The Nightmarish Nightmare Night!by armidChaptersI've got a shotReliefIn doubtInto darknessThe game Begins!The Nightmare ContinuesOdd DatesTick TockRunning To the Nightmares EndI've got a shotDear Princess Twilight, Last time I told you about the ups and downs between me and Flaming Star to get our project done and that we ended up being the best group. It got us an invitation to Boneyard Mansion, a place that I had never heard of. The invitation was for this world’s Nightmare Night which is a few days from now. Excuse me for venting, but the mark that we earned from our project was supposed to be our final grade for the term. Although Prof. Skull Mustache felt that in this way many would fail history, guess what he did instead. He decided to give us an exam anyway, which we were not supposed to take considering that we changed our teacher and that the last one didn’t teach us anything! That wasn’t even the worst part yet: he put the exam at the end of the week! I decided to study, but there was not much time to study at all. So I was looking for other options. It was Wednesday and we had just left the math class. I was talking with the girls so I could distract myself from the whole problem that I was going to face soon. “Does anyone else think we’ve been practicing Flaming Star’s songs for a while now?” Rainbow Dash said. “Uh, yeah, so what?” Applejack replied. “Nothing, I just think we should practice our own songs more.” “I agree, we shouldn’t forget about our own songs,” I said. “So, should we practice after school?” Fluttershy asked. “Oh darling, that’s a wonderful idea!” Rarity complemented Fluttershy’s opinion and got close to her, and then Pinkie Pie jumped in and wrapped her arms around both their necks. “Yaaaay! Let’s do it!” “I’m down with that too; what about you guys?” Rainbow Dash said. “Ah reckon so. What about you, Twilight?” “I’m actually free this afternoon, so I guess some extra practice couldn’t hurt. Sunset, you are coming too, right?” “Actually, no, I can’t.” “Awww, why not?” “I wish I could, Pinkie, but I’ve got a killer final in History on Friday and I need all the help I can get.” “Whoa, whoa! You said there wasn’t going to be a test and that project you and Flaming Star were working on was going to be your grade.” “Skull Mustache changed his mind, Rainbow Dash; now he wants to punish the entire class!” “But we can’t practice with one of the members being absent!” “Pinkie Pie’s right; we can’t do it without you!” Rainbow Dash added. Twilight came near to me. “I’d like to help you with it if I can.” “Thanks, but I have to bear the burden of studying for this on my own.” “But you will come to the party tomorrow night, right?” “Wait, what party, Pinkie?” “The Nightmare Night party, silly!” Just when she said that, I remembered the invitation from Prof. Skull Mustache. I leaned back against a locker and slid down to sit on the floor. “Sorry, Pinkie, prior commitment.” “Aww! But everybody’s coming to that! Even Fluttershy is coming!” “Well, um, I haven’t really decided yet.” “WAIT!” Pinkie shouted. “The rest of you guys are coming to the party, right?” The girls assured her that they would be there, even though it looked like I and Fluttershy were going to be no-shows. The group broke up a short time afterward. I thought maybe some time alone to think about my situation would help, but there weren’t any other options. It was then that Flaming Star showed up. “Hey, Sunset!” “Oh, Hi. How is everything?” “Not ideal, but we can do something about it!” “What do you mean?” “OK, do you remember I told you Steely has access to Vice Principal Luna’s computer?” “Yeah, and if your next question has to do with hacking into it and looking for Prof. Skull Mustache’s test, then you can turn around and walk away.” “Keep your ethical attitude to yourself. Besides, we tried looking for the history exam file but couldn’t find it.” “So why are you telling me this?” “Because Skull Mustache will probably prepare the Exams himself and bring them to class the day of the test.” “It seems to me I remember that on his first day here he ‘tested’ us, and he had brought the exam papers himself.” “Well, I for one ain’t gonna study for that exam.” “Studying isn’t one of my favorite things, either, but what choice do we have?” “What if you had a choice?” “Well, here’s a riddle for you: Who has two thumbs and is in no mood for riddles? This girl!” He then showed me the envelope that Prof. Skull Mustache gave us. “Have you read what’s in here? Have you thought about it? He has invited us to his home! Just in creepy, weird words.” “So?” “So we go there tomorrow night, search around, find the exam paper, and leave!” “He invited us to a dinner, not to some kind of mystery treasure hunt where first prize is getting a failing grade and possibly being expelled!” “Just read it again. And use some of those mad critical thinking skills you learned from Twilight.” I read it again. I have to admit I thought I was looking for another way out of this dilemma, but it seemed it was looking for me all along. ReliefI had almost no faith in Flaming Star’s plan, and I didn’t want to be a part of it. But I also didn’t have much faith my being able to study as much as I needed to survive one of Prof. Skull’s tests. So I decided to roll with it. “OK, fine, I guess it might work. But how are we going to search for it? Prof. Skull Mustache will probably be keeping his eye on us for the whole night, and if his invitation is also a dare he’s bound to know what we are trying to do.” “Um, good question ... and frankly I have no idea. Not yet, anyway. But I’m sure we’ll find a way.” “I hope so.” “I will let you know if I come up with anything, but for now I gotta go. So, see ya.” He backed away from me, took a turn and was lost from sight. Knowing that I didn’t need to study anymore was a relief, but the feeling was short-lived since the thought of how we were going to pull this off was moving around in my head and I just couldn’t forget about it. It was a very risky thing to do but at the same time it was totally worth it. But the longer I bounced between the two thoughts the more paranoid I felt. It wasn’t doing me any good. I decided to try distracting myself, just not thinking about it. But I knew that I also needed to do something, something physical. So I headed to the fencing club, expecting to see Flaming Star there as well. But he wasn’t there and surprisingly Flaming Star was absent. I had never known him to miss a chance to sharpen his skills. And, to tell the truth, I was hoping he’d be there so I could challenge him to a rematch. But I had to admit to myself that even after all my practice, I still couldn’t beat him. Even if I managed to hit him, he’d change from a defensive fencer to an aggressive one! The most I managed to get against him was a draw, and I just ended up being so intimidated I was like a turtle hiding in its shell. But since he was absent, there was nobody else anywhere near as intimidating. Long story short, I got my old confidence back. I didn’t see Flaming Star again that day. I had to wonder whether he was trying to come up with an actual plan or not. But that started the paranoia cycle again! I needed to relax. Well, when in doubt, get in touch with your friends. And then I remembered that they girls wanted to rehearse. Since the whole study-till-midnight plan of mine got canceled I had free time. I walked through the hallways of school, looking left and right for them. It took me while but finally I found them. “Hey, guys!” I announced myself. “I’ve got good news!” They all turned around and looked at me, but before I could say anything Pinkie Pie spoke up. “Are you and Flaming Star going to steal the exam papers from Prof. Skull Mustache so you don’t have to spend lots and lots of time studying for it and that’s why you showed up for rehearsal?” I’ve heard Pinkie Pie say these sort of things before, but for me it’s always a surprise! “Uh ... how did you …?” “I just guessed.” “Well, … never mind. Yeah, I’m free for rehearsal.” The rest of the girls looked very puzzled and confused at what just happened. I’d have thought they’d be more used to it by now “Ooookay, but uh, what about the rest of it?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Rest of what?” I asked. “Of what just Pinkie Pie just said! What about those?” “Yeah!” Applejack joined in, “what the hay was she just talkin’ about?” I took a deep breath before answering. “It’s a long story!” In doubtWe headed to the Sweet Apple Farm and set up there for our rehearsal, and it really was a trip down memory lane. I was fascinated that after all this time we still knew the songs by heart. We were having so much fun that we didn’t realize how time passed. I was so happy that I decided to scrap the whole studying-till-midnight plan of mine and joined the rehearsal. Speaking of which, I still needed to explain to the girls what Flaming Star and I had in mind. I did, though they weren’t sure if this was a good idea. I don’t blame them; I didn’t have much faith in it, either, and on top of that if I heard that my friends were going to steal the exam paper from the house of one of the most intimidating teachers of CHS, I’d be worried, too. “Sunset, darling,” Rarity said as she approached me, “I’ve only seen that teacher of yours twice and I can already tell, he isn’t someone you can distract.” “Just the way he looks gives me goose bumps!” Fluttershy added, shaking. “I know you guys are worried about me, and I appreciate it, but that’s the best options I’ve got.” Twilight adjusted her glasses. “I do agree that it’s unfair to give an exam that wasn’t even supposed to be given, but what if he is testing us like last time? What if he just wants to see if we have learned our lesson or not?” “It’s possible, but I’m not going to risk failing to understand it!” “But what if he caught you two? Wouldn’t he fail you then?” Applejack asked as she stood up. “Yes! But then I’m at least doing something that will enable me to complete the exam successfully!” Twilight sighed. “I guess that’s fair.” Since it was getting late I left them and headed home. I believe the rest did the same, too. On the way I started thinking again, calculating my odds. But for some reason I just couldn’t think straight about anything! Either I believed that it wasn’t going to work and that the odds against us were awful, or I really wanted it to work. I was trying to be optimistic and pessimistic about it at the same time! It wasn’t until I reached my door that I realized I was over-thinking stuff and I needed to relax, just roll with it and hope for the best. I tried watching TV and playing games, hoping I could distract myself from it all. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and the whole uncertainty got to me again. “Should I do it, or not?” I was in doubt, lost and paranoid. After a little more struggle with my thoughts I remembered something: the letter! The letter that Prof. Skull Mustache gave to us as an invitation. I picked up my bag and searched for it in there, I almost threw everything out but I finally found it! I wanted to give it a closer reading. So I ignored the mess that I just made and opened it and started reading. *** Welcome to the Boneyard Mansion In your hand you hold a ticket to pass through the gates of death. Though be warned: those souls who pass through this gate may not be able to regain what they left behind You are welcome here, but you are not welcome for long; this invitation expires after the night of nightmares draws its last breath Time is precious after all You may seek, but not for long The game will begin after you pass from life into death *** Flaming Star was right about it being written with weird words, but even accounting for the flowery expressions, something still felt off about it. As far as I could tell, this invitation wasn’t even referring to a dinner; there was no mention of the menu. It was definitely about something else. So reading the letter was no help at all. Into darknessI didn’t rest easy that night, thinking about that letter and what it was trying to say and what it didn’t say. I really wasn’t doing myself a favor and in the morning all I felt was dizzy. There wasn’t much time to take a shower or fix my hair so I just got dressed and left. Before I knew it I was at school, standing in the hallway. I moved towards the bathroom blindly and I was actually surprised that I managed to find the right one. I washed my face and headed out. The girls were right outside, staring at me when I got out. “Um, hi?” I said. “Sunset, are you ... OK?” asked Twilight. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Uh, why are you asking?” “Because we were right in front of you and you walked past like you didn’t even see us!” Rainbow Dash answered. “Besides, pardon me for saying so but you look HORRIBLE, darling!” “Thanks for pointing it out, Rarity! I … it’s nothing serious, I just didn’t slept well and I’m a little dizzy, that’s all!” “Are you sure you even slept?” Applejack asked. And to be honest, that was a great question … that I didn’t know the answer to myself! Fluttershy put her hand on my shoulder. “Sunset, are you sure everything is alright?” “I’m fine! My head was just a little crowded. That’s all.” They didn’t seem convinced. It wouldn’t have convinced me either if I’d heard it. “Anyway, we should head to math class, it’s getting late!” They accepted that and we headed to class. I wasn’t in any shape to focus on math. I was still wondering about the letter and what it was supposed to mean. It was stuck into my head from last night and I just couldn’t figure it out! It was like it wasn’t even written in symbols or anything; if that had been the case I had more than one person I could ask for help. But no, that was not what we were dealing with. Something just felt off. After class, I went to talk to Flaming Star. I wanted to see if he had come up with a plan and to talk to him about the letter. Finding him was easy; he was waiting for me so I guessed that he did have a plan. “Hey! Have you decided to get ready for Nightmare Night already?” he grinned. “Excuse me?” “Your face! You look like a person who was staring at the ceiling for the whole night.” Again, I wondered if that was what happened. “We’ll get to that in a minute. Now tell me if you came up with anything or not.” “Actually I have!” He started walking and I followed him. “So, once we get inside he’ll start greeting us and, you know, go through the formalities. And we just roll with it.” “OK, so what’s next?” “We’ll probably have a little chat and then head to the dinner table. After a while you ask for the bathroom but you don’t go there; instead, you try to search around the house and meanwhile I’ll keep him busy.” “Um, are you sure that’ll work?” “Super Mega...kinda.