The House of the Setting Sun, 4/?
Title: The House of the Setting Sun, chapter four
Author: insaneladybug/Lucky_Ladybug
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Hateful and embittered, Baby Face plots against Tony. Meanwhile, the rest of the group arrives at the third floor and Paddywhack strikes again ... more deadly this time.
Warnings: A character is dead and appears as a ghost. There are also gangsters, other supernatural goings-on including possession, and violence.
Genre: Supernatural, Mystery, Suspense, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship
Pairing: None
OR if there is NO pairing:
Main Character(s): Micky, Peter, Mike, Davy, Baby Face Morales, Tony Ferano, Vince Ruckyzer, "Harry." The gangsters are from episode #25, Alias Micky Dolenz.
Chapter Four
Baby Face cursed to himself as he leaned against the balcony that he had fallen over when Tony had shot him. Something was going on in the house right now. The Monkees and the gang members were searching the place once again. And Paddywhack was off somewhere. Who knew where; he came and went as he pleased.
The crime boss straightened and wandered down the stairs. The left door was open slightly, allowing him to see into the corridor beyond. It was not a very interesting sight.
He reached out, sticking his transparent hand through the opening. It touched a force field and he jerked back, growling. That was what always happened when he tried to leave the room. For some reason, probably because of Paddywhack’s total control over the house and everything in it, he was unable to go anywhere else.
That was why Tony was still alive. If Baby Face had his way, he would be able to do more than just throw things at his traitorous associate whenever he passed the room. Someday, maybe as soon as tomorrow if the Monkees broke the curse, he would get out of here and take his revenge.
Why had Tony done it? That was something Baby Face still had not been able to figure out. Most of what he could do right now was think, so he spent most of his time turning the last moments of his life over in his mind, trying to find an answer. He could find nothing. The only thing he remembered at all was being by the balcony and hearing Tony tell him he was taking the safety off the gun. The next moment . . . well, the slug hit him hard, he fell, and everything went black.
“That dirty rotten rat,” he muttered.
One time Vince had come in, spewing some garbage about Baby Face having been possessed by Paddywhack and trying to kill him, so Tony had shot Baby Face trying to protect Vince. Of course Baby Face had not believed it. If Paddywhack had possessed him, wouldn’t he remember it?
He frowned, pausing as he stared into the distance without really seeing anything. Everything from that time was so foggy. If he were honest with himself, he could not remember one way or the other. Technically, with that as the case, there was a possibility that it could be true.
He turned away from the door. Who ever heard of a ghost with a bad memory? He had always heard a memory was sharper once the spirit was out of the body. But it was not like he knew anyone who had died. Now he had been experiencing it firsthand, thanks to that Brutus.
. . . Unless Vince had been telling the truth.
He swore again, beginning to pace the floor. He had believed all this time that Tony had been plotting behind his back and had shot him to be malicious. He wanted to be infuriated and to hate.
Another part of him was starting to have the slightest hint of doubt. If he really thought about Tony’s voice through the fog over his mind, Tony had sounded somewhat panicked.
He pushed the thought away. Of course Tony had been panicked; he knew that if he missed, there would be Hell to pay.
And Tony had not missed, but Baby Face was still around and he was still going to see Tony pay it.
Nobody double-crossed Baby Face Morales and got away with it.
****
Micky, Peter, and Davy were not the only ones bewildered by Mike’s strange behavior. As they walked to the third floor staircase, even Tony and the other gangsters looked suspicious.
“He took a hundred-eighty-degree turn,” Tony frowned, glancing over his shoulder at Mike. The Texan was strolling along, casually looking at the paintings on the walls.
“You’re telling us,” Davy said. “Now can you tell us why?”
“No, but I hope I’m not the only one thinking of the worst-case scenario right now,” Tony retorted.
“Oh believe me, you’re not,” Davy said. Micky and Peter nodded in grim agreement.
As they stopped at the staircase they stared in disbelief. Each step was damaged in at least one place, some in two or three.
“This looks like an obstacle course!” Davy exclaimed.
“Man, why did Baby Face do this?!” Micky said, staring at the mess.
“I don’t know,” Tony said. “I went up to look the third floor over. When I came back, he was chopping up the stairs with an axe he’d found.”
Before anyone could comment on that he went ahead and stepped onto the first stair, then the next. “Just come up one at a time,” he directed. “Anything more will put too much pressure on the steps.” He climbed to the top, showing by example where to step on each stair. One by one the others followed.
A blast of cold air assaulted the group as they gathered at the third floor landing. Peter stepped back, his eyes wide in horror. “It feels like it did at that door!” he said.
Micky gripped Peter’s arm. “Courage, courage,” he said, trying to convince himself as much or moreso than Peter.
“Oooh, more North Pole breezes!” Mike exclaimed. “Come on, we’re wasting time!” He started to skip ahead but then stumbled to a stop. He looked around, bewildered, as he adjusted the wool hat on his head. “Wait . . . what am I saying? What . . . what . . . how’d I get up here?!”
Micky shut his eyes. “Oh no,” he moaned. “Oh no.”
Davy went over to Mike. “Mike, what’s the last thing you remember?” he asked.
Mike frowned as he looked down at Davy. “The last thing I remember?! . . . Something about that room we were in,” he said. His eyes widened. “Oh, oh, I remember-the I.D. cards you guys found!” He looked back to Tony, Vince, and Harry. “Some of them were dated years ago!”
