A/N: I don't own Randy Cunningham: 9th grade Ninja or The Haunted Mansion
Chapter One: The Last Mansion on The Left
Halloween.
When one thinks of the holiday, there are certain things associated with it. Mountains of teeth-rotting candy that would make a dentist smile. Tricks where house are mercilessly egged and toilet paper littering ones trees, leaving the poor soul who denied the pranksters their treats with the clean-up. Marathon after marathon of blood-curdling films of hockey masked slashers, horrid sci-fi monsters and dream demons. Rows of homes decorated to with lights along with fake ghouls and goblins to frighten the neighbors. For some this was also a time of partying like there was no tomorrow. Costume parties were a very common thing, and mostly involved a mass amount of alcohol. A group of friends where on their way to one such party in a neighboring town, ready to have the time of there lives.
Or at least they would be if wasn't for one thing.
"Well how was I supposed to know that Uncle Jack ditched his parole?" Howard argued with his sister as he and his friends walked along the sidewalk path
Tonight was supposed to be a night of merriment for Randy Cunningham and his friends, unfortunately however, it turned out that Howard and Heidi's uncle who was going to drive them to a huge Halloween party in Middleburg had attempted to skip out on his parole officer and was caught trying to hold up a gas station. Since their ride was incarnated, the group of teens had where forced to walk to the nearest bus top and hope they had enough money to get there and back.
"I can't believe you Howard!" his elder sister scolded "you should've gotten someone from our family who wasn't a criminal!"
"Well we wouldn't be here if you had failed your wonk'in driving test!" the portly boy shot back "But nooooo, you just had to crash the car into that orphanage!"
Randy tried his best to tune out two siblings argument, as did everyone else who had joined them for the now ruined evening. The group of teens had of course dressed for the occasion. The secret hero of Norrisville had dressed himself up as Jack Skellington from the classic film Nightmare Before Christmas; it may have taken him three weeks to get right, but was worth it. Howard was dressed as Negan from The Walking Dead while his sister was dressed as Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider games.
Next was Debbie Kang, who had dressed herself up as a female version of Freddy Kruger from the classic horror film, a Nightmare on Elm Street—minus the burns of course. Following that was Rachel, who to the surprise of everyone was dressed as Blair from the anime Soul Eater. Julian had become as he called it a 'gothic' version of the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland—which was just his regular attire with a ten/six card stuck in his top hat. Next in the group were Bucky and Flute Girl, who were dressed as Vizzini and Princess Buttercup from the Princess Bride. Bringing up the rear—or better put, trying to be left behind—was Doug, who claimed he was a mummy for Halloween when really he had been wrapped up in used toilet paper after Bash got a hold of him.
Last but certainly not least, there was Theresa Fowler.
In a happy accident, Theresa had dressed herself as Sally from the same movie as Randy's character. In fact, it was because of the object of the boy's affection that Julian, Bucky and Flute Girl had tagged along for the party since they where some of her closest friends; sadly this in turn caused Doug to get word of the party in Middleburg and invite himself as well, much to the chagrin of everyone. When the purple haired girl saw that her crush was dressed as the Pumpkin King, her make-up could just barely hide her bright red blush, likewise for Randy. The two had spent so much time talking that they barely noticed the ride to the party had been arrested. However, they couldn't exactly ignore the rising shouting match between Howard and Heidi.
"Uh…should we stop them?" she asked
"They'll scream it out of themselves soon enough" Randy replied "It's best just to stay out of it"
"I hope so" Theresa said "I'd hate for them to be like this all through the party"
"Assuming we even get to the party" Debbie audibly grumbled "At this rate, we'll be lucky to even get to the bus stop in time"
"We could always go trick or treating" Rachel suggested "I mean, we're already in costumed, it wouldn't be that bad"
"Well do you see any houses?" Flute Girl commented
The group of teens outside of the Weinerman siblings, who were still arguing, took a quick look around at their new surroundings. Aside from the sidewalk and empty road, there wasn't a single sign of a building or another person around them. They had no idea how far from Norrisville there were or how close they were to the bus stop. All around them was deathly silence—save for the Howard and Heidi's bickering. The only light came from the moon that was quickly being blanketed by dark clouds. Soon enough, the siblings realized that something was amiss and noticed how lost they truly were.
"Howard, you said this was the way to the bus stop" his sister pointed out
"I assumed it was" the heavy-set boy defended, making several of the teens groan in frustration
"Well I'm about to assume that my foot is gonna go right up your ass!" Heidi shouted in rage
Before another fight could start, Howard's best friend stepped in to true and ease the situation.
"Alright take it easy guys, we can figure this out" Randy assured before looking over to Debbie "Debbie, doesn't your phone have a GPS?"
"Yeah it does" she answered before taking out her cellphone "Hang on, I'll figure out where we are"
Just as she took it out to switch it on, she found that her phone was completely dead.
"Wait, this can't be right" she said "I charged my phone before I left the house"
"You obviously didn't" Doug chided before getting a glare from the young reporter to get him to shut up
The others began to take out their phones as well in order to at least call their friends and family for help, but much to their shock, the rest of their phones where also dead. Like Debbie, the rest of the group had fully charged their phones before leaving for the party in case of an emergency such as the one they were currently in now.
