The website had said the actors weren't allowed to touch. It should be okay. It should be okay, right? But the fact remained that with his stupid touch sensitivity, he was loathe to go alone. Horace had asked one of the other funeral assistants and been informed that it was way too scary for her. They worked with dead bodies every day! He'd scrolled through his phone and landed on Jordan again. Hesitating, he thumbed in a text before erasing it, then typing it again. Would it be too forward?
And, then it was the night.
"Hey, you ready to go in?" He was feeling jittery but excited.
Quote:
the horrors.
When you roll your 1D6, these are the things that are are going bump in the night and trying to scare you.
1 - A puppy and a kitten hiding under a witch’s hat. They are horribly cute and playing together. 2 - Snek. A big snek. It might want to eat you. 3 - A clown. He smiles. There are too many teeth. 4 - A scarecrow. It’s eyes glow eerily and it never stops laughing. It’s mocking you. 5 - A nurse. She cries. Blood leaks from her eyes and off of her hands. 6 - Your shadow grows behind you, taking shape into something eldritch and unspeakable.
the rooms.
ROOM ONE
It’s a hallway. There is only one way to go and you’re not sure how it even works because you could have sworn there were windows on either side that looked into a living room. A table sits to the side, a rocking chair next to it. The lights flicker and go out. It’s when they come back on that you realize you’re not alone.
Something is behind you and a door down the way creaks open.
ROOM TWO
Lightning flashes across the sky and you can see it through the skylights that are part of the ceiling of this room. It’s a dining room with wax figures sitting at the table and forever caught in what looks like an animated discussion of politics.
You assume it’s politics. There’s a television in the corner that looks like there’s a debate playing. It’s possibly scarier than what appears next as you turn your gaze to the door that opens.
ROOM THREE
... it’s a room of ghosts, actual ghosts. Except that they’re college students lounging about on couches. One of them is doing caricatures and another pair plays beer bong. You’re absolutely not interesting to them at all. There’s another ghost in the corner by the door that opens. It seems kind of pervy.
Also it’s pointing to something behind you.
ROOM FOUR
Somehow you’ve found yourself in a garden?! Fog rolls in and despite looking you cannot, for the life of you, find the fog machine. The moon is strangely full (even if it’s not the night of the full moon) and it’s reflection is clear in the water of the fountain in front of you.
A pair of skeletons sit together on a bench, their heads together as if they died while conversing with each other. You ignore them until you hear bones creak and they both point to the hidden doorway that leads out.
This time it’s something out of the corner of your eye that catches you off guard as you’re trying to slip away.
ROOM FIVE
You enter a pitch black room. The floor seems to feel solid and flat under your feet but waving your arms touches nothing. There is music blasting and the chaotic sound of many people talking; the noises of a party. You don’t touch or bump anyone, though as you walk voices get closer and farther to your ears as if you are truly passing through a crowd.
The techno music comes to a head, there is a siren, a sudden light goes off revealing the exit. The invisible crowd cheers but something grabs you before you reach the door ...
the outcomes.
Exiting the final room puts you right back outside. A chill goes up your spine as a voice whispers in your ear, “Not bad, not bad ... I’ll have to do one better next year. Hopefully you’ll enjoy your prize.”
Should you become too scared in any of the above rooms, when you go through the door to the next one you will find yourself back outside. The house is dark, the door won’t open, but there is a bag of candy and a commemorative photo of you (and friends) waiting for you upon exiting. Later on you’ll notice a note pinned to your back that reads: BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR.
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:45 pm
"Time for some real spooky scares," Jordan said, accompanying the statement with spooky fingers, and contemplated the facade of the haunted house with a thoughtful glint in his eye. "Ready as I will be," he agreed. "How about you?"
He wasn't worried. It was just one of the seasonal haunted houses that popped up around this time of year. Some of them were scarier than others, and he usually half-assedly meant to try one, but going alone kind of missed the point of a haunted house and none of his friends were really the type up until now. This would be fun.
The Semblance of Unity rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2Total: 2 (1-6)
The Semblance of Unity
Predestined Victim
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Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2016 11:27 pm
Fear: 2/18
Quote:
ROOM ONE It’s a hallway. There is only one way to go and you’re not sure how it even works because you could have sworn there were windows on either side that looked into a living room. A table sits to the side, a rocking chair next to it. The lights flicker and go out. It’s when they come back on that you realize you’re not alone.