“What?!” Micky cried. Peter gaped.
“That’s right,” Tony said. He peered closely at Mike. “How do you feel?”
“Me?” Mike shrugged. “I feel fine . . . I think. . . .”
“Mike, you’ve been talking very strange,” said Davy. “And now you don’t remember it. You’re showing all the signs of being possessed by Paddywhack! This is just how Vince said it started with Baby Face-saying weird things, blanking out, not remembering what you just said. . . .”
Mike paled. “Then . . . me?! Paddywhack’s chosen me?!” He sobered. “Before we go any further, we’re going to have to decide what we’re going to do about this.”
“Do about it?! Mike, we have to help you!” Davy exclaimed. “We have to get Paddywhack away from you!”
“I know,” Mike nodded. He stepped closer to the others. “But if this thing plays out like it did with Baby Face, then I’m going to get a lot worse-and soon. Who knows, maybe this sunrise thing is when Paddywhack plans to have me go psycho on someone here.”
“No!” Peter ran over to Mike in horror. “No, Mike, you can’t do that! You wouldn’t hurt anyone! Baby Face was already sneaky and vicious when Paddywhack took him over, but you’re different!”
Mike sighed. “But Paddywhack is the same,” he said. “I don’t think he’d care who he got hold of. Or maybe he’d even rather have somebody like me, who hasn’t hurt people.” He looked to each of the others in turn. “And if he tries to make me do that and I can’t stop him, then you have to stop me, guys. I don’t care what you have to do. Just stop me.”
Davy stared at him. “You mean even if we have to . . .”
“Even if you have to go all the way and . . .” Mike took a deep breath. “. . . Stop me permanently.”
“We can’t do that!” Peter burst out. “Mike, we can’t!”
Micky’s stomach was in knots. “I don’t know how we can,” he agreed. “It would have to be a last resort, Mike. We’d have to try everything else first.”
“I know. And I’m not crazy about dying. But you can’t let Paddywhack use my body to kill! Do you get that?” Mike was filled with an urgency that the others had never seen from him before. “Do you get that?”
“Of course we get that,” Davy said. “But Mike, think about this. If we killed you to stop him, he could take another host just as easy. Killing you isn’t the answer! We have to go the source. We have to stop Paddywhack permanently.” He stepped closer, looking firmly into Mike’s eyes. “And you have an advantage that Baby Face didn’t.”
“You’re a nice guy,” Peter interjected.
“No,” Micky retorted. “I mean, yes, you are a nice guy, Mike! Of course you’re a nice guy. But I think Davy’s thinking of something else.”
“That’s right,” Davy said. “Mike, you’ve been warned about Paddywhack. You know what he’s capable of. That should help you fight him! Baby Face wasn’t that lucky. He and the gang didn’t know about Paddywhack or possession or any of that. He was probably taken completely by surprise. For all we know, Paddywhack threw him out of his body before he knew what hit him.”
Mike listened, slowly nodding at Davy’s words. “But I was taken by surprise a few minutes ago,” he said. “Davy, I don’t have any memory of what I was saying and doing after I left that room. If that’s how smoothly Paddywhack operates, I’m afraid none of us stand a chance.”
“You can’t give up!” Davy shot back. “You have to make up your mind to fight him, Mike!”
“I’ve already done that,” Mike said. “And I’m going to do whatever I can. But I don’t think we should just assume that I’ll be able to beat him. We’ve gotta have some other things planned.”
“We will, Mike,” Micky said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to stop this.” He drew a shuddering breath. “Whatever it takes.” No matter how horrible it is, he added to himself. But he would keep praying that it would not come to that.
Mike nodded. “I know you will.” He looked back to the dismal hallway ahead of them. “Okay, let’s see if we can find anything to clear up this mystery down there.”
Micky nodded too. “Right.”
As Tony led the way down the forbidding path, Micky looked over at him. “Hey, what’s this about the I.D. cards on those bodies being years old?” he asked.
“Some of them were old,” Tony said. “Some of them were recent.”
“The oldest one expired in 1927,” Vince said.
Mike cringed. “Well . . . what do you make of that?”
“What can we make of it?” Tony said in frustration. “They’re dead bodies, perfectly preserved, dressed in clothes up to ninety years old with I.D. cards to match. What part of that situation is logical enough to make something of?”
Peter swallowed. “I guess . . . you can make something of the fact that you can’t make anything of it,” he said.
Micky sighed.
“It is bizarre, though,” Davy said. “Are we really supposed to believe the bodies are that old?!”
Before anyone had a chance to answer, they stepped over an invisible line on the floor. Instantly the temperature plunged.
“Here we go again,” Micky moaned. “We’ve passed into No-Man’s Land.”
“What was wrong on this floor?” Mike wondered. “Besides the chill.”
“Something pushed us back,” Tony said. “Some kind of strong force. It’s just up ahead.”
“You said it wasn’t Paddywhack up here,” Davy said. “How do you know?”
A feminine shriek echoed down the hall. The Monkees jumped a mile, crowding together.
“That’s one reason how,” Tony said.
Micky shuddered, wringing his hands. “M-Maybe if we ask what she’s trying to do and say we’re the good guys, she’d let us in!”
Another scream sent him, Peter, and Davy diving to grab Mike’s arms. “You ask her, Mike!” Davy cried.
“Me?!” Mike retorted. “Why don’t we all ask her?”
