As we wandered through Westfield Fountain Gate yesterday I spotted an interesting looking game for PS4 in EB Games. Being so close to Halloween I found these odd and eerie images floating through my mind. This is my attempt at bringing all the weirdness together to assemble some sort of tale. Hopefully you get the idea...
The Room - A story for Halloween
Tony knocked confidently on the Smithson's front door as he had done so often over the past year.
When the door swung open he greeted the bear of a man who filled the door frame.
"Good evening, sir,"
"Tony! Come in!" Mister Smithson replied.
"Sorry, I can't sir," apologised Tony. "I'm here to pick up Josephine and we're already late."
"So I heard," said Josephine's father. "Something about dinner at the pizza bar and then some killing sunshine disco dance happening at the Steeds home ground."
Tony knew better than to correct the father of the girl of his dreams. He'd got the details about dinner right but disco hadn't been popular for at least a century. Tony had managed to score two tickets to see The Sunshine Killers, a hot four piece from Canada who were touring their recently released second album, Love, Death and Rainbows.
"Absolutely sir!" Tony stated enthusiastically, grasping the offered hand without wincing. Tony went with the handshake and allowed Jo's father to pump his hand vigorously.
"Your a good lad, Tony."
"Thank you, sir," said Tony as his hand was released.
"I'll go find Jo and tell her your here."
Ten minutes later Tony was opening the passenger side door of his '69 Mustang, helping the gorgeous Josephine Smithson step inside. She wore a new dress, one Tony had never seen before in the twelve months they had been dating. Short, but not so short daddy wouldn't let her out the door. Low cut too which Tony liked... It enabled him to compliment the opal charm at the end of the necklace Jo wore without hinting at what actually drew his full attention.
"Your wearing the butterfly and heart charm I bought you three months ago," Tony stated. "It looks amazing with that new dress."
"You noticed!" squealed Josephine, delighted.
"And what is that amazing scent?" asked the boy, noticing that his car suddenly smelled like a bee's heaven.
"Intreaged," stated Jo.
"Why, yes I am," affirmed Tony, his reply immediate.
"No," laughed Jo, a sound Tony loved even more every time he heard it. "It's a new perfume from France called Intreaged.
Tony joined Jo then and they chatted and laughed all the way to dinner.
"Take... Me... HOME!" demanded Josephine. "NOW!!!"
The look on the girl's face told Tony that she was not kidding.
"But babe!? The concert? The Sunshine Killers! Your favourite band..." Tony replied, suggesting that the night was not over yet. "Moonlight, Lover's Peak... Intreaged?" he added in an effort to swiftly change Jo's mind.
It was obvious Tony's attempt had failed as Jo's mascara ran.
"This night was supposed to be special..." seethed the young girl. Tony caught sight of the daggers that flashed across his girlfriend's electric blue eyes. During the car ride back to the Smithson's the silence spoke volumes. Tony attempted to redeem himself as they pulled up at Josephine's front door, leaping out the driver side and sliding along the bonnet of his classic so he could open the door for his girlfriend.
"Hmmmph," was his reward. "Call me in the morning and we'll talk," Jo suggested. "I'm still cross with you though..."
Tony gave Jo a weak smile.
"You're lucky you're cute," was Josephine's reply.
Tony drove off, still confused as to how a great night planned had turned into such a disaster. Not wanting to go home, but no longer eager to head to the concert he drove out to the outskirts of town to watch the stars. There was an old rundown house not far from the town limits that Tony's Grandpa George had always sworn was haunted. Tony decided then and there that he'd check it out and prove the crazy, old geaser wrong. It didn't take long to find the dirt track that lead to the long, twisty, weed choked driveway. A few rabbits leaped out of the brush as the Mustang roared past them, Tony picking the lightning fast critters in his high beams for only a second before they bounded away.
As the old house came into view Tony could easily see why his Pa and the other old timers had ghost stories galore about it. The windows were covered in thick dust, the roof looked ready to collapse at any second and there was an odd fog that swirled about, no obvious source for it, it seemed to just be there. The first sound Tony heard as he killed the rumble of the Mustang was the constant squeal of the front door, a rhythmic squeak slow and harsh on the ears. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk, eeeeeerrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkk... Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkk, eeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkk..." went the door until Tony gave it a harsh kick and it fell with a resounding "BOOOOOM!!!" as it fell into the parlour when the rusted hinges finally gave way. As the violin like wail from the door ceased Tony could hear what sounded like weeping.
"Heeee... lllllll...." came the sound, almost a cry seeking a strong young man's assistance before it petered out unfinished.
"Hello?" called Tony. "Do you need help?"
"Heeee... lllllllllllll...." came the faint sound again.
From the parlour Tony followed the faint cry to first the kitchen, then a string of bedrooms and finally to a Sun Room which was in disarray. There in the corner was a hunched over woman dressed in black. Black skirt, black shirt, black shawl, black stockings with black shoes. The style of dress was very outdated, something that even Tony noticed straight away. The lady was facing the wall, searching the blank surface for a secret treasure. Her bonnet was up, over her head making the figure so easy to miss in the light of Tony's phone screen.
"Um... Ma'am..?" asked Tony, cautiously. "Did you call out?"
Soundlessly the figure turned around. Tony gasped. The figure had the wispy hair, the wrinkles of age, but where there should have been watery grey eyes, a misshaped nose, thin, lifeless lips almost bloodless in colour, there was nothing. Tony tried to step back out the room, to turn away from this strange scene that affronted him. The missing facial features appeared out of the blank wall where the faceless lady searched in vain. A well formed pair of eyes, eyebrows, nose with nostrils inflamed, a thin lipped mouth turned up in a sneer, all present in the whitewash of the Sun Room wall.
"You didn't listen, boy..." stated the face on the wall, the voice ancient, cracked like it were the house itself that spoke. As the words came the features of the face moved like an agitated serpent, slithering quickly to stare from below Tony, capturing his eyes somehow with an orbless stare.
"Now you get to stay with us..." the mouth stated.
"I... I don't understand..." Tony stammered.
"You can NEVER leave..." stated the face, just as fifty other features morphed onto the wall to join it.
Tony felt his face and suddenly found his lips were gone. In silent panic he felt for his nose. As he suddenly struggled to take in air the sight from one eye vanished. His world went dark as he felt the old woman grasp him in a comforting embrace. As Tony's lungs began to burn like fire, his body needing the oxygen he would never taste again, the young fool heard as a chorus of lost souls again those chilling words...
"You can NEVER leave..."
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