Cthulhu’s Halloween Mansion Part Two (Halloween Contest 2023 Entry)

Posted on Thursday October 26th, 2023 @ 1:20am by Lieutenant Drauc Kejail ie-Jia'anKahr

846 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Grand Tour: Part Two
Location: Holodeck One, Deck Five

Drauc stated out loud “Computer pause for a moment.” he wanted to take a few seconds to make some mental notes on what he had already experienced. He was still working on why humans were so fascinated with what they termed horror. He was trying to understand why they wished to effectuate the feelings of fear, apprehension, and uneasiness for fun. He was still intrigued and not any closer to finding out why the humans enjoyed such activities. “Computer resume Cthulhu’s Halloween Mansion. Act Two.

The holodeck went pitch black and a sepulcher voice echoed out of nowhere and everywhere “Welcome to Act Two of Cthulhu’s Halloween Mansion.” The voice ended in a sepulcher laugh. The lights come on and Drauc found himself in the ballroom of the manor house, alone. Drauc looked about to see if he could find his companion Corey. He finds a watch with the crystal front shattered. On the back inscribed “To my son, Corey”. Drauc again looks about, but he sees no one or hears no one. Sighing out loud Drauc determines he must find his companion. He leaves the ballroom and walks across the hall to the room and opens the creaking doors. As Drauc steps inside he finds a gloomy and grimy chamber. It is the dining room with a large, spiderweb-shrouded table resting in the center of the room with thirteen place settings and an equal number of chairs. The once elegant candelabrum is a tent of spider webs. The room is deathly quiet as Drauc does an inspection of the room; he finds nothing. Seeing a door leading to what he deduces as most likely the kitchen he opens the door to find the kitchen shrouded in dirt and long curtains of dust between pieces of the furniture. Drauc instantly realized no one has been in the kitchen for a long time. Drauc notices three doors in the room: a door to his right, one straight ahead and one to his left. He decides to investigate the door to his left as it is the closest. He opens the door to find a small servants dining room in similar condition to the grand dining room. He makes note of the door directly across from the door he is at and deduces it most likely leads to the hallway. Orienting himself he goes to the door that was originally on his left, bypassing the door that he again logical believes leads him to the hallway. Dirt begins to stick to his damp clothes, and he realizes he is leaving a very visible trail. He attempts to open the door and finds it is locked; he applies a little force from his Vulcan strength and manages to open the door with a loud creak to reveal the pantry. Spotting what appears to be a small icebox Drauc opens it, cool air seeps out and there are large jars of thick reddish-brown fluid; Drauc suspects the jars are full of blood. Drauc gets up and walks back out and through the kitchen to the servant’s dining room and out the door into the hallway. Spotting a set of double doors to his left just down the hallway he heads toward them, his delicate sense of smell detects the faintest hint of salty air, and the door is damp. Drauc throws open the door to discover a huge, slime covered pool. Thick, black and bilious algae and seaweed float on the stagnant water. The once beautiful, tiled floor is cracked and buckled and Drauc notices foul scented water trickling from the walls and ceiling. Drauc makes out a muffled gurgling, slurping sound coming from the pool. He cautiously steps into the room to investigate the noise. As he draws closer the pool and water suddenly erupt as a scaled, bloated, tentacled horror rises with a hiss from the dark water. The octopidal monstrosity lashes out at Drauc with a rubbery tentacle, Drauc attempts to jump back, but loses his footing and is snagged by the tentacle and is quickly dragged into the murky pool. Drauc struggles mightily but fails to escape the octopidal, scaled thing and is engulfed in its rubbery, sack-like body cavity. Suddenly Drauc finds himself lying in the holodeck room with its familiar gridline pattern and he hears a sepulcher laugh and then the voice “So ends Act Two of Cthulhu’s Halloween Mansion; with our hero becoming a snack for the Spawn Of Hastur” again followed by another sepulcher laugh. Then the sepulcher voice asked, “Does our intrepid hero dare try his luck again?”

Drauc sat up and began to ponder his feelings on what had just happened. His pulse rate and breathing had increased, as well as his adrenal gland production. He had for the briefest of moments almost lost control of his emotions, almost. Drauc made some mental notes and thought to himself that indeed he may engage in this holonovel again, perhaps he would bring one of his fellow ship mates; to judge their reactions to the holonovel.

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