The House of Horrors
Chapter 1: The Fieldtrip
She walked the halls of an unknown building. She just kept on walking, not knowing where her feet are leading her. She was not alone, she past a couple of people here and there. The place was like a maze, turns leading to nowhere. Doors going in and out. Stairways going down but it actually goes up. It was very weird.
She took a turn left and met a wall. She looked around for a door of some sort, but found nothing. She stood there and sighed.
What am I going to do now? She continued to stand there when she felt a light touch on her shoulder. She looked over and saw a white, bony hand. Normally a person would freak out but she looked at it and smiled.
"Good one Michiru," she said.
The hand lifted off her shoulder and a girl behind her pouted. "I can't believe that didn't scare you."
The brunette haired girl turned around swiftly and giggled at her friend, "Well, next time if you want to scare me, you may want to be quiet. Also if you hadn't noticed there is mirror up on the ceiling." She pointed up to the space up above the two girls. They saw their reflections staring back at them.
"Che, it's harder to fool you now," her friend complained. She looked down and stayed quiet. "Hey, want to freak out the others. I know Kanazawa-kun will be really scared. He gets scared so easily.
The other girl stared at her surprisingly but then smiled, "Fine, but just harmless pranks. I don't want to so to far that will get detention."
The two girls walked together and laughed.
Hello. I'm Taniyama Mai. A second year in high school. This is my good friend Michiru. We're here at this haunted mansion for a fieldtrip. I have to admit that this place is pretty creepy. And trust me, I know creepy.
"Hey, just where is the rest of the class?" Mai asked. They were now in a hall of mirrors.
" They're taking a tour of the second building. I hear the second building is much more creepier. The first building, the one we're in now, is just a maze," her friend said, checking herself in the mirrors.
"Wait… isn't there two floors for the first building? How come they didn't go upstairs?"
Michiru took a pose in one the mirrors. Mai laughed at her friends weirdness. "The second floor right now is still being renovated. I heard that they change the place just for our trip here. Cool huh?"
They walked with their reflections following them. Mai watched herself in the mirrors and realized something. She stopped in her tracks and started checking herself. "I lost my I.D. card."
The students are given I.D. cards that give them access around the whole place.
"I think I dropped it near the entrance of the Hall of Mirrors. I know that I had it when we entered. Could you wait here Michiru? I'm going to look for it."
Mai ran off and heard her friend calling behind her. "Hurry back!"
She retraced her steps looking left and right for her I.D. She looked to her left and saw it wedge under a mirror. "There you are," she bended down to pick it up. She wiped of a little dirt on it and looked up to the mirror in front of her. A reflection of a little girl stared back at her.
Mai turned around abruptly and saw no child behind her. What? I swore there was kid behind me. She shook the creepy feeling off and stood up. As she turned back to her headed destination she saw the child again.
The girl looked up at Mai with distant eyes. She had short brown wavy hair and wore a pink bow on her head. Her pink flowery dress flowed all the way to her knees. She had old fashion Mary Jane shoes and with the bear she hugged tightly made her look like a life-sized doll.
Mai was startled by the girls sudden appearance. "Hello there, are you lost?"
The girl just stared at her.
"Are you lost?" Mai asked again. "Did you lose your mommy?" Mai put her hand on her knees and smiled at the girl, hoping to get something, but the girl continued staring. This girl…is kind of…creepy.
Finally the girl showed a sign of movement. She lifted her free hand up to Mai.
"Huh?" Mai looked at her confused. "Oh! Do you want me to help find your mom?" Mai took the girl's hand and led her to the exit. "I'm going back to my friend so once we meet up we can go find your mommy."
They walked and Mai saw sight of her friend. "Michiru! I found my I.D.!"
"That's good, shall we go? Its almost twelve o' clock. We have to meet everyone to eat lunch."
"Oh sure! But I found this little girl that's lost. We should go find her mom first."
Her friend looked at her puzzled, "What little girl?" Mai was confused by her friend's response, "What do you mean? She right here…" but as Mai looked over to her hand the girl was missing. "What! But, but she was just here. She was holding my hand!"
"Maybe she ran off, anyway we have to hurry," her friend walked away but Mai stayed put. Bewildered by what just happened. But I swear there was that little girl. I held her hand up until I met up with Michiru. I felt her presence, her warmth. Then why…
"Mai, if you don't hurry up I'm going to leave you!" Michiru called. Mai looked around her, shuddering about the idea that came to her head. She locked her eyes shut and ran towards her friend.
*…*
The students ate their lunches in the food court of the amusement park. Mai looked all around her. This is the first time she has been here; at least in a long time. The last time she was here was when she was five. She went here with her parents. Mai smiled to herself. The good old times… she thought to herself.
"Okay class! Gather around!" the teacher called out to the students after they finished eating.
"Okay, now that we are done eating, we will continue our tour of the second building. We'll start at the first floor at the left wing going down to the basement. Now we must all stay together because there have been cases where people got lost in there. Get into groups of three or four and always carry your I.D. cards with you. I'll take count and we'll begin shortly."
Mai looked around for her friends when an arm wrapped around hers. "Michiru, there you are. Where's Keiko?"
"Keiko is using the bathroom, she'll be with us soon. Well its going to be us three, me, you, and Keiko." Michiru dragged Mai along. She was about to protest, but when she saw the look on her friends face she closed her mouth.
