Wednesday 2: A Halloween To Remember

by Smack Dab

Upon keeping his end of the bargain with the Addams, Stewart is home-free to continue his plans for Halloween. That is until he receives yet another letter from them, an invitation to participate in a little contest, with a grand prize for the winner. Will Stewart accept the challenge to participate, or will he merely play it safe as he did before?

6. Enter Of Your Own Volition

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing pertaining to the Addams family, beyond this personalized work of fiction. Thank you. :)

Content Warning: The following chapter contains depictions of tense, frightening scenes and widespread mayhem. Due to the disturbing subject matter on display, viewer discretion is advised.

After we finished dropping off the spoils, the 6 of us began to rocket our way toward the mansion. I used the directions at the bottom of the letter carefully as we raced our way through the neighborhood. It was by far the only real means of navigation we had as the directions we were taking would in fact take us out of our usual location. I can't ever remember taking these routes before, and in doing so I wouldn't be surprised to find us exiting our neighborhood all together.

As I went over the instructions in my head, silently remembering where to go without bothering the group, soon Marcus randomly decided to strike up a conversation while we were riding.

"Did anyone else notice a surprisingly small amount of kids out tonight? It's Halloween, these streets are usually flooded with them at this time."

We all started to consider just what Marcus was trying to say. I can't say I noticed it myself at first. I was far too busy with collecting candy tonight to focus on the competition, but all the same it was hard to argue that it was indeed strange. I decided to focus on leading the group to the destination over adding further to Marcus's point. Bobby soon did so for me in a tone I couldn't say I was surprised of coming from him.

"Meh, who cares? The less kids there are, the more candy there'll be for the 6 of us to go around. I can't say I missed the noisey little brats myself."

In spite of his brash demeanor, I had to admit Bobby had a point here. The less kids that were out meant the less competition there was for collecting candy, which could only mean a bigger score for everyone involved. However, that still didn't change the fact it was quite odd for most of the kids to be gone from the neighborhood at this time. I didn't have time to think about it further though. Right now I had to concentrate on making sure I was going the right way to the mansion.

Soon, the streets we were riding down began to take a rather disturbing turn. The trees went from colorful Autumn foilage, to being barren and crooked. The branches on each hung awkwardly as if though they could fall off and pelt the ground at any moment.

The houses to our left and right resembled nothing like the previous ones we'd all visited many times before. They appeared much older than anything I could remember seeing before. Their decorations were considerably more morbid than anything else I'd seen in all the years I'd ever went trick-or-treating as well. One house had an old, depressing looking doll that was hung on the door by it's neck with a small rope. Another had a doll with it's head missing, being positioned directly above a small brown basket, which was overlooked by a guillotine. There was also a large human shaped rubber bat with blood-red eyes and huge fangs dangling on the roof of one house. Though it was obviously fake, it was so huge and realistic looking it damn near scared us off our boards collectively. There were also 3 scare-crows tied to 3 separate posts, in a manner similar to witch burnings from centuries ago.

There were several other creepy examples that I'd rather not go into detail about. The bottom line is, these houses definitely didn't belong to our neighborhood, which could only mean one thing...we were no longer in our immediate neighborhood presently. I can't say I'm entirely surprised by this turn of events, but the fact I was already getting immensely creeped out when we haven't even reached the mansion yet wasn't helping my confidence at all.

In addition, there was also a dense fog beginning to form as we rode through the streets. I groaned in annoyance as I wasn't happy with the idea of crashing into something because I can't see what's in front of me. I did what I could to take my mind off the growing terror forming inside me. The worst part of it all was the complete silence that remained constant as we traveled through each street. If we weren't riding at the moment, you could hear a pin drop on the ground. It added to the creepy atmosphere that surrounded us all.

Eventually, Marcus spoke up in a worried tone as the sights around us began to take a toll on him as well. It was nice to know I wasn't alone in feeling unnerved by what was going on around us.

"Would somebody please tell me we're almost there? These houses look like something out of the 1700s!"

I tried to straighten my mind out as I desperately reached for an answer. I had to keep the others from panicking, even if it meant stretching the truth for the time being.

"I'm sure it can't be too far off now. The letter mentioned something about a bright light in the distance which is supposed to lead to the mansion itself. We should be seeing it any minute now!"

