This is a story I did for an old ReBoot e-mail RPG. I'm the only author because, back then, I was still learning how to RPG in e-mail. It's more for laughs than anything else. Think of it as something from The Three Stooges, or Abbot and Costello. This takes place just after "Sercet Discoved!" I'm trapped in Mainframe, but still a Guardian Cadet.
"This must be the spookiest house in Mainframe," Jo Ann commented, as she and her teachers roamed the halls of the mansion. It was in Level 31, on a small hill. Out behind it was a cematary. The mansion, ifself, looked to be the orginal Haunted House.
"Yeah," Matrix answered her. "Great-grandpa Matt and Great-grandma Elizabeth used to live here. Back then, though, it was one of the prettiest houses you'd ever seen."
"I know. Dot showed me some old JPEGS of what it looked like then. But now, it;s about ready to fall apart."
"Yeah," Matrix sighed saddly. "It has seen better days.
"Nothing a little soap and water and paint won't fix!" Bob grinned, ever cheerful. "That's all it needs."
"It helped that Dot was on teh Mainframe Restoration Commitee," said Wild Card. "Otherwise, I think this place would be condemed."
As it is, we were asked to inspect the house for trespassers that may have gotten in and are using the house for illeagal activities," Jo Ann added. Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning and the sound of thunder.
"Uh, oh," Bob said, looking out the window. "Looks like an ion storm coming up. A big one. If it keeps up too long, we'll have to spend the night."
"'Spend the night'?" Wild Card shivered. "In this creepy place?" Bob nodded.
"Hey, we'll be together, Wild Card. Ghosts, goblins, and things that go 'bump' in the night, verses four Guardians? We'll cream 'em!" Jo Ann hugged Wild Card.
Let's go into the parlor. We had best stay together, and that room is big enough for us all to bed down for the night," Matrix suggested. He led the way to a huge --and once beautiful-- living room.
*~*~*
At one time, the parlor must have been a real showplace. The red and gold color-scheme repeated itself in the carpet, the furnature, and the walls. A gold and crystal chandaleer hung from the middle of the ceiling. Over the marble fireplace was a picture of a beautiful, green-skinned young woman in a dress from America's Colonial days. Her dark-green hair was held up in an elegant upsweep. Looking into the portrait's purple eyes, Jo Ann imediantly thought of Dot. With the right costume and hairstyle, Dot could be the woman in the picture!
"Look at this, guys!" Jo Ann said, pointing to the picture. They joined her at the hearth and gazed up at the painting.
"Great-grandma Elizabeth," Matrix grinned.
"She looks like Dot," Jo Ann commented.
"She does?" Bob asked. He stared at the portrait.
"Yeah. Just imagine Dot in that dress and with that hair-do. She'd look exactly like her!" Jo Ann pointed at the painting again, for emphassis.
"Jo Ann's right!" Bob smiled. "That does look like Dot!"
"Weird," Wild Card said. "I don't suppose that your great-grandpa looked like you, did he, Matrix?"
"No. He looks closer to my dad, then he does me." Matrix knew that Wild Card was teasing him, but let it go. There was another flash of lightning and crash of thunder. Already creeped out by the spookiness of the house and the weirdness of the discovery, the four Guardians jumped and huddled together. Then, realizing what had just happened, they broke into laughter. This relieved the tension that had been building up since the arrived.
"Come on," Bob laughed. "Let's get some sleep. We can't search the house until morning, anyway."
"You can have the sofa, JoJo," Matrix said gallently. "We'll sleep in the chairs." He eyed Bob and Wild Card meaningfully.
"Sure," Wild Card said. He staked out a large chair by the fireplace. Bob found a simular chair nearby, separated from his brother by an end table. Matrix sat carefully in a chair directly across from the fireplace, between the sofa and Bob's chair.
"Thanks, guys," Jo Ann said, giving each a hug and a kiss before settling down on the sofa. "Good night," she said, before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.
"Good night, Jo Ann," they replied, before going to sleep, themselves.
Soon, the only thing that could be heard was the soft breathing of the four Guardians andt he raging storm outside.
*~*~*
A very loud clash of thunder brought everyone awake at once.
"WOW!" exclaimed Wild Card. "That sounded close!"
"It probibly was," Jo Ann replied. "I remember being in the library at my high school on a stormy day when lighting hit a tree just outside the library. We though a plane had crashed or something. Come to think of it, I think the tree is still alive."
"Strong tree!" Matrix grinned.
"Well," Bob sighed. "It looks like we won't be getting any rest tonight. Want to explore the house?"
"Why not?" Jo Ann yawned. "What time is it, anyway?" A glance at the old, Grandfather clock in the hallway told her nothing: It's glass face was covered in hours of dirt and dust, obscuring any time the clock showed.
