Chapter 28: The Mansion Cemetery Grounds
"What in tarnation is that?" said Maggie, disturbed by the non-human remains of the once former Doll Maker, even at the earlier sight of watching a lot of the toys burn with him during their attack.
"Don't tell me he was nothing more than a machine," Grace said, saddened by the loss of the burnt toys. Then she felt the same gold bracelet around her ankle move about and break off, transforming back into Mr. Mouse.
"It's no wonder that he had no conscience," he said, while inspecting the gears. "It's like he replaced his natural body parts with machinery for reasons we'll never know. Nor does it matter. He is gone now, and you are all free."
The remaining toys that didn't get burned had cheered in victory, no longer prisoners of the evil Doll Maker, a great weight lifted off of them.
"Now I have my friends and family to set free. Thank you girls for everything."
With that, Mr. Mouse was out of the arena, scampering out with a few toys following him.
"Here ladies, perhaps you better break the curse for us," said Nurse Bear, carrying the wand and placing it by Maggie's feet.
Maggie looked down at the wand and smiled, bringing her hoof down, breaking it in two. At that moment, the entire collection of toys toppled over altogether, lifeless, Nurse Bear included. The girls watched as blue spirit orbs floated out of them, mixed with whispers of gratitude, relief, and peace. They had saved the souls of the lost children and now they would never fear anything again and be reunited with their parents in the afterlife.
But this game was far from over, now that the girls had their greatest task nearby. Only two challenges left to face, and confronting Willie once and for all. Only problem in that regard, did not know what kind of boss they would be facing in the final battle to be fully prepared for what to expect. The odds were packed tightly against them. Even if they did know how to defeat the final boss, would Willie keep his word or go back on it?
Still they had come a long way on this scary adventure and faced their fears, discovering more about Willie and battled the scariest of enemies.
Now it was time to leave this doll factory behind and place the broken wand in their inventory. The entire factory froze up once Maggie picked up the wand before they made their way to the exit.
Later, the cows marched out of the toy factory more than a block away in the direction of the newer path before them. Recalling the overview sight back when they had first faced the mad doctor in the asylum level, they hadn't forgotten about seeing volcanoes in the far distance where a giant building of spires stood above. It was still there way ahead, large black and red clouds looming overhead. A series of loud explosions echoed behind, as the girls looked back to witness the doll factory crumbling in a cloud of smoke.
While still walking, the girls found themselves in new surroundings. A small pool of lava was in the middle of the rocky clearing. It was the first time in their lives that they had seen lava nearly up close, but knew to never get so close to what can kill you instantly. The sound of boiling and bubbling echoed in their ears, which they ignored and went on their way, careful not to fall or get stuck in any holes.
Despite the smell and minimum heat from a lava pool they passed by, yet it felt relieving to be outside again, even when it meant getting started on the ninth level. And in no time, they arrived to where the road beyond lead to a clearing, a land populated by graves, according to an iron fence surrounding the cemetery, and a sign above with no gates that said Grimshaw Cemetery.
"If this is our next mission, where is Willie?" Maggie said, staring up at the gate sign, if there were any gates.
"Maybe this sign here can tell us," Grace said, pointing to a gold plaque that was embedded in the ground, before the missing gates. Grace read its contents.
To reach the Grimshaw Manor where your final destiny awaits, you must wander through the cemetery of locked gates and dead ends. So keep your eyes out for keys of copper, silver, and gold. Only by inserting the right colors will the spirits allow you to pass. The keys were created long ago by gypsies who sought to contain and seal the evil, unclean spirits that dwelled on these lands. As for your mission item, retrieve the family Grimshaw key, hidden inside the mausoleum on the tallest hill, guarded by the pipe organ phantom. If you survive, I'll be seeing you at the manor.
"Well no sign of Willie, but at least we know that this is our next mission," Maggie said in disappointment, having wanted to give Willie a piece of her mind, not caring anymore if he was undead and supernatural. "A cemetery is how we entered into this world."
