Pass The Ghost Story

[cstoll]

"Mr. Nibbles bear! Cutest bunny wunny, come here comeherecomehere," Brit cooed to the undead bunny on the raised platform.
Sal laughed and ripped smelly bugle-horn blasts. Valerie and Shaniqua were still out cold.
"Chad, would you just knock me out and wake me when it's over?" Des asked, surveying the situation.
"It's just a bunny! This is laughable!" Chad taunted the bunny.
In a lightning-quick move, the bunny flew from the pillar onto Chad's face, flashing its teeth and green-glowing eyes.
"Holeeeeeeeeee sheeeeeeeet!" Chad's voice was pure terror as he tried to punch the thing off.
"Oooooh, silly Chad. Bunny just wants to play!" Britney didn't notice Sal floating ominously behind her, arms raised.
"Brrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiins," Pseudo-Billy had picked up Valerie and slung her over his shoulder.
Des was shocked by how poorly things went so quickly.
Then, the wall behind them exploded.

Billy heard an explosion in the distance, but he was more concerned with the five men surrounding him. Each looked like the stranger--dry, crusty skin and obscured faces. Their horses were sheer black and seemed to have rough, bumpy edges.
"And why aren't these guys happy?" Billy whispered to the stranger.
"Because they know you're going to resist."
"Resist what?"
"Removing all the water and life from your body."
"Can I see your gun again?"
"Nope."

[Zanahoria_Picante]

"BUNNYMR.NIBBLESBEARFLUFFUMS!" Britney shrieked over the bedlam.
Using the instant of the explosion as a fitting distraction, Sal suddenly and inexplicably solidified enough to snatch Britney and swoop away with her bald-,-bad-song-writing-ness. Only Des saw this, but was too panicked by the rest of the insanity to react.
Following the explosion, the room filled with clouds of plaster and debris, which slowly subsided to reveal a gaping hole in the wall and, behind it, a black void resembling the holes they encountered in the forest.
Nothing came out yet.
Meanwhile, Chad flailed and punched himself, trying to release the zombie bunny's ruthless hold on his face.
Des tried to pick something to deal with.
"It's okay, man!" Des lied to Chad, running to his side. He viciously pulled at the bunny, at one point leaning his full weight back while holding it, to no avail.
"For the love of PANTS!" Des growled.
Since Pseudo-Billy lacked speed and (relative) intelligence, Des gave up on Chad for a moment and bolted towards it and Valerie.
"This will end badly," Billy's pants knew.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Des battle-roared, pouncing on them.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Valerie snorted back to Valerie-ness. She unsteadily rose and Des helped her keep up as he frantically opened doors.
"What are you looking for?!" Valerie shouted.
"Hold on," he found the right door, "YES!"
Valerie frowned, "a room full of carrots?"
"Exactly," he glommed Chad by the arm and thrust his bunny-assailed head in the room, freeing him.
"Well, that was unexpected, I guess," Billy's pants sighed.

In seemingly one motion of unnatural courage and deftness, Billy slipped through the circle of five, leaping onto one of their dark steeds, and smacked it forward.
"HIYA!" Billy called into the night, joint still in his mouth.
The cowboys blinked at each other.
"Get 'im, boys!" Cleatus commanded his posse.

[psychoDiablo]

The sun was setting behind the hills. It gave off a orangey, yellow hue mixed with the becoming midnight blue sky. As Billy gallop away from the OK Corral, he examined the skyline and appreciation set in.
"Damn herb has me all loving...Stoned outta my mind..." He looked behind him and the withery cowboys were chasing him. He had a good lead on them, but no destination. He saw a small fire in the distance, clouds of dust bellowed around the spot. He kicked his horse and slapped the reigns, "HIYA! YA!"
Billy came closer to the spot and noticed more of the dried out cowboys were there, loading something up. He heard one of them yell out something, but didnt quite catch what it said. He just heard one of them counting down.
"3....2....1...." One of them triggered something. Billy realized he was still racing towards them.
KABOOOOOM! An explosion set off, which scared Billy's horse. It stood up on it's hind legs, nearly knocking Billy off. Billy held on though, with the horse trotting scared and annoyed.
"Whoaa Black Stallion. Whooa!" Billy calmed his horse down, reassuring it, petting it's mane.
The explosion crackled throughout the desert. Billy looked behind him and saw the men still coming after him. He looked ahead, the dust clouds had settled and he saw an interesting black void. An idea popped into his head and he and Black Stallion charged the spot. The horse was at full gallop. Billy bit down hard on his joint. He raced past the workers, who were startled to see him charging through.
"I've always wanted to do this!" Billy took one of the biggest tokes of his life. He sucked hard on his joint, burning it all the way down to his lips. His horse leaped into the air and dove straight into the black void. Lightning shot out the back as the horse and man entered the void. The cowboys shielded themselves with their arms the light was so intense. Billy had escaped; and with the ringleader's horse no doubt.

