The Dead Game (6 page)

Chapter 7

F
riday evening has finally arrived
, thought Todd, 
and not a moment too soon.

After picking up Shana and Louise, he pulled his car into Linda’s circular driveway. Walking around to the front door, he kept his head down, making sure that he didn’t face the deserted beach. He didn’t want to see the dark shadows that he knew were lurking on the beach…patiently waiting for the appropriate time to descend upon the helpless victims in town.

Deep in thought, he didn’t immediately notice that Linda had already opened the door. He was surprised to find her standing in front of him, quietly observing him. She looked breathtaking in a short, form-fitting black dress. Her dark-blue eyes were sparkling with mirth; she must have noticed his slow perusal of her body, despite his unsuccessful attempts to be discreet.

“Shana and Louise are already in the car,” he mumbled.

Fortunately for him, Louise chose that moment to beep the horn and call out to them, “Hurry up! Or we’ll be late.” 
Saved by the bell
, Todd whispered to himself.

He gallantly offered his arm to Linda and escorted her to his waiting car.

Todd drove his sleek black Porsche down Main Street, past the dark stores that were already closed for the day. The streets and alleyways of town were deserted and quiet. Everyone had retreated home early, he realized, even those who hadn’t been invited to the party. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who had an ominous feeling about tonight.

After the sheriff’s office, he made a sharp right turn to take the long winding road up the hill. He drove past private residences that were almost hidden from sight, set far back from the road…nestled behind thick bushes, tall lines of trees, and tall metal gates.

The first house they passed was Reece’s enormous dome of a house, constructed out of concrete without windows or trim of any kind. Reece was a reclusive software king who’d made millions before he’d disappeared from the public eye.

Todd liked Reece and his easygoing manner, which had always drawn people to him before he’d retreated from public life. He was now happily playing with his computers at his new home and developing new software to make his life and other people’s lives easier. His house was computerized and voice-activated. Todd loved to tease the computer system that answered in a woman’s voice with a woman’s point of view.

Farther up the hill stood Leanne’s house, cloaked in the tall trees surrounding her property. She was a murder mystery writer, famous for her intricate and bloody murder plots. Her house was square-shaped, built from dark wood, and windowless. Every day, lines of crows perched on the flat tin roof to watch over the house and whoever dared to pass by.

Todd understood that Leanne was harmless, even though she frightened most people with her dark sense of humor. She loved tragedies and horror stories. She’d picked an appropriate place to live, since Oasis had its own morbid history. Her unsympathetic and aloof manner alienated her from many people, and he believed that was what had caused her to retreat from society.

At the highest point on the mountain was Diane’s circular house of green-tinted glass. As a world-famous sculptor, Diane created monumental sculptures in her home using a large range of materials that were delivered directly to her house. She was very sociable, and loved to travel the world for business and pleasure. She invited many of her friends and business acquaintances to the two large parties she hosted each year.

The narrow road took a sudden dip downward before the next house, before Hayden’s dark house, reported to be filled to the brim with antiques. His passion for the old had first led him to collect antiquities and then later on to become a world-renowned art dealer. He never permitted potential buyers to visit his house, but sold solely through museums and other dealers. His house was almost hidden from sight by the thick foliage surrounding his property. To Todd, the house looked very bleak and foreboding, but he was still very curious to get a glimpse inside.

The remainder of the town’s original residents lived in the middle section of the mountain. These homes were accessible by a winding road, leading from Reece’s house. They were more modest in structure and size than the homes higher up the hill. Reece’s closest neighbor was Hank, who owned a white cottage with dark-tinted green windows. Shirley’s majestic house with round turrets and green sparkling windows was located farther down the same side road. Beyond Shirley’s house, the narrow side road dipped down to wind past the unusual triangular-shaped home of Minnie and Frank, which was made of dark-green glass and metal.

One house stood apart from the others and could only be reached from End House. It was the house of Charles Wolf, the famous modern artist. It was situated farther down the cliff, below Minnie and Frank’s home.

