Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own them. They only belong to Marvel and Kid's WB. I only own the characters that don't exist (i.e. the characters in the prologue.)
Author's Note: Those were great reviews, you guys! I'm really happy you're liking this story!! By the way, when I said Jean's power wasn't working right…well some people's are, it just varies to my liking I guess. You'll understand later! But, I really appreciate all of the great reviews I'm getting, thanks once again! I actually had to rewrite this chapter because I was confusing myself and wasn't at all happy with the outcome -- now I am! So I hope you like it! Don't forget to review, k, and tell me what you think! Now, enough rambling and on with the show! Read, Review, and *ENJOY!*
The Resident Psychopath: I'm glad you think this story is freaky, weird, and cool! I'm glad you like it!
Dee Saylors: Thank you for your gracious reviews, that's two from you so far! I'm also glad you think this is addictive, I'm addicted to writing it! And you'll see where everyone went soon enough, I promise!
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Fright Fest
By: pinkchick
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Chapter 3
Below the sublevels of the mansion, a medium sized room lay in desolation. It was even darker than the living room. It was dusty, as though no one had dared to enter there for many years. Cobwebs hung low, although, being that there was not any source of light, they were scarcely seen. The floor was also covered in a thick layer of gray. The room hadn't been used in almost a hundred years. In the late nineteenth century it had been used as an old storage closet. Now, it's remains are scattered as the dust particles floated around the room like a thick cloud of fog.
The room's compartments were large and a secret door was hidden near the top of the room. The door at the top of the deep, dark corner of the room made a clicking noise and three figures fell in a heap onto the floor. As the figures lay in the dark depths of unconsciousness, they were oblivious of the one lone shadow looming above them.
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"How could they just disappear?" Amara asked, her voice quivering. "They were all sitting right next to me a second ago, I swear!"
"Calm down girl," Tabitha urged her. "They probably had to go use the bathroom or something."
"They would've told us if they had to use the bathroom." Amara started shaking visibly. "Now th-they've d-dis-disappeared just like th-the others."
Next to her, Jamie and Roberto looked like they had just seen a ghost. How could their friends have just disappeared like that. The two of them couldn't think of a logical explanation. One minute, they're in the room; the next they're gone. It was giving everyone bad thoughts as to what could've happened to any of the missing people.
"Let's just think about this guys," Jean stated. "Scott, Kitty, and Kurt haven't come back yet. Sam, Ray, and Bobby have disappeared--"
"Yeah, we should go and look for Kurt and the others," Amanda cut her off.
"What're are you crazy!?" Tabitha screeched. "We'll just disappear, just like the rest of them."
"She's right, yo," Toad added. "I'm leavin', 'fore I end up being a transparent figure." Toad began to make his way behind him for the window. He didn't even know why they had come here to begin with. They weren't really friends with the X-men, were they? Before he could move a muscle, he felt a tug on his shirt. Lance was holding him back.
"Hey, yo, what're you doin'?" Toad asked as he looked up at Lance with an incredulous look on his face.
"We're not leaving until we find Kitty," Lance stated with a determined look on his face.
Amanda Sefton just sat on the couch as she heard everyone around her either protesting or trying to think of a plan in which to execute and find the missing people. She just wanted to find Kurt and lay there safely in his arms. That wasn't about to happen anytime soon with all the chaos that was happening. She looked over to Jean, who was standing and talking to Rogue, about something she couldn't hear. The red head looked slightly pale, as though she felt something that everyone didn't. In this case, it was because she didn't feel anything anymore.
Jean was trying to keep herself and everybody else calm, but inside she was panicking. Jean sighed and wished things had stayed the way they were in the beginning of the night; her sitting next to Scott on the couch and just being able to relax. But, there was something very wrong going on. She figured splitting up would be the best thing to do. They'd be able to cover more ground and come out with quicker results. Jean and Rogue decided to split themselves into two groups. The first group consisting of Jean, Rogue, Amanda and Lance. The second group consisting of Tabitha, Roberto, Amara, Jamie, Blob, and Toad. Taking their respective routes, they each set out to find their missing friends.
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"This plan is working perfectly," a male voice said through the darkness. "It couldn't be any better!"
"What if they try and harm us, guys? I mean most of them are seriously powerful mutants," another voice said through the ebony of the night.
"C'mon, we're not scared of them!" a third voice joined into the group. "We can do this and they wouldn't even know what hit them."
