A/N: I shouldn't be doing this. lol. I should really be updating SSS, which I'm totally doing btw. It'll be up either today or tomorrow…or Sunday, lol. And even though SnS had a hint of Halloweenness in there b/c it was supposed to be taking place over the GG Halloween episode, I just feel there needs to be a fic dedicated solely to the holiday. Lol. And what kind of GG writer would I be if I didn't give you that? Honestly. Lol. Review!
*I own nothing.
*Also, I don't know exactly when this takes place. Ha! It's not this year, obviously. So…maybe next year? Yes, I think so. lo No one in the NJBC is fighting, and CB are together. *beams*
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"You have got to be kidding me."
"It sounds like fun!"
The annoyed glare shared anything but enthusiasm.
"Come on, what else are you going to do? Go to another of Chuck's club openings?" she joked.
Glare, slight offense this time.
"I'm kidding."
Blair rolled her eyes.
"Is he even having one?"
She sighed. "No, unfortunately," she grumbled. Then I'd have an excuse not to go to this…poor excuse of a good time.
"You're upset about this?" she asked, slightly confused.
"No, I mean," she shook her head, "Everything's going great with the hotel and he already reopened the club, so it's fine."
"Okay…" Serena continued unsuredly. "Then?"
"I'm not going to a haunted house with you, S!"
She rolled her eyes.
"And as far as my plans?" Blair huffed. "I'm sure Chuck will come up with something," she smiled smarmily.
"Oh God, B. I think he's infected you." She crinkled her nose in disgust.
Blair laughed. "I'm sure we'll do other things too. Besides, that's not exactly news, and I don't think he really infected me…he just," she contemplated the right words, "opened my eyes." She continued laughing.
The blonde tugged on her arm, trying to forget the comparisons of something all too real and disturbing. She turned back to the original subject. "Come on, B," she pleaded.
"No, S!" She was still laughing from before, but now an addition of her best friend's determination made her laugh louder.
"What's the worst thing that could happen?"
"I could get bored." Serena nearly laughed at the statement, but then she saw the serious look in Blair's face, and cleared her throat.
"What else?" she challenged, arching an eyebrow.
"Chuck could get bored."
Serena scoffed. "Okay, I wasn't even going to consider bringing the guys along, but—"
"What?"
"You're right, B! I'll bring Nate and you can bring Chuck. It'll be like old times!" she cheered, rising from her seat at the restaurant. Blair pulled on her arm to make her sit down again, but the blonde's feet were firmly implanted on the ground.
"S," she warned.
"Okay, I'll see ya later! Nate and I will come by with the limo," she paused, knowing her best friend would want them to take Chuck's limo.
"There will be public school kids there!" she cried.
Serena's eyes danced. "So Nate's limo then?" she asked, mocking surprise.
Blair slumped in her seat, crossing her arms across her chest. "No," she grumbled, "Chuck's."
Serena smiled confidently, practically skipping away. The brunette sighed dramatically and rummaged through her purse to find her phone.
"Chuck," she brushing a hand through her hair, hating the message she would have to give. "I think I may have inadvertently gotten us sucked into a Haunted House…event…for Halloween."
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It was a stingy, worn down old wooden house on the corner of some street in the middle of nowhere. Both Chuck and Blair scrunched up their noses in disgust at it. It was three floors and there was a swarm of children in second-rate costumes crowding the doorway.
"Well, looks like it's full. Aww, so sad. We can go now!" she mocked sadness and turned to leave when Serena grabbed hold of her arm and spun her back around.
"One hour's not going to kill you, B." She wrapped her arms around the back of her so as to prevent her from turning back to the limo. Blair sighed.
"You're not even going to let me walk with my boyfriend?" she looked at her annoyed.
"Please, like that's safe!" Nate jumped in. "He doesn't want to be here either. You guys will just bolt!"
Chuck glared at him and then stole Blair away from her blonde counterpart, walking several feet in front of the insistent duo.
"There, happy? Now you'll see if we try to run off and you can stop us," his eyes narrowed. Both Nate and Serena rolled their eyes but allowed it.
"Yeah, it's not like we take well to running anyways," Blair scoffed. Chuck smirked at her, tightening his hold on her waist and trying his very best not to focus on the dreaded sight before them.
Fake taunting noises erupted from the inside. Pathetic wooden witches and sheet ghosts sprung down from the upper floors. Skeletons were pasted onto the walls on the inside, once they finally got inside. The two brunettes could not understand the excitement for all this, but Serena and even Nate at times got a little shocked thrill from what would be considered eerie creatures popping out of huge haystacks down the main hall.
