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The Naked City Chronicles Chapter 1 (reboot) - Your Favourite Nightmare

MsBloom

MsBloom

Moonchild
Joined
Jul 24, 2020
Location
Northern Europe
The Naked City Chronicles
Chapter 1 - Your Favourite Nightmare ​



Narrated by @Colonel_Liam

Character:Player:
Jane Marie, Jamie@MsBloom
Spencer Purcell@SurreptitiousApple Character has been eliminated.
Dr. Lea Thomas@LeaT
Kayce Lawton@InsaynePayne

Naked City OoC.

So this is where we will coordinate, organise and discuss plot and character ideas for The Naked City Chronicles. https://bluemoonroleplaying.com/community/threads/131778/ These are the stories currently running: https://bluemoonroleplaying.com/community/threads/140032/post-3353906
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Naked City - The Cast.

Name: Age: Species: Height/Weight: Gender Identity: (including preferred pronouns) Sexual Orientation: Profession: Distinguishing features: Which chapter of The Naked City Chronicles the character appears in: Kinks favoured by the character: Kinks favoured by the player: Biography: The Naked...
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The mansion was nowhere near as old as the city it occupied, yet somehow it gave the impression it had always been there and the city had grown around it. Even it's Victorian architecture and white marble, now smeared with soot, vines, and a patina of neglect still seemed timeless to anyone who found themselves staring at the abandoned house.

However that wasn't many people or often. The house was part of local history, everyone learned about its history in school, but somehow everyone seemed to forget it was there despite its prominent position and the gruesome stories that surrounded it. Something about the building repelled the average onlooker. Which was just the way the house wanted it, that is until it was time to feed.

It's time had come again, and over the past few weeks, a malign influence had spread like tendrils over the city, reaching for the minds of those who harbored dark secrets and desires, drawing them together outside the gates at the foot of the hill.
 
It was eight days now since Jamie had last heard from Su-Ji, one of the unfortunate kids she had once shared the gatehouse to the mansion with, one of her best friends and casual lover. She had asked around on the streets, called her phone over and over but eventually not even gotten any signals at all. Su-Ji did of course occasionally wander off on her own whenever she had picked up work suited to her special talents, (talents that were uncannily similar to those of Jamie herself possessed), usually some sort of criminal activity but sometimes also working with a group of vigilantes that metered out justice where they saw fit, or whenever the NCPD failed to do so, but only once before in the five years the two had known each-other had Su-Ji been gone for more than three days without contacting Jamie, either to let her know she was alright, or just to let her know she would be scarce for a while.

She stood in the shadows across the street from one of three entrances to Greenfield Park, smoking looking up at another shadow, that of an old abandoned mansion that had once served as her home, but that was before Red, before she got clean. Behind her, on the opposite shore of Lake Mirkwater stood another large old building Mirkwater Penitentiary for the Criminally Insane, a place she dreaded she might eventually end up calling home. There was no light on in any of the windows of the mansion yet it still seemed to glow faintly in the light of the full moon.

It was now a full day since Kayce another of her friends from the streets had contacted her and asked if she wanted a job guiding a small group of explorers and paranormal investigators into the mansion. After all Jamie knew the place but it seemed the main reason for it was that she had a reputation of being one of very few that had made it deep into The Zone that more or less surrounded The Naked City and more, it was rumoured that she had touched the infamous Golden Orb. Whether or not she had she usually let people think she had because it did give her work that didn't involve using her body as a commodity.

She killed the cigarette, lit another and her green eyes began to glow faintly as she saw what could only be the group she was waiting for approaching.

@LeaT
 
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Dr. Lea Thomas emerged from Mirkwater Penitentiary for the Criminally Insane trying, but failing, to hide the look of impatient confusion on her face. The newly posted Psychology professor wasn't there to see a patient however by the time she was done, she wished it had been that simple. The Warden had been one of the few champions that helped her land her new job. She had assumed her summons to the Penitentiary would have been either a legitimate consultation or an informal payback of a sexual nature. As she stood looking across the lake towards the mansion, she would have preferred to give the old man a blow job.

