‘Crap, crap, crap,’ Scarlett thought as she ran through the labyrinthian halls of the Mercurin Manor. Wasn’t it just fate that on what was her last tour before finally getting that promotion she’s been after for years, she just had to get a group that didn’t want to stay together. Oh, she didn’t fix this quickly she was going to be fired for sure! Or worse, have to stay in this job with no chance for promotion!
Scarlett quickly opened a nearby door, yelling to the ghosts inside “Have you seen them?” After receiving no’s from the residents of the room, she continued down the hallway in this manner, repeating the question many times before finally being pointed in the correct direction by a ghost in a sailor’s outfit.
“Umm… is it just me or have we passed that door before?” Echo asked from her position in Susan’s arms. The band of three girls had gone searching for the room for what felt like an hour, but was actually a couple of days. They had checked a large variety of doors, but every time they looked inside one of the room there were either rooms that weren’t a bedroom, or if it was a bedroom there was a ghost already occupying the bed.
“Yes!” Veronica exhaled, sending her vagina quivering once more. An unexpected consequence of the transformation that Spencer forced upon her was that, while she didn’t need to breathe without a head, the introduction of a new air passage meant that she had to breathe once more, which meant that the simple act breathing constantly sent her into an emotional tailspin, so she had gotten into the habit of holding her breath to try and keep any sense of decorum. The group had to stop multiple times to help her calm down when she actually needed to breath.
“Well, at this point we got two options, we can either turn around and risk getting even more lost, or we could keep going and if we can’t find a bedroom, we could at least find the exit.” Susan said, adjusting Echo’s position in her arms for what felt like the thousandth time. Despite having four arms and that Echo wasn’t exactly heavy in her current state, the fact that her arms were all placed directly on the flat expanse of the cut where her hips used to be, meant that the only way she could carry the girl with any ease was cradled above her head.
“HEY!” The girls turned quickly, seeing Scarlett sprint down the hallway they had just came from, her uniform in almost complete disarray. Once she had caught up, she bent over, taking extremely hard breaths, under her breath she said, “Hoo! I’m out of shape”.
Finally catching her breath, Scarlett stood up, straightening her uniform before saying, “What in the world are y’all doing outside of the Library? I explicitly told y’all to stay in the Library!”
Susan, thinking quickly on her feet, said, “Sorry, we had to go to the bathroom.”
Scarlett’s expression immediately softened. She had completely forgotten about the factor that they might have had to use the bathroom. “Oh! S-sorry about that. Well, y’all still should have asked Gerty to escort y’all or something. These hallways are dangerous.”
“Yeah, sorry,” Echo said.
“Sorry!” Veronica exhaled.
“Okay, I’ll lead the way to the bathroom, and then we’re heading immediately back to the Library!”
“Spencer? Did you find anything useful?” Lindsey shouted from across the room. About a half hour ago Spencer had woken up and was immediately enlisted into Heather and Lindsey’s search for some information to help them escape the house.
“Nah, all this book has is information on how the Mercurin’s moved to the America’s in the 1700’s and were claimed to have been involved witchcraft. Nothing came out of the claims though. What about you?”
“Well, I’ve just been skimming, but from what I’ve read, nothing interesting here. What about you, Heather?” Lindsey said, desperate for something to avoid reading her book.
“Wha-? Oh, yeah, nothing in my book either,” Heather said, pushing another book from the large pile over. She had gone through nearly half of the large stack on her own. Sadly, to her dismay, none of the books had any information on how they could possibly fix their situation.
They only had a couple of books left in the stack when Scarlett slammed the door open, proclaiming, “I’m back!” Behind her the group of girls who had split up entered the room. Scarlett walked over to the pile of remaining books, picking one up and flipping through the pages, asked, “Learned anything interesting?”
“Sadly no…” Heather said indignantly.
“Such a shame,” Scarlett said, tossing the book back on to the floor. Turning around, she turned to address the group, “Well, now that y’all are back in one place, y’all are in a big heap of trouble for splitting up. So, I have a very special place in mind for where to go next. Follow me!” She raised her flag and marched out the door, causing moans from the group as began to follow her.
However, Heather and Lindsey were momentarily held back by the ghost approaching them with an ornate purse. She gave them a pleasant look as she handed the regular purse to Heather, nodding knowingly as she returned to her desk. Opening the purse, Heather and Lindsey were shocked to see a book that looked much newer to those in the Library. Written on the cover in much brighter gold markings was the title, ‘The Mercurins: An Occult History’ and followed by the words ‘by Gertrude Mercurin’.
Heather, with hope in her voice for the first time since entering the mansion, said, “Thank you!” She quickly stuffed the book back in the purse, lifted the purse over her shoulder, and followed the rest of the group to their next horrifying destination.
Where is Scarlett taking the group now?
1.) Classroom
2.) Servant Quarters
3.) Chapel