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Kinda?” “I mean if things got rough I could start a little fire on the table.” “Yeah, THAT’LL work!” “Don’t worry, I can control those. Is it OK now?” He looked at me as if there was absolutely no problem with his plan and I was nit-picking. But I had to talk to him about the letter so I decided to let him have the point. “I, uh ... I’ve got something to tell you.” “What?” “Last night I read the letter that Prof. Skull Mustache gave to us carefully and something just feels off!” “Like what?” “Like, there isn’t anything in it about any kind of dinner!” “WHAT?” “Look, I don’t know how to explain it but just think about it! The whole dinner thing is weird by itself, and the way the letter is written, it all points to something else!” “Listen, whatever it is, he’s giving us an opportunity to sneak around to find that exam paper. Yes, I agree that the letter is written in a super mega crazy way but c’mon, it’s not like he’s gonna trap us there or kidnap us.” He paused for a second, “Although I think he might do a better job than the last two guys.” “Wouldn’t be difficult. But I guess you’re right.” “So I’ll see you tonight. Don’t forget to be dressed up properly, although it looks like you got a head start!” “Dressed?” “Yeah! It’s Nightmare Night! Did you forget?” He smiled and walked away. The rest of the day was not much to talk about, except for the night! I decided to dress up as an old-school movie vampire: slinky dress, cheap-looking fangs. Hey, that was what I wanted to be for Nightmare Night this year, anyway. I took some pictures of myself; if I wasn’t going to the party this year I had to at least share my costume with the girls. The location of Prof. Skull Mustache’s house was on the back of the letter. Just when I looked at it I spotted something strange: his house was outside of the city! I was confused but I decided it’s better to go and see it for myself. I hopped on my motorcycle and headed there. Although it was outside of the city it was not very far. At first I thought I had gone to the wrong address, but then I saw the road that headed to the woods. There was no other house around so I left my motorcycle there and followed the path on foot. Unlike what I was expecting, the path was very wide and easy to follow. I walked for a while till I saw a sign saying: “Welcome to the Boneyard Mansion”. That’s when I saw it! It wasn’t just a house, and the name wasn’t an exaggeration. It was a giant mansion, with a menacing and creepy look. It seemed it had multiple floors; the windows suggested that, at least. I was staring at the mansion for a while, and all of a sudden, a hand touched my shoulder. I jumped and looked to see who it was while letting out a not-very-loud scream. The figure was wearing purple clothes with chain mail armor protecting his upper body, and he was holding a small pumpkin that had a face carved on it. It was not until he walked forward that I realised it was Flaming Star. “Hey! Did I scare you?” he asked with devilish smile. “Not scared, just … extremely shocked!” “Yeah, whatever. So is this the place?” “Seems like it. Though I’m not sure if it’s decorated to be creepy or if it always looks like this.” “The same way that I don’t know if your costume kills or if it’s by default.” I smiled. “Touche.” “Let’s not get distracted and stick to the plan. By the way, you haven’t forgotten it, have you?” “Yeah, your master plan! I haven’t forgotten about that!” “Ok, I get it. Let’s not goof around any longer and see what’s for dinner.” We walked towards the doors of the mansion. The doorknob was in the shape of a skull, its eyes were closed and it seemed as if the key was supposed to go through the nose. We tried knocking on the door but nothing happened. “Um, so do we have to ring a bell or something? Does it even have a bell?” Flaming Star said as he put down his pumpkin. “It doesn’t seem like it, I wonder if anyone is ho-“ *click* That was the sound of the door opening, the eyes of the skull opened up and a tiny red light shined out of them. The jaws of the skull also opened. It felt as it was awake now! We pushed the door and headed inside. As soon as I stepped into the mansion a shiver went up from my body and I felt faint for a second, but I held my upper arms and that helped. “Why is it so dark?” I asked. “It’s probably a surprise, don’t worr-“ *SLAM* We looked back to see that door behind us had slammed shut. “OK,” Flaming Star said, “the only question now is, what awaits us after the lights come on?” I was still looking at the door in the darkness, and I could sense something was happening under it, some kind of movement. All of a sudden somethings rose up out of the floor between us and the door. We were both shocked so we rushed towards the door! “What’s happening?” I asked. “I don’t know, but I doubt the lights are gonna be turned on. Unless … what are you doing?” I reached into the evening bag I was carrying and took out my phone. “If our host has forgotten his etiquette and is going to leave us in the dark, time to take the initiative.” “Great. Who you gonna call?” I didn’t call anybody and turned on the flashlight app instead. A cage-like screen had risen up out of the floor to obstruct the door. It was a grid-like construction of what appeared to be bones. I looked at them and retreated in my mind to my biology classes; I started trying to identify which ones were humerus and which were femurs just to keep from screaming. “What is this?” I managed to ask. “Is it wood?” Flaming Star reached out to touch the cage. So did I, and it was then that I realized what material it was: bone. The game Begins!I turned my head to Flaming Star and shined my light at him. “This is bone!” “What? But how is that...I mean, that doesn’t make sense!” “No, it doesn’t! But it feels like real bone! It’s not plastic or anything. It’s real organic bone.” “I’m having a weird feeling about this.” “I think that’s the general idea.” He turned around and gazed into the darkness. “So what do we do now?” It was then that the candles lit by themselves and shined some light in the darkness. I was about to turn off my flashlight app when I sensed something moving around in the shadows, something small. I shone the light across the room but I couldn’t make out what it was. Then I noticed that the candles were arranged in a rough circle on the floor, and in the center of the circle was an envelope. “What is that?” I asked while I had my light on it. “Don’t know, but I doubt it’s the menu!” He then walked forward and picked it up. I got closer to see it better. It had the same skull seal on it as the invitation that Prof. Skull Mustache gave us. Flaming Star opened the envelope and read the letter out loud. You stepped into the shadows and burned them by this light! Though soon they shall turn gloomy in this realm of dark! If you seek to return to your life, Seek the remains of those who came before this! You may seek but not for long! By the dawn of the sun, your time is up. Lose this chance and your souls shall be mine! TIME IS PRECIOUS AFTER ALL. We were both staring at each other, silent. “So what should we do now?” Flaming Star asked. “I don’t know. Let’s look around to see if we can find anything.” “Look around for what?” “I don’t know! The light switch, maybe.” “Good idea! Just give me a minute.” I shined my light on him, as he tried to reach under the chain mail armor. “What are you doing?” “Trying to reach my phone!” he was struggling to bring his hand under the armor. “Good thing knights never had to use cell phones in the Middle Ages.” He let that slide. Finally he managed to get through his costume and after a while his hand came out with the phone. “There we go. Now, let’s search.” We kept looking at the wall in the room. It was wood paneling, brown oak as it seemed but I was not sure. The walls were covered with different wall hangings. There were several paintings that were too dark to see clearly. And there were skulls, mostly the skulls of animals. “I wish Fluttershy was here.” “Wait. Isn’t she the one who’s so timid she’s not good for much of anything?” “She’s also planning to study veterinary medicine when she goes off to college. Maybe she could give us a hand with these.” I looked closer to the skulls, then I started feeling creepy again so I stepped back. “Whoa!” “What is it?” “These skulls! Individually they were just creepy; they still are. But maybe …” “Maybe what?” “Maybe there’s a reason why they’re arranged this way.” “Well, we’d better figure it out fast. Like the letter said, ‘Time is precious’.” I looked again at the skulls on the wall. I recognized one to be a moose, there was a skull of a bird with a quite long beak which I figured might be a stork or something. Another one was for a predator; I wasn’t sure which but it had sharp teeth like a large feline. But there was another one, a black skull right after that which was quite hard to make out what it was with the lack of light. I stepped closer and closer. But I stopped when I realized what I was looking at. It was a human skull! I stepped backward, tried nor to look at them and went back to searching for the light switch. After a while I found it but when I flicked it, nothing happened. “Hey! Did you find anything?” Flaming Star shouted in the darkness. “Good news: I found the switch. Bad news: it doesn’t work.” “Maybe it’s not the light swi..” he went silence before he finished that sentence. Then he continued: “You’d better come over here.” I followed the voice in the darkness and reached out to him. He was staring to something, I shined my light at it and I saw it, another way blocked off by tall bones. “Another one?” “There’s another one there, too!” He pointed his fingers to the left. I shined my light in that direction and another entrance was blocked off by bones. “Something isn’t right!” He was right, I was now certain that this is not a dinner party. Whatever this is, I had a bad feeling about it. “Let’s keep looking,” I said. “For what?” “I don’t know, a door or some-“ My hand was shaking as I tried scanning the room by the light of my phone. Then I saw a door a few steps away. It was a dark wooden door but its color didn’t quite blend in with the color of the wood paneling. We walked to it and I tried to open it, but it was locked. “What’s that?” Flaming Star said. “What?” “On the floor!” Right in front of the door, there was another envelope. I opened and read what was inside. Find the remains of the ones who stepped here before us Or it shall be summoned to take your lives. Find it before darkness overtakes the ten burning lights Only then you may see the next part of this night! I read it out loud like Flaming Star did last time. Yet we were still clueless of what it all meant. But it was then that Flaming Star realized something. “Hey, weren’t there more candles before?” he shined his light on the candles. Only two were burning and the rest have gone out! “Yeah, there was ten burning but now there is only t-“ Suddenly one of the two candles got extinguished. “Make that one!” I read the last letter for myself again, because I thought I was onto something. “’Find the remains of the ones who stepped here before us Or IT shall be summoned to take your lives. Find it before darkness overtakes the ten burning lights’. The “ten burning lights...’ the candles!” I said as the last candle got put out. “What?” Flaming Star asked, confused. Before I could answer him our attention got caught to something else. A dark shadow was forming where we had found the first letter. We had out our lights on it when suddenly a hand came out! A skeleton hand! Even in the dim light of our phones, it was the first time I had ever seen Flaming Star frightened. The hand clawed the wooden floor and dragged itself out. The skull of the skeleton then surfaced from the darkness. From deep in the eye sockets a dim light seemed to be staring at us. Its other hand came out too and kept on dragging itself out of whatever he was in like an undead thing coming out of its grave. We were both terrified and frozen in place, staring at the skeleton that was almost out. But then I shook myself up and reread the last letter in my head. “’Find the remains of those who stepped here before us’.” The remains; I started to wonder what it could it mean. “Remains … Corpse … Bones ... Bone ... THE BLACK SKULL!” The skeleton was out! All of his bones were attached, held together somehow, and it started moving towards us. I shook Flaming Star out of his fear because there was no time. “Flame! Flame! Distract that thing however you can! I think I know how to get us out of here!” He nodded, then he withdrew his sabre! I didn’t even notice that he had one this whole time! The skeleton was charging at us. I managed to circle around it, but it was onto me. But Flaming Star diverted its attention by shouting and thrusting his sabre through the space between its ribs. It turned back and let out a terrifying and loud scream into Flaming Star’s face. The skeleton jumped on Flaming Star and they started brawling with one another. I ran up to the skull and grabbed it from the wall! The effect was like pulling a plug from a wall socket. A chilling silence filled the room. I shined my light at Flaming Star but I saw no skeleton. It was gone. I had the black skull in my hand and I was still feeling the adrenaline in my blood. I couldn’t believe that it was over, or was it? The Nightmare ContinuesI walked over to Flaming Star, who was still on the ground, catching his breath. “Are you OK?” I took his hand and helped him stand up. “I’m not sure, but I’m still in one piece.” He didn’t admit it, but he was still trembling in fear. “So how much of your master plan has worked so far?” “Let’s not go there, for now.” He picked up his sabre off the floor. “What did we get ourselves into?” “Seems like a game.” “A what?” “This was never a dinner party. Now the invitation makes sense!” “What are you talking about?” “This is some kind of a game! He invited us to play a game!” “A game? Are you serious? Because I doubt the skeleton that I was wrestling with got the same letter we did.” “I don’t want to meet up with it again, either. All things being equal, I rather get out of here!” I raised my voice a little and started walking towards the main door with my light. “Wait, what about the whole key to the exam and all-“ “Are you out of your mind?” I shouted. “We barely got away from one nightmare and who knows what else will come next? I don’t know about you but I’m out of here!” We both walked to the door; he did nothing to stop me so I assumed he wanted to get out too. But the door was still barricaded by bones. “So what do we do about this?” Flaming Star asked. “Why don’t YOU try knocking?” I winked at him in the darkness. He got what I meant and took his gloves off. He stood in front of the barricaded door, took a deep breath and … just stood there. “Uh, what are you waiting for?” He turned his head towards me. “I … it’s not working!” “W-what do you mean by that?” I asked confused. “My magic, it’s not working I … I don’t feel anything!” He looked very terrified and lost in the darkness “OK, is this your way of keeping me in this nightmare or …“ “I’m serious!” he cut me off, “I’m trying my best but nothing is happening! You think I like being in here?” “OK, fine. Give me your hand!” “Why? I thought we were over this!” “I just want to see if MY magic works or not, and I can’t try it on anything else!” I tried to convince him, and myself as well. “Fine!” He pulled the mail armor and his sleeve up, just a little so I could take a clean grab on his wrist. I took his wrist with mine and expected to see his memories. But nothing happened. For a second I thought I was not directly touching his wrist but no, it was direct skin contact yet I was seeing nothing. He pulled away his hand. “You done?” He was right, our magic was disabled! I started shaking in fear. “Hey!” Flaming Star shook me out of thoughts, “you here?” “Yeah! Yeah I just … ” I took another look at the barricaded door. “I don’t know why our magic has been disabled, but we’ve got to find another way out of here.” “OK, but what’s that all about?” He pointed towards the black skull that I was still holding in my hand. “Oh, it seems this is the remains of the ones who came here before us, like it said in the clue.” He still seemed to be confused. “Alright, whatever you say. Where do you think we should look first?” I thought to myself for a second, I looked around to find a window but there was nothing. “Give me a minute …” I walked around until I found a curtain. I pulled it aside, hoping that we could be free. But that was not going to happen. There was a window, though it was barricaded from the outside by bones. Even if we broke the window, we couldn’t get past the bones. “Is that blocked too?” he asked. “Yeah, from the outside.” It was then that I remembered seeing windows from the outside and I was certain that there were also some on the first floor. But they were probably all barricaded now! “It seems we have