She looked at the distance and debated whether to drive or walk, she wasn't a regular exercise kind of woman but opted for the walk as it would take longer. She was in no hurry to meet her guide for this nonsensical adventure into the 'paranormal' nature of the local morons who believed, apparently, in something like witchcraft. The Warden, whether truthful or not, had assured her that it was just local superstition but it was important for her to understand the effect it had on the communal psyche of Naked City.

The fact that her temper was simmering just below the surface of an otherwise calm exterior caused her to walk faster than normal. Her heels clicking noisily upon the sidewalk might draw her guide's attention before she would notice the tall redhead, boobs bouncing with each deliberate step. She had never met Jaimie but the Warden's description made it clear enough that this was the guide as she made a bee line for the black leather jacket of the smoking teen (or so she looked). "You must be Jamie." She said in a not particularly 'glad to meet you' demeanor. "I guess I'm here to enjoy the tour tonight." She said as her eyes took in the young girl, doing her best to keep a professionally detached look on her face to hide her disdain for this entire idea.

@SurreptitiousApple
 
Spencer Purcell kicked at the gravel that had loosed from a nearby pothole. A small rock bounced several times and settled into the middle of the street, just before a passing truck knocked it once more out of sight. His car was late. The fresh Naked City immigrant was beginning to wonder whether he'd been taken for a ride, by not being taken on the ride he had paid for up-front. The few taxi services he had called all refused the trip the moment he mentioned the mansion, so he'd opted to solicit for ride services on the internet, knowing full well the risks that entailed. No cost was too great for discovery, after all.

A car with a single broken headlight rattled noisily up next to him, its body dented and greying, speckled with rust and bird droppings. Spencer climbed carefully into the backseat and swung his satchel around his body and into his lap. As the car made its way toward the mansion gates at the bottom of the hill, the young doctorate student pulled out his notebook and scribbled "Unknown - Ride to Mansion - $200" just below the lines that said "Kayce - Access - $500" and "Flashlight - $40". "No cost too great..." he murmured to himself.

The mansion had been the biggest reason he'd moved to Naked City and then spent the greater part of the week trying to figure out how to get inside. Fortune finally looked favorably upon him and put him in touch with someone claiming to be from the streets. They promising him not just access but a personal guide, and said guide, he presumed as the car pulled up, was the one whose face was lit from the glow of the cigarette. Next to her was a buxom redhead who didn't look nearly as eager to be here as he was, though he didn't mind the company.

He stepped out of the vehicle right in front of the two, his heart beating with excitement and his mind buzzing with anticipation. He smiled at them, looked up at the mansion with both hands on his hips, and drew in a deep breath. The thick cloud of dust kicked up by the car and rancid smoke blown from Jamie's lips burned his lungs.

By way of introduction, he coughed.

@InsaynePayne
 
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Having enjoyed the view of her breasts bouncing with each quick, yet perhaps cautious step as she approached Jamie looked the older woman over and nodded in response.
She wasn't bad looking at all. Nice curves and a beautiful, pale face that almost seemed to defy the darkness. It was the woman's age and in parts also the way she dressed that made Jamie assume that this was Professor Thomas.

She had been told the names of the three persons she was to help gain access to the generally spooky mansion that she had for a brief period a few years back had called home. If you could call a damp, draughty gate house, no running water or working plumbing shared with between six to ten other kids home. Among those kids she had been the only one who had dared explore the grounds further and there were times when she did that she would rather stumble through The Zone drunk and high. The place was scary as fuck, the paintings in the upstairs gallery in particular. They moved, seemed to follow you as you walked past them. She had also had a constant feeling of actually being followed.

In the basement there had been screams and crying, an endless choir of pained voices. She had seen apparitions that could not be explained by a mere play of shadows and light. She really must be out of her mind to have agreed to do what she was about to to, guide three persons, all with their own motivation, into what everyone seemed to agree was the singularly most haunted building known to the world. It wasn't just its bloody history which in itself was enough but there was something else, something dormant.
"That I am," she eventually said and nodded again.
"Though I wouldn't call it a tour and I wouldn't call it enjoyable," she added and looked towards the street where a beat up old car that just barely seemed to hold together had just pulled up.
She assumed that the young man who stepped out of it with a satchel swung around his body was the next of the unfortunates she was to guide that night to arrive. Now it was just Kayce that was still missing, Kayce who had been the one to approach her about getting the group into the mansion and to keep them as safe as possible.

