"And then...the masked rhino caught the first pig..." Monkey tried to simulate what happened moving his arms against the others. The shadows dancing alongside with him around that campfire they built in the middle of the forest.
"He raised his axe and...CHOMP." He closed his arms. "He cut off his left arm."
Po hugged Crane shaking. "Then what happened?!" Mantis asked excited.
"Blood poured everywhere...like a fountain...his screams, his tears...NOBODY COULD'VE SAVED HIM! The rhino did his terrible laughter...creepy and distorted. He lifted up his weapon dyed with the pig's blood and...HE CUT OFF HIS RIGHT LEG."
"Is he gonna cut them all?" Viper asked curiously. "Shouldn't he kill him off directly? I mean...he's wasting time! The other pigs are running away..."
"Viper! You're ruining the atmosphere!" Mantis muttered "There's no point on doing that! He must torture him until the end. That's how things works..."
"I'm sorry...go on."
"The pig screamed, his voice echoed throughout the entire forest. He begged for his life, but the rhino will never accept that request and he cut off his left leg too."
"I'll never understand why people are so dumb on these stories...couldn't he do something? He's just staying there getting mutilated..." Viper interrupted again.
"When an assassin is chasing you down with an axe and you lost already a limb...do you really think people can find a solution except for panicking?" Mantis grunted.
"Well...whatever is better than staying there..he didn't even try..."
"It doesn't matter Viper!" Monkey continued "look at Po's expression! This is what a good scary storyteller should achieve. Priceless."
"I'm not scared..." Po mumbled "I'm just really really interested in what you're telling that's all..." he quivered strangling Crane.
"Monkey please continue! I want to know what happened to the others!" Mantis requested
He coughed a couple of times to clear his throat. "As soon as the rhino cut off every limb from the pig...he left him there alone slowly dying. The second pig hid himself inside a little hut. He thought that the rhino didn't follow him fast enough to see where he was, but suddenly...the door shook violently and brutally. The pig...held his breath...but his heart couldn't stop pounding harder and harder. The door stopped. Was it over? A couple of seconds later the rhino started to break the door down with his axe. Blow after blow he made his way inside."
"Did he really hide in a place with only one way to leave? That's stupid..." Viper commented
"Viper listen if you don't like the story do the same thing that Tigress did ignore us, okay?" Mantis replied upset.
"He grabbed the second pig and slowly opened his chest with his axe. So slow and precise that there were no words to describe the immense pain the poor guy went through. He finished his work hanging him on the roof from his neck. He stood there observing his lungs and his heart moving, desperately trying to survive and save himself,until they stopped and never moved again."
"Wow...that's really sick! I love it!" Mantis gasped.
"How could you like these things..." Crane struggled free for a couple of seconds "A psycho is running after three innocent pigs killing them all in the worst possible ways..."
"It's just a story Crane! Just because I like it doesn't mean I'll go crazy and I'll start to kill people..." Monkey explained
Mantis started to laugh at what Crane said "Did you hear yourself? There's no way something like that is going to happen!"
"Still...I'm seriously concerned about what you guys like."
Tigress sighed annoyed "We should go back."
"No wait! I didn't finish my story!" Monkey opposed.
"Everyone's gonna die...we knew that from the start."
"If you say it like that it's boring..."
"Can we cook some dumplings on the fire first? These stories Monkey told us made me hungry!" Po said followed by a moaning stomach.
"Fine..." Tigress accepted lowering down a scroll on the ground.
"Can I have a look at that?" Po asked to her and grabbed it as soon as she nodded to him.
'Six teenagers have been found missing. The last time someone saw them was in the middle of the forest. We ask you to search the area, find them or some clues about them.' Po read the content "I remember this...isn't it..."
"Yes. Every year we receive a message about weird disappearances, but I never found a thing. I don't even know who sends them." She muttered
"It can be a lie..." Viper slithered to her "We know a couple of persons who love pranks."
"Hey! I would never go that far!" Monkey crossed his arms angry.
Po removed a cooked dumpling from the fire and ate it "It doesn't matter. It's always nice to have fun together eating dumplings...listening to scary stories and when we will be back the hungry ghost festival is waiting for us!" He hummed happily
"Just...this time don't set on fire the entire village." Monkey mocked him holding his laughter between his hands
"It was an accident!"
"There's still the cursed mansion..." Mantis picked up the discussion about the missing people again.
"Isn't it a legend who people tell to their children?" Crane asked
"Mantis. We already talked about it. Do you really believe there's a haunted mansion in the middle of the forest? Something so big and nobody ever found it?"
"It can turn invisible that's why!"
"Of course..."
"It's the truth! The house turns visible just for the ones he chose as his victims!" He explained.
"Then what? It eats people? Don't be ridiculous..."
"People found bones abandoned in the forest. Explain this."
"Too bad those people never brought them to us because they disappeared in front of them..."
"A bunch of people are saying the same thing...how could you not believe them..."
"I did! I explored this place back and forth. If I didn't believe them I wouldn't even try..."
Suddenly a thunder struck not so far from there and started to rain. "That's great...now that I wanted to leave." Tigress complained
Po winced back when the thunder crushed "Woah I swear I thought it wasn't going to rain tonight. Let's find a place to stay until the rainstorm goes out."
