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The Haunted Woods
Sys-op groaned atop Agent_Magnolia's shoulder, dressed
in an uncomfortable multicolored clown suit. There was a large red ball where
her nose should have been, and a large floppy jester hat on her head. "Magnolia,
I will never forgive you for this," the pink Kadoatie muttered.
"Why? It's normal!" Magnolia exclaimed. She was
dressed in a dusty-colored ball gown and wore a wig and matching pair of gloves.
It was the only outfit she had in her closet for Halloween, and she had decided
to go out as an opera singer, even though Sys-op warned her against wearing
such painful heels. ("What if you have to run for some reason?")
A week earlier, she had been invited to a Halloween
party by her friend, Natalie, in the Haunted Woods. That same week, several
disappearances had been reported in a house on Dark Forest path -- the same
street where Natalie was holding her party. Sys-op had second thoughts about
attending, but Magnolia talked her into it.
"I've been wondering," Sys-op began. "About those
disappearances, I mean... you think that house could be haunted?"
"Haunted!" Magnolia repeated. "Sure, and white
Weewoos exist in Neopia." She looked ahead of her. "There, that's the hall where
Natalie's throwing her party."
"Well, let's go inside," suggested Sys-op. The
Aisha and Kadoatie warily approached what looked like a dilapidated music hall.
"She certainly picked the best place for a Halloween party. It's falling apart,
it's dark and it's creeping me out--" Suddenly, there was a loud clap of thunder.
A few sparse raindrops fell from the iron clouds overhead.
"Wonderful! And it's raining!" Magnolia shouted.
She ran to the music hall even faster, covering her wet wig with her paws. As
she knocked on the door, she listened for an answer that never came. She tried
to knock again, but, like before, there was no answer.
Sys-op groaned. "HellO?" she exclaimed,
assisting Magnolia in knocking on the door. "Looks like no one's in there,"
she murmured after a minute of silence.
"What kinda party is this, anyway?" Magnolia
inquired. She pushed the double doors, which slowly, but easily opened. It was
completely dark inside. "Umm... helloooo? Anyone hoooome?" she asked, her voice
echoing silently. "What's up with this place? It's at least an hour after
when the party was supposed to start..." She gasped.
"Sys-op! That house!" Magnolia exclaimed. "What
if they've disappeared?"
"Oh, that's silly," Sys-op murmured. "How would
that happen?"
"Think about it! It's on the same street, right?"
Magnolia questioned. "It wouldn't hurt to check..."
38927 Dark Forest Path
"I can see they took a lot of care in naming this place," Magnolia murmured,
surveying the area surrounded by police officers. "It's... um... dark... and
it's a forest."
"Well, it's not really as dark with all these
police officers carrying flashlights," Sys-op observed. "Oh, there's the house
right there!" The house was positioned on a hill, making it the only house that
could be seen for miles through the rain. It was instantly obvious that most
of the disappearances were the result of unsuspecting Neopets asking for directions,
and Magnolia was sure that was what happened to Natalie's party. As Magnolia
and Sys-op approached the gates of the house, two officers, an Acara and a Zafara,
stopped them.
"Umm-- umm-- excuse me!" said the Zafara. "I'm
afraid this house is off limits at the moment. Uhh... you can't go in there!"
"What?" Magnolia inquired, faking disbelief.
"What's -- ohh, I see now! You can't recognize me through this Halloween costume!
Can't you see I'm..."
Magnolia looked around and saw two officers chatting
nearby. "...I have to tell you, Maria, I really don't know what's going on
here..." she heard one say.
"MARIA! Can't you see I'm Officer Maria?" Magnolia
inquired. "I'm -- err -- dressed up... as a trick-or-treater... to investigate
the... erm... house. Can't figure out what's going on unless you go in there
for yourself, eh?" She gave a cheesy smile.
"Oh, Maria!" said the Zafara. "In that case,
go on in! Wonderful costume, I'd say, considering you're actually a Chomby--"
As the Zafara realized what was going on, Magnolia and Sys-op were already inside
the gates. "HEY! Hey, WAIT!!"
