February. Spooky scary moral dilemmas p.3

Dick, Kori and Raven heard Gar arrive with Vic and Jen before they saw them—the two boys were arguing on the way.

"…not with how you pretended to be drunk last night," Vic was saying.

"I didn't pretend! Why'd you keep saying that?" Gar protested.

"There's no way you didn't get so much as a headache today. You're faking it!"

"Dick, did I or did I not drop into the floor last night?" Gar asked Dick directly, because they'd gotten to where Dick and the girls were.

"Yes, you did have to be picked up and carried around," Dick muttered.

"See!?"

"Did he throw up?" Victor asked Dick.

"Nope."

So Vic crossed his arms stubbornly. "Then it's bullshit."

"It's not! I'll show you next time!" said Gar.

"Next time you pull the same crap?" demanded Dick. "Tell me when it's gonna be so I won't be there."

Meanwhile, Jen had gingerly gone on to the girls. "Hey, guys."

"Hi, Jen," Raven and Kori dutifully returned.

They had never interacted before.

Jen cocked her head at Raven. "You were in jeans at the party too. You don't like to even try to look pretty, do you?" She turned to Kori. "And you like to try way too hard."

Kori just looked stunned at the sudden aggression, but Raven dished it back for both of them. "This coming from someone who dresses like a Victorian doll come alive?"

Jen grinned; it seemed she was only recharged by open hostility. Right now she was wearing Victor's old letterman jacket. It clashed with the rest of her frilly outfit tremendously, but Vic thought she got a kick out of how the sleeves went really far past her hands. She swung her arms so they flapped around right now, as she shot back at Raven, "Don't be jealous. Not everyone was born to look awesome."

Vic went forth before a fight could break out. "Uh, babe." He took Jenny aside and grinned sheepishly at Raven and Kori. "It's just her sense of humor."

"Right," muttered Raven.

Victor realized that up until that moment, he'd subconsciously thought Jen and Raven would get along well. It was only when he saw them together that he had the strong sense that it would never, ever happen—though he'd still be hard-pressed to explain exactly why.

Dick coughed. "Uh, can we focus on what we came to do?" he said lowly. He always felt strangely self-conscious about the whole Project Club thing with a third party around.

Jen seemed to be able to smell fear, because she turned on Dick. "Oh, Vic told me all about this missions thing. Aren't you guys a little old for playing superhero?"

"That's not what we're doing," Dick mumbled.

"I'm focused!" cried Gar. This was his ideal mission and he wasn't going to let anyone ruin it. He looked around eagerly. "Where's the house?"

Vic pointed ahead. "You're looking at it."

Gar observed the house. It was old, yes, but that was about it. It didn't even have some gothic façade. It just sported the same New England style as the rest of the houses around it. Some windows were barred, but that didn't look out of place for the neighborhood either.

Gar would have been lying if he said he wasn't a little disappointed. He wanted to say This is it?, but what he said was, "…Alright! Awesome!"

"Is this the correct address?" asked Kori.

"Look at the sign right there," said Vic.

There was a half-hearted yard sign that said 'Historic Haunted House for Children'. Gar let it hearten him.

"Maybe it's not even open," said Dick.

"I mean it's a Saturday," said Vic.

"Yeah, but it's also February," said Raven.

Gar said, "It's not a haunted house attraction. It's just a haunted house. It's gonna be haunted year round." He went forth. "Come on! We're braving this house, and if it's a hoax, we'll expose it!" The others followed. He turned the knob and the door opened. He smiled back at the rest. "Ha! See? It's open!"

The inside of the house was dark, chilly and deserted. An entrance hall led to a double staircase, with a door on the ground floor between them. Next to the front door, a sign said 'Pick your path'. A layer of dirt covered everything.

Dick said what they were all thinking. "This is it? This is just someone's home!"

"Vic, is this as you remember when you visited as a child?" asked Kori.

"I don't know," Vic replied. "It was a long time ago." He looked around again. He didn't feel like he'd ever been in this place at all. And he'd loved the place as a kid; it had seemed really magical.

"What now?" asked Jen, grinning. "Do we look for clues in the spooky old house? To solve the spooky mystery?"

Vic coughed. "Uh, so you enter through this door, you go through the house, and you leave out the backdoor. That I do remember."

"Why's this so empty?" insisted Dick. "It looks abandoned."

Jen focused on him. "Are you purposefully looking for a mystery to distract you from the fact that you're using a Saturday night to investigate a business meant for little children?"

Dick looked like he was about to explode.

Vic raised a finger. "Do you guys wanna split up?"

"Yes!" went Dick, Raven and Gar at the same time.

Raven and Gar took the stairs to the right.