The three of them smirked as the night lit up once more, if only for a moment, and huddled together as they walked through the darkness. The three were oblivious to the transparent barrier, although clear, blocking the outside of the mansion.
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"Remind me why we came up here, yo?" Toad asked as he slowly followed his group down the enormous hallway. Toad peered around the widened space through the flicker of the candle that was burning in Tabitha's hand. He had been to the mansion twice before, but he never had imagined it to be this big, especially in the dark. Blob shrugged his shoulders in response to Toad's question. Toad sighed and wished there were some flies around here somewhere, breaking through the window had given him an appetite.
The candle's light danced around in shadows on the nicely painted brown walls. There were no windows in the hallway and the only light was coming from the candle. Due to the lack of light, the hallway in which most of them walked through everyday seemed much bigger than it was. There were five room doors in this hall leading down to the end and the hall seemed like a never ending passage in which they could not break free.
Tabitha glanced around the hall, making sure that they were alone. She was trying to be the calm one in her group, to keep them all sane, but inside she was just as scared. When Jean had told them that something was blocking her powers, she had inquired that there was something mystical. Now, Tabitha could almost be positive that it was sure to be ghosts. Fearing of disappearing like the others, she ushered everyone to stay close to the person next to them. As Amara held onto the back of her shirt, she walked forward.
"Tabitha, wh-what exactly are we looking for?" Amara asked, fearful of everything around her.
Tabitha rolled her eyes, she loved her best friend like a sister, but this was getting to be too much. "Amara, cool it, okay! We're obviously looking for Ray, Bobby, and Sam, remember?"
"Oh, right!"
"Can't we just walk faster and then get outta here. This place is pretty spooky," Roberto put in. Jamie was following closely behind him as Roberto peered around with his eyes, afraid of what might fly out of one of the doors.
"Alright already!" Tabitha exclaimed, a little louder than she would've liked. They all jumped back slightly afraid of her tone. "You wanna get through here faster, huh? Jamie why don't we set your powers to use, shall we?"
Jamie backed away from Tabitha's incoming hand. He just looked at her with wide eyes and shook his head quickly. "Uh-uh, I'm not going in there alone. You must be crazy!"
"C'mon, Jamie! Nothing will harm you I promise," Tabitha looked at him sincerely. Jamie still shook his head and continued to back away. Blob shoved past them and moved in front of the first door. He reached for it and turned the knob. It wouldn't budge; it was locked.
"Hey!" Blob whined with his thick, heavy voice. "It's stuck!"
"How can it be stuck?" Amara questioned. She moved forward and tried to do what Blob had done, but to no avail. "He's right, it won't budge." She even tried melting through it with her powers, but they wouldn't work. "My powers, they're not working!"
Tabitha rolled her eyes again, but this time to try and conceal her concern. "Fine, then. Stand back, it's time for some badda bing, badda boom!" Tabitha gave the candle over to Amara and rolled her hands over to reveal two of her famous time bombs that she constantly used.
"Oh no!" Jamie muttered. Amara held out her free hand in front of her and stopped Tabitha before she could do anything. "Wait! Maybe--"
Before Amara could finish her sentence, a sharp wind blew past all of them, piercing their bodies in pain and enrapturing them in a tight hold before it blew the candle's flame out. Roberto and Jamie backed up against the nearest wall, the one near the door that Tabitha was going to blow up a second ago. Amara heard Tabitha silently curse under her breath as she rummaged in her pocket for the matches she had put in there; she was still holding her time bombs in her hand. Amara looked around in the dark and bit her lip.
"Hurry up, Tabitha!" Amara urged. "It's seriously creepy."
Jamie felt a grip of a hand brush past him as he jumped away from the wall and scurried behind what he thought was Blob. "Roberto! That wasn't funny!" he shouted at his friend who was still sitting against the wall in the dark. Roberto didn't respond and all Jamie heard was a deep laugh coming from somewhere near them.
Tabitha's time bombs finally exploded, a dark creak from somewhere near crept up, and an air piercing scream filled the air when the candle's tip lit up again. The hallway was once again filled with the dim lightness of the flame.
"What in the--?" Tabitha asked as she looked around and then back down at the light that just magically lit up again by itself in Amara's hand.
"You did light the candle, didn't you Tabitha?" Jamie asked, fear in his voice. "Please, tell me it was you."