"Put me down! You're not a nice ghost at all!" Britney cried.
Chad was still struggling with the demon rabbit as Des tried to help him into the carrot room.
Valerie sat on the ground feeling groggy and Shaniqua was still passed out from the god awful stench left behind by Sal.
"Hahahaha!" The Flatulence let out a grimacing laugh that started to shake the building.
"Whoa...is that my laughing?"
"No you numbskull!" Britney said, hitting Sal in the head.
"Gah, you're such trouble woman!" He threw Britney to the ground, who then started crying.
"Waahhh, Chad! CHADDY!" She let it out. She held onto her elbow crying.
Chad heard Brit's cry and it revived some strength within him. He ripped the bunny off his neck and threw it into the carrot room. He turned to face Salvador who instantly accepted the challenge.
Desmound picked up Valerie and brought her to safety near Shaniqua. They both tried to wake her.
The ceiling started to crack and the roar of the shaking was getting louder.
"Brrrrrrrrraaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnsssssss." Pseudo-Billy said, drooling out it's mouth. Slobbering up the whole place. Desmound and Valerie looked at it as it walked toward them. Des got up to defend but had no weapon, and definitely would not be able to take on Pseudo-Billy. But he didnt have to...

Just then thunder screamed across the sky and down in the hallways. The girls closed their eyes, scared to death. Even Salvador was frightened. Chad, worked up from rage wasn't scared. He simply turned around and faced the black void. Same with Pseudo-Billy. He turned to face the void too.
Lightning started to shoot out the void. Chad ducked and leaned up against the wall. All of the campers were now fearing for their lives as they had no idea what was going to happen.
Pseudo-Billy just stood there and drooled.
With another bolt of lightning and deafening roar of thunder, Billy and his Black Stallion came flying out of the void.
"AH-HA!" Him and his horse ran up to the Pseudo-Billy. The horse reared up and kicked Pseudo-Billy in the face, knocking him out cold. The horse did circles in the hallway, with Billy on top, looking like he was a knight. He looked over to Sal and charged the ghost. Sal was terrified. He dropped Britney's mop of hair, turned back into a ghost and exited the hallway through a wall. Billy's horse stopped and neighed like crazy, knowing it had just done a job well done.
Desmound and Chad praised Billy and his horse.
"Hahaha! FUCK YEAH! BILLY! BILLY BILLY!"
All the campers were safe now, including Billy's pants. Chad consoled Britney. Desmound held onto Shaniqua and Valerie was okay. Billy looked down, smiling at everyone.
"Billy here are your pants back."
"No, I don't need them anymore..." He looked down at Valerie with a new eye. "I'm living my life, no pants, no regrets." He was going to ask Valerie to ride with him, but instead he slapped his own face as the roach burned his lip.
"AHH fuck!"

[Zanahoria_Picante]

I think that's actually a good (and hilarious) place to end--imagining that they would all escape at that point with many a strange event occurring 'pon the way, o' course. I will propose another beginning part now (unless anyone has any objections to...that).

So, here we go:

Sebastian was in his dark place. Outside, the rain trickled meaningfully down the window panes, seemingly full of purpose and direction, unlike him. Oh, within and without, the darkness assailed him.