nowhere to go, unless...” I tried to remember the words of the letter again: “find it before darkness overtakes ten burning lights, only then you may see the next part of this night!” I looked at the black skull that I was still holding. We had the remains of the one who came here before, but what’s the next part of the night? “so, what should we do?” Flaming Star asked. “Let’s look around, I have a feeling that something has changed when I pulled this, like I threw a switch or something.” I showed him the skull. “Alright, so whatever that is, it’s important to this game?” “I guess.” I put the skull in my bag. It was not very big so it wasn’t hard to fit in my bag. We started looking around again and soon after I found something: a stairway leading upstairs. On the left was a barricaded entrance. I looked a little way to the right and the black door where I found the other letter was there, too. I realized that this was one of those barricaded entrances that we saw earlier. But now it was clear. “Hey, Flame. Come check this out.” “What is it, did you find a way out or...” He paused and looked around, “Hey, isn’t this the way that found earlier?” “It is, but now it’s open.” “So, this is where we should go?” “It seems we have no other choice.” “Meaning that we should play along.” He sounded disappointed. “For now, till we find a way out of this madness.” We walked up the stairs slowly. The wooden panels let out a little squeak whenever we stepped on them. I looked at the walls, there were more wall hangers but some looked familiar. There were masks, jewelry and some decorated weapons. “What are you looking at? Just keep walking!” Flaming Star nagged. “But we better watch out for anything weird. The last time what stopped that skeleton was the skull. Who knows what else we should look for.” “Yeah, about that skeleton. My sword went right through it!” “Yeah, I saw, so?...” “It was not a guy in a costume! Or else it would have bled. And it wasn’t a dummy or an animatronic because there was no resistance. And it wasn’t a balloon because it didn’t pop!” He was onto something. “Crazy things are happening here.” “I say Prof. Skull Mustache doesn’t even live here! He just sent us here, to this … this haunted mansion to have a little fun.” “First of, I think this is his house since only a guy as creepy as him could live here. Also there are notes all around. Someone must have organized them.” Flaming Star paused for a second, “Or something … like a … ghost!” He sounded a little afraid. “Ghosts are not real! Man, I thought you would be way bolder, with your dueling and your parkour. Didn’t know you were a chicken!” “You are the one who wants to get out of here! I still want to find the answers to the exam tomorrow! And also, out of all the crazy things I’ve seen since I came here, I think having ghosts and stuff makes sense. I mean look at me, I can create and control fire!” “Or you used to.” “Shut up!” I sighed. “OK. Sorry. That wasn’t any help.” By that time we had reached the next floor. There was a long corridor with eight doors, four on the left, four on the right. They blended in with the wood paneling of the walls. It was then that the candles came on again. Ten candles attached to the walls by candleholders. I saw something moving in the shadows, something tiny and fast like a mouse. But I couldn’t make out what it was. And there was another envelope on the floor. We walked to it and I picked it up. I opened and read the letter inside aloud. Choose your path, chose your door. Four will show and four will lure Four will show the remains of whom, who came before. Four will lure what will take your souls. Don’t be hasty and don’t be slow. Chose wisely and save your soul! Odd DatesWe both stared at each other asking with our eyes “So what now?” Flaming Star broke the silence. “Which one should we pick?” “I don’t know; without clues, I guess this is more of a luck thing.” “So, let’s just ... pick a side first and then we chose which one of the four to go to. Are you alright with that?” “Yeah, but I think we can enhance it.” “What do you mean?” I got closer to him. “I think if we split up, we can search more rooms in less time.” “Great idea!” he said, but then he paused. “But what if we choose wrong? Will Mr. Skeleton pay another visit?” “Don’t know, but we’d better be forearmed against it, especially now that we don’t have our magic. For whatever reason.” We looked at the candles; two were out already! We needed to hurry. “I got right,” Flaming Star said. “Then I pick left.” “Good luck ... um ... and be careful.” “You too.” I stood in front of the four doors, deciding which I wanted to go in, when I heard how Flaming Star was picking his door. “Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a stickman by the toe … do stickman have toes?” “Nice system you got there!” “Shut up, trying to choose a path here!” While he was taking his time with that, I chose the door that was second to the left and headed in. I shined my light around in the darkness. I was expecting the candles to light up but nothing happened. The room had many shelves, on each were trophies and framed certificates. I decided to look closer. The trophies were on the bottom shelves and were easy to reach. There was something written on all of them so I started reading. The first trophy was in the shape of a closed book: it said “To the one that learned from the past and determined the future. National University of Vandersky 1823.” For a second, I thought that the number doesn’t make sense. Was that a typo or I was reading the dates wrong? It certainly didn’t look that old. I took a look at the other trophies. There was a glass trophy in the shape of a star. It said, “For the one who knows its lessons by heart. National University of Denamore--Scroll Bridge- 1866.” I was still confused by the dates, but I kept on looking at the other trophy dates. 1903, 1943, 1983.” So there seemed to be a roughly 40-year interval between the trophies. But the next trophy was different. It was a medium sized silver cup that did look quite recent: “Make sure you learn something out of every second of your life. Time is precious after all. Novel University of Precious Thoughts-- 2002” I was looking at it in the darkness, trying to make sense of all this, when I felt a hand on my back! “Ah!” I jumped and dropped the Cup. Thankfully, it was Flaming Star. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy there!” “I will be, if you quit doing that.” “I didn’t do it on purpose!” “Yeah, whatever.” I was still catching my breath. There was something about this place that was unsettling and that alone was enough to build a great feeling of terror in my heart. So, whenever a simple thing happens, you jump out of your skin. “So, uh, what about this room? The one that I was in seemed to be a guest bedroom.” “This seems to be a trophy room. And something is bothering me.” “Yeah, this whole place just ... “ “No, I’m talking about the dates of these trophies. They can’t be his, or they might not even be real. Unless ... Does Prof. Skull Mustache have magic?” “Wait, unless what?” “Never mind. Did you find anything?” “Yeah, this!” He held up another black skull like the one I still had with me. “How about you?” “Well, I certainly found something, but it doesn’t seem to be what we need.” I knelt to pick up the silver trophy I had dropped. That’s when I noticed another black skull. I picked both of them up. I guessed that the skull had been inside the trophy and rolled onto the floor. “Or did I?” I wondered. “Oh, so you found one, too. What about the cup?” “Yeah! The trophies, their dates make no sense!” I shined my light at the shelves and the walls. “What do you mean?” “Look for yourself!” He stepped closer and stared at them for a bit. As he stepped back, his confusion was visible! “You see what I mean?” “Yeah. Super mega legitimately. But I doubt we got time for this!” I put the silver trophy back where it had been on the shelf and we headed back into the hallway. Five candles were left! “OK! You better hold on to these.” He handed me his skull and I put both of them in the bag. “Now, we better hurry or that skeleton will show up again.” “Wait! We can only cover so many rooms in the time we have left.” “What do you mean?” “I’m saying if for whatever reason we couldn’t find any more skulls or whatever, we better have a backup plan.” He stayed silent for a few seconds. “OK, based on what happened already, if we can’t find any more clues in time and Mr. Bones comes back, I’ll try to grab its attention and make it chase me downstairs.” “In pitch darkness?” “There’s more room down there, and if anything goes wrong, I got a sabre.” “And I guess meanwhile I’m searching everywhere.” “Yeah” “Fine! Just … be careful.” “Always!” Tick TockWe needed to speed up the search, so we decided to not waste time with looking around other stuff and just focus on finding the skulls. I went through another door, looking around the room really quick but not letting myself get distracted. It seemed that it was another guest bedroom. I looked under the bed and the chest of drawers but didn't find anything. Paintings were everywhere on this room and they all were messing with my head, distracting me. I almost started tearing the room apart till I finally found the skull, conveniently placed as the head of a figure in a drawing. It was a picture of a man dressed in a suit; I couldn't tell much more since it was black and white. There seemed to have been an empty space behind the painting. I looked around the frame of the picture and it was then that I realized that it was a door on hinges. I pulled the painting from the right to myself and it opened away from the wall. I was expecting to see a hole in the wall, but there was just another envelope which I picked up and read carefully and as quickly as I could: you will not find the last remains even by looking deep you shall look at yourself, and break the barrier to take the true peak I did the math really quick: there was a total of four skulls, we had found 3 so far, so only one remained and I had an idea of where I should look for it, but we still had five rooms to search. What was inside the other four then? I went outside to check the candles; only one was still burning. Flaming Star seemed to have been busy searching around but we didn't have any more time; we needed to head for plan B. “Flame!” I called him, “Flame!” “What is it?” he came out of one of the doors. “We are out of time, did you find anything?” “No, I've been searching that room for a while but I found nothing. It seems to be a place where he keeps records or something.” He sounded quite disappointed. “But I guess the rest is up to you.” As he finished his sentence, the last candle went out. The doors slammed. We were left standing in the hallway that has light, which was slowly being overtaken by the chilling darkness. I heard the sound of Flaming Star's sword being drawn out but I was unable to see. We both shined our lights at the doors; they were shaking! Intensively! But not all of them. Just four of them: three of the doors on the right side and one on the left. It was then that the doors flew open! Out of each door, came a skeleton. Each standing tall and staring at us with the dim light deep down in their eyes. “Hide in one of the rooms!” Flaming Star said. “I'll lead them downstairs as planned.” “But-” “GO!” The skeletons started charging at us. I ran to a room and closed the door shut. I could hear the screams that the skeletons made. “Good luck, Flame!” I turned around and found myself in a guest bedroom. There was a big bed in the room, it had purple bed linen on it. There was a closet which I checked first but it was empty, not even clothes. This one room, however, also did not have anything hanging on the walls, which compared to the other rooms we’d seen looked a little fishy. Now that Flaming Star was not just dealing with one skeleton but four instead, I needed to look around four times faster. I checked in the drawers of the dresser near the bed, under the bed and even all the walls. I hoped there might be a secret door as with the picture but this room had nothing on the walls. As I was looking around, a blinding light shone my way. For a second I wondering what it was, but then I realized that it was the reflection of my cell phone flashlight in the mirror that was part of the dresser. I took a step back and looked at myself in the mirror. There was not much light but it was enough to see if I was still wearing my costume. The cheap fangs, the wig, even the dress looked fine. *SCREAM* As I heard the skeleton scream, I got out of that room and went to explore the other ones since I figured the skull was not there. Kicking the doors open and looking around in the rooms as fast as I could required a lot of attention. Unfortunately, I actually don't remember what exactly was in those rooms. Although, it doesn't matter. Mainly because the skull was not there either! I thought I missed one of the rooms, but I've checked them all. I even double-checked the ones Flaming Star did, but there was nothing. “Aaaaah!” That was Flame! I guessed he was not in a good situation. I wanted to run downstairs to help but I quickly realized that wouldn't do any good. I was standing in the hallway, lost and paranoid about what was happening and what I needed to do. “Think Sunset, THINK!” I told myself. I reviewed which door I chose and what was in each room. Once, twice, till I thought of something: where did the skeletons come out? Three from the right, and one from the left; I checked two of those doors and one of them was the file room that Flame had checked before. I wondered; “Does this mean that wherever they came out of, those rooms don't hold any skulls?” If my theory was correct, then there would be one door to check. I rethought about the order that I went into the doors, and realized I was right! The one that the skeleton came out of did not have any skulls inside. But the last room on my side didn't, either. Or did it? I went into the guest room again; it had to be here! I checked around again, but no luck. I could have been totally wrong but at that point in time, that was the best thing I could do. So I stuck with it. I tried to remember the words of the last letter that I found: “You will not find the last remain even by looking deep/look at yourself and break the barrier to take the true peek.” So first off, I couldn't find the last skull, so I assumed that by looking deep, it meant looking everywhere. But what about the second part? What did it meant by looking at yourself? I was looking around the room when I found myself looking into the mirror again. It was then that it hit me! The mirror! I was literally looking at myself. I was amused how I overlooked it. But wait! If that was the clue, then by breaking the barrier, I should break the mirror. “Let's hope it worth the bad luck it's going to give me!” I pulled open one of the drawers out of its place and threw it at the mirror as hard as I could. It did break and I saw the skull behind it. There were broken pieces of mirror everywhere but I managed to not cut myself extracting the prize. My bag did not have any more space so I just held the skull in my hand and headed downstairs as fast as I could. “Flame! Flame!?” I shouted as I was shining my light around. “I'm over here!” I followed the voice and found him standing against a wall; his face had cuts and bruises. He seemed quite tired. “Are you alright?” “Yeah, I'm fine ... they really weren't much of a threat.” He seemed quite confident in what he was saying, but for an amateur fencer, fighter, brawler or whatever, if you are dealing with multiple opponents, you are pretty much screwed. Especially if they are skeletons that don't really care if they get hurt or not. “Flame, are you sure that you are fine?” “Yeah, don't worry, I held them off. Now let's get out of here.” “Ok, bu-” It was