Tabitha looked around the hall. She didn't answer Jamie. She desperately wanted to tell him that it was her that used the matches and relit the candle, but she couldn't do it; she hadn't even touched the candle when it's flame brought back the light. It was as though someone just ran past her and turned it on with a snap of a finger. Tabitha was about to open her mouth to finally answer Jamie when she felt a hard tug. Amara was grasping the sleeve of her shirt and her fingers were beginning to dig into her skin. Tabitha bit her lip and gazed up at her friend.
"What is it this time, Amara?" Tabitha asked and looked at her friend. Her features had turned paler than they already had been as Amara tried to speak, but no words escaped her mouth. Tabitha turned to everyone else and found them to be the same exact way: terror stricken.
"What is it you guys?" Tabitha asked again, but still no reply. She turned her head in the direction everyone was staring in, and there it was. A black shadow just hovered in the distance near the end of the hallway. It just stood there as everyone's eyes were transfixed on it in a trance.
"It's coming," Amara said in an eerie voice. Jamie shuddered as they just continued to stare. "Do you think it'll harm us?"
"Stay where you are, and it probably won't," Tabitha reassured.
"Probably!" Toad exclaimed in a crazed voice. "Yo, I ain't waitin' around here to find out."
With that having been said, Toad tugged on Blob's shirt. They both looked each other in the face, screamed for their lives, and bolted from the hallway and down through the window they had come through earlier. The rest of the group stared at their retreating backs and then turned back to the situation at hand. The black shadow was still in it's place it seemed, only a little closer. It was slowly advancing towards them. Before Tabitha could fully register what was really going on she shouted, "RUN!!"
Amara and Jamie did just that, they ran. It all seemed like it was moving in slow motion - the faster they all tried to run, the faster the shadow would move. It seemed to be gaining speed and Amara, Tabitha, and Jamie felt like they were on the verge of death. The shadow grew larger in width and continue advancing towards them. The three screamed in terror. "Whatever you do, don't look behind you!" Tabitha called behind her.
Jamie and Amara turned to look at the shadow and widened their eyes as it seemed to open itself into a form of a mouth. The two of them screamed even louder. "Too late!" Amara shouted. They're hearts lost their usual rhythms and started beating faster, so fast that the three thought that they could jump out of their chests at any moment. The black shadow grabbed at the trio in front of it.
Thinking fast, Amara turned around while still running, and waved the candle in front of the shadow. The pure black shadow flew back a couple of feet at first, but then seemed to advance on her even quicker than before. Amara screamed and moved the candle in front of her so she can give some light towards her friends. Without watching where she was going, Amara tripped over the stairs and starting tumbling down them, right into Jamie. The candle flew from her hand, thankfully caught by Tabitha on the ground floor. Amara immediately got up off of the floor and helped Jamie up as they met up with Tabitha and continued running. They stopped in the middle of the foyer and turned around. The black shadow was a couple of feet away. The trio didn't have anywhere to run any longer. Tabitha, in a panicky attempt to get out, ran to the door. She pulled as hard as she could, but it wouldn't budge. It seemed to be locked. She turned back around and they didn't even have time to scream as the black shadow widened and inched closer and closer….
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"Where in the world could they have gone?" Jean asked her group. The four of them had taken one of the candles and headed off in the direction of the kitchen. They would be sure to find clues in there. Just as Jean made her way towards one of the cabinet doors near the refrigerator, she slipped on something small and collapsed on the floor. "Ouch!"
"Are ya alraght Jean?" Rogue asked. Jean nodded and picked herself up and then bent down to pick up the thing in which she fell on. Rogue walked over to her with the candle in her hand. "What did ya slip on?"
Jean rolled the solid in her hand and held it up to the light to see it clearer. "It's a…battery."
"Do you think they must've dropped it when they came in here?" Amanda asked, making her way over to the two other girls.
"Probably," Jean answered. Rogue set the candle onto the kitchen table and took the battery from Jean's hand. "It probably fell from one of the flashlights."
Jean went over to the drawer that held the flashlights. She opened it and took one out for every one of them. As she closed the drawer, she noticed a small screw that was lying on top of the counter. Jean presumed that the screws were loose and that's why the batteries were on the floor. Going over to the candle she blew it out and gave everyone a flashlight. Lance shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. He wasn't sure if he should really be helping the X-men, even if it was to help find Kitty. He never felt like he belonged here, yet he continued helping them anyways.
