The Guided Tour

by Snapplelinz

This oneshot was inspired by the building in which I work :P Happy Halloween!

"Seriously, why are we here?" Zack asked warily of the room at large.

Technically, it wasn't a room at all; it was a long and sweeping corridor that looked as though it would never end. Save for the group walking together in an uncomfortable huddle and the strange man leading the way forward, the space was sparse and devoid of any other human presence.

Unless you counted the stern-looking curator of the building who watched you with her beady brown eyes everywhere you went.

And then there was the ultra-creepy security guard who opened and closed the main entrance like he was leading you to a prison cell.

Why had they agreed to take a tour of a medical museum which used to be an old hospital?

"I told you already – my Uncle got tickets to this exhibit and said I could invite whomever I wanted along. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Woody answered in his familiar whiny voice.

"Speak for yourself, Woody. Watching Arturo Vertalli unveil his latest spring collection is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is just…weird." London countered in a disdainfully haughty tone.

"Come on, guys. It's not so bad," Bailey tried, the plastered smile beginning to hurt her cheek bones while she gazed bewilderedly at their surroundings.

"I just don't understand why we couldn't do this tour during the day…" Cody trailed off, grimacing at an ominous-looking scalpel in a glass case beside him.

"This tour only happens once a year and the curators prefer to do it at night so that people can't steal the exhibits." Woody explained.

"I can see why. That gold chamber pot looks expensive!" Marcus noted with speculative interest.

"Besides, it's Halloween! That makes the tour all the more exciting!" Woody beamed.

"Yeah, 'exciting' was the word I was thinking of when you first mentioned a tour of an old creepy hospital on one of the scariest nights of the year." Maya retorted hoarsely, staying very close to Zack all the while as they walked along.

"As I was saying before we were interrupted…" the tour guide named Louis announced in an irritable voice. "This used to be the old children's ward of the former hospital."

"They actually kept kids down here?" Cody asked in alarm.

The rest of the group's expressions matched what Cody had said aloud. Many of the old hospital rooms were encased in units made of glass.

One of the rooms contained an old-fashioned hospital bed, a wooden and mouldy bookshelf running along the wall, small reading table with discoloured plastic toys scattered around its legs. A lone teddy bear sat upright on a wooden stool in the corner, its button eyes black and lifeless.

It was a world literally frozen in time.

"What's with the metal bars around the bed?" Zack questioned suspiciously.

"It looks like a cage." Maya agreed, feeling the hairs on her arms rise a little at the thought.

"Hey, they're not so bad. I used to have a crib just like that when I was a kid." Woody replied defensively.

"Did the bars have lead paint on them, Woody?" Bailey demanded snidely.

"That explains a lot." Marcus remarked with a snort.

"I thought this used to be a military hospital used primarily for Confederate soldiers recuperating during the Civil War." Cody noted pensively while staring at a framed photo hanging on a nearby wall.

"Oiu, c'est vrai. A great many soldiers came to New Orleans when the war broke out in full flux between the Union and Confederate armies. The devastation left les enfantes without homes and families, so many were re-located to live in the hospital until the end of the war. But being inside these walls for so many years…it made les enfants extremely…terrible." Louis concluded, being sure to draw out the 'r' in 'terrible' with a rasping quality which made the hairs on Bailey's arms stand on end.

"Oh come on! Are you implying that the kids in this hospital went crazy?" Marcus demanded while rotating a lone finger around his temple.

"I think he's more than implying, Marcus…" Woody whimpered, shuddering at the teddy bear staring back at him through the glass window with hollow glassy eyes.

"Sounds like a pile of baloney to me." Zack openly scoffed.

"I see some of you doubt the truth of my words. But it is no mocking matter, especially in light of…mort." Louis intoned cryptically.

"Mort? What the heck is that? Some character out of 'Penguins of Madagascar'?" London questioned loudly with a frown on her face.