then that we heard something fall. Something small, probably metal. We followed the sound and found ourselves in front of the black door again. There was another envelope on the ground but this time there was also a key with it. I picked them both up, the key did not feel like something that was made out of metal. I opened the envelope and read it out loud. In your hand you hold the key to the chamber of secrets seek what you need to perform the Aid Of Bygones you may seek but not for long, by the dawn of the sun your souls shall be mine TIME IS PRECIOUS, AFTER ALL Running To the Nightmares EndI held the key in my hand. It felt rough but I didn't mind. I tried the key in the door lock and from the sound that it made, we were certain that it was open. “What do you think is in there?” Flaming Star asked. “I don't know, but there’s only one way to find out.” I pushed the door open, our lights cut through the darkness and revealed to us a staircase that went down. Stepping in, I felt the pressure of the heavy air on my chest. We took the steps down when suddenly all the candles that were attached to the wall sconces lit up one by one and illuminated the whole way down. The staircase was not very long but what waited for us in the end was huge. It was a library full of books, lit by the giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling. “Wow!” I said, “If only Twilight could see this, she would flip!” “Yeah, it is kinda big, but I've seen bigger.” “It's not the biggest library for sure, but the fact that he has one that is this big and is full is what is amusing.” “I guess that's fair.” “Does your palace have a library too?” “Yes, and I think it is about the same size as this one, maybe slightly bigger and...aarg” he stretched his shoulders, “brighter.” “Flame, are you feeling alright?” “How many times do I have to tell you, I'M FINE!” “But you neither look nor sound fine, at least not to me.” “Whatever. What are we looking for in here again, more skulls?” “I don't think so. The last letter sounded like we need to find another clue or something to make us do something with the dead. I imagine this is the last thing we need to do to get out of here. But I kind of doubt it at this point.” “Let's hope that whatever we do will be our ticket back home.” We stayed silent for a while. “Let's take a look at the books,” I suggested. “Um, why exactly?” I sighed. “Because we should look around for something, and there’s nothing but books around here to look at.” “Fair.” There was a table and chair in the middle of the library. On it was another envelope. I picked it up and opened it. Do not look at the records of the past nor at the ones that contain the knowledge that is vast Don't go deep, it is near and around though it does not have a poetical sound Possess no shade but the darkness that is about it contains the guide that helps you get out from the ones that remained pick the odd one out Of all the letters I found, this was the most complex. I just stared at it for a few minutes, trying to make sense of it. But eventually, I gave up. Instead I went and looked at the books. I started with the shelves that were closer to me. The left column seemed to be for poetry and famous works of literature. There were books such as “Foxy and Foxtail”, the collection of Lonely Poet (the one that has a poem about a crow or something), Leaves of Grass”, “Epic of the King” and the Sonnets. Those were not all but just the ones I know and had heard of before. “Did you find anything?” Flaming Star shouted. “Yeah, I found another envelope, with another riddle that I have no clue about.” “Let me see,” he said as he came to the table and picked up the letter. He read it for himself quietly and then looked at me. “Whatever this is, it will lead us to what we want. We gotta put our minds together.” “I guess that's the best thing to do now!” We started theorizing about what the letter could have been leading us to, most of which were stupid speculations that we just passed by, but we thought some more. Maybe whit it is telling us not to go deep meant that what we want is not on the further shelves of the library. Or it could have meant that it is not a thick book. The records of the past could potentially be the history books. “What if by it does not contain any ‘knowledge that is vast’ it is trying to tell us that is not a science book?” I suggested. “Maybe, but we can't be sure...” “In that case, we won't be certain of anything!” “You’re right, we need to start testing some of these speculations.” So did we. To start things off, we didn't look at the further shelves of the library. The “records of the past” could have been referring to the history books so we didn't check those either. And we went with my theory about the “knowledge that is vast” referring to science and stuff. Which left us with a few columns and that was where we didn't ready know what to do. “So what now?” Flaming Star asked. “I have no idea ... maybe we could ... hey, do you hear that?” “Hear what?” “This ... this music ... sounds like piano ...” “Yeah ... a soft piano ... it sounds like it's coming from upstairs.” “Did you see any pianos when we were up there, because I don't remember seeing one.” “I think I did, but at the same time ... I am not sure.” It was then that I realized that one of the candles had gone out. “Flame, we are still on a time limit, only this time we may have more time to solve this.” “At least we have more time.” “Yeah, but the first time that we ran out of time there was only one skeleton, the second time there were four, and...” “What are you trying to say?” “That the penalty seems to be getting more and more serious, and I don't want to pull off the plan we used last time.” “Look, no matter if they are one, four, or a hundred, I'll be fine!” “No, you won't be!” “Let's just focus, we don't have time!” We tried thinking about the last parts of the letter. Meanwhile, the music started to ramp up, like it was reaching its chorus. But we didn't mind. I reread the letter again: “don't go deep it is near and around/though it does not have a poetical sound.” As I was reading it, it hit me! Literature! What we are looking for was also not in the literature section! “Flame! It's not on the literature section either!” “How do you know?” “The clue said it doesn't have a poetical sound! What has a poetical sound? Greatest works of literature!” “Yeah, that makes a-” Before Flaming Star could finish his sentence, the music suddenly changed the tone from soft piano to literally smashing the keys rapidly! The music got so fast and rapid that I almost felt like it was a different song! But after a few seconds, the music stopped. And as soon as it stopped, we realized that a few more of the candles were also extinguished. We were running out of time! “We need to hurry up!” Flaming Star said. “Yeah! So not in historical, not science nor literature, and it's not on the deeper shelves of the library. Then it leaves us with just a few shelves, and that is if we are correct!” “Let's hope we are! Something tells me that there is something really bad waiting for us if we run out of time!” “Did you get anything else from the clue?” “No, but we better act fast; there is only a few shelves, so we might be able to find what we are looking for by reading these books.” “Are you sure that is a good idea?” “No, but it is probably one of the best that we have at the moment. So, let's get started.” I dragged the ladder all the way from the left to the right for the biography section. “I'll head up and drop the books for you.” “Got it.” I climbed the ladder and dropped the books from the top shelves one by one; there were a lot of books and most of them were heavy. Luckily, I was not the who was supposed to catch them. But it didn't really matter. “Hey, you are catching them, right?” I asked. “No, I am going to let a book flatten my face!” “Ughhhh!” “Look, I am at least picking them up!” I just pulled the books off the shelves after that and let them fall. After I was done with the top shelves I headed down the ladder. “So what now, we read them?” “Yeah, till we find what we are looking for in one of them.” “And what exactly are we looking for?” “Something like a ritual thing for bygones, I don't know!” So we started. I sat down in the chair at the table and Flaming Star sat on the table. We each took one book at a time and looked through its pages as fast as we could. And then we just threw them into a pile of read books! Or we skimmed through the books; whatever you wanna call it! After quite some time, we managed to get through all of the books, but there was nothing. There sure was quite a handful of information about many great people, but not what we needed. Before trying to pick up the bottom shelves book, I looked around the library to check the candles and it felt that many of them were extinguished. I was not sure if it was me not noticing it before or time had passed that fast but I knew one thing for sure: we needed to hurry up! I picked a bunch of books and put them on the table, I told Flaming Star to do so, too. Then we read them as quickly as we could and moved on to pick up more and when we were done with those too we repeated the cycle. But even after finishing the whole biography section we still haven't found anything. The pile was getting bigger and bigger and our chance to find what we were looking for was getting smaller and smaller. “We are getting nowhere with this!” Flaming Star nagged. “YES, we are, we just need to keep looking!” I said as I adjusted the ladder on the other shelves and climbed it. “I don't know about you, but I’d rather make a hole in the wall to escape than look for who knows what in the middle of the books inside a library!” “I know it is boring and all,” I dropped down a few books, “But we are running out of time with every second, and it’s too late to come up with a plan B knowing that we are still unsure of what we are looking fo-” I was panicking and throwing a bunch of the books at the floor, but there was one that I held in my hand which caught my attention. It was a black book with the icon of a bearded face, wearing a wizard hat, and from that I figured whom this book was related to: Star Swirl the Bearded! He may not be a great unicorn or a wizard in this world, but he is certainly a great astronomer and was known as a wise person. But what bugged me was something else. “Hey, Flame, what are the books on the floor about?” “What do you mean?” “I mean what is their subject; is it science, poetry or what?” “Oh, uhm …” He picked up a few of them. “This one is labeled as: math, and it's beauty! And this one is labeled as: Mathematics problems and their solution!” “So this is the math section!” “So what?” “this book seems to be a biography of Star Swirl the Bearded, but we just finished the biography section and it's way over there!” “Yeah, but it's not a big deal, maybe it was misplaced.” “Maybe ... or it CAN BE THE ODD ONE OUT!” I shouted. “Catch me!” and in my excitement I jumped from the ladder. “Ow wow wow!” I crash landed on Flaming Star with the book in my hand. “You are not gonna suck my blood now, are you?” Flaming Star said. “Maybe later,” I said as I stood up. “First off, let's get out of here!” I put the book on the table and started scanning through it. “Now why in the name of sanity did you jump on me?” Just when I wanted to answer him, I found another envelope in the middle of the book. “Because this IS what we are looking for.” I opened it and took out the letter that was inside, although this one was a bit different: To perform the Aid of the bygones you must obtain 5 skulls of the bygones and place them accordingly on the pentagram. Then you may step in the middle, and say: az shoma komak mikhaham ey raftegan! This ritual has the risk of possession. It is advised to use the skulls of those who were not filled with agony! There was also a drawing of a pentagram in the bottom of the letter, indicating that the skulls should be placed on the points of the star. “Now what is this exactly?” Flaming Star asked. “Not sure, but we better keep this one with us, along with the...” I realized that I did not have the skull in my hand! “Where is the skull that I had in my hand?” “You put it on the table.” He pointed his finger at it. I picked it up and looked around to judge our situation according to the candles. They were almost done. It was at this moment that I heard the sound of the piano again. “Do you hear it too?” Flaming Star asked doubtfully. “Yeah, and I think we should head upstairs to see what awaits us,” And so we did. We walked up the staircase, and as we walked candles were extinguishing one by one! Halfway up, we started running to get to the door faster. And once we stepped into where we first came in, we noticed something. The room was lit up by candles, but not normal candles: these had a red, bright flame that gave the room an ominous look. And as we walked around, more candles lit up, but these ones had green flames. They were surrounding a pentagram. “What is going on here?” Flaming Star asked surprisingly. “Nothing good, for sure.” The music reached its crescendo and as it did black holes started appearing from all over the room! Many, many holes and we both knew what was going to come out of them all. “Sunset, hurry up! We need to perform the thingy!” “Great idea!” We ran up to the pentagram, and as we got there, the music stopped and the skeletons started crawling out of their holes. Meanwhile we set up the skulls on the points. “They are almost out!” I said nervously as I looked back. “What was the sentence that we have to say?” He stepped in the middle of the pentagram. “NO! You are not doing this, it's dangerous!” “Dangerous is the army of undead skeletons that are coming!” Most of the skeletons were out, and I didn't want Flaming Star to put himself in the risk of being possessed. So I took him by the arm and threw him on the ground. “Sorry, Flame, but you already put your life at risk once today, now is my turn!” I steeped in the middle of the pentagram and said the words: “Az shoma komak mikhaham ey raftegan!” And as I said that, the skulls floated in the air, and I felt an unconformable sensation all over my body! It felt as if someone was controlling my body. “Am I being possessed?” I asked myself. But then the skulls started rotating around my body. They let out an ear deafening scream and the only thing I could do was close my eyes. After a few moments, I felt I could move my body again so I opened my eyes. The door was open, there was no bone barricade. I looked back and only saw Flaming Star on the floor, no skeletons in sight. “Is it ... done?” I looked around; the skulls were nowhere to be found, but the pentagram was still there. All the candles were extinguished! It was done. I helped Flaming Star stand up and then we both walked out of the mansion. For some reason I felt something great in my body, a feeling of power. The door slammed closed behind us as we walked out and the click sound that it made gave us the certainty that it was locked. “Are you OK?” Flaming Star said as he was catching his breath. “I guess, I am still in one piece.” “What a night that was...” “No kidding! It sure is something that I’ll definitely remember.” “I also hope that you haven't forgot about histories exam tomorrow!” “I don't really care at this point! I just want to figure out what is the deal with Pro. Skull Mustache.” “Sooooo, you don't want this?” he showed me a piece of paper. “What is that?” I grabbed the paper out of his hand. “It's the answer to the exam; found it in his room of records. At least we got this out of that nightmarish house, am I right?” “Flame...” “What?” “This is for last year’s history final!” Author's Note Happy Halloween! I hope you have enjoyed this story and if you have please give a thumbs up and if not please let me know in the comments why. Special Thanks to my Editor Daniel Drazen.