"Then let's find those keys and get out of here," Mrs. Calloway insisted. "We don't have much time left."
Thankfully there was a golden fountain by cemetery sign for some health refueling. Taking out their weapons, the girls walked carefully down the hills into the cemetery, moving down the twisting path. They gazed at the gravestones of old and recent graves of the dead. A sign on the fence that read: Beware of zombies walking about. Heeding the warning, the girls moved a few feet away from the sign, and then saw something burst out of the ground; a wooden coffin.
"What the…?" Maggie gasped.
Something green, rotting, decaying, and shriveled, came out of the coffin, dressed in a calico death shroud, all torn up. It shambled towards the girls, moaning with its foul, rotten breath and writhing fingers reaching out toward them.
"OH NO, ZOMBIES AGAIN?!" Maggie shrieked, she and her friends running like crazy to the other side, dodging tombstones, kicking over wooden grave markers, and the like to get a safe distance shot at the zombie with the flaming crossbow. "Eat this No Brains!" The arrow shot into the zombie's chest, consuming him in flames, dislocating every limb, turning to dust, and leaving behind fuel for the flamethrower. "Ok, let's roast these ghouls with fire."
With their confidence slightly reinforced, the girls continued into the graveyard with the flamethrower, flaming crossbow, and dynamite. Up the hill and round the bend, they incinerated two more zombies waiting for them. Soon they were striding down a rocky path that split in two and surrounded a crypt, guarded by three more zombies, ready to be incinerated.
"What a pain in my tail?" Maggie lamented. Then something had caught her eye, a copper key behind the crypt. "Hey look, I found a key."
"Well that was easy," said Calloway briefly. "Perhaps there is a locked gate or something around here to use that thing."
"What about that gate over there?" Grace suggested, pointing to a closed doorway and a lock, which was actually polished in silver.
Calloway shook her head reluctantly. "It's no good Grace. It may be a locked gate, but we might have to return later with a silver key, wherever it is."
"Guess we better try that gate over there then," Maggie pointed to another gate, this time with a copper lock. "And it's just the right color. I don't want to take my chances inserting the wrong key in the silver lock."
Going down the road once more, they found a small stair flight and a few more zombies shambling around. Grace managed to incinerate them by throwing a stick of dynamite, but not before one of the dismembered zombies bit into Calloway's ankle, causing her to shriek in pain. Maggie quickly rushed over and kicked the zombie aside, burning it to a crisp.
Maggie and Grace surrounded Calloway, inspecting the severe wound of the bite mark.
Quick, use the antidote on your friend before she becomes undead, just like the others. Said Miriam's voice. It's more than just anti-poison.
The invisible ghost cow tossed Grace a vial of anti-poison and let Calloway drink it, her wound healing.
When her bite mark had disappeared miraculously, a thought struck her mind about the antidote.
"Wait a minute?" she coughed up. "If this antidote could cure my scar, why couldn't we think of using it to heal Maggie when she got bitten?"
Because the creature that bit her before was not undead. That antidote you drank can only heal bite wounds caused by creatures like zombies, not from those possessed by evil spells. Such things require a different kind of cure.
"I wish that we knew about it sooner."
"At least we learned it right away," Grace said, shrugging her shoulders. "And it would be unwise to not be extra cautious to avoid getting bitten again. We can't waste too many antidotes until there are none left to use."
The two helped Mrs. Calloway to her feet before moving to the gate with the copper lock, inserting the key. The gates creaked open, although more zombies shambled out to kill them, only for Grace to remember that she still had the lightning spell which is powerful enough to kill the undead, and called upon it to incinerate each one. One of the zombies had been dressed as knights wearing rusty armor, and some wearing tuxedos.
"Why do I keep forgetting that I possess the power of lightning?" Grace mumbled to herself.
