"So, what's room three again?" Antonio asked.
"Spiders," Alfred replied.
"Oh fun," Max said sarcastically. They walked into a room that was a shade of red and it had cobwebs and spider webs all over the room. They were hanging from the ceilings and walls; they were even hanging right in front of them. It was nearly impossible to walk through them without getting caught up in them.
"Alfred, how are we supposed to make it through this room? You can't even walk," Max said as she looked around the room.
Alfred turned to her, "There's a trick to it." They all watched as he made his way through, ducking and stretching over some webs. They tried to follow him but they still kept getting caught in the webs.
Francessca pulled a cobweb off of her arm, but it just got stuck to her fingers. She tried to wipe it off on her pant leg, "Cobwebs are so annoying."
Antonio was following right behind her and picked some off his own shirt as well, "I agree."
"Aw, come on guys, just stick to the pattern and you'll make it through," Alfred encouraged them as he made his way through without getting anything on him.
"Are you the master of cobwebs or something?" Max asked, looking after him and trying to copy him.
He turned back and smiled at his girlfriend, "How'd you know?"
She rolled her eyes, "Lucky guess."
They continued to make their way through the dim room, when they heard Antonio scream. Everyone turned around to see him furiously shaking his arm. Francessca had been walking a bit ahead of him, so she turned around and looked at him, "What's wrong?"
He stopped shaking but he continued to look at his arm as if something was still there, "There was a huge spider crawling up my arm!"
"Aw, scared of a widdle spider?" Max asked as if she were talking to a young child.
He turned to look at her, "No, it was a huge spider, but I wasn't scared, it just startled me!" He wiped at his jacket sleeve again for good measure then turned to look at the rest of his friends.
"You guys are such weenies!" Alfred joked. Antonio unzipped his jacket and took it off to check.
"Dude! There's nothing there anymore."
Antonio shook his jacket out and put it back on, "I see that now."
Max had taken the lead and turned around to check on Antonio, but then she ended up running into a huge sticky web. "Yuck!" She tried to pull out of its sticky hold as it grabbed onto her skin and clothes. It was a lot stronger than she thought though.
"Ew, get it off, so gross-!" She started coughing and wiping her tongue. "Ew, it got in my mouth! Disgusting!" She kept trying to pull at it and get away as her friends got closer. Francessca stopped and looked up at the web with wide eyes, "Are those-?"
Alfred and Antonio looked up as well and they saw little black dots crawling towards Max. They seemed to spread out as well and began moving towards them as well.
Max heard her friend and wondered what she was talking about. She looked up to see the spiders crawling towards her. They were getting closer and a few started crawling on her arms. She started freaking out and trying to get them off but only succeeded in getting herself more entangled in the giant web. "Guys! Get them off of me!"
Alfred came over and tried to help her, "Ok, chill out, don't hurt yourself." He started pulling at the web and trying to get her untangled. She just continued to wipe at the spiders that crawled on her.
"So gross, now my clothes are all sticky from that web and there are so many spiders!" Once she got free Alfred grabbed her hand and they ran towards the exit. Francessca saw them and grabbed Antonio as he stared at the spiders with scared wide eyes. They ran out of the room and into another hallway; this one was a little longer than the other one.
Alfred tried to quickly catch his breath before he started talking, "You have just conquered your-"
"We get the point Alfred, you don't have to repeat it every time," Antonio said.
He rubbed the back of his neck and had a thoughtful expression on his face, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Well anyway, next is Monsters-"
"What type of Monsters?" Francessca asked.
Alfred just looked at her as she interrupted him, "Just any type of Monster-"
"Well are they scary?" She asked again.
He just stared at her, "Can I finish?" She nodded and he sighed, "Okay, so as I was saying the next room is Monsters, so prepare yourself." He opened up the next door and everyone walked in.
The room was designed like the inside of an old time castle, with mirrors lining the walls all the way to the other door. The ceiling was high up and a huge chandelier is in the center of the ceiling, casting an eerie glow in the room. They could feel the cold stone floor even through their shoes. They started walking down the length of the room, peering into the mirrors.
Max looked around, curiously. She thought the room looked really cool. "What's so scary about this room?"
They looked up at some of the mirrors and as Francessca leaned in closer to look in one, a pair of red eyes flashed at her. She backed up and leaned in closer to Antonio.
"D-Did you see that?" She whispered. He looked over and shook his head. They kept looking around and heard glass rattling. They looked up and saw the chandelier shaking and a shadow moving across the ceiling.
"What the hell?" Max said.
They all stared at the ceiling as the saw small bumps winding along it. It looked like a lot of snakes were slithering under it and even heard a low hissing. All the mirrors then started to shake and rattle.
"Alfred, what's going on?" Antonio asked pulling Francessca closer. They all started to slowly back away from the mirrors and made their way to the door when an animatronic monster popped up out of the floor, blocking it. Max jumped and moved behind Alfred.
He froze as he looked at it. It looked so lifelike that he forgot they were in the haunted house. "I don't remember that being there…"
A low growl echoed in the room and an image appeared in one of the mirrors. It was a furry creature with sharp razor like teeth and shining, deep red eyes. Blood was dripping from its teeth as it stared at them. Another image appeared on the opposite wall's mirror. It was a scaly reptile with sharp and tattered wings. Its golden slit eyes narrowed as he watched the teenagers. His forked tongue flicked on and out of its mouth while drool dripped from the bottom of his jaw.