I've got a shotDear Princess Twilight, Last time I told you about the ups and downs between me and Flaming Star to get our project done and that we ended up being the best group. It got us an invitation to Boneyard Mansion, a place that I had never heard of. The invitation was for this world’s Nightmare Night which is a few days from now. Excuse me for venting, but the mark that we earned from our project was supposed to be our final grade for the term. Although Prof. Skull Mustache felt that in this way many would fail history, guess what he did instead. He decided to give us an exam anyway, which we were not supposed to take considering that we changed our teacher and that the last one didn’t teach us anything! That wasn’t even the worst part yet: he put the exam at the end of the week! I decided to study, but there was not much time to study at all. So I was looking for other options. It was Wednesday and we had just left the math class. I was talking with the girls so I could distract myself from the whole problem that I was going to face soon. “Does anyone else think we’ve been practicing Flaming Star’s songs for a while now?” Rainbow Dash said. “Uh, yeah, so what?” Applejack replied. “Nothing, I just think we should practice our own songs more.” “I agree, we shouldn’t forget about our own songs,” I said. “So, should we practice after school?” Fluttershy asked. “Oh darling, that’s a wonderful idea!” Rarity complemented Fluttershy’s opinion and got close to her, and then Pinkie Pie jumped in and wrapped her arms around both their necks. “Yaaaay! Let’s do it!” “I’m down with that too; what about you guys?” Rainbow Dash said. “Ah reckon so. What about you, Twilight?” “I’m actually free this afternoon, so I guess some extra practice couldn’t hurt. Sunset, you are coming too, right?” “Actually, no, I can’t.” “Awww, why not?” “I wish I could, Pinkie, but I’ve got a killer final in History on Friday and I need all the help I can get.” “Whoa, whoa! You said there wasn’t going to be a test and that project you and Flaming Star were working on was going to be your grade.” “Skull Mustache changed his mind, Rainbow Dash; now he wants to punish the entire class!” “But we can’t practice with one of the members being absent!” “Pinkie Pie’s right; we can’t do it without you!” Rainbow Dash added. Twilight came near to me. “I’d like to help you with it if I can.” “Thanks, but I have to bear the burden of studying for this on my own.” “But you will come to the party tomorrow night, right?” “Wait, what party, Pinkie?” “The Nightmare Night party, silly!” Just when she said that, I remembered the invitation from Prof. Skull Mustache. I leaned back against a locker and slid down to sit on the floor. “Sorry, Pinkie, prior commitment.” “Aww! But everybody’s coming to that! Even Fluttershy is coming!” “Well, um, I haven’t really decided yet.” “WAIT!” Pinkie shouted. “The rest of you guys are coming to the party, right?” The girls assured her that they would be there, even though it looked like I and Fluttershy were going to be no-shows. The group broke up a short time afterward. I thought maybe some time alone to think about my situation would help, but there weren’t any other options. It was then that Flaming Star showed up. “Hey, Sunset!” “Oh, Hi. How is everything?” “Not ideal, but we can do something about it!” “What do you mean?” “OK, do you remember I told you Steely has access to Vice Principal Luna’s computer?” “Yeah, and if your next question has to do with hacking into it and looking for Prof. Skull Mustache’s test, then you can turn around and walk away.” “Keep your ethical attitude to yourself. Besides, we tried looking for the history exam file but couldn’t find it.” “So why are you telling me this?” “Because Skull Mustache will probably prepare the Exams himself and bring them to class the day of the test.” “It seems to me I remember that on his first day here he ‘tested’ us, and he had brought the exam papers himself.” “Well, I for one ain’t gonna study for that exam.” “Studying isn’t one of my favorite things, either, but what choice do we have?” “What if you had a choice?” “Well, here’s a riddle for you: Who has two thumbs and is in no mood for riddles? This girl!” He then showed me the envelope that Prof. Skull Mustache gave us. “Have you read what’s in here? Have you thought about it? He has invited us to his home! Just in creepy, weird words.” “So?” “So we go there tomorrow night, search around, find the exam paper, and leave!” “He invited us to a dinner, not to some kind of mystery treasure hunt where first prize is getting a failing grade and possibly being expelled!” “Just read it again. And use some of those mad critical thinking skills you learned from Twilight.” I read it again. I have to admit I thought I was looking for another way out of this dilemma, but it seemed it was looking for me all along.
ReliefI had almost no faith in Flaming Star’s plan, and I didn’t want to be a part of it. But I also didn’t have much faith my being able to study as much as I needed to survive one of Prof. Skull’s tests. So I decided to roll with it. “OK, fine, I guess it might work. But how are we going to search for it? Prof. Skull Mustache will probably be keeping his eye on us for the whole night, and if his invitation is also a dare he’s bound to know what we are trying to do.” “Um, good question ... and frankly I have no idea. Not yet, anyway. But I’m sure we’ll find a way.” “I hope so.” “I will let you know if I come up with anything, but for now I gotta go. So, see ya.” He backed away from me, took a turn and was lost from sight. Knowing that I didn’t need to study anymore was a relief, but the feeling was short-lived since the thought of how we were going to pull this off was moving around in my head and I just couldn’t forget about it. It was a very risky thing to do but at the same time it was totally worth it. But the longer I bounced between the two thoughts the more paranoid I felt. It wasn’t doing me any good. I decided to try distracting myself, just not thinking about it. But I knew that I also needed to do something, something physical. So I headed to the fencing club, expecting to see Flaming Star there as well. But he wasn’t there and surprisingly Flaming Star was absent. I had never known him to miss a chance to sharpen his skills. And, to tell the truth, I was hoping he’d be there so I could challenge him to a rematch. But I had to admit to myself that even after all my practice, I still couldn’t beat him. Even if I managed to hit him, he’d change from a defensive fencer to an aggressive one! The most I managed to get against him was a draw, and I just ended up being so intimidated I was like a turtle hiding in its shell. But since he was absent, there was nobody else anywhere near as intimidating. Long story short, I got my old confidence back. I didn’t see Flaming Star again that day. I had to wonder whether he was trying to come up with an actual plan or not. But that started the paranoia cycle again! I needed to relax. Well, when in doubt, get in touch with your friends. And then I remembered that they girls wanted to rehearse. Since the whole study-till-midnight plan of mine got canceled I had free time. I walked through the hallways of school, looking left and right for them. It took me while but finally I found them. “Hey, guys!” I announced myself. “I’ve got good news!” They all turned around and looked at me, but before I could say anything Pinkie Pie spoke up. “Are you and Flaming Star going to steal the exam papers from Prof. Skull Mustache so you don’t have to spend lots and lots of time studying for it and that’s why you showed up for rehearsal?” I’ve heard Pinkie Pie say these sort of things before, but for me it’s always a surprise! “Uh ... how did you …?” “I just guessed.” “Well, … never mind. Yeah, I’m free for rehearsal.” The rest of the girls looked very puzzled and confused at what just happened. I’d have thought they’d be more used to it by now “Ooookay, but uh, what about the rest of it?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Rest of what?” I asked. “Of what just Pinkie Pie just said! What about those?” “Yeah!” Applejack joined in, “what the hay was she just talkin’ about?” I took a deep breath before answering. “It’s a long story!”
In doubtWe headed to the Sweet Apple Farm and set up there for our rehearsal, and it really was a trip down memory lane. I was fascinated that after all this time we still knew the songs by heart. We were having so much fun that we didn’t realize how time passed. I was so happy that I decided to scrap the whole studying-till-midnight plan of mine and joined the rehearsal. Speaking of which, I still needed to explain to the girls what Flaming Star and I had in mind. I did, though they weren’t sure if this was a good idea. I don’t blame them; I didn’t have much faith in it, either, and on top of that if I heard that my friends were going to steal the exam paper from the house of one of the most intimidating teachers of CHS, I’d be worried, too. “Sunset, darling,” Rarity said as she approached me, “I’ve only seen that teacher of yours twice and I can already tell, he isn’t someone you can distract.” “Just the way he looks gives me goose bumps!” Fluttershy added, shaking. “I know you guys are worried about me, and I appreciate it, but that’s the best options I’ve got.” Twilight adjusted her glasses. “I do agree that it’s unfair to give an exam that wasn’t even supposed to be given, but what if he is testing us like last time? What if he just wants to see if we have learned our lesson or not?” “It’s possible, but I’m not going to risk failing to understand it!” “But what if he caught you two? Wouldn’t he fail you then?” Applejack asked as she stood up. “Yes! But then I’m at least doing something that will enable me to complete the exam successfully!” Twilight sighed. “I guess that’s fair.” Since it was getting late I left them and headed home. I believe the rest did the same, too. On the way I started thinking again, calculating my odds. But for some reason I just couldn’t think straight about anything! Either I believed that it wasn’t going to work and that the odds against us were awful, or I really wanted it to work. I was trying to be optimistic and pessimistic about it at the same time! It wasn’t until I reached my door that I realized I was over-thinking stuff and I needed to relax, just roll with it and hope for the best. I tried watching TV and playing games, hoping I could distract myself from it all. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and the whole uncertainty got to me again. “Should I do it, or not?” I was in doubt, lost and paranoid. After a little more struggle with my thoughts I remembered something: the letter! The letter that Prof. Skull Mustache gave to us as an invitation. I picked up my bag and searched for it in there, I almost threw everything out but I finally found it! I wanted to give it a closer reading. So I ignored the mess that I just made and opened it and started reading. *** Welcome to the Boneyard Mansion In your hand you hold a ticket to pass through the gates of death. Though be warned: those souls who pass through this gate may not be able to regain what they left behind You are welcome here, but you are not welcome for long; this invitation expires after the night of nightmares draws its last breath Time is precious after all You may seek, but not for long The game will begin after you pass from life into death *** Flaming Star was right about it being written with weird words, but even accounting for the flowery expressions, something still felt off about it. As far as I could tell, this invitation wasn’t even referring to a dinner; there was no mention of the menu. It was definitely about something else. So reading the letter was no help at all.
