Party House Murders II (A Sequel) (IC)

[Recuecn]

"There's something in here. Should we?"

“Does anyone see anything?” he asked.

"I don't see anything," said Ava, standing on her tiptoes to peer over the boys' shoulders into the room. It seemed just about pitch black in there... was the the sound of quietly lapping waves she heard? No, she had to be imagining that. "What do you mean there's something in there?" she asked. 'Something' sounded like it could be dangerous. "What is it?"

Ava had been seized by a sudden curiosity and urge to rush into the room to see what it was all about—this house just kept getting weirder and weirder. But at the same time, the Stanley had said "there's something in there" sounded ominous. The two emotions—fear and curiosity—pulled at her for a moment, but curiosity had never been going to lose. She stepped forward next to Stanley and put a hand on the back of his shoulder, almost gently pushing him along with her.

"Let's check it out," she said. She looked behind her at the rest of the group. "Hunter come on, we need your flashlight." But Hunter could catch up. Ava stepped forward into the dark room, wondering what it could possibly contain.

[Pax Nerdvana]

Hunter Kirby
Hunter approached the hole in the wall just after Ava had gone through. He shone his flashlight through the hole, carefully playing the beam across what appeared to be a grotto of some sort. The beam reflected off what appeared to be a pool of liquid, probably water. He stepped through the hole, and said,"Ava, where are you?" Hunter would have to watch his step. He didn't know what might be on the floor.

[Main Nation Ministry]

The Cave

Spencer with the group entered through the open door, as Hunter shined his flashlight across the room. The immediate smell of salt water filled the air. The ground was covered in a thin layer of water. "A cave?" Spencer said, as the group started to explore. Some specks of water dripped from above the rocky ceiling onto the ground. The flashlight beamed over a small passage that led towards the darkness, however Hunter made sure to lead the way.

"It's so dark here..Does Scott know about this?" A faint breeze passed over the group, as the sounds of waves from above were heard from the top of the cave. It appeared that this cave system was directly underneath the ocean, or off the coast from the length of it. It wasn't until Hunter's flashlight shined over an interesting sight on a rocky wall. It was a cave painting of some sort? It looked like it was made with actual paint, yet despite the moisture in the cave, it appeared to stay on the wall as a permanent marking. Like the wall of the cave was used as an canvas.

The painting showed a large mansion, but connected to the bottom of it was a snake-like root painting in a dark red that led to a black mass. It was questionable if Scott knew about this. "What is this?" Spencer said, until he noticed that there were another cave painting at the other side of the cave. It was...something. It was a painting of some sort of creature. It's limbs and body were disjointed, where it looked like it had some sort of "flower" as a mouth. The creature was painted in a bright red color. Spencer wanted to get out his camera, but the group saw that at the end of the passage, there was a wide opening for a section at the end of the cave. At the back wall of the dead end was one last painting. One that Ava and anyone who were in the gallery would immediately recognize.

The same image of hundreds of people being herded by the same shadowy figure towards the depths of hell. However, there was a big difference than the one in the gallery. The painting showed where the people were being herded towards...
It was what looked like a mass of red, white, and black. It was hard to distinguish what the part of the image was in the bottom, but it appeared to resemble flames? Or was it supposed to be drawn as blood? Within, there were tendrils or tentacles reaching towards the people.

"Woah.. This is..Scott has to know about this? I mean, his staff must use this basement?" Spencer said, as Hunter's flashlight shined over it.

[Recuecn]

"Oh, not more paintings," Ava muttered under her breath as Hunter's flashlight revealed the walls of the cave. The paintings in the gallery had creeped her out in a big way, but seeing them return was almost more annoying than anything else.

"Woah.. This is..Scott has to know about this? I mean, his staff must use this basement?" Spencer said.

"I mean yeah. If you couldn't tell from the mess upstairs, Scott has no idea how to decorate a house. But I can't imagine he would come in here much anyway, look, the whole place is flooded." Ava stepped gingerly through the cave, trying not to get anything more than the soles of her sneakers wet. She hadn't intended to do any spelunking when she came down here, and didn't want to ruin her outfit if she couldn't help it.

Ava noticed the breeze and the noise of the waves, coming from... somewhere. It was a bit hard to tell with all the echoes in the grotto. "There's definitely another way out of here," Ava said. "You can feel the air." She began to look around for any sign of the other entrance to the cave.

