Mod Murder Mayhem- A Séance at Spade House
Hi, everyone! One of Boolprop's Halloween events is Mod Murder Mayhem, in which three mods of your choosing meet grisly fates. I built a haunted house, but it won't just be the mods getting snuffed tonight.
As they say, one good scare ought to do you some good...
It was Halloween night. The streets were filled with dressed-up children dragging along bags of candy while their parents guided them from house to house. But there was one block in the little town that was entirely devoid of trick-or-treaters. This block was dark and abandoned, with shoddy houses standing silent on a dead end street.
The block, known as Dead-End Drive to the locals, was dominated by an old house that was once very beautiful, but had fallen into disrepair long ago. Spade House had once been the home of a very rich family. The house was by the sea and the mountains, a getaway from the extravagant lives the Spades led. But they had left suddenly, and since then, the neighborhood had fallen into disgrace.
But on that Halloween night, a bright beam emanated from a lone flashlight as a small group of three people turned down Dead-End Drive.
"Where are we supposed to be going again, Rosanna?" Marina asked, scratching her head.
"Spare House or something. No...Spade. It's one of these, okay? My friends said they'd be here," Rosanna said, sounding frazzled.
"This is stupid. I want to get candy, and these empty houses give me the creeps," Teresa griped. "Can't we just leave, Marina?"
"No! That'd be rude," Rosanna said.
"Don't be so dour, Teresa. There are so many legends about this boulevard; it's rather intriguing, really."
"It is not 'intriguing,' Marina. We're not all Knowledge Sims. And besides, I look stupid."
"You don't look stupid," Rosanna replied.
"She kinda does, Rosanna," Marina said as they continued down the sidewalk. "What is she even supposed to be?"
"She's supposed to be a dancer, like me, only from the Eighties or something," Rosanna explained proudly. "I wanted to do an entourage of dancers, but no one else was into it."
"I wonder why," Teresa shot back, voice dripping with satire. "Don't get me wrong, Rosanna, I want to help you, but this is ridiculous. And now we're going to some haunted house?"
"Allegedly haunted," Marina corrected.
"Wait...haunted?" Rosanna said slowly.
"Well, it's an old house. All these things have ghost stories," Teresa said.
"Apparently Spade House is haunted by one particularly angry and violent ghost," Marina began. "I forget all the details, but weird things have been happening around here for ages. That's why no one lives nearby anymore."
"What?! Why the hell are we going there, then?" Teresa burst out.
"I didn't know it was a violent ghost..." Rosanna mumbled.
"Your friends are crazy, Rosanna. Just saying," Teresa said.
"Oh, relax. They're just stories. It's an old house, of course stuff's going to break and the stairs will creak," Marina said dismissively.
"Well, here we are, ladies," Marina said. The group stopped in front of the most formidable-looking house at the end of the block. The door was covered in cobwebs and all the windows were boarded up. The place was reasonably tidy, although the lawn was far overgrown.
The three mods stared up silence for a moment, simply taking it all in. There was suddenly an odd chill in the air. Something about this place simply was not right, and they all could feel it in their very bones.
Teresa broke the silence. "Didn't your friends say they'd be here? I bet they stood us up."
"Or they're late," Rosanna said. "They wouldn't do that."
"I don't know, Rosanna. I wouldn't want to hang around here," Teresa shot back.
The place did seem deserted, but just as the mods were ready to call it a night, four cheery voices snapped the spooky spell of Spade House's aura.
"Rosanna! You made it! And you brought some mod friends!" June said with a smile. "Hey, you think we could get a medal on Boolprop for this?"
"You're late," Teresa said snappishly, although it was obvious she was relieved Rosanna's friends had made good on their promise.
"Oh, sorry. My companions insisted on trick-or-treating before we came here."
"I got so much candy because of my awesome costume," Chip chimed in.
"Pfft. They totally gave up the candy because of my sexy costume," Heather scoffed.
"You wish!"
Chip and Heather continued their increasingly-ludicrous comparisons while Rosanna greeted June with a hug.
"We were beginning to think you wouldn't show," she said, only half-joking.
"Oh, please, Rosanna. That's just lame."
"Of course," Rosanna laughed. "So, what are we doing, then?"
"Isn't it obvious? We're going inside," June said with a mischievous grin.
"Wait," Marina interjected. "What do you mean by 'we're going in,' exactly?"
"Exactly that! We're going into Spade House to hold a séance. It's Halloween night, right? And this place is haunted to hell and back! It'll be so cool. A couple of our other friends chickened out, but--"
"Going in?! Are you insane?!" Teresa interrupted indignantly. "Not only is this place supposedly haunted, but it's falling apart! There's probably broken beams and asbestos and rats and all sorts of other disgusting things. I am not going in there!"
June crossed over to Teresa and said, "Why not? You chicken?"
"I am not chicken!" Teresa retorted defiantly.
"You seem pretty yellow to me, Teresa," June taunted.
"Stop goading me! I am not!"
"So prove it."
"I...you...! Fine. I'll go," Teresa said finally.
Meanwhile, the other members of the group had begun to mingle.
"You look nice, Rosanna. Very elegant," Lewis said.
"Thanks, Lewis," she said with a smile.
"Lewis, quit hitting on Rosanna. She's so out of your league. And you look like a dumbass with that mustache, anyway," Heather broke in, her tone mocking.
Everyone around giggled, although Rosanna's reaction wasn't quite as scathing.
Lewis turned on Heather angrily. "I am not hitting on her, Heather! I'm complimenting her. It's totally different!" he said, sounding embarrassed.
"Sure, Lewis. We all know you've had a crush on Rosanna for, like, ever," Heather said, clearly enjoying teasing him.
"And my mustache is awesome!"
"Your mustache looks like it's made of paper. That's how fake-looking it is."
"It doesn't look fake!"
"Does so! Right, Rosanna?" Heather insisted.
"Lewis, it looks pretty silly," Rosanna giggled.
"See? You didn't impress her."
"I wasn't trying to--!"
"You know, you would have been better off with one of your ugly sweaters. Now that would be scary," Heather snickered, voice full of mirth.
"I have great taste in sweaters, I'll have you know!"
June interrupted the conversation before Heather could make a grab for the fake mustache. "Come on, ladies, we're headed inside!"
"I'm not a lady..." Lewis said sullenly.
"Oh, can it."
So June and her entourage headed inside Spade House after unsticking the front door, chattering animatedly. But the mods hung back.
"Are you sure these people are sane, Rosanna?" Teresa asked sourly.
"Not entirely, but they don't bite," Rosanna said earnestly.
"Teresa's got a point, to be honest. It's really not a good idea to go into this place. It's probably structurally unsound, and if those ghost rumors are true, we're really in trouble," Marina said.
"Oh, come on! Ghosts? Don't be ridiculous. Listen: knowing June and the others, they've set up some lame prank and then we'll all go trick-or-treating or something. We'll be fine," Rosanna said reassuringly.
The other two mods shared a look, shrugged, and followed the others into the house.
As they walked in, taking care with every step on the whorled and splintered wooden floor, that chill in the air was back again. There was definitely something off about the place, but no one paid much attention to the feeling of dread.
June led them to a room that must have once been a dining room, only it was crowded with a folding table, grungy old boxes to sit on. Candles provided the only light in the entire house.
Once everyone was gathered and seated, June said, "Friends, I would like to thank you for gathering here tonight. As we all know, Halloween is the night we celebrate the supernatural, specifically the spirits. Here we sit in a building known to be haunted and we are here to make contact with the spirit world. Now, you all know the legend of Spade House, I assume?"
"I don't," Teresa said.
"I see," June replied. "I'll have to explain, then."
