Chapter 29: The Pipe Organ Phantom
Having now created a path of withered, dying briars, the girls pushed open the mausoleum doors to enter right inside, no longer surprised that they would shut behind by themselves, which is now what they would expect when entering an eerie mission.
"These slamming doors have become so predictable I tell you," Maggie remarked, yet still found it spine tingling.
"I don't like the looks of those coffins ahead," Grace whimpered, moving back cautiously, despite feeling the loud echo vibrations from the slammed doors in her ears. "Suppose there is something hiding to jump out and swing their ax or whatever."
"I think we have to follow that red carpet straight ahead," Mrs. Calloway pointed to a large red carpet leading past the row of coffins and up to a chapel. "Whatever is in those coffins, we can take them. Our weapons are stronger than ever."
The girls walked carefully past the coffins without question, everything silent all around, aside from the sound of creepy organ music playing all over.
"Now who or what is playing that creepy tune?" Maggie said uncomfortably. "It's putting me on edge."
"Maybe it's coming from behind the gate," Grace suggested, trying to push the gate open, but to no avail. "There is no keyhole in it. I wonder how we get in."
Before Mrs. Calloway could add in any other suggestion, several of the coffin lids flew off into the air as many small, yet vicious rats crawled out of, startling the girls as they were disgusted by the squeaking and the hideous red eyes, dropping whatever weapons they were carrying.
"Never mind the gate, we got company!" Maggie cried in a panic, scooping up the flame thrower and aimed it at the incoming rats before becoming a meal.
The other two followed and let the remaining rodents have it. It hadn't taken many hits to kill them luckily, with their improved weapons.
"Good riddance to bad rodents," Mrs. Calloway scoffed, watching the remains vanish out of sight.
"But what about the gate?" Grace noted, "Where do we find the key to get in?"
"There must be an opening around here that opens something," Maggie responded, looking around at the floor and the walls, tapping them with her hoof until it pressed onto a loose brick that sucked inside. "And I think I found it." The floor below rumbled, revealing stairs that lead down. "After you Calloway."
"No after you Maggie," Calloway debated, backing up. "You found them, you go first."
"Nah, I think I'll just…"
Without warning, an unseen force pushed the girls down into the stairs, shrieking at the sudden fall and landing on top of the other with a crash.
"You were saying Maggie?" Mrs. Calloway grunted, feeling Maggie on top of her.
"My bad you two," Maggie chuckled nervously, rolling off her friends to stand up and let them breathe.
"I wonder where we are now," Grace said, dusting the dirt off her shoulders.
Right before them was a brightly lit checkerboard hallway, with ominously contorted masks decorating the columns and arches that held the roof aloft and the glass windows depicted terrible beasts shining in the light, infested with cobwebs. Feeling a bit sore from the hard landing, the girls stayed close together as they moved forward carefully in case something sinister was hiding in those glass windows. Reaching the end of it, the girls stopped at the sight of a room with three hallways, two of them behind a silver gate straight ahead and the one on the right protected by a gold gate.
"We'll have to find a silver and gold key later," Mrs. Calloway demurred, moving over to the left hall that was guarded by no gate whatsoever. "Best to watch your step. Anything could be booby trapped."
The lit torches at the end of this hall lead the girls to a small morgue where several rats were waiting in ambush, hissing and baring their yellow fangs.
"Oh not these guys again!" Maggie screamed, as they were now jumping on the girls, tackling them to the ground.
Just as a much larger rat moved in for an attack, Maggie scrambled to her feet quickly and kicked that ugly rat hard into the stone wall, in which it turned into dust after one hit and gave Maggie the opportunity to finish off the rest of the vermin with the flamethrower. Sighing to herself, she helped her friends back up and dusted off the carcass remains, before she found a health bottle nearby and shared it with the other two to mend whatever wounds they might have suffered.
"There's a silver key," Grace pointed out, moving forward to fetch it. "Now we can go through the hallway straight ahead."
Yet, as soon as they were about to turn and leave, a low ominous rumbling sound was heard as the girls looked up to the ceiling, their eyes widening to see parts trembling.
"I think we better get out!" Mrs. Calloway screamed, turning to run. "Hurry, the sky is falling on us!"
"Sky, I think you mean ceiling!" Maggie responded, dashing after Calloway with Grace following behind.
With a frenzied scream of panic, the girls sprinted as fast as their hooves could carry them, the ceiling breaking apart. Only by leaping back to the same room they entered did they manage to escape from being crushed to death by the rubble which now blocked the left hall. The whole thing caused Grace to shiver like a leaf in the wind. Even Mrs. Calloway fought to calm her nerves at the thought of a giant rock crushing down on her in a second had they not moved out fast enough.