Something is behind you and a door down the way creaks open.
2 - Snek. A big snek. It might want to eat you.
"Alright, better now than never." He inched into the room, looking around carefully. Table, rocking chair, pretty not scary. He had expected scares right off the bat so this was a little disappointing, especially given the ticket price. Haunted houses were always so expensive. At least this one didn't have a hay ride.
"I thought-" The lights went out. "Okay... I hear something." And he did. A door creaked open ahead of them as something slithered behind. Slithered? Maybe a pre-recorded track.
prolixity
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:20 pm
"Huh. I thought there was a room this way from the windows outside," Jordan commented idly, looking around. They stood in a somewhat shabby hallway, a table off to the side with a chair beside it. It didn't look incredibly spooky.
As he started down the hallway the lights flickered, cut out, came back on again. Jordan glanced behind them for the source of the slithering sound, and briefly saw a flicker of motion near the door. "Snakes?" he guessed, and laughed a little. "Joke's on them, I think snakes are pretty cool." He nodded toward the door that had swung open. "After you."
The Semblance of Unity rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3Total: 3 (1-6)
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:22 pm
Quote:
3 - A clown. He smiles. There are too many teeth.
"That seems.. nontraditional, for a haunted house." Considering the fact that the noises stopped when they moved into the next room, he found himself growing less jittery. This room was full of rather realistic was mannequins in animated debate. Lightning flashed, cloaking their faces in odd shadows. It was a spooky tableau, but Horace didn't think it was that scary.
"Wow, is that seriously one of the presidential debates? I mean, I guess politics is scary..." Behind them, something slowly moved.
5/18 fear
prolixity
Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 7:01 pm
"I don't know, I've seen big rubber snakes in the decoration aisles around this time of year, and I guess it's a pretty common fear," Jordan said thoughtfully, following Horace into the next room. In spite of the fact that he hadn't felt particularly scared by the snakey slitherings, he was a little reassured by the fact that they stopped as the door swung shut.
The new tableau was weird, mannequins frozen in what seemed to be a spirited debate around a table, a TV on low volume in the corner. "Ugh," Jordan said, and affected a dramatic shudder. "Terrifying. That hair, I mean. Look at it, it's gonna take on a life of its own and crawl right off his head, and then where will we be?"
He caught a suggestion of motion out of the corner of his eye and turned casually to look, then jumped back, startled as he discovered someone standing right behind them. "Holy s**t!" All the clown did was smile, slow and wide and toothy, but the effect was bizarre and unsettling. "Yeah, uh, okay, we're going."
The Semblance of Unity rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 5:41 pm
Quote:
4 - A scarecrow. It’s eyes glow eerily and it never stops laughing. It’s mocking you.
"Maybe the hair should be running for vice, even." His laughter at Jordan's hair joke (it was completely true) turned into startled surprise. Getting a full look at the creepy clown, he decided Jordan had a great idea. "Okay, bye!" It helped, though, that the clown didn't move beyond smiling. Horace waved goodbye at it (only a little jerkily) as they moved on.
The next room was full of wan looking college students, of all things. Their make-up, however, was pitch-perfect and even alluded to a sense of transparency. However, it wasn't particularly scary - they were playing beer pong, for ******** sake. Suddenly, a menacing laugh seemed to bubble out from somewhere behind them. Now it was Horace's turn to look back and jump as his eyes caught sight of a scarecrow.
"W-what the hell!" The scarecrow advanced on them slowly, laughter spilling out of it's slit-cloth mouth.
9/18 Fear
prolixity
Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 7:48 pm
They ducked through into the next room, escaping the clown. "That was actually creepy," Jordan muttered. "I mean, even aside the scariness of the political machine."
He blinked at the actors occupying the room they'd passed into. The scene seemed more calculated to be almost funnier than it was scary, again, and he covered a grin with his hand when he spotted the ghosts absorbed in their game of beer pong. "Can ghosts get drunk?" he mused aloud. "I guess it'd take some good booze." He gave Horace the classic smug pun grin.
