Broken Panes

[BadForm]

Dave

"Okay?"

Lilly's words hit my ears as a mocking laugh. I had no hand on one arm. What the hell did she think was okay with that. But no, that wasn't it was it. She was terrified. It was understandable, we all were. Somehow, the loss of a hand (or maybe the rest of a dead faint) was enough to give me a certain stillness. A cold, hard, cynical, horrified stillness, but a stillness never the less.

"Lilly, you ever hear of anyone coming out of here before? I mean, do you really think we're the first ones to think it might be a fun idea to come in here and play haunted house for a night? I don't think we're going to be ok, Lilly. I don't think any of us are ever going to be okay again."

 

[Ghost Ship]

Liam

Suddenly, Liam jerked upright and his eyes shot open, his mouth opening wide and letting out a cry of alarm. For a moment he stayed like that, almost frozen in place, before he looked around, and placed a hand on the back of his head - and when he brought the hand in front of his face, finding blood on his fingertips. He winced, and then looked around.
"Jesus, that was a weird nightmare," he muttered, as much to himself as to any of the others. "What the hell happened? Where am I?"

 

[IrishPitchford]

Dave replyed to me, "Lilly, you ever hear of anyone coming out of here before? I mean, do you really think we're the first ones to think it might be a fun idea to come in here and play haunted house for a night? I don't think we're going to be ok, Lilly. I don't think any of us are ever going to be okay again."

"I heard stories about this place; I always thought they were urban myths though. I heard that all the people to have ever entered this haunted mansion.......they......they didn't come back out, nobody ever seen them again." I said, as I was in complete shock and disbelief of my surroundings. I was terrified. "Dave, I don't know what the hell is going on. I don't know if this is all real or if I'm just in a huge nightmare. All I know, is that I want to get the hell out of here...and now." I was shaky while trying to pleade for help, and for answers.

Dave looked up at me and wiped my nose. I looked down to his hand and seen my blood on him......my nose began to poor out with blood. Dave insisted to me that I tilt my head back and sqeeze my nostrils together to stop the bleeding. I did just that. "What the hell is going on? My nose never bleeds......this is fucking crazy."

 

[Vero]

Reb stepped away from the professor. "We're going to make it back. We are."

Systems check. She noticed Liam was moving, and that Dave and Lily seemed to be huddled together. Jake was still near Liam - he can follow orders at least.

She moved to kneel next to Liam, flashing a smile to Jake, "Good job, thank you." She used the sleeve of her hoodie to soak up some of the blood. "You got a good knock, you should stay still for a bit. Its going to bleed like a bitch, but you'll live." She felt laughter bubble up at the idea that anyone would live through this, and she forced it back down. If she started, she wouldn't stop.

"I need you, Li, I need your brains. You're better at this strategy stuff than I am. And we need to keep our brains. Your book has some intersecting lines on one of the maps, I think a couple of us should go check them out. See if they're the off switch for this hellhole. I also think there might be more clues in here.

I just don't, Liam, so I need to to get a grip and think for me, okay?"

 

[Butch]

Jake

Liam startled Jake when he rose up and screamed. Reb told him good job and he nodded in return. This was scary. They probably wouldn't make it out of here alive. He couldn't think straight. He just sat there shaking and repeated some sort of mantra:
"This shit is not real. It will all be gone in the morning!" but deep down he didn't believe a word of it. He was going to die here and so was everyone else.

 

[Ghost Ship]

Liam

Finally, all those years of being teased in high school for being a nerd were paying off. For once someone had actually admitted to needing Liam's booksmarts. He looked up at Reb, offered a grateful smile, and then looked thoughtful.
Of course, now he wouldn't be able to admit that he didn't know what to do - unfortunately, that was exactly how he felt. Quick, Liam, he urged himself, think of something...
"Off switch? Now that's optimistic," he managed, shaking his head slightly - and wincing at the pain in the back of his head. "Still, it seems our best bet, seeing as how we can't get out of the place. I get a weird feeling about it, though..."
Liam put a hand to his forehead, which now creased thoughtfully. "Maybe we should split up. Just in case... just in case its a trap or something," he said finally, remaining remarkably collected despite the circumstances, "I should go; I discovered the stupid book."
Silently, secretly, Liam brooded. Had it been his discovery that had brought this upon them?

