Haunted Mansion Tour: The CryptKeeper's Tour

Posted on Sat Nov 30th, 2024 @ 5:22pm by Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik & Ensign Dani Harper & Ensign Charlotte Dawes & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant JG Kasper Andersen M.D & Lieutenant JG Jason Williams III & Ensign Tyler Williams

2,350 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave & Ship Repairs
Location: The Holodeck
Timeline: Halloween

Osirin was impressed with the interviews of the program He knew of course, it was fiction, but he could suspend disbelief for the moment.

A voice was suddenly heard, laughing an evil chuckle. "Welcome, friends," the malevolent male voice was heard saying. "Welcome to my home. It has been quite a long time since I've had any guests. I do hope you enjoy your stay....for you will never leave here again alive! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

As the voice was speaking, the door that the group had entered in, slammed shut and locked. When the laughing ended, the floor dropped out from underneath them all, causing them to fall into the darkness below.

Charlotte and Dani both screamed as they felt themselves falling.

They all landed in a large pool of water. The area around them looked like a cave, dark and dank. The ceiling showed only the roof of the cave, with no sign that they had been standing in a bedroom, meer seconds before.

"Water? Seriously... I didn't sign up for that. And how do we get S'Niri back?" Dani asked as she started looking for a way to get out of the water. "Computer, return S'Niri."

There was silence following the request. Suddenly, on the far side of the pool, about twenty meters away from the group, the water surface was broken by the emergence of a creature, its grotesque humanoid head watching the group like a predator watching its prey. It hissed and snarled, before diving under the water, swimming towards them.

"Where in the Hells did that thing just go?" Kasper said in a worried tone as he wiped the excess water off his face and started turning in all directions to try and find the creature that had just disappeared. He didn't want to take any chances, he just wanted to make it out of the place in one piece.

"No, no, no!" Charlotte shrieked in a high pitched voice as she got up on her tip-toes and scooted close to Kasper. She tried to see down into the water, her eyes wide and tense, as she jumped a the slightest movement. "Which way? Someone get us out of here!" She shrieked.

Suddenly, Kasper was yanked under the water. He was held there for a couple seconds, then released.

"Wha-" was all Kasper managed to get out before he got yanked underwater, reappearing just a few seconds later absolutely drenched and gasping for air. He somehow looked paler than he did before going under, and he frantically made sure everything was in one piece including his staff, "I don't like this, I don't like it at all."

The creature suddenly burst above the surface of the murky water, snarling and bearing its jagged fangs as it reached for the nearest member of the group, which was Charlotte. Before anyone could react, it wrapped its arms around her, and they both vanished.

"Where's Charlotte?" Dani yelled. "Charlotte!!"

"Charlie?" Kash called out, walking forward through the water, dragging his feet so he didn't accidently step on her.

"Charlie!" Kasper called out, knowing it was just a simulation, but to him, it felt a bit too real to lose her just like that. Even though he hated the water, even more so after what had just happened to him, he still splashed down into it to see if he could feel around for her. "Come on, where are you?!"

Suddenly, the remaining members of the group were no longer in a cave but back in the mansion. They appeared to be in an old drawing room, with several chairs positioned around a fireplace on one side of the room. The first thing everyone noticed was that they were no longer wet. After all, once one leaves holographic water, the resulting soaked clothes and bodies instantly become dry.

The next thing that they noticed...there were no windows or doors leading out of the room.

"What the..." Dani walked quickly to one of the walls and started running her hands along it. "There's gotta be a trap door or something. This is a haunted house tour right? There's a place to go to finish this."

The ominous voice assaulted their ears again. "Oh my, oh my. Two down, five to go. You really must try harder, my friends. For if I gather you all, you will be trapped here, forever!" The voice laughed as the sound of thunder rumbled through the room.

"Come out from wherever you are," Osirin responded, "and we'll see how much of a menace you really are."