"Come on you two, pull it together," Maggie faltered, dusting herself off. "We're getting out of here, and that's that."
It was no use arguing about anything anymore and no time to waste. The midnight hour would be here soon and they had to move on. Now moving to the next hallway straight ahead, Grace moved up to insert the silver key, unlocking it for the gates to swing open. The girls walked in, but unintentionally forgot to watch their step below and fell right on top of a nest of rats!
"Now I have a justified reason to hate rats more than ever!" Maggie fumed, "Here, have a taste of this you little freaks!" The rats were instantly incinerated by the flamethrower in a matter of seconds. "That'll teach you to try and eat me and my friends."
"Disgusting vermin," Mrs. Calloway moaned in disgust, standing up.
"But at least there's another gate over there," Grace claimed, moving over to inspect the lock's color, which was copper. "We need a copper key to find."
"Next stop, upstairs," Maggie declared, turning to face a row of stairs behind them.
Moving on up to the next floor, ambushed by a few more rats, some seeming bigger than the ones downstairs. Maggie's fear in everything was replaced with anger as the rats were incinerated, some of them even scurrying away into a hole, as if terrified by her fury to avoid getting stomped. Then again, her fear returned as she cringed to hear the loud mournful tune of the organ echo throughout the entire mausoleum, making it hard for the girls to know where it was coming from, until they walked into the next room to find that it was the same chapel that they could not enter through before. They found a gold fountain to step inside and heal. Not one of them said a single word as they tiptoed silently across the floor, still cautiously peeking around in every corner to make double sure that there were no more rats or any other unexpected creatures waiting to lunge out at them. There was a difference between being brave and being plain foolish. With none in sight, they did however spot a gold key on a nearby pedestal to place safely in the inventory.
The girls moved closer to where they found a pair of wooden doors at the end to open and find a large pipe organ sitting against the wall, being played by a ghostly figure, wearing a tattered black cape.
Gulping nervously, Maggie was the first to step forward in a slow manner, approaching the entity that had its back to her as it continued playing.
Faster than it could blink, the phantom whirled around and stared down at the girls, frightening them from the sudden movement. The entity wore a black overcoat with matching trousers, its hands covered by white gloves, and its bony face was covered by a theatre mask. By luck, he made no move to attack the girls, but stretched his bony limbs as if he was not disturbed by their presence.
"Are…are you the pipe organ phantom?" Grace implied, fearful of his appearance.
"I am called that," the phantom spoke in a grim, dismal tone. "I am Maestro Vincenzo, court composer and musician."
"Can you help us then?" Mrs. Calloway was the next to speak, putting all fears aside for a while. "We were told that you hold the key to Grimshaw Manor, and we need it for…"
"GRIMSHAW MANOR?!" The phantom appeared in a shock at the sound of those words. "The Grimshaw Manor that holds the darkest family secrets forbidden in the world of the living?"
"Well when you put it that way, then yes," Maggie responded with a nervous grin.
"Please Mr. Phantom of the opera, we need your help to get in that place so we can get out of here," Grace pleaded.
"If you think that you can just enter the Grimshaw Manor and come out of there alive, you are gravely mistaken," Vincenzo warned. "That place is a house where a thousand nightmares lie in the dark shadows. It is a house of fear and pain where a diabolical force of evil prevents all who died there from ever leaving their eternal sorrow and torment. The same force won't even let me leave this dreadful mausoleum, for I am stuck playing an endless tune and have had my music notes taken from me." It finished as it slumped its shoulders, earning a bit of sympathy from the girls. "I hold the key to the mansion, but only so nobody ever thinks of getting in there and suffering the same fate as the others. And without my notes, that lock remains closed and I'm trapped here."
"And you'll stay miserable and trapped if you don't let us try to help you," Mrs. Calloway finally stepped up firmly, having enough of what she heard from other spirits trying to encourage them to just give up without a fight. "If you haven't known by now, we survived one hard challenge after the other and we're not giving up on ever finding a way out. You may have given up, but we've come this far and we're getting out, even if we have to face this diabolical force you speak of."
"Then you are foolish enough to not heed my warning," Vincezo pointed an index finger at the girls as if it were a sword. "No amount of courage is any match for the horror within that mansion."
"You may think that, but you're clearly mistaken because you don't know who it is you're talking to," Maggie contradicted, stepping up. "So even though you don't believe in us, tell me how else we get into that mansion. And how did you lose your music sheets? Do you remember anything about that?" She demanded as Vincenzo sighed, rubbing where his eyes would have been in his sockets.
"I do recall how I used to place my music on a book shelf behind the golden gate down below," he said dismally. "I would go down there myself and get them, but I'm not allowed to leave my pipe organ unguarded, no thanks to the same force I speak of."