 

[Vero]

Reb leaned back on her heels. "Liam, you've got a head wound, its ...okay it feels marginally safer in here. Prof and I will go. You can look for more clues here. You found the book, and it may get us out of this mess."

She looked him in the eye "This is not your fault, you didn't make this. But you need to think now, and stay calm, can you do that? for me?"

 

[Ghost Ship]

Liam

Liam frowned. He couldn't decide whether he was hurt at all by Reb's tone; finally, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
With a sigh, he replied, "Maybe you've got a point. Just... look after yourself, alright?"
And then, squeezing her hand, he added with a grin, "I don't want to have to come rescue you, it'd be too... cliché."

 

[Vero]

*There's* the Liam I know and love.

"You watch your back too. I don't think you'll have to come rescue us. No cliche for us." Because if it gets bad we'll be dead before you can find us.

Back to work. Jake might be useful if she could get him put back together. Toward that she grabed his hands and shook him a little. "Jake, snap out of it, we're only going to die here if we lay down and take this shit like a little bitch. I'm not a little bitch, are you? So you, me, and the Prof are going to go see if we can't find something that will let us take this hellhole down and get us home.

Or you can curl up here and be a little bitch." She let that sink in before returning to the professor, sliding her arm into the crook of his elbow. "I'm as ready as I'm going to get. You have the map, shall we?"

 

[chris2c4u]

"I'm as ready as I'm going to get. You have the map, shall we?"

I liked her bravado and I studied the drawing again; we headed towards a heavy oak door. Before reaching it, with the feeling that the library was definitely the safest place to be I stopped and held her soft body in my arms. With a look in her eyes I gave her a soft kiss, running my hand through her hair, letting the book dangle for a moment behind her back.

Thoughts, impressions of my life flooded my head. Though we kissed on the lips I felt a - memory - a touch? of lips against my ear. Was it guidance that I heard?

With a start, unable to speak I looked not at Reb but at the book. I blinked, seeming to see ethereal fingers trace one of the lines. That was the way we should go? Turning around in a daze I hoarsely say, "the other door. I think -" I showed Reb the lines that the fingers only I could see were tracing.

The voice, now like an ice pick hammering into my ear called out, "Oh... professor... would you like to see if x marks my g-spot? HAHAHAHA!"

I covered my ear, feeling a cold breeze push past me, heading towards the door I had chosen. No one else had heard the words. I reached out for the brass handle of the door though as I did, the hand, the guiding hand, reappeared and opened the door. As it creaked on hinges unused for years I watched the hand slowly start to disintegrate. Skin, falling like sand; pieces of muscle shrivelling , smouldering then falling away to disappear - much as Dave's hand had. The skeleton white - getting brighter - then, like chalk dust on a blackboard, dissolving in the air.

Again, no one else indicated seeing anything. I had to get out of that room. Staggering back I turned to look at Reb.
"Come with me if you want - but I think it's not the safest option."

 

[Butch]

Jake

It took a little while to sink but then he just exploded:
"Hey, I'm no damn bitch." He rose to his feet and walked hurriedly after them. Just outside the library he was greeted with quite the sight; the professor held Reb tight and kissed her.
"What the...?" he said, getting their attention "I know it's none of my business Reb but that's kinda gross. He's, like, fifty or sumthin." They both looked rather annoyed by his presence but he wasn't going to be stepped on.
"Look, you can do whatever you want but I'm coming along for the ride, 'kay."

 

[Vero]

He kissed her and for a moment it was her entire world. Her skin sang and her mind filled with images, pleasant daydreams of better situations ...and then things went dark, disjointed images, the sounds of moans bordering on screams echoed in her mind. All still of her and the Prof, but vile, violent, terrible...the walls seemed to throb with the energy of it.

Jake's voice snapped her out of the reverie."I know it's none of my business Reb but that's kinda gross. He's, like, fifty or sumthin."

She shot back, "Thank you for epitomizing the many reasons why I should give up on males my age. I'd rather not formulate my ideas of what is gross on the opinion of someone for whom waking up not in their own vomit is a good day."

