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Chapter 5: The Girl in the Mansion
All the way from Dora to our next destination, Gora, Jennifer and Helen talked to each other. I couldn't make out most of what they were talking about, but I heard my name a few times and Jennifer asked Helen if she had seen Nichole, her sister, though Helen responded negatively. I wanted to talk to my cousin, but Jennifer seemed to want to talk to her more.
When Gora finally came into view, Andrew let out a gasp. I checked around him and saw that the town of Gora had been destroyed. We all hurried into town to see if anyone was still here. One building was still intact: the Shop. When we entered, we heard a voice from behind the counter.
"Please, I don't have anything more. Go away!"
"We're not going to hurt you," Andrew said, softly. "We can help you, but we need to know what happened." After a few seconds of silence, the Shop Owner stood up, as well as the Innkeeper who was hiding with him. "Is this it?" Andrew asked. "Is Gora here?"
"No..." the Innkeeper said. "He left to go get help."
"He doesn't have his Gem," the Shop Owner said in a gruffly voice. "so he went to one of his brothers who did."
"What do you mean he doesn't have his Gem?" I asked.
"It was stolen years ago," the Shop Owner answered. "The owner of the mansion took it. Gora tried to get it back, but failed. I told you the tale we tell everyone else when they ask about Gora. The real story is Gora left because he felt he was no longer suitable for the role of Guardian."
"The owner of the Mansion..." Andrew wondered. "...But I thought that Mansion had been vacant for centuries."
"Yeah, took it a thousand years ago and didn't give it back," the Innkeeper said.
"So what happened to the town here? It was just fine when I was here a few years ago." I looked at Andrew when he said that. I was trying to remember any time he was away from Fora, but I couldn't. He was in Fora the entire time I was. He never left until the start of this journey.
"Ghosts," the Shop Owner replied.
"Ghosts?" Helen repeated somewhat shakingly.
"Yeah. I don't know what they want, but many ghosts come out of that Mansion and take whatever material they can get their slimy hands on."
"They left this building, though," Jennifer said.
"The ghosts know I get a supply of goods often," the Shop Owner responded. "When I do, they come take them. I've kept the food for me and her to keep us alive."
"Haven't you tried leaving?" Stan asked. "That'd be the first thing I'd do."
"The ghosts won't let us," the Innkeeper said. "Please, we're begging you. If you can do anything, please help us."
"Our main goal is to get the Gem," Andrew said. "However, we can't just sit leave without helping. Stephan, you want to use a Gem here?"
"Sure," I pulled a Gem from my pocket and raised it. "Um... nothing's happening."
"That's... strange. Looks like our best bet is to go check out that Mansion. Come on," Andrew left.
"We'll do everything we can," I said.
"Thank you," the Innkeeper said and the rest of us headed out.
Walking into the graveyard would've been discouraging itself, but the place was covered in darkness and fog. Stan hid behind a tombstone and slowly stood up, lighting his face with the fire rod, and gave out an evil laugh. Helen jumped and screamed as she hid behind Andrew. Jennifer didn't look very amused.
"Stan, knock it off," Andrew said almost out of breath as Helen was grasping him tightly.
"Knock what off?" Stan said with a confused look. Then he heard a raspy laugh in the fog. We turned to see a blue robed, elderly man emerge from the darkness.
"You should see the look on your face, girly!" the man laughed. Then he turned to Jennifer. "That's not a very attractive look on your face."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"My name is Christopher Timothy Ericson, but you may call me Chris," he responded. "It was I who took control of the big one's body. I needed a light to scare you guys." Stan walked up to Chris and grabbed him by the shirt.
"Don't you take control of me again," he growled. "How did you control me, anyway?"
"Excellent question," Chris said. He held his hand out and three gems rested on it. "These gems have the power to possess people. I used it plenty of times in my travels, even using them to help the Telbed Royal Family. Now I just use them for fun." Stan threw Chris to the ground. "Hey, that's not how you treat an old man!" Jennifer readied her bow on him.
"And tricks are not how you treat a lady," she motioned Chris to stand up. "How old are you ‘old man'?"
"Ninety-nine," he responded. "And still going strong."
"Don't you have anything better to do at your age?" Jennifer asked. "Like getting a retirement plan?"
"Not really," Chris said. "I like to travel. Never really settled down and had a steady job. I sort of freelance... by getting people to do what I want."
"Then how about you come with us?" Jennifer asked, still holding her bow out.
"Jennifer? What are you doing?" Stan asked.
"Someone has to keep an eye on him," she said. "And we could use his gems. How about it, old man?"
"That depends. What'cha paying?" Jennifer had her arrow touch Chris's nose.
"How about nothing and take it?" Jennifer said, threateningly.
