[crow]

"What do you think is in here?" Fade asked, looking around. They'd taken the bandages off from their feet, and were now wandering around barefoot. Presumably they'd phased their feet out altogether to avoid the wet. The room looked huge, though it was hard to tell anything from all the steam in the air. It was impossible to tell where any of it was coming from.

Morpheus nearly collided into something, wandering around in all the mist. When he took a step back to take a proper look at it, he realized it was a pillar of some sort. It had been hard to see, white against the milky white fog. The design reminded him of roman architecture, though the decor in the dining room had been more Renaissance-gothic. It was as if this house was a mish-mash, created at the whim of someone with a lot of money and possibly not much sense.

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 5
Blue: 3
Total: 48

[crow]

Threnody had already made his way through one of the doors. "Change rooms," he said, his voice sounding strangely muffled. Was the fog so thick that it was interfering with sound transfer, or had he stuck his head in somewhere? It was impossible to see, so Morpheus could only judge through how far away his voice seemed to be, and the sound of footsteps through water. Threnody was still traveling further on, the quick pace he set distinguishing himself from the rest.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and tentatively Morpheus reached out with his mind. He aimed only for Threnody, and made his presence known, probing only gently. Can I follow along? he asked.

Threnody registered surprise, but it quickly subsided, and a wordless assent followed soon afterwards. With that settled, he turned his attention back to his explorations. The fog cleared out the further down he went, and not long after, he came upon another door.

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 5
Blue: 4
Total: 49

[crow]

He wandered carelessly through, and Morpheus felt the apprehension run through him even though it wasn't himself going through the door. Be careful, he cautioned, but he could feel Threnody choosing to ignore him. Back in the fogged-up room with the pillars, Morpheus sighed slightly.

Threnody was no longer relaying messages, but watching through his eyes, Morpheus described the room further on. "It's a... pool, I think. But the water looks really disgusting, and--- oh god, something moved." Threnody was closing in to get a better look, but Morpheus shook his head. "You should come back. I don't think that's someone in a suit."

"Let's ditch this place," said Stray, his voice even more disgusted than it had been before. "If we stay here any longer, my shoes are going to be ruined."

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 5
Blue: 5
Total: 50
Moving from Blue Zone to Green Zone

[FrostWynd]

Stopping to stand before the stairs that would lead up to the large stone doors, Tenebrae was just waiting now for the boys to finish up on their little nonsensical game. Taking in the view now that he was much closer, the entrance to the house look as if it could've had a much grander presence about it. If it wasn't so dark right now, and the whole place didn't look so old. Combining these things, along with the two giant statues of some sort of creatures standing guard on each side of that door, gave it a noticeably creepy look...

He didn't really like it, actually. The longer he lingered there staring up at those statues, it was managing to give him the creeps. He quickly turned around to check and see how the others were doing.

Orange Zone: 10

[crow]

Stray didn't wait for an answer, and merely made his mincing way back out to the garden, shaking his feet off and wiping them on the grass. Beatz sighed, but didn't argue, and followed him out. That seemed to be the cue for everyone else to start leaving. Morpheus, eager as he was to be out of the mess himself, lingered at the door as he waited for Threnody. Though the mental connection was still live and he could feel that nothing bad was happening, he still didn't feel completely at ease until he saw Threnody poke his head out.

As they walked along the garden's paths, Fade spoke up. "Speaking of guys in suits," they said, "I don't think I've seen a single live monster here. It's all been cardboard cutouts and ambiance." Now that they mentioned it, that was true. The only thing they'd seen that looked remotely alive was the thing in the pool, and only Threnody had really been around for it in person. "Do you think it's because we came so late in the season?"

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 6
Blue: 5
Total: 51

[crow]

Beatz shrugged. "Might be. We can come earlier next year. Maybe they were just short-staffed." Fade made a noncommittal sound and subsided.

"There was a monster in the pool," Threnody pointed out. "I saw a fin."

"Oh, did you?" said Stray, but his tone made it clear that he was merely humoring the younger boy. "Yeah Morpheus here told us all about it. How big do you think it was?" Threnody shot him a look, eyes narrowed and looking surprisingly shrewd. Rather than Echo, it made him look more like Beatz. Stray didn't catch it, but Morpheus figured he probably knew that Stray didn't really believe him.

"Don't know," he said, his voice taking on a sulky note. "Didn't get a good look before you chickened out."

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 7
Blue: 5
Total: 52

[crow]

"Hey," said Stray warningly, but Beatz shot him a glare, and he subsided into muttering instead. For all his bravado, he was surprisingly easily quelled by either of the Langer girls, Morpheus noted, not without a bit of amusement on his own part.

"It was pretty big," said Morpheus. "Maybe it was an automaton? Like a crocodile in a moat. I've seen some at theme parks." Considering how undermanned the house had been so far, he highly doubted there would be someone willing to swim around in a rubber suit, let alone the multiple people it would have taken to comprise the monster they'd glimpsed.