Sigh.
Blair and Chuck just blinked at the devices and didn't even care to acknowledge their two friends as friends of theirs. Though, it wasn't like they had to impress anyone—not that they would—everyone there was as pathetic as the blondes before them, if not worse.
"This is so—"
"—lame."
She nodded. "I mean, at the very least they could try to be—"
"Scary."
He shook his head, walking along so as not to lose their friends. They were looking for a make-out spot at every corner but it seemed every object was so fragile, that if they even attempted to sit somewhere or lean against something, they would fall to the floor. And, Blair imagined, they would probably fall into some sort of 'basement' then. The plan was therefore useless, and all she wanted to do was go home, or go with Chuck somewhere—just get out of this horrible excuse for entertainment. It was so clearly made for five year olds. She rolled her eyes.
"Hey," Chuck nudged her. She turned her head. "It looks like there's a dark passageway over there."
She sighed. "I think that's just supposed to be some sort of eerie boat ride thing, glowy lights, spooky sounds and the like," she shrugged. He nodded, resigned.
"Has it been an hour yet?"
She chuckled. "Tell me about it."
"We could…take a chance and just stand off to the side. I mean, they're going to have to come back this way anyways. The architect of this place clearly was not smart enough to create a back door."
"Or smart in general."
He smirked. If nothing else, at least he had his beautiful girlfriend by his side. Goodness knows what he would do if he was stuck here alone with Nate and Serena.
"Okay, let's go stand just inside that crap dark passageway. Maybe we can scare the children as they come through, or pass by rather."
His smirk grew and he walked with her over to the area in which had been pointed out earlier. It was a narrow pool for tiny wooden boats to pool through, as she had said. There were glowing lights on the "stone" walls, and every so often a skeleton would pop out or a witch would cackle. Blair was right. The only human beings that would be scared or even excited about this 'haunted house' would be five year olds…or younger. He couldn't believe everyone but the two of them seemed fascinated by it all. Clearly they had been sent through some time warp where only the absolute idiots of society were considered normal.
Gasp.
Chuck turned to Blair, a sharp fear suddenly going up his spine. She was still in his arms and for some reason he had thought the tiny sound she had made meant danger. He shook it off. It was ridiculous to even imagine there was anything but poor imagination integrated into this house.
"What is it?" she asked, and he furrowed his eyebrows.
"What do you mean? I just wanted to look at you," he smirked. Though truly he was wondering where exactly she was coming from.
"No," she shook her head a little, "I mean before. You gasped."
He gulped, unnoticeably. "No I didn't. I thought you did."
She laughed a bit nervously and stared at him intently, coming to the conclusion that he was telling the truth. "Well, we must have both done it then," she decided, feeling it would get them nowhere if they continued to deny their own gasping. "…and just not noticed it," her voice faltered, but he didn't say anything, only pulled her closer. She willingly came, gripping to the back of his shirt.
This is crazy, they told themselves. This is a lame, cheap, old house, they told themselves. There is nothing really scary in this house, they also told themselves.
But then all the lights went out, and they stayed out and Blair shrieked as they fell through the floor. She clung to Chuck for dear life, hoping he wasn't part of her imagination. It comforted the swarm of bees in her stomach when she suddenly realized he was also clinging to her.
"Blair," he whispered.
"I'm here."
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They huddled together on the floor, sudden fear taking over them. They saw peering eyes in the corner and hoped to God it was just some strange prop that had fallen down with them. Then, it moved and they backed as far away from it as they could. Finally reaching the wall behind them and not finding any usual texture coating it, they leaned against it. Chuck pulled Blair flush against him.
They couldn't even hear the children laughing and wandering about in the house above them. They couldn't hear Nate and Serena—probably two of the only teenagers who had decided to adventure into the craziness of a kid's Halloween.
"It was probably just some loose boards."
She nodded. "Or we're dreaming," she went with.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go with loose boards."
"Why?" she sucked in a breath.
"Because it makes more sense. Because neither one of us would dream of going to such a low-class place as this."
She agreed. "You're right. Loose boards."
