[Nexus] Inside 43

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

"Well I don't know!" Freddy yells at the cell phone. "Why not?"

Seems like as good an answer as any.

This place is starting to get annoying. None of the stuff seems to be doing anything useful and the ghost isn't showing itself. Bah! See what else he can find...

But wait, what's this?

More ringing?

Boy do these machines ever make strange noises.

The Huldra heads off to find the source of this new sound!

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

The dining room table is not set, there is a cobweb in one corner, and the paint is a little chipped, and the whole place is very dusty.

Through one door, there is a bedroom. The bed is made (and dusty) and behind the bed is a little table with a handset on it, sitting on its base unit. The phone stops ringing, and muffled voices are heard from the handset. In order to hear them, he's going to have to go over there, pick up the handset, and listen.

Hey, the lights in this room are on. That's nice, since there are no windows in the room and the sun is almost down anyway.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Freddy glowers at the cell phone before putting it back in his pocket. Stupid thing. Totally useless! Or maybe he just has to push the right buttons. He'll have to find someone to ask about it later.

Onward!

To the bedroom!

The dust tickling at the Huldra's sensitive nose is really starting to bug him. He can feel a sneeze coming on and he's doing his best to hold it. Never know when a sudden sound might upset a ghost! Over to the phone he creeps and reaches out to pick up the machine and hold the end that's making noise up to his ear.

Hopefully it doesn't yell 'why' at him.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

A male voice comes over the receiver.

"Come on, what's the big deal? It's just a bit of fun."

"Hey," A female voice replies, "I made a decision and I'm stickin' to it!"

"Hah! You sure?"

"Pfftyeah!"

"Allright."

There is a slight pause, before the female voice says, "This whole "haunted house" is kind of a wash."

There a creaking sound, (recognizable as the creaking of a bed) and the male voice replies, "Who knows? Maybe it's the upstairs that is haunted. There's only one way to find out."

ssssssatic hissing.

There is a THUMP from upstairs, and the phone stand falls over. The coiled cord comes unhooked from the base unit, and seems to sproing toward the pocket that the cell phone is in. At the same moment, the light goes out.

The light in the dining room turns on.

There are two other doors in the room I forgot to mention, both are closed and neither one has light on the other side.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Between the sudden hissing and the furniture flying about poor Freddy gets startled pretty solidly! He tumbles over backwards, landing on the bed gracelessly and hurling a huge cloud of dust into the air. This doesn't help his already irritated sinus and throws him into a sneezing fit!

"ahPFFFFFT!"

Haha! He sounds like a dog when he sneezes!

"ahPFFFFFT!"
"ahPFFFFFT!"
"ahPFFFFFT!"
"ahPFFFFFT!"

He also blasts out a gout of blue fox-fire with each sneeze. And lights the bed aflame! Whoops!

"Gah! No!"

The Huldra begins beating at the ghostly flames, which only throws up more dust which only makes him sneeze even more which only makes the fire worse.

Swell.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

Oh, no! A Fire! How horrid!

If this house were to burn down, it would be awful!

...Best of luck, Freddy, if the ghost notices it doesn't do anything. Who knows what would happen if the whole place burned down? If he looks, he will find that one of those doors in this room is to a bathroom. The water still runs, and there are some towels in there. The ghost will not object or react to bathroom shenanigans at all.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Oh boy!

Everyone loves housefires.

Freddy really isn't in any danger of being harmed here. Huldra are absurdly resistant to heat. What with being made out of fox-fire and all. But he still doesn't think it's a very good idea to let the house burn down!

...

Then something occurs to him.

That fox-fire is made out of the souls that he has stolen. And those souls are bound to him. So what if he just...

The Huldra plugs his nose and takes in a deep breath, inhaling all the ghostly blue fire and leaving only a badly burnt bead behind.

He blinks at the charred furniture.

Then a rather silly grin spreads across his face. "Ha! I can't believe that worked!"

On to the bathroom! He should acquire a towel. Towels are very useful after all.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

The bathroom is all but dilpidated. As in, worse than the rest of the house. This place hasn't been tended to in far, far too long. There is some old towels, and some ancient and funny-smelling bath things. The light is off, but the switch is right there.

The light in the dining room flickers.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Fredrick doesn't know what light-switches are for!

...

But since it looks kind of odd he decides to try flipping it.

Y'know.

Just to see what happens.

Should the lights come on he'll flick it on and off for a few minutes before heading back toward the dining room again. He's pretty sure it was dark in there when he left. Best check it out again!

Something interesting might have happened!

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

The light goes on and off! Yay!

Anyway, the dining room has not changed. The light is back on in the living room, and the VCR is back on. It's blinking 12:03.

Hmm... the light in the hall is on, too.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

This is not very exciting!

Mostly just Freddy startling himself with these silly machines.

Maybe he should try to figure out what that noise up on the second floor was? He'll set off and try to find a flight of stairs!

