Part One: In which in all begins
Part One: In which in all begins
"And from then on the young girl was haunted by what Morganite's shards had possessed, for the rest of her LIFE!" Amethyst concluded her gruesome tale as a clap of thunder sounded from out side of the temple. Steven screamed while Pearl, Peridot, Ruby and Sapphire sat there in silence until the bursts of thunder had ended.
"You call that a Halloween story?" Ruby sneered sarcastically. Waving her hand in a way that that made her message clear.
"Yea, I've heard that one exactly twenty three times from you this month." Peridot grumbled with a roll of her eyes. "You might be the best gem as far as rank, but you are a... um... 'one trick pony,' as they say, when it comes to scary stories."
Steven was still shaking in fear when he spoke, "I-I-I thought it was pretty scary."
"Steven," Peridot said with a sigh, "You said that about almost every story we've told tonight." Steven blushed and giggled at ridiculousness of it all.
"It was the only story I could think of last minute." Amethyst retorted in a rather unamused tone.
"Of course it was." Pearl mumbled.
"Shut up!" Amethyst snapped before turning to the others. "So, who's next?" scratched her head as she gazed around at the others. "What about you Sapphire?" She smiled.
Sapphire turned to the purple gem with a confused look, "What are you asking?"
"C'mon," Ruby crossed her arms, "Do you have a Halloween story or not?"
"Oh," Sapphire glanced nervously at her gem before facing the group again. "I don't know any."
"Are you being serious?" Peridot asked raising an eye brow. "With you being over five thousand years old I'd think you'd know at least one."
Sapphire gave the younger gem a semi serious look, "I know one," She admitted, "But... it's not really a 'story.'"
Steven's eyes widened, "Are saying... it's.... True?"
"I'm not sure." Sapphire replied shaking her head in shame, "But I heard about it from Jade, the gem that's now the centipeetle, so it's not an old diamond's tale."
Ruby snorted a few times before bursting out in laughter "Oh whatEVER!" She took a breaths before continuing, "Now go for it, tell us the story!"
"I don't know..." Sapphire grumbled.
"Tell us," Peridot begged, giving Sapphire the best puppy dog eyes she could manage, "Please."
Sapphire tried to avoid eye contact with the gem, the face was too cute knowing this she tried to turn away but was unable to. Her single eye started to well with tears before she cracked.
"Okay fine, just please stop with the eyes!" Sapphire cried. Peridot smiled and the others gave her an amused look. Sapphire cleared her thought before starting. "So it involves that broken down interplanetary gem vessel that Peridot tried to trap us in." Everyone paused and gave Peridot a hard stare.
"What?" Peridot snorted, "I was desperate. And I've changed now." No one responded, "Can we get back to the story now?" She ordered.
Sapphire rolled her eye before continuing, "Any way, five hundred years ago Jade told me, I'm not exactly sure how she knew, but it seemed awfully real to me.
So some of her friends were spending some time with each other, like what we're doing, on Halloween. One of them realized that while searching the vessel for any signs that a gem artifact had been left there, she forgot one of her belongings (a book or something I don't remember). Since the item had value to the gem, they decided to go back and look for it.
It was around eleven thirty at night, it was pouring down rain, there was lightning, thunder and everything. But, since it was Halloween, they thought is was fine. So, they went in to find the item which had been left in control room of the vessel. The thing is... that after that day, the three gems were never seen again."
"That's scary!" Steven whined grabbing M.C. Bear Bear for comfort.
"Whoa time out!" Amethyst hollered, "What happened to them?"
"Three days later Rose sent a small search part out to find them." Sapphire replied, "And the only thing they found in the control room were..." Sapphire swallowed hard before continuing, "Shards. Gem shards every where. All over the floor, on the control board, just every where. For another thing, there were spider webs, on every thing for some reason, and there were little spiders running around whole vessel. Rose was horrified and decided that no gem should ever set foot in that thing again. I think that she told Jade because there were her closest friends, but I know that I was told because Jade needed to get it off of her chest, in short, I'm the only one who is still around to speak of what happened. The only reason I went in there was to catch... you know who... And nobody knows what really happened to those gems."
Pearl's eyes widened in shock, "Now that was a true horror story." She commented clapping with approval of her own opinion.
"Are you kidding me P?" Ruby argued, "You call that scary." She began to laugh at the craziness of the story, "As if that's real! Sapphire you know I've heard stories like that a million times!"
"Yeah." Peridot nodded in agreement with the red gem, "A cursed room in an ancient gem vessel? As if!"
