I apologize beforehand for this short chapter. It's short even by the standard of short chapters I've written before, but this is mostly setting up Chapter 3.
Chapter 2: The Foyer
"What the HELL was that thing!?" Yoshi panted. He pressed his body weight against the door with everyone else.
"I didn't have the chance to scan it," Samus said. "But I don't recall anything like that living in Hyrule. Zelda?"
The princess caught her breath before saying, "No, that's definitely not a native of Hyrule. It doesn't belong here. Link, have you seen it before?"
The silent Hero of Time shook his head. Even his numerous adventures through Hyrule never had him encounter a creature that quite looked like that. Realizing the situation, he removed the sword and shield from his back and gestured for everyone to move away from the door.
Zelda gasped. "You're going to fight that thing?" Link nodded.
He pulled at the door to no avail.
Yoshi let out a nervous laugh. "Oh, I get it now. That was just an illusion to get us in here. That thing was just smoke and mirrors."
"Then how do you explain the door?" Claude asked, giving it a tug himself. "It's not movin' an inch!"
"They don't want anyone leaving the attraction so soon, right? Yeah, that's it," Yoshi muttered to himself.
"Well there's always another way out," Claude said as they stepped deeper into the foyer, finding Marth already there.
"This seems like quite an authentic home," the prince commented, holding a picture frame. "If you had not told me of these elaborate haunted house attractions, I would be under the impression that we were intruding in someone's house. This appears to be a picture of the family that would live here."
In the picture was a father in a brown suit next to his wife in an extravagant red gown with white pearls lining her neck. Ahead of them were their children, an apprehensive young boy and a girl with a mischievous smirk.
Claude glanced over the picture. "A lot of these fake haunted houses have 'stories' behind them."
"You think this might be a clue as to what we can expect?" Kirby asked. His voice shook; it was clear that he was still a little rattled by the encounter outside.
"I really don't have a good feeling about this," Captain Falcon squeaked, his eyes darting around the room. "If this really is an attraction and not the real thing, which way are we supposed to go? And where are all the other people?"
The house was deserted. A chandelier cast a flickering orange light along the large room. Red couches and chairs trimmed with gold lined the walls, as did old portraits of Lake Hylia and Death Mountain. The room to the left led to a darkened dining room while the room to the right was a dimly lit living room. A staircase led to the second floor with two hallways on opposite sides.
Samus sighed. "Attraction or not, I'm starting to think that this is a waste of our time. Maybe we should split up and look for another exit. I'll cover the-"
"Wait a minute! Hold up, stop, pump the brakes!" Claude shouted.
"What's making you flip out?"
"Every time groups split up in a place like this, things go from bad to worse."
Link let out a dismissive grunt while Samus replied with, "You've been watching too many horror movies. Anyways, Zelda, Link, Marth, Young Link, and Falcon...I want you all to look around upstairs and see if you can find anybody. The people that may live here or others who got lost in here like we did...just anyone you can find. I'll check out the ground floor with Kirby, Yoshi and Claude. We'll look for another exit."
"But Samus, I wanted to be with yooouuu..." Captain Falcon whined, leaning his head on her massive shoulder.
"But there has to be someone as level-headed as I am leading the other group." Samus mentally sighed when Falcon's face beamed at the thought of him being 'level-headed.' Crisis averted. Or so she thought.
Link and Zelda's jaws dropped while Marth tried his best not to let his stoic expression crack. Samus waved her free arm in a failed attempt to reassure them. Instead, they shot her scornful looks as Captain Falcon lead them up the carpeted staircase with an extra bounce in his step.
"What are you guys waiting for? Arrrgh!" Captain Falcon literally skipped into the left hallway until a chilly breeze swept past him, causing the paintings on the walls to tremble.
"Who's there? If you're a ghost, I'm not afraid of you!" He declared, his voice cracking in contrast. The wind picked up in speed, knocking one of the portraits to the floor. "I shoot scum like you all the time! I'm a Space Pirate, arrrgh!"
The lamps on the wall flickered in response.
"I said I'm not afraid of you! SHOW ME YA MOVES!"
A childlike giggle echoed through the hallway and a force collided with Captain Falcon so hard that he vaulted through the air and soared over Zelda, Link and Marth just as they ducked under his flailing body. He landed in a crumpled heap at the staircase where he continued, flopping and rolling down each and every step, finally sprawling out flat on his back, his only sight the chandelier on the ceiling until Samus' metallic form stepped over him.
"What happened?" She asked, halfway between amusement and annoyance.
"He showed me his moves," Falcon whispered hurtfully.
"This is going to be a long night," Link muttered, ignoring shocked expressions.
Through a lack of genre savviness, everyone splits into two teams for chapter 3. Team A (Samus/Claude/Yoshi/Kirby) will experience some in-fighting over the situation they may or may not be in, while Team B (Falcon/Link/Zelda/Marth/YLink) is subjected to the horrors of the house. And Captain Falcon.