"You see, Spade House was once a humble but enviable manor. It belonged to the Spade family, rich for their invention of shovels in designer colors. They loved this house. But then, their surly teenage daughter died in the freezer room. She had gone off to be alone, ended up getting locked in, and froze to death."
June took a dramatic paused and looked swiftly around the table before continuing.
"The Spades were greatly saddened by this, of course. In their sadness, they decided to demolish the freezer room, for the pain was too much for them to bear."
"But after the demolition of the freezer room, strange things began to occur at Spade House. Odd accidents, a constant draft, unexplainable noises outside. Members of the family and their guests began to get hurt, and eventually the Spades had to leave.
"What drove them away was the spirit of the daughter, known today as the Frozen Spirit. The destruction of her place of death had caused her to go into an otherworldly rage. She acted as the most malicious of poltergeists, and her spirit is tied to this house."
"They say the Frozen Spirit makes her presence known with unexplained chills in the air; she has a powerful aura. In all these years, many have met with accidents just trespassing into this place. But tonight, we will call forth the Frozen Spirit in a séance."
"I ask that everyone at the table joins hands to strengthen our spiritual energies," June said, finishing her tale.
This pronouncement was met with an awkward silence.
"I'm not joining hands with you. I might catch terrible fake-beard-itis. And ugliness. No offense," Chip informed Lewis.
Similar statements were made around the table.
"Alright! Don't hold hands, then," June sighed. "Just...just focus on the Frozen Spirit. Picture her in your minds. Bid her to appear before us tonight. Focus..."
Silence fell over the table and everyone closed their eyes and focused. Was that really a chill in the air, or were they all merely imagining it? The mods awaited the "lame prank" Rosanna promised, keeping up the allusion of belief.
There was an odd noise, like a creak, as though someone in the foyer had tread on a floorboard. But they assured themselves it was merely the normal noises of an old house...
Suddenly, the candles blew out. As the room was plunged into darkness, someone screamed, prompting a flurry of activity within the room and several more people cried out.
Marina lit up her flashlight and shone it around the room hastily. What she found made the bottom drop out of her stomach.
"You guys? June's gone!" Marina called into the darkness.
Voices began overlapping each other, their tones confused. Teresa's voice broke out over them all: "Someone turn on the lights!"
Hastily, the candles were lit again. Heather dashed over to Marina.
"What do you mean, June's gone?!" Heather cried.
"What do you think I mean? She's gone! She's not here, and I didn't hear anyone leave the room. Did you?"
"No! I...what happened to her?"
"The hell if I know."
The party began calling out various theories, and in all the noise and confusion, no one noticed one of the candles tip over onto the cheap wooden table, but no one's hand even brushed up against it.
In seconds, the flimsy material went up in smoke.
"FIRE!"
Everyone cried out again as the table and the boxes began to disintegrate into ashes. It was a mad dash for the exit, with everyone yelling, pushing, and trying to dodge the angry, all-consuming flames.
Finally, they all gathered in the living room, slightly ashen but otherwise unharmed.
"Is...is everyone okay?" Marina asked. There were murmurs of assent, but then, they realized someone was missing.
"Wait...Teresa! WHERE'S TERESA?" Marina shouted, looking around wildly.
Without thinking, they all dashed back to the door.
Through the tiny window in the door, they could see the horrific scene of Teresa with her spandex leotard going up in flames. She looked out at them, screaming, slightly muted by the walls and the crackling sound of the fire.
"Teresa!" Marina yelled. Desperately, Marina began to pull on the door, but it wouldn't budge. It had, perhaps in all the confusion, been locked from the inside.
There wasn't anything that anyone could do. Before long, Teresa was lost amidst the flames. After the fire had devoured everything in its path, it dimmed away to nothingness.
"No...Teresa..." Rosanna whimpered. Marina broke down into tears as an unnatural silence fell within Spade House.
After awhile, Heather said, "What...what are we going to do?"
Marina wiped her tears, taking one last look into the ashes. Then, a determined expression came over her.
"I don't know what you guys want to do, but I'm getting the hell out of here and I'm never going out with any of you people ever again!" she declared angrily. She turned heel and stomped off to the front door, with Rosanna following behind her.
She stomped down to the cobwebbed door and pulled on the handle.
Nothing happened.
"Come on," she muttered irately, pulling on the handle more forcefully. It didn't budge.
"Argh! What the everloving shit! Are we locked in or something?!" Marina yelled. Then, she remembered how the door stuck earlier, and that someone had slammed it shut.
"Goddamn it."
"Are we...are we really locked in?" Rosanna asked pitifully.
"Yes, Rosanna, yes we are," Marina snapped.
"June was right! This place is haunted!" Rosanna cried, her voice full of fear.
"Don't be stupid," Marina replied shortly. "There's got to be a back door. Who ever heard of a house without a back door?"
"Well, I guess so, but where's the door?" Rosanna questioned.
"Well, it's gotta be somewhere! If there was some light in here, it would make everything a lot easier," Marina said. "I lost my flashlight in the fire, so we need another light source."
"We can't help that, Marina."
"Yes, we can. You just gotta fiddle with the fusebox. See, it's right over there," Marina said, pointing to a little metal square embedded in the wall.
"Marina, are you sure that's a good idea?" Rosanna asked timidly.
"We're not going to get out of here if we can't see anything!" Marina shot back.
"But Marina, you could get electrocuted!" Rosanna fretted.
"It's no big deal, Rosanna!"
"Marina--"
"Do you want to get out of here or not?!" Marina said angrily. She crossed over to the fusebox and got to work.
"What are you even doing?!" Rosanna cried.
"I can't get the door open," Marina replied absently-mindedly, poking at the edges of the door with a screwdriver.
"You're insane, Marina! You could get killed!" Rosanna hissed, beginning to grow impatient.
"Whatever, Rosanna."
"You're not even listening to me!" Rosanna huffed.
"Why should I? You're being obnoxious!" Marina shot back. "Now be quiet, I have to focus."
"Marina, get away from the fusebox!"
"No!"
"You know, I'm not even going to feel sorry when you fry your brains, because I warned you and--"
There was a sudden crackle and burst of light.
Abruptly, Marina seized up and volts of electricity shot through her body. Rosanna cried out helplessly as Marina's limbs began to jerkily flail about.
Her knees buckled and she collapsed to the dirty ground, mumbling incoherently as the shocks continued to course through her very bones.
"No! Marina, no, not you too! I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it, I swear! I didn't want you to die...please get up..." Rosanna pleaded as Marina curled up on the floor at her feet.
Rosanna dropped to her knees, searching for any signs of life.
She could have sworn she saw Marina take a breath and stir for a moment.
"Marina...?" Rosanna asked cautiously, reaching out to to touch her fallen friend.
Suddenly, someone wrenched her away from the body.
"Are you insane?!" Heather screamed, dragging Rosanna away.
"Heather, what are you--?"
"You don't EVER touch an electrocuted person! Ever! Do you want to die here, Rosanna? She's gone! You can't help her!" Heather went on.
"I thought she was breathing!" Rosanna cried desperately.
"I don't care if she got up and did a fucking jig, Rosanna!"
"She's gone. Forget it."
"Heather, she's my friend! What do you want me to do, ignore her if I think she's breathing?" Rosanna exclaimed indignantly.
"We've all lost someone tonight," Heather replied, and Rosanna could hear her voice break. "We're losing people right, left, and center. I can't take this much longer...don't do anything stupid, Rosanna, okay?"
They trudged back to meet Lewis and Chip in the living room.
As the girls entered the room, Lewis looked up at Rosanna; his hat and fake mustache had, like Marina's flashlight and Chip's candy bag, been lost in the fire.
"Is Marina really...?" He trailed off, but everyone knew what he meant to say. Rosanna nodded solemnly, and Lewis sighed.