“You talk the best,” Peter said.
“Oh, well, thank you very much. I think,” Mike added, his voice dripping sarcasm.
“We’ve tried talking to her,” Tony said. “She doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
As if in response, an icy force swept out at them, nearly knocking them off their feet. They fell back, their hair wildly blowing in all directions.
“No, wait!” Micky yelped. “We don’t mean any harm!”
The wind blew harder. Davy gave a shout, tumbling backwards. Micky, Mike, and Peter lunged for him, snatching his arms before he could fly away and possibly fall down the stairs.
“Listen to us!” Mike pleaded. “We’re trying to break the curse on this place!”
“You can’t,” an eerie yet sad voice replied. “It’s already got you. I can feel it.”
“We’re not giving up,” Mike said. “We’re not licked yet! The secret is somewhere in this place. Do you know where?”
There was a long pause while the frozen air intensified. Then at last she said, “If there is such a secret, it’s in the b . . .”
A horrible sensation of darkness overshadowed the group. The female shrieked in anguish and suddenly was silenced. The darkness lingered, then spread out and dissolved. The abrupt silence was almost deafening.
Finally Micky dared to speak. “What was that?!” he gasped.
“Paddywhack got her,” Tony said, his voice flat. “That’s another reason why we haven’t been able to learn anything.”
“He picks off anyone who tries to talk to us,” Vince said.
Micky swallowed hard. “So does he really . . . kill them?” he wondered. Could a spirit be destroyed so there was nothing left? That was too horrifying to think about.
“Don’t ask us,” Tony said. “What we know about what’s going on here you could balance on the head of a pin.”
Mike moved away from the group, advancing further into the corridor. “Well,” he said slowly, “now that she’s . . . gone, it doesn’t feel so chilly here anymore. . . .” He opened a door on the right, revealing a musty bedroom done in blue. “Oh, this looks nice,” he commented, peering inside.
“No bodies?” Micky asked, trying to look over his shoulder.
“No bodies,” Mike confirmed.
Davy moved past them and into the room. A frown crossed his features. “I don’t know,” he said. “Something still doesn’t feel right.” He shivered. “I think something wants me to step out of this room.”
“Oh come on.” Micky walked in as well. “I don’t feel anything. You’ve probably still got the creeps because of how frosty it was a few minutes ago.”
But almost as soon as he spoke, the hairs on the back of his neck pricked. They both needed to get out of the room. If they stayed, something horrible would happen to them. He knew that without a shadow of a doubt.
He grabbed Davy, pushing the British boy ahead of him. “There’s nothing to see here,” he said. “Moving along!”
“You feel it too!” Davy accused as Micky walked him back into the hall. “I knew something was in there and you didn’t believe it.”
“Don’t be silly,” Micky said lightly. “It’s just that there’s nothing to see in there.” He cringed as the feeling of panic increased. Rushing out after Davy, he slammed the door shut behind him and tried to catch his breath.
The gangsters and other Monkees had already wandered farther down the hall. Each was opening a door and examining the room beyond. Most were bedrooms, but there was also an upstairs study and a bathroom, neither of which felt inviting.
“There’s something wrong with this whole house,” Peter declared, staying close to Mike. “Someone’s in each and every room!”
“And we’re no closer to finding answers than we were before we came up here,” Mike frowned. “What is the deal with the spirits in this place?! You’d think they’d want to help us figure out where the secret is.”
“I guess they don’t want to be rubbed out by Paddywhack,” Micky said as he and Davy approached. “But hey, where is the secret, anyway? That chick was trying to tell us something about it.”
“She only got as far as the letter ‘B’, and that really doesn’t help us much,” Davy said. “That could be a bedroom, a bathroom, or even . . .”
“The basement!” Peter cried. “We should check the basement!”
Without warning Mike whirled around, snatching Peter’s wrist. “What did you say?” he demanded. His voice was dark and cold.
Peter jumped a mile. “I . . . I said . . . Mike!” he wailed. The person looking back at him was not the Mike he knew and loved. It was a complete stranger.
Mike’s grip on Peter’s wrist only tightened. “Nobody’s going to be looking in the basement on my watch,” he said. He wrenched Peter’s arm above his head, twisting it painfully.
The others were running to him in an instant. “Mike, stop it!” Micky yelled. “You’re going to hurt Peter!”
“You’ve gotta let go of him!” Davy added. He jumped up, trying frantically to grab Mike’s arm.
Hearing the commotion, Tony and the other gangsters hurried out of the rooms they were exploring. “What’s going on here?” Tony snapped.
“It’s Mike!” Davy said. “He’s being taken over by Paddywhack again, only it’s far worse this time!”
“I’m not going to waste time, like I did with that idiot I possessed before,” Mike said. “This show’s moving on ahead.”
In spite of the pain, Peter was now growing angry instead of afraid. He looked at Mike with steely eyes. “Stop using Mike’s body!” he ordered. “Mike is kind and gentle and good and he doesn’t want to be your host! He’d rather die than hurt anyone!”
“That’s right!” Davy declared.
Micky grabbed onto Mike’s arm, hoping to pull it back. But Paddywhack had other ideas. The arm stayed planted in place, the hand gripping Peter’s wrist.
“If you’re still determined to keep looking up here, and to go into the basement, then I’m going to have to stop you any way possible.” For a brief moment Mike’s eyes flickered with panic and anger, but then it was gone and his eyes were cold and hard again.