Magnolia and Sys-op started up the dirt path
that led up the hill and to the door of the house, attempting to shield their
heads from the rain all the while. When they reached the door, Magnolia hurried
to the knocker, drew it back and let it fall against the wooden door, producing
an ear-shattering knock that echoed for a few moments. There was no answer.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Magnolia exclaimed. "Does no one answer their door
around--?" Suddenly, a trapdoor swung open under her feet and she instantaneously
tried to grab the edge of the door as she fell, but she could not. Sys-op clung
to the Aisha's wig for dear life, at least until it fell off. "EEEEEEE-HEEEEE-HEEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEE...!!!"
Inside the House?
"...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--"
THUD!
"OUCH!"
Magnolia quickly scrambled to her feet, looking
up in wonder. The trapdoor had already closed and she could see nothing above
her. She could see nothing around her, for that matter. "Uh...Sys-oooop? Are
you there?" Magnolia shakily inquired. There was no answer. She quickly felt
for her wig, but it was missing. "Oh, great. I lost my pet and half my costume.
Wonderful." Magnolia groped around in the dark for a few moments when a dim
candle suddenly lit the room. She realized that she was in a hallway as several
more candles enigmatically lit themselves. "Not looking good so far," she observed,
starting down the hallway.
As she reached the end of the hall she heard
a soft organ playing from the room on her right. Magnolia pushed the double
doors open silently and saw an Aisha sitting at a bench in front of a large
organ. The Aisha quickly turned around and stopped playing as she saw Magnolia.
"Eh?!"
"Ah!"
"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--!"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--eh?"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--!!"
The Aisha at the organ abruptly stopped screaming.
"Uhh--Magnolia?" she began. "Y-you can stop screaming, you know."
Magnolia fell silent, realizing that the Aisha
was a friend of hers. "Noelle! Don’t SCARE me like that!!"
"You?" Noelle inquired indignantly, standing
up. "You scared me! I thought I was the only one in this house..."
"Well, apparently not," Magnolia stated. "How'd
you wind up in here?"
"Ah, well, it's a long story. But, to make it
short, I was invited to Natalie's costume party -- I got the invitation about
a week ago -- and so I was rummaging through my closet, trying to think of what
costume to wear--"
"Um..." Magnolia interrupted. "Excuse me, but
I'd say you're going a bit far back?"
"Ohh!" Noelle exclaimed. "Désolée -- well, I
was going to the opera house thing where she was throwing the party when it
started to rain and it was all foggy and I got lost! I saw this house on the
hill, so I decided to go ask for--"
"Directions!" Magnolia and Noelle finished in
unison.
"Really!" Noelle continued. "How'd you know?"
"Lucky guess. Listen, let's get out of here,
this place is starting to creep me out," Magnolia said with a shudder.
Meanwhile...
"WEEEEEWOOOOOOOOOOOO--!"
THUD!
"...ow..."
Sys-op grumbled, laying on the floor for a few
moments and staring at the ceiling. She could see the dim light of a rainy window
on the wal--
"Windows?" she inquired. "That makes no sense;
if I fell through a trapdoor on the ground floor, how'd I wind up in
a room with windows?" She stood, inquisitively approaching the tall windows.
"Well, if there are windows, I might as well leave through them." She tried
to push one of them outwards, but it wouldn't move. "Cough.. .um... 'IF
THERE ARE WINDOWS, I MIGHT AS WELL LEAVE THROUGH THEM'," she repeated,
once more trying to open the windows. Again, they stayed closed. "Oh, COME ON!!"
Sys-op violently shook the windows before she
gave up. "Okay, I'm not being logical." She paused. "But I fell through the
ground floor and wound up in a room with WINDOWS, how is this whole HOUSE logical?!"
She scrambled to a low tabletop. "Stupid new architecture trends."
"Okay," she said, settling behind a vase. "If
I can't open the windows, I'm gonna have to get somewhat less than nice." She
paused. "EAT VASE, WINDOWPANE!" Sys-op tried to lift the vase, but it was much
heavier than she thought and she couldn't move it. She sat back bitterly. "Okay.
YOU MAY HAVE WON THE BATTLE, BUT THE WAR IS NOT OVER YET!"
Sys-op turned around and, spotting a pencil,
quickly scooped it up in her arms. "THIS oughta work!" she exclaimed smugly.
"Okay! Let's see you deal with some of THIS!!" She reared back and threw the
pencil at the window. It bounced off with a quiet plink!
"UGH!" Sys-op screamed. "I can't open the windows
and I can't break them... that means..." She paused, horrified. "I'm stuck in
the haunted house of clichéd horrors! AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!"