Well, that was a half-truth at least. The letter did mention something about a light in the distance, but I had yet to see anything of the sort between the darkness and now this stupid fog being in the way. The only thing I could do was hold out hope we'd see it soon enough. My dwindling courage could use all the support it could get by this point.

Then, as if on cue, I could finally start to see that bright light the letter talked about. It glowed somewhat omniously in the distance as I began to speed up toward it. I motioned with my left hand for the group to join me as we all started to pick up the pace. The fact that we'd soon be out of this creepy as hell neighborhood provided all the motivation needed to wheel us toward the source of the light ever faster.

As we rode onward, the light continued to glow ever brighter, and ever closer to our current location. It couldn't have come at a better time to be honest. With how thick the fog was becoming, how creepy the houses that surrounded us were, and how eerily silent this area was, anywhere with lights and people felt like salvation at this point. I continued to lead the pack as we barrelled down the empty, macabre, streets that were completely foreign to us.

After what felt like eternity, we finally came across a large building just a single block down from where we were. The area surrounding us by this point was just barely illuminated. The street lights seemed old and in disrepair, and were flickering on and off every 5 minutes or so. Though the fog had cleared up a little, a sharp gust of wind howled it's way through the old, barren, trees that greeted us at every pass. As we neared further to the mansion, I noticed the houses surrounding us by this point were even older than the ones before it. They were all boarded up and dilapitated, falling apart splinter by splinter as the paint covering them had already chipped away long ago.

We raced even faster as the mansion was in our reach at long last. It turns out the bright glowing light that guided our way here was actually comprised of several lights. It seemed like every room in the house had it's lights on, for what reason completely escaped me. Had they already started without us? Did I in fact just wheel my way over here with both my friends, AND little brother for no reason at all? There's only one way I know of to answer these questions.

Our boards screeched to a halt once we came to the front gate. Just like the houses we past by, it seemed very worn down with time and in sub-par condition. The black paint that at one time covered it fully had given way to rust and decay. It's exterior proved so rusted I nearly cut my right hand on it when I reached over to touch it. The house itself looked to have at least 5 floors to it, and seemed just as old as everything we'd seen already. The windows had old blinders on them, like something from over a century ago.

I began to realize that the mansion didn't look too far off from the one I saw in my dream. Was that dream supposed to be some kind of "premonition" then? Not that I'd know anything about that kind of stuff, but I'm not seeing any other explanation here by far. With a little more force than before, I attempted to push open the gate, which opened up with a deafening creak that startled us all.

Slowly, we all began to walk our way over to the front door of this creepy, old, seemingly Victorian style mansion in front of us. As we approached the door, I could begin to hear numerous voices bantering idle gibberish at each other. The voices sounded young and squeaky, like they belonged to children about our age if not even younger. There were alot of them as well, all of which had to be gathered together in a single area then, for them to sound so clear and nearby.

I also saw that big kid with the striped shirt standing guard by the front door, alongside that lumbering giant that was with them from their one visit. He was still dressed up like Frankenstein as he was before. The only difference was the small, black, cap he wore. Could he be their personal driver as well as their butler?

Either way, I stopped in front of him and the big guy with my friends right behind me. The kid still had that angry expression on his face from before, although the big dude seemed more neutral this time around. I tried to keep my cool as having both so close to me at this moment wasn't doing my increasing anxiety any favors.

"Uhhh, hey. We're here for the challenge thing. Is it too late to enter now?"

The kid had his arms crossed as he took a brief look at his family's butler before looking right at me. He didn't seem very happy at seeing me again, but I didn't wheel my way over here just to be turned back. He then spoke up with a rather stern tone to his voice. That same mad, uninviting, grimace remaining ever present on his face as he did so.

"You're just in time actually. We were about to lock the doors and start without you. Before you can come in, I need your letters for proof of your invitations."

I checked my wrist-watch as it said "8:56". We'd only just made the dead-line by about a nose as it were. I'm not quite sure if that's even a good thing to be frank, but I suppose it's better than having to turn back into that creepy as hell neighborhood again. I pulled out my letter from inside my white kimono as everyone else did the same. Paul never received one of his own, but I remembered that family members can enter as long as they're invited by a relative whom had received an invitation prior.