“Mike!” Peter cried. “Mike, I saw you in there! You have to keep fighting Paddywhack. You can do it, Mike!”
“Of course you can!” Davy chimed in.
“Show him what it means to be a Monkee!” Micky cheered.
A darkly amused sneer crept over Mike’s features. “What it means to be a Monkee is to be a loser,” he said. “He can’t hear you. Even if he was prepared for my entry, he’s not prepared to fight me. I’m too strong for him. With every life I break my power grows.” Seemingly without effort, he swung Peter around him and let go with enough force that the poor boy soared to the wall and crashed into it. Watching through Mike’s eyes, Paddywhack observed with relish as Peter slumped, dazed, to the floor.
“Peter!” Micky and Davy cried with one voice. They both hurried to their fallen friend.
Vince approached the possessed Mike now, his thick eyebrows narrowed in anger. “This has gotta stop,” he said. “You already saw to it that Baby Face was killed. We’re not going to let you push us around anymore.”
“You’re not going to let me? You don’t have any choice!” Mike laughed. It was a chilling, unforgiving sound. “Don’t forget, I used you to get Baby Face killed by his second-in-command,” he said. “I broke the staircase and trapped him up here, then attacked you, all because I figured out what the end result would be.”
Vince stared at him in shock. All of this pain and agony that they had been going through, especially Baby Face and Tony, was because Paddywhack had decided to use Vince? The big man’s eyes flashed. In the next moment he was moving to strike Mike in the face.
“Hey wait!” Micky shouted, leaping to his feet. “Mike isn’t the one saying those things. You’re going to hurt him!”
It was wasted breath. Mike dodged the punch. A bizarre blue light shot out from his form, sending Vince flying backwards to slam into the wall near the stairs.
“Vince!” Harry and Tony yelled. Harry ran to his stunned friend. Tony lingered to glower at Mike.
“You’re really sick,” he said. “What kind of person were you in life, to get your kicks out of this pointless sadism?”
Mike shrugged. “I’m keeping my secrets,” he said.
Micky looked to Davy. “Tony’s got him distracted,” he said low. “Maybe we can jump him and hold him down until Mike can get control again!”
“Let’s try it,” Davy said. He glanced to Peter, who was pushing himself away from the wall and looking pained. “Are you alright, Peter?”
“I’m fine,” said Peter. He gave them both a worried look. “But guys, be careful! I’m telling you, he’s strong.”
“Yeah. We kinda got that part.” Micky glanced over his shoulder at Harry, who was helping Vince up. Then he turned his attention back to the scene near him and the others. “Okay. Let’s go!” He jumped up, springing at Mike in the same instant. Davy followed suit.
Peter stumbled to his feet, ready to fly into the fray in spite of his aching back and left shoulder. But then he could only stop and gasp. The blue light was bursting forth from Mike’s body again. Micky and Davy screamed, flying overhead to collide with a table and a silver urn. They all fell to the floor in a heap.
“Idiots!” Mike yelled. “You can’t touch me!” He pointed to Vince. “You should’ve learned your lesson after seeing what I did to him.”
Peter glared at him before running to Micky and Davy. His thoughts were colliding and turning over themselves. Paddywhack was right; this was really looking like a hopeless fight. If Mike could not regain control of his body, what were they going to do?
Tony reached and caught Peter’s arm. “We need backup,” he said, keeping his voice at an undertone. “If we had a spirit who was on our side, or at least completely against Paddywhack and willing to fight him, we might have a chance.”
Micky groaned, pushing the urn off of his chest. “That’s a great idea, man, but where are we going to find one? The ghosts aren’t exactly jumping for joy that we’re here.”
Davy tried to sit up, balancing himself on the fallen table’s legs. “Everyone in here is either too afraid to fight Paddywhack or not strong enough to go against him,” he agreed.
Peter shook his head. “I wish Baby Face would help us,” he said.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Tony said. “If we could convince him to join in, he might be able to at least distract Paddywhack long enough for your friend to get control.”
“But isn’t he bound in that room or something?” Peter frowned. “He said he was stuck because of the curse.”
“I’m going to find out,” Tony said.
“And he wants to kill you!” Micky put in. “It’s a deathtrap to go in that room! He was throwing stuff at us just for saying your name!”
“I’m not letting him scare me off,” Tony said. “I’m going to make him listen to me.”
“I’ll go with you,” Peter decided.
Micky struggled to stand. “Do you really think you should?” he asked, looking doubtful. “He didn’t want anything to do with you before, Pete.”
“I’m not going to be scared off either,” Peter determined. “This is an important mission!”
At last Micky nodded. “Well, okay then,” he said, still hesitant but wanting to support Peter and have faith in him. “Davy and I’ll try to work up a distraction.”
Now Peter stared, worried. “Are you sure, Micky? You guys are going to get hurt more!” He looked to where Vince and Harry were both contending with Mike. His mouth dropped open in shock as Mike grabbed Harry’s suit jacket and lifted him off the floor.
“We’ll be fine,” Micky said. “Hurry up before he sees you!”
Finally Peter nodded. He followed Tony down the hall, keeping close to the left wall. Behind him, Micky and Davy gave a war cry and charged at Mike. Peter could not help casting a quick look over his shoulder.
“I hope they’ll be okay,” he said as he and Tony reached the stairs.
Tony did not offer a response. But the way things were going, it would be a surprise if injuries were not sustained by all of them.
