It had been another twenty minutes since the corpses were discovered in the hall. They were rotted beyond identification, so much so that not even their genders could be distinguished. Leo watched as Elizabeth, William and the twins came out from the hall after looking around slightly more. Each one of them seemed to be rocked to their core by what they witnessed and even the twins seemed nauseous now.

After they had come out, his mother had gone inside, and taken the responsibility upon herself to bury the corpses, despite protests from William and Elizabeth who wanted to help.

"You are still children in my eyes. It is an adult's responsibility to handle such things." She had said resolutely, and refused to budge on her position.

Thus it was that the six of them -William, Elizabeth, Margaret, the twins and Leo himself - were sitting on the overgrown lawn outside the main house while his mother cleaned up the corpses inside. It took about half an hour for his mother to dig five shallow graves and dump the almost skeletal corpses into them. When she came back, her white dress was stained with mud from the effort.

"Now the house is useable." She declared. None of them addressed the massive elephant in the room yet. They were all too tired and too shocked to discuss such things.

"There are a lot of rooms in the top two floors. You go up and decide which ones you want, and then let's meet back at the dining hall around evening to discuss further." Even though she didn't want to at the beginning, his mother was adapting into the leader role quite well.

"What about you?" Leo asked quietly.

His mother took out a flare from her bag. "I think I will set off this flare. These corpses are a new discovery which certainly qualifies as an emergency. And besides maybe the boat hasn't gone too far." Her voice lacked any conviction, and Leo wondered whether she believed them herself.

The rooms on the first and second floors of the mansion were truly spacious and huge. The bed itself was so massive that three people could fit in it with ease. There was a small fireplace, and an overall rustic look to each of them. There were also a lot more rooms there than people, so there wasn't much debate about dividing the rooms up.

Leo, Margaret and Elizabeth took three rooms on the first floor.

William and the twins took three rooms on the second floor.

There were a lot of spare rooms in both the floors for his mother to choose, although Leo was certain she wouldn't choose the second floor due to her well-deserved disdain for the twins.

There was an attached bathroom to each of the rooms, with a huge bathtub in there. Of course there was no hot water, but Leo was surprised to find that the normal shower was working fine. There was no electricity in the mansion of course, but having the water systems working perfectly after a decade still seemed too much for him. But he was too tired to think about it much more at that time. He went into the shower, took a quick bath and then immediately flopped down on the bed, going into a deep slumber.

When Leo awoke, it was already dark. For a moment he waved his hands madly about as he tried to orient himself in the complete darkness his room had become. Slowly as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could make out a small candle on the desk beside the fireplace. Slowly he tiptoed towards the candle. Beside it was a box of matches. He struck a match, careful to stay away from all the wood in the room, and then lit up the candle. The soft glow of the candle lit up the rest of the room, revealing the massiveness he had noticed in the morning. There was no clock in the room, so he couldn't be sure of the time but from the darkness, he guessed it was past six atleast.

He stepped out of the room and looked around. There wasn't anyone in the corridor, but the door to the room opposite him was open, and he saw Margaret sitting on her desk, scribbling furiously on a sheet of paper.

"What are you writing there, Margaret?" He said, causing her to jump. When she realised it was him, she smiled.

"Don't scare me like that Leo, I was half-afraid you were the killer."

"You still believe in the killer theory?"

"Of course." Margaret nodded vigorously.

Leo carefully balanced his candle, as he sat down on the edge of her bed.

"What do you think about those five corpses then?"

"Those five corpses prove the existence of the killer!"

"How exactly?"

Margaret set her pencil down, and turned to face Leo. He saw that she seemed to be drawing a map of the mansion they were in.

"How else? Those five corpses are his other victims! After Grandfather died, he must have killed them."

"No, no that makes no sense. No one comes to this island. No one came here as long as Grandfather lived, and after his death it was blocked for entry except for us. Even the police were not able to enter Teracora, how would your killer find five people to kill?"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Margaret bit on the top of her pencil.

"They must have some kind of way! Maybe they were killed off the island and then brought to the island?"

"Why would they do that?"

"To prevent detection of course!" Margaret's face lit up as if she had found a new idea to pursue. "That's it! The killer wanted to kill these five people but he didn't want anyone to find out his crime. Therefore he killed them and then dumped their bodies in this island where nobody comes!"

Leo shook his head. "That's not possible. For one, there is no boat which comes here. And there is a border coast patrol all around this island. It is impossible for someone to come here without the police knowing about it."

"But that patrol was set up after Grandfather was murdered! What if the killer killed these people and brought them here before?"

"If these bodies are a decade old then there would be nothing except bones, not even the flesh we saw. No, these bodies were killed after Grandfather, if they were killed at all."

"Come now." Margaret scoffed. "What other explanation is there? If they died by natural causes then why would they be arranged like that? It almost seems like a..."

"A message doesn't it? Then that begs the question if your killer was really the one who killed these people and sent the telegram to us, then what is the message he is trying to convey?"

"Get out?"

