Halloween Event: The Ghosts of Terrorists Past

[welian]

Is there such a thing as ghosts? Possibly!


A research team at Commonwealth’s headquarters has been looking into some strange but subtle events – hallucinations of people who are no longer with us, seen by multiple people. Voices from nowhere, inanimate objects moving by themselves… It’s the classic work of some sort of psychic prankster, except there’s no evidence of a living human nearby whenever there’s an investigation.


Agent Margo Wallace (Ms. Wally for short) thinks she has the answer.


“You see,” she says, as she hands you what frankly looks like an alien hairdryer, “When a psychic super dies, there’s always this chance that they’ll leave behind an imprint.” She admires her own weapon, the original prototype that’s got more than a few ominous scorch marks on the shell.


“I’m not Agent Holden, bless his soul, so I won’t bore you with the details. But, you’re all holding glorified degaussers.”


Harry, who organized this community service field trip to D.C., tries to say something in his defense; but one of the other students takes the liberty of dropping their phone at high velocity and in a horizontal fashion on Agent Holden’s face. Margo continues, only moderately perturbed.


“As much as we want to respect the dead, we can’t just have ambient energy everywhere, messing with people’s heads. So, your job tonight is to go through the old Clarke-Knight hospital and clean it up. Whenever the machines I’ve given you start beeping, that just means they’re picking up energy. Flip the red switch on the left here, and…”


The alien hairdryer device in Ms. Wally’s hand promptly sparked, and belched out purple smoke.


“… And it will, in theory, generate an anti-wave that will disperse the energy and destroy the psychic imprint.”


Harry couldn’t hold it in anymore. It was hard to say if his face was red from trying not to talk, or from having a smartphone thrown at his orbital socket.


“Margo, if I could just interject – “


“Which you just did, but okay.”


“I really think you should give the students some background on this facility! It’s an integral part of Commonwealth history, the original seat of power for the agency, named for two pioneers, you know, Father Clarke and Sister Knight, and the Rapture attack and the Parasite incident and the Artemis project – we’re standing on history!! Actual modern history!”


Margo gives Harry a critical stare, and sighs. Director Chernov warned her about this guy, she didn’t think he was real. She thought the Baltimore office was making shit up. They weren’t.


“Fine. Here’s the abbreviated history. Right now, we are standing in one half of the Clarke-Knight Commonwealth complex, which is what used to be the headquarters of the agency. Now it’s straight-up a research facility. The other half is the hospital proper. Both halves are shut down for renovations, and because some fuckwit in Congress thinks he knows how to balance a checkbook better than actual accountants.”


Why did she have to be the info dump? She hates being the info dump! That’s Harry’s job!


“It’s a hospital for supers than ran for forty consecutive years, including during the Rapture attacks. Lots of supers have died in here, which means lots of psychic imprints that need to be neutralized and destroyed as part of the cleaning process.”


“Margo, you can’t use that tone of voice! We need to give history the reverence it deserves!”


Around this point in time, Margo Wallace turns slightly translucent and begins sinking through the floor. Her disembodied voice echoes around the hallway.


“I have three pounds of Halloween candy for whoever clears the most imprints by the end of the night.”


“Margo, wait! You’re supposed to be the one guiding and supervising the students!”


“No. I hate teenagers.”

 

[welian]

Welcome to the Clarke-Knight complex. Your adventure began when the substitute community service teacher at Facility 108 decided it would be a fantastic idea to organize a field trip to the Commonwealth headquarters in DC and service the community by assisting with hospital renovations.


The original email sounded like it would just be light cleaning and taking inventory of furniture, but no – you get here, and this crazy agent lady is going on about “psychic imprints” and Harry is tripping over himself trying not to talk as much (there are rumors that Mr. Red inspired him to make a “personal resolution” after holding his head in a toilet bowl for three hours).


But hey, Margo promised a ton of Halloween candy to whoever did the most “psychic cleansing” by the end of the night, so whatever.


Roleplay Rules:



Your Event GM for this thread is Zahzi, in addition to myself. He will assist me in helping to move the event along. Remember, he’s only an event GM, so don’t bother him with questions about the main RP!


This event is a “special episode” in that it’s not canon to the main story – events from the main story are referenced in here, but events that happen in this Halloween episode will likely not carry back to the main story. And, while this ostensibly takes place in October, it’s not actually October in the RP proper, so just… don’t think too hard about the timeline, okay?