"Oh, I will reveal myself to you, soon enough, my friend. However, for now, I shall be charitable. I will give you two choices. One," a red door materialized on the left side of the fireplace. "Choose the red door, and you will be free from this room. However, your friends will remain here for eternity. Or two," a blue door appeared to the right. "Continue on through my home, see if you can beat me at the end. Choose now, but Choose carefully."

Dani sighed and walked over to the blue door. "I know they're safe, but we can beat this guy," she said confidently as she opened the door and walked through it.

Kash brushed past Osirin toward the door. "Alright let's see where this thing goes," he said disappearing into the darkness as soon as he crossed the threshold.

As she stepped through the door, she found herself in a long tunnel, the space nearly seven feet high and three wide. The walls were covered in bones, some full skeletons, others just bits and pieces. As the group started to pass, the dead eye sockets started to glow a sickly yellow, and the skeletons started to reach out to the group.

Dani turned sideways making herself as thin as possible as she sidestepped through the tunnel trying to avoid being touched by the skeletons. "I'm picking up the pace guys. Stay with me," she said before breaking out into a run.

Osirin knew this was all just make-believe, or at least he thought he knew that. He could tell there was no emotion coming from the figures, so they couldn't possibly be real, nor was he normally a nervous person. Still, it couldn't hurt to run He paced himself so he wouldn't overtake Dani and he glanced behind him to see who else was coming.

Suddenly, a pair of boney arms shot up from the floor, grasping onto Osirin, causing him to trip and fall. As soon as he hit the ground and before he could get back up, several more disembodied arms sprung up from the floor, each one latching onto him. He then vanished in a puff of black smoke.

The voice that had been tormenting them started to laugh again. "HAHAHAHA!!! Another soul for my collection! Soon, I'll have all of you, FOREVER!!"

Dani who was out in front jumped at the sound of the voice and spun around. "What, what happened? Who's missing?"

Tyler looked around at who was left: himself, Kasper, Dani and Kash, meaning... "Osirin, I mean the counsellor, just disappeared!" He looked around again at the skeletons and bones, eyeing them all up as if they'd move again, "Osirin!" Creepy music started to play from somewhere behind them too, making Tyler even more freaked out.

Dani reached out with both hands, grabbing a hold of both Tyler and Kash so that the three of them were all holding hands. She gripped each of their hands tightly. "Let's keep going," she said pulling them forward. "We can do this. It's just a holoprogram," she muttered.

"Oh fine," Kasper muttered as he saw what Dani did, "Just leave me by myself, ready to get picked off next. Don't worry, I'll bring up the rear, shall I?" He said the last part a little louder as he followed them. It was clear Dani would be the one to lead them through this holoprogram, but what if she disappeared next? Tyler didn't look like one to lead.

"Oh take Tyler's hand and stop complaining. Come on, we can't lose anyone else," Dani said. "Keep up."

Together, the group made it past the tunnel, finding themselves out in a chamber full of mirrors. The path was too narrow to continue holding hands. All around them, the disembodied voice could be heard. "WELCOME TO MY ROOM OF MIRRORS! YOU ARE NEARLY TO THE END OF YOUR JOURNEY!! FIND YOUR WAY THROUGH HERE WITHOUT LOOSING YOURSELF, AND YOU MIGHT VERY WELL SAVE YOUR FRIENDS!!"

Kash reached out and touched the mirrors as they walked, attempting to use his antennae to perceive what was real and what was an illusion. The problem was that in a holodeck the lines between the two were often blurred. "Okay, I'm starting to get dizzy. Anyone else had enough?"

Before anyone could reply, the walls closed around Kash and he vanished in a puff of black smoke. The disembodied voice cackled maniacally some more. "ANOTHER ONE TO ADD TO MY COLLECTION! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"Okay. What is the point of taking everyone out of the program?" Dani asked the voice. "Isn't this supposed to be fun? What are they even doing right now? Zero out of ten. Do not recommend." She spun around and tried to get her bearings in the room of mirrors.