"Maybe we should leave," Francessca said her voice barely audible. They watched as more monsters started to appear in the mirrors. They turned around but they were stopped by the monster guarding the door. It looked like a gremlin but a bit bigger. It was missing patches of fur and wrinkly pink skin was covering its body. Its eyes were a weird purple and kind of bugged out. It was hissing as well and its little teeth looked really sharp. Alfred was closest to the door and Max stood behind him.
"Just go past him, it's not real, right? So it's not like it can hurt you." Max pushed her boyfriend a little closer to the door. The room seemed like it started to shake until everything just stopped and the lights cut off, covering everything in black. Max laughed nervously, trying to fill up the silence.
"This is definitely not supposed to be happening," Alfred said, trying to look around.
The lights suddenly turned back on and the shaking continued. The small gremlin had disappeared from in front of the doorway.
Antonio was the first to point it out, "Alfred! The door is open now!" They all ran to the door and Alfred wrenched the door open and they all entered another hallway. Once he closed the door behind him he just stared at it. "That was really weird… I wonder what the heck just happened."
"So wait," Francessca said, turning to face him, "You mean that wasn't supposed to happen?"
He shook his head and everyone was silent.
"So, what room is next?" Antonio asked, breaking the silence.
He looked over at Max, "Dolls…"
She stiffened up and grimaced, looking back at the door they just came through. Then she started heading towards it, "I think I'd rather go hang out with the monsters."
"You can't go back there, there is seriously something wrong with that room," Alfred said.
"I don't care how seriously messed up it was, I'm not taking my chances." Alfred grabbed her hand and held her back.
"I don't want you going back there and I'm sorry, but you have to go through the room to get through the rest of the house." She glared at him stubbornly and he just wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. He could feel how much she was actually shaking and he really felt bad about making her go. "It'll be alright because I'll be right here with you, okay?"
Max reluctantly nodded her head and they all slowly started walking towards the door. Francessca was in the lead and she unhurriedly opened the door leading to the room full of dolls. The teens walked into a huge room with happily painted pink and purple walls. It looks like a small girl's room. There are some shelves on the walls and a row of dolls are watching them. A small bed is made neatly with frilly white and pink covers and a few stuffed animals and a doll sat on the bed, leaning against the pillows. A small table and chairs with a tea set were placed in the corner, with two dolls and a large stuffed teddy bear, just waiting to be played with.
"Ok, time to go," Max said quickly. She went to leave through the door they just came through but Alfred grabbed her hand again.
"No you don't. Come on, it'll be fine."
Max just looked up at him. "I really don't want to go, please don't make me."
Alfred sighed, "Look, we'll make it through really quickly, okay? I'm still right here babe, I'm the hero, I'll protect you." Max kept her eyes tightly shut; she didn't want to see anything at all.
The quickly walked across the room, stepping over toys that were strewn across the floor and moving around the other playthings until they finally reached the opposite door. Alfred reached out and tried to open it, cursing in the process.
"What's wrong?" Max asked.
Alfred let go of the door and turned to look at her, "The door… It's locked."
Francessca just stared at him, "You've gotta be kidding me…"
Max looked at them both frantically, "Yes, please tell me you're kidding!"
A small child's laughter started echoing around the room. Max pushed passed Alfred and grabbed the door knob, "How can it be locked?!" She really started freaking out and tried desperately to open the door. "Please, please, please! Open Up!"
The laughter seemed to multiply and they all turned to see all of the dolls turning their heads to stare at them.
Some of the dolls slowly got up to a standing position; they almost looked like a small doll army moving mechanically. The doll sitting on the bed tilted its head and laughed, adding onto the laughs already circulating the room.
"Get me out of this freaking room!" Max screamed as she started to shake badly.
"D-don't worry, they're not actually real, so they can't do anything to you," Alfred said trying to sound calm, but he was shaking as well.
All of the dolls started to move forward at once and Max looked like she was about to pass out. She quickly turned back to the door and began hitting it, kicking it, and trying everything she could to get it open. Suddenly she stopped when she felt a small tap on her thigh. She looked down and screamed as she saw one of the dolls from the table smiling up at her sweetly. "Won't you play with me?" It asked. Its voice seemed to short out and stutter then stop. Once it stopped talking, the head then slowly turned all the way around clockwise. Max let out a blood curdling scream and kicked it away before jumping back.
As she tried to back away from it, she tripped and fell backwards. She looked up to see the dolls that tripped her. The others were still coming closer and she screamed, "Stay away! Don't touch me!"
The dolls continued to come closer, almost surrounding her. The others aren't having any better luck as the dolls seem to surge forward. Each has a sweet looking face and is asking to be played with. Max quickly scrambled up to get away from the dolls. "Alfred, help me!" Another one comes up and smiles, asking to play. She kicked it away, "Nonono this can't be happening!" Her heart was pounding and it felt like it was going to explode. Her mind was racing; this felt like a nightmare and she didn't know what she was going to do. She was really hoping that's all it was, a nightmare, and that she would wake up soon, safe and sound in her bed.
All of them were backed up against the door and the dolls just seemed to come out of nowhere. The dolls were right at their feet when suddenly the door fell out from behind them and they all tumbled into the next hallway.
"Someone close the door!" Francessca yelled, watching as the dolls continued to come closer. Antonio jumped up and locked it after he slammed it shut. They could hear them on the other side of the door and they all jumped up quickly, running down the hall and through the next door. Once they made it past the door they all fell to the ground, trying to catch their breath and relax.
When they looked up they saw that they were in a big white room that looked like a hospital waiting room. They looked around and above the door they saw a large sign: Insane Asylum.