Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or any of its characters.
Beyblade
Broken Down Ghost House
By: Plushie-Sensei
Chapter 4: Lost And Alone
"And that ends our tour of the house." Rei and Kenny stopped as they walked back into the dining hall, confused expressions on their faces.
"Wait, what about the others?" Kenny asked. Evelyn halted and turned around, giving them a blank face.
"What about the others?" she asked back.
"Where are they?" Rei asked, growling slightly as he stepped in front of Kenny. Evelyn continued to stare at them blankly. "Well!" Rei enforced, taking another daring step forward.
"They're-"
"They're taking care of some business," came another voice, Rei and Kenny came to recognize as... Miss Mary. She sat at the head of the dining table, a glass of dark red wine in her left hand. Kenny stepped forward.
"What kind of business, and why aren't we involved?" he asked. Mary stood up then, taking the glass with her.
"Because-"
"Where's Kai?" Miss Mary turned to Rei with a smile when she heard him speak.
"Kai? He's looking for you..." she said, taking a tiny sip of her wine.
"What exactly is going on here!" Kenny yelled, feeling very frightened. Miss Mary walked down the distance of the elongated table, then stopped in front of them.
"Well, gents... to be perfectly frank, the game has begun, and a decade of waiting has come to an end. My soul is going brittle and I need a little life in my... life, if you will. You see, the truth is..." Rei and Kenny looked up as Mrs. Romanoff walked through the kitchen doors into the room, and following her through another door was Mr. Maple. Last to enter the room, through yet another door was George. Rei and Kenny diverted their attention once again to Miss Mary as they heard a splashing sound coming from her direction. They watched as she drank the rest of the wine and a puddle of dark red liquid formed beneath her feet.
"What's this?" Kenny asked, his voice cracking. Miss Mary finished her wine within seconds then dropped the glass. She turned to them, licking her dry lips.
"We're dead..." she said. Rei froze, his head spinning slightly.
"WAIT!" Rei gasped, turning around to meet with George's large physique. Behind him, Rei watched Evelyn effortlessly drag Kenny out of the room. "REI!" he screamed before he was out of sight.
"Wait, don't leave!" Rei yelled back, then felt a cut off in circulation around his throat. George lifted Rei off the ground, holding the neko-jin by his neck. Miss Mary walked up from behind, placing her hands on her hips.
"Do you want to know where Kai is?" she asked, quietly. Rei struggled to look at her, one golden eye opening.
"Tell me..." he gasped out, trying to keep himself from being strangled by gripping his hands as much around George's wrist as possible. Miss Mary turned around to look at the double doors leading into the front room.
"He's on his way, kiddo..." she whispered. "Quickly, George, bring him into the kitchen. We'll be having cat for dinner..." she said menacingly. Rei continued to struggle as George's bulky arm carried him across the room.
'I'm not going anywhere...' Rei thought. He opened his eyes, his vision getting blurry. He looked up at George's stoic face and growled low in his throat before swinging his lower body to one side, making George stop. Miss Mary stopped as well, turning around with a dangerous smirk. Rei swung one last time, back, before pushing himself forward, his shoes making contact with George's stomach. George fell to his knees, the wind knocked out of him, but Rei was still trapped. He continued to struggle more than ever, though, not giving up.
"Think about what you're doing, Rei. You could either die alone, or in the company of people you know," she said. Rei yelled as he finally broke free of George's grasp. He limped away, coughing and breathing harshly, then pulled himself up and darted out of the room into the front desk area.
"Wait..." George slurred as he stood on his feet. Miss Mary held up a hand, preventing the oversized butler from going anywhere.
"Don't... Let's let things get interesting. After all, they've only seen the living parts of the hotel..."
Rei raced through the halls, making his way to the bedroom Kai and he had shared earlier. Everything was exactly the same; their bags and everything. Rei looked up as he heard a scream and ran to the window. He looked out suddenly seeing Kenny running into the foggy forest.
"Kenny!" he yelled, and was about to leave when his eyes caught several upright black dogs chasing after him. The dogs looked a bit deformed, their spines practically visible through their almost furless backs. Rei backed up from the window, gulping as he made his way back down the hall.
'What is this place?' he thought, racing down the stairs.
Kai pushed open a large wooden door and peered around the corner. The room had nothing in it. Just a rocking chair with something on it, a few cloth clad pieces of furniture and a fireplace. Not to mention a broken window. Kai sighed, anxiety taking over. He was about to leave, when a piece of blue cloth caught his eye. He walked into the room and over to the window, gently taking the cloth from the sharp window piece; a small torn blue cloth, with a small red blotch. Most likely blood...