We all handed our invitations in one by one as the kid analyzed each one quietly. After a minute or so, he nodded his head gently as if to signify we'd been granted access to the mansion. He tucked them into his right pocket as we began to proceed closer to the door. He still blocked our entry with his body as he held up his left hand. I could only imagine what it was he needed now.

"Sorry, but I can't let you bring those in."

We all looked toward our boards to see if that's what he meant. I blushed in embarassment as I should have known we wouldn't be allowed to use them while inside. Just then, the butler started to walk his way over to us, each step he took made the floor-boards underneath us shake and tremor. He then gestured with both of his hands for us to give him our boards for safe keeping, which we did with mild reluctance. He then let out a low, monstrous, growl which caused just about every strand of hair I have on my body to stand up all at once.

"Hrrrrrrggggh."

With that, we all backed away from him in fear almost in order. The kid opened the door for the behemoth carrying our boards as he entered into the mansion. He held his back to the door as he gestured with his left hand for us to proceed, which we all did so without question. From inside, I could see kids our age and younger all huddled together in one large foyer. There had to be at least 30 of them in all. At least that explains why the streets were so quiet back in our own neighborhood.

The foyer itself was decorated with a large red carpet running down into another room I couldn't make out so well. It was a fairly spacious location with 2 stair-cases to the left and right, which led to a circular hall-way just above us. The rest of the decorations involved 2 large, black gargoyle statues to both sides of the front door. The sides had some basic furniture such as desks, chairs, a few windows with bars on them, and 2 small sofas with 2 black pillows adorn them.

A couple of tables with old lamps that looked at least 70 or 80 years out of date were also present. There were also a couple of tall suits of black knight armor which complimented the other statues lined up with the walls themselves. Lastly, a large, black, chandlier was dangling and creaking somewhat omniously just above all our heads. This prompted me to drag Paul out of the way as I didn't trust it wouldn't fall upon us eventually. My friends joined me to the right as we began to whisper to ourselves what we'd gotten ourselves into. Jason was the first to speak amongst us all.

"Well...At least now we now where all the kids were tonight."

"Never mind these losers! Did you all get a good look at that tall freak? He makes Andre the Giant look like a circus clown midget!"

"Dude, keep your voice down! We don't want to piss him off, especially since now he has hold of our boards. I'm not sure what's going on here, but I didn't expect this mansion to be so...primitive looking!"

"So when does this thing start? Where's the family at?"

That last question was about the only thing I honed in on. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for it to be answered. My eyes caught sight of a familiar slender, pale, figure fully clad in black sauntering her way down the left stair-case in a most mesmerizing way. She practically floated down the stairs with such grace and elegance it was like she wasn't even walking at all. Her face carried a stoic expression as she took in every kid that had shown up to accept the challenge. That stoic expression soon developed into a warm grin as the voices in the room screeched to a stifling hault.

"Welcome to our home."

Every kid in the foyer was seemingly entranced by this gothic, yet enchanting woman's poise. Even though I know little about her personally, the way she could address an entire room of strangers just by walking down a flight of stairs had to be seen to be believed. We all stood by wordlessly as she began to speak to us once more.

"My husband will be down in a few moments to explain the rules of our little game. In the mean time, please make yourselves comfortable."

The room began to perk up once again as confusion and debate erupted between the guests. I held Paul close to my side as my friends and me began to regroup in the center of the room itself. I was beyond nervous to see Gomez again given how he basically bit my head off last time at my house, but it gave me further incentive to see this challenge through all the same. Perhaps when we're finished (IF I manage to survive of course), I can ask him about why I've been having weird visions and nightmares lately. If anyone's to know the cause, it ought to be at least one of these people.

In what felt like a mere flash of light, Gomez suddenly slid down the ramp of the right stair-case. He was dressed to the nines in a black and white smoking jacket. His pants were pitch black, alongside his black dress shoes which seemed freshly polished. He seemed almost insane with happiness as his grin was stretched out further than I thought a normal human smile could go. His slick, black, hair was neatened out straight and his manner was completely flashy and exaggerated. I have to admit, he definitely knows how to make an entrance.

