Hey, look, it's November 11, the day I said that I wanted to finish this story on! Yeah... Okay, I think it goes with out saying that I didn't accomplish that. Honestly, guys, I think I just have to say that I can't promise any specific times for chapter updates, on either of my stories. I promise that both will be finished, and any story that I start will be finished, but with everything else going on in my life I can't in good faith give you dates or times for when chapters will be updated. I am really sorry for this.
Thanks for reading even with my horrible updating consistency.
One other quick thing before the chapter. I know that I said this story is horror, so I just wanted to clarify something quickly: this story is not a slasher horror. This is not one of those horror fanfics where all of our beloved characters get picked off. This is more of a ghost haunting horror than anything else.
II
It didn't take long for the small party of eight to find the mansion, even with Jr.'s somewhat questionable navigation skills. The dark mansion loomed large above the figures, nearly blending in with the inky night sky around it. The house had few windows, and those that it did have were mostly on the upper levels of the manor. A small wooden trail appeared a few feet away from the front porch, where it had presumably once led deeper into the forest, but the rest of it had been eroded by time. The front porch itself was a wreck; most of its railing was hanging off, or completely broken and lying on the earthen lawn, and boards had been upturned in many places. Oddly enough, there were no real holes in the mansion walls. Despite the fact that every few feet it seemed loose boards had fallen off, nowhere on the house was broken so badly that the party of travellers could see inside. The only entrances and exits were the doors and windows.
Above the door, there was an intricately carved wooden sign. Despite its age, and the obvious rotting on the wood, the words engrave were still readable: "Neverfall Mansion".
"So, this is the house" Toad said, starting to think that it would be better to sleep in the forest than in there.
"It look cozy" Wolley sarcastically said.
"Do you want to find your friends or not" Bowser Jr. snapped, still perched on Yoshi's back. Yoshi had filled the prince in on the whole story of why they were there while they had been walking.
"The kids right" Captain Toad said. "Let's just get in there."
The team slowly and nervously crept up the aging steps of the mansion. The area was covered in cobwebs and grime, a fact that became apparent as they got closer. Upon reaching the door, Captain Toad tentatively turned the golden door knob. A resounding bell rang as the door swung in.
The party found themselves standing in a specious foyer. Though it was clearly old, it was in much better condition than the exterior of the building. A lavish, red carpet covered the entire room, and it led up to an elaborate twin staircase at the end of the room. A door was on each side of the foyer, and another door sat tucked between the two stairways. Various trinkets, such as vases or pots, sat in various ends of the room. Oddly, as they had seen from the outside, no windows were in the room.
"Well, this is much nicer" Yoshi said cheerily.
"It still has too much dirt for me" said Birdo, shuddering as she looked at the fringes of the carpet, which had clearly not been washed in years.
"We've seen way worse places on our travels" Toadette said. She walked over to examine one of the vases. "Say, this thing looks fancy."
"No time for treasure hunting now, you guys" Yvan said, stopping Captain Toad from going over to investigate as well. "We have to find the others."
Yoshi nodded. "You're right, let's take a look around."
"You guys take a look around, I'm not going with you" Bowser Jr. huffed, sliding off of Yoshi's back.
Everyone stared at him in confusion.
"Why not?" Birdo asked.
"Those guys aren't my friends, I don't need to find them" Jr. snootily replied. "Your little quest has nothing to do with me, so if you want to die income creepy old mansion, have fun, but I'm staying out here."
The group made various sounds of sighing in disgust and annoyance at that comment.
"And where exactly are you going to go then, if we're all in there" Birdo asked.
"I… um…" the koopa trailed off.
Yoshi bent down to look him in the eye. "Jr., I know you don't really like us, but I don't think you realize that staying with us is your safest bet."
"I can handle myself perfectly fine on my own" Jr. snapped.
"I know you can" Yoshi sighed. "But, If your siblings come looking for you out here, they would be more likely to check the big mansion, where we all are, first. Got it?"
Jr. huffed. "Fine, I'll stay with you losers. But I get to ride on you again!"
Bowser Jr happily hopped on Yoshi's back. The dinosaur grimaced, but made no other complaints.
"So… where to first" Toad asked after a moment of silence.
"Let's just try one of the doors, really no way to know where anything is in here" Captain Toad said.
The small party walked to the door at the end of the room, between the two staircases. Birdo opened the door. They were met with a long hallway. It was covered in the same red carpet that the entrance had been covered in. Three doors sat tucked further down in the room, one on each of the walls, and one at the far end of the hall. Shrugging, Birdo walked forward, and pulled open the door on the right side of the hall.
"It's just another hall" she said.