Boredom always looked like this for Sebastian.
"Should I wither here?" He mused to himself, "or should this torrid soul sojourn forth into the world of the Lightlings?"
He had gone there before.
Drawing the curtain open enough to look across the street, he saw the old, ramshackle, and abandoned house that no one dared enter--not even his abandoned soul. Some said it was haunted; others just thought it was a dumpy house that called for demolishing so they could put a dollar store or something there. Either way, it still stayed unkempt and apparently unused.
"Thither I shall wander," Sebastian determined, making a choice, "but first--for this soul has little strength and much fear--I shall gather a few of mine Lightling companions to accompany this Darkling on his banal journey into the unknown."
He called Samantha--his former "gf"--on the Lightline (telephone) and his lifelong friend, Ed, telling them to meet him across the street at the "haunted" house.
But the moment he reached for the door into the World of the Light, he heard the most annoying sound his ears could hear.
"Where ya going?" His little, light-born brother, Marcus, squeaked.
"Same place as always, my brother: nowhere."
"Can I come?"
"Fine. I know you'll only cling unto me until I say yes," Sebastian muttered.
"Yay!"
So they set forth to the abandoned house.

***

If you want to keep going with the previous story, that's to'ally cool, too.

[cstoll]

(Promise I'll make them shorter. Just wanted to get things set up).

Samantha and Ed waited at the black-iron gate that--along with the brick wall running the perimeter of the property--separated the overgrown yard from the sidewalk. Ed had already tested the gate, found it unlocked, and pushed it open.

"Here he comes," Samantha said.
"Is that his brother with him?"
"Oh, he must be loving that."

"This is going to be fun," Marcus chirped.
"No, it's not," Sebastian sighed. "It's a dank, miserable place that echoes my very soul."
"Woo-hoo!"
"Y'know," Ed interrupted, "we could just skip this and go to a ballgame."
"Will it be a dank, miserable experience echoing my very soul?"
"Could be if there's no nachos."
"Glad to see you're out and about...and wearing dark clothing," Samantha offered.
"You remind me of my shattered heart," Sebastian responded quietly.
"Well, let's do this!" Ed said, breaking the Samantha-Sebastian tension.

As they walked up the path to the porch, Samantha and Ed whispered.
"Why are we doing this again?"
"Oh, it'll be harmless," Ed said. "It could break Seb out of his emo funk. Aren't cobwebs, some rusty nails, and potential cases of lockjaw worth the risk?"

On the porch, Sebastian opened the door, creaking with the best haunted-house-door-opening sound one could hope for.
"What was the story about this place?" Marcus asked.
"Stories," Ed corrected. "Different stuff kids and parents would make up about a woman who made ventriloquist dolls to replace her dead kids, or a wealthy traveler who stole treasures from the dead of foreign countries..."
"...or a family that went insane and killed each other," Samantha added, "or the house was buried on a graveyard...just stories."

Entering the house, they saw a fleeting image of Ed in a pool of blood on the floor with a sword stuck through his chest.
"Huh," Ed said, not quite processing it.
The four turned to look at the street, and it was gone. The gate replaced by a solid brick wall, and the sky a sheet of black.
"Well, shit," Ed muttered.

[psychoDiablo]

"Eeeeeee!" Sebastian let out a scream. Samantha grabbed on to Ed's left arm. Sebastian onto Ed's right. Sebastian trembled.
"What in the hell dude?!" Ed yanked his arm away from Sebastian. He looked down at the cowering Sebastian. Sebastian stared back up at Ed with his forlorn eyes. Samantha let off of Ed's arm and felt sorry for Sebastian.
"Oh Ed. Look at him, he's scared. Poor thing." She knelt down beside Sebatison, hugging him and patting his head.
"Will you two get up already?...Wimps!" Ed exaggerated. He knew what trouble they were in for.

[Zanahoria_Picante]

"Trammeled here, in this casual tomb, I shall linger away mine final days. Woe unto me! Woe unt--"
Ed smacked Sebastian across the face.
"Get a hold of yourself, man!" Ed snapped, looking a bit crazy; those bloody images of himself still wafting around in his mind's eye.
"Ohhhh..." Sebastian moaned, crying a little outside, and weeping within.
"Maybe we should just keep going in," Samantha suggested, "I mean, look at our options."
"YIPE!" Marcus chirped, completely inexplicably.
The door to the house--tiring of this discourse--slammed itself, trapping them inside.

