Belle Manor was nestled atop a steep, winding hill behind a grove of trees, making it so secluded, it was hidden from the city below. In the years since Addison had moved to the area, she hadn’t noticed the manor until the day she’d gone for a hike on a dirt trail above the city. She’d followed a bird up a steep path, watched it perch on a branch, and then spread its wings and fly away. Addison had watched it soar through the sky, and then her attention diverted to a cluster of shiny, metallic objects reflecting off the sun. They appeared to be spires on top of an enormous house.
A few days later, Addison had indulged her curiosity and stopped into a local coffee shop to ask Janice Yaraskovitch, one of the town’s oldest residents and a local historian, what she knew about the mysterious manor she thought she’d seen. Janice said the manor had once been considered the most lavish home in the area. Built in the late 1800s, Belle Manor was a place the upper class gathered to watch movies in its grand theater room while mingling and sipping on cocktails. The owners, Lawrence and Cecilia Belle, had both come from well-to-do families, with Lawrence’s parents owning a plantation in the South. Under a great deal of pressure to remain at the plantation and take it over when his father retired, Lawrence sought to escape. During a visit to New York City, an opportunity presented itself when he met and fell in love with an aspiring actress named Cecilia DuPont. One week later he left his home in Louisiana and relocated to New York.
According to Janice, the Belles had hosted movie nights and dinner parties on Friday and Saturday nights for a number of years, which often included the film’s actors and actresses. She’d said celebrities flocked to Belle Manor because of its isolated location. It was a place they could escape, far from the public eye.
Life at Belle Manor hummed along for years before the accident. After, the parties ceased. Rumors lingered, most suggesting Lawrence and Cecilia became reclusive homebodies, fractions of the glamorous couple they’d once been.
Little was known of them now, and Addison decided it was time to find out why.