[Infected Mushroom]

The Cave

Stansfield Lee

As Stansfield stepped into this mysterious space, he winced as his sneakers made contact with the thin layer of water on the cavern ground. The class president's stern and observant green eyes followed the trajectory of Hunter's flashlight.Stansfield analysed his surroundings. He heard the waves from above; the smell of the saltwater was getting stronger and stronger.

"Do you hear that?" he asked the group. "It's the sea moving. With all this salt and moisture. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say we're just under the ocean."

As Hunter's flashlight unveiled more and more of their surroundings, some things immediately caught Stansfield's eye: the paintings. Such vivid, awful, illustrations; there was unsettling immersiveness to them as well.

I wonder what Mort would think... Where is he anyhow?

"My goodness," he remarked. He walked forward and touched the wall... the paintings were literally part of the cavern walls themselves. "How... how did they do this?! It's unreal. I mean, it would take a special kind of paint and pigment to stay preserved under these awful cave conditions."

He looked closely, the brushwork was as fine as ever... masterful, precise, invoking of dark emotions.

He turned and said to everyone as if to confirm: "It seems that the wall IS the canvas."

Almost at once, he regretted touching the walls. He turned and saw that his fingers were slightly darkened. Wincing, he wiped his hands clean using his green shirt.

As the group walked through the cavern, Stansfield took in the full morbidness of all of the paintings.

He found himself stopping when he saw the last image: hundreds of people being herded by a shadowy, unclear figure towards the depths of hell... towards what looked like a mass of red, white, and black. Tentacle-like things reaching out from fired and blood? It was a bit unclear.

"Wait a minute..." he said. "Why... why does this particular painting look so familiar?"

I've seen this before. But WHERE?

He tried to jog his memory, was it a book?

Suddenly he raised a finger as he remembered. "Yes... NOW I REMEMBER. This painting... or at least a variation of it... it was shown in an old newspaper about... about those murders up in SIMON CREEK!"

He paced about the cave as the memory came back.

"I... I saw it... it was a news piece about what they recovered from that supposedly haunted mansion from Maine where all those killings occurred around two years ago. This painting... it was photographed after the crimes. I saw it briefly in some documentary and some papers. I think I got that right."

Stansfield was obsessed with the news, to a fault. It was a good fit for his personality which was very fact-obsessed. Local, international, from a whole decade back, he read it all daily. Two years ago, the mansion murders were a huge deal. In fact, from his following of the case, one of the murderers was still at large.

Then he turned and saw Ava Sinclair, the only survivor of that bloodbath. She had never talked about it.

It wasn't a tactful thing to do but he felt he had to inquire.

"I... I have to ask," he said to her. "I understand you may not want to talk about it and if that's how it is then fine. But... but is there ANYTHING... ANYTHING at all that you remember about Simon Creek and the mansion? What... what happened? .... I don't mean to be insensitive, but it simply CAN'T be a coincidence that this image is here too. Something... something's not right. I only ask you now because I fear that there could be some danger here... for all of us."

Stansfield didn't like any of this. A secret passage? Some kind of morbid wall replica of a painting from a murder mansion turning up here?

Someone really didn't want them to find any of this. Someone was hiding something big... but what? All sort of alarms were being set off in his mind.

Stansfield looked at Ava closely, wondering what she would say.

[Recuecn]

The Cave

Stansfield Lee

"I... I have to ask," he said to her. "I understand you may not want to talk about it and if that's how it is then fine. But... but is there ANYTHING... ANYTHING at all that you remember about Simon Creek and the mansion? What... what happened? .... I don't mean to be insensitive, but it simply CAN'T be a coincidence that this image is here too. Something... something's not right. I only ask you now because I fear that there could be some danger here... for all of us."

Ava stared at Stansfield as if she wanted him to drop dead. Yet he could see the tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh, you don't wanna be insensitive? Well you're off to a great start. Why don't you ask how the whole thing made me feel while you're at it, therapist-ass." Ava walked haughtily to the door of the cave, before twisting around to point her finger at Stansfield one last time. "I'll tell you what happened. A bunch of people I thought were my friends got together for a party, and then two of them turned out to be literal psychopath killers." She gesture to Stansfield and the rest of the group, looking them each in the eyes. "So unless one of you turns out to be a crazy murderer, you'll all be just fine."

