Storyline: Horror - comedy, adventure and mystery
My friends, Mags, Jims, Dans, and I, Mugs Hunt, had always wanted to go out together to a place where we could enjoy ourselves. They are not very into solving mysteries, but I love to. We were eagerly gathering ideas for this purpose but none of them were ever executed. So we ended up randomly coming together in a park nearby and just left together to go wherever time took us.
On one such “expedition”, we came across a place that looked like an abandoned mansion. The sight of the mansion made me stop, and my friends to shiver. There was a board near the mansion that said, "Ghosts inside. Keep out".
I told my friends, "I think time is calling us inside". Dans replied, "The two of us vote no; majority wins. Let's go somewhere else". Then Mags and Jims agreed with Dans. I said, "Actually, everyone should support minorities. As the minority here, I say we go in. Be a man and face the problem. There is no such thing as ghosts". And smiled quite mysteriously.
Without any further adieu, I grabbed their hands and pulled them toward the entrance. I knocked on the door, but nothing happened. Only then did I notice the doorbell and rang it. As soon as I pressed the switch, there was no bell ringing, but the door swung open with no one inside as if the doorbell was the handle to opens the door. I went inside slowly this time because I could hear my heart pumping blood furiously. I took three steps from the door, then wondered, "If I can hear my footsteps then shouldn't I also hear those of my friends?"" but I didn't. So, I turned back and unsurprisingly they were stunned by the "living" door that they never took a step after I let go of their hands. So, I whispered to them, "Wanna join or should I drag you myself?"
Mags whispered back, "Is there any option which includes us getting out of here?"
Jims answered that for me, "I don't think you don't know the answer to the question. Well you know him."
Mags said, "Worth a try though."
Soon they joined and step-by-step we advanced. Behind me, my friends clung to me as closely as possible for definite reasons, they were no-doubt scared and they did not have a choice. Jims said, "We can still go back like nothing happened. No one else knows we came here and left midway like we didn't have the guts."
As soon as he said that, the door slammed shut like it was programmed to trap all of us for a good adventure, sarcastically, no joke intended.
Jims kind of corrected his sentence now, "Or maybe not."
I found this like a textbook-haunted-house. And my textbook-haunted-house would be to put the ghost in front of the viewers when they turn back towards the door to scare them to their very extent. That sort of a distraction is one of the key trick for any good haunted house. The scarier the distraction, the better "haunted" the house is. Just like a magician's trick is to distract and deceive his audience. But still we turned towards the direction we were heading, and as I had expected there was a neon blue thing levitating. You might think, since I knew what would happen, I should have been completely alright but that is not how it works, at least for people like me. Welcome to the business, no pun intended. Suddenly, a bad smell arose, I know this smell - I have sensed it multiple times in the chemistry labs. But wait, that was ammonia gas. Here there is no gas, so the only other possibility - you know, right. It was probably Dans. Soon there was a sound and by a sound I did not mean a one that died within a second, it existed for quite a long time and increased in it's frequency. It had grown to such a high pitch that we closed our ears and eyes due to it's unbearable nature. Yes, Even I closed my eyes even though I knew it was yet another distraction. As soon as I recognised this could be a distraction, I opened my eyes but it was too late. The "ghost" had "disappeared" out of existence.
We continued, slowly of course. We reached the middle of the room. From outside, the mansion did not seem to be big. From the middle, our current position, it seemed much bigger. Either there really is some magic or it is just my perception that we are too scared that even a step feels bigger than it usually is. The mansion had a long hall from the door to the other end, where the staircase started. Someone really wanted to elongate the experience. Above this elongated hall was completely empty till the roof. The staircase divided itself towards the two opposite sides, left and right. Each leading to the respective corridors on the first floor, there was ideally no floor - only corridors on the sides leading to various rooms. From the ground floor, we were staring straight into the roof above.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught something blue, moving. All four of us turned. This time I was sure the ghost was on the other side waiting to "surprise" us, not with gifts though.
I whispered to my friends, "Guys, Do not turn back, front or the other side at any cost. This is definitely another distraction."
Mags replied, "So what do we do?"
I whispered back, "Don't turn, just advance"
Well that didn't work either. We did move a little ahead but there was a sound, like a gust of wind. We couldn't just cut our reflexes. All of us turned in that direction and simultaneously remembered not to turn that side and instantly turned back forward. Still too late, the "ghost" already had "spawned" into existence on this side. The four of us were so much in sync that we even shrieked in resonance. But this time it was green and had legs, just not very visible. Maybe I didn't notice it last time. We all fainted in sync.
I was back into consciousness soon but decided not to open my eyes. I could hear someone saying, "Maybe that itself was too much for them."
I could also hear someone else saying, "Yeah, but I am not going to stop. We did mention "Ghosts inside". They came in at their own risks. Look, he is flinching. Let's go hide."
I opened my eyes, but nobody was around. I was now pretty sure that they were just humans haunting us, unless it was ghosts haunting us that were talking, which I hope not. My friends took their own time to wake up. I mean there was no pressure right? like we weren't in the middle of some haunted mansion or something, right? No pun intended. I was a little fine now as I knew what was really going on but my friends were still shivering.
We then checked every room on the ground floor. But all the rooms were empty. Suddenly when I turned back, the blue "ghost" was back. While my friends were trying not to move. I went towards the "ghost", I was so chill and sure it was not a ghost. I thought it must have been a human wearing a "ghost" costume. So, I punched it in the stomach and was about to remove his mask. To my surprise, he disappeared as soon as I punched him, maybe he was just a hologram. I searched for projectors but it was too dark to even see.
We went to the first floor. And in one of the rooms was the "green ghost". It walked towards us slowly. The ammonia-like smell grew, was it coming from the "ghost" or maybe it was the second time for Dans himself. I closed him as well. We stopped when we were in punching distance and I punched him. He was really there. I removed his mask. He was a human as I had expected.
Soon after that, the "ghost" took off the neon outfit to reveal a person who looked nearly as old as a ghost. No offense intended. Someone else joined us soon enough.
The old man said, "Uh... Boo! Hello boys, I am Thomas Einstein. My son, Ethan Einstein, and I are looking forward to turning this property into a haunted house to make some money. We knew the warning board outside would lure kids like you in. Thank you for being so predictable. But really didn't think you had enough guts to punch me or pull my mask. It hurts a little."
I replied, "Sorry about the punch. I thought it would look cool. I have to say that it was really a scary experience. Especially the blue hologram ghost that disappeared when I punched it. Really made me think maybe you were really a ghost when I couldn't find the projectors."
The Old man and his son looked at each other puzzled.
Ethan asked, "What blue hologram? I didn't keep any projectors at all. Did you dad?"
Thomas replied, "Nope. Kid, what are you talking about?"
I looked at my friends. Each of us completely confused. A high pitch screech emerged from behind us. I wasn't really scared until, Ethan said, "That wasn't us."