@Colonel_Liam / @LeaT
 
Lea knew well the look of eyes taking in her voluptuous form. She didn't mind, indeed she enjoyed the look whether from a man or a woman. She was new in town and it never hurt to make friends so she gave Jamie a warm smile. "How about we skip the whole thing then and go have some drinks?" Her smile broadened despite, or perhaps because of, the dark girl's brooding demeanor. "But I need you tell my sponsor we went all the same." She gave her younger girl a conspiratorial wink.

The mood shifted a bit as an old car drove up and disgorged a rather excited young man who looked a bit too eager for Lea's liking. He had the look of a true believer and her sudden fantasy of slipping off for drinks and sex quickly dissolved.

"Don't you look like an eager beaver?" She said in her sultry voice but not with much hope of distracting the young man.

Crossing her arms under her breasts she sighed. "We might as well get it over with then." She suggested to her guide, not knowing she was expecting another.
 
Spencer patted his chest a few times and took another deep breath to clear his lungs.

"Are we judging books by our covers now?" he asked rhetorically. "How trite." His voice was low and grainy, which was incongruous with his otherwise blundering and bookish appearance. He assumed incorrectly that the curvaceous woman was somehow issuing a challenge and, feeling it a game, decided he needed to play along. "If it's my turn then..." his voice trailed off as his eyes looked her up and down, tracing over the contours of her body and boring into her ample chest. He got the sense that this was hardly the first time she'd been admired in this fashion. "Well, I conclude that you must have many friends."

And you," he said, turning to look at Jamie. He repeated his scrutiny, but the mischievous look on his face faded. "You've the look of someone who's intimately familiar with this place and this city. It's no wonder you're our guide."

As he spoke, his hand had reached into his satchel and fumbled around for his portable tape recorder. Journaling this experience would be nigh impossible in the dark, so this was the next best thing. Spencer hoped that eight tapes would be enough for the night as he clicked the large red button on the side.

"I am stood outside the gates at the foot of the hill leading to the mansion. With me are two others, of which I know nothing about other than it appears that our levels of enthusiasm for tonight's endeavors... do not match. What waits beyond these gates? I hope to find out soon."

"I was given the impression that one... Kayce, would also be in attendance. Is she not here yet?" he asked, replacing the device in his bag.

@MsBloom @InsaynePayne
 
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As the pair engaged in what seemed like a half-serious argument over appearances and what they said about them Jamie's phone vibrated in her pocket. It was a message from Kayce saying she had had business to take care of at the gate house, business Jamie wondered if it might be related to Sun Ji's disappearance. Perhaps it did and perhaps that was a part of why Kayce had approached her to begin with, not that the money wasn't good, they had to be to get anyone to voluntarily go into the mansion.

She put away her phone and cleared her throat just as the man in front of her turned to look at her, making his comments, only to then turn his attention to his tape recorder, a curiously obsolete device, a digital recorder with a memory chip would have been far more effective. It didn't bother Jamie though. It wasn't she making notes in such an old-fashioned way.

When he turned back to mention Kayce asking if she had not yet arrived Jamie nodded.
"As it happens," she said and cast a glance up the hill at the old building that seemed to glow in the full moon light.
"That was her just now. She's waiting for us up at the gate house. So how about we get this show on the road, or rather this nightmare."
She stuck her hands into her pockets, turned her back at the pair and started making her way up the once neatly paved driveway, now cracked with roots and overgrown in places with bushes and weeds.

Just as she turned left towards the gate house rather than continuing straight towards the mansion a large cloud passed by the moon, covering it entirely. The mansion however still seemed glow, perhaps more without the obvious light source from the moon than with, as if the glow came from within the building itself, as if the building itself created the glow.

@LeaT / @Colonel_Liam
 
Lea was about to resign herself to continuing on their odd little journey but the bookish she was ready to ignore showed a snarky side that both amused and annoyed her. But she listened as he continued, recognizing the educated arrogance typical of many first year grad students. He was a pompous one, inflated with his own high opinion of himself, it reflexively made her want to look for a pin to pop his swelling ego.