[psychoDiablo]

The doors had slammed shut, scaring some of the kids, especially Sebastian.
"ahhhh!" Sebastian yelled out again, clutching to Ed's arm. Ed turned his body and flung Sebastian off of him, literally throwing Seb to the side. Sebastian hit the ground on his side, he rolled over and his foot kicked a column with a vase on top of it. The column tilted and the vase came crashing down on top of Sebastian. There was a lot of noise.
"What the hell you doing Seb? Jesus Mary and Joseph! Are you kidding me?"
Sebastian lay there on the ground motionless. He knew he was better off dead. A tear rolled out his eye and down to his ear.

[Zanahoria_Picante]

"Dude, did you just say 'yipe'?" Ed asked, slightly after the fact.
Paralyzed by fear, Marcus could not respond.
Sebastian strayed from his "dark place" far enough to speak, "dost mine eyes deceive me? Who is this ancient raven? Lo!" He outspread his hand poetically towards the top of a narrow set of stairs directly in front of them.
A thin figure, features mostly obscured in the dim light, leaned on the rail atop the stairs. It looked weak, as if it needed the rail to hold itself up, yet held a long, very painful-looking sword in its other hand.
Samantha whimpered slightly.
Marcus wiped the drool from his mouth.
Ed looked for something sharp.
Sebastian smiled an upside down smile.
No one moved.

[cstoll]

The thin, weak figure came into view. Wearing a tattered, wispy cloak, it seemed almost human, having arms and legs and regular human attributes--except that its entire body seemed compressed, long, bendy. Its face was thin, mashed. When it moved, parts of the body would bend and curve in different directions. The sword, however, seemed very sturdy and very sharp.

It descended the stairs quickly. Samantha, fear overtaking her, managed to grab a nearby vase and throw it at the creature. The bendy form "caught" the vase in its chest and then "shot" it back, shattering over Marcus' head and knocking him out cold.

It raised its sword over Marcus' still body. Ed, yelling indecipherable things, grabbed the sword arm and pulled...the arm stretched like taffy, while the hand stayed in the same exact position.
"Gah!" Ed exclaimed. "Sam, Seb, help!"
"Wha--? How?"
"How should I know? How do you kill Gumby?"

[Zanahoria_Picante]

"LIKE THUS!" Sebastian bellowed, throwing himself into the beast, only to be flung by its elastic abdomen into a grandfather clock.
"Thus...the red...death...shall...take me...," he trailed off, fainting a little.
Samantha's hands shook as she shuffled through her bag. She glommed her mini-flashlight and shined it tensely at the malleable beast, who twitched in alarm, then slipped uncannily fast back up into the darkness.
"AGH! What the heck?!" Ed squawked, leaning over Marcus, "are you okay? Can you hear me?"
"Yeahn..." Marcus articulated.
"He's alive!" Samantha cried.
"Mommy?" Marcus hallucinated.
"Okay," Ed tried to steady his breathing, "obviously, we should've opted for the baseball game. Marcus, don't move too much yet. Sam, keep that flashlight handy; great...thinking...by the way. Seb," he looked around, "Seb?"
Sam scanned the hall with the light, finding spots of blood across the shards of the clock's face. A trail of the mess spread down the hall and turned right.
"Looks like Sebastian dragged himself away again," Ed guessed.
"Or something dragged him away...," Samantha said, nauseous.
They heard dishes shift in the room where the trail led.

[psychoDiablo]

"Marcus, can you stand? Get on your feet." Ed took command. "Sam, you take point, you have the flashlight." He positioned her and the 3 went to look for Sebastian.
"Should we call out to him?" Samantha questioned.
"Second thought, why dont you text him?"
Sam reached for her cell phone and cursed the thing.
"No bars." She put the phone away in her purse.
They headed down the hallway to where Sebastian may have dragged himself off to. On the walls were dimly lit candles and paintings.
"Creepy how they seem to look back at you...Ooo! Chills ran down my spine." Samantha shuddered.
"He couldn't have gotten too far, that was a nasty spill." Ed said.
"Hey did you hear that?" Marcus asked the group.
"No..." They continued to walk forward. Marcus turned around.
"Uhh...guys..."
Standing 10 feet in back of them was the rubberband spirit.