The rest of the company followed her, and saw indeed, another, this time smaller, hallway. Other than the considerable difference in size, it looked identical to the hallway they were in. The same red carpet, and three other doors, two on each wall, one at the far end.
"It's the same over here" Wolley said, having thrown open the door on the left.
Toadette pulled a piece of paper and became hurriedly drawing on it.
"Map" she answered to the others questioning gazes.
"Well, I guess we should try one" Captain Toad said tentatively.
Birdo walked through the right door, and into that hallway. She pushed open the door on her left.
"Bathroom" she said.
Captain Toad opened the other door, the one on their right. Everyone crammed in around him to peer inside the room.
"Storage, of some sort" he reasoned, nervously walking in.
The room was filled with large crates, many of which were tied shut with thick rope.
"Don't see much else though" Yvan shrugged.
"Yeah, pick up the pace, you guys" Bowser Jr. grumbled.
The small party walked back down the hall and into the main hallway again, while Toadette still scribbled on her map. They walked into the left side hall.
Yvan ran forward and threw open the door on his left.
"Creepy…" he muttered.
"W-what is it" Toad asked in fear.
"Basement entrance, I think" Yvan said. "Though I don't see why someone would need that many locks on their basement door." He gestured to the many broken bolts and keyholes, that at one point of time must have kept the door shut.
"Huh, it's a good thing someone already broke those for us" Toadette said.
"Yeah, strange though" Yvan said.
"It's not as strange as this" Birdo's voice whispered.
The others turned to look where Birdo had just thrown open the door to their right. Inside of it was a room that at first glance looked empty. It was only when everyone got closer could they see that the room went down, at least eight feet, and it was filled up to the brim of the door with a murky, grey water. Something was visible at the bottom, but the water was too filthy to make out the shape.
"Well that's… odd" Captain Toad managed.
The Party shifted uneasily, not taking their eyes off of the strange room. After a few more moments of staring at the room, something caught Toads eye.
"The water's moving" He squeaked out.
After a moments, the others noticed what Toad was talking about. The water in the room was quickly circling around. It wasn't like the way the waters of lake will move when there is some wind, though even that would have been strange, considering that there was no wind around. No, the currents of this water were silently spinning in quick circles, though no water ever sprayed above the the top.
Birdo shut the door.
"Well, I think we've all seen enough of that" she said quickly, ushering everyone back down the hall.
The toads all had varying levels of fear written on their faces. Even Jr. held onto Yoshi's back tighter.
"So, where to next, Captain" Yoshi asked.
"Oh, um…" Captain Toad glanced around, from where they once again stood in the central hall.
"We haven't seen what's down there yet" Toadette said, pointing to the door at the far end of the hall.
Shrugging, the small party walked down to the end of the hall. This door opened to what must of been the living room. A large fireplace sat at the back centre of the room, with a large pile of fire wood stacked beside it. Three expensive looking couches lined the area in front of the fireplace, a coffee table in front of them. There was a rocking chair on the top right corner of the room, and beside it sat a lamp and another table. A small pile of blankets sat on the top left corner of the room. Other than that, the room was pretty bare. There weren't any photographs, nor artworks, or pieces of interest around the room. It was very plain.
On the left side of the room there was yet another door that led deeper into the mansion. Birdo once again walked over and opened it.
"Stairs" she said. "It must be a secondary entrance to the other floor."
"Who needs two staircases" Wolley asked.
"Anyone of importance" Bowser Jr. shot back.
"Well, it is something that certain rich people do. Famous actors and actresses." Birdo sighed dreamily.
"So where to next?" Toadette asked.
Captain Toad opened his mouth, but Yoshi beat him to responding.
"I think, that next, we should get some sleep" the dinosaur said.
"What!" Captain Toad spluttered. "We still need to find the Toad Brigade!"
"Captain, I don't think that they're here" Yoshi said.
"Why not?"
"Well, think about it: They would have heard us come in if they were here. The bell connected to the door would have been heard throughout the entire mansion. If they were here they would have let us know."
Captain Toad was silent for a moment. "Well, then we'll just have to go back out and look for them then" he said.
"Out there again, now, in the middle of the night?" Wolley asked. He too was now looking nervous.
"Captain" Yoshi said gently, in a tone that sounded like one you would use if talking to a scared animal. "We won't be able to find them at this hour, it's too dark out there."
"B-but-"
"Besides, we all agreed that if anyone was out there, they would probably come here first, right?" Toad said.
The Captain frowned at both Yoshi and Toad.
"Fine" he eventually said. "But I don't like this one bit. The second morning breaks, we go back out there, got it?"
"Got it" the others coursed.
"For the time, being we should all get some sleep" Yoshi suggested, sounding oddly happy even with where they were.