Into darknessI didn’t rest easy that night, thinking about that letter and what it was trying to say and what it didn’t say. I really wasn’t doing myself a favor and in the morning all I felt was dizzy. There wasn’t much time to take a shower or fix my hair so I just got dressed and left. Before I knew it I was at school, standing in the hallway. I moved towards the bathroom blindly and I was actually surprised that I managed to find the right one. I washed my face and headed out. The girls were right outside, staring at me when I got out. “Um, hi?” I said. “Sunset, are you ... OK?” asked Twilight. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Uh, why are you asking?” “Because we were right in front of you and you walked past like you didn’t even see us!” Rainbow Dash answered. “Besides, pardon me for saying so but you look HORRIBLE, darling!” “Thanks for pointing it out, Rarity! I … it’s nothing serious, I just didn’t slept well and I’m a little dizzy, that’s all!” “Are you sure you even slept?” Applejack asked. And to be honest, that was a great question … that I didn’t know the answer to myself! Fluttershy put her hand on my shoulder. “Sunset, are you sure everything is alright?” “I’m fine! My head was just a little crowded. That’s all.” They didn’t seem convinced. It wouldn’t have convinced me either if I’d heard it. “Anyway, we should head to math class, it’s getting late!” They accepted that and we headed to class. I wasn’t in any shape to focus on math. I was still wondering about the letter and what it was supposed to mean. It was stuck into my head from last night and I just couldn’t figure it out! It was like it wasn’t even written in symbols or anything; if that had been the case I had more than one person I could ask for help. But no, that was not what we were dealing with. Something just felt off. After class, I went to talk to Flaming Star. I wanted to see if he had come up with a plan and to talk to him about the letter. Finding him was easy; he was waiting for me so I guessed that he did have a plan. “Hey! Have you decided to get ready for Nightmare Night already?” he grinned. “Excuse me?” “Your face! You look like a person who was staring at the ceiling for the whole night.” Again, I wondered if that was what happened. “We’ll get to that in a minute. Now tell me if you came up with anything or not.” “Actually I have!” He started walking and I followed him. “So, once we get inside he’ll start greeting us and, you know, go through the formalities. And we just roll with it.” “OK, so what’s next?” “We’ll probably have a little chat and then head to the dinner table. After a while you ask for the bathroom but you don’t go there; instead, you try to search around the house and meanwhile I’ll keep him busy.” “Um, are you sure that’ll work?” “Super Mega...kinda.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Kinda?” “I mean if things got rough I could start a little fire on the table.” “Yeah, THAT’LL work!” “Don’t worry, I can control those. Is it OK now?” He looked at me as if there was absolutely no problem with his plan and I was nit-picking. But I had to talk to him about the letter so I decided to let him have the point. “I, uh ... I’ve got something to tell you.” “What?” “Last night I read the letter that Prof. Skull Mustache gave to us carefully and something just feels off!” “Like what?” “Like, there isn’t anything in it about any kind of dinner!” “WHAT?” “Look, I don’t know how to explain it but just think about it! The whole dinner thing is weird by itself, and the way the letter is written, it all points to something else!” “Listen, whatever it is, he’s giving us an opportunity to sneak around to find that exam paper. Yes, I agree that the letter is written in a super mega crazy way but c’mon, it’s not like he’s gonna trap us there or kidnap us.” He paused for a second, “Although I think he might do a better job than the last two guys.” “Wouldn’t be difficult. But I guess you’re right.” “So I’ll see you tonight. Don’t forget to be dressed up properly, although it looks like you got a head start!” “Dressed?” “Yeah! It’s Nightmare Night! Did you forget?” He smiled and walked away. The rest of the day was not much to talk about, except for the night! I decided to dress up as an old-school movie vampire: slinky dress, cheap-looking fangs. Hey, that was what I wanted to be for Nightmare Night this year, anyway. I took some pictures of myself; if I wasn’t going to the party this year I had to at least share my costume with the girls. The location of Prof. Skull Mustache’s house was on the back of the letter. Just when I looked at it I spotted something strange: his house was outside of the city! I was confused but I decided it’s better to go and see it for myself. I hopped on my motorcycle and headed there. Although it was outside of the city it was not very far. At first I thought I had gone to the wrong address, but then I saw the road that headed to the woods. There was no other house around so I left my motorcycle there and followed the path on foot. Unlike what I was expecting, the path was very wide and easy to follow. I walked for a while till I saw a sign saying: “Welcome to the Boneyard Mansion”. That’s when I saw it! It wasn’t just a house, and the name wasn’t an exaggeration. It was a giant mansion, with a menacing and creepy look. It seemed it had multiple floors; the windows suggested that, at least. I was staring at the mansion for a while, and all of a sudden, a hand touched my shoulder. I jumped and looked to see who it was while letting out a not-very-loud scream. The figure was wearing purple clothes with chain mail armor protecting his upper body, and he was holding a small pumpkin that had a face carved on it. It was not until he walked forward that I realised it was Flaming Star. “Hey! Did I scare you?” he asked with devilish smile. “Not scared, just … extremely shocked!” “Yeah, whatever. So is this the place?” “Seems like it. Though I’m not sure if it’s decorated to be creepy or if it always looks like this.” “The same way that I don’t know if your costume kills or if it’s by default.” I smiled. “Touche.” “Let’s not get distracted and stick to the plan. By the way, you haven’t forgotten it, have you?” “Yeah, your master plan! I haven’t forgotten about that!” “Ok, I get it. Let’s not goof around any longer and see what’s for dinner.” We walked towards the doors of the mansion. The doorknob was in the shape of a skull, its eyes were closed and it seemed as if the key was supposed to go through the nose. We tried knocking on the door but nothing happened. “Um, so do we have to ring a bell or something? Does it even have a bell?” Flaming Star said as he put down his pumpkin. “It doesn’t seem like it, I wonder if anyone is ho-“ *click* That was the sound of the door opening, the eyes of the skull opened up and a tiny red light shined out of them. The jaws of the skull also opened. It felt as it was awake now! We pushed the door and headed inside. As soon as I stepped into the mansion a shiver went up from my body and I felt faint for a second, but I held my upper arms and that helped. “Why is it so dark?” I asked. “It’s probably a surprise, don’t worr-“ *SLAM* We looked back to see that door behind us had slammed shut. “OK,” Flaming Star said, “the only question now is, what awaits us after the lights come on?” I was still looking at the door in the darkness, and I could sense something was happening under it, some kind of movement. All of a sudden somethings rose up out of the floor between us and the door. We were both shocked so we rushed towards the door! “What’s happening?” I asked. “I don’t know, but I doubt the lights are gonna be turned on. Unless … what are you doing?” I reached into the evening bag I was carrying and took out my phone. “If our host has forgotten his etiquette and is going to leave us in the dark, time to take the initiative.” “Great. Who you gonna call?” I didn’t call anybody and turned on the flashlight app instead. A cage-like screen had risen up out of the floor to obstruct the door. It was a grid-like construction of what appeared to be bones. I looked at them and retreated in my mind to my biology classes; I started trying to identify which ones were humerus and which were femurs just to keep from screaming. “What is this?” I managed to ask. “Is it wood?” Flaming Star reached out to touch the cage. So did I, and it was then that I realized what material it was: bone.
The game Begins!I turned my head to Flaming Star and shined my light at him. “This is bone!” “What? But how is that...I mean, that doesn’t make sense!” “No, it doesn’t! But it feels like real bone! It’s not plastic or anything. It’s real organic bone.” “I’m having a weird feeling about this.” “I think that’s the general idea.” He turned around and gazed into the darkness. “So what do we do now?” It was then that the candles lit by themselves and shined some light in the darkness. I was about to turn off my flashlight app when I sensed something moving around in the shadows, something small. I shone the light across the room but I couldn’t make out what it was. Then I noticed that the candles were arranged in a rough circle on the floor, and in the center of the circle was an envelope. “What is that?” I asked while I had my light on it. “Don’t know, but I doubt it’s the menu!” He then walked forward and picked it up. I got closer to see it better. It had the same skull seal on it as the invitation that Prof. Skull Mustache gave us. Flaming Star opened the envelope and read the letter out loud. You stepped into the shadows and burned them by this light! Though soon they shall turn gloomy in this realm of dark! If you seek to return to your life, Seek the remains of those who came before this! You may seek but not for long! By the dawn of the sun, your time is up. Lose this chance and your souls shall be mine! TIME IS PRECIOUS AFTER ALL. We were both staring at each other, silent. “So what should we do now?” Flaming Star asked. “I don’t know. Let’s look around to see if we can find anything.” “Look around for what?” “I don’t know! The light switch, maybe.” “Good idea! Just give me a minute.” I shined my light on him, as he tried to reach under the chain mail armor. “What are you doing?” “Trying to reach my phone!” he was struggling to bring his hand under the armor. “Good thing knights never had to use cell phones in the Middle Ages.” He let that slide. Finally he managed to get through his costume and after a while his hand came out with the phone. “There we go. Now, let’s search.” We kept looking at the wall in the room. It was wood paneling, brown oak as it seemed but I was not sure. The walls were covered with different wall hangings. There were several paintings that were too dark to see clearly. And there were skulls, mostly the skulls of animals. “I wish Fluttershy was here.” “Wait. Isn’t she the one who’s so timid she’s not good for much of anything?” “She’s also planning to study veterinary medicine when she goes off to college. Maybe she could give us a hand with these.” I looked closer to the skulls, then I started feeling creepy again so I stepped back. “Whoa!” “What is it?” “These skulls! Individually they were just creepy; they still are. But maybe …” “Maybe what?” “Maybe there’s a reason why they’re arranged this way.” “Well, we’d better figure it out fast. Like the letter said, ‘Time is precious’.” I looked again at the skulls on the wall. I recognized one to be a moose, there was a skull of a bird with a quite long beak which I figured might be a stork or something. Another one was for a predator; I wasn’t sure which but it had sharp teeth like a large feline. But there was another one, a black skull right after that which was quite hard to make out what it was with the lack of light. I stepped closer and closer. But I stopped when I realized what I was looking at. It was a human skull! I stepped backward, tried nor to look at them and went back to searching for the light switch. After a while I found it but when I flicked it, nothing happened. “Hey! Did you find anything?” Flaming Star shouted in the darkness. “Good news: I found the switch. Bad news: it doesn’t work.” “Maybe it’s not the light swi..” he went silence before he finished that sentence. Then he continued: “You’d better come over here.” I followed the voice in the darkness and reached out to him. He was staring to something, I shined my light at it and I saw it, another way blocked off by tall bones. “Another one?” “There’s another one there, too!” He pointed his fingers to the left. I shined my light in that direction and another entrance was blocked off by bones. “Something isn’t right!” He was right, I was now certain that this is not a dinner party. Whatever this is, I had a bad feeling about it. “Let’s keep looking,” I said. “For what?” “I don’t know, a door or some-“ My hand was shaking as I tried scanning the room by the light of my phone. Then I saw a door a few steps away. It was a dark wooden door but its color didn’t quite blend in with the color of the wood paneling. We walked to it and I tried to open it, but it was locked. “What’s that?” Flaming Star said. “What?” “On the floor!” Right in front of the door, there was another envelope. I opened and read what was inside. Find the remains of the ones who stepped here before us Or it shall be summoned to take your lives. Find it before darkness overtakes the ten burning lights Only then you may see the next part of this night! I read it out loud like Flaming Star did last time. Yet we were still clueless of what it all meant. But it was then that Flaming Star realized something. “Hey, weren’t there more candles before?” he shined his light on the candles. Only two were burning and the rest have gone out! “Yeah, there was ten burning but now there is only t-“ Suddenly one of the two candles got extinguished. “Make that one!” I read the last letter for myself again, because I thought I was onto something. “’Find the remains of the ones who stepped here before us Or IT shall be summoned to take your lives. Find it before darkness overtakes the ten burning lights’. The “ten burning lights...’ the candles!” I said as the last candle got put out. “What?” Flaming Star asked, confused. Before I could answer him our attention got caught to something else. A dark shadow was forming where we had found the first letter. We had out our lights on it when suddenly a hand came out! A skeleton hand! Even in the dim light of our phones, it was the first time I had ever seen Flaming Star frightened. The hand clawed the wooden floor and dragged itself out. The skull of the skeleton then surfaced from the darkness. From deep in the eye sockets a dim light seemed to be staring at us. Its other hand came out too and kept on dragging itself out of whatever he was in like an undead thing coming out of its grave. We were both terrified and frozen in place, staring at the skeleton that was almost out. But then I shook myself up and reread the last letter in my head. “’Find the remains of those who stepped here before us’.” The remains; I started to wonder what it could it mean. “Remains … Corpse … Bones ... Bone ... THE BLACK SKULL!” The skeleton was out! All of his bones were attached, held together somehow, and it started moving towards us. I shook Flaming Star out of his fear because there was no time. “Flame! Flame! Distract that thing however you can! I think I know how to get us out of here!” He nodded, then he withdrew his sabre! I didn’t even notice that he had one this whole time! The skeleton was charging at us. I managed to circle around it, but it was onto me. But Flaming Star diverted its attention by shouting and thrusting his sabre through the space between its ribs. It turned back and let out a terrifying and loud scream into Flaming Star’s face. The skeleton jumped on Flaming Star and they started brawling with one another. I ran up to the skull and grabbed it from the wall! The effect was like pulling a plug from a wall socket. A chilling silence filled the room. I shined my light at Flaming Star but I saw no skeleton. It was gone. I had the black skull in my hand and I was still feeling the adrenaline in my blood. I couldn’t believe that it was over, or was it?