"But you gotta admit that it was a pretty good story." Amethyst countered. "And even if it was real, I would totally go back in there!"
Steven's eyes winded with fear "Whhaaaaatt!?!? I wouldn't! I wish that I never even was in there now!"
"Who cares." Ruby hissed, "It's not real anyway."
"Gems I'm being serious!" Sapphire insisted fear hinting in her usually calm voice. "This is what Jade told me, and it's diffidently real because Jade wasn't lying! If she was I would have been able to sense it!"
"Yeah," Amethyst nodded in agreement, "You never know, there might be some serial killer from the war or something."
"Could be." Pearl agreed.
"Well personally," Ruby continued, "I think I just discovered that Sapphire is just a little bit coo coo."
The bundle of pure anger that had been building up inside of Sapphire finally burst, "If you don't believe me," Sapphire barked, "Then why not you just.... just... Just go see for your self!"
"Go see for myself huh?" Ruby replied grimly, "You know what, that not too bad of an idea."
"Are you crazy!" Peridot broke in.
Ruby raised an eye brow, "You don't actually believe this stuff do you Peridot?"
"Well, I don't know." Peridot whispered, "But it might be dangerous."
"Ruby, I was kidding about what I just said." Sapphire added, "You really shouldn't go there."
"Please don't fight." Steven whimpered.
"That sounds AWESOME!" Amethyst cried out with excitement, "I have an idea, why not we all go to that old thing right now!"
"What!" Steven whined, "But why?"
"It's raining," Amethyst pointed out as she looked towards the window, "So we can't go trick-or-treating, so we'll go do something scary to make up for it! And besides, simply telling a bunch of horror stories... pish, boring! Why not we actually DO something scary."
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Pearl confessed, "but that actually sounds quite fun."
"YES!" Ruby announced with a wide smile, "Let's do it!"
Steven shook his head nervously, "I-I-I don't think that's a good idea."
"Yeah let's do it!" Peridot proclaimed, "Stop being such a 'chicken,' whatever the heck that is, Steven."
"Wait a minute Peridot, you were just saying earlier that Ruby shouldn't go." Steven pointed out in a nervous yet still matter of fact tone.
"Well I've changed my mind."
"If you little gemlings are too scared to go," Ruby stated fearlessly, "Then I'll just go by myself." She then rose to her feet and began walking towards the warp.
"I'll go with you!" Amethyst chimed in leaping to her feet, following Ruby's lead.
"I guess I'll go to." Pearl shrugged as she got to her feet.
"Gems I'm serious." Sapphire cautioned, "This is a bad idea, we shouldn't go, especially when it's almost midnight."
Peridot rolled her eyes, "Come on you don't actually believe that story, do you?"
"Well, we never know it could be real." Sapphire retorted, "It's about half an hour till midnight. And I've got a feeling that once it hits twelve o'clock, that's when all of the spirits will awaken and haunt the vessel."
"Spirits," Ruby spat, "as if."
"No gems you have to believe me it's true!" Sapphire whimpered nervously.
Amethyst turned to face Sapphire with a devilish smile, "Well that will just make it even more awesome! I'm totally going!" Before stepping onto the warp the Ruby, Peridot and Pearl she turned to Steven, "Hey Steven, you coming?"
Steven looked at Amethyst nervously before he spoke, "Well, I'm not staying here on my own." He bravely took a deep breath as hopped to his feet and made his way to the warp, "I guess I'll go."
"Are coming Cassandra?" Ruby asked.
Sapphire glared at the red gem, knowing that she was referring to her, took a deep breath and rose to her feet, "You're really going to need my help if this is true." she sighed, "I'm coming."
The blue gem walked slowly over to the warp. Her long dress trailed like her bravery. Why aren't they listening to me, she thought as she stepped on the warp that's right. It's Halloween, where everything is pretend. Well, not this, it's all too real.
Once they had reached their destination, the six gems hopped off the warp pad and made their way towards the wreckage of the ancient ship. The forest that surrounded the gems gave them all an eerie feeling of unease, well all except Ruby, who was marching determinedly down the slope of the hill towards it. The other followed, but at a more weary pace.
"Well, here we are." Ruby proclaimed. "The old planetary vessel."
Ruby was at the door now, trying to pull, or perhaps push, it open. "It's locked." She grumbled.
Peridot rolled her eyes, "Of course it is genius." She snorted, "that's where I tried to trap you gems!" She marched to the door and pushed Ruby a side, "Step a side," She sang, "let the professional do her work." Peridot cracked her knuckles and began trying to reopen the door.
