They spread out and explored. Whilst the others looked for treasures in the upstairs rooms and opened the shutters on all the windows Loomis and Prescott made a more practical search. They had brought food, boxes full of hot dogs and other easily cooked stuff. Which was a blessing now they knew the local store wouldn't serve them even if it had stocked anything worth buying. They carried the boxes through to the kitchen. Todd had put the letter with the layout of the building in with the food, so they soon worked out the generator and gas tank were out back. The gas tank and the fuel tank for the generator were both full. After a quick check they got the generator running and gas flowing to the range in the kitchen.
There were shouts from all around the big house as lights came on. Smiling at their little victory, Loomis and Prescott put a big pan on the stove and started boiling hot dogs. Terri drifted down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Cut up a few of those rolls." Loomis suggested.
Prescott had been going through the cupboards and, smiling, he produced the ideal dish for their feast, a silver serving platter. "It's like they just up and left one day. What happened here do you think?"
"Todd said the owners were having some sort of feud. Maybe Grampa died one day and they couldn't find his will and the kids just kept on fighting over who got what until one of them died or gave up." Terri replied.
"Yeah, but what about those death symbols on the gate and the door?" Loomis asked as he started spearing dogs and putting them in the rolls Terri handed to him.
"Who knows? That guy in the gas station was creepy enough. Maybe he did it. Maybe he was working for one of the kids to scare the other ones off."
"I don't buy it. But I never saw his performance, I was too busy gassing the SUVs."
"You know the answer." Prescott said as he arranged the bunned dogs in an obsessive space saving pattern on the platter, "I'll look it up on the internet."
"You can get the internet out here in the backwoods of no-fucking-where?" Terri was sceptical.
"I have my ways. I'll get the internet."
* * *
Prescott had a large and powerful laptop. It, and the miles of cabling which belied its supposed portability, appeared to be all he had packed for the weekend. He unfolded it on the table in the middle of the room and the stylised dragon's head on its casing glowed red then white as it powered up. "I might be able to get internet." he announced.
The others left him to route and ping and do all the other incantations required to get information flowing into the library. "Got it." he announced after a while. "I've found this place's wikipedia article."
Unable to feign disinterest- because who doesn't want to hear a good story of violence and terror- the rest of the teenagers wandered over and arrayed themselves around the table. Terri leaned over his shoulder from one side and Crystal from the other. He started glancing nervously left and right. "What's it say?" Crystal asked. Then, rubbing sweater clad breasts in Prescott's face as she did so, she reached over and pulled the laptop across the table. "I'll read it out so everyone can hear the story."
There was annoyed disappointment as Crystal proceeded to read the story before passing it on. Just before annoyance became a walk out, she began. "So, like, this legend is really old. It's, like, from the Eighties."
"Yes." Terri sighed, "But what happened."
"I'm getting to it. Unclench. So, right, this place used to belong to the local mayor. This guy was also the governor of the prison."
"There's a prison?" a voice from the crowd queried.
"The big abandoned building we passed between here and the town." Terri offered.
"Oh right. Yeah. I thought it was some sort of super paranoid gated community."
"If I can carry on." Crystal hissed. "Anyway, this guy was real corrupt. He was stealing money from the funds, cutting the size of the prisoners' meals and renting out the work gangs to his pals. They'd do a full day's work, picking up litter or digging trenches or whatever they were supposed to be doing for the state, then they'd have to do a few hours fixing up houses or laying driveways. It was like the mayor had his own slaves.
"So this went on for years, until one inmate snapped. He was in for something minor. A bit of a wimp, he was passed around and used by the older prisoners until. Eeeew, I'm not going to read that bit out. Anyway, he was abused, and the guards joined in. The mayor got him to... ick. But he prayed while he made him do it, or it would have been a sin. Obviously, the prisoner vowed to have his revenge, and started plotting ways to escape.
"The chance came when the work crews were landscaping the mayor's gardens, here at this house. He was given a turfing iron, which is, like, a spade but with a round blade not a square one. They set him off to work on the lawn and left him to it. So they didn't see that he'd found a stone to sharpen the edge of the turfing iron with. He sharpened the edge till it was like an axe, or maybe better. And then he waited for his chance.
"The mayor came to look at his new lawn on the third day, along with the prison's chief warden. The prisoner pretended not to hear them as they got closer. They were just about to praise his work when he spun around. He missed the mayor, but the spade edge was so sharp he took the warden's head clean off with a single blow.
"The mayor tripped and fell backwards, until he was spread-eagled on a patch of his lovely new lawn. The prisoner raised his turfing iron and drove it down like a stake. But he wasn't aiming for the mayor's heart, his blow sliced the mayor's.... bits right off. Now, this also slit the arteries in the mayor's thighs and he started to bleed out, screaming like a stuck pig. The prisoner calmly reached into the gore and fished around until he found the mayor's bits. Then he used them as a gag.
"The mayor's screams had drawn attention and the guards were running toward the lawn. But there were only two of them. The prisoner had taken the warden's gun and he shot both of them before they realised what was going on. Then he calmly took a set of keys from one of the guards and released his shackles before going round to the front of the house, where all the other prisoners were working and wondering what was going on.