"...Very well," Jennifer took her bow down. "Okay. But just so you know, Chris, do something like this to us again and Stan will make you retire. Permanently." Chris looked at Stan as he held his axe up.
"I'm not too big on people possessing me, old geezer," he said. Chris nodded in agreement.
"Okay! Now let's go get that Gem," Jennifer said and she started walking toward the mansion. We all followed her and each of us gave Chris a dirty look. When Helen got close, Chris said,
"Hey, sorry about that. It was supposed to be a joke." Helen just turned away and continued walking. Chris followed.
When we entered the mansion, and everyone was inside, the doors slammed shut behind us. Stan tried to open them; he even used his axe and fire.
"No good," he said. "Looks like we're staying for a while."
"Let's find that Gem," Andrew said. "And see what we can do about the ghosts." We all stayed close together when we were walking around the creaking, old mansion. Spirits were moving in and out of the building at will and they often enter right in front of us, causing us to jump or scream. Andrew tried to attack them, but his sword just went right through. Chris's Possession Gems didn't work either; he said something about them not having a mind to control. Walking upstairs, we found ourselves in total darkness and the exit had disappeared.
"How many times are we gonna get stuck in the dark?" Jennifer asked. We were in a small square room. Stan lit up his fire wand again, giving us a little light. I looked ahead and saw a door.
"Guys, this way," I said and everyone followed me into the next room, which was another small, square room that looked exactly like the one we were just in.
"We seem to be in a form of maze," Andrew noticed.
"Again?" Jennifer whined. "I'm getting sick of this,"
"Yes, girl, we all know you're afraid of the dark at this point," Stan said.
"I'm not afraid of it. I'm just getting tired of it," Jennifer said. We continued passing through every door we came through. Eventually, we found a room with two doors.
"Which way do we go now?" I asked.
"Whatever magic this is has made us well pass the mansion's dimensional boundaries," Chris said. "If we walk through a door, there's no telling what we'll find behind the wrong one." Andrew cautiously opened a door, and then disappeared. Most of us let out a gasp as it happened. We waited there for a while, waiting for him to come back. When he did, it was through the door we entered from.
"I can't say for certain," he said. "but I think the wrong doors will send us back to the beginning. We better mark which way we need to go." Andrew took out his sword and made a slash next to the correct door, leaving a mark. "Let's continue." We followed Andrew into the next room. Taking care as to which door we need to open, we advanced further. Stan got sent back a couple of times as well as Chris. We waited a while for him to come back. Then there were three doors later on.
"How long is this going to take?" Stan yelled. He rushed for a door, breaking it down and nearly fell down a pit. Helen used her whip to grab him and the rest of us tried to bring him back up.
"The traps are getting more difficult," Andrew said.
"How are we supposed to leave?" Helen asked. "Are we gonna stay here forever?"
"No, we'll figure this out," I encouraged her. "Let's try splitting up into teams of two. I'll go with Andrew, Jennifer will be with Helen, and Stan will pair with Chris."
"Why do I have to be with the geezer?" Stan grumbled.
"I may be old, but I can still hear, you Neanderthal." Chris rebutted.
"Just go," Jennifer said as we went to the next room. To our surprise, the room opened into a well lit, bigger room. "Looks like we're not splitting up," Jennifer said.
"What are you humans doing here?" a ghostly voice said. Once we got our eyes to fix to the lighting, we saw what appeared to be an armored ghost. "What business do you have here?"
"We're here for the Gem!" Stan yelled. "And after what we'd been through, you better be the one to have it!"
"I know of no Gem," the ghost said. "You humans are not welcome here. Leave now!"
"I wish we could," Andrew said. "But the maze prevents us from going back."
"Then you will stay here... as one of us," The ghost readied his sword and shield, his eyes glowing through his helmet. Having no feet, it was able to quickly glide through the air, already appearing on the other side of the room. Stan shot out some fire, but the ghost vanished and appeared next to him, slashing at his side. Stan yelled in pain as he whipped his axe around. Andrew and I jumped in, though each of our attacks just bounced off his armor. Jennifer fired an arrow, having it go right through the ghost's head, though it didn't seem to feel anything. The ghost vanished again and invisible blows came to each of us. Andrew managed to block most of them, but who was getting hit was completely random to us. We couldn't find an attack pattern at all. Within minutes, we were all tired, but still standing.
"Helen," Chris said. "See what you can do about his armor?" Helen wondered why Chris was asking her, and then he pointed to her whip. Helen got the message and started running up to the ghost. She used her whip in a way that it wrapped around the ghost's shield. Jennifer and I helped pull the shield off and proceeded to get the rest of the armor off. It was difficult, as the ghost was strong, but Andrew and Stan helped keep him busy. When the final piece was removed, the ghost laughed.