Wolf’s house was comprised of three main sections, each section having its own green-glassed dome. The house was constructed from concrete and had all its windows blacked out. Todd had never seen the inside of the house and didn’t know if he ever really wanted to. Wolf kept to himself and wore a dark scowl on his face whenever Todd happened to notice him in town.

Todd and his fellow passengers didn’t drive past the homes in the middle section of the mountain, but instead followed the main road along the top of the mountain.

After Hayden’s house, the main road took another sharp dip—right before their final destination.

Finally
, he thought, 
we have reached End House and the end of our fateful journey.

Chapter 8

E
nd House appeared through the mist: a massive daunting shadow silhouetted against the black sky. The house stood tall and imposing before its invited guests.

That was how End House appeared to Linda. Her first glimpse of the foreboding house caused her body to shiver uncontrollably. The house resembled all the scary houses in her imagination…and in every gothic novel she’d ever read. But having to face it on this dreary and isolated hilltop…with the wind blowing…sharp branches slapping them across their shocked faces, made the encounter more real and much more horrifying.

Tom, Edward, Mike, and David were already walking up the gravel path, while Gregg, Judy, and Ryan were waiting for them by the massive front door. It was a very quiet group that stood close together…staring up at the dark, menacing structure.

The front of the house faced the mountain with its wrap-around porch, wide stone steps, and thick white columns, while the rear had its large patio and built-in pool facing the crashing waves of the ocean. A tall black iron fence—its pointy spikes jutting upward to the sky—encircled the house and pool before following the stairs in its straight descent to the deserted beach below.

Todd threw open the huge steel door and strode in first. Disappearing inside, Todd left them no choice but to trail along behind him.

Huddled together as one, they entered the house and stood in the dark hall. The only light came from two lines of lit candles traveling up the ornately carved wooden balustrades of the wide marble staircase, and a third row of candles hanging from wall sconces in the right hallway. The sconces served to illuminate this hallway, while leaving the second hallway to the left of the staircase in complete darkness.

No one was there to greet them or to tell them where to go. The group stood still, in awe of the sweeping staircase with its majestic red carpeting. Returning from somewhere in the inner recesses of the house, Todd suggested that they split up into two groups. He directed Linda, Shana, Gregg, Ryan, and Judy to proceed upstairs with him, while Mike, David, Edward, Tom, and Louise were told to follow the long line of candles along the right hallway.

Louise was upset that she was stuck with Mike, David, Edward, and Tom—when she really wanted to be with Todd. Todd had arranged the two groups, purposely placing her in the second group. She wondered how much worse the evening could possibly get.

Her group followed the flickering candles, which cast eerie shadows from their elevated positions on the hallway’s left wall. The darkly paneled walls made the hall feel smaller and even darker.

Lagging behind the others David complained, “It’s not too late for us to leave and return home. I don’t want to be here anymore…we should just….”

Tugging hard on David’s arm, Mike interrupted, “Don’t whine like a baby, David…and try to have some fun.”

“Yeah, right,” he grumbled in reply.

Edward and Tom had assumed the lead and were slowly following the wavering lights. Faced with two closed doors on the right wall, Edward opened the first one and walked in.

The room before them appeared to be a large, cavernous living room, empty except for the enormous unlit marble fireplace on the opposite wall. The wallpaper was dark and stained; the wood floor was dull and dirty. A connecting door led them through to the dining room, a large room with a long wood table at its center.

The bleakness of this room and all the other rooms in this house made Louise feel uneasy. The house was very dismal-looking with its dark paneling, and it lacked any furnishings that would have made it feel more like a home.

And where was everyone? Where was their elusive host? This was supposed to have been a party for them, but the house looked deserted—as if it hadn’t been lived in for a long time. She really didn’t want to see any more of it. Who knew what could be lurking behind any of the closed doors? Now she was just scaring herself with her own gloomy thoughts. She caught up to the others, who were standing in the hallway impatiently waiting for her.

As they continued along the long hallway, the candles in front of them lit up…while the ones behind them went simultaneously dark.

It was definitely leading them somewhere, Louise surmised, but where?

