Non-Related Chapter

Halloween special

The Story of the Haunted Mansion Trip

The carved pumpkin's light is dim

it captures the horrors from within

on the streets of Berlin

on Halloween.

Vampires and bats,

in the sewers filthy rats,

getting chased by cats.

Children must get home before it's too late

because a witch rules just after eight

everyone fears of meeting her

and whoever does, their fate

is to quickly decimate.

Better hurry up and get home

before your end is drawn

because now,

you are in the danger zone

you better bow

when the queen sits on her throne.

A plethora of lights fill the bypassing people’s vision, the carved pumpkins have been lit. A little house in which a brother and sister are preparing for Halloween. Our beloved Arnold is dressed up as a soldier and his sis-a ghost. Her bright blue hair pokes through the white costume she was wearing, one might come to wonder why she even chose to dress up as a ghost, though it would be kind of rude to tell her that her costume doesn't fit at all. On the other hand, Arnold gets in the fake soldier uniform quite perfectly. His soldier-ish haircut and straight posture make you think he is actually a soldier returning home to see his sister(which would make for quite an intriguing and emotional story). Arnold’s sister is quite stubborn about going to a party they have been invited to, it’s a yearly event party held regularly. Every year, about 500 come to the mansion where the party is held.

Even though Arnold was quite careful with the way he put on his costume(literally meaning he looked like he wanted to show off), he still didn’t want to attend the party.

When she was done with her preparations, his sister came to him and said with a spooky(which, in the end, made her sound quite silly) voice:

“Yooou sHaalT goOoO with mee tooO the paaAartyYy"

Giving his padded shoulders a quick dust-off he replied:

“Nope, not happening. Besides, why do you even want to go to that party? It’s nothing more than some random people you don’t know dressing up with strange, and sometimes quite disturbing might I add, costumes.”

Under the spooky ghost costume, she made the face of an angry child.She tilted her head and said with her hand on her cheek:

“What’s a soldier who doesn’t report to duty, huh? Are you a loser? Loser, loser!”

“I said I’m not going, okay? And you shouldn’t go too, it’s late.”

“Come on, loosen up! It’s your day off and what are ya dressing up for if you won’t come to the party?”

“You know...But I don’t really. Why did I decide to dress up? I don’t have a clue.”

“See? Let’s at least give you an excuse for buying this costume.”

“Okay [sight] where is the party?”

“It’s in the old mansion, right on the outskirts of the city.”

“Well then, let’s hurry and get there!”

The mansion wasn’t that far off so they went there by foot.

On the way they saw many different things:

“Hey look! That guy has a birds nest on his face.”

…

“Hey look! That guy’s face IS a birds nest.”

…

“Haha, she has jack-o-lanterns instead of a bra!”

...

A few hundred meters before the mansion they saw an old lady selling caramel apples. A little tiptoe and Arnold’s sister caught the scent and like a bloodthirsty predator launched right at the direction of its source.

“One apple please!”

“Oh my, what a scary ghost you are. Have an apple sweetie.”

That’s when Arnold intercepted:

“Ignore the fact that she is as tall as a sixth grader, she is actually sixteen and should pay for her apples, is that right?”

He said grinding his teeth.

“You know I was about to do that too, hmph!”

The old lady chuckled a bit and with a smile said:

“One apple coming up. That will be 80 cents please!”

She handed the money to the old lady and just as they were about to continue on their merry way, she stopped them with a sudden [“Wait”] like she had a revelation.

“With these costumes, I suppose you are going to the party nearby?”

“Yes! Why do you ask?”

-Arnold’s sister tilted her head in confusion

“It’s just that I heard that a group of teenage boys had vanished from the mansion mysteriously.”

“That sounds quite cliche but I’ll still be wary. Thanks for warning us!”

And with that cliche moment out of the way, they were off.

Arnold was walking really slowly whilst his sister was skipping around.

After a few meters, she suddenly stopped and glanced at Arnold.

The childish aura that glance gave off was simply unbelievable.

“What is it?”

“Do you think what that lady said is real?”

While chuckling he said:

“If I have to be honest, it sounds like complete nonsense to me, but you know just so a mysterious clown doesn’t kidnap you or anything be careful.”

His sister gave him an energetic nod of acceptance and continued walking.

After a few minutes of walking and admiring everyone’s costumes, they were finally at their destination.

The mansion was quite large, I mean it has to be large to be considered a mansion but it is beyond what anyone would expect a party is going to be held in.

The whole building was covered with vines and cracks which ruined its overall premium look.

Different colored lights were flashing on the inside and the entrance was coated with pumpkins. Speaking of an entrance. It was a large black metal gate, about the size of two adults stacked on each other (that, of course, excludes the possibility of being as high as Arnold’s sister).

A spear of moonlight pierced the gates as they walked through, sending chills down their spines that made them shiver in discomfort.

It lit up the grass surrounding the mansion, revealing what was left to see in this house of horror and happiness.

Aside from pumpkins, there were some brooms, witch hats, and fake crows, at least I think they were fake.

They approached the big red door that was the entrance to unknown.

Upon further inspection, one would notice that the corners of the door were littered with spiders, whilst the door handle had been covered in what is presumably spider webs.

Arnold’s sister had tucked herself in her little ghost robe while Arnold himself just went along with it. He reached out for the knob with uppermost regret for coming here in the first place.

Opening the door he saw all of the flashing lights suddenly dissipate.

A little girl’s scream enchanted the overly large room and the long corridors. A moment of silence befell both of them.

He stepped on the wooden screechy floor that, in this silence, felt nerve-wracking.

“Yes, yes, just a cliche. Nothing like that happens in real life.”

Torches that seemingly weren’t there before suddenly ignited, bringing a dim light onto the hall.

With a [sigh] Arnold waltzed on in there.