Neither of them looked at each other. Both sets of eyes were pinned to the glowing—what appeared to be eyes—on the other side of the room. Everything was so dry, and the temperature was cold but it was rising steadily by the second. The ground was dusty and the ceiling seemed to be built solely on rickety boards. For the moment that Chuck glanced up towards it instead of the peering eyes though, he couldn't see where they had fallen through. In fact, everything they were surrounded around was almost complete darkness. There seemed to be a sort of dim lighting surrounding them, and then there were those eyes across the room. But everything else was black, and Blair was cold and Chuck was hot. And those eyes that were moving every so often…did not look comforting.
"Did you press something?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No. Did you?"
"No," he said. She huddled closer to him.
"Chuck?"
"What?" he whispered.
"This is a practical joke, right? Maybe by Nate and Serena?"
He wanted to laugh, to seriously consider that option, but he honestly didn't think the two blondes would consider the brunettes' bitterness worth a prank.
"Somehow, I doubt it. As far as anyone else? I doubt that as well," he sighed. "But if they did, I'm gonna sue their regrettable ass the second we get out of here."
Blair just nodded against him, unable to laugh either. Two more sets of glowing eyes had appeared in other different sections of the room, and they could feel more behind them. They had only leaned back against some rickety post. The room was huge in and of itself and they sensed it was the basement to the house. The entire basement—no other rooms.
"Do you think there's a light switch?"
"I don't know. I can't see anything."
She gulped. "Should we try to find one?"
"We'd have to go past those eyes probably."
"That's true."
He shook his head suddenly. "Blair, we're being ridiculous."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "We're freaking out over what could be eyes but also could be something at random hanging from above. They could be decorations for the basement. Maybe there are more levels between where we were and this floor. Maybe it's completely dark in that in-between level. Maybe that's why we can't see anything. And even if there isn't a light…there has to be a window. Or at least a staircase."
She nodded, but then paused in her movements. "Then why aren't our legs broken?"
"Hmm?" he asked, confused.
"If we fell through one, maybe two, levels. Something would have to be broken or at least bruised. Neither of us is in really good shape—we don't work out or anything, and even then something would hurt. I can't feel anything," her lips quivered at the last statement, and he pulled her close again.
"I suddenly regret saying this was a crummy haunted house," he muttered, cautiously.
She gulped, tucking her head under his chin and gripping his shirt. "You don't think anything's down here, do you?"
Silence.
"We should try and get up. We just scooted across the floor to get over here, and that didn't necessarily need a lot of leg work. Maybe if we stand up—or try to—we can determine if this is some prank someone played, or…"
He didn't want to say spirit, or ghost, or anything of that nature…
"A dream," she concluded. It didn't make her feel any better that he hadn't answered her question, but the glowing eyes that now seemed to be making a low humming noise wouldn't exactly provide for a positive response.
"Yes."
"We're scared!" she hollered the moment they had come to their feet. Chuck immediately placed a hand over her mouth.
"What are you doing Blair?"
She scoffed. "Well, I'm not feeling any pain, are you?"
He sighed, focusing on any pain that might be in his legs. "No, none," he admitted.
She nodded. "Then it must be a dream. If it is a dream, then spirits are totally a possible cause of this complete darkness and," she gestured to the glowing eyes across the room, "floating orbs."
He looked at her skeptically. "You're suddenly very determined for someone who was huddling in my eyes just moments ago. Even peppy, I might add. If this is a dream, wouldn't you be even more scared than before? I mean, sure, it's not real, but you can't force yourself to wake up and, anything can happen."
"Which means we could be saved," she said.
He sighed testily. "Or we could be stuck down here forever and die of starvation or of being eaten by these eyes!" he pointed towards them.
She shook her head. "This is getting ridiculous. I cannot be scared, you cannot be scared. I am Blair Waldorf and you are Chuck Bass and we officially make one hell of a team, since there is no one here we can possibly torture."
He cleared his throat, pursing his lips.
"Well, besides the eyes I mean, but how could they hurt us?" she raised an eyebrow, challenging him.
"Fine, let's find out what they are then," he declared charging towards them.
"Wait!" she pulled back on his arm.
"What? Scared?" he taunted.
"No!" she shouted, annoyed. Now she almost didn't want him to do what she had needed him to do just a minute ago. He noted her shaky grip though and stepped towards her, sweeping her up in his arms and kissed her hard on the mouth.
"Maybe if we just keep kissing we'll get out of this," she breathed breathlessly when they parted.
He chuckled, almost forgetting where they were and all the uncertainty of the situation. "If only." He clutched her hand tight and they turned to find where they eyes had been. They were now gone and a sudden noise erupted. They looked to the left and to the right. The walls were closing in.