All players who would like to participate, please state your intentions in the OOC thread! All characters involved will be organized into two to four teams depending on how many people there are.


Mechanics:


Every time a player posts, I will roll two or three dice. Based on the combination and sum of numbers, various things will happen.


Die 1: A D6 for Event Chance. This is a passive number that only takes effect when certain combinations of numbers are achieved.


Die 2: A D4 for Ghost Chance. If this is a 4, the player who just posted will encounter a ghost in their next post.


Die 3: If the player encounters a ghost, I will roll a D20 for equipment failure. There is a chance your imprint-neutralizing gear will fail to work, or it might catch fire. It might also turn into a pile of jellybeans, I’m not sure.


If the sum of the dice thrown exceeds a certain value, some terrible will happen!


Halloween NPCs:


Agent Margo Wallace: Margo works for Commonwealth as a mechanical engineer, she designs a lot of the gadgets and devices that agents use out in the field. Like Harry, she is enthusiastic about her work. Unlike him, she believes in brevity. She has little patience for kids and teenagers, and prefers to be left alone to work. Her power is intangibility with a side of levitation.


Father Ewen Clarke: A Catholic priest who works at a nearby church, Ewen is a descendant of Father Lloyd Clarke (arguably the founder of the first American "superhero team"), whom the original Commonwealth complex is named for. Ewen's power, depending on who you ask, is either the ability to speak to the dead, or (according to Margo) "some weird-ass combination of telepathy and retrocognition".


???: Something wicked this way comes.

 

[Gus]

The purple smoke settled in along the floor of the hallway, covering Margo's departure like a vile smelling industrial smog. Nobody paid it any mind, but if they had, they might have noticed it drawing toward one of the power outlets as if pulled by a faint pressure imbalance. It disappeared, bit by bit, into the empty slots, with a faint crackling sound and the barest hint of blue sparks. A few moments later, the lights in the hallway flickered, a light spasm of foreshadowing, with ominous intent.


Far, far away, something stirs. What have our heroes wakened?


What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Clarke-Knight to be born?

 

[Zahzi]

A humming could be heard as a man walked toward the group Harry was now left with since it was clear Margo wanted nothing to do with 'the help'.


"Ahh, Mister Holden! It's good t'see you again. I see ya've brought along some fresh eyes for tonight." the man walked into view, revealing quite quickly who he was. Dressed in a traditional Cassock, the Catholic Father stood in front of the group, giving a warm smile to everyone.


"Good evenin', I am Father Ewen Clarke. While I am certain Miss Wallace'n Mister Holden are more than capable of keeping you all safe tonight, I felt that it was for the best that I tag along as well. While I might not be a wealth of knowledge like Harry, or have the technical knowhow of Margo, I am sure my presence should help tonight's adventures."


"Are there any questions?" he asked, looking up to see someone in the back raising his hand. His smile grew larger, recognizing the man.


"Yeah, why the fuck am I here?"


And just like that, the smile died.


"Ahh....Mister Ward....Welcome back."

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory was fighting to keep his face impassive. The blur effect surrounding his skin probably helped, but he was worried his students might get more than just spooked if they intuited just how much anxiety this assignment brought up in him. It wasn't that he believed in ghosts or anything. He was trained as a scientist and engineer, and he understood at least as much as Agent Holden about the enigma field. He had even started on a doctoral dissertation about the interaction between enigma particles and dark matter, postulating something he had dubbed the 'halcyon' field governing their interaction, but had left his work unfinished after getting his blue card.


No. It wasn't ghosts he was afraid of, nor psychic imprints, electrical anomalies, or even terrorist attacks. Aaron Mallory was afraid of the past. He had been on assignment in England when the rapture incident had begun, so he had not been involved in the main part of the action. But he had helped with the clean up. He had seen the evidence of things that had been done in this facility. He had nightmares about it still. Or at least, he assumed he did. He woke up at least once a month in a cold sweat, with no memory of what had wakened him, just a vague impression of darkness and death. And what else could that be, really? There was no darker part of his past that he could recall.


Except there was, he thought, there was something terrible inside him, buried in his past. And part of his mind knew about it, was whispering the truth to the rest of him...