With that, she strode through the doorway out of the cave back into the basement, her aura full of confidence and scorn. But as soon as she was out of sight, she began to sob, and dropping the book she'd earlier grabbed from the library, wiped the tears from her eyes as she ran back up the stairs into the rest of the mansion.

[Infected Mushroom]

The Cave

Stansfield Lee

"I... I have to ask," he said to her. "I understand you may not want to talk about it and if that's how it is then fine. But... but is there ANYTHING... ANYTHING at all that you remember about Simon Creek and the mansion? What... what happened? .... I don't mean to be insensitive, but it simply CAN'T be a coincidence that this image is here too. Something... something's not right. I only ask you now because I fear that there could be some danger here... for all of us."

Ava stared at Stansfield as if she wanted him to drop dead. Yet he could see the tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh, you don't wanna be insensitive? Well you're off to a great start. Why don't you ask how the whole thing made me feel while you're at it, therapist-ass." Ava walked haughtily to the door of the cave, before twisting around to point her finger at Stansfield one last time. "I'll tell you what happened. A bunch of people I thought were my friends got together for a party, and then two of them turned out to be literal psychopath killers." She gesture to Stansfield and the rest of the group, looking them each in the eyes. "So unless one of you turns out to be a crazy murderer, you'll all be just fine."

With that, she strode through the doorway out of the cave back into the basement, her aura full of confidence and scorn. But as soon as she was out of sight, she began to sob, and dropping the book she'd earlier grabbed from the library, wiped the tears from her eyes as she ran back up the stairs into the rest of the mansion.

The Cave
Stansfield Lee

Stansfield was shocked but then he should have foreseen it. He had been tactless, too caught up in the eeriness of this painting showing here.

“Wait!” he called out. “That’s not what I...”

Too late. Ava was gone, straight back out the way they had come in.

He turned around and looked at everyone else as if hesitating.

“Okay guys don’t move, stay put,” he said firmly, raising a finger. However, he knew it was futile. They would surely keep exploring. However, for now he had to make sure Ava didn’t wander too far out alone.

He turned around and headed briskly in the direction Ava had left. Desperation coursed through him as he went at a bit of a jog. He searched and searched. She wasn’t in the rest of the cave leading back to the basement... she wasn’t in the basement with the strange objects... soon, Stansfield had walked back out of the exit and into The Mansion again... into the room with the aligned marble bust and the painting of the ship.

“Ava?!” he continued to call out. “Ava where are you? I just want to talk!”

His green eyes looked around. The girl was really gone.

She could be anywhere now.

She turned back, wondering if anyone among the party had chosen to follow him back out to search for Ava.

It was perhaps more likely that they stayed behind to explore further.

[Atkemri]

Daylon Swartz
The Mansion

After a good bit of walking Daylon had finally arrived at the Mansion Mary Anne was previously running from
The Mansion looked extremely old, but had some rustic charm about it. He didn't see Mary Anne and her Clic seeing that though... This HAD to be a prank of some sort right? There's no way they went in there for fun's sake unless they were up to something similar to some of the...offbrand manga he had read. The thought disgusted him, but he realized that with his vow, no matter what was in that Manor and whatever sick prank the jocks set up he had to go in. For the sake of his vow to that harlot Mary-Anne. Daylon slowly opened the door...

[Pax Nerdvana]

Hunter Kirby
The Cave
Hunter said,"Wow, that's a weird painting." He took out his camera, and snapped some pictures with it. He wondered where Ava and Stansfield had gone. He said,"We should try to stick together. If we're being stalked by someone or something, there is strength in numbers. I wonder if there's a boat in the water..."

[Recuecn]

Ava realized that even if she needed to distance herself from the others for a moment, she wasn't about to leave the mansion early—she was sure she could stay all night and earn the prize. She tried to find her way back to the room where they'd originally started, maybe she could just hang out there for a while... except this house was so big and dark... could she find her way back?