"It's a French word for 'death'." Maya answered with a look of dismay.

"The kids actually died?" Bailey asked in alarm.

"Oui, most of them. It was a very difficult time during the war and the hospital staff were overwhelmed with ze casualties. Many were just volunteers trying to save countless lives with no previous medical training. They were forced to bury many of ze bodies under this property; some were experimented on in ze morgue." Louis explained in a grave whisper.

"Experiments?"

"Morgue?"

"Some say that ze spirits of les enfants still roam through ze rooms of zis hallway. Many are lost and confused. So they climb back into their beds and wait…"

"What are they waiting for?" Zack asked in a would-be casual voice, even though his heart had begun thumping rapidly beneath his T-shirt.

In answer to that question, the group heard what sounded like a muffled thump in close proximity.

"What the heck was that?" Cody demanded through barely concealed nervousness.

"Do not be alarmed. Zer are many sounds which echo through ze hallways at night. Eet iz a very old building." Louis offered in an attempt at bravado, an amiable smile plastered on his face.

The sound was quickly followed by the sound of creaking, unfettered against the sound of the discoloured tiles on which they walked.

"Guys…"

"Maybe we should continue with the tour. Let's keep moving…please!" Maya exclaimed in an excitable tone, her grip on Zack's arm becoming painful.

A queasy feeling began to erupt in her stomach. The building was beginning to converge on her, as if there were a million eyes fixated on her at that very moment. The atmosphere was becoming extremely stifling and tense.

"What did you mean when you said they were waiting?" London demanded heatedly, feeling strangely annoyed for no apparent.

It was this building, its entire aura making her panicky, putting her instantly on edge.

"Guys…"

"Maya, it's ok." Bailey chided in a murmur, ignoring Woody's murmuring for the moment.

But she herself began to feel exactly how Maya felt, goosebumps pricking her skin with sudden intensity.

"Guys!"

"What, Woody?" Zack snapped angrily, finally losing his temper.

Before Woody could answer, another thump sounded in their ears, only much closer and far more piercing than its predecessor. Maya turned to her left and began screaming sharply, staring in horror at what had caught Woody's attention in the first place.

The glass window framing the children's nursery.

A man shrouded in black stood with his face pressed up against it.

"He climbed out of the bed…" Woody whimpered with a painstaking shudder coursing through his body.

"What?" Cody exclaimed.

"Do not be alarmed. It is only Bosco, ze security guard. He was playing…une amusement." Louis explained with a dry chuckle.

"He did that on purpose? He scared the heck out of us!" Bailey retorted furiously.

"Nobody sneaks up on London Tipton and lives to tell the tale! Daddy's going to hear about this!" London echoed, hands on hips while scowling pointedly at their tour guide.

In spite of everyone's protests, both Woody and Zack were still staring at the window. As far as they could tell, Bosco was still watching them and hadn't moved a muscle since his unexpected appearance.

But something was wrong.

First there was his appearance. When they had first entered the building, he had been dressed in an unassuming guard uniform, the fabric of which was an obsequious brown.

Now he was dressed from head to toe in black, complete with a black hoodie which covered his head, leaving only his face exposed. He was smiling grotesquely back at them, a thin pane of glass standing between them, distorting his features even more.

"Why's he just standing there?" Zack questioned pensively.

"Bosco, you've had your fun. Now go back to ze main entrance." Louis implored, laughter still playing on his lips.

"Guys, I think we should get out of here…" Maya trailed off in a high-pitched voice, tugging on Zack's arm.

It happened all too quickly when Bosco suddenly whipped out an axe from behind his back and began hacking at the glass.

"Bosco, what are you doing?" Louis barked impatiently, losing his cool completely.

"He's trying to get at us! He's gonna kill us!" Woody shrieked, backing away rapidly.

"Get away from the window!" Cody shouted at the same time.