"Welcome one and all, to our yearly Halloween tradition...THE MANSION OF SUUUUURVIVAAAAAAL!!!"

We all let out a cheer without even thinking about it. Even though I've basically signed my own death warrant by coming here, it just seemed like the polite thing to do.

"Now then! Before we begin, I trust everyone present has already read the fine print? If so, then you all must know the rules of this challenge by now! For those struggling to recall, allow me to break them down for you all. As you should know by now, you all must survive our lovely abode's trials and dangers that surround you all. The lone child or group that can survive for a full 3 hours, or find the grand prize wins the challenge. A mountain of candy the likes of which most of you have never even thought existed!"

Not that I'd know for sure, but I'm almost positive every kid's lips were smacking at that announcement. I can't focus on that right now though. We have far more to lose if we fail to complete this challenge than a mountain's worth of untold candy. I tightened my grip on Paul's right hand as I continued to listen to Gomez's enthusiastic explanation.

"When the challenge begins, the doors behind you will be locked. Your goal throughout this challenge is to find keys which will unlock doors for you. You have precisely 20 minutes to find a key in the current room you are in before you are trapped there. Once you've braved every room on a certain floor, you must progress onward to the next floor of our house, where you must repeat the process again. This will continue until you have located the grand prize for yourself or your group, or have simply survived for a full 3 hours. Oh, and before I forget, here's 2 additional factors that will come into play as you travel throughout the mansion!"

With this, Gomez put his index finger and thumb from his left hand into his mouth to whistle. Slowly, 2 figures emerged from the room I mentioned earlier. As I took in both of their appearances, I noticed the first one was the big kid whom seemed to have something against me. To my surprise, he was holding a large axe that looked straight out of the middle ages, causing my heart to start beating a few ticks faster. The other figure I recognized as having long, dark braids. A black dress that reminded me of what people usually wore around at funerals, and that infamous, cold, unfeeling, stare that always froze my blood over in an instant. She was also carrying what looked to be a large, heavy, crossbow with ease, further setting my paranoia wracked mind into an uncontrollable frenzy.

Before I could scream out in pure fear, Gomez continued to speak again which effectively shushed me into silence once more.

"Dear guests, I'd like for you all to meet our 2 children. Wednesday, and Pugsley! They will be constantly hunting you down as the night progresses, and you must do everything in your power to avoid them. For you see...if they catch you at any point during the night, they will show you no mercy I'm afraid. I'll just leave your imaginations to fill in the blanks as to what that means!"

A good portion of the participants seemed to be as worried as I was at that description. Maybe even more so than I am at the moment. I was strongly contemplating just grabbing Paul and running out the front doors like a bat out of hell, but then I'd be abandoning my friends in the process. I decided to allow Gomez to finish his explanation before I made my move.

"Very well then, now if anyone wishes to back out of the challenge before it begins. Our butler Lurch will see you back to your homes in our family hearse. My good man, if you'd please?"

Just then, the massive servant for this most bizarre family held open the front doors with his large frame. His gesture was friendly and cordial, at least on the surface from what I could tell. I noticed about 5 kids from the large crowd of kids decided to turn tail and leave while they still were able to. I had half a mind to steal the "hearse" myself and drive off into the night with Paul in the passenger's seat. All the same, I decided to try and persuade my buds first that leaving this creepy manor was the best decision.

"Guys! Don't you think we've seen enough fun for one night? Are we sure we want to risk this?"

"I'll admit, this is alot more intense than I thought it be, but I'm not backing down from the challenge Stewart!"

"Yeah, same here man. It obviously looks dangerous, but that's what makes it fun in the first place! Don't worry Stew, we'll all make sure to look after Paul throughout the night!"

"Pfft, speak for yourselves! I'm walking away with a gold-mine's worth of candy! Nothing and nobody is standing in my way tonight!"

Marcus just shrugged, he clearly had no idea how to respond to either the challenge or what the group was saying. This caused me to turn Paul around by his shoulders as I tried for one last time to convince him to turn back while we still could.

"Paul, please tell me you've seen enough tonight! Is fun and adventure really worth putting our lives at stake?!?"