That door led to a lounge-like room. Though covered in dust, the room fulfilled Raven's inner decorative goals. Moonlight filtered through the barred windows and made everything look beautiful. Raven picked up a statue of a creepy angel with red eyes, admiring it. For a haunted house for kids, the relics looked elegant and expensive.

"Shouldn't there be actors by now?" she asked Gar. "I mean how do we know where we're meant to go now?"

"Don't worry, I got this," said Gar, sauntering confidently towards the three doors at the end of the room. He would die before he admitted he'd never been to a haunted house before. "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe! Come on!"

They opened the door and came face to face with a zombie.

It was an admirable portrayal. The person had flawless decaying skin, thin hair and rotting clothes. Gar opened his mouth to say, "Heh, you wanted actors."

But then the zombie unhinged his jaw and let out an unearthly scream, and his jaw fell all the way to his chest, held on by a layer skin. Gar and Raven heard themselves scream and Gar shut the door on instinct.

They pushed their backs to the door on the other side, and breathed hard.

"Okay, that was… good," said Raven, voice shaky.

Gar forced himself to laugh. "Really good."

He glanced up at Raven nervously, to see if there was more to her words, because there was definitely more to his. Both of them glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes, trying to see if the other was doubting the fakeness of this house, like they themselves were.

Dick and Kori took the door on the ground floor, which led to the dining room.

Dick thought it was as underwhelming as the entrance hall. It was simply old and dirty. The nicest thing to do was watch Kori explore the room, stopping at intervals and looking at things with care and interest.

"Are we meant to… investigate?" Dick wondered aloud. "Nothing jumps out at me."

And then he heard a rustle behind them.

"Gah!" he made out, as a very pale, yellow-eyed woman pounced on him. Her hands dug into his arms like claws.

"Turn back! Don't trust the Doctor!" she screeched.

The lights went out. When they came back on, she was gone. Dick reeled.

Kori had rushed to him. "Are you alright?"

He'd tried really hard not to jump at the first scare in front of Kori. He fixed his face.

"I hate places where the actors can touch you," he replied, dusting himself off.

He had to commend the quality, though. The image burnt in his mind was of black stringy hair, a completely white face, yellow eyes and long ears. A vampire; a very convincing one.

They both jumped at a screech on the opposite side. One of the doors on the opposite wall was closing; they managed so see the edge of a white dress escape through it before it did.

Dick put a brave face on. "Pretty sure we're meant to follow that."

This place was way too good for children.

Jen and Victor took the stairs to the left. They walked around a library until Vic saw a paper stuck on the wall. "Oh, this I remember. There's instructions!"

Jenny said, "Instructions? Great. Now we have homework."

"We just follow them and get through the house," said Vic, smiling.

"Here's an idea. What if we ditch your friends, go out the front door and get burgers?"

"You can't go back out the front door in a haunted house. You have to go all the way through and out the exit door. Everyone knows that." He ignored his girlfriend's glare and read the note. "Follow the crumbled pieces that the Doctor left our lives."

"What the hell does that mean?" reacted Jen.

They went through the next door. Halfway through the small office, a side door opened, and they got the actor. They were disappointed. It was a normal enough, if disoriented-looking man. He trembled his way to where they were, and Vic wondered if he was supposed to be a zombie. Then the man unexpectedly crumbled into little pieces, and the pieces crept under the next door.

Vic and Jen took a moment to adjust their minds to what they'd just seen.

"How did they… do that?" asked Jen.

Vic said, "It's gotta be a hologram… or something."

With their backs still blocking the door, Gar and Raven began to feel dumb.

"Okay, this is ridiculous," Raven decided. "We're gonna have to go past him eventually."

When they opened the door, the zombie wasn't there.

"Oh," breathed Gar. "Okay. Good. Come on."

On the other side was an open-sided hallway, that looked down onto an ample hall on their left. Raven saw a note stuck to the wall to their right. "Look. Is this for us?" She took it.

"Be sure to know who your friends are?" Gar read. He shrugged at her.

Walking down the hallway, Raven suddenly stopped, and walked behind Gar, grabbing his arm. Gar initially thought she was scared, which would have been unexpected—and cute. But she shook his arm until he looked at her. She took a finger to her lips and motioned below. She was still grabbing his arm, so he could only lean slightly over the rail. His stomach dropped. The hall was occupied by ghostly figures, dancing.

He looked back at Raven, nodded, and they walked single-file. Because she'd delivered her message, she let go of his arm.

At the end of the hallway, they crossed a door into… another hallway. But this one was closed, and there were no ghosts around.

Gar looked up at Raven. "Least this one's not ghostly."

"Yet," she returned.

