Chapter 15

We are trapped in a haunted house, inside a haunted forest, with a giant monster chasing after us. I would ask how this could get any worse, but that might be tempting fate.

We spent some time combing through the books in the library. Most were actually blank, the few that had words in them were nonsensical and didn't seem to mean anything. 

“So much for a hidden passage or hints about the game," I sighed.

“I mean, these could mean something?" Fenton was looking at one of the few books that had writing. 

“Three of a kind

One is free. 

One costs love.

One costs me.”

 “Or it could be a badly written poem,” he mused. 

Leon stood up, “let's take them with us and keep exploring the rest of the house. We should get an idea of our surroundings.

Fenton put a few of the books in his inventory and we made our way back into the entryway. There was no sign of that…thing anywhere. The house was still oddly quiet, and there wasn’t anyone else there.

“This haunted house is missing a ghost, oh, or a spooky butler that leads us around," I remarked. 

"Who would want to serve you,” Fenton snickered.

"Ouch, you're right though, I'm more the serving type," I smiled. 

Fenton was about to open a closet door when I ran over, “no, no, let me get that for you young master!" I opened the door with a flourish and took a bow.

Fenton snickered, "I know you’re trying to be obnoxious but can't you do this all the time?”

With that encouragement I continued to open all of the doors down the hall for him. Doing my best to be as theatrical as I could.

Kendrick chuckled, “you guys really are cute together." 

“More like nauseating," Leon chorted. 

As soon as I opened the last door at the end of the hallway I was met with the most delicious smell I had ever experienced in this game. A large table was set with a huge variety of foods and drinks. Four chairs were set around the table, as if inviting us to sit down.

We all stood there for a minute, that is until my stomach let out a long growl.

“Trap, trap! I smell a trap!” I yelled. 

"Shh! Well duh, it's obviously a trap. None of us would fall for this,” Fenton said while eyeballing Kendrick and Leon. 

"Don't look at me, if I thought anyone would fall for it I would think it would be Faust and his stomach,” Leon said while looking around.

"Hey, I'm not that naive,” I pouted. It all did look and smell delicious, but I had read quite a few stories about the dangers of eating food from strangers. I wasn't about to get kidnapped by some demon lord or witch or something else. 

We looked around the kitchen but didn't see anyone. There wasn't another entrance or exit into the kitchen. This house was so bare. That seemed odd for an old house, weren't there normally separate hallways or something?

“I really feel like there should be something else here…" Fenton had started feeling along the walls and floorboards trying to find another path, but he was coming up empty. 

There were some windows on the far wall, Kendrick was peering out them while Leon. Was trying to shake them loose. 

“The next place to go is upstairs, is that where we head?" Kendrick asked.

“I guess so, we don't really have a choice." I answered.

Before we could leave the kitchen we heard a soft giggle. I looked at Fenton and the others, and they all had the same look on their faces.  The small room was empty besides us.

"Well that was spooky,” I whispered.

We stood there for a moment longer, but nothing else happened. So we left the kitchen behind and made our way back to the main staircase.

"I'm calling it right now, there is a ghost and they are going to jump out at me and I'm going to pee my pants,” I groaned. 

This made Kendrick laugh, “luckily ghosts can't really do anything in this game. There were a few in different ruins I explored with my brother. Sometimes they give you information, but they generally can't hurt you.”

"Generally?” I asked. 

"Well, I can't say never, right? I don't know that every ghost in the game is passive." 

 With that delightful note we started climbing the staircase. The steps were wooden and pretty intricate. Along the banister there were carved figures. Some looked like they were dancing, and a few looked like they were screaming in pain.

Kendrick led the way. We climbed up slowly. 

"Hey, wouldn't it be hilarious if there was a trap door on the stairs?” I asked with a chuckle.

"What about that is hilarious?" Fenton looked at me annoyed.

“I don't know, I just thought of it all of a sudden." I shrugged.

Leon stopped and grabbed Kendrick's hand. “Does anyone have any skills in traps? Like detecting them?" He was looking around cautiously.

“Don't take him so seriously, Leon.” Even though Fenton said that,  he didn't take another step and was looking around.

"Sorry guys, I really didn't mean anything by it, I'm sure it's fine!” I walked up a few steps to show them that it was, in fact, fine. Unfortunately for me, it was in fact,  not fine.

When I reached the first landing the floor gave way. It was the strangest feeling. The ground was there one second and then the next it was gone. 

"Faust!”

 My stomach dropped.

I was falling.

Everything around me felt like it was going in slow motion. I tried reaching out around me, but there wasn't anything to grab onto. I had stepped too far onto the platform. 

For a split second I wondered what was down there? Maybe it was padded and I would be fine. Maybe the monster was waiting for me. 