The vessel had been used many eons ago to bring gems to earth from home world. It had once been a large and fully functional saucer like thing that had moved at a relatively fast pace. It's once glistening white sides were now dull and had no shin what so ever. It had fallen over after thousands of years of no use. Nothing in that forest bothered Sapphire more than the ship. She felt a chill run through her gem and down her spine, and nervously took a deep breath to help it rub off.
"Are you doing okay?" Amethyst asked Sapphire.
Sapphire snapped her head in Amethyst's direction, "Do I LOOK okay to you?" she argued, shaking her head and staring at the ground.
"You need to chill out Sapphire," Amethyst made it a point to say 'chill' as annoyingly as she could, she snickered a little before speaking again, "It's just for a little bit of fun. Get into the Halloween spirit."
"I'm not really in mood." Sapphire growled at Amethyst, "Knowing that three gems have died in here."
"You may have future vision, but you said it your self that you don't know that for sure." Amethyst sneered.
"My point exactally." Sapphire snapped clinching her fist as if she wanted to punch the purple gem.
Peridot jumped back as the door of the vessel creaked open revealing a dark and eerie interior.
Steven, who had been nervously following behind Pearl the entire time, chimed in "I'm going agree with Sapphire. Maybe we should just go back home!"
"Wimping out again Steven?" Ruby chided. She gave him the old "shame on you" gesture "Come on, we're here, the door is open now, and we are not turning back now. So let's go." She turned from the group and marched inside. Peridot and Pearl followed close behind, walking quickly as if they were hoping to escape the forest that surrounded them.
"It's going to be fine you guys." Amethyst promised as she followed Ruby, "Let's just get this done, and over with."
Steven looked back at the warp pad as though he was tempted to turn back, but decided to follow Amethyst into the vessel. Sapphire was the last one to enter, walking at an even more cautious pace than the others. Examining every tree, shadow or whatever seemed to hold suspicious look. She sighed again, before entering the vessel.
If the out side of the vessel was bad, the interior was far worse. It was cracked, and falling apart in places any pace that hadn't sustaned as much damage was either empty or held some kind of a plant. Really, it wasn't much different that the last time they had been there.
"Wow, isn't this place boring." Ruby grumbled. It was very clear that she wasn't amused. I can't believe I was right she thought I guess that Sapphire was just trying to scare us with some kind of Halloween prank.
"Don't forget, the real fun starts when the evil spirits come out!" Peridot snickered as she wiggled her fingers as a ghost would.
Amethyst rolled her eyes at Peridot's gesture, "Which way is it?" She asked.
Ruby shrugged, "I'm.... uhh... not sure." She admitted with a blush. Ruby then turned to Sapphire, "Sapph?"
"Straight trough that door, " Sapphire pointed to the door on their left, "first door on the right." She then turned to face the others, "Seriously gems, can please get out of this place?"
In that horrifying moment, the enterence slammed closed with a loud thud. A loud gasp swept over all of the gems. Steven skedaddled over to the door, pressed a few of the broken buttons beside it, and even threw himself against it sending a metallic clang echoing through the large room where they stood.
"What the..." He whined, now banging on the door with his fists, "The door's locked again! We don't can get back out." The panic in his voice was so pure and crisp that it seemed to make the whole place even more eerie than it had been in the first place. "Peridot, you know how to open these doors right?"
Peridot opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Ruby, "Calm Steven." Ruby grumbled in an annoyed tone, "I'm sure Peridot can reopen that door when we're done here, okay."
"Wait a minute." Pearl chattered nervously, "Did... Did that door just... Just close by it's self?"
"This place really must be HAUNTED!" Peridot shrieked, jumping almost two feet in the air as she spoke.
"Every body calm down." Amethyst said in a reassuring tone, "It was probably just the wind. I mean come on, that door has probably been here for a few thousand years, so it kinda makes sense for it to be falling apart by now."
"Amethyst is right." Ruby commented, "Now come on, let's get to the control room and see what's the big deal about this place."
The others looked at each other for a few moments of pure silence before nodding in agreement. Ruby waved her hand in a "come on" motion signaling for them to follow. The gems looked to each other once more before following their "leader" down the hall, and deeper into the vessel.
Once they all had left two spiders, around the size of an average dinner plate, slunk down from their hiding places on the ceiling. Their long hairy legs moved in a form of synchronization, they were communicating . Saying something, two each other in a strange language. They spoke for about five minutes before the seemed to nod and then scampered off back into the shadows.