"Would you just shut up and relax for once? Those weapons could be fakes for all we know! At least for once we'll be having a Halloween worth remembering down the line, and even if we are both in danger, I'm NOT letting you play the hero with your friends all night long bro. If we're gonna see this through, we all gotta work together! Isn't that what you've been saying this whole time?"

I was taken back a bit from what Paul reminded me of, but I couldn't deny he was right here. I let out a snarl as Paul beat my logic once again. Of course, it doesn't change the fact no harm will come to him if I can help it. I don't know how, but I'll see to it personally at least my little brother will make it out of this in one piece, no matter what happens to me!

I took one last glance at the outside as 5 kids about Paul's age briskly walked out. This caused the big guy (whom I now knew to be Lurch) to close the doors behind him, locking them as he did so. I gulped in fear as the locking of those doors signified I was now essentially a prisoner here. Gomez was in the process of finishing up his explanation of the rules of the game, which forced my attention right back on him.

"Well then, if everyone's in agreement. Let the yearly Mansion of Survival...BEGIN!!!"

Just as he said that, the lights in the foyer went completely out, leaving everyone present in total darkness. A chorus of concerned gasps and murmurs began to break out as I made sure I was still holding Paul. I couldn't see him (or anything at the moment), so it was important that he and my friends were still close by. In a near panic attack, brought on by pure desperation, I called out to the whole group in the hopes they were still by my side.

"Is everyone still here?!? Stay together guys, no matter what happens!"

A minute or so goes by and the lights are on again. I gasped in utter relief as the first thing I saw were the startled expressions on my friends faces. Paul was to my side, tightly hugging my right leg as he always had a fear of the dark since he was little...well, "littler" I guess would be more fitting here. I turned my head to the right to see Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, and Wednesday all gone from their original spots. I began to panic once again as the fact they were all now gone meant they could be anywhere, which just made me nervous simply on principle.

Suddenly, the various statues and knightly suits of armor began to walk as if though they were alive. The 2 gargoyle statues I mentioned from earlier let out a deafening roar as both their eyes glowed an omnious shade of red. They then began to literally hop their way to our location. The statues of monsters and suits of armor also began to close in on everyone involved. The other kids predictably all broke out into a terrified hysteria, and began running all about the foyer itself in desperate search of the keys to unlock other doors.

There really wasn't any time to think about it or process things. I just grabbed Paul's hand and ran as fast as I could in a random direction. My friends stayed to my rear as we all charged for the sofa to the right of the room. Once we reached it, I joined Bobby to the right as we tried to lift it. Jason and Tommy took the left as we heaved the sofa into the air. That left Marcus and Paul to grab whatever we could force out of it's cushions. After we shook it down for a couple of minutes, we realized that nothing was falling from it. I let out a curse as we needed a key to get out of the danger we were currently in. Any one of the other kids could have easily gotten one by now, leaving us with one less to go around.

Speaking of which, the other kids were beginning to dwindle in number. Some had managed to escape into other rooms, whereas others were getting rounded up by the moving statues and suits of armor that were now moving toward us. After a quick head count, I managed to deduce only about 10 kids outside our group were still in the room with us. The screams of pure fear and pleas for mercy were putting my heart rate into danger zones. One kid was being grabbed by a statue without a head and brutally thrown into a wall. Another was being sandwiched between the 2 gargoyle statues for trying to escape, like they were trying to smush him alive or something. One of the moving suits of armor was swinging a large, steel mace at the last group of kids as they fled in a traumatized horror.

As I became almost entranced by what I was seeing, the corner of my right eye caught 2 suits of knight armor charging toward us with both of their arms stretched out. I reacted on pure instinct and joined in my friends efforts as we still held onto the sofa. With all 6 of us combined, we threw the sofa right at the 2 walking suits of armor, causing them to fall apart as it crashed into both of them. I immediately scrambled to their dislocated remains to see if one of them was carrying a key. Much to my relief, a key was apparently hidden within the chest plate of one of the suits. I briefly studied the handle which had a red skull on it.

Jason was beginning to panic himself. This surprised me as he was usually the bravest and most optimistic out of any of us (including ME to the surprise of no one). He spoke up in a frantic, hurried tone as he wanted to exit this room as soon as possible.

"Dude, is that a key?!? Which door is it for though?!?"