"No, no. If he invited us why would he write a message for us to get out? Moreover the first instinct of ours after seeing those corpses would be to flee. If the killer really wanted us to find Grandfather's gold as you assume-"

"Of course I am not so much of a romantic that I would believe in time travel."

"Then why scare us away?"

Leo and Margaret sat in silence. The stench, the rotting faces kept circling in his mind.

"By the way have you seen my mother? She sent out a flare today right?"

"Yeah Auntie is in the kitchen below. I think we should go there as well." Margaret stood up, and then the two of them began walking down towards the dining hall.

The kitchen was attached with the dining hall. It was a smaller section on the ground floor, leading out behind one of the huge paintings. Going through the hall again, Leo tried to forget the ghastly scene he had seen a few hours back.

In the kitchen, he found his mother along with Elizabeth, brewing some tea. Both of their moods appeared much improved and they were chatting happily with one another. They looked up as they heard Margaret and Leo enter.

"No electricity eh?" Elizabeth said with a smile.

"If they had electricity after a decade, I would probably start believing the stories about ghosts from the mainlanders." Sophie said, laughing.

"What is the time now?" Leo asked, to which his mother shrugged.

"No way to know the time here Leo, our watches don't seem to be working."

Leo frowned. That wasn't usual. Even if you didn't get internet or network, a watch usually worked everywhere in the world.

"It's about six-thirty." Elizabeth chimed in.

"And how do you know that big sis? Guessing from the position of the sun once more?" Margaret asked with an exaggerated sign in between.

Elizabeth winked. "It's a trade secret. Maybe if you come join our club, I will teach you."

"Ugggghhh."

Leo laughed, and it almost seemed as if the events of today morning didn't happen. He felt the same cozy sensation he felt back home when he was a child playing with Margaret, Elizabeth and William under the watchful eyes of their parents. Playing without a care in the world.

And maybe that carefree life would have continued if not for that telegram......

"I smell some tea cooking." Henry's voice came through from the corridor, and Leo sighed inwardly. The feeling was mutual, as the energy in the room subtly deflated, the earlier warmth quickly dissipating. Almost imperceptibly Elizabeth tugged Margaret towards her, and there was a hard look which formed in his mother's eyes.

Henry sauntered into the kitchen, this time without his twin. He cast a glance around the room, his eyes lingering a little too long on Elizabeth before shifting to Sophie. With an air of self-importance, he strolled to the dining table and dropped into one of the chairs, leaning back as though he owned the place.

"Well what are we going to do now?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Sophie's tone was polite, but Leo could feel his mother's hand clench into a fist.

"Well of course Auntie, I mean how are we going to find Grandpa's time machine. That is why we are all here no?" He asked, smiling sinisterly.

"We have no plan yet. Tomorrow morning we should-"

"Oh shut up Beth. No one wants to hear you yap." Henry dismissively interrupted Elizabeth.

"You should mind your manners young man." Sophie's tone was still calm, but now there was a hint of anger subdued in there.

"Ah Auntie you'll have to forgive me. " He smiled towards her, but Leo could see the smile didn't reach his eyes. Instead his eyes were roaming over his mother's body as if appraising her, sizing her up. Leo stood up, his blood boiling, but his mother put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. The meaning was clear.

He is just provoking you

It's not worth it.

"What is it young Leo? Got up to protect your mother's honour? What, you wanna go right now young man?" Henry stood up as well. He was twice the size of Leo, but at the moment the anger boiling inside him overpowered any self-preservation he might have felt.

"Stop that Henry." A booming voice came from the doorway. Leo looked over there to see Charles standing in the doorway. He casually stepped into the room and slapped Henry right in the face, shocking everyone in the room to silence.

"I am sorry big brother." Henry whimpered out, his eyes downcast. His earlier arrogant manner had completely vanished, leaving behind a cowering shell. The transformation was so extreme that even Leo who was up on his feet in anger, felt some form of sympathy towards him.

Charles turned towards the rest of them. He was Henry's twin, but they were not identical twins. Charles' eyes curved upwards, and overall his face was more slant as compared to Henry's more round face.

"I apologise for the behaviour of my younger brother. He is still too immature." He said bowing deeply. "Especially to you cousin, and to you Auntie." He said bowing to Elizabeth and Sophie respectively.

There was nothing in his behaviour to suggest that his apology, that his remarks were not genuine. However Leo felt a tugging sensation that they were not, that Charles was even more vicious than Henry. Evidently both his mother and Elizabeth felt the same for they just curtly nodded without any further acknowledgement.

"I think it is time for dinner. We can discuss tomorrow's approach as well as our discovery today morning over dinner. Margaret darling would please call your elder brother for dinner?" His mother took charge of the situation once more.

"No need, I am here already." An exhausted voice came from the door. William walked in, still dressed in his clothes from the morning. It seemed he hadn't slept or even bathed yet.

"Are you alright Will?" Elizabeth asked.

"Oh yeah yeah I am." William answered dismissively.

Leo could see that even Margaret and his mother were quite concerned about William's apparent exhaustion but no one commented further on it.

Soon dinner was served.