“And this here is a baby painting of the late George Mercurin, the bastard son of Matthew Mercurin III and his maid. It’s rumored that Matthew had this painting done to spite his wife, Francesca Mercurin, who had the child killed after she discovered the affair,” Scarlett explained as they made their way down the pristine hallway. Along the way Scarlett had forced them to stop so she could hand out some information on the history of the mansion owners. “And over here is-“
“Excuse me?” Lindsay interrupted, “not that this isn’t fascinating, but isn’t this supposed to be a haunted house? Where are the scares supposed to be?”
“Oh dear! I didn’t realize I was being a bore. Let’s move on to the first actual stop,” Scarlett said, the slightest tone of sadness apparent in her voice. The rest of the way, she said nothing.
“Wow Lindsay, you didn’t have to say that,” Susan whispered to Lindsey.
“Um… yeah I did, we paid a lot of money for those tickets, so we should be getting scares as quickly and as often as possible.”
“I thought this was more about having a good time with some friends?” Heather chimed in.
“*pssh* Let’s just wait and see who’s going to be working double shifts all next week,” Lindsay retorted back, effectively ending the conversation.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking, the group stood outside a rather ornate looking door. “This here, ladies and gentleman, is one of my favorite rooms in the house. Welcome to the Music Room!” Opening the door, the inside of the room was filled with objects covered in sheets and wallpaper made out of recycled sheet music. “One of the more well kept rooms of the mansion, the Music Room was one of Drake Mercurin’s favorite attractions to show off his collection of rare instruments gathered from around the world.” As everyone entered the room, Scarlett closed the door behind them, “It’s said that during the middle of the night, Drake’s spirit comes around to play the grand piano in here.” Scarlett said, walking over to one of the sheets and pulling it off, revealing a like new grand piano.
“So, can we play any of the instruments?” Echo asked.
“Of course you can, dear! But I’m not the one you need to ask,” Scarlett respond, a sly grin on her face. Walking over to one of the sheets, Echo pulled off the sheet, revealing a site that sent the entire group back screaming.
Standing on a table with some pipes attached to the front, were six human heads, 3 males on the left and 3 female on the right. A pair of large mallets hung by on a hook on the side of the table. “Ooh, the Muppaphone is a fan favorite.”
Once the screaming had died down, Lindsay was the first to approach the instrument. “Well, I must say that prop design is great, but you can clearly tell they’re fake.”
“What’d you say miss?” A deep voice emerged from the lowest head, “because it sounds like to me you’re trying to belittle the hell and torment we feel in this living h-“ The head would have kept on talking had Scarlett not bonked it on the head, causing it to say a low-pitched “Ouch!”
“What did I say about how to act around guests?” Scarlett questioned the head.
“Sorry Miss Scarlett, I did not realize you were hosting tours tonight.” The head responded, clearly not expecting Scarlett would hit him.
“Much better.” She said, patting the head softly.
Clearly freaked out, Spencer made for the door to leave, but when he tried the handle, he found that the door was locked. “Oh dear, I’m sorry,” Scarlett said, suddenly appearing behind him, “but everyone has to stay in the room until the group ahead of us finishes their stop. But please, enjoy exploring this room some more.”
The group, a bit perturbed by this revelation began uncovering some more instruments, each receiving almost novels worth of history from Scarlett. “…And these are the Polynesian belly drums…” she said, uncovering four stomachs, clearly alive as they moved up and down as though they were breathing. “…and over here is the Trumlip…” she held up what appeared to be a regular trumpet, but rather than ending in a bell, it ended in a pair of closed lips that made a moaning noise when she blew into one end. “…and these are the hand cymbals, although many people find them a bit redundant,” she held up what was a pair of detached hands, which were clearly still alive but flattened and close to circular.
Once the room was devoid of sheets, there laid various body parts, both morphed and merely detached, designed for the sole point of making music. “Well, we’ve looked at everything, can we leave now?” Lindsay said, clearly disturbed by the strange imagery before her.
“We’ll leave in just a moment darling, we’re just waiting for our special guest to appear-” Scarlett said, a smirk growing across her face as the piano suddenly began playing a haunting melody by itself. “Ooh.. looks like he might be here now…”
The melody began to grow louder and louder, growing in complexity and becoming more haunting with each passing moment. As if in a trance, Echo began to approach the piano…
What fate befalls Echo?
1.) Dance her legs off
2.) Joining the collection, by quad2
3.) Hungry Hungry Pianos