Before I could think about it more I felt a jerk on the back of my tunic. The pull was hard enough to cut into my throat, knocking the wind out of me. 

I would have fallen, but Kendrick grabbed me and pulled me back onto the stairs. 

I collapsed and slid down a few steps. Fenton grabbed onto me.

“Faust! Faust! Are you ok? You dummy! Don't do that! Why did you do that!" 

I gasped and coughed trying to clear my throat. I looked up at Fenton who had tears streaming down his face.

Out of all the shocking things that happened in the last twenty minutes, this was the most alarming.

Coming to his senses Fenton stood up quickly and wiped at the tears. He stomped up the landing and looked at the trap door. Holding up his hands he said, “reset." 

The landing was suddenly back to how it used to be. 

“Deactivate," he mumbled and then stepped onto the solid ground.

The floor didn't give way, so he continued up the stairs.

Meanwhile, I was still laying there, mouth open. Just gawking after him. 

Kendrick bent down to help me up. “He's probably just worried." 

"Oh, yeah.” I said.

We finished climbing the stairs and looked down the long hallway. There were only two doors. Fenton was waiting in front of one of them, without looking back he threw the door open and stepped to the side, waiting a moment to see if anything would happen. Finally, we all peered into the space, but it was just a windowless bedroom. There was a large bed and wardrobe. That was it. Kendrick repeated the process with the remaining door, but it was just another bedroom.

“Where did that thing go?" Kendrick asked. 

We searched the hallway, but didn't find anything. 

“What the heck, this house is practically empty. What were we supposed to find?" I was getting tired and frustrated.

I was about to suggest that we go back and check for something we missed, but a noise threw off my plans. 

We froze. 

My ears were straining, was it a giggle or something else?

“Did you hear that?” I asked. 

The others just nodded their heads. 

From the first room we heard it again. A soft giggling. 

“Nope, nope. Nope!” I rushed past the room and started heading for the stairs when the lights suddenly went out and a door slammed shut. I took a sharp inhale and put my back to the wall of the hallway. 

I wasn’t against horror themed games, but being in one was not great. 

“Faust?” It was Fenton, he lightly touched my arm.

“Yup?” I said with a squeak. 

“I’m going to light a torch, I think we all need to be prepared if something jumps out though.”

"Right…" prepare? How does one prepare for being scared to death? Just curious.

The light from the torch erupted around us. We could make out the hallway again, and we couldn't see any ghosts. We also couldn't see Leon and Kendrick. 

“Hey! Where did you guys go? Kendrick? Leon?" I called out lightly. 

“The other room? The door shut I think," Fenton pointed at the room farthest away. 

Before we could walk towards it a figure stepped out of the first bedroom. The size wasn't right. It wasn't our guildmates. 

A large shadow obscured their face as they stood there staring  at us. 

“Fenton…” I whispered.

"Yeah…i see it too…" 

Before we could think about what to do, the figure raised its arm and pointed into the room where it had come. 

From where we were we couldn't see inside the room. 

“What does it want?" I whispered.

“How should I know? Why don't you ask it…" 

“Hey, ghost? What do you want?" I called out.

“Shh! I didn't mean literally!" Fenton scolded.

“Well, how was I supposed to know?" 

The figure continued to point at the bedroom and took a step back. 

“Does it want us to go in there?" I whispered.

“Maybe?" Fenton took a tentative step closer. Each step the ghost took another step back. Until finally we were in front of the doorway. 

“Ok, you keep your eyes on the ghost, I'm going to look inside the room." Fenton directed. 

“Oh, sure. Leave me with the creepy ghost. I'm sure that will go well," I whispered. 

The figure slowly lowered its arm.

“Fenton…it's moving." 

The figure took a slow step forward.

“Fenton…" 

It paused for a brief moment before it started sprinting at us. It barroled down the hallway quickly closing the gap between us. 

Fenton had been standing in the doorway up until I body checked him and shoved him into the room. I quickly turned around and slammed the door closed in the ghost's face. 

In retrospect, this probably wouldn't do anything to a normal ghost. Can't they just go through walls? For some reason though, this particular ghost didn't do anything. 

Right after slamming the door shut I backed away from the door and helped Fenton to his feet. We stood in the middle of the room, eyes trained on the door, waiting for the figure to appear. 

But nothing happened.

After what seemed like forever Fenton tentatively approached the door and tried the handle. 

Locked.

“Hold on, I can try to pick it…” Fenton pulled out some tools and bent down to try to unlock the door. 

After a solid ten minutes I finally asked, “Is it not working?" 

"No…” it's too high a level. He stood up and sighed.

"Well, what do we do now?” I asked.