"What the hell is going on here?" Chip asked, perched on top on an overturned chair. "Fires, mysteriously locking doors, disappearances, and suddenly all these freak accidents."
He glanced up at Heather and said, "I thought you said this was some practical joke June planned. What's going on?"
All eyes turned to Heather, whose lower lip trembled as though she was about to cry.
"I don't know what's going on anymore than you do," she told them miserably. "Honest! It was supposed to be a joke. June said she'd make some weird noises happen and pretend to go in a trance. Just a little Halloween prank, you know? But then she disappeared, and that wasn't part of the plan, and here we are. Teresa's dead, Marina's dead, June's as good as dead..."
She sniffled and tears brimmed in her eyes.
"Didn't she come to scope out the place beforehand?" Rosanna asked.
"Yeah, she did. But she went by herself. I don't know anything about the layout of the house."
Rosanna looked defeated; she was hoping Heather knew where that back door was.
"I just want to get out of here, but I don't even know what to do..." Heather finished feebly.
"Marina and Teresa would know what to do..." Rosanna murmured sadly.
"How are we going to get out of this place?" Chip wondered aloud.
Alright, Rosanna, you're the last mod standing. You have to be a leader, she told herself firmly. "Wait. Marina did know what to do, you guys!"
Everyone looked to her as she stepped into the center of the room.
"Before she...um, Marina was saying that there has to be a back door to this house, and if we find it, we could get out!" Rosanna said, trying her hardest to sound enthusiastic.
"Hey, you're right! All houses have back doors!" Heather added.
"It's gotta be somewhere, and I bet we could find it," Lewis said eagerly.
Chip hopped up off his perch on the chair and cried, "Well, what are we doing waiting around? I don't know about you guys, but I want to get the hell out of this house. Let's go!"
His enthusiasm was contagious, and the four of them were greatly heartened.
"But where should we go?" was Lewis's anxious question.
"There's a door right here, dumbass," Heather said. She led the way through the glass door on the other side of the room, trudging through puddles on the floor from the busted sink. The others followed.
But the glass door did not yield an escape.
"It's a pool room," Rosanna said, dumbfounded. She stared into the pool's depths; it was a good seven or eight feet deep, and although Spade House had long been deserted, the water was clean.
"How the hell did that candle get lit?" Heather asked slowly.
Chip, on the other hand, was totally fascinated by the pool.
"Guys...how come the water's clear? No one's lived here in ages...why would the pool be clean?" he asked.
"After all the weird shit that's happened tonight, you wonder about pool water?" Heather asked disdainfully.
"It's just weird," Chip said crossly as he stood up.
No one noticed the strange breath of air that suddenly swept through the room.
As Chip tried to stand up, his ankle suddenly twisted beneath him. He yelled out, stumbled, and fell into the pool, striking his head with a dull clunk as he sunk into the water's depths.
The others could only stare in shocked horror as he thrashed around limply in the water, weighed down by his costume. The tips of his fingers just barely poked out of the surface of the water as he began to lose consciousness.
Everyone stared as he drifted to the bottom of the pool, motionless.
All at once, Rosanna and Lewis began to panic.
"Oh, God. Oh, God, no, this can't be happening!" Rosanna cried out, backing away from the pool.
"It happened so quickly...I can't believe...!" Lewis was babbling incoherently.
Heather, however, simply stared into the depths of the pool in total silence.
"H-Heather? Are you okay?" Rosanna asked tentatively.
"Yes. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Heather asked, in an eerily calm voice.
"I...Heather, we have to go. We have to get out of here. We're going to find the back door, remember?" Rosanna said.
"We have to wait for Chip, Rosanna" Heather said pointedly.
"No, Heather. How could we?" Rosanna asked. "He...he's gone. Like Marina and Teresa..."
"Gone? Don't be silly. He's right there," Heather said with an odd smile. She pointed into the pool at Chip, crumpled on the bottom. "It's just a joke, Rosanna. Ha ha...isn't it funny? He's so good. It's just a joke, just like Juney's prank. She pretended to disappear, but it's just a prank! Isn't it funny? Ha....ha..."
Rosanna glanced at Lewis, who looked thoroughly discombobulated.
Heather turned to Rosanna, a wide grin on her face.
"Hey, Rosanna, we should totally go help Chip with his joke! It'll be so much funnier if all of us do it. Come on, it's so easy...just hold your breath..."
"Heather, no! We can't...we have to leave," Rosanna said desperately.
"Oh, don't be silly. We can't leave now. Things are just getting fun!"
"Heather--"
"It'll be great! We'll be all 'BOO!' and everyone will think we're so cool. Come on, we should help Chip, he's our friend," Heather pressed.
"Heather, we can't help him anymore!" Rosanna insisted, becoming increasingly terrified of this deranged Heather.
"Can't help him? Oh, Rosanna, why are you so silly today? He's right there," She gestured into the pool wildly to emphasize her point. "He's right there. All we have to do is go in the pool. You'll look so pretty in the water, with your tutu all swooshy..."
"Heather, we have to leave!" Rosanna exclaimed fearfully.
"Leave?" Heather said. She gave a demented smile and even giggled a bit. "Leave? Rosanna, we are going to die here." Heather's tone was chillingly jovial, and Rosanna felt as though the blood in her veins had turned to ice.
"No...no, we're going to get out!" Rosanna insisted feebly.
"We're as good as dead, Rosanna. We might as well die helping a friend, right?" Heather said sweetly.
Heather grasped Rosanna's wrist.
"Heather...Heather, let go of me," Rosanna pleaded.
"No, we're going swimming, Rosanna. You and me. It'll be fun!" Heather's tone was bright, but her hands were clammy and her grip was deathly tight.
"Let me go!" Rosanna screamed, trying to wrench her hand away from Heather's desperately. Heather didn't seem to notice.
Slowly but firmly, Heather was pulling Rosanna into the pool.
"No! No!" Rosanna screamed, almost crying by this point. Her hair was starting to to come undone, sending locks of hair all down her face, sticking to her sweaty brow.
"Shh, Rosanna, they'll find us," Heather said. She was teetering on the edge of the pool in her high-heeled boots, dangerously close to toppling over.
"Please, Heather, no!"
"Come along now..."
"Leave her alone, Heather!"
Out of nowhere, Lewis dashed in between the two and yanked Rosanna away from Heather.
"Stop it, Heather!" he yelled, but she was much too out of it to hear him. The force of Lewis's rescue of Rosanna sent Heather off-balance, and she toppled backwards into the water.
Water splashed up over Lewis's and Rosanna's feet as Heather, too, made her descent to the shiny, tiled bottom of the pool.
"Lewis! You...you killed Heather!" Rosanna cried, thoroughly shaken.
"I'm sorry! I had to! She was going to kill you...I couldn't--"
"You couldn't let her?" Rosanna finished, dismayed.
Lewis nodded, and Rosanna took several deep breaths.
"Did she hurt you? Heather, I mean. She grabbed you really roughly," Lewis asked, his fingers grazing her forearm.
"I...I don't think so. She didn't bruise me," Rosanna said. She was surprised; his touch was gentle and controlled, even though his voice was shaking.
For a moment, the only sounds were of water dripping off the side of the pool.
"What do we do now?" Lewis finally asked.
"We keep looking for the back door, right?" Rosanna replied. He nodded, and they left the pool room and the bodies of their friends behind them. Neither looked back, terrified of what they might see lurking within.
There was little else of note on the first floor, so the duo went upstairs in silence. A single chair blocked the way, but otherwise, the stairwell was clear.
All was quiet and still, save for the occasional creak. The upper floor was in a worse state of disrepair than the first. The wallpaper was peeled off, the fence by the stairs was all but rusted away, and it was devoid of decoration.
They split up to investigate. Both were doubtful of an escape route up here, but the hope that, somehow, an exit was here was all they had to go on.