The Nightmare ContinuesI walked over to Flaming Star, who was still on the ground, catching his breath. “Are you OK?” I took his hand and helped him stand up. “I’m not sure, but I’m still in one piece.” He didn’t admit it, but he was still trembling in fear. “So how much of your master plan has worked so far?” “Let’s not go there, for now.” He picked up his sabre off the floor. “What did we get ourselves into?” “Seems like a game.” “A what?” “This was never a dinner party. Now the invitation makes sense!” “What are you talking about?” “This is some kind of a game! He invited us to play a game!” “A game? Are you serious? Because I doubt the skeleton that I was wrestling with got the same letter we did.” “I don’t want to meet up with it again, either. All things being equal, I rather get out of here!” I raised my voice a little and started walking towards the main door with my light. “Wait, what about the whole key to the exam and all-“ “Are you out of your mind?” I shouted. “We barely got away from one nightmare and who knows what else will come next? I don’t know about you but I’m out of here!” We both walked to the door; he did nothing to stop me so I assumed he wanted to get out too. But the door was still barricaded by bones. “So what do we do about this?” Flaming Star asked. “Why don’t YOU try knocking?” I winked at him in the darkness. He got what I meant and took his gloves off. He stood in front of the barricaded door, took a deep breath and … just stood there. “Uh, what are you waiting for?” He turned his head towards me. “I … it’s not working!” “W-what do you mean by that?” I asked confused. “My magic, it’s not working I … I don’t feel anything!” He looked very terrified and lost in the darkness “OK, is this your way of keeping me in this nightmare or …“ “I’m serious!” he cut me off, “I’m trying my best but nothing is happening! You think I like being in here?” “OK, fine. Give me your hand!” “Why? I thought we were over this!” “I just want to see if MY magic works or not, and I can’t try it on anything else!” I tried to convince him, and myself as well. “Fine!” He pulled the mail armor and his sleeve up, just a little so I could take a clean grab on his wrist. I took his wrist with mine and expected to see his memories. But nothing happened. For a second I thought I was not directly touching his wrist but no, it was direct skin contact yet I was seeing nothing. He pulled away his hand. “You done?” He was right, our magic was disabled! I started shaking in fear. “Hey!” Flaming Star shook me out of thoughts, “you here?” “Yeah! Yeah I just … ” I took another look at the barricaded door. “I don’t know why our magic has been disabled, but we’ve got to find another way out of here.” “OK, but what’s that all about?” He pointed towards the black skull that I was still holding in my hand. “Oh, it seems this is the remains of the ones who came here before us, like it said in the clue.” He still seemed to be confused. “Alright, whatever you say. Where do you think we should look first?” I thought to myself for a second, I looked around to find a window but there was nothing. “Give me a minute …” I walked around until I found a curtain. I pulled it aside, hoping that we could be free. But that was not going to happen. There was a window, though it was barricaded from the outside by bones. Even if we broke the window, we couldn’t get past the bones. “Is that blocked too?” he asked. “Yeah, from the outside.” It was then that I remembered seeing windows from the outside and I was certain that there were also some on the first floor. But they were probably all barricaded now! “It seems we have nowhere to go, unless...” I tried to remember the words of the letter again: “find it before darkness overtakes ten burning lights, only then you may see the next part of this night!” I looked at the black skull that I was still holding. We had the remains of the one who came here before, but what’s the next part of the night? “so, what should we do?” Flaming Star asked. “Let’s look around, I have a feeling that something has changed when I pulled this, like I threw a switch or something.” I showed him the skull. “Alright, so whatever that is, it’s important to this game?” “I guess.” I put the skull in my bag. It was not very big so it wasn’t hard to fit in my bag. We started looking around again and soon after I found something: a stairway leading upstairs. On the left was a barricaded entrance. I looked a little way to the right and the black door where I found the other letter was there, too. I realized that this was one of those barricaded entrances that we saw earlier. But now it was clear. “Hey, Flame. Come check this out.” “What is it, did you find a way out or...” He paused and looked around, “Hey, isn’t this the way that found earlier?” “It is, but now it’s open.” “So, this is where we should go?” “It seems we have no other choice.” “Meaning that we should play along.” He sounded disappointed. “For now, till we find a way out of this madness.” We walked up the stairs slowly. The wooden panels let out a little squeak whenever we stepped on them. I looked at the walls, there were more wall hangers but some looked familiar. There were masks, jewelry and some decorated weapons. “What are you looking at? Just keep walking!” Flaming Star nagged. “But we better watch out for anything weird. The last time what stopped that skeleton was the skull. Who knows what else we should look for.” “Yeah, about that skeleton. My sword went right through it!” “Yeah, I saw, so?...” “It was not a guy in a costume! Or else it would have bled. And it wasn’t a dummy or an animatronic because there was no resistance. And it wasn’t a balloon because it didn’t pop!” He was onto something. “Crazy things are happening here.” “I say Prof. Skull Mustache doesn’t even live here! He just sent us here, to this … this haunted mansion to have a little fun.” “First of, I think this is his house since only a guy as creepy as him could live here. Also there are notes all around. Someone must have organized them.” Flaming Star paused for a second, “Or something … like a … ghost!” He sounded a little afraid. “Ghosts are not real! Man, I thought you would be way bolder, with your dueling and your parkour. Didn’t know you were a chicken!” “You are the one who wants to get out of here! I still want to find the answers to the exam tomorrow! And also, out of all the crazy things I’ve seen since I came here, I think having ghosts and stuff makes sense. I mean look at me, I can create and control fire!” “Or you used to.” “Shut up!” I sighed. “OK. Sorry. That wasn’t any help.” By that time we had reached the next floor. There was a long corridor with eight doors, four on the left, four on the right. They blended in with the wood paneling of the walls. It was then that the candles came on again. Ten candles attached to the walls by candleholders. I saw something moving in the shadows, something tiny and fast like a mouse. But I couldn’t make out what it was. And there was another envelope on the floor. We walked to it and I picked it up. I opened and read the letter inside aloud. Choose your path, chose your door. Four will show and four will lure Four will show the remains of whom, who came before. Four will lure what will take your souls. Don’t be hasty and don’t be slow. Chose wisely and save your soul!
Odd DatesWe both stared at each other asking with our eyes “So what now?” Flaming Star broke the silence. “Which one should we pick?” “I don’t know; without clues, I guess this is more of a luck thing.” “So, let’s just ... pick a side first and then we chose which one of the four to go to. Are you alright with that?” “Yeah, but I think we can enhance it.” “What do you mean?” I got closer to him. “I think if we split up, we can search more rooms in less time.” “Great idea!” he said, but then he paused. “But what if we choose wrong? Will Mr. Skeleton pay another visit?” “Don’t know, but we’d better be forearmed against it, especially now that we don’t have our magic. For whatever reason.” We looked at the candles; two were out already! We needed to hurry. “I got right,” Flaming Star said. “Then I pick left.” “Good luck ... um ... and be careful.” “You too.” I stood in front of the four doors, deciding which I wanted to go in, when I heard how Flaming Star was picking his door. “Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a stickman by the toe … do stickman have toes?” “Nice system you got there!” “Shut up, trying to choose a path here!” While he was taking his time with that, I chose the door that was second to the left and headed in. I shined my light around in the darkness. I was expecting the candles to light up but nothing happened. The room had many shelves, on each were trophies and framed certificates. I decided to look closer. The trophies were on the bottom shelves and were easy to reach. There was something written on all of them so I started reading. The first trophy was in the shape of a closed book: it said “To the one that learned from the past and determined the future. National University of Vandersky 1823.” For a second, I thought that the number doesn’t make sense. Was that a typo or I was reading the dates wrong? It certainly didn’t look that old. I took a look at the other trophies. There was a glass trophy in the shape of a star. It said, “For the one who knows its lessons by heart. National University of Denamore--Scroll Bridge- 1866.” I was still confused by the dates, but I kept on looking at the other trophy dates. 1903, 1943, 1983.” So there seemed to be a roughly 40-year interval between the trophies. But the next trophy was different. It was a medium sized silver cup that did look quite recent: “Make sure you learn something out of every second of your life. Time is precious after all. Novel University of Precious Thoughts-- 2002” I was looking at it in the darkness, trying to make sense of all this, when I felt a hand on my back! “Ah!” I jumped and dropped the Cup. Thankfully, it was Flaming Star. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy there!” “I will be, if you quit doing that.” “I didn’t do it on purpose!” “Yeah, whatever.” I was still catching my breath. There was something about this place that was unsettling and that alone was enough to build a great feeling of terror in my heart. So, whenever a simple thing happens, you jump out of your skin. “So, uh, what about this room? The one that I was in seemed to be a guest bedroom.” “This seems to be a trophy room. And something is bothering me.” “Yeah, this whole place just ... “ “No, I’m talking about the dates of these trophies. They can’t be his, or they might not even be real. Unless ... Does Prof. Skull Mustache have magic?” “Wait, unless what?” “Never mind. Did you find anything?” “Yeah, this!” He held up another black skull like the one I still had with me. “How about you?” “Well, I certainly found something, but it doesn’t seem to be what we need.” I knelt to pick up the silver trophy I had dropped. That’s when I noticed another black skull. I picked both of them up. I guessed that the skull had been inside the trophy and rolled onto the floor. “Or did I?” I wondered. “Oh, so you found one, too. What about the cup?” “Yeah! The trophies, their dates make no sense!” I shined my light at the shelves and the walls. “What do you mean?” “Look for yourself!” He stepped closer and stared at them for a bit. As he stepped back, his confusion was visible! “You see what I mean?” “Yeah. Super mega legitimately. But I doubt we got time for this!” I put the silver trophy back where it had been on the shelf and we headed back into the hallway. Five candles were left! “OK! You better hold on to these.” He handed me his skull and I put both of them in the bag. “Now, we better hurry or that skeleton will show up again.” “Wait! We can only cover so many rooms in the time we have left.” “What do you mean?” “I’m saying if for whatever reason we couldn’t find any more skulls or whatever, we better have a backup plan.” He stayed silent for a few seconds. “OK, based on what happened already, if we can’t find any more clues in time and Mr. Bones comes back, I’ll try to grab its attention and make it chase me downstairs.” “In pitch darkness?” “There’s more room down there, and if anything goes wrong, I got a sabre.” “And I guess meanwhile I’m searching everywhere.” “Yeah” “Fine! Just … be careful.” “Always!”
Tick TockWe needed to speed up the search, so we decided to not waste time with looking around other stuff and just focus on finding the skulls. I went through another door, looking around the room really quick but not letting myself get distracted. It seemed that it was another guest bedroom. I looked under the bed and the chest of drawers but didn't find anything. Paintings were everywhere on this room and they all were messing with my head, distracting me. I almost started tearing the room apart till I finally found the skull, conveniently placed as the head of a figure in a drawing. It was a picture of a man dressed in a suit; I couldn't tell much more since it was black and white. There seemed to have been an empty space behind the painting. I looked around the frame of the picture and it was then that I realized that it was a door on hinges. I pulled the painting from the right to myself and it opened away from the wall. I was expecting to see a hole in the wall, but there was just another envelope which I picked up and read carefully and as quickly as I could: you will not find the last remains even by looking deep you shall look at yourself, and break the barrier to take the true peak I did the math really quick: there was a total of four skulls, we had found 3 so far, so only one remained and I had an idea of where I should look for it, but we still had five rooms to search. What was inside the other four then? I went outside to check the candles; only one was still burning. Flaming Star seemed to have been busy searching around but we didn't have any more time; we needed to head for plan B. “Flame!” I called him, “Flame!” “What is it?” he came out of one of the doors. “We are out of time, did you find anything?” “No, I've been searching that room for a while but I found nothing. It seems to be a place where he keeps records or something.” He sounded quite disappointed. “But I guess the rest is up to you.” As he finished his sentence, the last candle went out. The doors slammed. We were left standing in the hallway that has light, which was slowly being overtaken by the chilling darkness. I heard the sound of Flaming Star's sword being drawn out but I was unable to see. We both shined our lights at the doors; they were shaking! Intensively! But not all of them. Just four of them: three of the doors on the right side and one on the left. It was then that the doors flew open! Out of each door, came a skeleton. Each standing tall and staring at us with the dim light deep down in their eyes. “Hide in one of the rooms!” Flaming Star said. “I'll lead them downstairs as planned.” “But-” “GO!” The skeletons started charging at us. I ran to a room and closed the door shut. I could hear the screams that the skeletons made. “Good luck, Flame!” I turned around and found myself in a guest bedroom. There was a big bed in the room, it had purple bed linen on it. There was a closet which I checked first but it was empty, not even clothes. This one room, however, also did not have anything hanging on the walls, which compared to the other rooms we’d seen looked a little fishy. Now that Flaming Star was not just dealing with one skeleton but four instead, I needed to look around four times faster. I checked in the drawers of the dresser near the bed, under the bed and even all the walls. I hoped there might be a secret door as with the picture but this room had nothing on the walls. As I was looking around, a blinding light shone my way. For a second I wondering what it was, but then I realized that it was the reflection of my cell phone flashlight in the mirror that was part of the dresser. I took a step back and looked at myself in the mirror. There was not much light but it was enough to see if I was still wearing my costume. The cheap fangs, the wig, even the dress looked fine. *SCREAM* As I heard the skeleton scream, I got out of that room and went to explore the other ones since I figured the skull was not there. Kicking the doors open and looking around in the rooms as fast as I could required a lot of attention. Unfortunately, I actually don't remember what exactly was in those rooms. Although, it doesn't matter. Mainly because the skull was not there either! I thought I missed one of the rooms, but I've checked them all. I even double-checked the ones Flaming Star did, but there was nothing. “Aaaaah!” That was Flame! I guessed he was not in a good situation. I wanted to run downstairs to help but I quickly realized that wouldn't do any good. I was standing in the hallway, lost and paranoid about what was happening and what I needed to do. “Think Sunset, THINK!” I told myself. I reviewed which door I chose and what was in each room. Once, twice, till I thought of something: where did the skeletons come out? Three from the right, and one from the left; I checked two of those doors and one of them was the file room that Flame had checked before. I wondered; “Does this mean that wherever they came out of, those rooms don't hold any skulls?” If my theory was correct, then there would be one door to check. I rethought about the order that I went into the doors, and realized I was right! The one that the skeleton came out of did not have any skulls inside. But the last room on my side didn't, either. Or did it? I went into the guest room again; it had to be here! I checked around again, but no luck. I could have been totally wrong but at that point in time, that was the best thing I could do. So I stuck with it. I tried to remember the words of the last letter that I found: “You will not find the last remain even by looking deep/look at yourself and break the barrier to take the true peek.” So first off, I couldn't find the last skull, so I assumed that by looking deep, it meant looking everywhere. But what about the second part? What did it meant by looking at yourself? I was looking around the room when I found myself looking into the mirror again. It was then that it hit me! The mirror! I was literally looking at myself. I was amused how I overlooked it. But wait! If that was the clue, then by breaking the barrier, I should break the mirror. “Let's hope it worth the bad luck it's going to give me!” I pulled open one of the drawers out of its place and threw it at the mirror as hard as I could. It did break and I saw the skull behind it. There were broken pieces of mirror everywhere but I managed to not cut myself extracting the prize. My bag did not have any more space so I just held the skull in my hand and headed downstairs as fast as I could. “Flame! Flame!?” I shouted as I was shining my light around. “I'm over here!” I followed the voice and found him standing against a wall; his face had cuts and bruises. He seemed quite tired. “Are you alright?” “Yeah, I'm fine ... they really weren't much of a threat.” He seemed quite confident in what he was saying, but for an amateur fencer, fighter, brawler or whatever, if you are dealing with multiple opponents, you are pretty much screwed. Especially if they are skeletons that don't really care if they get hurt or not. “Flame, are you sure that you are fine?” “Yeah, don't worry, I held them off. Now let's get out of here.” “Ok, bu-” It was then that we heard something fall. Something small, probably metal. We followed the sound and found ourselves in front of the black door again. There was another envelope on the ground but this time there was also a key with it. I picked them both up, the key did not feel like something that was made out of metal. I opened the envelope and read it out loud. In your hand you hold the key to the chamber of secrets seek what you need to perform the Aid Of Bygones you may seek but not for long, by the dawn of the sun your souls shall be mine TIME IS PRECIOUS, AFTER ALL