In this path, they found blue mushrooms to gather, and a silver key on a stone pedestal. Now they could return to the other locked gate and insert this in. Grace was allowed to turn the key, which opened the doors to their relief. Yet it lead to three more zombies, destroyed by lightning power, and finding a cobblestone path, showing no fear from any of the undead. At the end of the path, the girls found a plaque underneath a fearsome statue of a winged creature none of them could identify. They read the message embedded in:
To face your final nightmare, you'll need more than mere weapons to overcome your fears that wait inside the Grimshaw Manor. Look to where my hand is pointed down, and you'll find what you'll need, a blunderbuss and a Staff of Pure Light.
"What does that mean?" Maggie asked, scratching her head to figure this out.
"I think we have to look at where the statue is pointing," Grace said, noticing that the hand was pointing down at the ground. She inspected the ground and the plaque, and noticed a bump that looked odd, and touched it, revealing in the ground two new weapons, a gold key, blue mushrooms, health potions, and antidotes. The first weapon was long, and made of metal and wood. And the second weapon looked like a wizard staff, with a large diamond, shining like a light.
"Don't know how these work, but let's put them away safely," Maggie added the two into the inventory.
Miriam whispered to them: When the time comes, you'll know.
The next path they took was one that led to a stone obelisk on top of a hill, with more zombies that Grace destroyed with lightning. When there was no new path to turn, the girls backtracked their way to the creature statue and realized there was a short opening that was not there before, holding a golden fountain for a quick rejuvenation and followed a trail upward. This new direction held a new harvest of flaming arrows, fire stones, ice stones, water and flamethrower fuel, flares, health bottles, nails, dynamite, and bug spray.
"Wow, looks like we struck rich," Maggie said hopefully. "Let's gather this all up before moving on."
Quickly, they gathered every weapon, item, and fuel they could find and place safely in their inventory, in hopes it would be enough to help them defeat whatever was waiting for them in the very end. They proceeded in their quest afterward, eliminating zombies from the power of lightning, and crossing a flooded portion of graves. Another gate stood before them with a gold lock, and these hideous faces mounted on each side of the wall.
"Why are there two hideous faces on the walls?" Grace implied, feeling uneasy at their appearance. "I don't like the looks of them."
"Just ignore them and let's unlock the gate," Calloway advised, despite the same bad feeling within.
By approaching the gates, one of the faces came to life and startled the girls.
"Hold it right there you three," it commanded in a grim voice. "Before going in, heed these warnings. Beware, for the secrets you find to reaching the Manor lie within the mausoleum, haunted by a phantom, playing his pipe organ without stopping. If however you should encounter him, he may be able to tell what you need to know."
"Ok, mauso-what-now got it," Maggie mumbled, feeling her pulse quicken from the fright scare. "Phantom organ."
"I don't know what that means, but we'll go in and find out," Calloway mused, helping her companions open the gates after unlocking.
Forgetting about the talking stone head at the gate they passed, the girls emerged up the path, now at the heart of the cemetery, chills creeping down their spines to recall the old tales of not only what would lie beyond such a terrifying place, but never forgot how this entire game started and where. And at the very center of the cemetery, on the largest hill was a creepy building that reminded them of a church, with glass art.
"Do you think that's the one?" Grace whispered, not wanting to talk so loud in case other zombies might be out there.
"I'd say it's a fine mauso-lean-on with more structure than the others," Maggie said.
It's a mausoleum. That's how you pronounce it. Miriam corrected her. Mauso-le-um.
"Well however you say it, can you define what it's for?" Mrs. Calloway implied patiently.
A mausoleum is similar to a church house, only that it is where humans bury the deceased and places them on monuments, which are sometimes referred to as a tomb, crypt, or burial chamber. And every now and then, sermons are held to pay respects to the dead.
"So in other words, we have to enter the house of the dead is that it?" asked Maggie, wiping nervous sweat from her forehead.
Do not fear ladies. You are stronger than you know, even braver than you know by facing the darkest challenges.
"She's right," Grace said sharply. "Even though we're afraid, we are brave and stronger than we should know by now."