"Yes please continue..." She goaded him on, asking if she was absolutely hanging on his every word. Watching his eyes follow her curves gave her own ego a boost, especially as they lingered upon her chest.

She laughed confidently at his comment about her having many friends. "You're half right sport. I'm new in town so I don't have many friends here." But there was no request for pity in her voice and she turned toward their guide. "But I am very friendly." She winked at the dark haired modern day witch wannabe, having more than her fill of the cerebral know it alls of the world.

Her attention shifting back to the boy as he began to talk into a tape recorder. She gave the guide a 'can you believe this' look with a shrug of her shoulders. Wondering if he was putting on an act for them.

When a fourth member of their party was mentioned it became clear both the others knew more about what was going on than she had learned from the warden. She was going into this rather blind, but had she believed what the other two knew about the mansion there was zero chance she would have proceeded a step closer.

'Nightmare?' Lea smiled to herself, their witch guide certainly knew how to play this thing up for maximum affect. She guessed it was part of the show, she might have made a snide remark to Mr. Tape Recorder but he had seemed just a bit too eager for all this and she didn't want to spoil his fun.

Lea had certainly seen more enthusiastic acting from a guide than what Jamie was putting on, but the cloud covering the moon at just that moment did give her a chill. She found herself angling a bit close towards 'tape recorder' even if he didn't seem the chivalrous type. She did a little acting herself, pretending to stumble in her heels, as an excuse to grab his arm and pull it close. Close enough he would feel the swell of her breast against his bicep. "You don't mind do you?" She asked, willingly letting her uncertainty be heard in her voice. She was at least considerate enough to not commandeer his tape recorder hand so he could at least take his notes. She didn't care to admit she was old enough to have used such a device herself back in the day.
 
"Nightmare?" He stared incredulously after Jamie as she turned toward the mansion. He hadn't expected others to share his motivations for embarking on this ill-advised adventure, but he had hoped that at least a modicum of respect might be paid to his efforts. Who else could boast being one of the original founders of the Paranormal History department at their college? With a furrowed brow an an exasperated huff, he started to follow the guide on the foot trek towards the mansion. "One person's nightmare is another's dream come true..." he muttered under his breath.

Spencer had noticed the redhead becoming friendlier with him over time, despite early signs of her disinterest in the group and the idea as a whole to begin with. He hadn't the patience, especially in light of the relative rarity an opportunity like this presented, for anything that would distract him from giving it his fullest attention. But as a warm-blooded male that relished in the company of others romantically, sexually, or otherwise, his biology dictated that he afford at least some regard for the fetching creature beside him. So as they made their way up the hill and she grabbed and held onto his arm after a brief stumble, he made no effort to remove her. "I don't mind at all," he replied.

The chest pressed against his arm was soft and buoyant. And although his mind drifted fleetingly to more impure thoughts, his eye stayed glued to the figure in front of him, following the black jacket that was outlined silver in the odd glow emanating from the mansion, and the wisps of smoke trailing from her lips and her lit cigarette. In the dull quiet of the night, he flicked on his tape recorder again and whispered a note, "Overgrowth indicates nothing noteworthy with regard to paranormal activity, but does establish length of neglect on the order of years instead of months or weeks."

"I don't believe I caught your name. I'm Spencer," he said, turning toward his companion.

@MsBloom @InsaynePayne
 
"You better hope your's don't come true then," Jamie said indicating that her hearing was well above that of a normal human's but didn't stop or turn back to look at the overly eager guy who seemed to think it was all just another adventure, another piece in his collection of experiences he could brag about to his friends, if indeed he had any which she somehow doubted.

The gatehouse was just a large room with an alcove, just large enough for a three quarter bed to fit, and a small kitchenette attached to it. The larger room was however littered with mattresses on which eight ragged looking creatures of the human kind huddled, minding their own business. None of them seemingly over eighteen. Some seemed to be eating other's preparing a drug of some sort, others just sitting there as if waiting to fall asleep or perhaps to go out into the night to do whatever it was they did to survive.