The scarecrow that popped up behind them didn't seem to be appreciative of the pun. It was certainly laughing, but there was a nastily mocking edge to its cackle that made the small hairs stand up on the back of Jordan's neck, and in spite of the fact that it really didn't match the room it had turned up in, it was frankly pretty unnerving. Fortunately, the door to the next room was right there to duck through and escape.
The Semblance of Unity rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 5:20 am
Quote:
4 - A scarecrow. It’s eyes glow eerily and it never stops laughing. It’s mocking you.
Horace barely had time to groan before they were hurrying along to the next room. Puns. There was a fountain, two skelelovers, dramatic mist. "Looks like a scene from a weird romance novel," he muttered. However, the ambiance was broken by the sound of broken chuckling. <******** dandy; the scarecrow was following them. "Jordan," he whispered urgently. "It's ********' following us." Strategically, he kept Jordan between himself and the scarecrow - not out of the regular kind of fear, but an unshakable apprehension that the scarecrow might grab him.
13/18 fear
prolixity
Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 7:01 pm
"Kind of pretty, actually," Jordan said, glancing around distractedly. "If it weren't for the creepy scarecrow, anyway." He gave the skeletons only a brief look, not particularly creeped out by their pointing. It was weirder that they were suddenly outside when they should have been still deep in the house, but the actor following them was making him too nervous to well on that.
The person under the mask was still doing that creepy, mocking chuckle, and their movements were strange and jerky, not quite natural-looking. "Great act," Jordan said to the scarecrow as he and Horace sidled toward the exit. "The body language is amazing." He'd noticed that Horace was staying on the other side of him, and frankly, he didn't blame the guy.
The Semblance of Unity rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2Total: 2 (1-6)
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:13 pm
Quote:
2 - Snek. A big snek. It might want to eat you.
"Well, they can keep their body language over there." The scarecrow continued to advance until they were almost at the door to the next room. Then it ran off, jerky movements even more unsettling in fast motion. Horace was okay with things when they didn't seem like they were about to touch him, but that scarecrow had been up on them like he was white and they were rice.
The next room, however, was incredibly unsettling. It sounded like a pitch black club, complete with music and murmuring people. The voices changed like they were coming closer and retreating... like he was moving through a sea of people that were close enough to brush against him.
"I don't like this," he said through gritted teeth. He hummed along to the music to distract himself, hoping to run into a wall or a door or something. Anything. The music picked up. Horace continued to 'untz untz untz' under his breath. There was a loud siren, then a louder cheer and he flinched. Then, a light popped on and, leaving Jordan for dead, he ran towards it. Behind him, he heard the hiss of a snake. Sorry, Jordan!
15/18 FEAR
prolixity
Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 6:41 pm
"Ugh," Jordan muttered, and watched the scarecrow vanish into some hidden exit before turning to proceed into the next room. This room was dark, full of heavy, pounding music and the chaotic sounds of a club, people talking and laughing, coming closer and moving away. There was barely enough light to pick out a path through the room, and nothing else was visible.
Horace seemed even more nervous, and Jordan wasn't sure he liked it either. Something was probably going to pop out of the darkness and go after them. In spite of the fact that he'd expected it, he jumped when a siren went off and a light popped on, illuminating the door. Horace bolted for it. Jordan was a little slower, and something did actually grab his ankle. He yelped and shook his foot free of the hissing coils, sprinting after Horace to the exit.
Horace had stopped a good distance away from the exit, waiting for Jordan. He was maybe breathing a little heavily, but only a little. Once out of the room, his apprehension had largely dissipated. He smiled as Jordan approached.
"So, uh... what'd you think?" If Horace hadn't been a victim of his own stupid phobia, it wouldn't have nearly been as tense as it was.
prolixity
Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 8:15 pm
Jordan laughed as he slowed to a halt in front of Horace. Now that he was out of the haunted house, he felt a little sheepish about getting spooked. "It was kind of a weird haunted house. I expected a lot more, y'know, bloody things and people jumping out of every corner. And 2 out of 10 on repeating the snake thing, could've used some fresh material there. But it was pretty good," he finished. "Yeah?"
"At least it wasn't expensive, right? The last room made me jumpy." He sighed and stretched. "Wanna go grab ice cream?" After that, Horace needed something delicious and normal.