Rosanna discovered a nauseatingly disgusting bathroom, devoid of windows, and a plain bedroom, also without windows. They combed the small second floor anxiously, but soon, they had to face facts.
There was no back door. There was nothing.
Exhausted, worn out, and totally hopeless, Rosanna took a seat on the creaky old bed. Her crinoline-filled tutu crushed into her body with a whisper of fabric, and she twirled her thumbs simply for something to do.
Lewis sat next to her, dejected.
"I didn't find anything," he said quietly.
"Neither did I."
Silence fell.
"Lewis...we're going to die here," Rosanna said softly.
"What? No, don't say that. Don't even think that," he admonished her. "There's got to be a way out--"
"But there isn't, Lewis!" Rosanna cried, getting up.
Rosanna broke down into tears, letting the sobs wrack her body.
"Lewis, all our friends are dead! June vanished, Teresa burned, Marina's gone, Chip drowned, Heather went crazy and tried to kill me...oh, Lewis, there's no way out of this place and we're the only ones left! We're going to die, Lewis. Even Heather knew it," she whimpered.
"Don't say that...come on, Rosanna, don't cry," Lewis said, desperately trying to comfort her.
"Why shouldn't I cry? I couldn't think of a better time!" Rosanna wailed.
"Please, Rosanna! We just have to stay hopeful, you know? There's got to be some way out. You have to believe that! I just...I can't stand seeing you like this. You're usually so together. Seeing you go to pieces makes me go to pieces," he said anxiously.
She wiped her eyes and breathed deeply. "I can't go on like this. It's just so terrible...it makes me want to die," Rosanna said.
"Stop. Don't think shit like that, it only makes everything worse," Lewis said bracingly.
"I didn't know it got any worse, to be honest," she murmured, staring at the ground.
"Hey...look at me, okay?" Lewis said, tilting her head up. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and said, "Look, if anyone could find a way out of this, it'd be you."
"Really?" Rosanna asked hopefully.
"Of course. They made you a mod for a reason, you know," he smiled.
She smiled back at him. "Thanks," she said softly. "That...that means a lot to me."
"You needed a bit of cheering up," he replied.
And then she was hugging him warmly, and out of nowhere he was her only comfort in the horrible haunted house. The silence wasn't quite so threatening, and she could almost hope again. It was incredible.
As she pulled away from him, she quickly gave him a little kiss on the cheek.
"I...erm, Rosanna...you didn't have to do that," he said shyly.
"I know. I wanted to," she told him.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
What followed could have been credited to several factors. The entire "we're going to die anyway so what the hell" mentality could be one, or a simple want of comfort could serve as an explanation. Perhaps Rosanna was actually attracted to Lewis, and the conditions were right for her to realize and act upon this.
In the end, it didn't really matter. No one was there to see, in any event.
"You know, someone probably died on this bed," Lewis murmured.
"That's nice, Lewis," Rosanna replied, sounding thoroughly disinterested.
"Like, someone's grandma--"
"Mmm. I thought you'd care more about living people in this bed right now..." Rosanna giggled.
"Funnily enough, I do."
In the midst of their bantering, the two did not take the time to recognize a sudden rush of air entering the room. The paper on the nightstand rustled quietly, and a stair creaked ominously.
But neither of them noticed at all, until it was far too late.
"Lewis. Lewis!" Rosanna said urgently.
"Hmm?"
"Lewis, my leg is going through the bed!"
"Wait, what?!"
It was true; Rosanna was sinking into the bed as though it were quicksand.
She screeched as she fell, twisting and turning in midair as if the laws of physics no longer mattered. Lewis yelled out and grabbed at her feet, which were rapidly slipping out of reach.
She was sinking through the very floorboards, screaming as she went. Lewis, confounded, leaped out of the bed as she vanished into the next floor.
She finally came to a stop as she landed on the crooked bookcase downstairs. She was hyperventilating and trying to relax herself, fearing that at any moment the free fall would start again.
She hopped off the bookcase and tried to get her bearings.
She could hear Lewis calling her name frantically upstairs, and glanced up at the now-solid ceiling.
"Lewis! Lewis, I'm down here! I'm okay!" she called back.
This time, she noticed the cold blast of air as it blew through the room and cried out.
"Shut your mouth, girl," hissed the searingly red spirit standing before her.
Rosanna stared in horror. "J-June?" she stammered.
"No, you fool!" The ghost's tone was a harsh roar, angrier than any human voice Rosanna had ever heard. "I was forced to take on this form for I have none. My form was destroyed with my place of resting."
"You mean th-the legend is real?" Rosanna questioned.
"Of course."
"You're the Frozen Spirit?" Rosanna squeaked.
"Yes, frozen...frozen in this living hell!"
"You see, child, I am bound here! Bound here without a form, unable to escape, little more than wallpaper! They destroyed my place of final resting, the place where I died. It was gone, everything gone, the last thing that served as a remembrance of me. My family couldn't bear to think of me any longer, and they tried to banish me from their minds forever. They hired a contractor to destroy the freezer...and that contractor owned his own business here, long ago, and the contractor, Rosanna Simself, was your very ancestor. And you dare to enter my house, you and your foolish friends dare too summon my spirit, to deny me even the slightest respect! You have made a grave error tonight, and for that, and for the sins of your fathers, you will suffer as your companions did..."
"I...no! No! You can't blame me for what my ancestors did--!"
"Watch me, mortal!"
"I'm so sorry--!"
"Oh yes, you certainly will be! I am trapped here forever, but none give me rest. I am like a clown in a king's court, called upon for a spectacle, but no longer! The sudden deaths of seven healthy young people will serve as warning enough, yes, indeed."
Rosanna whimpered while the ghost leered at her, and suddenly both heard rapid footsteps on the stairs. Rosanna felt the bottom drop out of her stomach as Lewis returned to the first floor.
"Rosanna! Are you al-- HOLY HELL!" Lewis yelled, his eyes locked onto the ghost.
"Run, Lewis! Please!" Rosanna pleaded desperately.
"I'm not going to just leave you here with--!"
"GO!"
"I can't!"
The ghost drifted over to Lewis menacingly.
"Fool! Your valor will be the end of you!"
"What's valor?" Lewis asked, terrified.
"Insolent mortal!" the ghost scoffed. Her transparent fingers curled into fists and her leer grew to an evil smile.
She reached out and struck him. Rosanna saw his expression twist into one of pain and horror, and they locked eyes for just one moment.
And then, he had vanished into thin air. Rosanna cried out as the ghost cackled and turned back to her.
"No...no...please...!" Rosanna begged.
"Your turn," the ghost said menacingly, grabbing Rosanna's hand as Heather had done. Rosanna felt a jolt of power surge through her veins, electrifying her. The feeling was of thousands of white-hot knives all piercing her skin at once all over her body; she could feel pinpricks of pain everywhere, and she screamed.
She fell to the ground as her legs gave way, but in the midst of all the pain she barely noticed. She felt the grip of death in all different forms as her companions had. She could feel the burn of fire, the surges of electricity, and her lungs were filling with water. The chill of the spirit's touch worked its way into her very bones. She screamed again, but the sound was garbled; she could hear her voice was waterlogged.
The Frozen Spirit was laughing in her triumphant act of vengeance, and Rosanna's head thumped painfully against the crooked bookcase. But she was feeling so much pain already, everything was numb.
She felt desperately for her pulse and found it underwhelming; she thought of her friends, and she thought of Lewis, and she cursed her ancestors and the very holiday of Halloween.
She curled up on the ground, shuddered, and was finally still, and it was a relief to not feel anything anymore.
And Spade House still stands, ever-silent, still eerie, and none dare to even peek in through the slats on the windows. Parents guide their little once away from Dead-End Drive, and wonder what possibly could have happened there that was enough to keep everyone well away. They wonder if the stories are true...
