Chapter 3
After about 20 minutes Madison stood from her chair adjacent the front door and looked around, it must have been longer than they agreed on by now, she thought, glancing at her watch. Just then there was a frantic pounding on the front door. Madison slowly walked over to see if maybe it was Kyle, he got locked out or found another way out of the house but Kathy and Lucas stood there, staring back at her. Tears ran down her cheeks in two rivers. Madison quickly opened the doors and let them in,
"We have to get out of here now!" Screamed Kathy, tears still streaming down her face.
"Why, what's going on?" Madison asked, confusion plaguing her features.
"This is my family's house." She said, panic in her shaky voice "Only someone rebuilt it and last time I was here there were ghosts in the basement." Kathy cried, looking around frantically for something neither Madison nor Lucas knew what.
"What?" Madison asked looking around.
"Where's Kyle?" Lucas asked, letting Kathy continue in her search.
"I don't know we split up to look for a phone and he hasn't come back yet." Madison said suddenly worried. She was confused as ever. Kathy started to cry more.
"You let him go alone!" She practically yelled in frustration.
"We can't leave him!" Lucas said beginning to look around, "Kyle?" He yelled into the echo of the hallway.
"He can't hear you." Kathy answered, "These are bullet proof, sound proof, ghost proof glass walls." She said touching one, suddenly remembering everything that had happened here before. She went to remove her hand and felt a great wind move passed her and down the hall and she touched her fingers to her lips. Could it really be him? Her thoughts were interrupted when a hard vibration began to shake the floor. She knew this feeling.
There was a great groan of the house and a sound of machinery as the door began to seal.
"No!" Yelled Kathy as it closed and boards began to close up all the windows. "We're stuck in here again!" She yelled slumping to the floor in a heap.
"Kathy, what do you mean?" Madison asked sitting down next to her and wrapping a protective arm around her best friend.
"Okay, what I'm about to say is going to sound really weird and really crazy but you just have to believe me okay?" She asked. Madison shook her head okay as Kathy began to tell her story of the 13 ghosts and all about the first time in this house. Madison looked at her in disbelief as she finished her story.
"Okay, we need to find Kyle and figure out how we're going to get of this house." Lucas said looking around for something to protect themselves. He picked up the nearest candlestick holder he could find and held it in an intimidating fashion beginning to walk down the hall.
"Just don't go in the basement!" Kathy said looking around nervously, "And we need to find some of those glasses to see the ghosts." Kathy said getting up fast.
"What you mean, they don't stay in the basement?" Madison asked, following her at top speed.
"Look this house is a machine and simultaneously each one of those 12 ghosts is going to be released. There has to be someone else in the house that started this up unless Kyle did it on accident but if I remember correctly, the Angry Princess is the first to be released. So she should be out somewhere. We need the glasses to be able to see them, otherwise, we'll be sitting ducks for them to attack and mutilate" Kathy said walking ahead to the library, she could hear his voice in her head telling her it was the only safe place in the entire house. Madison and Lucas looked at each other with suspicion,
"The Angry Princess?" Madison asked. She was beginning to question Kathy's sanity.
In the basement, Dana's chamber opened and she looked around, surprised. They hadn't heard the machine start for anyone else enter the house but somehow, the countdown had begun again.
"What's going on?" She asked, raising her knife in defense. "I guess it's time for those humans to die." She said looking around.
"Dana, don't do anything stupid!" Royce said, "Shut the machine down first!" He said, "Then we'll kill whoever gets in our way of getting out of here."
Dana shook her head heading towards the machine room at the end of the hall, looking around cautiously.
Madison, Kathy, and Lucas now had on some glasses to see the ghosts and slowly walked towards the basement door. The this was the only place left to search for Kyle. They had had searched everywhere else looking for their missing friend, this was a last resort. Madison slowly made her way down the stairs first with Lucas close behind her, gripping her hand to keep her close. She was about half way down the stairs before she realized that there was 3 chambers already open. She stepped back quickly before she spotted the first ghost in a closed chamber. Madison looked to the first chamber and saw a teenage boy looking back at her, he was half burnt and the other half was a very cute young man about her age with pale skin and striking blue orbs. He stared back at her as she approached the glass. He stood from his place on the hood of an old t-bird car and swung his baseball bat in one hand; smiling slightly at her. Madison took a deep breathe as Lucas came up next to her, gripping her shoulder tightly with his firm grip.