"Aww... why so sad? You're making me feel bad!"
Sys-op glanced around. "Wha...? Who said that?"
Suddenly, what seemed to be a pale ghost stepped from behind an armoire. She
was a young -- strangely familiar -- Ixi with a high-pitched -- strangely familiar
-- voice. "You look strangely familiar," Sys-op murmured.
"What? No! I've never seen you in my life!" the
Ixi exclaimed. "Buuuuut IIIIIII've beeeeeen deeeaaaad forrr cennnntuurrriiieeess
noowwwwwwwww!"
"Cut it out with the Esophagor act, okay?" Sys-op
pleaded with a sigh.
"All right, all right already," said the Ixi.
"I'm Lori. It's nice to meet you!" She went to the table and took a seat on
it. "I've been ever so lonely lately. No one wants to come around my
house anymore! But it's been reeeaaally foggy since just recently and
a lot of people come here to ask for directions. So I... invite them
in."
"Invite? More like drop through a -- ohh, before
we stray too far from THAT subject, how'd I wind up in a room on the ground
floor if I fell through a trapdoor at the entr--"
"OKAYENOUGHTALKING!" Lori snapped. "Now that
you're here, you ADORABLE LITTLE KITTY, I wanna play a game!"
Sys-op winced. "You remind me of this girl I
know -- you sure your last name isn't Li, perchance?"
"Talk later; we play game now," the Ixi simply
replied. "Let's play hide and seek! You hide, I'll seek!"
Sys-op grinned inwardly at the opportunity. "In
the room? Certainly, that's not challenging at all!"
"Oh, no!" Lori replied. Sys-op heard an eerie
click. "The door's unlocked now, you can hide anywhere in the house. And if
you can stay hidden without me catching you for... ohhh, let's say... two hours,
I'll let you liiiiiiiiive!"
Sys-op quirked a non-existent eyebrow. "Let me
live?"
"Yes, let you liiiiiiiive! And as an added
value, I'll let all your little friends go!" Lori smiled. "So, what do you say?"
Sys-op thought this over for a while. Chances
are about 2 to 1 that this is a very poorly-fabricated Halloween prank. But
I am going to be driven insane by all the clichés in here anyway, so I'd might
as well get out of here as soon as possible. "Okay."
"YAAAY!" Lori cheered. "Okay, I'll count now,
you go hide!" Lori buried her hands in her arms and leaned against the wall
as Sys-op ran out of the room. "One Aisha, Two Aisha, Three Aisha, Four Aisha,
Five Aisha..." She peeked over her shoulder. "...Ten Aisha, Fifteen Aisha, Fifty-five
Aisha, One hundred! READY OR NOT, HERE I COOOOOME!"
Meanwhile...
Sys-op ran out of the room and up a staircase, paying no attention to where
she was going. As long as she was away from Lori, it was the right way to go.
She ran into a curtain and skid across the wooden floor, dragging the tapestry
with her. It fell over her head, blinding her. "ACK! Who turned out the lights?!"
At that moment, Noelle and Magnolia wandered
into the room. "...and as long as we are close to the door, I do not mind where
we are going..." Noelle glanced at Magnolia. "Magnolie, I'm quite frightened."
"Ah, don't be," Magnolia replied. "This house
is just a big--"
"Ohh! Magnolie, what is that?" Noelle pointed
at a heap of cloth on the floor that seemed to be squirming in panic.
Magnolia's eyes widened. "What IS that?!"
"Can't you see?" a voice inquired from the cloth.
"I'm Sys-op!"
"Wh--" Magnolia gasped. "NO! You're NOT my Kadoatie!"
"But you've gone mad! I AM your Kadoatie!"
Magnolia, shivering, scuttled towards the cloth
and tore it away, revealing Sys-op. "Oh, what do you know! It's your Kadoatie!"
Noelle exclaimed.
"How'd you get here, anyway?" Magnolia inquired.
"You scared me half to death!"
"I'm playing hide-and-seek with some Ixi back
there," said Sys-op. "She said if I won, we could all leave, and if I don’t--"
"Ohh, little KIIIIIIIIIIITTYYYYYYY! Where ARRRRREEE
YOOOOOOUUU?!"
Magnolia, Noelle and Sys-op all shrieked, horrified,
running out the room. The door to their far right led to a foyer, but the exit
was nowhere in sight. There were several other doors all around, however. "Where
now?" Noelle inquired hysterically. "How do we know which of these doors is
the right one?"