He shook himself. The past couldn't hurt him. It had tried its best at the time, and he was still here. And if there was any echo of the pain the victim's of the Clarke-knight experiments lingering in this place, then his job wasn't done. They had sent him here on clean up duty over twenty years ago. Now, it seems, science had found a spot that he had missed. He would finish what he started. These 'ghosts' would be put to rest. Respectfully. And if there was data to support something more than energy, momenta, enigmons, strangelets, quarks and halcyons at work here, even better. Maybe he could co-author a paper to shake the foundations of philosophical naturalism. Stranger things have happened. He lifted a pack full of degaussers scanners and spare power packs as if it were weightless, slinging it over his shoulder to free up his hands.


“I am going to start in the basement. If there are imprints, that is where I would expect to find them. Who all is coming with me?”

 

[Necessity4Fun]

If there was one thing Kendrick had always wanted to do but couldn't, was go trick or treating. Of course, it did happen at his neighbourhood, even thought it was a more boring version of trick and treat, but he was just never allowed to go outside by any of his parents. Not with 7, 8, 9, 10, not even later and not even now after he had grown 'too old for trick or treating', as other always put it. Thus, every Halloween, he just watched TV as it showed him cartoons about the event, and he tried to picture how fun it must be to dress on a silly costume and knock on people's doors the entire night, completely unwatched.


This year however, his luck had changed. The substitute community service teacher -turned out to be just Agent Harry again, but fine-, asked them to go on a field trip, on HALLOWEEN NIGHT! And being it an AEGIS related chore, his parents couldn't say no. They actually demanded that he left with them. Yeees!


Kendrick never thought he would be thinking this but, thank you Agent Harry! No staying at home doing whatever for this Haywood! Not like there were other Haywood's home doing whatever right now, there really weren't... Either way, The boy was in a good mood and the sudden shift from boring cleaning tasks, to the sci-fi gun thing and babbling was very welcome. Wow, he actually felt like a ghost-buster from that very old movie he had watched once.


The only thing that had gotten him slightly worried so far was the fact that Agent Margo had said the phrase 'In theory' earlier... So, In theory these machines work? That's definitely tempting Lady Fate... Why, oh, why couldn't these things be more precise?


The boy didn't normally believe in ghosts or anything of the sort, but that technical conversation earlier had been enough to sparkle doubt. "What to do if these things jam up?", he had wanted to ask, and almost raised his hand, however, in the last minute refrained from doing so.


No, he wasn't going to let fairy tales such as ghosts scare him, if he did, what good was him for anything? Come on, a Haywood, scared of mythical beings? That was laughable. Nah, Kendrick would endure. He would go out with the first separating group and not regret a single thing. Because nothing was going to happen. Yeah, nothing...surely.


The first person to suggest separating was Mr. Mallory. Kendrick liked the Collateral Damage and You teacher, he was less weird and more teacher-like than some of the other teachers he had met on facility 108. The teenager had been ready to join the teacher, when he thought about going inside a dark basement and stopped on track:


"Come on, it's just a dark, maybe wet place... Who knows what happened in there though...", realizing how silly he sounded, he shook his head, "No... I decided I'd be going with the first team, so, I AM going to keep true to my word and GO with that team. Even thought they're going down, deeper into unexplored...and I hope not dangerous, darkness..."


Kendrick took a deep breath and petted Ted, who had been on his right shoulder all this time. Since he had been expecting to do just some cleaning and lifting, the boy had only brought the stuffed bear for company. Now he was regretting that decision a little.


"Let's go, buddy. It seems we're going to hunt ghosts tonight.", he laughed, before going towards Mr.Mallory, holding that weird machine he had been given earlier:


"I'm... coming too...", that, didn't sound very sure, "Me and Ted, we're coming along with you, Sir.", there, much better.

 

[simj26]

Josephine Cross
​

​

 
​

"So when there's something strange in your neighbourhood, you call Facility 108?" was the first thing other than smoke that came out of the school nurse's mouth for the whole trip, directed at the agents. She tapped her cigarette, scattering more ash on the ground beside two already-spent cancer sticks. There had been no indication that she couldn't blaze through her pack, and taking the time off from sorting out her cabinet of animal schlongs meant for herbal medicines had the effect on her where she just HAD to blaze through her pack. Not to mention how stress-inducing it was listening to their tour guides ramble on and on about psychic imprints this, psychic imprints that, psychic imprints her ass. As always, the whole set-up was because of some super's job. Why did everything awful have to be related to a super? The little altercations with Raguel hung clearly in her mind. 