"You are more powerful than I thought! Very well, then, let's see how you do against each other. Since you took my armor off..." The ghost rushed for Helen, going right through her, then vanished.
"Helen?" I asked. "Are you alright?" Helen's eyes glowed and she let her whip swing rapidly, striking those of us in range.
"The ghost has possessed her!" Andrew yelled.
"Maybe when this is all over, I keep this body to myself," the ghost laughed. "My old one died out so long ago."
"I won't let that happen!" Chris let out his gems and they circled Helen. She screamed as the ghost left her body then she fell to the floor. "Ha! Only one being can possess at a time, making the other one forcefully leave!"
"Then I'll possess you instead!" The ghost rushed for Chris, but appeared to have just bounced off him. "Wha...?"
"This cloak I'm wearing isn't just for show," Chris said. "It's a magically enhanced cloth that prevents possession on those that wear it. As long as I have control over these gems, you will not possess anyone."
"Insolent whelp!" it screamed as it rushed for its sword. Stan picked it up before the ghost, though.
"You're time's up, phantom!" Stan said. The ghost looked around the room at each of us.
"Fine..." Then the phantom floated upward and out of the mansion, but it left behind a feminine voice. "Just don't harm her..."
"Was that a boy or a girl?" Jennifer asked. "And harm who?" Then a key floated down from the ghost's vanishing point. Andrew held his hand out to catch it and, when it landed, we were all transported to another room with a single door. I tried to open it, but it was locked. Andrew used the key to unlock it and it creaked open. Inside we saw a faint figure.
"Who-who are you?" a girl said. As we stepped closer, we could see what appeared to be a young girl with green hair. "How did you get in here?"
"With this key," Andrew handed her the key, but it just fell through her hands.
"S-sorry, I don't have the ability to grab things like the other ghosts," Andrew just stared at her for a while.
"I'm Andrew," he said after a while. "This is Stephan, Jennifer, Helen, Stan, and Chris. How long have you been in here?"
"Um, what year is it?" she asked.
"2008,"
"Oh! Wow, has it been that long?" She fell silent for a bit then spoke up. "I've been in here for a thousand years now. My name is Jade."
"A thousand years?!" Jennifer exclaimed. "Why?"
"My father... I'm sorry, I don't want to say..." Jade said, fading off.
"It's fine," Andrew said. "Were you trapped in here like the rest of us?"
"Yeah. The spell that was cast was meant to keep me and anyone who entered here. I had no way of getting out, even with this." Jade showed the Gora Gem which was part of her dress.
"Why do you have this?" I asked.
"My dad gave it to me. He said he didn't want anyone to have it." Then she looked closer at me. "It's funny... you look like a boy I met all those years ago. What was his name again...? Kyle?"
"Kyle?" I repeated. "That's the name of my ancestor."
"Well, I'm glad he lived a good life." Jade said, nearly starting to cry.
"Hey, don't worry," Andrew said. "Whatever spell that was on this mansion is gone. You call finally leave now."
"I...can leave?" Jade whispered, hesitatingly. "Thank you, but I can't have been the reason why you came here."
"Our original goal was the Gem you're holding," Jennifer said. "But when we learned ghosts were attacking the town, we tried to fix that, too."
"The ghost on the other floor had the key to Jade's room," Chris said.
"Perhaps the ghosts were looking for a way to defeat it and rescue Jade," Helen said.
"An entire town was destroyed looking for me?" Jade asked. "...Here! Use this to fix it!" she yelled as she came closer to me and pointed to the gem. I slowly took the gem off her dress. Then Jade started floating up. "Thank you for rescuing me. Please use the gem to fix the town. Now I must go, I will see mother again." And then she departed.
"Think the phantom could've been her mother under a different spell?" Stan asked.
"Whoever Jade's father was must've very demented," Jennifer said.
"Well, we have the Gem," I said. "Now let's go fix the town." With the spell broken, I was able to warp us out. When we arrived back in Gora, I held the Gem up and wished for the town to be fixed. As if the town was put in rewind, the town slowly came back together. The Inn was rebuilt and Gora's home put back together. When it was finished, the Shop Owner and Innkeeper walked out of the house. When they saw what happened, they came up to us and thanked us for what we did. The Innkeeper offered us free nights and the Shop Owner said to take whatever we want, for a discount, of course. As we were heading into the Inn, I saw the Mansion had disappeared. In its place were Jade and the phantom, which I thought was her mother. They both waved as they vanished into the darkness. I waved back and started thinking: She's had a hard life, being trapped in there and not being able to leave. What kind of person was her father? And the more and more we travel the more dangerous and evil this quest becomes. I slowly walked inside the Inn, thinking about what kind of problems Exitilus could've created and what we'd run into next. It seems the more Gems we collect, the stronger Exitilus's power becomes...