He grabbed hold of Woody just as the first shards fell from the pane, showering the tiles with pieces of shiny glass. Marcus did the same by pulling both Bailey and Maya out of harm's way as Bosco aimed another mighty blow at the fragile glass frame.

"Bosco, stop zis maintenant!"

He was climbing through the jagged hole he'd just made, the blade of the axe tipped with burnished menace. The group backed away from him in terror while Louis stood his ground, an ugly look on his thin face.

"You are going off script again!"

"Maybe I want to change the rules, Louis."

"I make ze rules, you idiot! You were just supposed to scare the les enfants, not break ze glass! That's coming straight out of your salary for the month." Louis fumed irately, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth.

"I don't think so. I've decided to run our little business on my own." Bosco announced cryptically.

"What's he talking about?" Maya questioned of Louis, whose eyes were trained on the security guard.

Just then, the sound of squeaking sounded through the hallway. The group turned around suddenly and stared in bewilderment at a gurney that had just materialised out of nowhere in the empty corridor.

"What is that?" London asked in a low voice, her breath quickening with hysteria.

"What's going on here?" Marcus demanded excitably, staring between the two men.

"Have you lost your mind, Bosco? What is ze corpse doing out here?"

"Corpse?" Bailey asked in a fearful tone, willing herself not to look.

But it was too late, because all their eyes were trained on the gurney as they moved closer in a huddle.

"It's a kid," Zack breathed in alarm.

Sure enough, there was a child lying on top of the hospital gurney, who looked to be about 8 years old. His skin was papery white, his lips tinged with a mesh of blue and purple. The peaceful expression on his face belied the collective revulsion felt by the rest of the group when they looked at his small body.

It had clearly been opened up and crudely sewn back together with thick black threads all along the abdomen, stretching right up towards the tiny neck.

"What did you do to him?" Bailey yelled angrily, her eyes swimming with tears at the sight of the young boy.

"He was already dying." Bosco spat indifferently.

"And we were going to sell his vital organs on the black market! Are you going back on our original agreement, Bosco?" Louis demanded with cold fury etched in his tone.

"I am so glad that you finally comprende, Louis. I have made an arrangement with a new buyer and will no longer be requiring your services. Au revoir, mon ami."

The girls screamed when Bosco, who was several heads taller than Louis, lifted the tour guide off of his feet and slammed him hard against the wall, one hand wrapped around the latter's throat. While Louis struggled and gasped for breath, Bosco retrieved some sort of drill from a back pocket and pressed a button.

A whirring sound echoed through the hall and the group of teenagers (all huddled against the wall) watched in terror as Bosco lifted the drill (of which the pointed edge was now spinning on high speed) and held in front of Louis' eyes, watching its every move with frantically muted horror.

"Hey, man – what are you doing?" Marcus dared to ask, even though his entire body was shaking with fear.

"Bosco, please…"

"It will be quick. You will not feel a thing, Louis." Bosco cooed with the soothing air of a father calming his child after a nightmare.

But his eyes, raging with madness, belied his amicable intentions. And this became even more apparent when he brought the drill downwards again and plunged it straight into Louis' stomach. The sharp edges disappeared into the tour guide's skin, causing him to gasp in protest when Bosco twisted his wrist a little more each time to accelerate the intensity of the pain.

Louis' breath came out in rasping spurts of pain and disbelief, his entire mouth filling with blood, which dripped out onto his chin and splattered onto the floor beneath him. Bosco used his other hand (still gripping Louis by the throat) to snap his neck with a casual flick of his wrist, pulling the drill out of his abdomen with reckless rapidity at the same time, emitting a bone-crunching sound.

London emitted a shrill scream when the tour guide's body fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. He now laid spreadeagled on the cold hard tiles, thick red blood pouring from the gaping hole in his stomach forming a perfect circle around his lifeless body. His eyes were now hollowed out and still, his mouth still agape in muffled dismay.