She sighed inwardly and realigned her gaze towards the building. Whatever resided in there, whether it could be explained by medical science or not, she doubted that she would find an invisible man sleeping in one of the beds peacefully, especially after what one of the Commonwealth agents had said. She picked up one of the odd weapons, and hefted one battery pack with her without complaint. She had carried heavier. Noticing a pale shade come across the CD&Y teacher, she playfully poked him on the side with her hairdryer. "I'm going with you, but make sure we don't cross the streams, eh, Mr. Mallory?" she said through gritted teeth that held the cigarette in her mouth. She drew one last intake of poison, and spat out the stub, exhaling one cloud of smog into the air. 


An odd thought came to her mind. Was it just her, or did Clarke-Knight sound like 'dark night'? Perhaps a foreshadowing to come? She shook her head. Nah. She was a doctor, not a horror novelist. What kind of bollocks is that talk? Gripping the hairdryergun and battery pack in one hand, she unbuttoned her holster of her revolver, before returning the hairdryer to the free hand. Psychic imprints (read: ghosts) or no, insurance was better than none. 

 

[Teh Frixz]

Tabitha Crane 


"Oh god sorry!! Sorry!!" 


The horizontal arc was easily traced back to the now crawling about the floor Tabitha. She'd been scrolling on through some creepy videos to get into the whole spirit of the adventure into the house and one of course just had to be a jump scare synced up to her headphones. The phone was in her hand, screen off but playing audio still and the sharp scream of the jump scare really snapped her out of the boring rant. 


Dusting her phone off, she deposits it back in her hoodie like a kangaroo handling her Joey, with utmost care and caution. Her tall frame slips back amongst the throng of students as she takes her place to listen to the rest of the explanation of what they were doing. 


This whole thing was already abnormal. Tabby could grow a foot for each 'outreach' program she'd been signed up for since her incident but she was sure that she'd perish due to her head being in space. Most of the time she'd been pouring soup in bowls or holding things for construction workers. Her weekends reduced to this sort of thing. 


Now, able to go out and get spooked with some kids in her classes, the normal shy Tabby was feeling a little in her element. It was hard to be the afraid one when everybody around you was also scared, or at least a little creeped. At least her clothing seemed marginally better for this sort of thing, a thick hoodie and her scarf went along well with the beanie she wore. Everything was baggy but that was normal for her and was giving her pretty decent protection against the run down building. 


The hair dryer is palmed by Tabby as she falls in after the closest adult. That being the chain smoking nurse. Tabby not even saying anything about following along, just immediately stepping after her 

 

[welian]

GM Note: An event has been triggered.
​

A distant voice can be heard, a whisper in the wind - well, draft.
​

"Why are you following me...?"
​

/monthly_2016_10/icon-agentharry.png.6e3f20d022254135570b4e04ceff3b23.png"So we'll split into groups and, uh..." Agent Harry faltered as he watched the group begin to split up. He was flattered that the venerable Father Clarke called him a wealth of knowledge, but it didn't really make up for the general lack of enthusiasm for Harry's marginal leadership skills. He stared in mild dismay as Margo abandoned them - probably to watch television in Director Chernov's old office, how could she, if she did anything to damage Director King's origami collection - and everyone else seemed to fall in line with Mr. Mallory.


Of course Harry didn't resent the teacher for his superior leadership skills, it was just that - no, well, yeah, Harry was a bit bitter about it. How could the students not love his educational lectures? They were fun! Informative! And they were perfectly safe so long as they weren't delivered in the basement where the hospital morgue was, and where the subjects of many classified files expired!


Harry's eye twitched as Kendrick, Tabby, and Josephine all made their choice. Slowly and with much dread, he turned to Mr. Ward.


"W-why don't we team up?" he asked with feigned brightness, trying to expunge the memory of porcelain assault. "Since you, ah... you used to work here...." Harry paused, weighing his words. "We could, uhm.... give a very informative lecture on the history of Commonwealth?"


For all his love of science, Harry Holden was not ready to spit it out - he swore up and down that the Commonwealth basement was haunted. It was always the basement, even the Facility 108 basement had urban legends about it! Come to think of it, Facility 73 didn't have a basement, but they did have a haunted barn... On topic, Harry! On topic!

