On a cliffside on the coast of Los Angeles, California at 10 p.m.
The rain was pouring down violently in waves like hail over the windshield of a dark blue hummer limousine as it pulled in and approached a giant, weather worn ironed-gate. The wind was clawing persistently at the windows and if you let your imagination get away from you for only a brief moment, one could swear that the wind was howling like a creature of the night. The dark twisted ironed-gate that loomed before them stood at least at a good eight feet tall and completely surrounded the premises of what laid inside its confines. As the vehicle came to a sudden halt in the darkened driveway, the driver quickly stepped out and stood staring up in the pouring down rain for a second taking in what laid before him. He gulped nervously at the sight before him and so did the others that were still inside the vehicle. He took a moment to take in what waiting for them just beyond those gates before sticking his head back inside the cheaply rental limo.
"Are you sure about this place?," The tentative driver asked with unease creeping into his voice as he added, "This is the right address, right?"
An annoyed sigh came out from the back end of the limo as a male voice said in a miffed tone, "Yes Chef this it. Now go unlock gate so we can go inside. And make it snappy, you're letting water seep in and I'm getting drenched! It's seriously messing up my snazzy signature do!" [1]
The former army corporal known as Chef, gave "this Chris guy" a darkened look of irritation before rolling his eyes and saying, "Whatever man."
He slams the limo door shut while angrily muttering to himself as he begrudgingly, but hurriedly pulls out a set of keys on a ring and opens the gate. It makes a screeching-loud creaking noise over the storm the further it opened before it came to abrupt stop as the sky suddenly lit up with a bright clash of lightning followed by a loud thundering crash BOOM!
The sudden burst of light that shot across the sky, illuminated the surrounding area in front of them. What looked like a giant ghastly fortress scaling the sky with its decaying dark-grayish walls that looked ready to crumble at any given moment stood forbidding as it laid stretched out before them.
As the thunder hit, everyone screamed in fright. Chef quickly scaled back into the vehicle with his heart rate hammering out of control and sat there panting with mixed rain and sweat pouring down both sides of his face as he took a moment to collect himself. Not a word was spoken as he cranked the limo back into life and slowly made his way through the gravel dirt driveway that was overturned with vines and bushes that threatened to take over the path.
When they were close enough to the front of the forlorn building to get out, Chef grabbed his camouflage army green umbrella while opening the backdoor letting out two others aside from Chris himself. The not so amused Chef Hatchet veered his way towards the back of the limo where he opened the trunk for one of them as the other stood nearby with a dark-colored umbrella shielding the other from the heavy on pour of rain.
"Interns!" Chris's voice rang out as it could be heard from the inside of the vehicle.
Two female voice nervously ranged out both at the same time in a startled response, "Yes!"
"Hailey get my bags! And Leigh my umbrella!" Chris shouted his orders over the storm to both interns.
A young ghostly-like girl with a bust as round and similar to former contestant Courtney and long legs like another popularly famous contestant Lindsay, but with a tannish complexion had chocolate-colored eyes that looked awfully similar to another well-known former contestant as well. She nervously bit her bottom lip and look from Chris back to her co-worker while anxiously tucking a strand of her shoulder length dark brown locks behind her ear revealing her piercings. One regular pierced lobe and the top of her cartilage as which suggested that her second ear also bore the similar piercings. She looked as though she was torn between helping out her other assigned partner who stood in front of trunk as she held the umbrella for her and doing as Chris demanded and helping him out of the vehicle.
"Leigh! Now, while we're all still young!," Chris said in an annoyed tone, but then shortly afterwards deadpanned, "If you don't think you're up for this, I know where I can find another useful intern and believe me, her daddy has more than enough money to keep me from strangling her before this season is over."
"Sorry, Chris! I'm coming!" She said in a little bit of a panicked tone with worry over of losing her current position.
She quickly gives the other girl intern an apologetic look and worded a small "sorry" before rushing off back to Chris's end of the car.
"Sorry for the wait, I'm here! Is there anything else I can do for you, Chris?" She tried to chirped beamingly regardless of the situation as she held out his umbrella and shielding him from the rain.
Chris looks agitatedly up at her while getting out of the back and says, "No, but you could hold the umbrella more steady."
Hailey rolls her brown almond shaped eyes lined with mascara and thinks dismissively to herself, "What a ham!"
She was a tall girl standing five foot eight feet tall and looked no more than maybe a hundred and twenty-five pounds with a shapeless figure and a white flesh tone paler than most. With her heart-shaped face scrunched up in determination while pushing back her loose chocolate brown hair framed in a widow's peak that normally fell down into volumes to her chest, she struggled with her task at hand. Though this stormy evening her hair was now plastered to her face due to the intense fall of the rain, but she invigoratingly snatches at the trunks and bags of the infamous host out of the back end of the limo anyway. But unfortunately struggles with them because of their weight and sheer bulkiness and let out a silent wordless growl of her frustrations.
After several attempts, she finally manages to remove them as Chef suddenly appears behind her in a sudden burst of lightening and thundering. The sudden image of the tall man standing behind her looking down at her had a menacing effect to it and startled her so intensely that she let out a shriek of terror and dropped Chris's things onto his foot causing him to swear and hop around on his other one in excruciating pain.
"Folks, let's get this show on the road! I wanna get out of this weather, don't you!" Chris complained as Leigh did her best to hold Chris's umbrella still over the pulling and tugging of the wild winds.
