The Red Diary

"Jack whitby, Candy shop owner extraordinaire " Jack sighed as he looked on at the date circled on the calendar. Today marked the day his mother died, and the day he took over the family business. Glancing to his side his little sister Mollie was hunched over on the front counter dead asleep and drooling. It was a busy day and closing time was already fast approaching.

Getting up from his stool at the counter, Jack walked outside to clear up the candy decorations left outside.

Looking up he could see the shop's name spelled out in a bright pink arc: Candy Emporium. His family's pride and joy. Heading back inside, Jack locked the door, and flipped the open sign to close. Scooping up little Mollie, he walked upstairs to their apartment and put her to bed.

Taking out his wand, Jack followed his nightly routine of casting anti-intruder jinxes, and alarm jinxs. Confirming that the spells were active he made his way to the attic where his grandfather's study was. The study walls were lined with bookcases filled with candy recipes and spell tomes with few portraits decorating the space. One of which was a painting of his grandparents, aunts, and his mother.

Sitting down in a leather armchair opposite of the portrait, Jack wordlessly leaned back and stared at it taking in the faces staring back at him. "It's been a year since you left us mother. I took care of the shop as promised, and little Mollie is doing well" Jack whispered as he failed to hold back the tears forming in his eyes. While he had helped with the candy making, managing a business was no easy task especially with no one there to guide him.

"Where did it all go wrong, mother?Our family was doing so well until grandfather disappeared" Tears slowly rolled down his face as he watched each face looking for a reaction or anything really, but found none. "Yes, it's not your fault mother, but that damn disappearing GRANDFATHER!" and in a sudden fit of anger Jack took a book from the shelf and threw it at the smiling face of his grandfather that seemed to mockingly smile at Jack's misery. *Smash* glass shattering the painting flew off its hook on the wall and crashed down to the floor.

Silence remained as Jack, feeling his anger quickly dissipate, fell back into his armchair and emptily stared at the fallen painting. Looking up from where it once was, he saw a safe in the wall previously hidden. "A safe?" a light of curiosity returned to his eyes as Jack stood up and walked over avoiding the glass shards on the floor. Inspecting it he found an engraving 'this is my mothers initials, but why did she not tell me about it?' he thought.

Moving on, the safe door was locked with a combination lock that asked for a month, day, and year "A date huh, I wonder.." inputting his birthdate made it flash red and reset the lock. Trying mollies failed, mothers failed, his 2 aunts, grandfather and grandmother also failed. After spending 5 minutes trying different dates that his mom would likely have chosen, but finding no success decided to sit back in his chair and pause for a moment.

Letting his eyes wander the room searching for potential clues, Jack's eyes settled on the fallen painting looking at the ever smiling face of his grandfather until it clicked in his head. "The date he disappeared isn't it, that has to be it, or else i'm gonna have to bombarda the door off its hinges, and risk losing the safe contents" walking back over jack inputted the date, and the lock flashed green. A few whirs and clicks later the lock popped off the safe and the door swung open.

The insides revealed a worn red diary and odd shaped key with a few stacks of galleons. "So that's where mom kept the emergency funds, but what's this?" The diary and key were something he'd never seen before. Grabbing the diary and key jack walked back to his chair and sat down. Putting the key on the table next to the chair he focused his full attention on the diary. Engraved on it were his mothers initials in gold text. Opening to the first page, Jack read the first entry.

[Entry 1

The mansion has fallen. Whatever father was doing inside must have gone wrong. The entire mansion has changed. Monsters now stalk the halls of our home, and we barely managed to escape them. We should never have let Father continue those cursed candy experiments. The monsters seem to not be able to escape the mansion, but just in case mother sealed all the windows and doors with transfigured bars.]

[Entry 2

The curse is spreading. Whatever spell cast inside the mansion cannot be contained. The surrounding forest has wilted and died, and a few muggles were somehow lured inside. May their demise be peaceful at the hands of those cruel creatures.]

[Entry 5

Mother contacted an old friend. He specializes in space magic and will place the mansion and the surrounding land inside a pocket dimension. We plan to tie it down to a door in the basement of fathers beloved candy emporium. ]

[Entry 8

Everything is set and prepared. Mother and eldest sister plan to enter the mansion and learn more about what has happened. Wishing the best of luck]

[Entry 11

They have returned. The muggles lured in have managed to survive somehow, but the mansion's curse is definitely affecting them. However the rooms and halls have completely fallen to the dark monsters. Eldest sister found some mysterious muggle key charms in the mansion. We're not sure what they do, but I can confirm that we never had them before. The two charms she found were a tooth strangely glazed in what looked like pink sugar, and the other charm is an object the muggles call a magnet.]

[Entry 15

Bunber our butler has reanimated into a ghost. My eldest sister and I found him in the front entrance waiting for us. He's still his cheery old self, but his eyes cannot hide the gloom inside. Apparently he can communicate somewhat with the more intelligent monsters. I shudder to think these beasts have intelligence on top of their lethality. The first room has been turned into the Hall of Sorrows. Its floors are prowled upon by skeletons, wraiths, and slimes. For Merlin's sake what is going on?!]

[Entry 20

We found a way to fight back. The muggle flashlight collection that father keeps works against the undead hordes. Mother and I were sneaking our way through when a sudden attack by a wraith shoved her into the cabinet knocking over one of the flashlights turning it on and the beam of light instantly destroyed the wraith. We only managed to grab two lights before having to run from a horde.]