He looked around in disbelief of what was happening-why did everyone suddenly disappear?

“That’s odd. Where do you think they went?”

“I-I-I don’t like where this i-is going.”

“Not exactly an answer to my question but I can see where you are heading with that. Now then, let’s go upstairs to see if anyone is still here.”

“Are you crazy? Tha-at is exactly what people who die in horror movies do.”

“Geez, I wouldn’t imagine a ghost being so scared. Aren’t you the one that is supposed to scare people.”

“Hey don’t stereotype ghosts, they can be diff- ah!”

An explosion from behind the mansion shook it, almost making it crumble.

“I guess that’s their way of letting us know we are being too WHINY and should just continue.”

“I~’ll stay behind.”

And so they made their way upstairs. A few rats passed them, scaring the already scared “ghost”.

“You’d think a mansion would be clEANER-holly whaaat is THAT?”

A body with blood spewing out of its mouth, it’s the body of a little teenage boy just laying down at the end of the corridor. Its bloodshot eyes looked quite fearsome, well fearsome enough to scare the sh*t out of you.

“Oh, nope, screw this I am goooing the other way around.”

“Oh look who is scared now?”

“I think it is still you, I am just avoiding the rout that literally has DEATH written all over it.”

“Sure sure.”

Going down the stairs, Arnold took the rifle from his back (which was actually real and not part of the fake costume) and loaded it.

“Just in case.”

Step by step he heard some noise getting louder, while almost at the end it was clear. It was the sound of soldiers marching, wait-inside the mansion?

Both of them ducked to see what was going on, and indeed it was soldiers-well kind of.

I don’t know if you could call them soldiers. They all looked like zombies with blood pouring out of their mouths.

Then he heard it.

A sudden stomp of ten people behind him. When he turned around it was already too late. They fired their guns and-

“Surpri~se!”

All they fired was confetti. Arnold fell on his butt and had a huge moment of relief.

All the rooms lit up and people poured from all over the mansion.

“What the hell is going on?!”

“Ay, you two lasted the longest, congratulations.”

The “soldiers” started laughing, some of them even falling on the ground. One of them spoke out while laughing:

“Should’ve seen your face when we shot you with confetti! Hahaha, you were like a little baby whose lollipop was stolen. Anyways, welcome to the party, make yourselves at home.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess.”

Arnold and his sister stood up in an exhausted fashion and started heading down to look around this huge mansion. After a few steps, they were stopped by some green-haired zombie man.

“Adrian forgot to tell you this but we have a little problem.”

“Oh, and what is that?”

“Not sure if anyone told you but…a few boys disappeared and we don’t know where they went. Well, we kinda do but no one wants to go there.”

“And why should I go?”

“You seem like a tough guy.”

“I see.”

“Then go there.”

“Would be good if you told me where to go.”

“Oh, right, follow me!”

He took him to a really old, crumbled part of the mansion. The corridors looked like they were about to fall apart and their walls seemed about as stable as your average anthill, so not very much.

A minute or so of walking down these corridors, which about now looked like a maze, and they are there.

“A flickering white light and sounds of scratching. Just great, couldn’t have hoped for more, not. So what am I supposed to do here?”

“Yeah just find the boys and bring them back, bye!”

And with that, he dashed out.

“Not so much a party as a babysitting night, well if the baby was a potential deadly killer. Please don’t be a witch, please don’t be a ghost! Now then, let’sa go!”

So he charged his gun, this time for real. It lit up in green, along with his eyes.

Stepping into the room he saw almost nothing strange in particular, only on first glance though. After a few moments, he saw a trail of candy leading to a door and the door was opening and closing, seemingly on its own.

“If there’s something strange, in your neighborhood than run away before it’s too freaking late. The Ghostbusters ain’t saving me this time.”

And so he followed along.

Opening the door, yet again, nothing strange...is what he would’ve hoped to see, instead he saw a boy shivering in fear on the ground. He quickly rushed to see if he was okay.

“Are you okay there?”

“Ahhhh, y-yes but my friends are not, they are freaking out for some reason. They also took a little girl hostage.”

“Okay, go to the others in the mansion and wait for me to come with your friends, okay?”

“O-okay.”

The boy ran off and a scream of a little girl being tormented pierced Arnold’s eardrums.

He approached the source of the sound, that mysterious door.

In a manner of milliseconds, he turned around and dashed into the room, sending the door flying. What he saw in there stopped his breath. He saw his sister getting tormented by soaking with blood, hysterically laughing boys.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER? Get down on the floor NOW!”

All of the boys turned around and in sync said:

“We are getting into the Halloween spirit.”

“Let her go before I kill you all!”

“How can we let something dead go?”

Hearing this, anger filled his body. Suddenly, his sister’s supposedly “dead” body stood up and started making [uuUUuuu] sounds, until it tripped and fell.

“Ouch!”

“Wait wha-?”

“You got tricked! Boom, welcome to the party! Heh, heh, uh.”

“What is going on.”

It was as if Arnold’s brain suddenly froze in confusion. They went out the room and got to everyone else.

When they arrived everyone shouted [“Happy Halloween”]

“Why did you do this?! I could’ve accidentally killed one of you.”

-said Arnold to the boys.

To which one of them replied:

“Well, we didn’t know that anyone would come armed with a gun.”

“I have a feeling that I am going to have a nightmare when I get home, thanks for the treat!”

“Well let’s enjoy the party before the nightmare, how about that?”

That was his sis who wanted to cheer him up.

“Ugh, fine, I came here to have fun in the first place.”

“Let’s go!”

The rest of the night they spent having fun, eating snacks, and scaring each other.

They came home at a safe time...well barely and went to sleep(Arnold had a nightmare).

And that’s the story of their Halloween two years before they were separated...