On the right wall, a third door hung open with steps leading down to the basement. Refusing to move forward another step, Louise cried out, “I definitely don’t want to go down into the depths of this house. It could have a dungeon or even a torture chamber.”

Glaring back at her over his shoulder, Mike sharply remarked, “You have the choice of either remaining here alone or following us downstairs.”

Louise couldn’t believe how cruel Mike was to her. She was used to men flirting with her and doing things for her; she used to be very popular before she’d arrived in this town. But she didn’t know how to deal with a man who didn’t seem to like her at all.

The steps were slippery without any railings for support, forcing them to grab hold of the slimy walls. After making their way down the wet stairs, they heard the door slam shut behind them. Mike ran back up the stairs, only to ruefully announce that the door was securely locked. “Now we have to continue forward, since there’s no other way out,” exclaimed Mike with a new quiver to his voice.

Mike wasn’t so brave anymore, decided Louise. She was suddenly distracted by a cold wetness. The dampness was coming from her feet: her feet were wet. Looking down, she was horrified to find herself standing in a basement filled with water—water that reached above her ankles and covered most of her leg. She couldn’t understand it; the water had definitely not been there a second ago. A pool of water couldn’t appear on a whim from out of nowhere.

Not waiting for the others, Edward charged ahead into the water. Stopping in the middle where the water reached up to his knees, he looked up in horror, his whole body tensing.

Louise also gazed upward but couldn’t see anything. In the darkness above, she couldn’t even see a ceiling in the open, endless space. Then she heard a shrill clanging noise originating from somewhere above them, echoing throughout the basement. She couldn’t figure out what or who was making the awful noise; it sounded like a large machine was about to fall on them.

Instead, frighteningly huge metal cages—suspended by thick metal chains—came crashing down from above. Sharp metal spokes extended from their bottom corners, to better catch any unsuspecting intruders with their ultra-sharp claws. The cages seemed to be targeting Edward, swaying dangerously close to him. He had to frantically dodge their sharp rods, which were threatening to ensnare him and crush him to death. He dove into the water, eluding them—one after another.

Then all was quiet. The empty cages that had missed Edward were lying harmlessly in the pool of black water. There didn’t seem to be any more cages left hanging in the darkness above. With his legs still deeply submerged, Edward stood panting on the far side of the water.

Breaking into the bleak silence, Tom hysterically cried out, “Watch out, Edward!” while jumping into the deadly water. Loud swooshing noises screeched from above…slowly building in tempo. Huge circular saws were now descending to sweep the water between the submerged cages, methodically searching for heads to slice off, their sharp edges glinting eerily in the dim light of the basement.

In his desperation to reach his beloved Edward, Tom tripped and fell face first into the water. A huge saw was rotating toward his slumped over body. Louise stood stunned in place, unhappily realizing that there was no way she could help him in time. She was even too far away to see if he was still breathing. The saws were methodically sweeping the basement floor, lined up in rows with only about a foot of space between them. There was no way anybody could safely reach Tom without having their own head chopped off.

Spotting Tom’s immersed form, Edward immediately dove into the water, reaching him right before the last saw could finish its final rotation—which would have passed through Tom’s skinny, exposed neck. Grabbing Tom by the arm, Edward pulled him to safety, past the sharp, swirling blades of the metal saws.

From out of nowhere, wide stone steps emerged on the far wall. Edward ran up the stairs, with Tom frantically climbing up behind him. A huge metal door in the solid wall opened before them. Neither of them hesitated, but ran straight through the open doorway. The door slammed shut behind them, immediately blending into the concrete wall.

Louise couldn’t figure out where Tom and Edward had gone. The door was gone and so were Tom and Edward. Were they trapped somewhere? Or were they free outside the house? Would they be coming back?

David began pushing them both forward. “Hurry and cross through the water to the other side! Be very careful of the sharp saws!”

Louise looked up and realized that the cages and saws were once again hanging above the water. They had to dodge the same treacherous cages and swinging saws that had just tormented Edward and Tom and had almost cost Tom’s life—that is, if they were both still alive somewhere.

They reached the steep steps on the opposite side.

