Chapter Two: The Doombuggie
The gang walked into the parlor and, despite have creepy gargoyle-like candle holders, had a very nice vintage-style to it and even had four paintings, all of which were wolves: a brunette-southern belle holding a parasol, a middle-aged gentleman with a pen and document in hand, an elderly woman with a rose, and a man wearing a bowler hat. Each of the group found themselves admiring these portrait, though they could only the upper halves of each, not that it mattered to a certain hippo and iguana as they were entranced by the beauty of the southern belle. Peng himself found himself looking after the portrait of the elderly wolf; for some reason, it reminded him a lot of his own grandmother.
"Our tour begins here, in this gallery. Here you will see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state."
"Well, I have to admit, these portrait actually look like they should be in a museum." Bentley commented, observing the portrait of the middle-aged wolf. "How're you and Dimitri holding up, Murray?"
"Yeah, we're good . . . which of us was Murray and Dimitri?" Murray asked absently.
"Me not know . . ." Dimitri replied just as absent-minded.
This tour didn't seem as frightening, in fact, it felt surprisingly pleasant, despite the fact that the group were inside a haunted house with the ghost of the previous owner holding them against their will. Even Sly and Carmelita found themselves enjoying themselves as the raccoon mimicked the pose of the wolf by crossing his arms; causing the vixen to giggle at his antics. Things started to take a drastic change, however, as Sly began to feel something was amiss, but what was it?
"Hey, guys, any of you getting a sinking feeling?" Sly asked as a feeling of dread started to work its way in his stomach.
"What do you mean?" Carmelita asked, when suddenly . . .
"Your cadaverous parlour betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching, or is it your imagination? Hmm?"
True to the Ghost Host's word; the room really was stretching! Not only that, but the portraits were beginning to expand! The group was now allowed to see the full descriptions of each person per portrait. Only, they were starting to wish that they hadn't, for each portrait showed a sight, more hideous than the last. The southern belle with the parasol was revealed to have a slenderly build and wearing a beautiful dress with a lavender upper-shirt from her waist to her neck, pink frilled-shoulders, and a white skirt with green flowery designs that reached about ten inches above her ankle, and pink slip on shoes. What came after that was certainly a shock if ever the hippo and iguana ever saw, which it was! As the portrait stopped stretching, Murray and Dimitri saw that the young woman was balancing herself, tip-toe on a fraying tightrope . . . which was above the open jaws of a large, vicious-looking alligator!
The portrait with the middle-aged wolf wasn't any less shocking than the last as it also showed something when it stopped stretching. Then wolf was wearing a white dress-shirt and black long-sleeved tail coat, but that was only his upper-body. While he was wearing black and white leather shoes with socks that matched in color, it was revealed that he was in nothing but his undergarments from the waist down, which would have been hilarious . . . provided if it weren't for the fact that he was standing on a keg of dynamite . . . which was also lit up by a stray candle!
The shock continued on as the portrait of the old woman had stopped stretching to reveal something that made the young panda's blood run cold. Her full features included a black funeral-dress with a pink collar, black shoes with grey socks, and a reddish poncho with pink highlights. Her most notable feature being her hair done up in a beehive. It also showed that she was sitting on a tombstone:
Rest
In
Peace
Dearly Departed
GEORGE
Along with a bust of an elderly, balding gentleman with a handlebar mustache . . . And a hatchet embedded on the crown of his head!
Last, but certainly not least, the portrait of the wolf with the bowler hat showed that he was wearing a white dress-shirt, black jacket, black slacks, and Italian-looking leather shoes. It was a surprise to see that he was sitting on the shoulders of a middle-aged male mountain goat white short hair and mustache. He wore a white dress-shirt, red suit, brown vest, black bow-tie, red pants, and brown leather shoes. One would think that the red on his face was because of trying to hold up the wolf sitting on his shoulders, but what came next eliminated that possibility. Below the mountain goat was a younger male mountain lion with neatly combed hair with sideburns that connected to his trimmed goatee. He wore a white dress-shirt, grey vest, black bolo-tie, but that was all that could be seen as the lower half was submerged in quicksand! There was even a sign with the word "QUICKSAND" to point out the obvious.
Despite the horrific acts of macabre they were all in, all four of the wolves smiled pleasantly, as if their lives meant absolutely nothing at all! Needless to say, the group were beyond shocked, but could only show it with raised eyebrows as they turned to share a glance at one another. Their thoughts were interrupted as the Ghost Host decided to speak up at the exact moment.