*…*
The class all entered the second building in their groups. Everyone shivered as they took a step in.
"Why's it so cold?" Mai asked.
The tour director smiled and answered, "Well, young lady, they said when ghost are around it gets very cold, doesn't it, Taniyama-san?"
This voice…Mai recognized the voice and hopefully looked up. The tour director turned to her and smiled. Mai's hopeful face lit up and she smiled greatly.
"Yasuhara-san!"
"Good to see you Taniyama-san," he said with a smile.
The two heard a small squeal. "Kyaa! Mai! Who's your friend?" it was Michiru asking with her other friend Keiko right next to her admiring the tall boy with glasses.
"Michiru, Keiko, this is Yasuhara Osamu, he also works part-time at SPR," the two girls just stood their admiring the boy. He smiled at them which made them squeal louder.
Hey, hey, he may seem nice but just wait till you get to know him…
"Well, we should be hurrying along now, I'm sure the rest of the class would like to see the place," Yasuhara kindly bow to the girls and let them pass. As they did they just squealed even more.
Great…they fell for his charm. Hehehehe…
Mai laughed to herself when she realized something, "Yasuhara-san, what are you doing here?"
"I work part-time here," he answered as if it was the most obvious one.
"Huh? Another part-time job? Isn't working at SPR enough?"
"Not if your in college, it's harder than you think."
The two walked behind the rest of the others keeping the conversation to themselves. "Well," Mai began, "just try not to push yourself. This is your second part-time job this month. Last month you had three part-time jobs. Don't go overboard and exert yourself."
Yasuhara gave a small laugh, "Don't worry. I know when to stop. Although I think I won't quit my job at SPR." He looked down to the girl and smiled. The girl smiled back.
Mai joined her two friends again and Yasuhara went to the front of the group and started the tour.
They first passed a hall where you cant see the floor because fog completely covered it. A couple of times some people screamed because they felt something brushed pass their feet. Next they went to a room where it seemed like a cemetery, and Mai had to admit that it was convincingly real.
A few times monsters and corpses popped up scaring people. However, whenever one did show up Yasuhara would pretend to be scared then just smile as if he was posing for the camera. Mai looked at him with a pathetic look.
Yasuhara went over to her laughing. "Taniyama-san did you just see what I just did?"
She looked at him with an apathetic look, "Just what the hell was that? 'Oh my gosh! It's a terrible monster. I'm so scared! Smile for the camera!'" she said sarcastically, imitating what he just did.
He began to laugh harder, "You're a funny one. Now why don't we hurry. You might lose your friends, and I might lose my job." The two followed the big crowd, heading down to the basement.
*…*
The tour was over and everyone exited the building. People were still shook up about what they just saw. Even Mai got scared. Her friend was tightly holding on to her. Mai was shaking badly and her even shakier friend didn't make it any better.
Mai looked over to her left and saw a huge crowd outside the first building. "What's going on?"
Yasuhara heard her and looked over to the same direction. His cheerful face turned to a serious one. "All of you please stay here." He ran over to the other side. Mai saw him talking with someone. Maybe another worker here.
On both sides was a sea of talking. Whispers, shouts, mumbles, filled the amusement park. She could hear her classmates conversing with each other on what could be happening.
"… collapsed."
Mai snapped back to her senses and turned around and saw her friends quietly whispering to themselves. They got startled when they saw their brunette friend looking back at them. "What did you say?"
"Ah well, I over heard that someone collapsed," Keiko answered nervously.
Someone collapsed?
She heard panting behind her and saw her glasses friend heavily breathing. "Ah, well, everyone… it seems that an accident happened in the renovating room that we had prepared for you."
Mai heard someone behind her shouted out "What happened!"
"Well," Yasuhara began to respond, "someone collapsed there. It was strictly forbidden to enter. Apparently they snuck passed security and collapsed in there. Because of this incident, we can't let you go on there. I'm sorry but it seems that you have to end your fieldtrip earlier than expected."
Soon people began to complain. The teacher tried to calm them down. "I'm sorry," Yasuhara wiped a sweat that was coming down. "But we don't want something like that happening again, so everyone is forbidden from going there."
"But someone just collapsed! What does that have to do with us? Probably that person just spazed up and fell to the floor!" it was Keiko.
"Well, there is a very bad smell in there." Apparently the others thought this was funny and laughed.
The teacher calmed everyone and gathered them all. Just like Yasuhara said, they had to leave early.
Mai went to join them when a hand grabbed her by the shoulder. "Taniyama-san," it was Yasuhara. He whispered to her ear, making sure now one knows what they were discussing. "I have a feeling that you know there's more to this. We can't tell your friends, but try to come by tomorrow since you don't have school. I'll explain it all then."
He pushed Mai and she quickly got swept up by the crowd of her fellow classmates.
*…*
The buses came. The drivers seemed a little mad about the unexpected pick-up. Mai got on and took a window seat. Her friend Michiru took the seat beside her and began talking to their other friend across the aisle.
Mai looked out the window and saw Yasuhara. He caught her eye and waved. She waved back. The bus began moving and the amusement park left them. Mai caught a glimpse of something in one of the windows of the haunted mansion. She saw the girl that she met in the Hall of Mirrors. The little girl silently waved… to Mai.
Mai thought her eyes were deceiving her and rubbed them. When she looked back, the window was empty.
What…