"I'm not sure...it has a red skull on the handle. I say we search for a door with a red skull on the front!"

"That could be any door here for all we know! How are we supposed to find it in time?"

Bobby bellowed out in protest at my suggestion, causing me to roll my eyes in annoyance. We didn't have time to stand around and debate things. The important thing to remember, besides the fact we were all still breathing, was that we'd in fact earned our first key. Now all we needed to do was find the door it was meant for. I quickly responded to Bobby's question with a somewhat furious tone to my voice.

"Have you any better ideas to suggest Bobby?!?"

Bobby looked at the ground for a second, before looking back up at me and shaking his head. That was that, then. Before I could think of where to run next, a loud yell rang through my ear drums as my heart skipped a beat in the process.

"LOOK OUT!!!"

A large mace was being swung at all our heads before I knew what I was even looking at. We all ducked it in the nick of time as I could still hear it swinging around, seemingly disappointed at the fact it completely missed it's latest victims. My right arm was firmly around the neck of my little brother as I pulled him down with me on impulse. I shoved him ahead of us to get him out of harm's way first. Bobby and Marcus soon followed him in total fear at what we just avoided. My left eye saw Tommy right next to me as we began to run as fast as our legs could carry us.

Before we could gain any real distance, a lone voice shrilly cried out in utter fear and panic.

"Uhh guys? A LITTLE HELP HERE!!!"

"Damn it! It's got Jason!!! Help me Tommy!"

My eyes widened at what I was now forced to witness. Jason was being held by his short brown hair as one of the large suits of knight armor was preparing to strike him with the mace we'd all just avoided. I cursed myself in pure anger for being stupid enough to forget about one of my closest friends. Without even thinking, I blindly charged at the sentient suit of armor in an attempt to break his grip on my friend's hair. Tommy flanked the suit by the front in an effort to draw it's attention.

Meanwhile, I was to the right trying my best to get Jason free. I pulled with all my might, and to my surprise I managed to pry Jason out of it's grip. The adrenaline I had coarsing through me at the moment no doubt had played a big part at what I was able to do, but right now I had to focus on getting us to where the others were. Jason looked almost shocked at the fact I turned around to save him, but responded to what I'd done for him in kind.

"Thanks man, you're the best!"

"You can thank him later! Now somebody HELP ME!!!"

Tommy was down on his back, with the suit of armor's left foot being used to hold him in place. As he prepared to take a swing at him with the mace in his right hand, I moved once again to save one of my friends from certain death. Jason tried to join me in saving our closest friend, but I couldn't run the risk of him getting caught again.

"Just run on ahead and find the others Jason! I'll save Tommy somehow."

"Stew, you can't fight off that thing by yourself! Also, I can't let you do this alone either! You helped ME out, and now it's time for me to return the favor!"

"You can do that by looking after Paul while I'm gone Jason. I can't trust Bobby or Marcus to do it, not like how I trust you guys. Just have some faith in me, alright?"

Jason looked sad at what I was telling him, but gave me a knowing look as he nodded his head. Before he ran off, I made sure to hand him the key we'd found earlier, which he accepted quickly before running off to meet up with the others.

I turned my back to see Tommy about to take a shot to the head with that mace. In a complete panic, my eyes frantically surveyed the area for something to use as a weapon. I grabbed a nearby chair that was sitting next to a large wooden desk. I lifted it off the ground as quickly as my arms would allow. I underestimated the chair's weight however, which made it rather clunky and hard to hold up for very long.

After lifting it off the ground, I caught a glimpse of the suit of knight armor swinging the mace at Tommy's vulnerable head. I swung the chair at the head of the mace with all the strength my arms could muster. I managed to deflect the blow of the mace, but not without tearing a hole within the chair's cushion as well. The suit of armor backed away from the force of the impact as both our weapons of choice made a surprisingly powerful collision. While it was still a threat, I at least got it to take it's foot off Tommy's chest. I quickly extended my left hand to pull Tommy back up to his feet, which he accepted without hesitation.