Jamie walked right in without indicating to the two that were following her whether they should follow her inside or not.
"Kayce?" she asked an androgynous creature with long bright pink hair hanging in stripes in front of their pale face.
"Kay.ce," they replied in a detached growling sort of voice, as if speaking was a strenuous activity, and shook their head without looking up at Jamie.
Jamie nodded that she had understood. Kayce wasn't there, had not been there. She took out her phone to confirm that Kayce had said she was already at the gatehouse. Perhaps she had not gone inside. Perhaps she had decided to search the area around the gatehouse for any clues as to what might have happened to Su-Ji, not that Jamie for a second thought there would be any. She was fairly certain exactly where Su-Ji had gone and as she looked out the dirty window facing the mansion she nodded to herself. Perhaps Kayce was waiting at the hidden entrance, the only one that was reasonably safe.

Behind the gatehouse there was a small dilapidated gardening shed and as Jamie came back out she motioned to the older woman and the eager guy to follow her into it. There she pried open a hatch in the floor. She took out a small flash light and shone it into the opening. There was a rusty ladder going down about twelve feet. She then looked up at the other two with a crooked smile, her eyes glowing briefly as she did, as if to give them one last chance to turn back and return to a world of relative sanity before starting the climb down.

@LeaT @InsaynePayne @Colonel_Liam
 
As it felt the first of it's prey approaching, the house, or rather the entity that had slowly worked it's way into the essence of the house roused itself. It had slowly spread it's influence into the stone and wood of the main building, but in times of hibernation it withdrew it's essence from some of the outer rooms and outbuildings, letting weaker prey take refuge within. Usually the human detritus that squatted in the perimeter provided little sport, but occasionally there was a worthwhile snack, or the strange connection that tied prey together would draw a more worthy offering.

It could feel such offering drawing near now. As Jamie opened the trap door to the basement and jumped into the darkness, a voice called out from the hallway that led deeper into the house. "Jamie? Is that you?". Even with a flashlight there was no sign of anyone beyond the voice that Jamie would recognize as Su-ji's.


Around the tresspassers, the basement room was bedecked with old mattresses, blankets, pillows, clothes, and food wrappers, along with an old television, and some book, pornography magazines, and drug paraphenilia. The belongings of the young people who called this place their home, or at least a bolt hole. However, no one was present.

@LeaT @InsaynePayne @MsBloom
 
"Nice to meet you Spencer." She said then paused before offering her name. "I guess if you are a student at the university, you will call me Dr. Thomas. If not, you can call me Lea." She said, still not surrendering his arm.

Lea had a disbelieving look on her face as her guide and the boy argued over dreams and nightmares. To her it was all just hype, obviously the guide wanted people to think this was going to be something edgy, scary, maybe even dangerous. The boy was eating it up, it was a fascinating dynamic between them as each seemed to feed the other. It could be a case study if she were more interested in research but it really just made her want to laugh.

She was more concerned when the peeked into the gatehouse. Every city had their human refuse which tended to gather in various places and this was Naked City's, or at least one of them. Their age tugged at her heart a bit, so young and while she was no longer the most committed of educators (if she ever was) she did feel sorry for them. It seems this would be a better use of her patrons time than worrying about some superstitious mumbo jumbo.

Her sympathy died down as she founder herself staring down at a ladder going into a black hole. "You've got to be kidding me?" She said, giving an exasperated look to their guide, her patience for this was wearing thin. Had her job not potentially rode on humoring her sponsor, she would have told the witch where she could stick that ladder. She looked from the guide to the boy and back again. "After you." She said simply to which ever one wanted to be the first.

Once down in the basement she looked around. Not really wanting to touch anything but she saw the old porn magazines. She nudged one with her shoe and nodded to Spender. "About the same vintage as your tape recorder I bet." She gave him a smile, enjoying some good natured fun with the all too serious student.

@InsaynePayne @Colonel_Liam @MsBloom
 
"Not even a little," Jamie replied to the older woman when she asked if she was kidding her.
"This is the only safe way into the mansion and even this has it's risks since it leads directly to the room where they found nearly a hundred murdered women a century ago. You can still hear them moaning in pain and sometimes see them reliving their deaths and the traumas leading up to it."
Jamie then lowered herself down onto the ladder and climbed down, shaking her head at what was left over from the time when she had lived her and the street kids had used the tunnel to sleep in as well, and lit her flashlight again. In a way it reminded her of a tomb.