"This doesn't make any sense" Theresa commented in confusion "How could all our phones be dead?"
"Maybe we're in a dead zone" Bucky joked "Halloween zi—"
"Not now, Bucky!" Randy snapped before calming down "Look, let's just call it a night and walk back the way we came. I'm sure we'll find someone who can help us"
"Ditch the biggest party of the year?" Howard questioned "Screw that! We've come too far as it is!"
"Howard, we don't know even know where we are, how the juice are we supposed to get to Middleburg?" his friend explained sharply
"I'm with blandy on this" Heidi agreed, making Randy grimace at his name being mispronounced "I'm not getting chewed out by mom and dad for some stupid party"
The other teens began to murmur in agreement. At this point it was useless to try and make to a party that they were probably already extremely late to as it was. The best they could do now was call it quits and try to find the quickest way back home. Howard grumbled in displeasure, he wanted to go to that party no mater the cost.
"Alright you shoobs, listen up!" he commanded "We're gonna vote on what to do! If anyone wasn't to be a wuss and go home and miss the brucest party ever, raise your hand"
The teens instantly raised their raised in unison, making the heavy-set ginger frown in displeasure.
"All opposed?" he asked futility with only his hand raised
Not a single member of the group of teens raised their hand raised alongside the redhead. However as he glowered at his friends, he suddenly noticed that certain goth was not among them.
"Wait, where's Julian?" he pointed out
Instantly, the teens began to look around for the young, dark-loving boy. Julian sometimes had a tendency to wander off if he found something he liked, but what could be out here that would catch his fancy? All that was out here was road and empty green fields. The moonlight was slowly vanishing, making the search to find the goth all the more difficult.
"Julian? Where are you?" Randy called out
"You better get your spooky butt back here or we'll leave you!" Howard added on
"Over here, fellows!" Julian's voice suddenly called out from far in front of them "Come quickly—I've found something!"
Randy and the other teens ran further down the street in order to see what exactly Julian had found. Soon enough, the found the young goth standing in there with a wide smile on his face, as if he found some lost treasure of sorts. Before anyone could ask the top-hat wearing teen had discovered, the object Julian was referring to soon came into their line of sight. It was a huge mansion standing alone in the middle of the empty vacant lot. The mansion appeared to be something right out of the eighteenth century and was painted a pale white color, but it looked drained and weathered over the years, indicating that it was in some state of disrepair. The roof was covered in dark brown tiles and most of the windows where covered by curtains while a huge, rusty gate stood closed at the front of the old building. However, while appeared that no living soul resided in this dreary place, the teens could see some candle lights flickering from few windows that weren't covered.
A collective chill ran up the group's spine as they looked on at the mansion that stood before them. No one knew where it came from or how they had never noticed such an eerie place before. Then again, they where well out of Norrsiville by now so this building could've been sitting here for decades and they would have never seen it before tonight. Still, looking upon the mansion still filled everyone with a sense of dread, everyone except for Julian that is.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" he gleefully inquired to his friends "so dark, so mysterious, so—"
"You" Howard sarcastically interrupted
"Precisely!" Julian cheered, not catching out to the meaning behind Howard's words "Oh we must simply have a look inside!"
"No way!" Heidi denied "We need to get going before it gets any darker!"
"But don't you want to at least have a look inside to see what mysteries it holds?" the goth furthered, using his 'creepy voice' as he did
"Yeah, no we're not doing that" Randy replied "there is no way we are stepping one foot inside that place"
As if fate wanted to play a cruel joke on the hero of Norrisville, the dark clouds above them unleashed a torrent of rainfall down upon the teen, instantly drenching them. Thunder roared from above them as lightning streaked across the clouds as the wind wiped all around the would-be party goers. The teens were both shocked and confused, how could storm like this be this fierce this quick? Right now it didn't matter, what did matter was that they needed a place to take shelter in. unfortunately, they only place that seemed available to them was the mansion that stood before them.
"Everyone get inside!" the secret hero commanded as he pointed to the mansion
"Are you nuts, Cunningham?!" his best friend shot back "We're not going in there!"
"Do you have a better idea?" Randy demanded
"We could just keep walking until we find the bus stop" Doug suggested
"Does anyone have a better idea then Doug's?" Randy asked the others, to which they shook their heads "Then let's go!"
"I don't know Randy, it looks abandoned" Theresa mentioned
"There were some lights in windows, someone must be inside" her crush explained "We'll just tell them that we're lost and need someplace to stay to rain dies down. Maybe they'll have a phone we can use to call our parents"
"That place doesn't look like it has any electrical power" Doug said
"You wanna stay out here, Doug?!" Randy snapped at him
Against their better judgment, the teens agreed to enter the mansion and hope that they would find help. Howard and Randy went to open the gates, but as they did, they slowly opened by themselves. The group didn't think much of it at the time, assuming that it was just the wind that had pushed the old gates open for them. Randy and the others quickly raced toward the mansion, letting themselves into the building without some much as a knock. Hopefully, the owners of the mansion would understand their situation and not think they were some punk kids trying to rob them.
The last of the group of friends entered the building; they failed to notice the gates as the slowly closed seemingly by themselves and locked shut.