We both turned our backs and ran as far away as we could from the hostile suit of armor. I tried my best to remember where the others had run off too, deciding to use the rug we'd been running on to guide us. We both ran through the room into the next one I couldn't see so well from before. This room appeared to be the family dining room. It had little detail to speak of beyond a large, old fashioned, wooden dining table which roughly stretched from one end of the room to the other. There were several chairs neatly aligned with the table's length, as well as plates and basic eating utensils. Though most of it looked to be what many would consider ancient, I could tell it was all rather expensive, pushing me to be extra careful so as not to break anything.

Upon exiting the dining room, we found ourselves in another hall-way, which led us to finding another stair-case. We ran up it as quickly as we were able to, and upon reaching the top step I realized this hall-way was connected to the one I saw prior back in the foyer. I immediately looked in both directions to see a couple of doors with different colored images or symbols on them. The wall we were currently facing had 2 doors to offer.

The door left of us had a green cobra on it. It was coiled up in the center, while letting it's tounge flutter outside of it's mouth. The door to our right had a yellow scare-crow shown being hung. I then remembered that the key we found had a red skull on it, which prompted me to run to the left of the hall-way in search of a door with that same symbol. Tommy ran by my side to the right as we ran past large book-cases and portraits placed on the walls. Some of which looked like deceased members of the family, and others of creepy, desolate locations such as swamps or old battle-fields. These visual nightmares gave me further incentive to run ever faster as the search for a door with a red skull became all the more frantic.

We soon made a turn to the left as the hall-way began to connect it's self to the foyer more clearly. By some miracle, I could finally catch sight of Paul, Jason, Marcus, and Bobby standing next to a door with a red skull precisely identitcal to the image on the key. Jason was the first to notice us as he waved his left arm back and forth before calling out to us both.

"Guys, it's them!! Thank God you're both okay!"

This drew the attention of the others as Paul, Bobby, and Marcus all turned around to see what Jason had called out to. To the greatest surprise I'd experienced this night, Paul then ran up to me with his arms out in front of him. His gesture was not lost on me, and I extended my arms out to catch him in a hug. He threw himself into my chest as his arms wrapped around me tightly. I briefly ran the fingers on my right hand through his hair as I was beyond relieved to know he was still okay.

"You're alright...do you have any idea how worried I was about you?!?"

"Not half as worried as I've been about you, little brother."

We soon released as mushy family semantics would have to wait until after we were safe and sound. I returned to a full vertical base as I remembered we still haven't entered our first room together. I immediately focused my attention on Jason, keeping in mind he still had the key from before.

"You still have the key we found earlier, right Jason?"

He flashed me a knowing smile as he pulled it out of one of his costume's pockets.

"Of course I do man! I've hid it away ever since you gave it to me. I let the others think you still had it so they'd be forced to wait for you both!"

I smiled widely at that confession. I have to admit, Jason can be pretty sly when he wants to be. He quickly handed me the key to the door and I inserted it into the key-hole, which I noticed had the same red skull on it as the door itself did. With a swift twist, I unlocked the door as my friends and little bro joined me at the rear as we all ventured into the new room together. Paul was at my side as I tightly gripped his left hand with my right, fully determined to not let him out of my sight again.

The first thing I noticed was the room itself was pitch black. I couldn't see anything beyond the old, murky, tiles on the floor from the light of the hall-way as we entered. I wasn't comfortable with this as losing your sight in an unmarked location was never a positive thing. We had precisely zero idea what to expect, or what even the room itself looked like. Suffice to say, we're at a bigger disadvantage here than we were before, and THAT'S saying something!

I heard the door close behind us as the darkness now engulfed us at every turn. I stopped moving all together as I needed to form a plan with my friends if we were gonna make any head-way here.

"Okaaaay...don't suppose anyone has a light here?"

"Don't panic guys. We need to find a way to see where we're going without our eyes. Everyone try to find a light switch or something."

Paul's tightening grip on my hand let me know he was still close by. His fear of the dark must have been at an all time high, not that I could blame him in this state. I cautiously walked at a snail's pace as running into something blindly or setting something off didn't appeal to me at all. I couldn't hear anything in the room at the moment, further putting my nerves on edge as something could easily jump me or my friends at any moment.

I decided to check with my friends to see if they'd found anything by now.

"You guys find anything yet?"

"Uhhh...kinda?"

"So is it like a torch, or-"

"Let's just say...if we're standing on anything, I'm not sure it can be called a "floor".