"I dunno, but my feet are KILLING me!" Magnolia
exclaimed.
Sys-op grinned. "I told you s--"
"HEY!" Magnolia interrupted. "Forget the shoes!
Noelle, you go through that door, Sys-op and I will go through this door on
the left."
"Okay," Noelle replied, running off to the right.
"I'll scream if something happens!"
Magnolia laughed, far from light-heartedly. "So
will I!"
Meanwhile...
Camella the yellow Eyrie gave a sigh of exasperation. "Three hours. Three
hours in this RIDICULOUSLY illogical house!" She turned to En Guarde the
green Krawk, shaking him by the shoulders and screaming hysterically, "WHEN
DOES IT EEENNNND?!"
En Guarde sighed. "We've only been in this house
about thirty minutes, tops," he corrected. "I told you we shouldn't have taken
this staircase."
"Whatever Lady Camella wants is fine!" said Mika
the Miamouse. "Me, I'm happy to go down this staircase as long as it's where
she wants to go!"
Camella glanced at En Guarde. "I love this mouse."
En Guarde simply sighed. "If I'm interrupting
your flattery, Mika, I apologize. But I'm not too happy with having gone down
the same never-ending staircase for the past half-hour or so. And it's probably
too late to go back, so, consequentially, if we hadn't listened to Lady Camella
in the first case, we wouldn't be here."
"En Guarde, I don't remember ASKING for your
opinion, but I MAY just be losing my memory!" Camella exclaimed. She'd decided
to dress for Halloween as the Ice Caves Kiosk Wocky, but was exhausted from
walking around the house in the large fur coat. En Guarde was forced into wearing
a costume and dressed as Sidney the scratch card salesman. ("We'll match that
way!" Camella had told him.) Mika had dressed as Camella in her adoration, wearing
a large, fancy red dress and wig and carrying around a fan. She grew tired of
the latter and dropped the fan fifty-three steps earlier. "What's the stair
count now, En Guarde?" Camella inquired curiously.
"Nine hundred ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine..."
"WAIT!" Camella screamed. "Don’t take another
step!" She struck a dramatic pose, holding one foot over the next step. "This
is one small step for Camella; one giant leap for-- GAH!" She lost her balance
and went tumbling down the steps. "EEEEEEEK! SOMEBODY-- OUCH!--HELP ME!"
En Guarde and Mika went running after her until
she approached what seemed to finally be the end of the staircase. She plummeted
to the bottom, landing on the wooden floor ungracefully with a THUD!
"Ouuuchhh!" she whined, clutching her head. "That hurt!"
"The important thing is that we reached the bottom
of the staircase, finally," observed En Guarde. "And furthermore--" He was cut
off as Camella shrieked.
"What's that in the bushes?" she inquired, pointing
to a tall planter in the corner of the landing. The leaves of a wide tree in
the planter rustled for a few moments before a yellow Chia and blue Aisha poked
their heads from behind. "EEP! THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THERE!"
The Chia and Aisha stepped from behind the planter.
"Camella?" the Aisha inquired. "What are you three doing here?"
"WHAT? I don't even know who you two AR--" Camella
paused. "Ohhh, Natalie! Taro! A very good evening to you two! Thank you very
much for SCARING ME HALF TO DEATH!"
"You're very welcome!" Natalie, the Aisha, exclaimed.
"I've been scared enough in this house. Figured it was someone else's turn."
"How did you wind up here?" Taro inquired.
"Ahh, got lost," Camella murmured. "I'm guessing
the same for you? I know no one would voluntarily come INTO this house."
"You're right, we got lost," said Natalie. "I
was out looking for my party guests. No one came after about an hour of waiting
and that's strange, seeing as my parties are normally successful..."
Suddenly, a door on the landing burst open, revealing
Magnolia and Sys-op. "Ahh, what do you know!" Sys-op exclaimed. "This room's
already occupied!"
"Camella? Taro? Natalie?" Magnolia inquired.
"Magnolia? Sys-op?"
"En Guarde? Mika?"
"Natalie? Camella?" Mika paused. "No, wait, I
already knew you were here."
Another door to the left abruptly opened, revealing
Noelle. "N-- How did YOU get here?" Camella inquired. "Is EVERYONE in this house?!"