Maybe they're out in the hallway where the light is on?

Hopefully so.

'cuz that's where he's looking next!

Away!

As he walks the Huldra fiddles with his Orb. The glowing ball floods the area around him in dim crimson light.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

It's the front hallway, with the picture frame at the T-intersection. On the other way of the T-intersection, there is a staircase going up. The staircase is lit with flickery lights, while the way to the front door is not.

Ring ring...

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Banana phone!

If that ringing isn't coming from the second floor Freddy ignores it. He's had enough nonsense messages so far and he wants to check out what's up those stairs. At least partly because those disembodied voices on the phone said something about the second floor and then hissed at him.

So...

Yeah!

Going up!

The Huldra forms several bright wisps of fox-fire, lightning up the area around him pretty darn well. The red light combined with the blue light actually makes it sort of easy to see! Colors are still off though.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

The whole upper floor is lit with some more lights. Almost every room is a bedroom. Each bedroom has an alarm clock. Each one is blinking, 12:03

The ringing is coming from one bedroom that is a bit better than the others. There is a phone in there!

There is a blood spatter next to the phone.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

From room to room.

Sniffing at each.

Nosing about for ghosts.

Without really thinking about it he begins humming an old children's song. Old children's songs are really pretty grim often times. And this one really isn't any different...

Happens to be about Huldra eating naughty children in their sleep.

Who the hell comes up with these things, anyway?

So... yeah. Freddy creeps into the bloodied room and picks up the phone! Will it hiss at him again? Stay tuned to find out!

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

This time, the female voice starts. "Wh-What-"

"If I cant have you, no one will."

Sounds of a struggle... The female occasionally gives a desperate "No!" but it's suddenly cut short by a loud SLAP.

"Girl's got spunk..."

This is followed by a meaty crack and a loud thud.

The phone hisses and falls to the ground, and the spiral cord comes loose and tries to reach into Fredrick's pocket, and take out the cell phone.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Meaty cracks followed by loud thuds are usually bad.

And so is this guy! If the lady is refusing him and fighting back then he's clearly doing something wrong. What a creep.

And then what's this?

The phone cord grabs the cell phone out of Freddy's pocket!

Weird.

Are phones supposed to do that?

Freddy has no idea!

He'll just watch the whole scene curiously.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

The lights go out.

If Fredrick looks back into the hall, he will see a light peeking out from under a door...

If he opens the door, he will find a staircase going up to the attic. Choking sounds come from somewhere up there.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Choking sounds?

That seems pretty serious!

Maybe there's someone up there that Freddy can help?

Maybe there's still someone alive in here?

Or maybe that's where the ghost is hiding and Freddy is about to get some noms.

Either way this requires further investigation!

Clutching his Orb Freddy climbs the stairs and throws open the door! And gasps in surprise when he finds-!

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

A girl hung with a power cord.

A laptop sits nearby. It's old, and is bluescreened. The cord presumably belongs to this laptop. Nearby is a cell phone, plugged into its own power cord.

Apart from that is the usual attic detritus, like old chairs, cabinets, and boxes marked with various holiday decorations like "Halloween costumes" or "Easter bunnies" or "Christmas lights"

The girl appears to be in her late teens, and has a few bruises apart from the horrid mark around her neck where the power cord strangled her slowly. Her eyes are shut. She does not move.

There is the ghost. She does not acknowledge Fredrick.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Well!

There it is alright!

Freddy gives a sigh of relief when all he finds is the horrifically murdered apparition playing out her last moments of life. Something ghosts do often times.

He comes into the room, slowly walking in the circle around the phantom. Sniffing. Getting a good feel for the lost soul's aroma before he devours it. Most of the ghosts around here have no idea what a Huldra is and as such don't know that they should probably make themselves scarce when one is hunting.

His Discordant instincts say 'time to eat!'

Though his human ones say, "I'm really sorry this happened to you. If what I heard over that machine were your last hours of life you hardly deserved this. Most ghosts don't I guess. All too often it's wrongful deaths and tragedy."

He takes a few steps forward as his human shape begins to be very much less human and very much more fox-demon. "If nothing else I can offer you release from this cycle of pain you're in. Will you come with me? Help me make the Nexus a little safer for the innocent people that still haven't been slain?"

If the ghost is willing to get nommed it makes things a little easier, you see.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

"...why?"

It's not really spoken by her... more just heard. A whisper, really.

"Why? Why..."

Her eyes open slowly.

"Why would I trust you?"

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Yeah.

Why isn't Freddy surprised at the 'why'?

Ghosts are weird. Usually being rational with them doesn't really work given how incoherent they are more often than not. Comes with the territory of being a lost soul. And if the soul is just going to babble at him?

Well...

That big fox-demon burning with ghostly flames should be able to end the babbling quickly enough. The Huldra reaches out with one paw to thwack the ghost to the floor. Oddly enough the Huldra will prove to be quite solid to even this ethereal creature. And perhaps more disturbingly should the seemingly casual batting connect the ghost should have a great deal of trouble fading away or phasing through solid objects.