"And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows and no doors."
True to his words, the group saw that their point of entry had vanished; leaving them trapped in the stretched-out gallery.
"Which offers you this chilling challenge: TO FIND ANOTHER WAY OUT!"
The Ghost Host then let out a loud, sinister laugh that echoed through the walls, much to the group's discomfort.
"Of course, there's always my way . . ."
". . . Why does that sound so wrong?" Penelope asked in a quivering voice.
It was at that very moment that the candlelight's flickered off; leaving the group in total darkness.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?!" Murray yelped in shock.
Before anything else flashes of lightning had suddenly illuminated the entire room in strobes; didn't the Ghost Host say there weren't any windows in the room? The group was now starting to think that things possibly couldn't get any worse than they were, now. Well, unfortunately, they were dead (no offense to the long deceased) wrong! The sounds of Bentley and Penelope screaming captured the attention as the rest of the group looked towards the two, who were scream up at the . . . ceiling? Before they could be questioned, the group followed where they were screaming at . . . and saw why they were so frightened. There, suspended by the neck with a noose on a now clear cupola above the ceiling, was a skeletal corpse of a canine! It was more than likely that this was the long, decomposed body of Edward Gracey. The group looked on in absolute horror at the hanging corpse for a few seconds as a loud, dreadful scream was heard, until the lightning stopped and the candles lit back up. At first the group thought that the whole ordeal was only hallucinations, but they rethought their assumptions when they saw that they were still in the chamber with the stretched portraits.
"What . . . was that?" Sly asked as soon as he found his voice.
"He . . . He took the coward's way out . . ." Carmelita murmured softly, though the room was quiet enough for everyone to hear (and agree).
It took a few seconds for the group to shake of their shock and Sly found that Carmelita was holding on to his arm, as was Penelope holding onto Bentley's arm. When they saw how close they were with each other, it was safe to say that both couples were embarrassed by these actions. This caused all four of the youths to blush extremely.
"Oh!" Penelope yelped, jumping away from the turtle boy.
"Sorry, I . . ." Carmelita muttered trying to hide her blush.
"I-it's cool." Sly dismissed, relishing how close to he was to his crush.
"No harm done." Bentley stated cooly, though he was ready to dance from being close to his crush.
Their moment was short-lived as the four saw that Murray was in the arms of Peng and Dimitri was in the arms of Murray, most likely because of seeing the corpse. It was needless to say that it was an awkward moment for the three as they were gawked upon. Peng, not wanting the moment to last, dropped the hippo and iguana, allowing them to crash onto the floor. While helping the two up to their feet, the Ghost Host spoke up like he always did.
"Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you, prematurely."
Again, like he always did, the Ghost Host chuckled sinisterly at his own words.
"Oh yeah, be a spookey-wookey crackerbox, that's so mature." Dimitri scoffed bitterly to himself.
"The real chills come later, now, as they say, "Look alive", and we'll continued our little tour. Oh, and let's try to stay together, please."
After his speech was done with, a part of the wall opened up to reveal a small hallway.
"For once, I actually agree with him." Peng stated, which every nodded.
Seeing no other option, the group of seven began to walk down said hallway, the opening closing up behind them. The group was met with the sounds of thunder and lightning as they saw that the hallway had actually had windows. It wasn't as though it mattered though as the sounds of, thunder, lighting, and rain drops made it clear that the storm was still raging off outside.
"That's comforting." Sly commented sarcastically. "We see the outside world for the first time in the last few minuets and still the storm hasn't let up."
"Why us?" Bentley muttered, then noticed something on the opposite wall. "Hey, guys, look, more portraits."
True to the turtle's words, there were more portraits (six in total) along the wall of the dimly lit up hallway. The first was of a beautiful young, female black cat that was wearing a funeral dress. The second was of an old-fashion sailboat, possible English or Spanish in origin. The third was of a valiant-looking, mediaeval-English knight atop a majestic, white stallion. The fourth was of a young and attractive, female wolf in a dark-pink colored dress. The fifth was of another attractive, female wolf, only unlike the other femme wolf, she was wearing a green colored dress. Finally, the last of the portraits was of a young, handsome-looking wolf in a black suit, possible William Gracey (their gracious Ghost Host) when he was alive.