And, of course, they are.
~June
As they say, one good scare ought to do you some good...
It was Halloween night. The streets were filled with dressed-up children dragging along bags of candy while their parents guided them from house to house. But there was one block in the little town that was entirely devoid of trick-or-treaters. This block was dark and abandoned, with shoddy houses standing silent on a dead end street.
The block, known as Dead-End Drive to the locals, was dominated by an old house that was once very beautiful, but had fallen into disrepair long ago. Spade House had once been the home of a very rich family. The house was by the sea and the mountains, a getaway from the extravagant lives the Spades led. But they had left suddenly, and since then, the neighborhood had fallen into disgrace.
But on that Halloween night, a bright beam emanated from a lone flashlight as a small group of three people turned down Dead-End Drive.
"Where are we supposed to be going again, Rosanna?" Marina asked, scratching her head.
"Spare House or something. No...Spade. It's one of these, okay? My friends said they'd be here," Rosanna said, sounding frazzled.
"This is stupid. I want to get candy, and these empty houses give me the creeps," Teresa griped. "Can't we just leave, Marina?"
"No! That'd be rude," Rosanna said.
"Don't be so dour, Teresa. There are so many legends about this boulevard; it's rather intriguing, really."
"It is not 'intriguing,' Marina. We're not all Knowledge Sims. And besides, I look stupid."
"You don't look stupid," Rosanna replied.
"She kinda does, Rosanna," Marina said as they continued down the sidewalk. "What is she even supposed to be?"
"She's supposed to be a dancer, like me, only from the Eighties or something," Rosanna explained proudly. "I wanted to do an entourage of dancers, but no one else was into it."
"I wonder why," Teresa shot back, voice dripping with satire. "Don't get me wrong, Rosanna, I want to help you, but this is ridiculous. And now we're going to some haunted house?"
"Allegedly haunted," Marina corrected.
"Wait...haunted?" Rosanna said slowly.
"Well, it's an old house. All these things have ghost stories," Teresa said.
"Apparently Spade House is haunted by one particularly angry and violent ghost," Marina began. "I forget all the details, but weird things have been happening around here for ages. That's why no one lives nearby anymore."
"What?! Why the hell are we going there, then?" Teresa burst out.
"I didn't know it was a violent ghost..." Rosanna mumbled.
"Your friends are crazy, Rosanna. Just saying," Teresa said.
"Oh, relax. They're just stories. It's an old house, of course stuff's going to break and the stairs will creak," Marina said dismissively.
"Well, here we are, ladies," Marina said. The group stopped in front of the most formidable-looking house at the end of the block. The door was covered in cobwebs and all the windows were boarded up. The place was reasonably tidy, although the lawn was far overgrown.
The three mods stared up silence for a moment, simply taking it all in. There was suddenly an odd chill in the air. Something about this place simply was not right, and they all could feel it in their very bones.
Teresa broke the silence. "Didn't your friends say they'd be here? I bet they stood us up."
"Or they're late," Rosanna said. "They wouldn't do that."
"I don't know, Rosanna. I wouldn't want to hang around here," Teresa shot back.
The place did seem deserted, but just as the mods were ready to call it a night, four cheery voices snapped the spooky spell of Spade House's aura.
"Rosanna! You made it! And you brought some mod friends!" June said with a smile. "Hey, you think we could get a medal on Boolprop for this?"
"You're late," Teresa said snappishly, although it was obvious she was relieved Rosanna's friends had made good on their promise.
"Oh, sorry. My companions insisted on trick-or-treating before we came here."
"I got so much candy because of my awesome costume," Chip chimed in.
"Pfft. They totally gave up the candy because of my sexy costume," Heather scoffed.
"You wish!"
Chip and Heather continued their increasingly-ludicrous comparisons while Rosanna greeted June with a hug.
"We were beginning to think you wouldn't show," she said, only half-joking.
"Oh, please, Rosanna. That's just lame."
"Of course," Rosanna laughed. "So, what are we doing, then?"
"Isn't it obvious? We're going inside," June said with a mischievous grin.
"Wait," Marina interjected. "What do you mean by 'we're going in,' exactly?"
"Exactly that! We're going into Spade House to hold a séance. It's Halloween night, right? And this place is haunted to hell and back! It'll be so cool. A couple of our other friends chickened out, but--"
"Going in?! Are you insane?!" Teresa interrupted indignantly. "Not only is this place supposedly haunted, but it's falling apart! There's probably broken beams and asbestos and rats and all sorts of other disgusting things. I am not going in there!"
June crossed over to Teresa and said, "Why not? You chicken?"
"I am not chicken!" Teresa retorted defiantly.
"You seem pretty yellow to me, Teresa," June taunted.
"Stop goading me! I am not!"
"So prove it."
"I...you...! Fine. I'll go," Teresa said finally.
Meanwhile, the other members of the group had begun to mingle.
"You look nice, Rosanna. Very elegant," Lewis said.
"Thanks, Lewis," she said with a smile.
"Lewis, quit hitting on Rosanna. She's so out of your league. And you look like a dumbass with that mustache, anyway," Heather broke in, her tone mocking.
Everyone around giggled, although Rosanna's reaction wasn't quite as scathing.
Lewis turned on Heather angrily. "I am not hitting on her, Heather! I'm complimenting her. It's totally different!" he said, sounding embarrassed.
"Sure, Lewis. We all know you've had a crush on Rosanna for, like, ever," Heather said, clearly enjoying teasing him.
"And my mustache is awesome!"
"Your mustache looks like it's made of paper. That's how fake-looking it is."
"It doesn't look fake!"
"Does so! Right, Rosanna?" Heather insisted.
"Lewis, it looks pretty silly," Rosanna giggled.
"See? You didn't impress her."
"I wasn't trying to--!"
"You know, you would have been better off with one of your ugly sweaters. Now that would be scary," Heather snickered, voice full of mirth.
"I have great taste in sweaters, I'll have you know!"
June interrupted the conversation before Heather could make a grab for the fake mustache. "Come on, ladies, we're headed inside!"
"I'm not a lady..." Lewis said sullenly.
"Oh, can it."
So June and her entourage headed inside Spade House after unsticking the front door, chattering animatedly. But the mods hung back.
"Are you sure these people are sane, Rosanna?" Teresa asked sourly.
"Not entirely, but they don't bite," Rosanna said earnestly.
"Teresa's got a point, to be honest. It's really not a good idea to go into this place. It's probably structurally unsound, and if those ghost rumors are true, we're really in trouble," Marina said.
"Oh, come on! Ghosts? Don't be ridiculous. Listen: knowing June and the others, they've set up some lame prank and then we'll all go trick-or-treating or something. We'll be fine," Rosanna said reassuringly.
The other two mods shared a look, shrugged, and followed the others into the house.
As they walked in, taking care with every step on the whorled and splintered wooden floor, that chill in the air was back again. There was definitely something off about the place, but no one paid much attention to the feeling of dread.
June led them to a room that must have once been a dining room, only it was crowded with a folding table, grungy old boxes to sit on. Candles provided the only light in the entire house.
Once everyone was gathered and seated, June said, "Friends, I would like to thank you for gathering here tonight. As we all know, Halloween is the night we celebrate the supernatural, specifically the spirits. Here we sit in a building known to be haunted and we are here to make contact with the spirit world. Now, you all know the legend of Spade House, I assume?"
"I don't," Teresa said.
"I see," June replied. "I'll have to explain, then."
"You see, Spade House was once a humble but enviable manor. It belonged to the Spade family, rich for their invention of shovels in designer colors. They loved this house. But then, their surly teenage daughter died in the freezer room. She had gone off to be alone, ended up getting locked in, and froze to death."