Echo turned around to face them, a glint in her eye. "We can still go back and look," she said, grinning and walking backwards. Her eyebrows waggled outrageously. "What do you say?"

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 8
Blue: 5
Total: 53

[ToxicShadow]

That was very true. The thought that it smelled like books hadn't really occurred to her. How was it described? Something like a mixture of paper and dust? But it wasn't unpleasant. Toxic no longer read novels as much as she wanted to, not seeming to find the time or allocating means for such a purpose, but she did read other mediums, still. And, either way, she enjoyed large libraries.

The two spent a little more time looking around, but there wasn't anything all too spooky or interesting in the library, either. Well, for all they knew, it could be haunted, but nothing showed itself to them. It was like a plain old library, really.

Grey Zone: 2
Green Zone: 17
Orange Zone: 5
Total: 24

[ToxicShadow]

"Shall we get going?" Cheshire only asked his question after a few more minutes had passed. Toxic had stopped, taking in the names of some of the books on one of the shelves, seeing if anything in particular caught her interest.

But when her companion spoke, she stood upright once more, no longer leaning toward the shelf. She nodded. "Yeah, let's see what else we can find. I could spend plenty of time looking at books, but this isn't really what we're here for."


Grey Zone: 3
Green Zone: 17
Orange Zone: 5
Total: 25

[crow]

"No," said Stray at the same time as Fade said, "I'll pass." The two paused for a moment and shared a look, both breaking into smiles at the same time. Morpheus suddenly felt it again, that sensation that he was intruding somehow, though now he did his best to quell it. Still, he found he couldn't quite watch them sharing the moment, and focused on the Langer kids instead. Beatz was also shaking her head, and when Echo's eyes fell on him, Morpheus could only give her an apologetic smile.

She visibly deflated, as if someone had poked a hole in the giant pumpkin. "You guys are no fun," she complained, turning back around.

"Yeah, yeah," Beatz said, patting her on the shoulder. "We should be heading back anyway."

"Whaaat?" Echo greeted this news with even greater dismay. "Come on, we just got here! We're not going back now, there's so much house left to see!"

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 9
Blue: 5
Total: 54

[ToxicShadow]

The man made his way back to the door from which they had come through. As he lead her out, Toxic looked over her shoulder. She took one last look at the library, hoping that something might appear, but nothing did. What a shame.

"I suppose we'll try another door," Cheshire told her.

They were now in the reading room, but it wasn't exactly an interesting place, either. They'd walked straight past it when they went for the library.


Grey Zone: 4
Green Zone: 17
Orange Zone: 5
Total: 26

[crow]

"Yeah, but we still have to trick or treat. And some of us need to fix our costumes." She shot a pointed look at Stray, who glanced up as if he could feel it.

"What?" he said, a little warily.

Beatz gave him a wry little smile. "Don't worry about it," she said, before turning back to Echo. "And I'm pretty sure that guy has a curfew." She indicated Morpheus this time with a toss of her head. Echo's eyes narrowed as she looked at him, as if he was doing this to spite her, personally. Morpheus swallowed.

Eventually, however, Echo relented. "Fine. But we're staying up all night for scary movies and I get to pick twice."

"Deal," said Beatz easily. "Alright, everyone back to the car. We're going to my house."

Orange: 20
Red: 20
Green: 10
Blue: 5
Total: 55
Moving from Green Zone to Grey Zone

[ToxicShadow]

They were now in the reading room, but it wasn't exactly an interesting place, either. They'd walked straight past it when they went for the library.

They walked through the reading room, slowly, but without stopping. It was impressive, just as the library was, but it was plain. Neither place was decorated for the event. For Toxic and Cheshire, that made them not all that interesting.

Cheshire lead Toxic down the hallway. Just as the previous two rooms, it wasn't anything that stood out. Still, at the opposite end of the hallway, they found another door.


Grey Zone: 5
Green Zone: 17
Orange Zone: 5
Total: 27

[ToxicShadow]

Excitedly, Toxic moved ahead of Cheshire when they spotted the door. She was the one to push it open. Cheshire wasn't annoyed with her for cutting him off, he only smiled.

Of course this woman was enthusiastic about this sort of thing. She had been excited in the last haunted house, too. She enjoyed the strange and creepy, even willing taking in a stray cat that she had found hiding in the haunted house. He looked awfully torn up, as Corpse Kuhnas did. Unlike everyone else that had rejected him, she invited him to come with her, in spite of the gruesome appearance.


Grey Zone: 6
Green Zone: 17
Orange Zone: 5
Total: 28

[ToxicShadow]

Slipping inside the room, it was darker than the others. There wasn't any artificial light. The whole room was bathed in moonlight. Cheshire's eyes adjusted faster than Toxic's and he was wearing a huge grin again.

The woman rubbed her eyes with her available hand and blinked several times. Finally, her eyes adjusted, too, and she smiled.

"Ooooh, look at this!" She was practically bouncing in place from her excitement.


Grey Zone: 7
Green Zone: 17
Orange Zone: 5
Total: 29