"Wonder what's gonna jump out next. Mr. Mod in a dress?" Gar said as they walked, trying to lift the tension. His comment was ignored. "Mr. Immotu just as he is would be right at home here."

Nothing. Raven kept ignoring him.

"Oh, come on, not even a sarcastic…" he turned around. Raven wasn't there. "…comment? Raven?"

He looked around. The hallway was deserted.

The room Dick and Kori followed the vampire into seemed like a study. A long desk was cluttered with books and stray papers with notes. Bookcases were bursting. One wall was almost entirely newspaper clippings.

Dick lingered at the doorway at first, and examined the room from that vantage point, detail by detail. Kori had moved on to flutter about the room, picking up things that stood out to her.

She was reading a heavy journal for a while before she said, "Dick, look. This is the woman from the other room." He approached her to read it. Drawings and observations of the woman before and after. The following pages went on with other characters. "Is this all the monsters we will find in the house?"

Dick said, "I don't get this. Why put up all this stuff? Kids aren't gonna trace the story." The journal had been half buried on the table. It could have been an empty prop for all they knew.

He moved on to the wall of news clippings. They were all centered about a Doctor Morbise and his achievements through the years. "This must be the doctor the vampire woman was talking about."

He was still treating as a make-believe mystery, but really he was supremely uncomfortable. He didn't feel like they had stepped into a finely crafted model of a crazy scientist's den. He just felt like they had barged in on someone's real study.

"Dick." Kori was pointing at a note stuck on the wall.

"Guess this are meant to guide us through the house," he said. He read out loud, "Let your hair down and take our sad stories for a spin."

Kori shrugged at him.

They opened the door. At the other side was an ample hall, full of ghosts, dancing.

The next note was stuck to a door. Vic read it. "Keep your eyes closed, no matter what comes up to greet you."

"Ugh," concluded Jen.

They opened the door and peeked in. On the other side was a long hallway. Portraits of different sizes hung at both sides of it.

"Do you also get the feeling those people aren't staying in their portraits?" Victor said.

Jenny shook her head. "Nope. No way. I'm going back. I'm done with this house."

She went back to the door they came in through. Vic reluctantly followed.

When they went through the door, they came out onto an exact replica of the room they were in. They stood in it, reeling, terrified. Jenny ran to the door again. Vic tried to grab shoulders to keep her from running out again, but she slipped past him.

But this time she stopped dead at the doorway, and he nearly ran into her. He saw it over her head: it was the same room, but there was now a gigantic hand in a fiery hole in the middle of the floor; its fingers beckoned them to come, daring them.

Jen slammed the door shut.

"How is this a kids' place!?" Jenny demanded at Vic. "Who sends their child here? Who thought this was okay!?"

"This makes no sense," muttered Vic. "I came here as a kid. I survived this as a kid. Why is it like this now? …Why am I so scared?"

He leaned on the table and stayed still, as Jenny paced through the room.

He straightened and said, "Okay, let's calm down. We have instructions. Clearly we just have to follow the rules, and we'll get out no problem."

He faced the door, preparing himself for the hallway full of portraits.

He turned around at the crackling noise. Jenny had her leg on the side of a bookcase, trying to tear off the plywood sheet with her hands. When it came off, she came up, sweating and angry, and swung it behind her shoulders.

"I've got a better idea!" she exclaimed.

Gar walked back and forth through the hallway. "Raven," he hissed. "This isn't funny," he said half-heartedly. He couldn't even pretend to believe Raven was pranking him. It wasn't her style. "Raven. Victor. Dick. Kori? Anyone?"

He had no choice but to try the rooms along the hallway. He took a deep breath and entered one.

Lo and behold, Raven was there, sitting on a bed, her back to him.

"Rae. What are you doing?" He closed the door behind himself. "Hey." She was strangely immobile. He touched her shoulder. "…Are you tired?"

Raven stood and turned slowly. He thought she had a weird look in her face. Before he could figure out why, her eyes went white, she opened her mouth and blood gushed out.

Gar screamed, propelled himself out of the room, closed the door, and heard "Gar," next to him.

Raven was next to him now, and he jumped away from her, screaming some more.

"Why the hell did you go into that room?" she asked. "Didn't you hear me call you?"

She took a step towards him and he jumped back. "Don't!"

She stopped, taken aback.

"Are you actually you?" he demanded.

"What?" she returned softly.

"You're not gonna puke blood and go all blank-eyed?"

"…Is that what's happening now?"

Gar watched her. Raven had looked kind of hurt when he'd been scared of her, then surprised when he told her what he'd seen, then her eyes had softened as understanding dawned on her: in a few seconds she'd shown more emotion than the fake Raven in that room.