"So the kitchen's not huge, where do you think they could've gone?" Lance asked them.
"They know better than to just wander off without telling anyone," Jean replied. "Something must've happened."
All of a sudden they heard a strange noise. Jean looked up and towards the window. She widened her green eyes - she could've sworn she saw three figures walk by, but in an instant they were gone. Jean figured that it was her imagination playing tricks on her.
"Scott, where are you?" Jean asked herself. She looked around the kitchen hoping to find anything that could lead her to the first three people that went missing, her teammates, her friends, her family.
A thin stream of lightning lit the night once more with more anger as the thunder roared in response. Lance ran to the window and lifted it. He stuck his head outside, but there were no clues that anything had ever been there. "What the hell was that?"
"What was what?" Amanda asked, obviously perplexed.
"You didn't see that?" Lance questioned. Amanda and Rogue both shook their heads in response. Jean just turned away and continued searching. She had believed in spirits, but only as some kind of mythical enchantment, never to exist in reality - not like this at least. Now, she was definitely a firm believer.
"This is seriously getting out of hand. Let's just find Kurt and the others and get outta here before something else happens," Amanda said, her voice shaking.
Out of the depths of the mansion, they heard two piercing screams get louder and then disappear just as quickly as they had heard them. The room stood in silence as they waited for another sound, but another never came. Amanda went over and stood by Lance next to the window. Lance saw a glimpse of what appeared to be Toad and Blob running as fast as they could. He eyed them closely until they disappeared into nothingness.
"Okay, let's trah and retrace their searching steps," Rogue suggested. She assumed they would've tried to find the missing batteries before….she didn't even want to think about it. It was too eerie, even for her. "Ah think they woulda searched the whole kitchen."
"Yeah, maybe," Jean said. She helped Rogue look around the kitchen. Lance and Amanda stood at the open window as though in a trance. A cold chill ran through the room. The room was dimmer now except for the two flashlights that were with Jean and Rogue. Lance and Amanda were still trying to identify what Lance had thought he had seen.
Another wind blew into the now open window. It chilled everyone, giving them all goosebumps that ran down their backs. The wind seemed to howl and whisper at the same time in the now growing darkness that seeped in the room. Lance and Amanda, still interested as to what was outside, had now turned off their flashlights.
Jean and Rogue bumped into each other when they got to the far corner of the kitchen. They jumped slightly, thinking it was something else. They apologized and stood there, gazing at each other through the yellow light of the flashlight. "Did ya fahnd anything?" Rogue asked.
Jean shook her head and let her hand drop from her heart, where it had been when Rogue had bumped into her. "No, you?" Rogue shook her head also. She looked down and placed the flashlight on the object she had found.
"Hey, ah never saw this here," she said and motioned for Jean to bend down also. The two girls sat there hunched over, peering at the new discovery. It was a black button of some sort. No one had ever really noticed it for it was hidden in the deep corner, camouflaged where it couldn't be seen. Rogue reached out to touch it and it moved backward like a light switch. They both heard a clicking noise. Before they could properly identify it though, another noise was heard as they turned their heads to see who it was.
Jean and Rogue turned their flashlights towards the source of sound, but widened their eyes at what they saw in front of them. In the light stood a young girl - Jean and Rogue couldn't tell anything else because the light was blinding them. They could only see her barely - she had soft features except for the fact that they were now covered in fear and paleness. Although Jean and Rogue's features were now etched in absolute horror, the young girl seemed to have some kind of pureness - like she was trying to reach out to them.
Lance and Amanda finally closed the window as they turned around. They jumped back in utter terror when they looked to see the young girl who had appeared practically hovering over Jean and Rogue. They widened their eyes as Lance dropped his flashlight and they both screamed, a scream that caused the girl in front of them to turn around. Their eyes widened even more, if that was possible, to the point where they would have just jumped out. Without thinking, or trying to help, Lance and Amanda ran out of the kitchen screaming all the way out until their screams disappeared and only the wind could be heard.
Beyond the young girl, a deep howl flowed through the room and wrapped around Jean and Rogue. The two girls let out piercing screams when the girl turned back to look at them. Their flashlights turned off suddenly and the young girl disappeared before their very eyes. Thunder grumbled as the streak of lightning electrified the night and Jean and Rogue fell into darkness.
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