She took a deep breath and was just about to start down the long narrow passage that had been built as an escape tunnel at some point when she heard Su-Ji calling out. She shone her flashlight down the passage but it revealed nothing but a few more strewn mattresses and beyond that nothing but darkness.
"Su-Ji?" she called back and started walking towards where the voice had come from, ignoring the other two as she did.
"Su-Ji are you there? Is Kayce with you?"
She walked a few more feet but the light still revealed nothing but a continuing darkness she knew would eventually lead to a wooden door that was barely clinging on to its hinges.
"Su-Ji? Kayce? Anyone?"

@Colonel_Liam @InsaynePayne @SurreptitiousApple
 
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"Wouldn't wish it any other way," the grad student said in response to the professor's invitation to climb before her. Spencer fished inside his satchel for his own flashlight and then followed Jamie down the ladder. When his feet touched the gritty floor at the bottom, he dragged his spotlight over every surface and every object in the immediate vicinity, lingering on one of several small piles of pornographic materials strewn about the room just long enough for Lea to walk over and tap it with her foot.

"Mmm yes. They certainly don't make them like they used to..." he replied wistfully. He didn't often share this openly, but as a passionate student of history there was no era, no subject, no medium too beneath him to study or appreciate, and this included the likes of such culturally significant publications as Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler. He'd had his favorites, to be sure.

Spencer kneeled down to rifle through some of the pages, prepared to share some of his knowledge with the good professor, but his attention was wrested away by the unexpected calls of Jamie's voice attempting to pierce the darkness. It wasn't a name he recognized, the one their guide was speaking, though it clearly bore some significance to their guide. Not wanting to be left behind by the very person responsible for leading him through the mansion, he stood up.

As he did, he flipped on his recorder and spoke, "Our guide appears to be calling out in the direction of the room at the end of a long hallway, on what is nearly the centennial of the mass murder of almost one hundred women. Are we witnessing a haunting come to life or merely the search for a lost lamb to return her to her flock?"

He wrapped up by replacing the recorder into his satchel, and then, with flashlight in hand, he offered the other to Lea and began to follow Jamie once more.

@Colonel_Liam @InsaynePayne @LeaT
 
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Despite his haughty and erudite demeanor, the boy at least had manners, and was better prepared for this adventure than she had been. She had no flashlight so her eyes tended to follow whatever Spencer was illuminating at the moment. She gave a small nervous laugh at his comment about the porn, wondering if he meant the magazines or the models. In a more normal setting it might have sparked a conversation of its own, but this was hardly a normal situation. She was definitely going to give that Warden a stern word or two when she finished with this wild goose chase.

As the boy knelt down to examine the refuse more closely, Lea rolled her eyes, she was definitely not that interested in decades old porn or any of the other trash (as she saw it) laying about. 'She gave another eye roll as he dutifully recorded his findings as if this haunted house side show was something worthy of actual research. She felt like she was in junior high again being dared to go along to the graveyard or some other nocturnal ritual of adolescence. Usually just an excuse to get close to someone in the dark, which she didn't mind at all, but she had since learned much more comfortable ways to induce intimacy.

She turned her attention to the guide who was calling out to someone, probably an accomplice. She was becoming impatient for the big fright and what she hoped would be the punch line of this little joke, at least then it might be near over. They began to move deeper into the mansion's basement, following the the guide calling out for Su-Ji, whoever the hell that was. She quickly took the offered hand of the grad student, more for the need to follow his light than an encouragement of intimacy. But the atmosphere did send a chill down her spine and she found herself pulling his hand to her chest, the back of his hand pressed into her cleavage by her own. This pulled her closer to him which nearly had them joined at the hip as she cautiously proceeded behind their witch guide.