Author: insaneladybug/Lucky_Ladybug
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Hateful and embittered, Baby Face plots against Tony. Meanwhile, the rest of the group arrives at the third floor and Paddywhack strikes again ... more deadly this time.
Warnings: A character is dead and appears as a ghost. There are also gangsters, other supernatural goings-on including possession, and violence.
Genre: Supernatural, Mystery, Suspense, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship
Pairing: None
OR if there is NO pairing:
Main Character(s): Micky, Peter, Mike, Davy, Baby Face Morales, Tony Ferano, Vince Ruckyzer, "Harry." The gangsters are from episode #25, Alias Micky Dolenz.
Chapter Four
Baby Face cursed to himself as he leaned against the balcony that he had fallen over when Tony had shot him. Something was going on in the house right now. The Monkees and the gang members were searching the place once again. And Paddywhack was off somewhere. Who knew where; he came and went as he pleased.
The crime boss straightened and wandered down the stairs. The left door was open slightly, allowing him to see into the corridor beyond. It was not a very interesting sight.
He reached out, sticking his transparent hand through the opening. It touched a force field and he jerked back, growling. That was what always happened when he tried to leave the room. For some reason, probably because of Paddywhack’s total control over the house and everything in it, he was unable to go anywhere else.
That was why Tony was still alive. If Baby Face had his way, he would be able to do more than just throw things at his traitorous associate whenever he passed the room. Someday, maybe as soon as tomorrow if the Monkees broke the curse, he would get out of here and take his revenge.
Why had Tony done it? That was something Baby Face still had not been able to figure out. Most of what he could do right now was think, so he spent most of his time turning the last moments of his life over in his mind, trying to find an answer. He could find nothing. The only thing he remembered at all was being by the balcony and hearing Tony tell him he was taking the safety off the gun. The next moment . . . well, the slug hit him hard, he fell, and everything went black.
“That dirty rotten rat,” he muttered.
One time Vince had come in, spewing some garbage about Baby Face having been possessed by Paddywhack and trying to kill him, so Tony had shot Baby Face trying to protect Vince. Of course Baby Face had not believed it. If Paddywhack had possessed him, wouldn’t he remember it?
He frowned, pausing as he stared into the distance without really seeing anything. Everything from that time was so foggy. If he were honest with himself, he could not remember one way or the other. Technically, with that as the case, there was a possibility that it could be true.
He turned away from the door. Who ever heard of a ghost with a bad memory? He had always heard a memory was sharper once the spirit was out of the body. But it was not like he knew anyone who had died. Now he had been experiencing it firsthand, thanks to that Brutus.
. . . Unless Vince had been telling the truth.
He swore again, beginning to pace the floor. He had believed all this time that Tony had been plotting behind his back and had shot him to be malicious. He wanted to be infuriated and to hate.
Another part of him was starting to have the slightest hint of doubt. If he really thought about Tony’s voice through the fog over his mind, Tony had sounded somewhat panicked.
He pushed the thought away. Of course Tony had been panicked; he knew that if he missed, there would be Hell to pay.
And Tony had not missed, but Baby Face was still around and he was still going to see Tony pay it.
Nobody double-crossed Baby Face Morales and got away with it.
****
Micky, Peter, and Davy were not the only ones bewildered by Mike’s strange behavior. As they walked to the third floor staircase, even Tony and the other gangsters looked suspicious.
“He took a hundred-eighty-degree turn,” Tony frowned, glancing over his shoulder at Mike. The Texan was strolling along, casually looking at the paintings on the walls.
“You’re telling us,” Davy said. “Now can you tell us why?”
“No, but I hope I’m not the only one thinking of the worst-case scenario right now,” Tony retorted.
“Oh believe me, you’re not,” Davy said. Micky and Peter nodded in grim agreement.
As they stopped at the staircase they stared in disbelief. Each step was damaged in at least one place, some in two or three.
“This looks like an obstacle course!” Davy exclaimed.
“Man, why did Baby Face do this?!” Micky said, staring at the mess.
“I don’t know,” Tony said. “I went up to look the third floor over. When I came back, he was chopping up the stairs with an axe he’d found.”
Before anyone could comment on that he went ahead and stepped onto the first stair, then the next. “Just come up one at a time,” he directed. “Anything more will put too much pressure on the steps.” He climbed to the top, showing by example where to step on each stair. One by one the others followed.
A blast of cold air assaulted the group as they gathered at the third floor landing. Peter stepped back, his eyes wide in horror. “It feels like it did at that door!” he said.
Micky gripped Peter’s arm. “Courage, courage,” he said, trying to convince himself as much or moreso than Peter.
“Oooh, more North Pole breezes!” Mike exclaimed. “Come on, we’re wasting time!” He started to skip ahead but then stumbled to a stop. He looked around, bewildered, as he adjusted the wool hat on his head. “Wait . . . what am I saying? What . . . what . . . how’d I get up here?!”
Micky shut his eyes. “Oh no,” he moaned. “Oh no.”
Davy went over to Mike. “Mike, what’s the last thing you remember?” he asked.
Mike frowned as he looked down at Davy. “The last thing I remember?! . . . Something about that room we were in,” he said. His eyes widened. “Oh, oh, I remember-the I.D. cards you guys found!” He looked back to Tony, Vince, and Harry. “Some of them were dated years ago!”
