lock.

Everybody was looking round the old dusty Ballroom. Some men were saying," I’ am glad that joker made the money up to six hundred pounds. The other replied "YERRRRR!"I looked around; all the wallpaper was hanging off the dirty battered walls.

Lucy walked over to the portaloo and locked the door, as she did there was a scream of fear then a shout "There’s a dead pigeon, its head is hanging off!"

"Let us in! Let’s see!" cried a man.

"Wait let me pull my pants up !" Lucy yelled and unlocked the door. The sight was horrid , there was a dead pigeon and it’s head was hanging off and mice were eating it. Lucy stepped over the carcass . I handed a man a plastic bag and he scooped up the dead bird with came a mouse but he picked it up by its tail and put it back down . Everybody settled down and some when to sleep.

Everyone had sat down for some time. Then Lucy stood up and tried the door, and Abigail, an other girl I meet, got up and helped to pull on the door but it didn’t work . Lots of people had got up by now so I did too. The group split up: Lucy and Abigail went off, Elizabeth went on her own, Christina Cowen and Dennis went to look and left was together was Hattie, Christina, Lisa, Jenny, Molly and I.

So we set off looking for some way one around the rundown room. Molly ran over to see a painting of the man who owned Darkwood Manor you know Mr. Brown told me that! As she was she saw something strange, it was a door with a small key hole.

As Hattie ran to see, she tripped over a small key and twisted her ankle. Luckily Jenny was a doctor in training so she was fine and walking, but what about the key?

I picked up the key and tried it in the door it worked hooray ! As I turned the key slowly and opened the door as I did the gang pushed forward to see I fell down the hole it wasn’t far at all. I called up to the gang " It’s safe come down !" and one by one they jumped down and Molly and Jenny helped Hattie down slowly until she reached the bottom. Molly and Lisa.

Molly looked at the plan Mr. Brown gave us of Darkwood Manor "right the parlour’s on our left bang on the walls!" so everyone banged on the walls but they were hard concrete. All of a sudden Molly turned on her mini-radio with heavy metal booming on it "TURN IT DOWN!"I yelled. I took one step forward and fell down a long metal slide to the seller I cried back up "come down I’m in the seller." Hettie slide down and gradually the rest slide down too.

Running over to a wine rack, Molly popped the cork off one of the bottles and took a long swig out of it. Hettie ran over to Molly and took the bottle and drunk the lot "That’s nice stuff!" She said with a great hiccup. She passed it to me. It was nice.

I took a bottle and put in my bag, was from 1962.

We followed some steps to up to the kitchen. There was blood. So we followed it! It was fresh. The sight was horrible, Lisa let out a scream of fright "ITS DEAD!" Molly turned the body

Over, "He’s still warm." She whispered.

"Have you ever felt like you are being watched?" asked Christina. Watching everybody they nodded.

We ran back up the tunnel to the door but the door was locked again! We had forgotten silly us! We went back to the body then we found the mans passport and a guest list, he was on it: Sir Wilfred Armond.

Molly pulled out the knife and a bit flesh was still hanging off, we checked his bag: the food was still fresh just like the blood. I scream and faint whenever I see blood and I shouldn’t because I’m a police woman. As we were walking backwards we bumped in to some thing but it wasn’t the wall!

Luckily it was Lucy and Abigail. They told us what they had found, they had found a body to how mysterious, and then we told them what we had found. Then we showed them the body I leaned against the wall while they looked and then I fell through the wall and ended up in the ballroom!

Where Mr. Brown and a crowd of people where waiting for us. "Ah you dropped in, ha ha ha ha get it dropped in, and I’m so funny." Bellowed Mr. Brown." I’ve got a secret for you all to hear,"Mr. Brown chanted" Ready, well, OK you. . . . Have . . . . . . . All. . . . . . . . Been. . . . . . In . . . . . . . . .my famous T.V show called ‘We Can See You!’ And it will be on BBC 1 and has been advertised on GMTV!" Someone next to me nudged me and said "I hope this is not a joke, where’s the money!" I whispered back to him "We have not sighed that contract yet."

"I can hear you, you know" cried Mr. Brown. My face turned scarlet red as everybody turned to look "you will get your money at The Swan Hotel come on let’s go." So we went over to the hotel. Wow it was different in everyway; it was so glam it looked like a millionaire’s house. A red carpet was rolled out to the door where Hally Berry and Kate Windsor were waiting for us, two men ran up too both of them and gave them a kiss and a rose and ran back. There were more T.V cameras that I could count. ‘I WAS FAMOUS’ I yelled out.