@Colonel_Liam @MsBloom @SurreptitiousApple @InsaynePayne
 
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No matter how much further into the darkness Jamie walked there was still nothing at the end of the light beam but more darkness, and yet the voice kept calling her name. Step by step she walked deeper into the tunnel, still hoping that she would find her friend, perhaps both of them, even if so far she had not heard Kayce calling her name. Then the door finally came into view at the end of the light beam and she realised that there was no Su-Ji at the end of the tunnel. She heard steps behind her and it took her long enough to remember that she was not alone in the tunnel for her to turn around and shine the light in the eyes of anyone following behind her.
"Ok. So this is the door that leads to the basement," she said after a few deep breaths ad looked towards the two light beams that had come up behind her.
"Behind it begin the Mansion proper and as if it needed to be said I recommend that beyond the door you do not trust anything you see hear or feel. Stay close together, unless of course you want to take this opportunity to turn back and return to the world of relative sanity."
Jamie had been inside the mansion a few times in her life, not recently though, but rather than going into The Zone after Red's disappearance, she had tested her heightened talents and perception there while living in the gatehouse.

Still the voice that had drawn her towards the door was new. It could be an indication that the haunting that possessed the house had increased, grown stronger and more deliberate.
Jamie ... the voice returned, this time it came from behind the door, from inside the mansion, from where it had perhaps been coming all the time.
She stiffened and listened. If this was the mansion calling, and it was quite unlikely that it wasn't then it meant that it knew She was there, that it could sense her essence. Before opening the door she looked at the other two who were now more in focus wondering if they too had heard the voice and if they too had heard it calling specifically for them.

@SurreptitiousApple @Colonel_Liam
 
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The darkness was almost suffocating this far down and this deep into the tunnel. The beam of light that shone out from Spencer's flashlight acted as his and Lea's only lifeline. He could feel the warmth that enveloped his hand ebb and flow with each breath she took as they continued to follow the back Jamie's jacket and the quiet shuffle of her feet against the floor up until the moment she stopped and turned around.

When she spoke Spencer frowned, the shallow lines between his brows creasing in their usual spots. The mere suggestion to turn back was preposterous. "I won't even begin to entertain the idea of returning now. If you think the idea of a haunted mansion truly being haunted were any deterrent for me, then you have me mistaken for someone else. Besides, there's no sanity back there, just well-disguised madness. At least here, if it is as you claim, we can trust that all things are untrustworthy."

He was getting a bit worked up over the idea that his guide offered to walk out after all that he'd gone through to set up this visit. Had there been enough in the group to secure a majority vote to leave, he may have lost his only chance to research this historic site. For a moment, he was thankful Kayce hadn't shown up yet. Or maybe Jamie was frightened herself. She seemed to respond to a voice he could not hear, and therefore it was plausible she was looking for a way to back out by disguising it as an offer for her guests. Perhaps there was something to be afraid of in the ancient home.

He gave Lea's hand a squeeze for reassurance; for her if she needed it, for him to bolster his resolve. "I'm ready to proceed."

@LeaT @Colonel_Liam @InsaynePayne
 
The door Jamie opened up into a hallway. To the left was what looked like a musty and badly abused kitchen, pans, pots, and various utensils scattered on the ground, along with the shards of what might have once been expensive, antique tableware. The darkness obscured what else might lie beyond.


Directly ahead of them was another broken door, where a small closet bathroom that had clearly been badly maintained by the vagrants who lived in the houses perimeter, the door hanging by a single hinge. Another interior door within the bathroom led the infamous storage room, that had once housed the dismembered bodies of nearly 100 abducted women.
To the right was the the main landing of the first floor, a battered hardwood floor with a double pair of winged stairwells that led to the second floor, where the art collections was housed. The landing itself formed a cross intersection, two more arched hallways leading off in the direction away from the door and the hallway the party was coming from.

Perhaps the most interesting thing of the house, the one piece of seemingly unspoiled beauty of it, was the large dome of stained glass that was centered on the ceiling, almost like an observatory. Anyone who had lived int he Naked city for long would know that this window caught the sun and moonlight in strange ways, the glass glowing like a multicolored eye.
 