"Why are you following me...?"
​

 

[Zahzi]

Ewen looked around at the people choosing who to go with and nodded, counting off all in attendance. He looked over at Aaron before looking back to Harry and Red. If he was leading a team into the basement, they were going to need someone who had the building's layout ingrained in their head....And someone to keep them from becoming overwhelmed by what might jump out. Yes, Ward for navigation and Holden for a word-barfing distraction would work....


"Mister Ward and Holden? I would suggest going with Mister Mallory. No doubt he may need help with the nooks'n'crannies down there." he said with a chuckle. "Oh, and mister Mallory, I am happy to say you will not have any issues with the elevator system if you require it....They were tested for weights in regards to inhuman properties long ago." he said with a smile before looking down the hall opposite of the group.


"As for everyone else, I will guide you through to the upper levels. We may even stop by the late Mister King's office on the way." 


Red looked over at Harry with a blank expression. As if he had to register in his brain a few times the fact that Holden had decided to cross a line again that ended in pain only a half an hour ago.


"I must say, Harry. If you keep talking you might get to experience DROWNING again." he told the agent casually


"Oh that's bull and you know it, Ewen, How come I have to deal with-"
 


"Because you and I both know exactly what you would do if you walked into Errol's office, Mister Ward. I still remember what happened last time." Ewen interrupted, staring at Red dully.


"No fucking regrets."


"....Language, Mister Ward....There are children present."


"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT." Red marched down towards the stairway leading towards the basement.


He'd at least get to go through some old memories down here...


Ewen just gave a tired sigh.


"...Hasn't changed at all....."

 

[D. Rex]

Ophelia, who was torn between playing with her zapomatic and and deciding whether or not to save the banana she was given as a snack for later, finally spoke up after a few a brief period of ignoring everything that was going on. Yes, she was very excited about all of this. Haunted mansions AND laser guns. Best night ever. Add scary! She liked scary. Oh well. From what little bits she had gathered, Mr. Mallory and Mr. Red were going down. Mr. Harry and Mr. Ewen were going up then?


"I will go with you Mr. Harry!" She exclaimed. "Imagime how many more ghosts we can bust when we don't have to share with forty other kids? Or... are you going down? Nevermind then. Because I want to go up. And to that office, I will bet half of the candy I win that there is a secret passage somewhere up there."


Oh goodness, so excited. The impatient writhing of her tentacles was testament to that. Going to up and blast stuff. Which reminded her. "Mr. Ward, I can blast that office for you if that was what you were wanting. I will charge you though!" She called after him. He could see him doing something like that. And surely, if you send a bunch of super teens in with experimental blasters into a probably condemned building, collateral damage probably was not such a big issue. 


This reminded her of something else. She raised a tentacle (even though there was no reason she should start now. In typical Oppie fashion, she did not wait to be called on. "I have a question. Would I be allowed to have a second gun thing? I can hold another. Or two." Twice the firepower meant twice the points, right? "And can these ghosts hurt us? Like, should we not touch them? Or do we need to run from them?"


Hmm... she considered she might be talking too much. All the chocolate beforehand probably didn't help. Myeh, oh well. She was not inside yet.

 

[lazee]

In this spooktastic activity, Minah made a presence, bringing with her an unintentional layer of ambient fear. The sound of cawing crows from outside would cause an occasional student (or teacher) to jump and maybe someone or more might get pecked tonight. Her mind riddled with equal parts fear and excitement, she stuck close to the nearest adult male. Since her father Klaus had been unable to chaperone her in this romp through an obviously haunted hospital, that title fell to Hunter Ward of all people, her HNtK teacher. It was a comical sight, a scared girl clinging to the side of a bear-like barbarian of a man.


Spending most of her non-existent childhood in relatively primitive Aceh land, the girl developed a sense of spirituality/superstition, as well as acknowledgment/fear of the supernatural. So much so that when she first discovered her bird controlling powers, she was convinced that she was actually a demon. That line of thinking was a thing of the past, but it's still a reality that Minah vos Scheiffer believed in ghosts and were afraid of them. But catching ghost seemed like such a novel idea! It was like in her classic movies-what were they called again, Ghostbangers?


