October 19th, 2013. Thirteen nights before Halloween '13.
Curtis walked down a dark cobblestone street somewhere in England. The echoes of his footsteps and the howling wind were the only sounds to break the eerie silence. After taking a shortcut through the thick woods, Curtis arrived at his destination. He stood outside of a large, iron gate. The gate was sealed off with chains and locks. Over the archway, beneath the overgrown vines, Curtis could make out the words on a plaque.
"FE Manor"
This was the place.
Curtis reached into his bag and removed bolt cutters. He checked his watch. 11:20 PM. He would have to act fast. He began to go to work on cutting the chains.
Nearly twenty minutes later, a bus pulled up to the gate. The bolts were now cut, and the gate was swaying in the wind. The wind pushed the gate open gently, then slammed it back to its closing position with a clang. Curtis was no where to be found.
On the bus were fourteen eager members of FE. There was Vernon, Natalie, KC, Lamps, Kiwi, Matt, Zersch, Shadow, Vic, Boc, Panda, Korr, Bryce, and Rob. The fourteen weren't quite sure what they were doing here, but they couldn't refuse Curtis' invitation.
After the last one stepped off of the bus, the bus driver shut the door as quickly as he could and sped off without hesitation, eyeing FE Manor in his rear view mirror.
The guests noted the broken chains and ajar gate, but Curtis was no where in sight. Gulping, they stepped through the gateway and began up the path towards FE Manor.
"WAIT!" a voice yelled.
Off to the side of the property was Curtis, standing in a cemetery on the hillside leading up to the mansion. Curtis threw a shovel to the side and jogged over to his fourteen guests.
"Thank you all for coming! I see you've picked out your costumes already. Perfect." he began.
"y r we here" said Shadow.
"YAW!" Vernon yelled in some sort of agreement.
"I'll explain all of that soon. But first...follow me."
Curtis led the group through the foggy cemetery. He stopped at a grave. An open grave.
"THIS...is why we're here." he said, pointing at the name on the tombstone.
'Here Lies Paul Reyboulds. Husband. Friend. Administrator'
"Paul passed ages ago, Curt." Boc said. "What are we doing here?"
"You guys are just gonna have to trust me." Curtis replied. He picked up his shovel, jumped back into the open grave, and continued to dig. The other fourteen looked on in confusion. Some were curious, others wanted to leave.
"Alright I'm leaving." Perry said.
'THUD'
Curtis peered up from the grave and smiled. "Got it!" he said excitedly. He unearthed the rest of the coffin as the fourteen looked down into the pit.
"This is fucked up." said KC
Curtis gripped onto the handle of the coffin and slowly lifted the lid halfway. Natalie turned away. Others pleaded for Curtis to stop. Curtis held the coffin up on his shoulder as he dug around inside of Paul's tomb. "It's in here somewhere!" he shouted.
Finally, the coffin slammed shut. Curtis climbed out of the tomb clutching a burlap sack in his hands. He peered inside and smiled.
"Okay, we're good! Just be thankful you didn't have to see inside the coffin. The years haven't been kind to poor Paul." he said.
Curtis held the burlap bag up to the group. "Let me show you why you're all here." he said as he turned the bag upside down and dumped its contents onto the brown grass. The pieces fell into a pile before the fourteen.
"...candy." Zersch said.
"Alright I'm leaving." said Perry.
"NO WAIT!" Curtis yelled. "You can't leave. This is important."
"Well that's too bad, because I'm leaving." replied Perry.
"No I'm serious, you can't. I had Jeffrey the groundskeeper seal the gate when you came in. I'm afraid there's no way out."
Everyone looked back at the gate and saw that it was true. Their eyes scanned the large property. A high iron fence surrounded the place as far as they eye could see through this darkness.
"I'm afraid none of us are leaving until we're done here." said Curtis. He knelt down by the pile of candy and lifted a piece up. "THIS...is your ticket out of here."
"Can you just tell us what's going on..." Bryce said impatiently.
Curtis pointed up to FE Manor, the large estate that sat on the top of the hill yards above them. "...it's haunted." said Curtis with a smile.
"..." replied the group.
"Alright I'm leaving." said Perry.
"No like, seriously haunted you guys." Curtis began. "It's haunted by Paul. I'm not joking."
"Paul left me specific instructions. VERY specific instructions. Thirteen years after his death, I was to gather up fourteen of you and bring you here thirteen nights before Halloween."
"Why?" asked Vic.
"He left me money." said Curtis. That piqued everyone's interest. "A LOT of money. His fortune from Ndim. After he bought this property, he had a lot left. It was in his will, along with the instructions I mentioned. Paul demanded that I bring the fourteen of you here, bring you into the mansion, and give the money to whichever of you lasts the full thirteen nights."
Everyone looked around at each other. Some thought it was a hoax, others were very curious about the money.
"Look, just come with me into the house, then make up your minds. This was Paul's final wish."
The fourteen talked among themselves for a few moments. Finally, they reached a decision.
"We're in." said Boc.
"WOOHOO!" Curtis exclaimed. "I have to warn you though...this place is no picnic. I was here last night and I was lucky to get out alive."
Everyone chuckled. "The place isn't ACTUALLY haunted" they said. Curtis smiled.
"Then you'll have no problem following me!"
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Elimination Quest
"It's time for your first task." Curtis began. "Like I said, this candy is very important. It'll keep you safe. You can only win the money in the end if you have the most candy. It sounds silly...I know, but you need this."
"I'm giving you each twenty pieces of candy right off the bat." Curtis said as he placed the candy in all fourteen bags. "Buttttt now you're gonna have to give them back."
Everyone was confused.
"Before getting into the mansion, each of you must walk through Paul's private cemetery one at a time. You have to leave your candy as a sign of respect at the foot of the different tombstones. Whichever of you is the most selfish and leaves the LEAST amount of candy will be forced to leave our little game. However, if you're the one person who leaves behind the most amount of candy, the spirits in the cemetery will not accept your ass kissing and will force you out instead. How much of your precious candy will you sacrifice? The choice is yours."
Rules
- Each of you has started the game with 20 candies. You must PM me and decide how much candy you want to leave as a peace offering.
- The person who leaves the least amount of candy will be eliminated. However, if one person leaves the most amount of candy and is the only one to leave behind that amount, they will be eliminated instead. So if you play it safe and give up all twenty of your candies, but you're the only one, you will be the person eliminated. You want to be somewhere in the middle. But if you leave too few...
- You may talk outside of the thread with others to coordinate how much candy you're leaving if you wish to stay alive. You may also discuss it in this thread. You may bluff if you wish.
- If you all leave the same amount of candies, whoever sent in last will be eliminated.
- You have 24 hours to PM me a number. Once I get a PM from all 14 of you, you can't change. You can change up until then.
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Curtis sent the fourteen off into the cemetery. "I'm just gonna stay behind and fill in Paul's grave. I'll catch up with you guys soon!" he said with a smile. as he jumped back down into Paul's grave. His smile very quickly went away.
"I'm sorry Paul." said Curtis as he held the coffin open and peered down inside.
It was empty. The coffin was filled with nothing but bags of candy. Paul's body was nowhere to be found.
Curtis smiled once more as he closed the coffin for good.