"Do you guys know anything about holodecks? Are we even on the same one as the main party you think?" Dani asked Tyler and Osirin. "If we shut this thing off, does it turn the party off for everyone else?"

Tyler had let his vanity get the best of him and took a chance to see what he looked like from all angles, even if he didn't like being in a maze full of mirrors with no definitive way of getting out. He didn't even glance over at Osirin, "How do you propose we do that when we can't even find our way out of this maze? I don't think it would be as simple as saying 'Computer, shut this haunted house holoprogram down'."

Kasper nodded in agreement as he walked into one of the mirrors, "He's got a point, you know."

"Doesn't seem to be working..." Dani answered hesitantly as the mirrors stayed in place and the booming narrator of the game stayed quiet. "Let's stay together. Kasper if we start there lets just use our hands to guide us and if there's a turn we go left and keep doing that until we get to a dead end. Osirin, can you bring up the rear and watch for anything moving around on us?"

"Of course," came the reply from the exchange officer. I do want to talk to whoever designed this program, but I'm not sure whether I want to kiss them or punch them in the face."

Slowly, the group wove their way through the hall of mirrors, until finally, the found themselves inside a demonic ballroom. All around them, they saw people being tortured by demons, some being whipped. Others were strapped to ancient devices and were being stretched, strangled, bones broken, limbs removed. At the far end of the hall, on a massive throne, built entirely of human bones, sat an old man. He was dressed all in black, which made his pale skin seem nearly translucent. In his hands, he held a tattered old book. There was a subdued cross on the cover of it.

As he watched the three approach, he could be heard singing, "God is in....His Holy temple! Earthly thoughts...be silent now..." his voice, though seemingly weak, still carried with it the very strong feeling of malevolence. "Ah!! The Lord has delivered unto me new disciples! Come closer, my children. Come and be judged!"

"Judged for what?" Kash asked. He walked tentatively toward the man, careful to not get within arm's reach.

The man looked at the trio and grinned. It was a grin that seemd very creepy. "Why, for being the first to survive the haunted mansion!" He stood and, as he did, his image shited to that of the Astrea's first officer.

Maxun chuckled softly. "And now, for your reward." He snapped his fingers and there was a flash of smoke and light. Suddenly, the entire group was standing together, back at the entrance to the mansion. "Happy Halloween!!" Maxun's voice could be heard saying.

"Terran culture is quite strange," Osirin said as the smoke cleared. "Quite strange indeed."

"Was that Commander Spello?" Charlotte asked, hearing the voice.

"Either him, or a hologram programmed to be him. Either he's behind this program, or he's going to be pretty upset when he finds out," Kash replied.

"To be honest, I wouldn't put it past Commander Spello to be the one in charge of something like this," Tyler admitted as he looked toward the exit of the holoprogram. Hopefully he'd have better sense next time and not say yes to something where people just randomly disappear.

Kasper was just glad that everyone who'd disappeared had come back in one piece, especially Charlotte. He sidled up next to her and asked, "Where did you guys go when you were taken out of the program?" It was more out of curiosity than anything.

"Like some sort of creepy ancient jail cell. People were moaning and screaming from places, and some monster looking guard would walk by. But mostly we just sat there," Charlotte shrugged.

"So, you wouldn't recommend it then? Because I'll definitely pass on that." Kasper asked, eyeing the exit. "On a different note, do you think you'd have a few moments to have a bit of a chat?"

"Uh, yeah sure," Charlotte replied. "What's up?" She asked as the haunted room faded away and they were back at party.

[Off]

Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus
Chief Counselor
USS Astrea

Ensign S’Niri
Security Officer
USS Astrea (NPC Thivi)

Dr. Kasper Andersen & Ensign Tyler Williams
USS Astrea (NPCs Eirly)

Ensign Dani Harper & Ensign Charlotte Dawes * Ensign Kash th'Kaasnik
USS Astrea (NPCs Remy)

Special Appearance, Commander Spello as "The Cryptkeeper"

RSS Feed