Self-guided Tour

This is a rewrite/edit from a prompt last year.

Myra and Karen pulled into the parking lot of the old Whittier Mansion. The old Mansion was only open a few weekends a month before Halloween. It was rumored the old place was haunted, so every year the owner would open the doors and invite people to come and experience the haunts. After driving through the never-ending lights of the city, the low light of dusk cast crazy shadows on the twisted, contorted mass of trees with the claw-like limbs that lined the narrow pathway up the side of the hill, the sight of these gnarly woods already had both girls a little edgy.

The enormity of the mansion also caught them off guard. It was three floors high and almost as long as a football field. At first glance you could count at least seven chimneys and each end was anchored with a turret joined by a parapet. It could almost be classified as a gloomy old Victorian castle. It had different rooms each with the roof higher than the next that was finally topped off with two round cupolas which had a roof shaped like a pointed witch’s hat.

“Nice”. Myra said. “Did you register us for the guided or self-guided tour?

“Me? I thought you were registering us? Karen answered back.

Myra let out her usual disappointed sigh, “no I didn’t, you said you were going to.”

“I said it would be fun, let’s do it. That isn’t saying I registered us.” Karen explained.

“Fine, whatever! Let’s just go.”

“I’m sorry we’re all sold out for today’s guided tour and booked up for the rest of the season.” The desk clerk, who looked like an old witch herself, told them, “however, there is still room with the self-guided tour group if you want that, I mean you did drive all the way up here.”

“Yes ok, we’ll go.” Myra paid, and the girls headed up to the wide double doors. They entered the foyer and met a gaggle of people. The same desk clerk, who identified herself as, Hazel, divided them into the guided group and the self-guided group. The guided group was then escorted out by Leroy and then Hazel told Myra and Karen, who were left alone with two other couples, an older man and his wife, Ken and Louise and a younger couple David and Shelly, who also opted to take the self-guided tour.  

After introductions, the group headed on their self-guided tour: Louise designated herself as the pamphlet reader and would tell the tale behind each room and whatever it was that made it haunted or scary. “The first room off the foyer is the parlor. It is said many people would hear the piano being played throughout the house, yet there would be no one in the parlor.” Louise narrated. Shelly touched everything. She pounded on the keyboard as most kids would do.

Louise read from the pamphlet, “When you go from room to room you will open doors leading to nowhere, you will see windows into other rooms, you will encounter trap doors, secret rooms and passageways and other superstitious meanderings throughout the house. Notice all the mirrors and multiples of seven and thirteen too. And always beware of your step. She took a breath and looked up, “This, this is the ruby room. It is called the ruby room because of the red wallpaper on the walls.”

Myra looked at the red wallpaper it was the gaudy velvet wallpaper that was in the shape of Christmas tree ornaments. There was no furniture or knickknacks lying around for Shelly to touch and everyone was startled when she screamed.

“What is this? Is this blood?” She shrieked as she held her hand out for all to see the rusty, red ooze on her hand. “Oh, my, gawd! It is! This is just nasty! She tried to dig through her purse, using the hand without blood on it, to find a tissue to wipe her hand off, finally, giving up she turned and wiped it on David’s shirttail.

“Thanks, thanks a lot.” He told her sarcastically.

They continued and walked a staircase that went up a flight and ended. There was nowhere to go, so they all climbed back down. Karen counted that there were thirteen steps on that staircase and let the group know.

Myra wondered why after touching the wall, Shelly couldn’t keep her hands off of things and shrieked again when her hand got stuck in a hole in the Lavender Library. The hole was just above a set of old encyclopedias and she was just dumb enough to stick her hand in it. “Ugh, I can’t get my hand out.” She said as she tugged and tugged.

“David, help me!” She demanded. Myra saw David role his eyes skyward as he went to her aid.

“Oh my god, something is licking me, it’s so gross. Oh my god,” she kept saying as she continued to tug on her hand. David also was trying to pull her free and when she started screaming louder, he yanked harder.

“It’s biting me! Oh, it hurts, ouch. HELP ME!” She shrieked louder. Between them both pulling on her arm and whatever it was that was biting it, her entire arm, snapped off at the shoulder. This made everyone scream and all run out. David stayed.

Ken and Louise went to the right and opened the wrong door. Louise opened the door and turned to say something to Ken and walked right out, into nothingness pulling Ken with her. From the third floor, the door hung open showing the cloudy sky as the two hit the ground hard and lie there crumpled and broken.

Myra and Karen went left and ended up in the Slide Room. They were hoping to find a slide out of the room but were astonished when the walls started to close in on them. As the walls closed in, each girl tried everything to get out to no avail. Finally, Myra slid through a secret opening, before the walls met together she heard the sickening snap and crackle of Karen’s bones break. 

Myra ran and found another room and closed the door. She tried looking out the window, but found it was opaque and she couldn’t see out. Instead she banged on the window and screamed for help. This unfortunately was the soundproof room, so no one could hear her cries.

The Guided Tour entered the Parlor and immediately heard the piano clanging to life. Oohs and awes could be heard throughout the group. The Lavender Room was next and as the guide was telling them about it, they first heard the screaming and then noticed the ooze of blood run down the wall beside the bookcase. Startled everyone screamed and then was ushered out. As the group passed through the dining room and looked out over the vast grounds through the huge picturesque windows, they were stunned again when everyone swore they saw ghosts falling from above.  The tour guide told them, that that sometimes happened because two lovers had jumped to their death from the roof above. He did ensure them that they were safe and continued to lead them on to the next room. Everyone agreed that the last room, as they were leaving, when that ghost appeared in a window and kept knocking trying to get their attention to get out. 

As they gathered in the foyer to leave the tour guide assured them this was the most active the house had been in a very long time. He thanked everyone for coming out and hoped they had a good and scary time. And to please rate the Whittier Mansion on yelp so they could get more and more people to come, and possibly stay open all year.

“Great job Hazel. I didn’t think you were going to get enough people for the self-guided tour this time. The guided tour guests were really scared this time.” Leroy told her.