"They thought he was going to release them, but he didn't. Using the guards' shotguns and the warden's pistol, he shot the rest of the prisoners. It's said that he ran out of bullets and the last one, he'd saved the meanest bully, the prison kingpin, to last. Well, the last one, he hamstrung with the turfing iron and then he flayed the skin off their legs. Then he got bored. He split their stomach open with his blade and pulled the entrails out on the porch. Then he let the mayor's dogs out so they could snack.
"The first anyone in the town knew of it was when the stream that ran down the hill turned red with blood. When they got up here they found everyone but the kingpin dead and him mad with pain and terror as a pair of poodles snacked on his inside. The prisoner was never found, despite one of the biggest manhunts in the history of the state. It's said he lives in the woods around this very house, waiting for more victims to fall under his spade."
Crystal pushed the laptop back to Prescott. Everyone pondered the story. "So, how true is this?" Tiffany asked after a while, "Did it really happen? Is he still out there?"
"Well, I got it off Wikipedia." Prescott answered.
"That's not a guarantee." Terri said, "People put anything into Wikipedia."
Prescott stared at her. His expression said that he didn't want to argue with her, but she had just insulted the Internet. "I'll do some more searching. But most urban legends have some truth, some sort of truth, behind them."
"Whatever makes you happy." Terri patted his shoulder.
"Well if you're going to spazz out I'm going to play pool." Todd announced, "There's a table in the dining room." He slapped Loomis on the back, "You up for a few games dude? For money? I promise not to take all of your allowance." He got a dark look in return, but Loomis nodded. As Todd turned away there was the slightest hint of a smile on Loomis' lips. Someone was about to get hustled.
* * *
Prescott was all alone in the library. As the light faded and he didn't move from his engrossing clicking and surfing the glow of the screen became the only illumination. He looked even more pasty and less healthy in the blue glow.
Behind the bookshelves a latch lifted smoothly. The bookshelf would move just as smoothly. An eye stared out through a gap between a pair of books, a hand reached out to push the secret door open.
"Hey, nerd boy! Come and make this old game system work!"
At the far end of the room Todd had slid open the door to the adjoining dining room and now he stood in the gap, staring at Prescott. The nerd closed his laptop and carried it sullenly into the dining room. Silently and gently the latch was slid back into position.
* * *
It was an old arcade machine, over six feet tall, with pictures of axes and machetes dripping blood on the sides. Prescott eyed it with wonder. "House of Slashers? I've never even heard of it."
"Can you make it work?" Freddy asked.
"Have you tried plugging it in?"
"Errrr."
Loomis and Freddy shuffled the cabinet away from the wall and found the power cable snaking toward the socket. The prongs on the plug strained upward, trying to make it to the power they craved. Freddy pushed the plug into the socket and the whole cabinet hummed.
There was a crackle of static and a smell of ozone as dust was shifted off the circuit boards. Motes danced above the screen as it warmed up. Loomis and Freddy pushed the cabinet back against the wall. They stared at the screen as it came to life and the game's title, in blocky white capital letters, appeared. Pixelated tear-drops of blood fell from the top of the screen down either side of the title to hit a red pool at the bottom with a blocky animated splash.
"This is, like, ancient." Freddy announced. "I think my Grandpa played games like this. Me first."
Freddy grasped the frame of the cabinet and flexed, parodying an athlete's warm up. He laced his fingers together and stretched them, trying and failing to get them to crack. "Okay. Bring it.... Insert coin to play? What sort of scam is this?"
Loomis produced a coin, "First games on me."
"Thanks dude." The coin went in the slot, credits registered, and the coin clattered out into the return tray. "I talked too soon. This isn't a scam after all." He pressed the 1 Player button.
The title screen dissolved in a shower of pixels and the square face of a haunted mansion appeared line by line. It was three storeys tall, with columns either side of the entrance, ivy climbing the walls and cobwebs in the windows. Jagged white lines appeared and disappeared rapidly to a tinny crash of thunder. A little blocky figure walked stiffly from the left of the screen and into the door, which opened- or at least turned black to symbolise opening, just as he got to it. 'LEVEL 1' titles appeared.
Crystal was sat on the pool table, across from Todd- who had sunk into a large leather armchair- swinging her long legs and teasing him with the possibility of a glance at her panties. "Geeks." she stage whispered.
"I don't get what's so great about staring at pictures on a screen and pretending you're doing stuff." Todd admitted. "I'm more.... physical."
"Don't I know that." Crystal giggled. She hopped off the pool table and went to sit on the arm of Todd's chair. "Want to show me how physical?" she whispered.
Todd's hand slid up Crystal's leg, pushing her already short skirt even higher. He looked around, to see if anyone was watching. The only person who saw what he was doing was Terri. She went red and looked away quickly. "Let's go babe. I found the master bedroom before." he stood and pulled her after him.
"Hold on." Crystal swept her shoulder bag off the pool table, "We'll need this." She leaned close to whisper, "It's got protection in it."
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