"Quick!" he called to her and she ran for the right wall as he ran for the left. He fell into some sort of sticky pool of slime and she shrieked when she heard him call out at the shock. She ran to him, tripping over some sort of box or prop that would have been in the house above. She pulled him out of where he had fallen, really hoping he hadn't transformed into some hideous monster.
She gulped when he didn't say anything. She couldn't even hear him breathing and it almost felt like his nails had grown longer in the grip along her hand. The walls had stopped closing in though, and that was a relief. Though it almost felt that they were nonexistent. That everything was. They weren't in a room, they were in some sort of mist, and it was frightening. Blair stretched her arm far to the right where she had been before though, in hopes that the sharp knob she had faintly touched before Chuck had fallen into the thick slime, was quite possibly a light switch—suggesting that they were still in a room. Anything else just seemed senile.
She didn't even want to look back at Chuck. If he wasn't himself anymore then she would be alone. On Halloween. In some cursed hardly spooky appearing haunted house. She should have considered the house scary, at least then she'd just be amongst Nate & Serena. That would have been better than being lost in a misty, dusty basement with hardly any walls and a slime pool and glowing eyes that occasionally disappeared…and a boyfriend that might transforming into a monster.
Gulp.
This kind of thing does not—should not—happen to Blair Waldorf.
It has to be a dream.
Groan.
She gasped.
It was coming from the Chuck beside her that she hoped wasn't conforming into some slimeball those pathetic Hollywood producers create in horror movies.
She gulped, turning to him as he groaned again.
"Please tell me you're not a monster," she whimpered, repeating the request over and over in her mind.
Silence.
Ugh. To these 'monsters' always have to be so deceptive.
"Say my name?" she offered.
"BAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAAHELLLLLLUEEEEEEEEMAAAAAAA—"
Oh dear.
She gulped again.
This was so not Chuck.
"Blair Waldorf," a mischievous familiar voice interrupted her thoughts, and seemed to even be in the same room. She turned around, just as the light turned on and illuminated the entire room.
"Georgina?" she called into the room. She couldn't see anyone, and now she couldn't even feel the grimy 'figure' she had had in her arms moments earlier. Then, she saw a tape recorder drop. Confused, she moved towards it, picked it up, rewound the tape and pressed play.
What she heard was a series of moans, groans, cackles, and Georgina Sparks' saying her name and Chuck's. Though apparently that last tool had not been used.
"Not exactly, but you're close."
Blair spun around at the different voice, and gaped, dropping the tape recorder on instant, which surprisingly—or not—did not make a single sound.
"Eric?!" she asked, incredulously.
"Yes, it is I," he smirked walking towards her. Her eyes narrowed.
"What—how—I can't beli—did Chuck have anything to do with this?" she accused, fury building within her.
Eric laughed. "No, not at all. Though it is funny you should assume he did first."
She shook her head at him, still confused. "How—? Answers," she demanded, hand on hip—the one that wasn't still slime-consumed.
"Well, he took a few steps forward. Let's just say Jonathan and I," he began, keeping his eyes on Blair as she noticed Jonathan step out from the shadows behind Eric. Apparently the light switch had only really lit up the majority of the room. "…overheard Serena's plan for a haunted house and how she had had to force you and Chuck into it, because you thought it was incredibly lame and not scary, which knowing you guys…would be obvious."
"So, you pranked us," she scoffed.
He nodded simply.
"How?" she asked, still obviously upset. "And where is Chuck?!" she shrieked.
Eric pursed his lips in an attempt to prevent laughing; he also covered a hand over his mouth. Silently, he pointed to his left. Blair looked over and saw Chuck sitting, soaking wet, in a wooden canoe just floating in a small pool of water. His eyebrows furrowed in anger.
"I called to you," he grumbled.
"I didn't—"
"Multiple times."
Eric chuckled, sharing a knowing look with Jonathan.
"Don't blame her, Chuck. Once we initialized the special effects of mist, and any comprehensible sense of reality, certain areas of the room become sound proof. And you…"
"…were in a different part of the room," Jonathan finished, smiling wildly.
"And the slimey…gross…"
Eric held him up. "This guy?" the doll was drenched in goo.
Blair's nose was scrunched up in disgust. "Yes, him," she pointed at the mess she had been attached to for what seemed to be the last ten to fifteen minutes.
"Jonathan's brother used it against him last year, lying it next to him in bed as a Halloween trick. I believe he used it again for April Fool's right?"
Jonathan nodded. "Yep. Didn't even see it coming," he shook his head, laughing.