…He hadn't realized how many of her little gestures he'd learned to read until he faced a version of her that was truly expressionless.

But he was too frazzled to trust his gut right now. "Look, why don't you tell me something only Raven would know?"

"Something you would know I wouldknow?" she deadpanned.

"Crap, that's right, we don't know anything about each other." He looked at her. She looked and sounded real enough to him. He felt like he could let himself calm down. "Well, never mind, let's just go."

At the end of the hallway, the last door to their right said 'Peek in if you wish to understand.' Gar looked up at Raven. She nodded at him.

It was a bedroom, much like the one Gar had found the fake Raven in. It was simply furnished, but evidently lived in. The bed was made, but the desk was cluttered with papers, and clothes sat in disarray on top of a trunk. Gar went towards the bedside table, which had a journal sitting on it.

He threw it to Raven. "Here. You can read faster than me," he said, assuming that was true.

She made her way over to him. She looked like she'd been deep in thought when he called her over.

Raven passed the pages quickly and told the story to him. This room housed a man who'd come answering a mysterious call for young scientists eager to conduct cutting-edge experiments. This man was excited about Doctor Morbise's eccentric but obvious genius. The man was progressively concerned about the doctor's experiments on bringing people back to life. The man reported a growing number of the guests were concerned, especially since a few started disappearing mysteriously. The rest of the pages were incoherent promises of revenge and reckoning, written in what looked like blood, and then the diary ended abruptly, the empty pages somehow more menacing than what came before.

Raven closed the diary solemnly. Like it wasn't a prop in a fake haunted house.

"Back to life?" whispered Gar. "So like… this was the zombie's old room? Before he was a zombie?"

Raven gave him back the diary and turned her back on the desk.

"How did they make an illusion of me?" she asked softly.

Gar looked at her. She was hugging her elbows.

"How did they make you not see or hear the real me?" she asked, staring at him. "I'm beginning to think you were right about this house. I don't understand any of this…" She looked around the room, looking lost. Gar realized he'd never seen her so nervous. It made him feel all the less safe. "…But it could be really haunted."

Gar gulped. But if she wasn't her normal unfazable self, it looked like it was his turn to be reassuring. "Look, let's just focus on getting out of here. We can do it. Kids do it."

"How, though?" She pointed to the hallway. "That was horrible. You looked like you were in a trance. How do children keep coming here?" She looked around. Gar thought she was trying to see beyond her material eyes, beyond what the clues told them, trying to connect with the house. "Maybe it used to be for kids. But… something went wrong along the way."

"Either way… all the more reason to figure it out and shut it down." He'd moved towards her and held her arms to steady her. He realized after he did it that she would have shaken him off in any other circumstance.

He didn't have a long time to marvel on it, as then the roof got blown off.

An unearthly wind took everything light off the ground. Papers flew, vases and tokens swirled around them and shattered. Gar cracked his eyes open to see the roofless top didn't open up to a regular night sky: the dark seemed to be darker, starless, the fabric of the very universe. Raven's hair rose in the air, mingling with huge black birds that flew in the swirl—ravens, Gar realized. They seemed to be guiding the wind.

It stopped as suddenly as it had begun. When Gar looked again, the roof was back on. The wind subsided, but the room was in disarray. He was still holding Raven's arms, and now she was holding onto him back.

She broke away to move the hair out of her face. Any other time, the sight of her usually pin-straight hair in disarray would be hilarious.

"Here's something to know about me," she said. "I fucking hate ravens."

*presses forefinger and thumb together* It's about the horror movie circumstances-induced fear bonding.

This seems as good a time as any to let you know this story is squarely magic realism.

PenJunior: Normal? Nobody's normal normal, except maybe Dick, in keeping with how he's the only non-powered one in the show. Honestly? I gave the gang some 'gifts' and didn't worry about the science behind it that much, like how Kori's super strong: people who don't get hungover exist, but I *think* that doesn't apply when you're getting blackout drunk, just like women who can lift 300 lbs. obviously exist but Kori's much too young to have gone through then necessary training. Please just take it as the magic of the story lol

The way I made Vic's dad is to be a complicated man. You're exactly right that he's good at heart, but he's very different from Vic, doesn't know how to relate to him, AND their life philosophies clash. He's the kind of easygoing man people would love as a friend but it's not the same having him as a father, you know? Vic's friends just saw a side of him that Vic doesn't really appreciate, but at the same time Vic has to live with him and sees a side of him his friends don't see. Plus I'm making the most of the kids being innocently insensitive here, so this is one of those 'your dad's so nice, why do you even complain?' kinds of situation.

Thank you so much for reviewing! :)