I recognized the voice that answered as belonging to Jason, but it still did little to explain what he meant by that. Just as I was prepared to turn back, a bright, freshly burning flame suddenly glowed not too far from me. It looked like it was on the floor, which confused me as I couldn't see any torches being at this height. I used what little light it offered to discern the floor I was on, was in fact a rather narrow path-way. I began to back away as the source of light was becoming closer to me, Paul at my side as I did so.

I made sure to regroup with my friends before I got a better look at the mysterious glowing flame in front of me. Upon closer inspection, my mind began to race around in circles as I noticed the flame belonged to a candle. The weird part of it being the candle was being held up by a small, disembodied hand. I rubbed my eyes firmly at what I was seeing, not sure of what to make of it. The hand was holding up the candle with only it's thumb as it balanced itself with it's 4 fingers.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing! All I could figure was either these people had access to the most convincing special effects on the planet, or this was a sign that I've been knocked into a delusional coma all this time. Anything had to make more sense than a crawling, disembodied, hand on the floor holding a candle right now!

I just stared at it with a blank look on my face. I wasn't sure whether to talk to it, or simply wave at it. I mean it's a hand, what would anybody else do?!?

"Complete shot in the dark, but I think it wants us to follow it."

The others looked just as speechless as I was, but made no objections as they huddled close to my rear. Paul came up to my right as he gripped my right hand tightly. I returned the sentiment with a firm grip of my own as we cautiously began to follow the crawling appendage with the only source of light available. The glowing illumination from the candle began to highlight certain details of the room itself. I began to notice the walls a fair distance from where we were at the moment, were comprised of old, molding bricks and decay. The smell of said mold and dampness were beginning to take their toll on my senses as my head started to spin about. I tried my best to snap out of my brief stupor as I led the group along with the hand and it's flame.

The path-way we were on was constantly swerving left and right. This added to my increasing discomfort as it felt like one wrong step could send me plummeting to my death. I looked to my right in an effort to get my mind off of my growing anxiety, which only caused it to go into over-drive at what I saw next.

I began to notice there was a hall-way with a couple of lit torches on the wall to the rear of it. Of course, it wasn't the new found source of light that sent me into a near panic attack. It was what caused the torches to be lit up in the first place that sent a ghastly shiver down my spine. Wednesday and Pugsley were both holding matching cross-bows as they pointed them towards where we were all walking. I began to let out a cold sweat as I could feel my "fight or flight" response begin to kick in.

"Everybody run!! We're not alone here!"

I instinctively lifted Paul up and put him at my left, that way he wouldn't be in their line of sight. The hand carrying the candle began to scurry ever faster as we all began to pick up the pace to match his speed. The path-way's constant turning was beginning to make me feel woozy in addition to the smell of mold and rot constantly invading my nostrils at every turn. My heart sank when I realized one of their arrows had landed next to my right foot. I pushed onward with the rest of the gang by my back as we ran as quickly as our undeveloped, pre-adolescent legs could carry us. The 2 delinquent siblings shots were becomming increasingly more accurate as each one was deliberate in it's precision.

At long last, we'd finally reached the end of the path-way. The hand now used the candle it'd been carrying this whole time to light a large torch ontop of the wall we were next to. The torch's almost blinding light illuminated the entire room we just traveled through. It turns out the entire room was some kind of cavern. I noticed green mold across several of the walls of old, moist, bricks that made up much of the room's structure. The most jarring thing by far however was the fact we could have easily fallen to our deaths at any moment! The room's path-way was overlooking a large, black, chasm of nothingness right beside it, with a bottom far too large for me to make out at this distance.

Everyone let out a large gulp as the realization we could have easily tripped, or got shot and sent plummeting was too terrifying to put into words.

We followed the hall-way down as the hand stood to the side, allowing us to pass through. I gave it a friendly salute as if it wasn't for it's guidance, we never would have stood a chance in this room. I noticed there was a key dangling by what looked to be a string at the center of the ceiling above us. I grabbed it while taking in the fact the handle resembled the green cobra from the door me and Tommy past by from before. I snatched it from it's place as me and my friends continued onward to the door.

I opened the door as my friends and Paul joined close behind me as we braved whatever new dangers that lied just beyond it.