"What did you just do?" Zack demanded vehemently, gazing to and fro between the dead tour guide and the crazed security guard, who was still holding the murder weapon in his large hand like a maroon trophy.

They all backed away from Bosco as he began advancing on them menacingly.

"Hey, t-t-take it easy. You already killed one person, this doesn't have to get ugly…" Woody chided in a whimper, hiding conveniently behind Bailey while he spoke.

"You're all witnesses to what I just did. The only way you're leaving this building is on a gurney just like him." Bosco answered with cool elation evident in his tone with a casual toss of his head in the lifeless child's direction.

"There's six of us and one of you. I think you can do the Math, Bosco. You can't kill all of us." Bailey declared, her whole body shaking with a mixture of rage and apprehension while Cody attempted to shield her.

"All I need is one." The murderer answered with deathly simplicity.

"It's not going to be one of these kids." A new voice interrupted.

The group and Bosco turned around sharply and were faced with the mean-faced curator, pointing a shotgun in their direction, an ugly look on her face.

"Damn, didn't see that coming." Marcus remarked without thinking, momentarily distracted.

"Ah, Mona. I should've guessed. How long have you known?" Bosco questioned, as if he were talking about the weather.

"Long enough. Did you and Louis really think you could get away with using my museum as a platform for your illegal dealings?" Mona demanded furiously, the gun trained on Bosco's massive frame.

"You know, we really don't have to be around for this. I have a cocktail party to get to…" London piped up with a nervous chuckle which reverberated through the desolate hallway.

"Louis' luck had to run out eventually. I on the other hand, always have a back-up plan."

"Not this time."

Maya gasped loudly when the shorter woman aimed off a powerful shot, which rocketed right into Bosco's chest.

Any other person would've been floored immediately by the gunshot, most likely with a hole protruding out of their back where the bullet had made its exit wound.

Not Bosco.

He staggered slightly, but remained upright, the bullet seeming to have made no impact whatsoever. Cody stared in horror when Bosco pulled his black hoodie upwards to reveal a vest underneath.

"I told you had a back-up," he muttered, advancing menacingly on Mona, who backed away rapidly from him.

"Zack, no!" Maya cried out when her boyfriend tried to intervene.

Zack made a grab for the beefy security guard. But Bosco simply shrugged him off, like he weighed no more than a woman. Zack ended up hitting the adjacent wall and Mona prepared to fire again.

Her aim got Bosco in the arm this time, the bullet ripping part of the fabric from his sweater, blood spewing from the gaping hole. But still he kept coming till Mona fell backwards onto the floor.

"Don't hurt her!" Bailey cried.

With one swift movement, Bosco managed to wrench the rifle from Mona's hand and aim it right at her nose.

"Bosco, please…"

"You shot me in the arm, Mona. That wasn't very nice at all." Bosco stated reprovingly.

"I think you need a makeover."

The girls' cries of protests were lost in the stagnant air when the gun fired off a single shot and blew off most of Mona's face. The group cowered backwards in fear when Bosco turned on them, the barrel of the gun matching the rest of his dark clothing.

"Wait a minute, man…" Marcus protested feebly with his hands held up in surrender.

"It doesn't have to end quite so quickly for the rest of you. I'll even give you a head-start." Bosco compromised.

"Run."

None of them needed a second invitation, particularly when London pushed Zack (who had gotten to his feet) out of the way and ran ahead of everyone else, even in her ridiculously high Arturo Vertalli boots.

Bosco grinned widely at the retreating figures as he began walking slowly and deliberately after them.

The fun was only just beginning.

In all the confusion of trying to find the exit in the maze-like corridors of the building, Woody managed to get himself separated from the rest of the group. Dark patches of moisture had formed underneath the armpits on the green T-shirt he wore, which was a good two sizes too small; his bushy hair was tangled and wiry from the adrenaline, sweat running precariously down his cheeks.