Walking deeper into the forest where the darkness was the only thing excepted to find Tigress widened her eyes surprised and shocked when something else appeared. "You're kidding me..."
"Invisibility!" Mantis moved his scythes along together with his voice to make a better effect.
They reached an old rusty gate. She wanted to knock, ask for the permission to enter, but they were soaking and it was half-open. She pushed it further and everyone walked deeper inside the mansion. In the courtyard empty trees filled the place. Everything's in ruin from the mansion itself to the single things around there...destroyed walls, broken windows filled with dust and webs. They stopped in front of that giant door who blocked them from entering inside. From there they were shielded enough to avoid the rain, but the weather suddenly turned colder and colder they needed a better place where heat themselves up. Tigress knocked at the door. Waiting for an answer, she tried a second and a third time. No answer.
"This is the abandon mansion...nobody's going to open us the door." Monkey said
"I don't believe that this place is abandoned." She stated.
The door was locked. A weird thing for an abandoned place. "Monkey do you think you can open the door from inside climbing there?" Tigress asked
"The door's locked...maybe I could use Mantis' help too." The simian added.
The bug climbed on his shoulder and Monkey disappeared inside from the window.
Minutes passed and nothing happened. "Should I go to check on them?" Crane questioned Tigress
She didn't reply and knocked the door again "Hey! Have you done? We're freezing here!"
Po approached the door, laid his face on the door and moved his ear closer to it trying to hear something. "I'm getting worried...I don't hear anything inside..."
"Let's just break down the door. There's no way someone's living in here..." Crane proposed
Tigress didn't really want to do it. Something is telling her that this place isn't abandoned as he looks like. "Okay...I'll do it."
As soon as she was going to land a kick on it Monkey unlocked the door and her foot stopped in front of his face. He noticed it first and moved his face away scared.
"Why did you take so long?" Viper asked concerned.
"Sorry...we had...a little inconvenient who slowed us." Monkey didn't explain himself clear enough and walked inside.
The place inside wasn't so different from what it looked like from outside. Everything's in shambles, ruined statues, ruined decorations and...Mantis not far from there analyzing something on a table. "What's that thing?" Tigress asked getting closer.
"Something you wouldn't like..." Mantis turned to her showing a corpse.
"Oh my god..." Viper gasped slithering on the table.
A skeleton was on that dusty table.
Po's face turned purple "Is that real?!"
"Calm down now..." Tigress' serious tone tried to ease that stressing moment. "What did you find?"
"I didn't explore the mansion yet..." Mantis said
"We found it on the door...our first thought was that he was trying to leave, but something happened." Monkey resumed the situation.
Mantis jumped on Tigress' shoulder, got closer to her ear "When can I tell you I told you?"
"This isn't the moment to play, Mantis. Your being right isn't going to bring us good news."
Tigress and Mantis talked about the condition of the body they found. They couldn't understand at what animal belongs that skeleton. Missing parts of it made it hard. In the meantime the others looked around the place not going to far from them to split up. Something from the ceiling dripped on Po's head. "Uh?" It fell again. The panda touched his head where it was wet and bringing his paw to his face a red liquid appeared. He screamed scared luring everyone's attention to him.
"PO! WHAT'S WRONG?!" Tigress shouted turning to him. He was shaking looking at his finger. She saw the blood and looked up. The sight was horrifying. A body hanging down the ceiling.
They stared at it shocked. "Crane...please..." She sighed trying to contain herself.
The bird nodded, flew a bit and cut the rope. The body fell onto Po.
Monkey putted his hands against his mouth "That's disgusting..."
A sheep...a dead sheep. That poor thing recently died there. Someone strangled her and then hung her up like a trophy. The panda couldn't handle it. First a skeleton...now a dead body recently killed. Being too close to that thing, the smell, the blood, the situation...he fell on the ground as well losing consciousness
When the dragon warrior opened his eyes again his friends were surrounding him completely worried about him. "Po!" their voices called his name countless times. He took some time to clearly focus and recognize their faces. He moaned a bit and raised half of his body "I'm sorry...I wasn't expecting that..."
"Just answer me. Do you think you can handle this?"
"Tigress. This is a serious thing. I must stay and help you!"
"That's what I needed to hear." She smiled helping him to get up. "From now on be aware that something similar or worse can happen..."
The mansion have multiple floors and countless rooms connected by long, dark and scary hallways. "We shouldn't go alone in here. Let's make some groups..." Viper proposed.
Monkey quickly climbed the stairs for the second floor alone "Leave it to me! I know everything about these things!"
Crane flew to him concerned "You shouldn't go alone though. That's dangerous..."
"Oh...now you're worried. What happened to the killer hidden inside of me?" He mocked him.
"Ha, ha. You're so funny..." Crane did a fake laugh "You're not the only one who knows how to make a joke."
Monkey stepped on something weird, his foot went deeper into the floor. A pressure plate. What happened next...completely unexpected. The first room. The one where everyone was still standing except for them opened completely like a trapdoor. Everyone fell into the darkness. Someone tried to save himself and the closest person to him by gripping on something, but the wooden planks were rotten and they slipped inside.
"Oh dear..." Crane looked at it shocked "This isn't a good start..."