Kai carefully leaned out the window, seeing a bunch of broken crates, and in the middle of them, was a body. Kai's eyes widened as he recognized the body; it was Max.
"Good Lord," Kai growled, then froze when he saw movement reflected in the window glass. In one swift movement he launched out his foot in a high kick, his shoe coming in contact with something hard. He turned around to see a skull fly across the room and a skeleton hit the floor. "Oh, crap..." Kai murmured.
He looked back out the window seeing Max's still body and fearing the worse. He was about to turn around when he heard the crates below creak slightly. Kai's eyes widened with hope as Max's arm moved a small inches worth. It wasn't much, but it sure was enough. Kai turned around making sure there was no more surprises. The skeleton wasn't moving, so he guessed it was okay. He walked over to the skull, taking the sheet away from it.
"I'll be needing this more than you," he said, nodding to the skull before tying one corner to the window pane and throwing the rest out the window. He slowly made his way down and got closer and closer to Max, feeling more and more relieved when Max moved a little. He was almost there when the sheets suddenly shook. Kai closed his eyes for a moment before daringly looking upward. He met with the skull looking right at him, and the skeleton's boney hand on the sheet's knot. Kai shook his head slowly, and began making his way down quicker.
"Orders are: no one survives..." came a grated rusty voice as the skull moved its jawbone. Kai quickened his pace, but the skeleton was already there to mess it up and with one tug, the sheets knot came undone and Kai fell the rest of the way. He braced himself for a tremendous fall, but gasped when he hit the ground immediately. He sat up, pushing the sheets off of himself and looked up. The skeleton growled in rage at his failure and quickly disappeared from sight. Kai sighed with relief, then turned around and pushed the crate pieces aside to get to Max.
"Max, are you... alive?" he asked. Sure enough, Max's eye opened a little and his blue orbs moved to look at Kai's face.
"Kai... you came," he whispered, his cut lips curling into a weak smile.
"Yeah... Are you alright?" he asked, pushing wood off of Max's legs.
"It's hard to move..." Max said truthfully, closing his eyes again.
"I know, so don't move. Just hold on..." Kai's voice trailed off as he looked around, stopping when he spied a large wheel barrel. "It'll have to do," he sighed, and in no time, picked Max up carefully and placed him down in the upright wheel barrel. Kai managed to look over Max's wounds assessing that the damage was mostly done to Max's back, and the wooden crates gave him further scratches and such.
"I'm not going to die, am I?" Max asked, bringing Kai's attention to his face by grabbing his shirt. Kai looked him in the eye with a stern look.
"No, you're not. Just rest for now, until I... can think of something... We still need to find the others..." Kai trailed off again, looking at the old house. One person was still on his mind...
Kenny raced through the trees, blind as a the fog was so overpowering. He huffed with each step, turning around for a second to see three large beasts behind him.
"What are those things!" he shrieked, and continued running. The beasts were right on his tail, gaining speed as Kenny lost it. Kenny jumped over small tree roots and dodged past branches but a rock caught him off guard as he tumbled a few yards further, coming to a complete stop near the water's edge. He picked himself up, dread coming over him when he saw that he had met the end of his road. He turned around seeing the creatures still getting closer. One beast leapt through the branches and rushed right at the scared boy and he could only turn around and cover his head in fright.
Kenny shook as he heard the beast yelp in pain and the other two rush up. He chanced a look and gaped as the three dogs began fighting with each other. Kenny scrambled away as one of the dogs fell down right where he was sitting. He quickly crawled away, glancing over his shoulder once and gasping when one of the dogs leapt toward him.
"Somebody, help me!" he yelled, covering his head. He jumped when a sudden sound of gunfire crashed through his ears. He waited as the gunfire continued for a while before looking up slightly. The gunfire stopped and as Kenny uncovered his head he gasped when one of the dogs crashed to the floor beside him, making him scramble to his feet and back up in a hurry.
"You alright there, lad?" Kenny snapped around meeting with a man holding a rather large gun in one hand. Kenny breathed, staring at the man with question, looking back at the three dead dogs.
"Am I okay...? Am I okay! I was just being chased by three monsters, I'm stuck on the stupid island and my friends are trapped in an old house with dead people! I... am NOT okay!" Kenny said, panting afterwards. The man waited patiently for Kenny to calm down, before nodding.
"I see. Well, come on then," he said.
"Wait, come on where?" Kenny asked, not budging. The man turned around.
"Back to my boat. We'll get some supplies then go rescue your friends." Kenny watched the man walk along the shoreline, and with the dead twitch of the beast behind him, decided to follow.
"Who exactly are you?" Kenny asked, watching as the fog dissipated a bit so as he could see a boat.