[Kazarogkai]

Upstairs

"I'm still curious on how Scott sleeps here. Thinking about finding his bedroom. He probably kept a copy of password in his room." Victoria explained, as the two walked down a hallway and past the red door, where Amon had started to leave the room with a baseball bat. Victoria and Mort didn't seem to realize that Amon was in the room, as they continued down the hall. However, the hallways upstairs felt like a maze, unlike what was on the bottom floor. The only doors were brightly colored that led to the latter colored bedrooms. 3 more bedrooms, though where was Scott's room? It could have been any of them.

Amon Day
Upstairs

From my base of Operations I emerged to see the lay of the land and find what may be found. If only a moment more had passed I wouldn't have noticed two figures making their way along on the path that I intended for myself seemingly without a care in this world. Only from the corner of my eye did I see these two whose names I couldn't recall greatly though whose faces I could most definitively remember. It is worth saying The fact that they didn't even notice me made it obvious their situational awareness skills were poor. If someone where to say follow them from the back keeping quite and out of sight and mind it would be an easy task. Such was my thought process as I followed the pair along making sure to stay a good while back lest they find themselves with a desire to check their six as one might say. Though a labyrinth this might be I can say I'm not the type to be daunted by such things. With my bat swinging carelessly from my left and a marker produced from my pocket in my right I was prepared. As I made my way along striding quietly in the back making sure to stay out of sight of those I followed every turn and door I made sure to write a symbol of dashes and dots on the very margins of the walls in a language that only I would understand so that when the time came I could return from whence I came. It was a skill that had been drilled upon me from a young age exploring the abandoned subway tunnels and sewers of my hometown and I made sure to apply it well here in this place.

When the end of the hall was found with me arriving only a few moments later then the others and still preferring to stay back I kept to myself about 10 paces away. With my back to the wall and in the shadows of the corners I kept watch not only on my marks but also on the hall leading to this zone. From this position not only was I able to observe the actions of the couple who I had followed along but also I was able to keep an eye from where I had come from. If any with the desire of creeping and crawling came upon this place there was a good chance they might not even see me and even if they did I would certainly see them. Now all there was was to wait and see what may come...

"Hang on, Mort. I'm wondering what's in this doll room? Tell me what you find." Victoria said, as she opened up the door to the room with the doll head on it's doorknob. While Mort was inside the bedroom, there was suddenly a large silence that was visible to Mort. The sudden feeling of being alone was appearing...

Amon Day
Upstairs

As I watched the two look over the three doors that stood at the end of the Hallway I pondered the nature of the aforementioned. Three entrances, three possibilities. Considering the location and more or less nature of the room that I had claimed as my own I could only assume that my "base" was a guest bedroom and that these 3 that lay before me were the homes of the family. Assuming of course these were rooms in the first place. I could only guess as to who or what might call these places home and whether Scott, the host, even slept in them. If I had to make a guess on the spot and with the knowledge being I know little of the family dynamics my best guess was the Door with the "Keep Out Sign" was either Scott's or a bratty sibling and assuming the latter then Scott's bedroom more than likely was the one that had the Dolls head on it. I could see either being used by the snot nosed spoiled brat like Scott with his personally fitting either rather nicely. The doll head for the edgy kid, and the "Keep out" for the bratty one. Both fit rather nicely.

As the boy in the couple approached the door with the Sailboat whose nature not fitting Scott seemed to imply maybe an older sibling or possibly parents I kept an eye on him being somewhat intrigued by the possibilities behind the door. When he entered I craned my neck to witness what I saw and what my eyes laid rest on seemed to confirm my suspicions. Way to subtle and sober for a boy like Scott is the thought that came to mind seeing the grand but sober bedding and the carefully placed posters laid out clean and precise. Yep, Probably an older sibling or maybe the parent's though I doubt it were my final reflections on the matter as my curiosity wore down. In a somewhat poetic manner right as I finished looking at the boy's discovery and peeled my eyes down the hallway from where I came I wasn't paying attention when the girl in the group opened the door with the doll head on the knob. Such was a shame for when I heard the boy saying calling out the girls name with the girl in question I knew no more than he. As a returned my attention, making sure to go through pains to avoid notice staying as still as I could to avoid notice from my shadowy corner, I like the boy puzzled at the girl whose name I now knew as "Victoria" absence peered upon where I had last seen her. That being the Doll Head Door whose location I looked upon with morbid interest trying to find what had occurred while I was looking away...