"Wow, He looks like he's been through a war! Looks like he's old enough to have been through one too. Look at the clothes, probably died in the 50's." Lucas said with a chuckle.
"Lucas! They can probably hear us! We don't want to agitate them." She said looking back at Royce with a sympatric look. She put her hand back to the glass as she did before when she had been down there. He had been there before and she hadn't even known it. Kathy pulled her to go with them towards the end of the hall, Madison's eyes still locked with the first ghosts. Kathy was looking at the other ghosts as they passed and trying to remember which ghost were out now and which ones he had warned them about. God, she wished he was here. Glancing behind them again, she prayed he was in a better place now and that his soul was finally free from all the sins he had committed during his time alive. She just hoped she'd see him again someday.
"I think it's the angry princess, the first son, and the bound woman so far. Next is the withered love." She said as they passed her. "Then the Jackal. I hope we're gone by the time he gets out because he's a mean one!" Kathy said walking into the machine room, the heavy door slamming open. Dana turned as they entered and Madison jumped back at the sight of the girl's cut flesh.
"Oh, God!" She said as Dana looked them up and down, almost scanning them to see if they were a danger to her or her mission to shut the machine down.
"Look, we're not here to hurt you!" Madison said trying to back up out of the room, "We're just looking for our friend and he's not here so we'll go now." Madison said.
"Stop!" Dana said raising her knife threateningly. They all stopped in their tracks and turned back to her. Madison let a small whimper escape her lips.
"How do you stop this?" Dana's meek voice sounded in their ears. She looked back at the machine, almost studying it. Kathy looked at her surprised that she hadn't tried to kill her like last time,
"You can speak?" She asked, a little confused, beginning to let her guard down.
"Yes, we're ghosts not mimes." She said looking back at the machine again. "I need to stop the machine and open just a couple chambers. We don't want to let them all out." Dana had lowered the knife to waist length, keeping it in hand in case the moment arose that she needed it.
"We don't know how to stop it." Madison said in a whisper. Dana looked back at them and then at the machine,
"Well, who started it?" She asked, her voice sounding accusing.
"We don't know that either." Kathy said. Dana looked at her and stepped towards her. Kathy tensed up, maybe it would be like last time. She prayed if this was the end that Dennis would be there to meet her. She closed her eyes tightly to brace for the coming pain. It never came as Dana stopped mere inches from Kathy's throat.
"I know you from somewhere." She said, moving the knife in front of Kathy's face. "You were here last time?" Dana pointed the knife towards her.
"Yes. This is my families house." Kathy nervously answered, shifting back and forth on her feet.
"So you're responsible for all this!" Dana asked as the next ghost was released from it' confinement.
"No, I don't even know who had this house rebuilt. I haven't been here since the last time! I have no idea who put you here." Kathy said all at once in a slur of words.
"Try you're cousin." Dana said with a laugh, still waving the knife in the air.
"My cousin?" Kathy seemed confused as ever, was she really having a conversation with a ghost and finding out about another crazy relative that she didn't know about?
"Yeah, Cyrus' son." Dana said a little louder to make sure Kathy heard her.
"I didn't know!" Kathy yelled back, who did this ghost think she was to be yelling at her?
"Do you know anything?" Dana yelled back, suddenly raising the knife again. Kathy backed down, slowly beginning to back out of the room, she had gotten her angry.
"Go!" Kathy yelled as Madison was the first out the door, running the other way down the hall. Dana began to chase them as they ran passed the other chambers, each ghost watching with either delight or curiosity. Kathy and Lucas were at the stairs when Madison slipped in front of the Prince's chamber and Dana hovered over her with her knife drawn up.
"Dana!" Screamed Royce from inside his chamber. Madison looked at the Prince as Lucas grabbed her, pulling her out from under the Angry Princess. Dana looked back at her and they were up the stairs before she could catch them again.
"Damn, Royce! I could have taken care of that little slut before you even got out of there and she wouldn't be a distraction anymore!" Dana yelled waving her knife in the air absently. Royce sighed sitting back on his car as Dana went back to work in the machine room. The Jackal sat in his chamber hearing the argument and suddenly got an idea in his head; making up his mind to do it, since he was the next one out.