In front of them stood a solid wall, extending all the way up to the endlessly high ceiling. Built into this wall were three closed doors—not the metal door that Edward and Tom had passed through, but tall wooden doors reaching high up into the darkness above. There was no other way out, Louise sadly reflected; they had to step through one of these doorways. The other alternative was too ghastly to even consider; no way were they going back through the sharp saws and cages that hung suspended over the dark pool of water.

David cautioned, “Be very careful. Don’t believe everything that you see: we don’t know what is real and what isn’t.”

“I don’t know if I can continue with this charade any longer. This house is pure evil and intends to destroy us all,” lamented Louise.

David whispered, “Don’t worry. We’ll find a way out of this hellhole.”

Mike suddenly spoke up in his irritated tone of voice. “Let’s just quickly pick a door and see what’s behind it.”

He strode over to the middle door, yanking it wide open. He was about to take a step into the room when he realized—just before it was too late—that the room didn’t have a floor, but only a long drop into nothingness. He hastily jumped back. “This is it for me; from now on I’m going to take a back seat in this awful game being played on us.”

Mike had never been useful to them anyway, Louise thought. He was only good at sarcasm or correcting David. She also firmly believed that the sooner they escaped this horror show, the better, leading her to offer to check out the next door. “Let’s try the door to the right,” offered Louise, closely watching Mike and David for their response. Neither of them spoke nor moved, so she opened the door and looked inside. The room opened to a high, narrow tower with a gated opening across the top.

“Who wants to climb the tower and open the gate at the top?” asked Louise, unhappily noticing that Mike and David were too terrified to move. They stood completely still, both too afraid to move forward to check out the room.

After deliberating her options, she declared, “I’ll go.” She didn’t know where she finally got her courage from, but she was tired of having her life controlled by the freak who owned this house.

She carefully climbed the tower’s brick wall, using her hands and feet to slowly push her body up the wall, brick by sharp brick. The farther up she climbed…the farther away the top of the tower seemed to be. She knew that this couldn’t be possible unless someone was deviously playing tricks with their minds again—like with the water that had magically appeared.

She was almost at the top when she heard a booming sound coming from above. The gate that had been lying across the top was now crashing down to one side—the side she was hanging on to. While she held on tight, she closed her eyes and prayed. The gate bashed against her, but she still managed to keep her footing. She quickly climbed back down before she got swatted like an ant against the wall.

“This must have been the master plan all along; that we all die in this house—one by one,” she yelled at Mike and David, who were both standing in the doorway with their mouths hanging open. Mike’s response was simply to turn around and stomp away. She was disgusted by this whole business and by Mike’s total lack of sympathy. He didn’t seem to be at all concerned that she’d almost been killed. She now knew who wasn’t a real friend, and who couldn’t be relied upon in the future.

“There has to be a way out! Let’s try the third door,” offered David, placing his arm gently around her shoulder in his weak attempt to offer her comfort and support.

Mike cautiously opened the last door to find a huge circular chamber with metal bars built into the red brick walls. He entered the room, searching for more than bricks and bars.

Growling sounds were emanating from within the walls. Edging closer to the bars, he was horrified to find wild lions and tigers behind these bars, pacing back and forth in their cages, their yellow eyes glowing eerily at him in the dimly lit room.

“There must be a light somewhere in this room that is reflecting on the animals’ eyes. Let’s look for the source of this light; there must be an opening!” Mike urged Louise and David, who were standing quietly behind him.

After a few moments of frantic searching, David excitedly called out, “The light is coming from the left side of the room! Look! Over there! There’s a door!”

The animals’ growling noises suddenly grew louder and more vicious-sounding. Mike turned around to find the cages wide open. The animals were in the middle of the room, saliva dripping from their open mouths…slowly advancing on them…stalking their new prey.

“Hurry up! Quickly open the door! The animals are loose and are coming straight toward us!” Mike could hear the sound of his own heart pounding loudly in his ears.

“I can’t find the opening on my own! Help me! If we hurry, maybe we can get out of here in one piece!” David shouted at them. He was searching the bricks around the door.