Blair huffed, clearly not amused. "What about Georgina?" She crossed her arms across her chest.
"Oh that one's easy," Eric smiled. "Serena was always talking on the phone to you and sympathizing with how mean Georgina is to you."
She scoffed, muttering how 'mean' was not the term she had used.
"I figured since Georgina was so mean, she was probably talking about you from time to time…and how to mess with you. We went over to your dorm and left a tape recorder in her bag. It seems she talked about you quite a bit." He chuckled.
"Aaaand?" she gestured to Chuck who was still deeply frowning in the boat.
"Oh yes," Eric smirked, "when he fell in, which quite ironically he fell into the more water-induced than slime-induced part, we placed the dummy where it seemed most obvious he would have fallen. And the doll truly does give on human appearances, so I just made sure to hug Chuck an extra lot in the last week to adjust the measurements of Jonathan's…err-toy," he cleared his throat. Both Chuck and Blair glared at him.
"You traitor," Chuck said, his voice low.
Jonathan wrapped his arm around Eric and they smiled at each other.
"Could Chuck not get out of the boat then?" Blair arched her eyebrows.
Jonathan coughed briefly. "Technically not. That pool is actually pretty hard to fall into. Once inside—boat or not—you can't really climb out unless someone assists you. If Chuck had been aware you were coming to pull him out, he would have grabbed onto you. But he was still confused," he shook his head at him, "as to what was happening and then, couldn't get out."
Blair rolled her eyes. "And how we're not broken?" she questioned.
"Oh the best part," he grew excited. "We made one of the boards loose ahead of time—"
"Told you!" Chuck pointed at her, "Loose. Boards."
Eric cleared his throat. "And when the two of you fell through you fell onto a mattress that was slowly lowered down. Then, a dark blanket covered the opening and the wood plank was placed over it." He smiled.
"A mattress?" she asked, in disbelief.
"Mmhmm," Jonathan nodded. "The owner of the house showed us actually a bunch of tricks that could be done, that he had even suggested to the people running the 'haunted house'. None of them had ever been used for the sake of the kids though."
"Ha!" Chuck mock-laughed. "That's a laugh," he spat. "So the mattress was imaginary? And how did we not feel it?"
Eric smirked. "It's got a sort of…special effect feel to it, you could say."
The two raised their eyebrows.
"Instead of feeling like an abrupt soft stop, it holds you down while making you fall, so to speak."
The two still didn't understand, but figured it was best if they didn't. Chuck sighed.
"And Nate and Serena?"
"Have no clue," Eric confirmed. He reached up with a long wooden plank to remove the blanket and the board that had sent them down below to begin with. A sliver of light shown through and they could hear the chatter of children and the fake cackling of witches and howling of ghosts.
Chuck sighed, gratefully taking Blair's arm when she came over to help him out of the pool. His arm wrapped around her waist once he was out and Eric found himself suddenly sentimental at the thought.
"Your reason?" Chuck asked.
"You were poking fun at my sister, your sister. You always do. Because she's amused easily and most of the time you want no part of it. You always manipulate everyone too. I just wanted you to see what it's like on the other end," he winked, leading them to the door which then led to a staircase leading to the main floor. Nearly all the surrounding individuals gasped at their appearance and they rolled their eyes.
"We'll be—"
"I'll send them out…to the limo?"
Chuck nodded. "And don't—"
"I might," he smirked mischievously. "I mean, how often is it that you scare Chuck and Blair?"
Their eyes narrowed at the normally so carefree, nice boy, who had only ever—it seemed—thought well of them.
"Just be glad that it was Halloween. Can you imagine if I had scared you just…because?" He chuckled, turning back to Jonathan and inclining his head to the direction in which Nate and Serena probably were.
Chuck and Blair made their way to the entrance, avoiding the inquisitive looks of the children, and watching for any matter of bodily fluid that might have found its way on the ground. Once at the limo, they breathed a sigh of relief and stepped inside, clearing their throats awkwardly and sitting as close to each other as possible.
When Nate and Serena got back to the limo, Eric and Jonathan would have broken the 'awful' news to them and they would be laughing and teasing them relentlessly. Their only defense would be to heavily make-out right in front of them. It would be their only escape as well.
After all, they had only been down there twenty minutes.
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A/N: Okay, I think this is quite possibly complete crap. But I tried. Heh. It's Halloween (HAPPY HALLOWEEN, BTW!!!), I had to give you something. ;) Please review! (even if it's only to confirm my worries)
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