"Let's find a way to get up that mausoleum before someone or something tries to stop us before we start," Mrs. Calloway insisted, she and Grace taking off.
"Hey don't leave me behind, wait for me!" Maggie cried out, running after them.
From where the girls were walking, none of them could see or take notice of the infamous Gold Tooth Willie standing and watching the three annoyances at the far end past the graves from the mausoleum location, inflamed at how far they've gotten and managed to dodge his attempts to make them fail. "So it appears I truly did underestimate them country heifers, dodgin' all death traps I set up." He spoke aloud, thinking he should just eliminate them and get it over with. Then the sneer on his ghoulish, rotted face melted into a grin. "But will their courage be enough to defeat the Demon of Grimshaw Manor? None o' them other former players ever made it out alive, and I'll be sure them heifers are mine before they solve the grim mystery." Laughing wickedly, Willie stomped his foot into the ground, casting magical waves down the hill.
The grass transformed into a patch of hedge briars, with sharp thorns, covering the entire hillside.
The girls eliminated a trio of zombies with flaming arrows, their corpses leaving behind two health bottles and antidote.
"Yeesh girls, don't these leagues of the undead ever take a rest?" Maggie snorted, as she took down another zombie popping out from a nearby bush. To her dismay, a half decapitated zombie crawled toward her silently from behind and grabbed both her hind legs. "Hey let go of my legs you undead creep!"
Luckily Mrs. Calloway was able to stomp on the zombie's back before it could bite Maggie, finishing it off with a fire stone.
"Ugh, such creatures have no manners," She scoffed.
With the zombies laid back to rest, the cows headed right toward the right eastern section of the thorny hillside, finding a few loose graves, and a campfire burning. With the flashlight held in her tail, Grace shined it around the area to the campfire, noticing an unusual glow, glittering and sparkling.
"Hey Maggie, can you use the water on the campfire?" She asked.
"Why, what for?" Maggie replied curiously.
"I think there's another lost soul in there. And it needs help quick."
Maggie did just that, extinguishing the flame to find how right Grace was when she carefully picked up the yellow soul stone of an undertaker inside, placing it safely in the inventory.
"Poor soul, no telling how much it was suffering in those flames," Grace said sadly, not wanting to imagine the feeling of such a fate.
"We better search this entire cemetery for any more souls before we head up to that mausoleum," Calloway said anxiously, feeling ashamed for almost forgetting why else they were doing all this.
On the right side of the fireplace, there was a gate built into the hillside with a silver lock. They found a book seated next to the gate and read the contents: Unlock the gate and you'll be richly rewarded with the strongest weapons that you find within. Remember that only the right color will work.
"Guess we got another silver key to find," Maggie muttered.
"Hey, were those things there before?" Grace said, staring at the thorny briars covering the hillside where the mausoleum sat. "I don't remember seeing them when we entered."
"Oh don't tell me there is no clearer path around those monstrous hedges," Calloway moaned in frustration. She and the other two moved closer for better inspection. They did have a problem, finding out how right she was when they found that whatever paths there were before had been covered by patch of thorns.
"It's like the story of Sleeping Beauty where anyone who tries to enter or escape through the hedge of thorns meets a grim demise," Grace whimpered, shivering at the thought of them being trapped if they tried getting through without thinking first. "There's no way we can climb under or over that thing. Look at the size of those thorns."
"But don't we still have that weed killer stuff we got from inside the plant house?" Maggie asked, trying to think of something fast. "Let's see how it likes the taste of poison?"
Hold on now! Miriam stopped her somehow, using some supernatural force to pull her back an inch.
"Hey what was that for?" She complained, soothing her tail where Miriam pulled.
Weed killer might be useful, but it could need stronger effects than that alone. Miriam replied cautiously. And furthermore, I'm feeling another presence further where that stone arch is in between those fences. I don't know why, but we should look over there. Trust what I say.