June took a dramatic paused and looked swiftly around the table before continuing.
"The Spades were greatly saddened by this, of course. In their sadness, they decided to demolish the freezer room, for the pain was too much for them to bear."
"But after the demolition of the freezer room, strange things began to occur at Spade House. Odd accidents, a constant draft, unexplainable noises outside. Members of the family and their guests began to get hurt, and eventually the Spades had to leave.
"What drove them away was the spirit of the daughter, known today as the Frozen Spirit. The destruction of her place of death had caused her to go into an otherworldly rage. She acted as the most malicious of poltergeists, and her spirit is tied to this house."
"They say the Frozen Spirit makes her presence known with unexplained chills in the air; she has a powerful aura. In all these years, many have met with accidents just trespassing into this place. But tonight, we will call forth the Frozen Spirit in a séance."
"I ask that everyone at the table joins hands to strengthen our spiritual energies," June said, finishing her tale.
This pronouncement was met with an awkward silence.
"I'm not joining hands with you. I might catch terrible fake-beard-itis. And ugliness. No offense," Chip informed Lewis.
Similar statements were made around the table.
"Alright! Don't hold hands, then," June sighed. "Just...just focus on the Frozen Spirit. Picture her in your minds. Bid her to appear before us tonight. Focus..."
Silence fell over the table and everyone closed their eyes and focused. Was that really a chill in the air, or were they all merely imagining it? The mods awaited the "lame prank" Rosanna promised, keeping up the allusion of belief.
There was an odd noise, like a creak, as though someone in the foyer had tread on a floorboard. But they assured themselves it was merely the normal noises of an old house...
Suddenly, the candles blew out. As the room was plunged into darkness, someone screamed, prompting a flurry of activity within the room and several more people cried out.
Marina lit up her flashlight and shone it around the room hastily. What she found made the bottom drop out of her stomach.
"You guys? June's gone!" Marina called into the darkness.
Voices began overlapping each other, their tones confused. Teresa's voice broke out over them all: "Someone turn on the lights!"
Hastily, the candles were lit again. Heather dashed over to Marina.
"What do you mean, June's gone?!" Heather cried.
"What do you think I mean? She's gone! She's not here, and I didn't hear anyone leave the room. Did you?"
"No! I...what happened to her?"
"The hell if I know."
The party began calling out various theories, and in all the noise and confusion, no one noticed one of the candles tip over onto the cheap wooden table, but no one's hand even brushed up against it.
In seconds, the flimsy material went up in smoke.
"FIRE!"
Everyone cried out again as the table and the boxes began to disintegrate into ashes. It was a mad dash for the exit, with everyone yelling, pushing, and trying to dodge the angry, all-consuming flames.
Finally, they all gathered in the living room, slightly ashen but otherwise unharmed.
"Is...is everyone okay?" Marina asked. There were murmurs of assent, but then, they realized someone was missing.
"Wait...Teresa! WHERE'S TERESA?" Marina shouted, looking around wildly.
Without thinking, they all dashed back to the door.
Through the tiny window in the door, they could see the horrific scene of Teresa with her spandex leotard going up in flames. She looked out at them, screaming, slightly muted by the walls and the crackling sound of the fire.
"Teresa!" Marina yelled. Desperately, Marina began to pull on the door, but it wouldn't budge. It had, perhaps in all the confusion, been locked from the inside.
There wasn't anything that anyone could do. Before long, Teresa was lost amidst the flames. After the fire had devoured everything in its path, it dimmed away to nothingness.
"No...Teresa..." Rosanna whimpered. Marina broke down into tears as an unnatural silence fell within Spade House.
After awhile, Heather said, "What...what are we going to do?"
Marina wiped her tears, taking one last look into the ashes. Then, a determined expression came over her.
"I don't know what you guys want to do, but I'm getting the hell out of here and I'm never going out with any of you people ever again!" she declared angrily. She turned heel and stomped off to the front door, with Rosanna following behind her.
She stomped down to the cobwebbed door and pulled on the handle.
Nothing happened.
"Come on," she muttered irately, pulling on the handle more forcefully. It didn't budge.
"Argh! What the everloving shit! Are we locked in or something?!" Marina yelled. Then, she remembered how the door stuck earlier, and that someone had slammed it shut.
"Goddamn it."
"Are we...are we really locked in?" Rosanna asked pitifully.
"Yes, Rosanna, yes we are," Marina snapped.
"June was right! This place is haunted!" Rosanna cried, her voice full of fear.
"Don't be stupid," Marina replied shortly. "There's got to be a back door. Who ever heard of a house without a back door?"
"Well, I guess so, but where's the door?" Rosanna questioned.
"Well, it's gotta be somewhere! If there was some light in here, it would make everything a lot easier," Marina said. "I lost my flashlight in the fire, so we need another light source."
"We can't help that, Marina."
"Yes, we can. You just gotta fiddle with the fusebox. See, it's right over there," Marina said, pointing to a little metal square embedded in the wall.
"Marina, are you sure that's a good idea?" Rosanna asked timidly.
"We're not going to get out of here if we can't see anything!" Marina shot back.
"But Marina, you could get electrocuted!" Rosanna fretted.
"It's no big deal, Rosanna!"
"Marina--"
"Do you want to get out of here or not?!" Marina said angrily. She crossed over to the fusebox and got to work.
"What are you even doing?!" Rosanna cried.
"I can't get the door open," Marina replied absently-mindedly, poking at the edges of the door with a screwdriver.
"You're insane, Marina! You could get killed!" Rosanna hissed, beginning to grow impatient.
"Whatever, Rosanna."
"You're not even listening to me!" Rosanna huffed.
"Why should I? You're being obnoxious!" Marina shot back. "Now be quiet, I have to focus."
"Marina, get away from the fusebox!"
"No!"
"You know, I'm not even going to feel sorry when you fry your brains, because I warned you and--"
There was a sudden crackle and burst of light.
Abruptly, Marina seized up and volts of electricity shot through her body. Rosanna cried out helplessly as Marina's limbs began to jerkily flail about.
Her knees buckled and she collapsed to the dirty ground, mumbling incoherently as the shocks continued to course through her very bones.
"No! Marina, no, not you too! I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it, I swear! I didn't want you to die...please get up..." Rosanna pleaded as Marina curled up on the floor at her feet.
Rosanna dropped to her knees, searching for any signs of life.
She could have sworn she saw Marina take a breath and stir for a moment.
"Marina...?" Rosanna asked cautiously, reaching out to to touch her fallen friend.
Suddenly, someone wrenched her away from the body.
"Are you insane?!" Heather screamed, dragging Rosanna away.
"Heather, what are you--?"
"You don't EVER touch an electrocuted person! Ever! Do you want to die here, Rosanna? She's gone! You can't help her!" Heather went on.
"I thought she was breathing!" Rosanna cried desperately.
"I don't care if she got up and did a fucking jig, Rosanna!"
"She's gone. Forget it."
"Heather, she's my friend! What do you want me to do, ignore her if I think she's breathing?" Rosanna exclaimed indignantly.
"We've all lost someone tonight," Heather replied, and Rosanna could hear her voice break. "We're losing people right, left, and center. I can't take this much longer...don't do anything stupid, Rosanna, okay?"
They trudged back to meet Lewis and Chip in the living room.
As the girls entered the room, Lewis looked up at Rosanna; his hat and fake mustache had, like Marina's flashlight and Chip's candy bag, been lost in the fire.
"Is Marina really...?" He trailed off, but everyone knew what he meant to say. Rosanna nodded solemnly, and Lewis sighed.
"What the hell is going on here?" Chip asked, perched on top on an overturned chair. "Fires, mysteriously locking doors, disappearances, and suddenly all these freak accidents."