Caught in her own thoughts again, Minah didn't notice that her ward (hehe) had gone on his own to the...base...ment. Bangsat. That place was dark and probably full of terrors. But why was she here if not to defeat those terrors, an irrational voice in her head said. There are always limits to bravery, the more rational part of her said. Why are you following me, an entirely different voice outside her head said.


Oh no.


"MR. WARD, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!!" she shrieked out for dear life as, clutching her ghost-killing device, she dashed to follow Red down into the basement. 

Spoiler

http://prntscr.com/csiadf

 

[Lioness075]

Having stuck to the back of the group for the most part, and wondering why this whole thing was even considered a good idea for rambunctious 'supers' to be handling, Sam quietly chuckled to herself when a few students had small panic attacks. The fun hadn't even started yet and they were already freaking out. It was like working at the haunted house all over again, except Sam wasn't even doing anything. Yet.


Having ignored most of the lectures given to the group, Sam looked over her stupid 'machine', which just looked like some weird hairdryer to her. How exactly was this thing supposed to help again? Shrugging, Sam tossed it aside, as she already knew that eating most chocolates made her feel sick. Sam didn't know if she had any particular allergies or if it perhaps had to do with her physiology, but it didn't really matter to her. This was a quality haunted house theme and she was more than satisfied to just be tagging along for the immense satisfaction of seeing others freak out. Not that it helped her whole 'demon' nickname or appearance, but Sam had grown to truly enjoy seeing the fear in other's eyes. It was no wonder she was so good at acting when she worked at that haunted house in her old life.


Deciding to have a little fun even before things really got underway, Sam coyly grinned before she suddenly dashed forward and briefly vanished. A heartbeat later and she reappeared beside poor, frightened, little Minato just in time to answer in a dark tone, "Watch where you step, Minah." And without further ado, Sam stuck her tail out right in front of Minato's legs, her coy grin never leaving her face while she watched in anticipation for Minato to likely cause what would be a delightful domino effect. At the very least, this would speed up the process of moving everyone down into the basement. If it ended up failing, well, Sam would still get to enjoy some fear from Minato since she had a good feeling about her appearance alone terrifying the girl. It wasn't all too pleasant to suddenly have someone who looks like a demon appearing right beside you and then consequently using their tail to try and trip you. But hey, what was life without a few 'pranks'?

Spoiler

 

[Zahzi]

Hunter gave a sigh, hearing Minah shirek.  He thought she was going to be one of the good students. You know, not terrified of anything, and able to follow orders without some weird reaction to boot. Nooo, it seemed like destiny was giving him the finger once again. And as usual, he would have to babysit Tweety and Garfield. Oh joy.


"Keep your voice down, Tweety. This place has enough overly-dramatic issues to begin with." he told Minah, looking back at her as he continued toward the basement.


"And careful where you put your tail, Garfield. You wouldn't want it getting stomped on. Again." Red grunted, looking over at Sam with a bored expression. 


Oh right, let's not forget about the windbag.


"And Harry, if you are coming, I would recommend doing so soon. I WILL leave you behind if you keep wanting to word barf about this place."

 

[Gus]

“Why are you following me?”


The thought echoed in his head strangely as Aaron trudged down the stairs. “They are following me because I invited them to do so,” he thought back, and this thought felt more like one of his own. His mind felt foggy and waterlogged. He rolled his head around, trying to crack his neck joints, but that just made it worse.


It was not that he wasn't used to carrying out dialogs in his head; most of his thoughts played out that way. This thought though had felt, different, somehow. Aggressive and angry, unlike him, and a little bit worrisome: he actually felt a flash of irritation as each person joined his procession toward the stairs. The pranks and shrieks and banter, which normally he was quite tolerant of seemed to grate on his brain like the squeak of teeth into styrofoam. “Red” and Agent Holden were the worst of all, which was especially odd. He genuinely liked Harry, and while he and Hunter Ward had some rather different ideas about how to reach out to children, they both prized results over conventional methods. He had ample respect for both of them, and yet with each step down the stairs, his mood darkened. Ugly thoughts, bordering on violence, drifted across his mind. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he muttered under his breath, barely audible


“You two bastards should have put a stop to all of this. You knew what was happening here. This is all on you.”


