Disclaimer: I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, references, or guest appearances
The remaining Zoosters and Hobokeners froze in their spots. None of them knew what to do. Their own friends had just vanished before them, either into the darkness or through the wall.
Skipper found the will to move and went to pick up the things Angel had dropped or put down: the flashlight and her bag. He flashed everyone to get them out of their trances, "A-alright, listen up everyone. It's clear we need to get out of this house of terror before something gets the rest of us."
Julien crossed his arms, "And who is to be putting you in charge?"
"Because I'm the only one who can lead the rest of us safely. Kowalski, analysis!"
Kowalski jumped, "W-well Angel said the only way out is to go through the entire house. Knocking or blowing down the walls is out of the question as she has asked Rico to leave all weapons back at the HQ."
Skipper placed a fin on his chin, "Looks like we'll be doing this manually. Alright everyone lets move out, that goes for you too Hobokeners."
Hans and Clemson glared at Skipper, then glanced at each other. They both knew that the only way out was through the house, so whether they liked it or not, they were all stuck together.
Walking away from the scene, no conversations were made. The whole way was silent. The penguins were busy leading the others and Julien was holding tightly onto Maurice. The two Hobokeners stuck the back of the group where they mourned over the lost of their friends.
It went on like this for a while before they came across a small flight of stairs. Skipper shined the light down below and jumped down. He surveyed the surrounding area, which turned out to be a long hallway and then a turn. Standing on the bottom step he motioned everyone to come down and turned off the flashlight, "There's enough light down this way. Better to save the battery on this thing, we don't know how long this thing is."
Indeed there was light, but only a little. However, once everyone was on the bottom step, the lights went out. Marlene, Private, Clemson, and Julien let out a scream as darkness consumed them. Their screams almost made Skipper drop the flashlight, so he struggled to turn it back on. As he tried to do so, something echoed through the hallway.
It sounded like... Rushing water?
Skipper finally managed to turn the light back on and shined it around the area. To everyone's surprise, water had flooded in and reached midway to the bottom step. Julien groaned, "Why must it be water? I am not seeing what is so great about water."
Clemson rolled his eyes, though he did wonder why water had flooded into the room.
"Well look on the bright side, at least it's not too deep," Private stated.
A splash echoed through the hallway. Skipper shined the surface of the water, looking for anything that caused the splash.
"W-what was that?" Marlene asked shakily.
"Dis place is giving me de shivers. Mort! Go check de water!" Julien kicked Mort, who flew through the air yelling, "Wheeeeeeee!"
When he landed about ten feet away, everyone turned to glare at Julien. He noticed this, "What? Am I having dirt on my costume?"
Everyone rolled their eyes as Skipper shined the light on Mort. He looked happy splashing the water where he was and even told the others it was fun. For a moment they all thought it was indeed safe... Until the splashing from earlier made itself present again, this time getting closer to where they were. Skipper looked all around the water and saw the splashing headed for Mort, but nothing was there to make the splash.
"Mort get out of there!" Private called excitedly.
Mort payed no mind to the others calls to get out of the water, instead he turned to see whatever was splashing and waved to it, "Hi invisible splashy monster!"
Suddenly, the splashing stopped just before it reached Mort. Mort turned around with a sad face, "Aw splashy monster went bye-bye."
"Is... Whatever that was gone?" Clemson asked after a minute.
"I'm not sure," Kowalski started, "But come on out of the water Mort. I don't think the splashy monster wants you in there."
"Okay!" Mort took a step forward before disappearing completely under the water. The group screamed as a growling noise was heard and more splashing occurred where Mort was. With the splashing, something red spread through the water. They all thought the worst for Mort, except Julien who began calling for him, "Mort! Be getting out of de water and come protect your king!"
Maurice angrily turned to him, "Mort's not coming out of the water! He never is! He just died! This is all your fault Julien! If you hadn't kicked him out there, Mort would still be here!"
Julien processed this, granted it took about five minutes, then grew sad with regret. He had just caused the death of one of his only friends, one of his loyal subjects. He surprisingly made no comment toward the scorn he was getting. Kowalski, though shaken up, examined the water. He splashed the water with his fin causing an immediate reaction. The splashing returned and headed for the group. They jumped up the another step out of fear and prepared to make a run for it should whatever was there came out of the water.
Nothing came out. The splashing stopped at the foot of the step. Hans stepped back down cautiously and quickly hit the water. He brought his flipper back, but this only caused one splash from whatever was in the water. Clemson shook like a leaf, silently praying that nothing would happen to Hans. When nothing else happened, Kowalski spoke, "Hmm, Skipper I believe I have a theory about whatever is in the water. Notice how the splashing stopped at the step, even when Hans is standing right there at the edge. I theorize that whatever it is, it can't get out of the water."
"Okay... So how do we get across without getting in the water?" Clemson asked.
Kowalski opened his beak to say something, but closed it. He turned back to the water and looked around, "Aha! There are boxes scattered in the water. We can jump across instead of walking across."
Hans searched for the closest one and said, "I'll jump first, just to make sure it really won't come out of the water."
Clemson grabbed him before he jumped, "But what if it does come out of the water? What if you don't make it?"