Bob concentrated for a nanosecond. Merged with Glitch the way he was, Bob could access whatever information that Glitch could, including the correct time.
"About five microseconds to midnight," he replied.
"The 'Witching Hour'...er...'Millisecond'," she said.
"'Witching Hour'?" Matrix asked.
"The time of night when ghosts and goblins and witches ans such are suppose to be about, doing whatever it is they are suppose to be doing."
"Oh." Matrix glanced at Bob and Wild Card, and shrugged. Bob only smiled. The Mainframers learned something new about the User's World every second whe they were with Jo Ann.
"Okay; Jo Ann and Wild Card, you two take the basement. Matrix and I will search here on the ground floor. We meet back here, at the staircase to the second floor, in one millisecond. Got it?" Bob ordered.
"Right!" Jo Ann answered.
"Got it, bro!" Wild Card grinned.
"Let's do it!" Matrix said.
"Okay. Go!" The teams split up for their assignments.
*~*~*
The stairway leading to the basement was dark. Before even entering the house, Matrix had asvised not turning the electricity on. The wiring was very old, and would most likely cause a short circuit. A fire, or even an explosion, could result.
"Pixal: Flashlight!" Jo Ann ordered. The jeweled Keytool obeyed, changing her form into that of a flashlight. The User Guardian guided the way down the steps.
When they reached the bottom, Jo Ann played the beam over the contents of the celler. The basement was filled with mason jars of preserved food, old, broken furnature, antquie tools, and other assorted junk. The two of them continued so search carefully amid the old stuff.
From upstairs, they heard the clock strike midnight. Wild Card and Jo Ann watched in astonished horror as a glowing fog appeared and formed itself into the figure of a man in the uniform of a colonial soldier. He looked so much like Paul Matrix --Dot, Enzo, and Matrix's father-- that they knew that ic could only be Matthew Matrix. Or, rather, his ghost.
"Get out of my house!" the ghost cried.
*~*~*
Meanwhile, Bob and Matrix continued to search the ground floor. They saw nothing suspicious, however, and returned to the parlor to wait for Wild Card and Jo Ann. They had been so quick and effeciant in their search (plus, they had already searched much of the ground floor when they had first arrived), that they were finished by the time the old Grandfather clock struck tweleve.
As the clock reached midnight and began its chime, strange thing began to happen. Small objects moved around the room. The lights went on and off by themselves. The eyes of the painting followed them as they moved around the room.
They watched as the organ began to play, at first, by itself. Then, very slowly, the figure of a woman appeared, pressing the keys, obviously the one playing the large instrument. The tune caused chills to run up and down Bob and Matrix's spines.
It was the Funeral March.
*~*~*
"REBOOT...I mean...REGROUP!" Wild Card cried in fright. He turned himself around, grabbed Jo Ann's arm, and ran back up the stairs, half-dragging her with him. As soon as they left the basement, they slammed the door shut, leaning against it as an additional barricade.
It was then that they heard the organ playing a chilling tune. Concerned about Bob and Matrix, Wild Card and Jo Ann bolted into the parlor.
They stopped short as they drew up next to Bob and Matrix. The four Guardians watched --and listened-- in cold terror as the ghost woman played the old organ.
Haunted by a game that also had images of the dead, Matrix was the first to find his voice.
"BAIL!!!!" As one, the four of them turned and ran out the front door, setting the all-time speed record for Mainframe's long-distance run. Before the clock even finished chiming, Bob, Jo Ann, Wild Card, and Matrix were back at Jo Ann and Wild Card's appartment in Kit's Sector. Exhausted by their head-long run, the four collapsed whereever they could and fell into a fitfull sleep.
*~*~*
The next morning, they were at Dot's Diner, discussing what to do.
"I say we go back," Jo Ann said.
"But if the ghosts don't want you there..." Enzo began. The small sprite could not believe that Bob, Wild Card, Jo Ann, and Matrix would allow themselves to be frightened away by ghosts.
"It wil be safe in the daytime, Enzo. And we have to finish inspecting that house."
"JoJo's right," said Matrix, embarressed that he had allowed something as incorporal as ghosts scare him from his great-grandparents' home. "We need to continue searching that place. But we can do it in the daytime, instead of at night. Agreed?" He put out his hand, palm down, and laid it on the table.
"Agreed," Bob placed his hand over Matrix's. Jo Ann quickly followed with her own. They looked over at Wild Card.
"Okay," Wild Card sighed, after a while. His hand covered Jo Ann's.
Another hand, red-black, with long nails, joined theirs.
I'm coming, this time," said Hexadecimal. No one wanted to refuse her help.