He glanced up at Heather and said, "I thought you said this was some practical joke June planned. What's going on?"
All eyes turned to Heather, whose lower lip trembled as though she was about to cry.
"I don't know what's going on anymore than you do," she told them miserably. "Honest! It was supposed to be a joke. June said she'd make some weird noises happen and pretend to go in a trance. Just a little Halloween prank, you know? But then she disappeared, and that wasn't part of the plan, and here we are. Teresa's dead, Marina's dead, June's as good as dead..."
She sniffled and tears brimmed in her eyes.
"Didn't she come to scope out the place beforehand?" Rosanna asked.
"Yeah, she did. But she went by herself. I don't know anything about the layout of the house."
Rosanna looked defeated; she was hoping Heather knew where that back door was.
"I just want to get out of here, but I don't even know what to do..." Heather finished feebly.
"Marina and Teresa would know what to do..." Rosanna murmured sadly.
"How are we going to get out of this place?" Chip wondered aloud.
Alright, Rosanna, you're the last mod standing. You have to be a leader, she told herself firmly. "Wait. Marina did know what to do, you guys!"
Everyone looked to her as she stepped into the center of the room.
"Before she...um, Marina was saying that there has to be a back door to this house, and if we find it, we could get out!" Rosanna said, trying her hardest to sound enthusiastic.
"Hey, you're right! All houses have back doors!" Heather added.
"It's gotta be somewhere, and I bet we could find it," Lewis said eagerly.
Chip hopped up off his perch on the chair and cried, "Well, what are we doing waiting around? I don't know about you guys, but I want to get the hell out of this house. Let's go!"
His enthusiasm was contagious, and the four of them were greatly heartened.
"But where should we go?" was Lewis's anxious question.
"There's a door right here, dumbass," Heather said. She led the way through the glass door on the other side of the room, trudging through puddles on the floor from the busted sink. The others followed.
But the glass door did not yield an escape.
"It's a pool room," Rosanna said, dumbfounded. She stared into the pool's depths; it was a good seven or eight feet deep, and although Spade House had long been deserted, the water was clean.
"How the hell did that candle get lit?" Heather asked slowly.
Chip, on the other hand, was totally fascinated by the pool.
"Guys...how come the water's clear? No one's lived here in ages...why would the pool be clean?" he asked.
"After all the weird shit that's happened tonight, you wonder about pool water?" Heather asked disdainfully.
"It's just weird," Chip said crossly as he stood up.
No one noticed the strange breath of air that suddenly swept through the room.
As Chip tried to stand up, his ankle suddenly twisted beneath him. He yelled out, stumbled, and fell into the pool, striking his head with a dull clunk as he sunk into the water's depths.
The others could only stare in shocked horror as he thrashed around limply in the water, weighed down by his costume. The tips of his fingers just barely poked out of the surface of the water as he began to lose consciousness.
Everyone stared as he drifted to the bottom of the pool, motionless.
All at once, Rosanna and Lewis began to panic.
"Oh, God. Oh, God, no, this can't be happening!" Rosanna cried out, backing away from the pool.
"It happened so quickly...I can't believe...!" Lewis was babbling incoherently.
Heather, however, simply stared into the depths of the pool in total silence.
"H-Heather? Are you okay?" Rosanna asked tentatively.
"Yes. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Heather asked, in an eerily calm voice.
"I...Heather, we have to go. We have to get out of here. We're going to find the back door, remember?" Rosanna said.
"We have to wait for Chip, Rosanna" Heather said pointedly.
"No, Heather. How could we?" Rosanna asked. "He...he's gone. Like Marina and Teresa..."
"Gone? Don't be silly. He's right there," Heather said with an odd smile. She pointed into the pool at Chip, crumpled on the bottom. "It's just a joke, Rosanna. Ha ha...isn't it funny? He's so good. It's just a joke, just like Juney's prank. She pretended to disappear, but it's just a prank! Isn't it funny? Ha....ha..."
Rosanna glanced at Lewis, who looked thoroughly discombobulated.
Heather turned to Rosanna, a wide grin on her face.
"Hey, Rosanna, we should totally go help Chip with his joke! It'll be so much funnier if all of us do it. Come on, it's so easy...just hold your breath..."
"Heather, no! We can't...we have to leave," Rosanna said desperately.
"Oh, don't be silly. We can't leave now. Things are just getting fun!"
"Heather--"
"It'll be great! We'll be all 'BOO!' and everyone will think we're so cool. Come on, we should help Chip, he's our friend," Heather pressed.
"Heather, we can't help him anymore!" Rosanna insisted, becoming increasingly terrified of this deranged Heather.
"Can't help him? Oh, Rosanna, why are you so silly today? He's right there," She gestured into the pool wildly to emphasize her point. "He's right there. All we have to do is go in the pool. You'll look so pretty in the water, with your tutu all swooshy..."
"Heather, we have to leave!" Rosanna exclaimed fearfully.
"Leave?" Heather said. She gave a demented smile and even giggled a bit. "Leave? Rosanna, we are going to die here." Heather's tone was chillingly jovial, and Rosanna felt as though the blood in her veins had turned to ice.
"No...no, we're going to get out!" Rosanna insisted feebly.
"We're as good as dead, Rosanna. We might as well die helping a friend, right?" Heather said sweetly.
Heather grasped Rosanna's wrist.
"Heather...Heather, let go of me," Rosanna pleaded.
"No, we're going swimming, Rosanna. You and me. It'll be fun!" Heather's tone was bright, but her hands were clammy and her grip was deathly tight.
"Let me go!" Rosanna screamed, trying to wrench her hand away from Heather's desperately. Heather didn't seem to notice.
Slowly but firmly, Heather was pulling Rosanna into the pool.
"No! No!" Rosanna screamed, almost crying by this point. Her hair was starting to to come undone, sending locks of hair all down her face, sticking to her sweaty brow.
"Shh, Rosanna, they'll find us," Heather said. She was teetering on the edge of the pool in her high-heeled boots, dangerously close to toppling over.
"Please, Heather, no!"
"Come along now..."
"Leave her alone, Heather!"
Out of nowhere, Lewis dashed in between the two and yanked Rosanna away from Heather.
"Stop it, Heather!" he yelled, but she was much too out of it to hear him. The force of Lewis's rescue of Rosanna sent Heather off-balance, and she toppled backwards into the water.
Water splashed up over Lewis's and Rosanna's feet as Heather, too, made her descent to the shiny, tiled bottom of the pool.
"Lewis! You...you killed Heather!" Rosanna cried, thoroughly shaken.
"I'm sorry! I had to! She was going to kill you...I couldn't--"
"You couldn't let her?" Rosanna finished, dismayed.
Lewis nodded, and Rosanna took several deep breaths.
"Did she hurt you? Heather, I mean. She grabbed you really roughly," Lewis asked, his fingers grazing her forearm.
"I...I don't think so. She didn't bruise me," Rosanna said. She was surprised; his touch was gentle and controlled, even though his voice was shaking.
For a moment, the only sounds were of water dripping off the side of the pool.
"What do we do now?" Lewis finally asked.
"We keep looking for the back door, right?" Rosanna replied. He nodded, and they left the pool room and the bodies of their friends behind them. Neither looked back, terrified of what they might see lurking within.
There was little else of note on the first floor, so the duo went upstairs in silence. A single chair blocked the way, but otherwise, the stairwell was clear.
All was quiet and still, save for the occasional creak. The upper floor was in a worse state of disrepair than the first. The wallpaper was peeled off, the fence by the stairs was all but rusted away, and it was devoid of decoration.
They split up to investigate. Both were doubtful of an escape route up here, but the hope that, somehow, an exit was here was all they had to go on.
Rosanna discovered a nauseatingly disgusting bathroom, devoid of windows, and a plain bedroom, also without windows. They combed the small second floor anxiously, but soon, they had to face facts.