Somehow, he ended up sprinting down the exact same hallway where the mini-massacre had begun with the strange nursery shrouded in glass.

"Gotta find a phone – get help…" Woody muttered repeatedly to himself.

He perked up when he spotted a red phone attached to the wall straight ahead, placed there especially for emergencies. He practically dove on the device and began dialling the first number that came to mind.

"911 – this is an emergency! M-m-my friends and I are at this creepy museum being chased by a crazy p-p-p-psychopath who killed t-two people right in front of us! You have to get down here and -"

The line suddenly went dead, causing Woody's eyes to practically pop out of their sockets in consternation.

"H-hello? Hello!"

That's when he sensed an all-too-familiar presence right behind him.

Woody whipped around and gaped in awe at Bosco standing there, holding a limp cord in his fingers. Woody stared at the phone and gulped, realising why the line had gone dead at the critical moment.

"Phoning a friend isn't really going to help you out of this situation, Woody Fink." Bosco noted in a placid tone.

"P-p-please, M-m-m-Mr. Bosco, Sir. I really don't wanna die, least of all on the scariest day of the year!" Woody blubbered, on the verge of tears.

Bosco relaxed the arm still holding the rifle that he'd used to shoot Mona in the face with and began laughing heartily, causing Woody to frown in confusion.

"You should see your face! I really scared you, didn't I?" Bosco asked with a shuddering breath while clutching his stomach.

"Well, yeah!" Woody fumed.

"Woody, that was part of the plan."

"Yeah, but you said you were gonna jump out and scare my friends! Not hide out in a creepy room, break the glass with an axe you just happened to have and murder two people for good measure! That definitely wasn't part of the plan!" Woody retorted irately.

"Ok, so I went a little off script, but I did scare your friends, which was part of our deal." Bosco interjected in a placating manner.

"Which clearly explains what you did to Louis and Mona!"

"You don't really think I killed them, do you?"

"I don't think – you did it right in front of me!"

Bosco rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The two of you had better come out now," he instructed wearily.

Woody squealed in surprise when both Louis and Mona emerged from around the corner, wiping blood from their faces and from the gaping hole in the abdomen in Louis' case.

"Did you really have to spray all that fake blood all over my face, Louis? It's so sticky – it's going to take me forever to get it all off." Mona complained while dabbing at her face.

"Mona, the point is that you have to look like your entire face has been blown off!"

"Wait, you didn't blow her face off? But the sound of the gun-"

"Was just an audio clip. We had to make it look realistic." Louis supplied with an irritating air of authority.

"I told you it might be too scary for him." Bosco said to Louis when Woody still looked like he was going to hurl.

"It wasn't so bad. Besides, why do you get to have all ze fun every year, Bosco?" Louis complained lightly.

"I don't know how I let the two of you talk me into this. I'm an old woman…"

"Come now, Mona. For all your talk of being an old woman, you enjoy a good scare as much as ze next person, especially when it involves your grandfather's old gun that he used in ze Civil War." Louis chided with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

The scowl on the elderly woman's face evaporated and was replaced with a similar gleam of mischief when she looked at the young tour guide.

"Of course you're right, Louis. It was quite fun." She conceded wistfully.

"And the drill going through your chest?" Woody asked curiously of Louis.

Louis lifted his bloodied shirt and revealed a vest similar to what Bosco wore underneath his own sweater.

"I chewed on a blood capsule beforehand which ran out of my mouth at ze opportune time. There are packets of fake blood attached to zis vest which ruptured when Bosco stabbed me. Next time, not so hard, I can feel a bruise forming." He added in a reproving aside to Bosco while wincing and rubbing his stomach.

"Bosco shot fake blood at me with a mixture of…" Mona paused in her narrative to dab at the mess on her cheek and lick the residue off of her index finger, "what tastes like…blackcurrant pudding at my face with a special cartridge in my grandfather's old gun to make it look like blood and membrane."