Like what happened in the stretching chamber, nothing felt out-of-place, but if you were inside a haunted house, what right was there to feel? The answer came as more bolts of lightning illuminated the hallway, causing the images of the portraits to change in appearance in the strobes light: the feline in black appeared more feral and (dangerously) vicious-looking, complete with glowing eyes and appeared to be roaring. The sailboat now looked like it had recently came out of a shipwreck as most of its wood was decayed with holes all around and the sails were near-completely torn away, giving the appearance of an actual "ghost ship", sailing through the now stormy (ironic, isn't it) sea. The knight and his steed were replaced with two skeletal creatures, the rider wielding the knight's sword and shield with a storm (again with the irony) in the background. The portrait of wolf femme in green changed, not only in background (which looked like a Greek temple [Sly should know since he was once in Greece on vacation]) and the wolf turned green, alike in scales and her long brown hair turned into ferocious snakes; she was a gorgon! Finally both portraits of William and the wolfess in pink as they both appeared to age rapidly, until they became very elderly, complete with longer grey hair.
For some reason, the group wasn't at all surprised by this, but it didn't make the mood any better in the least.
"Should've seen that coming." Murray muttered. "Hey, guys, I just remembered something back when we were in the chamber: you know that last scream, it sounded as though it were right next to me."
"Me too, but that couldn't be possible, the only other person between us was . . ." Peng started, but stopped when he and the hippo looked towards the iguana.
"What, don't be gawking at Dimitri, he don't shriek like a banshee!" Dimitri defended as all eyes were upon him, though it was obviously a lie. "Well, say Dimitri does, not saying that he does . . . you won't tell anyone, will you?"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Lousteau." Penelope replied offhandedly.
The group decided to keep moving and saw that there was a sharp turn to the right, but what really had their attention were the two serious-looking, marble bust-heads, which were two wolves. Possibly, these were members or friends of the Gracey family; how else would someone sculpt the likeness of their heads if they weren't close to the family? What made the group weary was the fact that it felt as if they were staring right at them, but that was ridiculous, they were only statues. The raccoon, always on alert and constantly following his gut, felt something (like everything in this entire mansion) was seriously wrong and it caused him to stop in his tracks.
"What's wrong?" Bentley asked, confused about his best friend's sudden halt.
"Every get the feeling you're being watch?" Sly replied seriously.
"Now that you've mentioned it, I'm having that exact feeling." Penelope admitted, which everyone else agreed upon receiving the same feeling.
Little did they know that it was just that, they really were being watched . . . BY THE MARBLE BUST HEADS! They had somehow turned and were even blinking and regarding the group as if they were both living gentlemen! They quickly resumed their natural position, while looking down the hallway when the group turned to look if there was anyone else around. Seeing that there was no one else around, they shrugged off their suspicions, then proceeded to what appeared to be a dead-end, but were soon met to the sound of wheels as an odd-looking carriage appeared before them. It was mostly black with a little red on the wheels and by the looks of the way it was built, it looked as though it could rotate without having to move the wheels. It was at that exact moment that a small step-ladder unfolded before them, obviously it was a sign for them to get on.
"Guess this is a sort of ride, well, in that case: ladies first." Sly stated with a bow like a true gentleman.
"Oh yes, Ladies." Bentley added, at least they could try to play the part and bowed as well.
"Why thank you." Carmelita and Penelope said in unison as they gave the boys a curtsy.
"Kiss-ups." Dimitri muttered as he watched the four climbed onto the carriage, then followed.
"No need for jealousy." Sly rebuked offhandedly.
As soon as all seven were accounted for in the carriage, they saw that there were safety bars, odd, since when did carriages from the 1800s have safety bars? the question went unanswered as the voice of the Ghost Host spoke up.
"Do not pull on the safety bars, please, I will lower them for you. Heed this warning: the spirits will materialize only when you remain quietly seated, at all times. Oh yes, and no flash pictures, please; we spirits are frightfully sensitive to bright lights."
And the bars did that, as always, their "gracious" host was true to his word.
"How are we going to take pictures without cameras?" Bentley asked skeptically.
"Well, maybe if you brought those camera-binoculars with you, it doesn't even have a flash to bother the ghosts." Murray suggested, referring to one of his friend's new inventions.
"You mean my "binocucom"?"
Before anything else could be said, the carriage began to move forward; now the tour has truly begun.