“What?!” Micky cried. Peter gaped.
“That’s right,” Tony said. He peered closely at Mike. “How do you feel?”
“Me?” Mike shrugged. “I feel fine . . . I think. . . .”
“Mike, you’ve been talking very strange,” said Davy. “And now you don’t remember it. You’re showing all the signs of being possessed by Paddywhack! This is just how Vince said it started with Baby Face-saying weird things, blanking out, not remembering what you just said. . . .”
Mike paled. “Then . . . me?! Paddywhack’s chosen me?!” He sobered. “Before we go any further, we’re going to have to decide what we’re going to do about this.”
“Do about it?! Mike, we have to help you!” Davy exclaimed. “We have to get Paddywhack away from you!”
“I know,” Mike nodded. He stepped closer to the others. “But if this thing plays out like it did with Baby Face, then I’m going to get a lot worse-and soon. Who knows, maybe this sunrise thing is when Paddywhack plans to have me go psycho on someone here.”
“No!” Peter ran over to Mike in horror. “No, Mike, you can’t do that! You wouldn’t hurt anyone! Baby Face was already sneaky and vicious when Paddywhack took him over, but you’re different!”
Mike sighed. “But Paddywhack is the same,” he said. “I don’t think he’d care who he got hold of. Or maybe he’d even rather have somebody like me, who hasn’t hurt people.” He looked to each of the others in turn. “And if he tries to make me do that and I can’t stop him, then you have to stop me, guys. I don’t care what you have to do. Just stop me.”
Davy stared at him. “You mean even if we have to . . .”
“Even if you have to go all the way and . . .” Mike took a deep breath. “. . . Stop me permanently.”
“We can’t do that!” Peter burst out. “Mike, we can’t!”
Micky’s stomach was in knots. “I don’t know how we can,” he agreed. “It would have to be a last resort, Mike. We’d have to try everything else first.”
“I know. And I’m not crazy about dying. But you can’t let Paddywhack use my body to kill! Do you get that?” Mike was filled with an urgency that the others had never seen from him before. “Do you get that?”
“Of course we get that,” Davy said. “But Mike, think about this. If we killed you to stop him, he could take another host just as easy. Killing you isn’t the answer! We have to go the source. We have to stop Paddywhack permanently.” He stepped closer, looking firmly into Mike’s eyes. “And you have an advantage that Baby Face didn’t.”
“You’re a nice guy,” Peter interjected.
“No,” Micky retorted. “I mean, yes, you are a nice guy, Mike! Of course you’re a nice guy. But I think Davy’s thinking of something else.”
“That’s right,” Davy said. “Mike, you’ve been warned about Paddywhack. You know what he’s capable of. That should help you fight him! Baby Face wasn’t that lucky. He and the gang didn’t know about Paddywhack or possession or any of that. He was probably taken completely by surprise. For all we know, Paddywhack threw him out of his body before he knew what hit him.”
Mike listened, slowly nodding at Davy’s words. “But I was taken by surprise a few minutes ago,” he said. “Davy, I don’t have any memory of what I was saying and doing after I left that room. If that’s how smoothly Paddywhack operates, I’m afraid none of us stand a chance.”
“You can’t give up!” Davy shot back. “You have to make up your mind to fight him, Mike!”
“I’ve already done that,” Mike said. “And I’m going to do whatever I can. But I don’t think we should just assume that I’ll be able to beat him. We’ve gotta have some other things planned.”
“We will, Mike,” Micky said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to stop this.” He drew a shuddering breath. “Whatever it takes.” No matter how horrible it is, he added to himself. But he would keep praying that it would not come to that.
Mike nodded. “I know you will.” He looked back to the dismal hallway ahead of them. “Okay, let’s see if we can find anything to clear up this mystery down there.”
Micky nodded too. “Right.”
As Tony led the way down the forbidding path, Micky looked over at him. “Hey, what’s this about the I.D. cards on those bodies being years old?” he asked.
“Some of them were old,” Tony said. “Some of them were recent.”
“The oldest one expired in 1927,” Vince said.
Mike cringed. “Well . . . what do you make of that?”
“What can we make of it?” Tony said in frustration. “They’re dead bodies, perfectly preserved, dressed in clothes up to ninety years old with I.D. cards to match. What part of that situation is logical enough to make something of?”
Peter swallowed. “I guess . . . you can make something of the fact that you can’t make anything of it,” he said.
Micky sighed.
“It is bizarre, though,” Davy said. “Are we really supposed to believe the bodies are that old?!”
Before anyone had a chance to answer, they stepped over an invisible line on the floor. Instantly the temperature plunged.
“Here we go again,” Micky moaned. “We’ve passed into No-Man’s Land.”
“What was wrong on this floor?” Mike wondered. “Besides the chill.”
“Something pushed us back,” Tony said. “Some kind of strong force. It’s just up ahead.”
“You said it wasn’t Paddywhack up here,” Davy said. “How do you know?”
A feminine shriek echoed down the hall. The Monkees jumped a mile, crowding together.
“That’s one reason how,” Tony said.
Micky shuddered, wringing his hands. “M-Maybe if we ask what she’s trying to do and say we’re the good guys, she’d let us in!”
Another scream sent him, Peter, and Davy diving to grab Mike’s arms. “You ask her, Mike!” Davy cried.
“Me?!” Mike retorted. “Why don’t we all ask her?”
“You talk the best,” Peter said.