"He really used it in the Civil War? So the stories about this place are true?" Woody questioned of the three adults.

"Just the parts about the casualties being bad and this hospital being swarmed with countless victims." Bosco answered soberly, his expression matching that of his partners in crime.

"And the kids being experimented on along with selling their organs on the black market?"

"Fiction." Mona replied simply with a side-long glance at Bosco.

"What about the kid on the gurney?"

"My eldest son. By the way, nice work with pushing the gurney out into the hallway, Mona. Francisco, why don't you come introduce yourself?" Bosco called out in a booming voice.

The boy who had lain dead on the gurney a short while ago, came bounding down the hallway. He jumped in the air and Bosco caught him deftly in his arms.

"How did I do?" the boy asked of his father, who grinned down at him.

"Marvellously, mon ami. How did you ever get ze stitchez to look so real" Louis asked in a professional manner of Bosco.

"I know a guy."

"Can I play the dead kid again next year?" Young Francisco asked in a hopeful voice.

"I'm afraid not, my son. You are getting a little too old; Benito will have to do it next year." Bosco responded sadly, referring to his youngest son. "But do not worry. You'll get to do something extra special to scare the tourists next year." He promised, delighted when his son perked up once again.

"I still can't believe you guys run this tour every year. How have you been able to fake a really boring tour that turns into…something scary?" Woody asked gleefully.

"People like you, Woody, who are able to sucker their friends and family into coming onto a tour of this museum. Spreading the word about it to the next unsuspecting victim is your job." Bosco explained.

"When my uncle told me about how you scared him and his work colleagues 3 months ago and I heard the S.S. Tipton would be docking here for a few days, I figured I should give this a shot. Especially after Zack and London played that prank on me with the midget and the camembert cheese." Woody quipped with annoyance.

"Was London the really snooty girl with the $500 extensions?" Mona questioned drolly.

"Yip, that's London. And I think her extensions are valued at about $750 a strand." Woody remarked.

"Now that you've gotten what you wanted out of the bargain, who are you going to tell about our little tour?" Louis asked.

"My sister. She's coming down here with my parents in a few weeks. There are a couple of cheerleaders at her school giving her a hard time. I think they could really benefit from a tour like this." Woody answered evilly, causing the three adults and the young child to laugh heartily in response.

"It's getting late, you'd better head back to the ship before your friends call the police." Bosco advised.

"Oh, right! The adrenaline rush made me forget that it's past midnight now." Woody agreed after clapping a hand to his forehead in shock.

"Do you think your friends will forgive you when you tell them what really happened tonight?" Mona asked tentatively.

"Maybe not right away, but eventually. They're cool that way." Woody replied with a shrug. "Thanks for the tour, guys. It was a blast." He called out as he turned to leave.

"Nice kid." Bosco remarked after Woody had left the building.

"Now that the tour is complete, who is going to clean up this mess?" Mona demanded sceptically of the glass and fake blood strewn across the floor.

Bosco and Louis glanced dubiously at each other before looking hopefully in Mona's direction. Mona clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"I don't think so, you two figure it out amongst yourselves. I've got to clean out my grandfather's gun. It's business as usual tomorrow morning with the regular tour. See you then."

Mona chuckled appreciatively to herself as Bosco and Louis begrudgingly grabbed some cleaning utensils from a nearby closet and got to work.

Woody walked out into the night air, shivering slightly while rubbing at the goosebumps forming on his arms. In spite of the confidence he'd displayed in front of the adults, he still wasn't looking forward to confronting his friends.

"They are so gonna kill me." He murmured to no one in particular as he made his way back to the ship.

A/N: A bit of a strange oneshot, but I hope you liked it ;) As previously stated, this story was inspired by the building where I work. It used to be an old hospital, but as far as I know, no freak-show museum tours happen there at night. Just lectures for medical students during the day :P Props to all the amazing oneshots we've had so far – keep 'em coming!