"Relax Clemy. It doesn't seem to travel very fast, so I can just run away of it does come out. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Clemson still didn't let Hans go, instead he gripped tighter, "I just don't want to lose you."
Hans saw how upset Clemson was and gave him a kiss to reassure that he'd be fine. Reluctantly, Clemson let go. Hans took a deep breath and jumped, landing perfectly fine on the box.
Nothing happened.
Everyone sighed with relief and started jumping across on the boxes one-by-one. Slowly they all made it to the end and turned the corner. Hans, who was in front of the others, saw that the turn lead to another small flight of stairs, "The end is just around this turn."
Small cheers were voiced, though others knew that it wasn't over just yet. Soon the rest of the group kept on jumping on the boxes and reached the end. Clemson glomped Hans the moment they were safe. Skipper rolled his eyes while Rico made gagging noises.
"Alright, everyone who still surviving present? Good! Now lets get going." Skipper started leading the way.
Along the way, Kowalski started looking through Angel's bag, "It seems Angel knew what we would encounter in here. She has everything about the house written in a notebook."
Pulling it out, Kowalski tried to read what she wrote but with the poor lighting mixed with her messy handwriting, reading it was difficult. He could only make out a few things, "Um does anyone remember how many of the 'suitors' Angel told us there would be?"
"She said there were three, but she wasn't sure if we'd encounter all of them. For all we know, all three could be in here." Maurice answered.
"Judging by what I can actually read, I'd say there is a third one. Lets see this one is... M-ma-malo. Malo, I think. There are only a few words I can see: torture, truly insane and..."
"And what?" Private reluctantly asked.
Kowalski gulped,"C-cannibal."
BANG!
For some their blood ran cold while the others could've sworn their hearts stopped for second. They all turned around and waited for another bang.
BANG!
Clemson clutched Hans' flipper. The penguins shakily got into their fighting position. Julien pushed Maurice in front of him while Marlene gave him a 'really?' look.
"No-now everyone calm down," Kowalski started, "Remember what Angel said, they can't see us but they can hear us, so don't make any noise."
BANG!
A door they had missed off to the side had fallen off its hinges. A voice called out, "One of you... Let me taste you..."
Stepping through the doorway came another figure looking exactly the same as the other two, "I grew tired... Of my own flesh..."
A laugh was heard from the girl, a kind of laugh that clearly stated insanity. She slowly turned her head as to look at her surroundings and looked toward the frightened group. Part of her hair covered half of her face, so only part of the bandage was seen, "Bonjour~"
Skipper silently signaled everyone to quietly follow him. Without taking their eyes off the monster, they all slowly walked away. The monster never turned her gaze away and moved her hair out of her face. Much to the groups horror, one eye wasn't covered and stared at them eagerly, "I seeeeee you."
The monster dashed toward them causing them to scream and start running. The monster laughed while chasing them, "Come here! I want you!"
Some started crying out of fear for their lives as they ran away from the deranged monster. Marlene wiped some tears away and saw something up ahead, "Guys look a door!"
There was an open doorway, but a metal door was vertically lowering on them. Skipper noticed this and ordered his men to slide the rest of the way to keep it open. They did as they were told and followed Skipper into the next room. They frantically looked around for anything to prop the door up, but there wasn't anything to use. Private could hear the others yelling to hurry up along with the insane laughter of the monster and looked up to see if maybe there was a knob of some sort.
There was, "Guys look! A crank!"
Immediately the penguins formed a tower with Skipper on top. He held onto the crank and tried to turn it, but the metal door was too heavy for the penguin to bring back up. Realizing this, Skipper gripped the crank to keep the door in place and allow the others to slip through.
The others kept running, motivated to get passed the door and away from the monster. Suddenly, Julien tripped over something and being in front of Maurice and Marlene, tripped them as well. They stumbled upon each other and quickly untangled themselves. Clemson and Hans, who both ran ahead, stopped to see what happened but only for a moment. Once they saw the three get back up, they were both convinced they'd all make it out and resumed running.
The two Hobokeners made it under the door in time. Marlene and the two lemurs sped up, desperate to make it out alive. The three were only a foot away when the door suddenly slammed shut on them. The crank Skipper was holding had broken off leading the door to fall the rest of the way while the penguins fell back.
Pounding and screaming was heard behind the door. The others tried to lift the door back up but to no avail. Skipper called out to them, "Marlene! Ringtail! Maurice! Can you three hear me!? If you can, hide! Hide and don't come out!"
He was cut off when the screaming increased... Then stopped.
The remaining survivors held their breath, straining their ears/ear holes for anything behind the closed door. What they heard instead was gut-wrenching and caused Clemson and Kowalski to vomit.
Behind the door, the disturbing sounds of eager chewing and biting mixed with laughter were clear and plentiful.
Uh yeah, sorry for the massive inactivity for the fic. Halloween had passed and... Yeah.
Fangirl: Ah Malo. The most insane of the suitors. And to think he used to be a violinist.
Childish: I never liked Malo's part. His part was the scariest.
Back to the fic, I do plan to finish this one since I finally finished 'A New Life' and it was also requested to work on this one by a friend of mine, Killjoy66293, or as I call him, Erik. To anyone who is still reading this after months of no updates, enjoy!