There was no back door. There was nothing.
Exhausted, worn out, and totally hopeless, Rosanna took a seat on the creaky old bed. Her crinoline-filled tutu crushed into her body with a whisper of fabric, and she twirled her thumbs simply for something to do.
Lewis sat next to her, dejected.
"I didn't find anything," he said quietly.
"Neither did I."
Silence fell.
"Lewis...we're going to die here," Rosanna said softly.
"What? No, don't say that. Don't even think that," he admonished her. "There's got to be a way out--"
"But there isn't, Lewis!" Rosanna cried, getting up.
Rosanna broke down into tears, letting the sobs wrack her body.
"Lewis, all our friends are dead! June vanished, Teresa burned, Marina's gone, Chip drowned, Heather went crazy and tried to kill me...oh, Lewis, there's no way out of this place and we're the only ones left! We're going to die, Lewis. Even Heather knew it," she whimpered.
"Don't say that...come on, Rosanna, don't cry," Lewis said, desperately trying to comfort her.
"Why shouldn't I cry? I couldn't think of a better time!" Rosanna wailed.
"Please, Rosanna! We just have to stay hopeful, you know? There's got to be some way out. You have to believe that! I just...I can't stand seeing you like this. You're usually so together. Seeing you go to pieces makes me go to pieces," he said anxiously.
She wiped her eyes and breathed deeply. "I can't go on like this. It's just so terrible...it makes me want to die," Rosanna said.
"Stop. Don't think shit like that, it only makes everything worse," Lewis said bracingly.
"I didn't know it got any worse, to be honest," she murmured, staring at the ground.
"Hey...look at me, okay?" Lewis said, tilting her head up. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and said, "Look, if anyone could find a way out of this, it'd be you."
"Really?" Rosanna asked hopefully.
"Of course. They made you a mod for a reason, you know," he smiled.
She smiled back at him. "Thanks," she said softly. "That...that means a lot to me."
"You needed a bit of cheering up," he replied.
And then she was hugging him warmly, and out of nowhere he was her only comfort in the horrible haunted house. The silence wasn't quite so threatening, and she could almost hope again. It was incredible.
As she pulled away from him, she quickly gave him a little kiss on the cheek.
"I...erm, Rosanna...you didn't have to do that," he said shyly.
"I know. I wanted to," she told him.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
What followed could have been credited to several factors. The entire "we're going to die anyway so what the hell" mentality could be one, or a simple want of comfort could serve as an explanation. Perhaps Rosanna was actually attracted to Lewis, and the conditions were right for her to realize and act upon this.
In the end, it didn't really matter. No one was there to see, in any event.
"You know, someone probably died on this bed," Lewis murmured.
"That's nice, Lewis," Rosanna replied, sounding thoroughly disinterested.
"Like, someone's grandma--"
"Mmm. I thought you'd care more about living people in this bed right now..." Rosanna giggled.
"Funnily enough, I do."
In the midst of their bantering, the two did not take the time to recognize a sudden rush of air entering the room. The paper on the nightstand rustled quietly, and a stair creaked ominously.
But neither of them noticed at all, until it was far too late.
"Lewis. Lewis!" Rosanna said urgently.
"Hmm?"
"Lewis, my leg is going through the bed!"
"Wait, what?!"
It was true; Rosanna was sinking into the bed as though it were quicksand.
She screeched as she fell, twisting and turning in midair as if the laws of physics no longer mattered. Lewis yelled out and grabbed at her feet, which were rapidly slipping out of reach.
She was sinking through the very floorboards, screaming as she went. Lewis, confounded, leaped out of the bed as she vanished into the next floor.
She finally came to a stop as she landed on the crooked bookcase downstairs. She was hyperventilating and trying to relax herself, fearing that at any moment the free fall would start again.
She hopped off the bookcase and tried to get her bearings.
She could hear Lewis calling her name frantically upstairs, and glanced up at the now-solid ceiling.
"Lewis! Lewis, I'm down here! I'm okay!" she called back.
This time, she noticed the cold blast of air as it blew through the room and cried out.
"Shut your mouth, girl," hissed the searingly red spirit standing before her.
Rosanna stared in horror. "J-June?" she stammered.
"No, you fool!" The ghost's tone was a harsh roar, angrier than any human voice Rosanna had ever heard. "I was forced to take on this form for I have none. My form was destroyed with my place of resting."
"You mean th-the legend is real?" Rosanna questioned.
"Of course."
"You're the Frozen Spirit?" Rosanna squeaked.
"Yes, frozen...frozen in this living hell!"
"You see, child, I am bound here! Bound here without a form, unable to escape, little more than wallpaper! They destroyed my place of final resting, the place where I died. It was gone, everything gone, the last thing that served as a remembrance of me. My family couldn't bear to think of me any longer, and they tried to banish me from their minds forever. They hired a contractor to destroy the freezer...and that contractor owned his own business here, long ago, and the contractor, Rosanna Simself, was your very ancestor. And you dare to enter my house, you and your foolish friends dare too summon my spirit, to deny me even the slightest respect! You have made a grave error tonight, and for that, and for the sins of your fathers, you will suffer as your companions did..."
"I...no! No! You can't blame me for what my ancestors did--!"
"Watch me, mortal!"
"I'm so sorry--!"
"Oh yes, you certainly will be! I am trapped here forever, but none give me rest. I am like a clown in a king's court, called upon for a spectacle, but no longer! The sudden deaths of seven healthy young people will serve as warning enough, yes, indeed."
Rosanna whimpered while the ghost leered at her, and suddenly both heard rapid footsteps on the stairs. Rosanna felt the bottom drop out of her stomach as Lewis returned to the first floor.
"Rosanna! Are you al-- HOLY HELL!" Lewis yelled, his eyes locked onto the ghost.
"Run, Lewis! Please!" Rosanna pleaded desperately.
"I'm not going to just leave you here with--!"
"GO!"
"I can't!"
The ghost drifted over to Lewis menacingly.
"Fool! Your valor will be the end of you!"
"What's valor?" Lewis asked, terrified.
"Insolent mortal!" the ghost scoffed. Her transparent fingers curled into fists and her leer grew to an evil smile.
She reached out and struck him. Rosanna saw his expression twist into one of pain and horror, and they locked eyes for just one moment.
And then, he had vanished into thin air. Rosanna cried out as the ghost cackled and turned back to her.
"No...no...please...!" Rosanna begged.
"Your turn," the ghost said menacingly, grabbing Rosanna's hand as Heather had done. Rosanna felt a jolt of power surge through her veins, electrifying her. The feeling was of thousands of white-hot knives all piercing her skin at once all over her body; she could feel pinpricks of pain everywhere, and she screamed.
She fell to the ground as her legs gave way, but in the midst of all the pain she barely noticed. She felt the grip of death in all different forms as her companions had. She could feel the burn of fire, the surges of electricity, and her lungs were filling with water. The chill of the spirit's touch worked its way into her very bones. She screamed again, but the sound was garbled; she could hear her voice was waterlogged.
The Frozen Spirit was laughing in her triumphant act of vengeance, and Rosanna's head thumped painfully against the crooked bookcase. But she was feeling so much pain already, everything was numb.
She felt desperately for her pulse and found it underwhelming; she thought of her friends, and she thought of Lewis, and she cursed her ancestors and the very holiday of Halloween.
She curled up on the ground, shuddered, and was finally still, and it was a relief to not feel anything anymore.
And Spade House still stands, ever-silent, still eerie, and none dare to even peek in through the slats on the windows. Parents guide their little once away from Dead-End Drive, and wonder what possibly could have happened there that was enough to keep everyone well away. They wonder if the stories are true...
And, of course, they are.
~June