Running To the Nightmares EndI held the key in my hand. It felt rough but I didn't mind. I tried the key in the door lock and from the sound that it made, we were certain that it was open. “What do you think is in there?” Flaming Star asked. “I don't know, but there’s only one way to find out.” I pushed the door open, our lights cut through the darkness and revealed to us a staircase that went down. Stepping in, I felt the pressure of the heavy air on my chest. We took the steps down when suddenly all the candles that were attached to the wall sconces lit up one by one and illuminated the whole way down. The staircase was not very long but what waited for us in the end was huge. It was a library full of books, lit by the giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling. “Wow!” I said, “If only Twilight could see this, she would flip!” “Yeah, it is kinda big, but I've seen bigger.” “It's not the biggest library for sure, but the fact that he has one that is this big and is full is what is amusing.” “I guess that's fair.” “Does your palace have a library too?” “Yes, and I think it is about the same size as this one, maybe slightly bigger and...aarg” he stretched his shoulders, “brighter.” “Flame, are you feeling alright?” “How many times do I have to tell you, I'M FINE!” “But you neither look nor sound fine, at least not to me.” “Whatever. What are we looking for in here again, more skulls?” “I don't think so. The last letter sounded like we need to find another clue or something to make us do something with the dead. I imagine this is the last thing we need to do to get out of here. But I kind of doubt it at this point.” “Let's hope that whatever we do will be our ticket back home.” We stayed silent for a while. “Let's take a look at the books,” I suggested. “Um, why exactly?” I sighed. “Because we should look around for something, and there’s nothing but books around here to look at.” “Fair.” There was a table and chair in the middle of the library. On it was another envelope. I picked it up and opened it. Do not look at the records of the past nor at the ones that contain the knowledge that is vast Don't go deep, it is near and around though it does not have a poetical sound Possess no shade but the darkness that is about it contains the guide that helps you get out from the ones that remained pick the odd one out Of all the letters I found, this was the most complex. I just stared at it for a few minutes, trying to make sense of it. But eventually, I gave up. Instead I went and looked at the books. I started with the shelves that were closer to me. The left column seemed to be for poetry and famous works of literature. There were books such as “Foxy and Foxtail”, the collection of Lonely Poet (the one that has a poem about a crow or something), Leaves of Grass”, “Epic of the King” and the Sonnets. Those were not all but just the ones I know and had heard of before. “Did you find anything?” Flaming Star shouted. “Yeah, I found another envelope, with another riddle that I have no clue about.” “Let me see,” he said as he came to the table and picked up the letter. He read it for himself quietly and then looked at me. “Whatever this is, it will lead us to what we want. We gotta put our minds together.” “I guess that's the best thing to do now!” We started theorizing about what the letter could have been leading us to, most of which were stupid speculations that we just passed by, but we thought some more. Maybe whit it is telling us not to go deep meant that what we want is not on the further shelves of the library. Or it could have meant that it is not a thick book. The records of the past could potentially be the history books. “What if by it does not contain any ‘knowledge that is vast’ it is trying to tell us that is not a science book?” I suggested. “Maybe, but we can't be sure...” “In that case, we won't be certain of anything!” “You’re right, we need to start testing some of these speculations.” So did we. To start things off, we didn't look at the further shelves of the library. The “records of the past” could have been referring to the history books so we didn't check those either. And we went with my theory about the “knowledge that is vast” referring to science and stuff. Which left us with a few columns and that was where we didn't ready know what to do. “So what now?” Flaming Star asked. “I have no idea ... maybe we could ... hey, do you hear that?” “Hear what?” “This ... this music ... sounds like piano ...” “Yeah ... a soft piano ... it sounds like it's coming from upstairs.” “Did you see any pianos when we were up there, because I don't remember seeing one.” “I think I did, but at the same time ... I am not sure.” It was then that I realized that one of the candles had gone out. “Flame, we are still on a time limit, only this time we may have more time to solve this.” “At least we have more time.” “Yeah, but the first time that we ran out of time there was only one skeleton, the second time there were four, and...” “What are you trying to say?” “That the penalty seems to be getting more and more serious, and I don't want to pull off the plan we used last time.” “Look, no matter if they are one, four, or a hundred, I'll be fine!” “No, you won't be!” “Let's just focus, we don't have time!” We tried thinking about the last parts of the letter. Meanwhile, the music started to ramp up, like it was reaching its chorus. But we didn't mind. I reread the letter again: “don't go deep it is near and around/though it does not have a poetical sound.” As I was reading it, it hit me! Literature! What we are looking for was also not in the literature section! “Flame! It's not on the literature section either!” “How do you know?” “The clue said it doesn't have a poetical sound! What has a poetical sound? Greatest works of literature!” “Yeah, that makes a-” Before Flaming Star could finish his sentence, the music suddenly changed the tone from soft piano to literally smashing the keys rapidly! The music got so fast and rapid that I almost felt like it was a different song! But after a few seconds, the music stopped. And as soon as it stopped, we realized that a few more of the candles were also extinguished. We were running out of time! “We need to hurry up!” Flaming Star said. “Yeah! So not in historical, not science nor literature, and it's not on the deeper shelves of the library. Then it leaves us with just a few shelves, and that is if we are correct!” “Let's hope we are! Something tells me that there is something really bad waiting for us if we run out of time!” “Did you get anything else from the clue?” “No, but we better act fast; there is only a few shelves, so we might be able to find what we are looking for by reading these books.” “Are you sure that is a good idea?” “No, but it is probably one of the best that we have at the moment. So, let's get started.” I dragged the ladder all the way from the left to the right for the biography section. “I'll head up and drop the books for you.” “Got it.” I climbed the ladder and dropped the books from the top shelves one by one; there were a lot of books and most of them were heavy. Luckily, I was not the who was supposed to catch them. But it didn't really matter. “Hey, you are catching them, right?” I asked. “No, I am going to let a book flatten my face!” “Ughhhh!” “Look, I am at least picking them up!” I just pulled the books off the shelves after that and let them fall. After I was done with the top shelves I headed down the ladder. “So what now, we read them?” “Yeah, till we find what we are looking for in one of them.” “And what exactly are we looking for?” “Something like a ritual thing for bygones, I don't know!” So we started. I sat down in the chair at the table and Flaming Star sat on the table. We each took one book at a time and looked through its pages as fast as we could. And then we just threw them into a pile of read books! Or we skimmed through the books; whatever you wanna call it! After quite some time, we managed to get through all of the books, but there was nothing. There sure was quite a handful of information about many great people, but not what we needed. Before trying to pick up the bottom shelves book, I looked around the library to check the candles and it felt that many of them were extinguished. I was not sure if it was me not noticing it before or time had passed that fast but I knew one thing for sure: we needed to hurry up! I picked a bunch of books and put them on the table, I told Flaming Star to do so, too. Then we read them as quickly as we could and moved on to pick up more and when we were done with those too we repeated the cycle. But even after finishing the whole biography section we still haven't found anything. The pile was getting bigger and bigger and our chance to find what we were looking for was getting smaller and smaller. “We are getting nowhere with this!” Flaming Star nagged. “YES, we are, we just need to keep looking!” I said as I adjusted the ladder on the other shelves and climbed it. “I don't know about you, but I’d rather make a hole in the wall to escape than look for who knows what in the middle of the books inside a library!” “I know it is boring and all,” I dropped down a few books, “But we are running out of time with every second, and it’s too late to come up with a plan B knowing that we are still unsure of what we are looking fo-” I was panicking and throwing a bunch of the books at the floor, but there was one that I held in my hand which caught my attention. It was a black book with the icon of a bearded face, wearing a wizard hat, and from that I figured whom this book was related to: Star Swirl the Bearded! He may not be a great unicorn or a wizard in this world, but he is certainly a great astronomer and was known as a wise person. But what bugged me was something else. “Hey, Flame, what are the books on the floor about?” “What do you mean?” “I mean what is their subject; is it science, poetry or what?” “Oh, uhm …” He picked up a few of them. “This one is labeled as: math, and it's beauty! And this one is labeled as: Mathematics problems and their solution!” “So this is the math section!” “So what?” “this book seems to be a biography of Star Swirl the Bearded, but we just finished the biography section and it's way over there!” “Yeah, but it's not a big deal, maybe it was misplaced.” “Maybe ... or it CAN BE THE ODD ONE OUT!” I shouted. “Catch me!” and in my excitement I jumped from the ladder. “Ow wow wow!” I crash landed on Flaming Star with the book in my hand. “You are not gonna suck my blood now, are you?” Flaming Star said. “Maybe later,” I said as I stood up. “First off, let's get out of here!” I put the book on the table and started scanning through it. “Now why in the name of sanity did you jump on me?” Just when I wanted to answer him, I found another envelope in the middle of the book. “Because this IS what we are looking for.” I opened it and took out the letter that was inside, although this one was a bit different: To perform the Aid of the bygones you must obtain 5 skulls of the bygones and place them accordingly on the pentagram. Then you may step in the middle, and say: az shoma komak mikhaham ey raftegan! This ritual has the risk of possession. It is advised to use the skulls of those who were not filled with agony! There was also a drawing of a pentagram in the bottom of the letter, indicating that the skulls should be placed on the points of the star. “Now what is this exactly?” Flaming Star asked. “Not sure, but we better keep this one with us, along with the...” I realized that I did not have the skull in my hand! “Where is the skull that I had in my hand?” “You put it on the table.” He pointed his finger at it. I picked it up and looked around to judge our situation according to the candles. They were almost done. It was at this moment that I heard the sound of the piano again. “Do you hear it too?” Flaming Star asked doubtfully. “Yeah, and I think we should head upstairs to see what awaits us,” And so we did. We walked up the staircase, and as we walked candles were extinguishing one by one! Halfway up, we started running to get to the door faster. And once we stepped into where we first came in, we noticed something. The room was lit up by candles, but not normal candles: these had a red, bright flame that gave the room an ominous look. And as we walked around, more candles lit up, but these ones had green flames. They were surrounding a pentagram. “What is going on here?” Flaming Star asked surprisingly. “Nothing good, for sure.” The music reached its crescendo and as it did black holes started appearing from all over the room! Many, many holes and we both knew what was going to come out of them all. “Sunset, hurry up! We need to perform the thingy!” “Great idea!” We ran up to the pentagram, and as we got there, the music stopped and the skeletons started crawling out of their holes. Meanwhile we set up the skulls on the points. “They are almost out!” I said nervously as I looked back. “What was the sentence that we have to say?” He stepped in the middle of the pentagram. “NO! You are not doing this, it's dangerous!” “Dangerous is the army of undead skeletons that are coming!” Most of the skeletons were out, and I didn't want Flaming Star to put himself in the risk of being possessed. So I took him by the arm and threw him on the ground. “Sorry, Flame, but you already put your life at risk once today, now is my turn!” I steeped in the middle of the pentagram and said the words: “Az shoma komak mikhaham ey raftegan!” And as I said that, the skulls floated in the air, and I felt an unconformable sensation all over my body! It felt as if someone was controlling my body. “Am I being possessed?” I asked myself. But then the skulls started rotating around my body. They let out an ear deafening scream and the only thing I could do was close my eyes. After a few moments, I felt I could move my body again so I opened my eyes. The door was open, there was no bone barricade. I looked back and only saw Flaming Star on the floor, no skeletons in sight. “Is it ... done?” I looked around; the skulls were nowhere to be found, but the pentagram was still there. All the candles were extinguished! It was done. I helped Flaming Star stand up and then we both walked out of the mansion. For some reason I felt something great in my body, a feeling of power. The door slammed closed behind us as we walked out and the click sound that it made gave us the certainty that it was locked. “Are you OK?” Flaming Star said as he was catching his breath. “I guess, I am still in one piece.” “What a night that was...” “No kidding! It sure is something that I’ll definitely remember.” “I also hope that you haven't forgot about histories exam tomorrow!” “I don't really care at this point! I just want to figure out what is the deal with Pro. Skull Mustache.” “Sooooo, you don't want this?” he showed me a piece of paper. “What is that?” I grabbed the paper out of his hand. “It's the answer to the exam; found it in his room of records. At least we got this out of that nightmarish house, am I right?” “Flame...” “What?” “This is for last year’s history final!” Author's Note Happy Halloween! I hope you have enjoyed this story and if you have please give a thumbs up and if not please let me know in the comments why. Special Thanks to my Editor Daniel Drazen.
