A/N: This story is similar to my Gunslinger Girl story in the sense that it was written for a class assignment, but this I am almost positive is much better because it makes sense. It will make more sense if you have read "The Masque of Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe. This is the continuation of the story seeing as that is the assignment that I chose when we had the options in front of us on what we could do. I named the story "The Clock" for lack of a better name, if you think of one let me know in a review and if I like it I will change the name to it.
"The Masque of Red Death" – continuation of the story.
The Clock
The group of people walked towards the castle, the only one in the country almost completely intact. The person walking at the head of the group was a brown haired woman. Close behind her was a blonde haired woman. The one at the back of the group was a man that was clearly out of breath.
"Are we almost there?" the man complained once again.
"Just about," the woman in the middle stated. "Hey, Michelle, how much longer until my brother can put down all the supplies."
"We are already here."
All of them put on their gear before venturing into the main part of the castle through a hole in the wall and taking off down the corridor. At the end of the corridor they found a giant door.
"Let's try to open it. Quinn, get the material to open this. It appears that it has been welded shut."
The blonde got out the tools required and they got to work. When they finished unsealing the door they pushed it open only to be confronted by the foul smell of death as well of the smell of rotten and decayed flesh. The smell was putrid and smelled as though no fresh air had been in this place for a long time. The smell was so bad that all three of them ran outside and puked.
Breathing heavily Sebastian stated, "So who wants to walk into the foul smelling room first, god that reeked."
"It smells like something died, no wonder they sealed it off from the world. I would too," Michelle put in.
"More like some people," noticing the stares that Sebastian and Michelle were giving her, Quinn went on to explain, "Didn't you guys notice all the skeletons, there must have been at least a hundred all scattered about. I wonder what killed them."
"Well, I don't, our job is to just document the place not research why people died. We get our colleagues to do that and we can call them when we're done."
"Why did you take this job if you hate it so much?"
Ignoring the question Sebastian decided to venture back into the castle. He then headed for the room and went in covering his mouth and nose, looking back at Quinn he asked, "What do they plan to do with this castle when we are done and Ria and Charles are done figuring out what killed these people?"
"Yuki and Hanako plan to make it into a hotel."
* * *
"We are finally done; we will turn this over to you and Charles," Sebastian said to his younger sister, Ria.
"Thanks, we will try to find things that tell us how they died."
Sebastian, Quinn, and Michelle then took their leave.
"Let's get these bodies to the lab for further analysis," Ria said putting on gloves.
"No pictures?"
"These bodies are at least 600 years old, pictures kind of seem bad because the flash could damage them or something around them and this room has little light so the flash has to be on."
"Oh…"
With that they went into the room and went to the closest body. Together they transferred the body and called Isabella.
While waiting for Isabella, Ria walked around looking at the different rooms, noting that they were breaking down thanks to the new air that was let in when they unsealed the room. "We should hurry with our finds so that they can ship this stuff off to museums that way the stuff won't keep breaking down."
Nodding Charles kept looking at the different bodies. "What do you think killed them?"
"Maybe hunger, a plague, or a psycho. Who knows?"
"Well, it is my job to tell you that now isn't it?" Isabella said making her enterance.
* * *
"So Isabella what did you find?" Charles asked talking into his cell. "Oh, OK."
"Isabella says that they are probably around 650 years old, and knowing the plagues going around back then they probably died from that. She says that they also could have died from infections that they just couldn't fight off thanks to being sealed off in these rooms. She also says that the place is clear and that we can start talking to Hanako."
Just then Ria's cell phone rang. "Hanako, I was just going to call you. Uhm, yeah that is probably perfectly fine."
* * *
Within a few months the renovations of the castle finished restoring it to its original glory. The bodies had been shipped to various museums and a few were stored in the rooms in which they were found.
On the opening night of the hotel the owners threw a masquerade in celebrations. They held it in the seven rooms where all the bodies were found. They shut the doors and lit the fire and the rooms glowed. None of the guests, except for one of the owner's son, dared venture into that black room, though.
The little boy walked up to the clock that had not been repaired and sat down in front of it, staring up at it. He sat there nearly the entire time.
Around 10:30 the party began to die down. Everyone stayed at the party, but the dancing had settled.
"We will have several more songs before we will end this masquerade," Yuki announced. "First I would like to thank my wife, Quinn, and her team members Michelle and her husband Sebastian. I would also like to thank Charles and his wife Isabella, as well as Ria. And I would like to thank my little sister, Hanako. Now if I could find my son I would introduce you to him, but he seems to have run off somewhere."
With that everyone started laughing. His son however, was being reprimanded for taking one of the knives off the counters. With that the planner took the knife and went back to the table and started cutting the main course for the guests.
About ten minutes later Yuki found his son, "There you are."
"Daddy, I don't feel good," he said not looking to good.
"You cut your finger," Yuki said taking his hand noticing it was still bleeding, "When did this happen?"
"Ten minutes ago, it happened when I was holding the knife."
"Come here; let's go find your mother so she can tell me to get you to a doctor."
"Do you not feel good, Yuki, bring him to a doctor," Quinn said coming up to them.
"Told you," Yuki muttered to his son.
"Mommy, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
He nodded.
"Alright then."
* * *
With five minutes till midnight everyone had finished their meals and were dancing. People were talking and laughing and getting ready to take off their costumes. All of the sudden the sound of chimes rang out.
"Oh yeah, I started the clock again."
Yuki looked down at his son and then around the crowd. Everyone had stopped to listen to the chimes, however there was this one cloaked figure that looked like death himself, he was heading towards the black room. Everyone brushed themselves against the walls for that one person who held the exact knife that had been taken away from the little boy.
The boy ran through the crowd at the guy, his intent unclear to the bystanders.
"Prospero!" Yuki and Quinn yelled at their son.
All of sudden Prospero stopped and fell to the ground dead, next went Yuki and Quinn. One by one all of the guests died. For the knife was 650 years old and was the exact dagger that Prince Prospero had attacked that masked figure all those years, it had simply slid under the clock only to be found by that little boy, Prospero.