"Let's do it!" Matrix said. The five of them, four Guardians and an ex-virus, left the diner in the direction of the Matrix Mansion.
*~*~*
Bob, Wild Card, Jo Ann, Matrix, and Hexadecimal entered the spooky house. Bob led the way, a light shining from his hand like a flashlight. Causiously, they entered the parlor.
The living room was as they had left it. They sheets that had been covering the furniture was all in disarray where the four of them had slept during the storm. On the floor, the tracks of four Guardians could still be seen in the dust.
"Let's check the upstairs and the attic, now," Bob suggested. "We never got to investigate them last night.
"And this time, we stay together. No splitting up!" Jo Ann said.
"Right," Bob agreed. "This way." The chrome-armored Guardian led them up the grand staircase to the second floor.
A search of the upstairs revealed nothing important. The rooms remained as they had been for over a hundred hours, the furnature covered with sheets to keep the dust off. When they tried the faucet in the upstairs bathroom, what little water that came out was dirty, and full of rust from the old pipes.
"Nothing on the second floor," Bob said. "Let's try the attic." Carefully, they climbed the steps to the topmost room of the manor house. As soon as they were all in the room, Bob began to slowly move across, using the light he held to check every little space that he could.
He stopped when he came to a door.
"What do you think is behind there?" Jo Ann asked.
"We'll soon find out. Weapons ready!" he ordered.
Matrix had Gun out, and Wild Card pulled his own from its holster on his right hip. Jo Ann had Pixal ready, while Hexadecimal charged up a fireball. Bob was ready to switch from simple light to energy beams, if it was needed.
Carefully, Bob openned the door. It squeaked on its hinges as it swung forward.
"AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Hanging in the closet by a rope noose, was the decaying corpse of a man of undeterminable age. On the body's worn and dusty coat, was a note written in blood:
When midnight chimes the old hall clock,
And the organ plays a frightfull cord;
Then, will a ghostly girl in a flowing frock
Appear and show the way to the treasure hoard.
"Treasure?" Matrix asked.
"And the organ started playing the 'Funeral March' as the clock chimed twelve," said Bob.
"A very frightful cord at midnight," Jo Ann said.
"So what do we do now?" Wild Card asked.
"Simple," Matrix said. "We come back tonight and finish listening to that tune. We'll wait for the ghost-girl to appear and follow her."
"O...kay..." Wild Card rplied. "Just wondering."
"Then let's go home and get some rest. We'll meet at the diner and come back to the house together." Bob's face shown with determination. The five of them left Matrix Mansion and went home to rest up for the treasure hunt that night.
*~*~*
That night, the four Guardians, Hexadecimal, Mouse, AndrAIa, Dot, Hack and Slash all entered the mansion. Quietly, they surrounded the organ and waited for the haunting to begain.
"BONG!"
The air became freezing cold.
"BONG!"
Everything outside became deathly still.
"BONG!"
The clock began to glow.
"BONG!"
A vase levitated off a table and flew through the air, past them, to smash against the wall.
"BONG!"
The wind began to howl.
"BONG!"
A pair of candlesticks floated past them.
"BONG!"
The wind died down again.
"BONG!"
An owl began hooting.
"BONG!"
The organ began playing the "Funeral March".
"BONG!"
Ghostly hands appered on the keys.
"BONG!"
The ghost woman appeared at the organ, playing the morbid tune.
"BONG!"
At the final chime of the clock, the music stopped. A beautiful, young girl appeared, dressed in a flowing nightgown. Like Matrix, Dot, and Little Enzo, the girl was green-skinned, with dark green hair and violet eyes. She looked to be no more than sixteen.
The girl stared at them for a nano, then turned and walked up the stairs. The Mainframers followed her. She led them to a small bedroom, furnished for a young girl. The ghost-girl went u to the fireplace and touched a certain brick.
Matrix went to where the girl touched the brick, and touched it, himself. The fireplace openned to reveal a secret staircase. Still following the ghost, the Mainframers climbed the stairs.
Jo Ann, Wild Card, Bob, Matrix, Hexadecimal, Mouse, AndrAIa, Dot, Hack, and Slash followed the ghost-girl into a secret part of the attic. The room was furnished, much like the bedroom downstairs. Hundreds of hours of dust covered the bed, the vanitiy table, and mirror, chairs, and other items. The sheets on the bed and omenous-looking, dark-red stains on them. Blood?
The ghost-girl went up to a wall. She stopped, briefly, then passed through.
"Looks like we'll have to take this wall down, at least, at the part where she disappeared," said Matrix.
"Okay," agreed Dot. "Let's start digging." The Guardians and their companions begun to dig out the wall, wondering just what it was that they would find.