[Zanahoria_Picante]

Samantha whipped around and beamed the light at it again. It wiggled its head and neck with unnatural deftness and at odd angles, its stretched neck and limbs and facial features appearing like a Modigliani in the light.
"Um. Ew," she said, pointing it at different locations on its body as it staggered nearer.
As soon as the light touched the center of its chest, it fled.
"I walk a lonely road...the only road that I...have ever known...don't know where it goes...but it's only me and I walk alone...doo doo...dee doo...doo doo...doo..." Sebastian droned somewhere nearby.
Ed scowled and charged ahead into the room. It was a surprisingly large kitchen.
"Seb, what are you doing?" Ed demanded.
"Can't you see? I bleedeth," Seb said.
"Gross!" Marcus peeped, coming with Sam into the room where Seb mended his dark wounds.

[psychoDiablo]

"Dude, how are you always getting hurt? Girlfriends dont like that stuff man!" Ed said to Sebastian, who was sulking over his bloody hands.
Samantha slapped Ed's arm, "Hey!"
She walked to Sebastian and took a look at his wounds. His arm was cut up pretty bad.
"Ed, give me your shirt."
"What? No way, I just got it."
"Edward, we need to stop his bleeding!" She screamed at him.
Reluctantly Ed gave up his shirt. Sam ripped off a sleeve and bound up Seb's wound.
"I thank thee, mi lady, with the reddest of my blood, so that you will know, that color is truest of them all. A darker blue would be midnight cast upon us with no light. Yellow, too bright. But red....genuine red, no matter how dark is what flows thru us all."
"Are you done Seb? We're gonna need that flashlight again."

[Tala]

But Sebastian was not yet finished. “My blood could not be black, for only minst soul is as black as… black. Therefore, my blood must be red. It is the color of – ”
Before Sebastian could continue, and Samantha struck him across the face again, some dishes fell out of the China closet across the room.
Samantha held the flashlight at the ready, while Ed grabbed a nearby steak knife. Marcus noisily began chewing an old piece of gum that he found in his pocket.
"Now what doth haunt my mortal soul," Sebastian asked, wondering if this spirit be friend or foe.
They slowly crept towards the closet, holding their chosen weapons at the ready. As Ed’s hand slowly grasped the door handle, the door suddenly burst open and all of the kids were blinded by a bright light that came from within the closet.
“My soul buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurns!,” exclaimed Sebastian

[cstoll]

"...buuuuuuurns!" Sebastian continued, heaving his chest forward and his arms back, adding drama to his outburst. "Shall this black-hole heart of mine be overtaken by thither light?"
Samantha, who is prone to throwing things when startled, grabbed a broken baking dish and heaved it at the light--which then shattered. The light lessened, but did not disappear.
"It was a mirror," Ed said, "but there's still a glow coming from the floorboards in the closet."
"No," Sebastian intoned. "The gravity of this black hole is too strong," tapping his chest, "and any vestige of light shall be swept in its path."
Marcus spat his gum on Sebastian's foot, "You suck so much you attract old gum."
"Shut up, small Philistine!"
"Pretentious poet!"
Samantha also threw things when annoyed--this time, a handful of spoons at Seb and Marcus. "Enough!" she yelled.
"And the rest is silence..." Sebastian whispered.
Another spoon bounced off his forehead.

Ed approached the glowing floorboard. "Hey, there's a hole large enough to go down."
"Ed, what are you doing?"
"I'm not sure. But it's probably equally brave and stupid."

[Zanahoria_Picante]

As he haphazardly poked his foot around for a sound, non-rotted support, Ed did a double-take at Sam's flashlight.
"We shouldn't waste the battery!" Edward sneered poshly.
"Sorry. Just trying to help, sheesh," Sam raised her hand defensively, and flicked it off, quelling the urge to hurl it at him.
Sebastian looked--up from the chasm of his darkening soul--coyly at Samantha, "Hey, Sam?"
Samantha instantly felt uncomfortable, "yeah?"
"I'm willing to bleed for you," Seb promised.
"Uhhh...thanks."
"Hey!" Ed shouted from below the floor, "there's a lantern down here!"
"Sweet!" Marcus cawed, stumbling on nothing and flailing into the hole, landing on Ed.