"Me? I'm a novelist. I write books and such on paranormal activity, and on one of my research projects I came across a mysterious island; home to the famous Old Apple Ridge Inn. It spiked my interest and I came down to see what this place was. I didn't expect to find a young boy being chased by werewolves..." the man said, throwing his gun on the deck of the boat. Kenny's eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Is that what those things were?" he asked. The man shrugged. "Right and your name would be?" he continued. The man pulled back from the boat.
"Sorry, my name's Robert. Robert Newman." Kenny held out his hand, shaking it with Robert's.
"Kenny... Just Kenny..." The two shook hands then turned toward the forest.
"Well, that looks like fun," Robert said, smiling with excitement. Kenny slowly turned toward Robert with a accusing expression.
"You... don't even know..." Kenny droned, pulling himself on the boat to sit down for a bit. Robert pulled himself onto the boat as well and walked past Kenny. 'I just hope my friends are okay...' he thought to himself, resting his tired body.
A long dark hallway lit up for a moment as a door opened revealing two people; Tyson and Hilary.
"Where are we now?" Hilary whispered, looking around as Tyson closed the door behind them.
"I don't know. I think we're in the same hallway we were in earlier, when we were on that tour thing." Hilary turned around meeting with Tyson's face. "I believe the front room is that way," Tyson said, pointing down the hall. He turned to Hilary for a second, seeing her sigh. "You alright?" he asked, smiling. Hilary looked at him and smiled.
"Yeah... I'm okay," she said. Tyson nodded then began his way forward. "Tyson?" He stopped, hearing Hilary's voice and turned around to see her fiddling with her fingers.
"Yeah, Hil?" he asked. Hilary looked up at him, smiling.
"I just wanted to say... Even though we got lost, I'm glad I got lost with you," she said. Tyson smiled at her, then walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulders.
"Same here," he replied and the two began walking down the hall. It was then when they both heard a sound coming from behind another door on the other side of the hall. They both stopped and turned around to see a skeleton standing in the middle of the hall, holding its skull.
"Oh, my..." Hilary whispered, then looked up as Tyson stood in front of her. "Tyson, what are you doing?" she asked, grabbing his arm. Tyson cast her a smile over his shoulder then turned to the skeleton.
"I have no idea..." he said, and with that, left her side, running up to the skeleton. The skull growled at him, looking fierce, but frowned when Tyson foot collided with it in a swift kick.
"Not again..." came the grating voice and soon the skeleton was on the floor.
"Tyson!" Tyson turned away from his short lived victory to see Hilary disappear behind the door the thing had came out of before.
"Hil, you can't just wander off like that," he scolded walking up to her. She was looking out a broken window. "What are you-"
"KAI!" Tyson gasped when he heard her yell and rushed to the window pane to look out. Sure enough, Kai was just below, with Max apparently sleeping in a wheel barrel.
"Kai, what happened!" Tyson yelled. Kai turned to Max briefly before looking back up at the two.
"You didn't happen to see a skeleton, did you!" he called back. Tyson and Hilary exchanged glances.
"Yes," Hilary said, nodding in conformation.
"Kai, what the hell is going on!" Tyson said, then clumsily caught a rock with the end of a sheet tied to it.
"I'll tell you when you get down here. It's not safe in that house anymore..." Tyson gulped and nodded and within minutes, the two joined Kai and Max outside.
"Four of them are gathered in the front; one is beyond the forest; and one is still trapped inside." Evelyn turned toward Miss Mary, her expressionless face still in place.
"Alright... Well, we still have one guest within the house. We need the others out there inside as well. I don't care about the little one. Just get the four in the front, and let's have a party." Evelyn nodded and turned to walk out of the door.
"So what do we do in the meantime?" came Mrs. Romanoff's voice. Miss Mary sat back in a large velvet armchair in front of an equally large fireplace. She frowned at the fire seeing images of young girls and boys screaming for mercy. She quickly tossed a stray log in the fire, the images quickly vanishing with yells of torture.
"Kill the boy still within the mansion... We don't need him..." Mrs. Romanoff bowed slightly, then began to walk away, when she remembered something.
"Um... Miss Mary?"
"What now?" Mary asked, annoyed.
"Well... what about the keys?" Miss Mary raised an eyebrow for a moment, then stood.
"Well? What about them? It's not like they can help them now... Now do as I said and kill the boy!" she screamed, the fire in the fireplace flickering wildly. Mrs. Romanoff frowned and left obediently. Miss Mary could only sit back down as she waited for them to bring her Rei on a silver platter...
Bright golden eyes peered around the corner down a dark hall looking for any signs of movement. Rei emerged from the bend and quickly made his way down the hall.