With the ten of them, the work did not take long. The Mainframers stared in shock at the sight inside the wall.
Within the wall, sealed there for ages, was the skeleton of a girl. The skeleton wore a long nightgown --the same as what the ghost-girl wore-- and had long, dark green hair. In the long-dead hand was another note. It read:
"Miss Marie Matrix Sept. 4, 1863
"I am sorry that I must report these sad tidings: A ship carring supplies and soldiers was attacked this morning at 0700. Of the over 200 new recruits that were on that ship, only 164 survivied. It is my deepest regret that Private Ben Atari was amound the dead.
"You have my deepest sympathy, Miss Matrix. May you fins some measure of happiness, even with this great sorrow.
Sincerely,
General William Yank"
"Apparently, she didn't," Matrix said softly. A tear rolled down from his uninjuried eye.
Mouse noticed another piece of paper lying on the floor near the body. She picked it up and read it aloud:
"If ya have reached this fur, ya are brave, indeed.
Search me fer tha key, find it near my lap,
An' before these remains go ta seed,
Look in my room fer tha map."
With a trembling hand, Mouse searched for the key and found it in a pocket in the nightgown. Then, with the other's help, she began to search for the map mentioned in the poem. They found it under a pillow on the bed. Together, the adventurers studied the ancient piece of paper.
"Between twin maple trees,
The grave dead center,
This is your starting point.
Go two graves down and five across,
At Heaven's door is one more key.
Follow it and set me free."
Following the map, our group found the golden key taped to one of the double doors of the old church. Matrix, in the lead, openned the doors, which were stuck from the long period of disuse. They entered the church.
Up on the alter, Mouse found a secret compartment in the pulpit. Within the small hole was an ornate, wooden box, trimmed in gold. It was locked with a golden lock.
"Give me tha key, sugah," Mouse said, holding out her hand. AndrAIa, who held the key, handed it to the hacker. Mouse inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The lock openned with a slight "click".
Causiously, but with much excitment, Mouse openned the coffer. Everyone's eyes went wide with what they saw.
Inside the small box was a golden locket, a stack of money, an engagement ring, and the deed to all the property on the hill: Matrix Mansion, the graveyard, the church, and the small apple orchard.
Smiling, Mouse handed the coffer to Dot. Dot gingerly took the box and held it in her hands.
"Let's get back to the diner," Dot said, in a ghost of a whisper.
*~*~*
Back at the diner, Dot sorted through the contents of the box. The locket was heart-shapped and had two pictures in it: The ghost-girl --Marie Matrix-- and a handsome, young man with purple skin and green hair that could only be Private Ben Atari. Dot remembered the note from General William Yank and felt a tear run fown her cheek for the star-crossed young couple. She gave the locket to AndrAIa. AndrAIa would replace the pictures with ones of her and Matrix.
The money came to seven thousand units. A small amount to the COMMAND.COM, who could authorize the use of billions of units. It was probibly Marie's dowery. Dot put the money into Enzo's education fund.
The engagement ring was a simple diamond, set in gold. Nothing fancy, which probibily meant that Ben Atari was a member of the middle class, as far as wealth was concerned. Marie must have had very understanding parents, for them to allow a young man that was poorer than they were to marry their daughter. Maybe. Dot strung the ring on the gold chain Bob got her for her birthday and placed it around her neck.
The deed was a serious matter. She really did not know what to do with it. The mansion was too far away for it to be usefull as a home for the COMMAND.COM. She needed to be in town, to live in the Principle Office. And Matrix and AndrAIa wanted to live inside the city limits, too.
"Wait!" Jo Ann snapped her fingers as an idea came to her. All turned toward her.
"What?" Wild Card asked. He and the others looked at her in puzzlement.
"Where does Hex live now?" Jo Ann asked.
They looked at each other, thinking about the question.
"With me, in the Principle Office," Dot answered.
"What if you gave the house to Hex? Shouldn't she have a house of her own?"
"Yes..." Dot's voice trailed off as she looked over to the ex-virus. "Would you like to live in the mansion, Hex?"
"Oh, yes!" Hexadecimal cried. As wonderful as the Principle Office was, Hex really needed a place of her own. And it was much better than letting the property go to waste.
"Then, it's settled!" Dot said. "I'll draw up a new deed and put the property in your name. It's yours but for the signing."
"Thank you, Dot!" Hex smiled happily.
And we'll all come and help you fix it up," Bob vollenteered.
"Don't worry about it, dear Guardian," Hex said, still smiling. "I'll attend to that little matter, myself."
The Mainframers looked at each other, wondering what Hex had meant by that. Trying to imagine how Hexadecimal would "fix up" the house, they could only give a shudder.
THE END
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! ^_^