The Ghoul-Getters!

Sheila led the way to the mansion, only stopping at the doors. She reached for the door handle, then yanked her hand away. Growling, she turned and tried to hide her actions. "Well?" she demanded. "I got the gate, one of you guys can get the door."

She wiped her hand on the side of her black hoodie, mentally cursing whatever part of her OCD brain that kicked in when she was about to enter a home uninvited.

Edited by Nodrog on Feb 14th 2024 at 12:26:21 PM

Cole, standing right next to Sheila, steps forward. One hand on the doorknob, the other with the fingers crossed behind his back, he mutters "Here goes nothin'..." and opens the door slowly.

Cam feels visibly anxious while Cole is opening the door. So he holds a BB gun with his free hand and puts his camera closer to his eyes, using its night vision more effectively to see possible danger.

The door audibly creaked open, with the little moonlight from outside being let in. It was followed by the camera’s small light.

The mansion was something to behold, from what little the group could see. There was no sign of life, with the exception of the layers of dust on every surface. From the small desks to the aging floorboards. Hollow sounds when they were stepped on. A small staircase on both sides of the hall opened to a second floor. Above it was a chandelier that hadn’t been lit in decades. In the centre of it was a flowerpot with a shrivelled up, browned plant. They found the madhouse. It was time to find the alleged maid.

Sheila looks to see as much as she can through the open doorway, not stepping inside the building until one of the other two goes in and then either asks or tells her to come in (or she sees something else she can accept as an invitation).

Against his better judgement, Cam takes the first step inside the mansion. He is seen shaking as he does so, clearly looking afraid.

"Guys, if I'm being real right now, I'm so terrified." Cam said quietly but frightfully. "If I see anything moving in my camera, I'm shooting it." Not that a BB gun would be a would cause too much physical damage, it would just hurt really bad. So there's nothing to worry about too much.

An eerie wind passes over Cam as he steps into the mansion. It seemed like he was entering on sacred ground. A place that despite all its dust and cold air, was still inhabited. The night vision camera picked up more clearly what was initially seen, including a small painting of the houses former owners.

From what the team could gather of the place, the owners were named Marianne and Joseph Terrace. Two old money folks descended from the founders of Metus. No one really liked them, but they seemed fine up in their mansion a ways away. That was until they hired a maid. Her name is unknown, but what is, is that she hated the couple with a passion. And one night, she snapped.

Sheila grumbles, tapping her foot impatiently just outside the house. "Come on, my dad's home office is creepier then this place. Keep moving and find us a spot to set up our equipment."

"Ah! Yes, Ma'am!" Cam responded quickly and obediently. Just before finding a spot though, he quickly set up 3 standing cameras: one pointed at the door, one beside it, and one pointed at the hallway.

After a while, he eventually comes back outside to report his findings. "Guys, I think we can cover more ground if we go to the 2nd floor."

Sheila sighs, still on the door step. "Cover it in what, our own blood?" she says, hoping she's not going to have to choose between staying outside all night or confessing about her OCD.

"What?" Cam says, raising an eyebrow. "No. I meant cover more area. You know, allow us to see better and stuff?"

After making some weird arm gestures, sighed. "Look, if you want to be more sure, I can just use my drone to check the area. That way if an attack happens, it will take the fall instead of us." Though, secretly, Cam doesn't want to admit that he only brought 4 standing cameras and already set up 3.

Investigating further into the mansion, the group’s eyes adjusted to the near-darkness inside. They could see smaller details, such as the size of stairs and the rickety walls around them.

They could see a few entrances. One door to the left, another hidden off to the right (seemingly intended to be not noticeable), and a third opening on the second floor’s even darker hallway.

Sheila stands at the doorway, giving Cam the stink-eye. "It's like you've never even watched a movie. Let's split up to cover more ground is right up there with saying that absolutely nothing can go wrong."

Edited by Nodrog on Feb 21st 2024 at 10:06:28 AM

"I mean..." Cam eyes awkwardly wonder off for a bit, trying to look for a proper answer. "if you want, we can just... stick together." At this point, he doesn't even know what to say that would remove Sheila's dislike of him.

Cole crosses his arms with an unamused look on his face. "Hate to say it, Cam, but... I hafta agree with Sheila on this," he says, slightly leaning on the nearest wall, "Not to sound egotistical, but I think I'd know."

"Ok ok! I get it!" Cam says, flailing his hands around, "But how about instead of going inside the mansion," Cam then put his bag down and opened it, "we use this instead!". Cam then pulled out a drone. It looked just about as bit as his body, begging the question as to how he even fit it inside his bag.

Sheila frowns at how large the drone is. "Is that thing safe to use indoors?" she asks. "I'm fine if we all go in together, I just don't want to split up."

Edited by Nodrog on Feb 23rd 2024 at 1:02:51 PM

"Well..." Cam said, while setting up the drone and its controller "as long it can fit through doors and I can pilot it slowly and carefully, it should be fine."

Sheila sighs, shaking her head. "Whatever."

Edited by Nodrog on Feb 24th 2024 at 2:22:03 PM

Cam then started flying the drone. "Oh! Look! It's flying!" Cam said excitedly.

The drone started flying toward the door for a bit. Before hitting the door frame.

Cam then quickly picked up the drone and placed it inside the mansion and started flying it again. "Forget that part. We should have no problem now."

As the drone has a small flight around the hall of the mansion, there’s the sound of a door slamming shut. A few rooms away, it’s loud enough to be heard by the group.

Edited by CanuckMcDuck1 on Feb 27th 2024 at 6:43:40 AM

Sheila stepped forward, squeezing past Cam. As soon as she tries to go through the front door, she slams to a halt, like a mime walking into an invisible wall. She hastily steps back, then points at Cam. "Don't argue." she orders. "Go inside, tell me to come in, then I promise I absolutely won't stab you for twenty four hours, The offer of time drops one hour for each minute you leave me waiting outside."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Cam says like an obedient child before running. Just before he got past Sheila, he gave her the controller to his drone. "You handle this while I look out inside. The screen in the middle shows you what the drone sees." He said before dashing into the entrance.

As soon as he got inside, he yelled: "Come inside, Sheila!"

Sheila steps into the house. "Twenty four hours... twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, fifty-nine seconds... twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, fifty-eight seconds..."

Sheila focuses on the controller and tries to fly the drone toward the noise she heard.

The drone glides around the mansion, getting a good view of its interior. Amongst the cobwebs and ancient furniture is a doorframe. Even from the dinky camera, details become clear. Decade-old black stains in the floorboards. As it continues to fly through the door, it enters into a small bookroom of sorts. A small broken window overrun with plants is where all the lights besides the drone’s comes in. As it continues to view, another loud shriek can be heard. This time, it goes deeper, into a room next to the bookroom.

One without windows.