“Oh, well, thank you very much. I think,” Mike added, his voice dripping sarcasm.
“We’ve tried talking to her,” Tony said. “She doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
As if in response, an icy force swept out at them, nearly knocking them off their feet. They fell back, their hair wildly blowing in all directions.
“No, wait!” Micky yelped. “We don’t mean any harm!”
The wind blew harder. Davy gave a shout, tumbling backwards. Micky, Mike, and Peter lunged for him, snatching his arms before he could fly away and possibly fall down the stairs.
“Listen to us!” Mike pleaded. “We’re trying to break the curse on this place!”
“You can’t,” an eerie yet sad voice replied. “It’s already got you. I can feel it.”
“We’re not giving up,” Mike said. “We’re not licked yet! The secret is somewhere in this place. Do you know where?”
There was a long pause while the frozen air intensified. Then at last she said, “If there is such a secret, it’s in the b . . .”
A horrible sensation of darkness overshadowed the group. The female shrieked in anguish and suddenly was silenced. The darkness lingered, then spread out and dissolved. The abrupt silence was almost deafening.
Finally Micky dared to speak. “What was that?!” he gasped.
“Paddywhack got her,” Tony said, his voice flat. “That’s another reason why we haven’t been able to learn anything.”
“He picks off anyone who tries to talk to us,” Vince said.
Micky swallowed hard. “So does he really . . . kill them?” he wondered. Could a spirit be destroyed so there was nothing left? That was too horrifying to think about.
“Don’t ask us,” Tony said. “What we know about what’s going on here you could balance on the head of a pin.”
Mike moved away from the group, advancing further into the corridor. “Well,” he said slowly, “now that she’s . . . gone, it doesn’t feel so chilly here anymore. . . .” He opened a door on the right, revealing a musty bedroom done in blue. “Oh, this looks nice,” he commented, peering inside.
“No bodies?” Micky asked, trying to look over his shoulder.
“No bodies,” Mike confirmed.
Davy moved past them and into the room. A frown crossed his features. “I don’t know,” he said. “Something still doesn’t feel right.” He shivered. “I think something wants me to step out of this room.”
“Oh come on.” Micky walked in as well. “I don’t feel anything. You’ve probably still got the creeps because of how frosty it was a few minutes ago.”
But almost as soon as he spoke, the hairs on the back of his neck pricked. They both needed to get out of the room. If they stayed, something horrible would happen to them. He knew that without a shadow of a doubt.
He grabbed Davy, pushing the British boy ahead of him. “There’s nothing to see here,” he said. “Moving along!”
“You feel it too!” Davy accused as Micky walked him back into the hall. “I knew something was in there and you didn’t believe it.”
“Don’t be silly,” Micky said lightly. “It’s just that there’s nothing to see in there.” He cringed as the feeling of panic increased. Rushing out after Davy, he slammed the door shut behind him and tried to catch his breath.
The gangsters and other Monkees had already wandered farther down the hall. Each was opening a door and examining the room beyond. Most were bedrooms, but there was also an upstairs study and a bathroom, neither of which felt inviting.
“There’s something wrong with this whole house,” Peter declared, staying close to Mike. “Someone’s in each and every room!”
“And we’re no closer to finding answers than we were before we came up here,” Mike frowned. “What is the deal with the spirits in this place?! You’d think they’d want to help us figure out where the secret is.”
“I guess they don’t want to be rubbed out by Paddywhack,” Micky said as he and Davy approached. “But hey, where is the secret, anyway? That chick was trying to tell us something about it.”
“She only got as far as the letter ‘B’, and that really doesn’t help us much,” Davy said. “That could be a bedroom, a bathroom, or even . . .”
“The basement!” Peter cried. “We should check the basement!”
Without warning Mike whirled around, snatching Peter’s wrist. “What did you say?” he demanded. His voice was dark and cold.
Peter jumped a mile. “I . . . I said . . . Mike!” he wailed. The person looking back at him was not the Mike he knew and loved. It was a complete stranger.
Mike’s grip on Peter’s wrist only tightened. “Nobody’s going to be looking in the basement on my watch,” he said. He wrenched Peter’s arm above his head, twisting it painfully.
The others were running to him in an instant. “Mike, stop it!” Micky yelled. “You’re going to hurt Peter!”
“You’ve gotta let go of him!” Davy added. He jumped up, trying frantically to grab Mike’s arm.
Hearing the commotion, Tony and the other gangsters hurried out of the rooms they were exploring. “What’s going on here?” Tony snapped.
“It’s Mike!” Davy said. “He’s being taken over by Paddywhack again, only it’s far worse this time!”
“I’m not going to waste time, like I did with that idiot I possessed before,” Mike said. “This show’s moving on ahead.”
In spite of the pain, Peter was now growing angry instead of afraid. He looked at Mike with steely eyes. “Stop using Mike’s body!” he ordered. “Mike is kind and gentle and good and he doesn’t want to be your host! He’d rather die than hurt anyone!”
“That’s right!” Davy declared.
Micky grabbed onto Mike’s arm, hoping to pull it back. But Paddywhack had other ideas. The arm stayed planted in place, the hand gripping Peter’s wrist.
“If you’re still determined to keep looking up here, and to go into the basement, then I’m going to have to stop you any way possible.” For a brief moment Mike’s eyes flickered with panic and anger, but then it was gone and his eyes were cold and hard again.