The girls did that without any doubt, hoping it would not lead them to any more zombies. Once entering, they were grateful to find that there were none in sight. This area seemed small compared to the others, finding nothing in particular.
"I don't see anything in…" Grace said, moving the flashlight around, only to feel her hoof step on something and cut off her sentence.
The girls turned around and saw something open up on the cobbled floor, revealing a staircase going down, lit by torches, lighting the path.
That must be it, and it's getting stronger. Please keep that flashlight on when you're down there. There's no time to explain.
As the girls moved downward one at a time, they realized that this was some kind of hall, like in a castle or mansion. The walls were slates of fine stone with fire scones. Even more interesting was a sign nailed on the wooden door, written in black ink:
To whom this may concern,
If you are one of the first players in the games to have made it this far, then you are in luck to find the secret room where you'll find the most important and valuable treasures that were once beyond your reach back in the earliest missions. I cannot say what it is, for I dare not mention it as I write to you. Who am I? I'll explain it soon enough, if you succeed in reaching the mansion. Good luck.
"Missed something, what could we have missed when the games started?" Maggie implied, scratching her chin.
"Let's open and find out," Calloway insisted, pushing the door open with Grace's help.
Behind the door was a circular room of stone walls and two fire stones on the left and right. In the center was a treasure chest where the note mentioned would be. But what could it have meant when it said something about the most important and valuable treasures?
"Come on you two, give me a hoof with this thing," Maggie said, hoping that when it was opened, it would give them what they needed to leave this world of nightmares.
Once they opened the chest together, it revealed a light of glitter and sparkles that nearly hurt their eyes, and waited a few seconds before the light toned down for them to finally discover the chest of former colored soul stones they had unintentionally missed back in the first four missions of the game.
"Wait, I get it now," Maggie spoke up. "This is what the note was telling us when it said that thing about the most important and valuable treasures, the lost souls. It's not about silver or gold, it's the life inside all of us just as it was for these guys, and the ones we rescued."
"Only now Willie sees us more as treasures to hunt down, possess, and keep us from leaving his collection as he did for the ones that never made it out alive," Calloway maintained uncomfortably. "I wished that we had found them sooner."
"But they're here now and that's all that matters," Grace affirmed, despite feeling a bit of regret from not figuring out the meaning of the notice instantly. "And we have time to keep them all safe in our inventory before we head back outside."
With Miriam's help, each and every one of those lost souls were added and packed safely in the inventory until the chest was empty, except for the presence of a silver key at the very bottom.
"Ah, just what we needed," Maggie said proudly, snatching the key.
Everyone left the secret chamber, and headed back to where the locked gate, the hills still covered in thorny briars. Unlocking it, they found a stone table with a warrior symbol chiseled into it, holding two swords together.
"I don't get it, what is so special about this stone here?" Calloway implied, confused at the meaning of the symbol. "What did the sign mean about being rewarded when there is nothing on here, no switch, no lever, and no button?"
I believe it means to place all of your weapons on the table, replied Miriam. There are no better alternatives I see here. Hurry, take all weapons and place them on the altar.
Doing as they were told, every weapon they had ever found from the very start was placed right on the altar. The heroines watched as their weapons floated several inches above the altar, glowing immensely and then transformed into upgraded, altered, more powerful versions.
"That's it?" Maggie asked Miriam.
That is all. You may now pick up your weapons for they are twice more powerful and stronger than the first time you found them.
"Great, can't wait to see how they work."
With great care, the weapons were placed back into the inventory, except the now newly stronger weed killed, which Maggie held carefully to point at the briars which withered away as they climbed further up the path until they made it all the way to the top, standing before the mausoleum.
AN: Many horror movies and classic video games with spooky, creepy atmospheres inspired me to bring tribute as I wrote this story. Even some as scary from the music by Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana. I don't own anything of that franchise. Now that the girls have upgraded versions of their weapon and rescued lost souls they had accidentally missed, who could have put them there? Could it have been Willie, or someone the girls will later encounter in the mausoleum or mansion? Stay tune.