Underneath Scarlett’s devil horns was… nothing. She ruffled her hair slightly to get rid of the crease that had formed thanks to the hair band, before reaching into an inner coat pocket of her blue tour guide outfit, pulling out a pair of goggles, which she place onto her head, and a small clipboard. Addressing the group once more, she asked, her southern accent disappearing, “Now, from a scale of one to ten, how frightened were you all by the behavior I just exhibited?” The group stared in shock, as she continued, “No, seriously, I have this performance review thing I have to fill out.”
Lindsey was the first to speak out, “Is this some sort of sick joke?”
“Performance reviews are nothing to joke about,” Scarlett said, turning her back to Lindsey, “I’ll just put you all at a five,” she scribbled something on the paper attached to the clipboard, before announcing, “Well! we must be moving on.” Scarlett clapped her hands, and suddenly a whirling sound was heard underneath them. Scarlett felt her chair move with a jolt, before it began to slide across a previously unseen track, pulling the chairs with the group still tied in behind Scarlett as she began to walk out the bone encrusted door.
Exiting the door, the group found themselves on some sort of combination catwalk and track. Beneath them sat many large vats, some filled with the dark blue liquid they had experienced through most of the night, however most of them were filled with a dark red liquid. Walking among the machines were an almost equal mix of humans in lab coats and ghosts.
The group continued following the track, passing through several different rooms filled with a large variety of machinery, and one room in particular which gave everyone in the group cold shivers as they passed above a large pit filled with red slime. Eventually, the was lead into a room with mirrors on both sides of the wall. Heather assumed they were two way mirrors, as she had the feeling that she was being watched. Finally stopping, Scarlett turned to look at the group, saying, “Now, I’m sure you have many q-“
“What the fuck was that?!” Veronica shouted. Despite having Echo’s head, she somehow had retained her own voice.
“I though this was a haunted house?” Susan screamed, equally as confused.
“What are you planning to do with us?!” Spencer yelled.
“Okay, okay. All y’all best be quiet or I’m going to take your heads away!” Scarlett shouted, instantly silencing the group. Regaining her composure, Scarlett started again, her accent gone once more, “Great. Now, I’ll try to answer all your questions, but we have to get everything ready so I’ll be brief. First off, we are currently in the Headquarters of Miracle Cure Incorporated, or MirCur Inc. for short. We are the leading global company working on developing a new method of body modification that we are hoping to release to the market this year. Those rooms help us refine the product into a more usable form for people, as the current red form has been found to commit … undesirable effects upon people. The ‘haunted’ mansion you have spent most of the night in actually acts as our cover business, as it allows us to easily test our products on willing participants, and even make a profit on it. And as for our plans for you all, well,” a wicked grin spread across her face, “Well if I told you that would ruin half the fun, wouldn’t it? Now, any more questions?”
“What exactly is this miracle drug?” Heather asked, “I’ve never seen anything like this before, able to manipulate the body like this.”
“Well… We don’t exactly know ourselves,” Scarlett said, pulling out a pair of reading glasses and flipping the papers on her clipboard until she found the appropriate paper, “You see, the more potent red product was discovered under this house after one of our research teams searched underneath this site several years ago. We found that body parts that came into contact with the gel disconnected from the host and began to excrete a blue version of the substance. However, this part seemed to lose connection with the host, and could not be attached in any conventional method. We found the only way to reattach the part was to cover the entirety of the subject in the liquid. However, this resulted in several other alterations to the anatomy that we had expected, including an apparent loss of speech, which is why we have been experimenting with the blue substance for the past couple of years.” Scarlett put away her glasses, “Anyways, it’s upsetting to say that the past couple of years of research has been for nothing, because after searching the house some more, we’ve discovered a new application that we had not previously thought of that should make a viable way to mass produce the blue slime, and an even more applicable green slime.”
“Ooh! That was probably a lot to take in. No need to worry, though, as in a couple of hours, none of you will have to worry about it anyway. Now!” Scarlett clapped her hand, causing the door on the opposite side of the room to open, allowing two large ghosts to walk in. “Guys, please take Heather to the holding cell.”
“What!” Heather shouted, as the one of the ghosts walked over, lifting the chair up.
“Yes, we have special plans for you Heather, but not to worry, we’ll be nice and let one of your friends keep you company until your time is ready.” Scarlett gave a nod, the other ghost grabbing one of Heather’s friends and followed the other ghost.
Scarlett turned to the rest of the group, “Now… Who’s ready for some testing?”
Who is thrown into the Cell with Heather?
1.) Lindsey
2.) Veronica
3.) Susan