Aaron looked around, trying to see who had spoken, but the group arrayed behind him was silent... There were three broad passages leading away from the foot of the stairs, all poorly lit by tired old fluorescent lights, walls tiled in shiny green, floor in matte black. The one straight ahead had a slightly crooked sign dangling from the ceiling saying simply: MORGUE.


Glancing back a second time at the four children and three adult pooled by the foot of the stairs, he jerked a thumb toward the sign and said: “Well, that seems a good place to look for 'ghosts' don't you think?”


Something deep in his psyche chuckled, and he felt his face twist into the rictus of a grin. “Yes. The morgue. How fitting,” he thought.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Despite all his efforts to not let it show, Kendrick was extremely nervous about going down. So nervous that the wind had started asking him questions! The question 'Why are you following me?' from earlier was only his mind playing tricks on him, right? Only his imagination trying to scare him even more, right?


In a normal occasion, the boy would have greeted everyone else in the group, at least, acknowledge them in some way... But this time, he was too focused on how scared he was to even try and look behind him... That's usually what happened in movies. Just the act of peeking behind you seemed to trigger a big change of something indeed BEING there! He wasn't going to give opportunities for a cliché to happen, so easily. Nope, no looking behind for this Haywood!


He followed after Mr. Mallory, constantly glancing to the sides. It didn't help that it was getting darker, it didn't help that everyone else was silent... Really, whoever was in charge of the illumination of this place needed to be fired. What a poor job! Kendrick could barely see what was right in front of him! That is being reckless, what if someone trips? You would have an instant human domino toppling until the bottom... So thoughtless!


Since complaining about things seemed to distract him from feeling scared, and, complaining was something he certainly knew how to do, Kendrick decided to critique everything mentally.


From the apparent dullness of the entire concept, to how risky and lacking of security bars the stupid staircase was, nothing escaped from being judged. At this pace, once they arrived down, the boy was already feeling a lot better. If he had known complaining would do the trick, he might have done so earlier! He started going about illumination again, these almost pointless lights were doing such a great job at helping him see... What was even the point of having them down here?


That's when Mr. Mallory made a question. Unsuspecting, Kendrick had replied without really paying attention:


"I'm already not seeing much. It can't possibly get worse than this..."


The boy stopped. What were they talking about? He shifted his attention from the dumb illumination, to the set of tunnels before him. Ah come on! Shiny green tiling?? Is this a sick joke? Wasn't the place ugly enough already WITHOUT these? Ugh, he wanted to die, or yell at whoever had this brilliant idea... Yeah, that could work too...


Then he looked up, and the deformed sign caused him to freeze into place:


"M-m-morgue?! It's another joke, right? Mr.Mallory couldn't be possibly thinking on leading us inside... H-he's a responsible man, right?", he glanced at Ted as if waiting for someone to reassure him, "No teacher would put their students in risk, right?", in his inner confusion, Kendrick made the teddy nod without noticing it was actually him. It served as some consolation at least...


With a relief sigh and a 'thank you' towards Ted, the boy had regained some confidence. How could he have doubted Mr. Mallory? He was a very cautious man, of course they weren't going that way. What a silly thought!


What Kendrick failed to realize, is that he had tempted Lady Fate to prank him by using the words: 'It can't possibly get worse', earlier...

Spoiler

I know, I'm surprised too~~

 

[Gus]

Aaron was all alone in the dark in his head. Something felt deeply wrong, but he couldn't quite articulate what it was. He trudged down the hallway toward the morgue like a man in a dream.


...and yet it couldn't be a dream, could it?


All his dreams were the same; a vast dark empty space, and a huge menacing presence goading him to let it go.


But this was a hallway. In a hospital. Wasn't it? How had he come to be here? He felt his feet moving, step by step, forward into the gloom, and yet he had no sense of willing it to be so. It was more like being on rails in a VR simulation than a dream. At least in a dream, you had the illusion of choice, of self.


He looked down at the device in his hand. It looked ugly and out of place. He dropped it. It might have broken, but he felt no interest. He walked onward, shrugging off the pack. There might have been voices behind him, or it might have been formless echoes, meaningless noise. He did not know, and he did not care. Aaron didn't care about what was behind him at all anymore.


Aaron wanted to know what was up ahead.


Aaron knew what was up ahead. He could feel it. Waiting in the shadows of the morgue.


He smiled, and he began to walk faster.