Noelle clapped joyfully. "Well, I'm not alone!
If some sort of scary ghost gets over here, it at least won't be just me getting
hurt!" The group glared at Noelle, frightened. "...What?"
Suddenly, there was a muted, ominous voice. "What
are you doing here? Leave, I beg of you...!"
The group gave each other pale, blank stares.
"...What...was that...?" Sys-op inquired. "...That wasn't the scary Ixi ghost
I met a while ago, I KNOW..."
There was a loud THUD! The group
could see what looked like the silhouette of a piano at the top of the stairs.
A white, ghastly figure pushed the piano which came tumbling down the staircase
towards the landing. The group gasped.
"AAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGHHHHH!"
There was a banging of keys as the piano came
down the staircase and the group of scared Neopets and petpets scattered away
as soon as the piano hit the landing.
CRASH!
Magnolia looked up at the stairs with a pale
face as the dust began to clear. The figure that had pushed the piano was gone.
"OKAY! I'm SO done with this place!" she shrieked.
"NOT YET!" sounded Lori's voice. "I think I've
FOUND my KITTY!" The group screamed hysterically, running from the landing and
down the next staircase. The Ixi was already behind them, chasing the group
in search of Sys-op. The staircase ended and Camella realized that they had
reached a wall. "Dead end!" she cried.
"A DEAD END? Who's the madman BEHIND this?!"
Mika shrieked.
Peachifruit's House
"MWEEEHEEEHEEHEEEEEEEE!"
Back at the mansion...
Magnolia gave Mika a blank look. "Believe me, you don't want to know."
"HEEHEEHEE! Can't hide from me for two hours,
eh?" Lori questioned, coming closer and cornering the group of pets. "Well then,
it seems as if I'll have to give you my ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT!" She began cackling
wildly when suddenly, she disappeared.
Sys-op looked around. "...That was it?"
"No!" Lori's voice sounded. From around the corner
and down the stairs came Lori, but this time, she looked nothing like a ghost
at all. In fact, she was very much alive. "Man! You people are GULL-I-BLE!"
Natalie frowned. "Gullible? How so?"
After Lori came a yellow Wocky and a rainbow
Usul. The group was silent for a moment before Sys-op spoke up. "...Oh,
for the love of FYORA! CHIEF?"
The Usul gave an exasperated look. "Oh, what,
just Chief now? I did half the work!"
"And Tiira_Misu," Sys-op finished.
"That's better," said the Usul with a smile.
"Oh, that was HILARIOUS! If you saw the looks on your faces...!"
"I'm seriously disappointed in you all," said
Chief. "The idea that you could all be tricked by such a ridiculous prank is
almost horrifying, you know."
Camella whined. "It was real enough for me! What
was up with that never-ending staircase up there?"
"That?" Tiira_Misu repeated, pointing. "That
was a treadmill."
Camella narrowed her eyes. "Ohh, I hate you."
"Wait, so then what about Lori?" asked Sys-op.
"Who is she, and how did she look so... ghosty? That wasn't a projection,
was it?"
"MEEE?" asked the Ixi. "Oh, I'm Xing-Xing! You
didn't know that? Oh, and yes, there are projectors all around here. I didn't
look that real, right?"
"Real?" asked Taro. "We were running! Like we
cared how real you looked!"
"Ugh, this is awful," said Natalie. "Now the
caterers left all that food at the music hall and no one's going to get to eat
it..."
"You didn't leave anyone behind?" En Guarde inquired.
"Well... we left Dixi behind... she was asleep,
though."
"Oh, well then that food didn't go to waste,"
said Magnolia. "Believe me, I know how petpets eat."
"HEY!" Sys-op exclaimed.
Xing-Xing giggled. "This was all Chief's idea.
He's the mean one."
Magnolia bit her lip. "If this happens one more
time, I swear I'm leaving the agency! That WAS mean!"
"Oh, come on!" Chief exclaimed. "You can't be
THAT upset!"
Sys-op gave a blank look. "I'm not upset, just
confused. If you were behind Lori, then who pushed that piano down the stairs?
I mean that scary ghostly silhouette that was up there..."
Chief and Tiira_Misu glanced at each other. "What
piano?" Tiira_Misu inquired. "Um... there was no piano in the... prank..."
The group all gave each other blank stares. Suddenly,
the lights went out.
"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!"
The End
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