"I get one of the good spots" Bowser Jr. shouted.
He bounded off of Yoshi's back and threw himself across one of the couches. The others rolled their eyes and began to settle in.
Toad and Toadette agreed to share one of the other couches. As for the third couch, Yvan and Wolley did not want to share it. They decided to play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors over it, which Yvan won. Birdo then told them that they had to share the couch or neither of them got it and she was taking it, and they begrudgingly decided it was best to do what she said.
"This is… surprisingly clean" Birdo said as she laid down on the carpet.
"Yeah, not really what I would have expected from an old abandoned mansion" Captain Toad laughed.
Yoshi lit the fire place with some of the old wood sitting on the hearth. He came back with blankets that he had retrieved from the corner. He gave one to each couch, Yvan and Wolley once again complaining about having to share theirs, and then gave one to each, Birdo, Captain Toad, and himself.
"Hey, how come Jr. gets a whole couch to himself" Yvan complained.
"Be honest, does anyone really want to share a couch with me" Jr. asked, stretching out.
No one could say that they did.
"Well sleep well everyone" Yoshi said cheerily, curling up beside Birdo.
"Yeah, sure" Birdo sighed.
Captain Toad let out a groan, but didn't say anything. The four toads who were sleeping on the couches all looked over at each other in worry. Something about this place did not sit right with any of them. They could not do anything about it now though, not with the rest of the party all ready to sleep. So, shrugging off their concerns, they all turned over and to get some sleep.
It was late in the night when Bowser Jr. suddenly sat up with a start. He glanced around blearily, wondering what had awoken him. The air had gone cold around him, and he wrapped his blanket tighter around himself. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dark room, and it was then that he realized how cold the room actually was: he could see his breath in front of his face.
He began to make out the rest of the room. He could see the others shivering forms moving around on their couches, and if he looked behind him, he could see the shivering forms of the ones on the floor. It was shockingly dark, and he soon realized why: the fire had been put out.
It probably just burned down. Dumb firewood, he thought bitterly.
He then realized, however, that there was still a source of light from somewhere in the room. The room had no windows, so there should be no natural light coming into it, and yet, the room was still being illuminated by a faint blue glow. Jr. turned around, looking for the source, yet the light seemed to be radiating off of the walls themselves.
He wished he could figure out what it was, but it was hard to see, because even with the blue light it was still super dark, and it was cold and he wanted to go back to bed, and the higher he got off of the floor the harder it was to - wait, what?!
The couch, which had been levitating off of the ground, came back down with a crash. Jr. screamed.
The others were on their feet almost at once, throwing off their blankets and running over to the couch of the screaming koopa. They flipped on their flashlights and headlamps. Bowser Jr. through himself off of the couch, and ran to the far wall.
"Jr. what happened?" Yoshi asked, running after the terrified child.
"I-i-it - th-the couch- it was floating!" Jr. screamed.
Toad's eyes went wide. "I knew this place was haunted!'
"That's a stretch" Toadette said, rolling her eyes. "Why would we really trust this guy?"
"W-well, that might be a good reason too."
The voice had come from Captain Toad, who shakily pointed at the wall just above the fire place. On it was drawn a crudely done picture of a key that was crossed out, drawn in what was hopefully red paint.
"W-what is that" Wolley cried out.
"Well, I don't think the kid drew it, that's for sure" Captain Toad said.
"Guys, why are the walls glowing" Birdo fearfully asked.
The company had been so distracted by what Jr. was saying, that they had yet to notice the strange light. Now though, it became obvious to them.
Suddenly, the glow started to grow brighter. It became so blinding that all in the room had to cover their eyes. But even that would not keep their eyes free from the lights. The strange blue glow seemed to seep through their eyelids, their hands, anything that they could try to protect themselves with, and overtook their entire vision, leaving them ignorant of all but the painful light that sought to consume them.
Then, as the members of the small company all crouched low on the floor, covering their heads to try to do something to stop the agonizing glow, the light vanished, just as suddenly as it had came.
The travellers all sat up, slowly, cautiously, opening their eyes again to the dark room, which was now only lighted by their dropped flashlights. As they sought to regain their bearings, a sudden scream echoed through the room. A dark blue form came flying out of the crude drawing on the wall, and circled above them. With an echoing scream of "run!" It was gone again.
The astonished company sat numbly in its wake.
"W-was that a ghost" Yvan managed to choke out.
"A-are we in a b-boo mansion?" Wolley stammered.
"No," Toadette said. She said it with such confidence that no one could question her authority on the subject. She stumbled to her feet, and crossed the room to stand before the fire place, staring up the the drawing above it. "I've been in many ghost houses before. Boos don't act like this. This," She turned back to look at the others, "This is something else."