The Fox-Fire that will suddenly be clinging to her will stoically prevent it.

"I'm not even sure if you can understand me or not," Freddy sighs. "But please don't struggle. And this will be all over very quickly. I'll have plenty of nice friends for you to meet!"

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

Bat!

Snap, tough ghost... she stays very much up and hanging, but the foxfire does grab her and will keep her from escaping for now. She now swings from the noose.

"What... What are you doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Her eyes open wide. What is going on?

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Huh.

This ghost is pretty powerful. Usually a phantom would be Huldra food already. And more powerful souls mean more filling! More filling means that feeling of wholeness lasts longer before the ache of Freddy's hollow heart begins gnawing at him again.

"I'm going to eat you," the fox-demon replies matter of factly. "So I won't have to eat someone who's still alive. I'm fortunate the Nexus is so rich in ghosts. Since... I'm not really sure how I would feel about killing people who are still alive."

And with that he opens his jaws and begins to inhale. The ghost will likely feel as though she were standing in a wind-tunnel with the fans pushing her inexorably toward the Huldra's waiting maw.

Almost like an inverted Big Bad Wolf...

The ghost will have a great view into the Huldra's cavernous gullet through those terrible jaws. Filled with nothing but a hellish nightmare of writhing blue flames and tormented, half-formed faces.

Doesn't look like a very happy place in there.

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

"No... no! nonononononononono..."

She is obviously being pulled! She is very scared! She is surprisingly resistant!

"No! WHY? Why why... why am I so helpless?"

She sobs ghost tears that are vacuumed into the horrid maw...

"He beats me, he kills me, he steals my stuff, and he tells everyone that I committed suicide! When I tried to ask him why... he never gave me an answer!"

She seems to be giving way. Slowly... slowly...

"I pushed him... and he got away. He killed himself, and he got away. Never said he was sorry. never anything. Nothing I could do...."

"And now I'm getting eaten. And I..."

...her eyes open. They're different.

"I can do something."

She's... she's resisting. Not just hard to eat, hung up on her noose, but fighting.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

The vacuum-breath isn't working!

Maybe Freddy would have more luck with a proton pack... Too bad he doesn't know what a proton pack is. Otherwise he could totally go to Erin's Emporium and buy one! It would make his ghost hunting much easier.

Anywho!

The ghost's cries are... really gnawing at him. Not at the empty Discord-warped void of the Huldra's heart. But rather at Freddy's still all to human soul. He feels honestly bad for this ghost. Most of the others were devoured too quickly for him to really find out what happened to them. But this one.

He snaps his jaws shut.

Sits down on his haunches.

And quirks his head off to the side a little as the Fox-Fire clinging to the ghost sloughs off and dances back into him again.

"...you..." the demon-fox quirks his head off to the side a little. "You really can understand me? You're actually conscious?"

He scoots forward a little. Sniffs at the ghost again.

And then his eyes go wide as his ears fold back.

"Oh... Oh Emperor I... I didn't know!" he begins scooting away from the apparition in horror and dismay. "You still have spirit! You've just been ripped out of your body!"

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

Conscious?

"I can understand. They buried my body. What do I have now? A noose and a monster trying to eat me. I was never strong enough. Now..."

A cord twists from the shadows, the power cord from the phone. It lengthens impossibly, trying wrap itself around Fredrick's muzzle. It is freakishly strong. The ghost itself disappears, and the cord unwraps itself from the noose.

"Now I have the power to make sure that no one hurts me ever again."

The plug faces Fredrick. Electricity sparks from it.

"Leave."

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Haunted House]

Poof goes the ghost!

She smells like she's all over the place now. In the air. In the walls. In all those weird black ropes running through the walls. Especially in the weird black ropes running through the walls.

The Huldra moves with undue swiftness to avoid getting his mouth tied shut, dodging the attack deftly. Though his body language is somewhat submissive if one is at all familiar with dogs.

"I didn't know you were aware. I thought you were just a lost soul, an echo of a person left behind," Freddy says to... well... the room in general. "I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't understand."

He's slowly backing toward the door. Not getting out of here hastily, though. Despite his instincts telling him that he could probably overpower this Wraith and gnaw the soul from its spirit, despite the hunger and hollowness prompting him to attack, his humanity just can't abide the idea of devouring a person who is still a person.

Even if that person is dead.

At least... not yet. Who knows how he'll act if he gets hungry enough.

"I'm sorry. You... you shouldn't be here. Isn't there some place better? Somewhere you can move on to?"

[Lost_Deep]

Arkham Street - Haunted House

...The cord goes limp.

"Move on? Move on where? Tom must have moved on. There must be something to go on to. I just can't."

The voice has changed to be sad, as opposed to the confusion or rage from before.

"I don't know why."