The Prof - his name is Steven, Reb. If you can think about him seeing you naked you can use his name - seemed not to notice the interchange, instead focusing on an old door back out into the well...old part of the house. His eyes came back from a million miles away and focused on her again.

"Come with me if you want - but I think it's not the safest option."
His concern was touching and she considered it.

"If there is an off switch to this Twilight Zone episode, its not going to be safe to get to." She squeezed his hand, taking comfort in the happy jolt that gave her. "Lead on, capitan." She took a last look around the library and switched on her MagLite.

 

[chris2c4u]

There was cold air along the corridor where the light was of the intersecting beams of torches and what filtered through from the library.

We stayed close, the three of us, the others watching behind before they closed the door. The wallpaper was faded, peeling. I looked again at the map, somehow trying to put out of my mind the disembodied hand that had made the decision for us to go this way.

"Here - there should be a door..." I turned my torch to the right hand wall. A small door, as if to a cupboard was shown in the light. A rusted padlock held it shut.

"Here," Jake reached a beefy hand out and shook the lock. The years had weakened it and it came away easily. The door opened; a fetid smell - damp, maybe the droppings of some nocturnal beasts - something else - filtered up the stairs that trailed down.

The air - it must have been the air, moving - made sounds, like voices rising up.

I looked at Reb. "Well, Beatrice, let's get going into the second circle of hell. I think I hear Virgil waiting for us."

I took a step onto the cold flagstone and led the way down.

 

[BadForm]

Dave

It took everything he had to staunch the flow from Lilly's nose. He pinched the bridge, holding it in my only remaining hand while she seemed more than a little scared and confused by it all. For seconds she even seemed to be gagging as the blood backed up. Over time, slowly, he saw her begin to ease though. She reached up her own hand to take over from his and he realized he'd just grabbed in my own panic, hoping to stop someone else losing some part of their body.

"Are you ok?" He asked, tremulously.

She half-nodded, before pulling away her hand. The bleeding had stopped. She still looked scared.

"It's ok," he said. "It's probably the stress."



In the Cellar

At the bottom of the cellar stairs, a misty glow spread forwards into the whole room. It seemed to extend further with each step the professor took down. In the center of the floor, it seemed to touch against something left there. As he stepped further he saw it wasn't just something. It was a young woman, about 20, kneeling, the woman who had just appeared in a vision.

She giggled. "Thank you professor..." she said. "I've been trying to get someone to come down here for almost 20 years. Now you can replace me and I can rest. Of course, the rest will want to come out now... the jealous ones. Have fun."

Reb and the professor watched the girl as she lay down and slowly dissipating, vanished into the very air. The light in the filthy cellar disappeared with her.



Dave

He looked deeply into Lilly's face as he saw her begin to sit up straight again and his expression changed. It deepened from concern to love, to passion. He sighed and gave a brief laugh. It was like he had seen the first sign of spring after a winter-long ice-storm.

"I knew you existed!" he said firmly. "I love you too Sally."

He put his good hand behind Lilly's head and pulled her face toward him, kissing her deeply.

 

[Ghost Ship]

Liam

Liam now felt quite alone.

He looked around the library for the others, but couldn't see anyone. He worried briefly about what might happen to Reb, Jake and the Professor; but then he shook his head, trying to dispel his fears. Dave and Lilly must be around, somewhere, but he couldn't see them - maybe they had found a dark corner of the library together, he thought with a lopsided grin.
"Well, better make myself useful," he said to no-one in particular, and then wandered over to one of the many bookshelves and began to inspect its contents.

Unknown to Liam, there was strange movement in the shadows behind him...

 

[Butch]

Jake

After being able to break the lock, Jake followed the two down the stairs but he couldn't quite make out what was happening because he hadn't brought a flash light.
"Hey, prof, who the fuck is Beatrice an' Virgil, you gone crazy or sumthin'?"
By now he'd descended the stairs long enough to see what was going on:
"Holy, frickin' crap..."

 

[chris2c4u]

"Jake, get back up - get out now!"

Taking Reb's hand I began to pull and push her towards the stairs.

It was a trap, I should have known.

Who were the jealous ones? Could we still get out?

 

[Vero]

Reb held tight to the prof's hand, moving with him, quickly and trying to ignore the aggressive movements of the shadows.