"So if we bring you your music sheets, will you hand us the key?" Grace implied hopefully.
"I will do that. With those notes, I should be able to open the passage down below that's behind the copper gate. But be warned: the mansion grounds are guarded and infested with carnivorous rats that like the taste of fresh meat such as you. So you better have some kind of protection on you."
"Thank you Mr. Bone Man, we'll keep that in mind," Maggie said, her heart in her throat at the phantom's tone.
The girls left the phantom with his solitude at the pipe organ and returned to the chapel where the gate now appeared to be open, which they couldn't pass before when they first entered here. However that happened, it didn't matter. Since there would be no luck going back downstairs with no copper key, the girls entered through the same stairs leading down into the hall of three rooms, or at least two of them now that the other was blocked by a pile of rubble. Running down the right hallway, Grace inserted the gold key, unlocking the gate to enter through and into a wide room with more rats inside, only they were a little bigger than the last ones.
With the flamethrower, Maggie fought off the rats while her friends stayed behind her to avoid getting burned accidentally. As the last one squealed its last, they moved around the room to inspect every corner, eventually finding a copper key on one shelf next to a melted candle, and then noticing something sticking out of another book pile, a silver colored stone, and three pieces of paper filled with lines and spoon-shaped markings.
"I think I found something here girls," Maggie said, inspecting the sheets carefully and moved in to grab them until…"Wait a minute."
"What's wrong Maggie?" Grace asked in confusion. "Do you want me to do it?"
Maggie shook her head, "No, it's just…if this room were to fall like the last one we went through, it could be worse than ever. So I better do this at a slower pace."
To be sure of this, Maggie reached for the papers slowly, blowing away the dust and plucked them with her mouth, and reared back with catlike reflexes. Pausing for a moment, the girls scanned the room for any sudden changes…nothing. With an exhale of relief, the three of them walked out of there with no problems. Or so they thought; instead of the ceiling, the floor rumbled.
"Aw, you got to be kidding me!" Maggie groaned, and in a panic, the rumbling sent the girls running for their lives, the debris caving in on them as the floor behind was now falling into a black abyss.
The girls breathed heavily for several seconds, taking this moment of relief to calm down and not be overwhelmed by the fear of almost dying too soon. Now that they had half of what they needed, the girls turned back to where they had entered through the silver gate, this time watching their step as they hopped down without any slight injuries. Before the girls thought of entering the gate with the copper keyhole, they still remembered that the phantom mentioned something about opening a vault or passageway that would allow them to leave this place and be lead to where the mansion lies in wait.
Running back up the stairs to the chapel, and entered back into the room where the phantom waits, back to playing the pipe organ. Digging through the inventory, Maggie pulled out the music notes to see if it would have any sudden change for Maestro Vincenzo, and by handing it to him, he was overjoyed that they had found his long lost music, now dancing around the room and laughing.
"My music, you have found it!" he cried out, kissing it tenderly. "I can't even recall how long it's been since I have seen the songs I wrote. I'm so sorry that I didn't believe in you ladies."
"Hey no hard feelings," Maggie reassured, "We're just glad to help out. Now about that key and letting us out of here…"
The phantom finally stopped dancing, "Oh yes, I haven't forgotten that." He went back to the pipe organ, placing the missing music sheets in front, and began to play the new symphony suite. In two minutes, a sound was heard from down below. "That should do it. But I certainly hope you three know what you are doing. I thank you for finding my music, and I know that I can't stop you from going over to the mansion. But I still wish you reconsider doing so…nobody has ever come out of that wicked house alive without being cursed to wander here with no rest or release from the chains of torment." It warned, before suddenly snapping its fingers as if it almost forgot. "But I have kept my word and as a token of thanks, the key to the mansion is all yours." The phantom played several notes on the organ, causing a hidden door in the wall to open, exposing a solid, polished iron key with four blue colored stones. "Be careful not to lose it, we're all counting on you to save us." The phantom then continued playing the tune on his lost music sheet until he vanished and left behind a shining purple colored stone where he used to sit.
"Looks like he was another lost soul after all," Maggie stated, picking up the stone and placing it in the inventory for safe keeping. "Maybe he was in charge of playing the music during funerals before he died."
It was now time to leave this dreaded mausoleum and put the eeriness of the creepy organ music behind them. Moving back through the chapel and down the stairs, the copper key was inserted into the gate, moving right on in as they walked down the stairs that lead to a dark tunnel, lit up by a golden fountain which they used to heal themselves before moving on out of here to reach the Grimshaw Manor and face their final challenge.
AN: Finally, an update to this story. It may not be October, but people can read and watch spooky tales anytime. And I still want to finish up this story before moving onto the next ones that need to be finished up.