"Would you two stop fooling around back there and Hailey, get the door will ya?" Chris added as he tapped his one of his feet impatiently with a testy look in his eyes.
"I'm trying here! You carry more luggage on you than my oldest sibling!" Hailey snapped as she started to scoop up Chris's things, but stopped when she saw the look Chef was giving Chris while slamming the trunk shut out of his own frustrations and fishing out his keys.
"Do not!" Chris popped back in an almost hesitant tone.
Chef handed keys to Hailey and gathered up Chris unnecessary amount of luggage roughly and followed her closely behind as the rest of the party joined in their march up the crumbling stone steps to the unwelcoming building before them. Chris continued to complain about his hair getting wet and his bagging now being muddy as Chef rolled his eyes again for what felt like the hundredth time today while rubbing his temples as the squabble behind him quickly ensued. He sighed raggedly as he carefully made his way up the steps behind Hailey, looking around him as though it was his first time since they pulled up, fear was slowing started to creep it's way back up to him as realization soon hit him what they were doing.
Chris was still rattling on as he finally got up the steps and out of the rain standing right behind him and one of the interns, Hailey while the other one was trying in a pitiful state to keep him dry in this violent weather.
"This place is a bust! I can't believe the owner actually gave me the reigns to this sick looking place! Can you imagine the rating for this!?" Chris continued excitedly while no one in general was actually listening aside from the young girl, Leigh who agreed wholeheartedly and nodded her head eagerly in agreement.
I shook my head with further annoyance and thought, "Damn, that girl would tell him anything he wants to hear as long as it won her a golden ticket into his good graces."
Chris's voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts as he sounded like a spoiled brat while saying in a whiny tone, "What's taking so long?"
Hailey's head shot up with an aggravated look and narrowed her eyes and through gritted teeth hissed, "I said I was trying!"
In a less testy tone as she turned back around tugged with all her weight on the door handle, she grunted and said, "The stupid thing is stuck! It won't budge!"
Hailey suddenly paused and froze up on the spot as her eyes shifted over to the side anxiously looked into the bushes nearby where she thought she heard what could only be described as faint voices?
She gulped and thought nervously to herself, "This place is giving me the creeps."
The others as she looked up and noticed didn't seem to hear it, so she said nothing to draw attention to herself, that and she didn't want to be called a chicken on her first day either. She wrote it off as her imagination in a creepy place like this getting the better of her, at least for the time being. Before she could grab the lock and try again, Chef out of impatience himself stepped in and brushed her hand to the side.
"Move or we'll be here all night." Chef growled practically shoving the young dark haired girl to the side.
She made a face while Chris folded his arms over his chest and sulked while tapping his foot impatiently once more as Leigh tried to console him and Chef groaned from the sight, but before Chris or anyone could say anything else the door suddenly blew open like it was hit by a gush of wind. The door creaked noisily the entire time it opened. Everyone froze up in startled fear and didn't move an inch or said a word. Then as suddenly as the door swung open, the lights from an old glassed-diamond worn chandelier lit up revealing cobwebs in every nock and cranny in its confines and the spacious size of the room inside of it. Every inch of the place was covered in thick mold, dust and dirt, and crawling with spiders with their pale veil-like sticky artwork displayed everywhere. The air itself was thick with a musty mold smell which was proof that the place had not been opened for years. Before they could look any further, the lights sudden when out and a sudden chorus of demonic laughter filled the air which was followed by thundering and lightening.
Chris immediately jumped up in the air into Chef's arms and screamed louder than both of the girls combined in a girlish scream! Chef hollered in surprise and out of fear, but mostly out of being startled by Chris's sudden outburst. With the umbrella long forgotten by now, both girls eyes grew wide as they held onto each other and shook in terror with their teeth clattering to prove it as they all stared inside of the old rundown building. Just when everyone's breathing and hearts were started to the return to normal, the lights flickered back on and from across the room a dark figure soon approached them in a casual, but steady pace from the shadows. Everyone froze in fear once more and was not able to look away not even as the dark person in question revealed themselves before them as they came into the light. If anything everyone looked twice on edge the moment they saw this person's face.
In a deep and dark voice as they looked Chris in the eye and smugly said, "Welcome, so glad you could finally showed up. This place hold promise."
Chris narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but before he could make a single complaint, Chef unceremoniously dropped him soundly on the ground with a shared look that clearly showed that he was not amused either. As all that transpired, that mysterious person in question abruptly turned on their heel and looked around with mirth in their gaze and longingly at the surroundings about them.
With a look that could undo lust, the dark unknown figure gleefully commented, "Location. Location. Location."
[1] The signature do or just do is just another way to say hairdo if anyone was wondering.
Now that I got the prelude out of the way, I can put more focus on the actual chapter. This was an idea that popped in my head and that's when I realized that I was going to need an intern, but ended up with two. That's great because they'll both come in handy later on in the story especially in a few chapters. This place in the story is where the contestants will be staying for a night or two, and believe it or not it's actually based on a horror movie which will be revealed in two or three chapters from now. The mysterious person will also be revealed soon enough too. They'll make things very interesting later in the plot.
On another note please let me know how I did on portraying the interns personalities, this was my first attempt at giving them a shot or a little warm up I guess you could call it. If there's anything I need working on, don't be afraid to let me know. If I'm forgetting anything else, just holler. I do that a lot.