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"What is your game? Who are you talking to?" Lea asked impatiently as they eventually caught up to their supposed guide who was clearly setting them up for some sort of fright to further enhance the reputation of this supposedly haunted mansion. She had only heard the guide's voice, suggesting she was responding to someone from another realm, or much more probably following her script. Lea had been to haloween haunted houses before and in her younger years enjoyed the spine tingling sensation of it all. She smiled as the grad student made his pronouncements about madness but she could feel the stress in his tightening grip. But she was also aware that strong emotions fed on each other and it wouldn't be the first time in her life that a good fright led to even better sex.

"Oh yes indeed, we must move forward." She said, barely concealing her sarcasm. She was preparing herself for an accomplice or a prop to jump out at them and give them a good scare. Her only worry was that this was the overall safety of the place. Commercial haunted houses still had to follow safety rules but there seemed to be no such caution taken here. This was low budget, and her nose crnkled as the evidence of a non-functioning bathroom reached her nose.

"How much did you pay for this tour sport?" She asked, wondering how this could possibly be a money maker on any legitimate level. She had assumed the Warden had paid her admission as she certainly hadn't and wouldn't have for this kind of cheap thrill. He certainly seemed to have bought into the idea.

She expected someone in dark clothes to jump out at them, even though she was prepared she still knew she would probably scream and throw herself bodily at the boy. But what happened next to her was well beyond her expectations. For the briefest of moments the dark and the smell were gone. The hallway was lit, dimly but it. The kitchen smelled of cooking had a warmth to it, and the bathroom door was closed properly. And as soon as it flashed before her eyes it was gone.

"How did you do that?" She asked in genuine wonder, speaking to their guide in the stench, filth, and darkness once more.

@MsBloom @SurreptitiousApple @Colonel_Liam
 
Jamie had stood frozen for a moment just inside the door, listening for the source of the voice but now as the other two arrived behind her she took a deep breath and focused. The old kitchen to the left was a dead end that ended with a food elevator that might at best be large enough to carry one person had it worked, to the right the stairs and the landing leading to the main hallway might look like a tempting way to go but Jamie knew it was blocked off or rather cut off by a dilapidated staircase. There was another set of stairs though, one that had been used by the staff that had once served the inhabitants of the house, at the other end of the storage room ahead of them.
"Did what? Jamie asked and turned to look at the two she was guiding still thinking it was about the voice she herself had heard.
She then shrugged and said that if neither of them was interested in dilapidated staircases or abandoned kitchens filled with crushed china and rusty cookware then they should move on.

As she turned back around and opened the broken door wide enough to pass through it she heard the voice of Su-Ji again, calling from some indistinguishable place within the house. She closed her eyes and mumbled to herself, and perhaps also to the source of the voice.
"I'm coming Su-Ji don't worry, I'm coming for you."

@SurreptitiousApple @Colonel_Liam
 
Thinking that the comely professor was serious about her inquiry, Spencer responded. "So far I have spent upwards of $1000 on this rare opportunity," he said, his eyes, alongside his flashlight beam, glancing over the aged hallway. "While I am loathe to invest in any single venture that has no guarantees of a return, I believe it to be more than justified in this case; the potential for truly ground-breaking discovery was too valuable to pass up."

Gravel crunched beneath his feet as he followed behind their guide once again, pausing only when she did though for reasons Spencer had yet to understand. She was either feigning hearing a voice or actually was hearing one, in which case the Ph.D. student's investment had already borne some fruit. Though without his own supernatural experience, or one for his newfound partner latched to his hand, there would be very little he could turn into meaningful research.

When suddenly, the professor asked a question that seemed devoid of any context. Do what? he wondered. Confused, he questioned her in return. "Our guide didn't do a thing. Did you hear something? See something?" His eyes and his light darted around the hallway, searching for evidence of anything out of the ordinary, hoping to catch even the denouement of some supernatural event, but turned up disappointed. Their guide seemed similarly confused, drawn in by her own unique experience that was shared with neither of them.

As Jamie called out for her friend once more, as yet spurred on by a voice he could not detect, Spencer's hand grew clammy and his heart raced, though more out of excitement than fear. He trained his flashlight down the hallway and over her shoulder and continued to follow.

"Will we see the room, then?" he whispered to Jamie somewhat impatiently. "The one with the women? Or must we find your partner first? I'd like to remind you that I paid expecting to see the entirety of the house."

@LeaT @MsBloom @Colonel_Liam
 
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