[psychoDiablo]

After stumbling, everyone got their ground. They were in an old cellar. Wine bottles were laid about, old and dusty.
"Hey, hey! Let's take a sip huh?" Ed said grinning from ear to ear.
"No, put that back. You don't even know what it is." Said Sam, being the grown up of the group.
"Ah, Samantha, my dearest, I shall drink to you, with my kindest friend of age, Ed. Together, all of us, here, now...We shall drink a toast of toasts. We, as friends..." Sebastian was rudely cut off, as Ed cracked open the bottle and the cork popped out smacking Sebastian in the eye. He grabbed his face.
"AAHHHH!!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Sebastian's cries grew louder and louder.
"Oh jeez! My bad Seb!"
"Oh my God, Sebastian are you okay?"
"Hey can I get a drink?"
Ed looked at Marcus. Looked at Sam. She looked at Ed, then looked at Marcus. Ed and Sam looked at Sebastian who had his eyes over his face. Marcus looked at Sebastian, then looked at Sam, then to Ed.
Ed gave Marcus the bottle. Marcus went to drink, but due to Sebastian's loud crying they heard loud banging noises from upstairs.
Ed grabbed the bottle Marcus (hey!) and took the lead.
"Okay let's find a way out of here, that isn't back up those steps."

[Zanahoria_Picante]

Sam tore off her other sleeve. She rummaged through her purse and found her squishy chipmunk stuffed animal, Onesiphorus.
"Here, use this," Sam surrendered the tiny, fake rodent to him and he pressed it firmly in place to slow the gushing, "tie the sleeve around as an eye patch when the flow slows."
"Thank you, my sweet," Sebastian replied between sobs, "I am the cyclops."
"Yipe!" Marcus popped again.
"Seriously!" Ed glared at him, "Ach! What now? We can't go back upstairs because something is up there. Guess we'll have to keep rummaging around this disgusting, cobweb-ridden wine cellar until we find another way out," he looked accusingly at Marcus, "without a lantern."
"Sorry! I slipped!" Marcus snorted, "Geez laweezy, Ed!"
Ed rubbed his eyes and blinked repeatedly.
"Oh..." Seb said, as if realizing something.
"What?" Samantha had genuine interest in her voice.
"This room is a lot like my soul," he replied.
"Stop it," Ed ordered, exasperated.

Samantha began randomly turning and lifting the wine bottles, until one bottle-shifting was succeeded by a "clunk" which was succeeded by an adjacent, faux wall rolling aside to reveal a passageway.
"Well done, Sam! You're like a female Nicolas Cage!" Ed grinned and hugged her.
Poor Sebastian. His soul could barely contain this Lightling's incursion on his late love--for she was alive to him (not dead to him; for he was the one who had died within, while she lived on in the World of the Light; it was all a bit complicated). His unmarred eye could not even muster a tear.
"Call this sordid, cyclopean soul Sorrow--as in the Days of Old, the days when names reflected the essence of a man's essence," Sebastian rambled quietly to himself, crawling deeper and deeper into his Dark Place.
"Let's go," Ed said, completely ignoring Seb and leading the way into the passage.

(Sorry, it's a bit longer; could not be concise tonight.)

[psychoDiablo]

Ed took the lead down a long corridor. The walls were stone cold. After all, they were stone walls and there was no sunlight down there.
"Hand me the flashlight lady." Ed demanded. Sam grabbed the light and tossed it over to Ed. He lead the way. She helped Sebastian to his feet, who was clutching the side of his ribs and his other hand holding his head. He leaned against her as they walked down the corridor. Marcus followed closely behind.
Ed took a couple swigs to the dome and turned around and said to the group, feeling a bit fuzzy, "Hehe, hey guys, come on. Ya gotta keep up...and stuff. This stuff aint bad." He smiled at them happily. "Come on! Follow me!" He started pacing down the stone wall.