“Mike!” Peter cried. “Mike, I saw you in there! You have to keep fighting Paddywhack. You can do it, Mike!”
“Of course you can!” Davy chimed in.
“Show him what it means to be a Monkee!” Micky cheered.
A darkly amused sneer crept over Mike’s features. “What it means to be a Monkee is to be a loser,” he said. “He can’t hear you. Even if he was prepared for my entry, he’s not prepared to fight me. I’m too strong for him. With every life I break my power grows.” Seemingly without effort, he swung Peter around him and let go with enough force that the poor boy soared to the wall and crashed into it. Watching through Mike’s eyes, Paddywhack observed with relish as Peter slumped, dazed, to the floor.
“Peter!” Micky and Davy cried with one voice. They both hurried to their fallen friend.
Vince approached the possessed Mike now, his thick eyebrows narrowed in anger. “This has gotta stop,” he said. “You already saw to it that Baby Face was killed. We’re not going to let you push us around anymore.”
“You’re not going to let me? You don’t have any choice!” Mike laughed. It was a chilling, unforgiving sound. “Don’t forget, I used you to get Baby Face killed by his second-in-command,” he said. “I broke the staircase and trapped him up here, then attacked you, all because I figured out what the end result would be.”
Vince stared at him in shock. All of this pain and agony that they had been going through, especially Baby Face and Tony, was because Paddywhack had decided to use Vince? The big man’s eyes flashed. In the next moment he was moving to strike Mike in the face.
“Hey wait!” Micky shouted, leaping to his feet. “Mike isn’t the one saying those things. You’re going to hurt him!”
It was wasted breath. Mike dodged the punch. A bizarre blue light shot out from his form, sending Vince flying backwards to slam into the wall near the stairs.
“Vince!” Harry and Tony yelled. Harry ran to his stunned friend. Tony lingered to glower at Mike.
“You’re really sick,” he said. “What kind of person were you in life, to get your kicks out of this pointless sadism?”
Mike shrugged. “I’m keeping my secrets,” he said.
Micky looked to Davy. “Tony’s got him distracted,” he said low. “Maybe we can jump him and hold him down until Mike can get control again!”
“Let’s try it,” Davy said. He glanced to Peter, who was pushing himself away from the wall and looking pained. “Are you alright, Peter?”
“I’m fine,” said Peter. He gave them both a worried look. “But guys, be careful! I’m telling you, he’s strong.”
“Yeah. We kinda got that part.” Micky glanced over his shoulder at Harry, who was helping Vince up. Then he turned his attention back to the scene near him and the others. “Okay. Let’s go!” He jumped up, springing at Mike in the same instant. Davy followed suit.
Peter stumbled to his feet, ready to fly into the fray in spite of his aching back and left shoulder. But then he could only stop and gasp. The blue light was bursting forth from Mike’s body again. Micky and Davy screamed, flying overhead to collide with a table and a silver urn. They all fell to the floor in a heap.
“Idiots!” Mike yelled. “You can’t touch me!” He pointed to Vince. “You should’ve learned your lesson after seeing what I did to him.”
Peter glared at him before running to Micky and Davy. His thoughts were colliding and turning over themselves. Paddywhack was right; this was really looking like a hopeless fight. If Mike could not regain control of his body, what were they going to do?
Tony reached and caught Peter’s arm. “We need backup,” he said, keeping his voice at an undertone. “If we had a spirit who was on our side, or at least completely against Paddywhack and willing to fight him, we might have a chance.”
Micky groaned, pushing the urn off of his chest. “That’s a great idea, man, but where are we going to find one? The ghosts aren’t exactly jumping for joy that we’re here.”
Davy tried to sit up, balancing himself on the fallen table’s legs. “Everyone in here is either too afraid to fight Paddywhack or not strong enough to go against him,” he agreed.
Peter shook his head. “I wish Baby Face would help us,” he said.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Tony said. “If we could convince him to join in, he might be able to at least distract Paddywhack long enough for your friend to get control.”
“But isn’t he bound in that room or something?” Peter frowned. “He said he was stuck because of the curse.”
“I’m going to find out,” Tony said.
“And he wants to kill you!” Micky put in. “It’s a deathtrap to go in that room! He was throwing stuff at us just for saying your name!”
“I’m not letting him scare me off,” Tony said. “I’m going to make him listen to me.”
“I’ll go with you,” Peter decided.
Micky struggled to stand. “Do you really think you should?” he asked, looking doubtful. “He didn’t want anything to do with you before, Pete.”
“I’m not going to be scared off either,” Peter determined. “This is an important mission!”
At last Micky nodded. “Well, okay then,” he said, still hesitant but wanting to support Peter and have faith in him. “Davy and I’ll try to work up a distraction.”
Now Peter stared, worried. “Are you sure, Micky? You guys are going to get hurt more!” He looked to where Vince and Harry were both contending with Mike. His mouth dropped open in shock as Mike grabbed Harry’s suit jacket and lifted him off the floor.
“We’ll be fine,” Micky said. “Hurry up before he sees you!”
Finally Peter nodded. He followed Tony down the hall, keeping close to the left wall. Behind him, Micky and Davy gave a war cry and charged at Mike. Peter could not help casting a quick look over his shoulder.
“I hope they’ll be okay,” he said as he and Tony reached the stairs.
Tony did not offer a response. But the way things were going, it would be a surprise if injuries were not sustained by all of them.