"Where is everybody?" he asked himself, looking from side to side, then stopped as the ground beneath him began to shake. He faltered slightly then lifted his vision slowly seeing something in front of him. A tall mummy-like creature stood before him, breathing in deeply. Rei slowly took a step backward and watched as the mummy advanced. There was something about that face that was so familiar to Rei, but he couldn't place it.
"Let me show you... to your rooms..." he whispered, and that voice, Rei recognized.
"George... the butler...?" he said, his voice escaping him. The creature smiled slightly, the dead meat dangling from various bones. Two gruesome eyeballs spun once then locked onto Rei's retreating form.
"Let me show you... to your rooms..." Rei raced down the hall, whimpering as George continued to repeat the same thing over and over again. From the sound of it, he was getting closer.
"Leave me alone..." Rei said, narrowing his eyes. Suddenly his feet slowed until he came to a complete stop. George walked up to him and stopped before him, a confused expression on his face. A slight breeze blew Rei raven bangs into his eyes for a moment, then in a flash, Rei spun around and faced George with an angry expression.
"Let me show you... to your-" George's voice cut off just as Rei's foot landed in his face, making him fall to the ground with a heavy thud. Rei grimaced as he struggled; his foot was stuck in George's decaying face.
"For crying out loud!" he yelled, yanking his foot free. He took the moment to take a breath, but froze when he heard a low creaking sound. He looked to George's rotting body with a worried expression as a single crack spread from under the corpse. "Oh no..."
Kai stood to his feet, looking at the house with determination.
"He's still trapped inside..." he said quietly. Tyson and Hilary stood behind him with solemn expressions. Slowly clouds began to gather over the house as a light drizzle began. Tyson sighed and turned to Hilary with a funny looking face.
"What it is?" she asked, giving him an odd look. Tyson took a deep breath and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Hilary, you should stay here with Max and look after him. Kai and I will go inside and get Rei back, then we'll leave this place, alright?" he asked. Hilary nodded.
"Just, why are you-" her sentence suddenly stopped and her eyes went wide as Tyson's lips descended upon hers in a chaste kiss. He soon pulled away, looking embarrassed and blushing madly. "Staring?" she squeaked, caught completely off guard.
"Just wanted you to know that I... really like you. I just wanted to tell you so you know... in case I-"
"Tyson Kinomiya," she said in a warning tone. Tyson looked up at her seeing a sweet smile in place. "What happened to that pride of yours, huh? I know you're too stubborn to let anything happen to you..." she said. Tyson blushed more as she gave him a sweet kiss. She smiled as they parted and playfully hit him on the shoulder. "Go get'em, Champ..." Tyson gulped and nodded. Kai stood behind him with a raised eyebrow and an exasperated expression.
"Are you quite done?" he asked in annoyance. Tyson turned on his heel looking ready for anything, which annoyed Kai further.
"Yes, I am, Kai! Let's go forth!" he said making his way toward the front door. Suddenly the doors blew open and a low growl emitted from the darkened house. Kai stared for a while, then snapped out of it when he noticed that Tyson was gone.
"Where...?" he whispered, then turned finding Tyson right behind him, shaking like a leaf. Suddenly Tyson landed face first into the dirt with Kai standing above him looking very angered. "Do NOT do that again!" he yelled, then turned toward the house and began walking forward. Tyson stood up rubbing his head, then gulped and followed, rather reluctantly. He gave one last glance at Hilary and Max, smiling, before he stepped inside behind Kai and the mighty doors closed.
"I hope they'll be alright..." Hilary said, clasping her hand together as if in prayer.
"I hope so too..." Hilary gasped then, turning to Max, seeing his eyes opened slightly.
"Max, you're alright!" she said, kneeling beside the wheel barrel. Max's expression grew grim, making Hilary worry. "What's wrong...?" she asked. Max took an unsteady breath and licked his bloody bottom lip.
"I know who she is..." he said quietly.
"Who?" Hilary asked.
"Mrs. Romanoff..." Hilary's eyes widened a margin. "She's dead, Hilary. She died in a fire... at the Old... Apple Ridge Inn..." he whispered, coughing just slightly. Hilary placed a hand over her mouth in horror.
"What?" she asked, standing up.
"Old Apple Ridge Inn... had a fire in the late 1800's. They were reconstructing the building and there was a chef from Russia. Mrs. Gracie Romanoff. The kitchen caught fire while she was cooking the workers a meal and she got trapped inside. She died from serious burns... Hilary, I don't think anyone in that house... is even alive..." he whispered, turning to her.
"What makes you say that?" Hilary asked.
"I don't know... Just a feeling," he said, his blue orbs narrowing. "They'd better be careful..."
TBC...