The Haunted Mansion

The Mausoleum

The three of us came across the mausoleum at last.

"ok. We made it," I said. "Alright, guys. Stay close."

We walked up to it. The air was cold and musky. The breeze giving us all a slight chill as approached the door. Of course, I as much as the rest of us knew that the only way off the grounds of this place was going through this crypt. There was no other way.

"After all we've been through tonight," Zeke said. "I don't know if I can stomach any more."

"We won't go back. We go through," I said.

Liberty saw above the two big wooden doors, Something written in runes.

"It's some kind of warning. I learned about things like that in high school."

"That's right," I said. You studied ancient runes. Can you read what it says?"

"I can," Liberty responded. "it reads, "The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead. And the dead keep it. The way is shut."

We all stood for a moment in silence.

"I do not fear death," I said.

I managed to open both the doors. The doorway was covered in cobwebs.

"It must have taken lot of spiders to make a web that size," Zeke shuddered. "Or a very big one. Oh, it just curdles my blood to think of it."

"Well then you better hope we don't encounter one of those," I said.

I grabbed a torch from the side then pushed aside the webs.

The three of us walked into the tomb and began yet another walk in the dark. Carrying the torch to light our way.

Coffins and skeletons laying about gave an eerie vibe for us. Cobwebs and dust adorned every nook and cranny.

"Alright then. Be on your guard," I said to them. "there are older and fouler things than ghosts in the deep places the world."

We proceeded to carry on. Making our way through the darkness we stuck together. One door I opened led to a flooded passageway. Our possibly only way through was across.

"Yuck," Zeke said. "How does water like that even get in here?"

"Most burial plots around here tend to get flooded or submerged like this because of high water tables," I said. Especially because of all the swamps and bayous."

We came into a large open area. We stopped in our tracks for a moment.

"Do any of you even remember what it was that gypsy told us to look for?" Zeke asked. "She said look for a crypt of some kind. With what? Look for a crypt...."

"Hang on a minute," I replied. "I believe it was a crypt without a name."

"Are you sure?" Zeke said. " Cause half the time with all that rhyming she was doing, she seemed kind of cryptic."

"Well, that was it," Liberty said. "I understood her very clearly. She said find the black crypt with no name or soon your fate will be the same."

I turned to look again. And there stood a large black coffin in the center.

"That must be it," I said.

"Good hunch, Tom," Liberty said.

The three of us walked towards it.

"I'm officially starting to see why people fear places like this," I said.

"And we're here cause of who?" Zeke asked.

"We're here," I replied, "because I have been waiting pretty much my whole life for a real adventure like this. Was tired of the same boring stuff every day just sitting and reading ghost stories and stuff. All those amusement park haunted houses I grew up on made me only imagine experiencing a real thing some day. Just think of it, I could leave behind a legacy of this. The guy who discovered the existence of the supernatural in a world famous haunted mansion."

"Why does it always have to be about what you believe could be what benefits you when it comes to this stuff?" Liberty asked.

"Because, uh...." I began to say. But cut myself off realizing it may have been a trick question.

"Hey, look, don't be tricking me, all right, Little miss Psychic who can speak runes. Let's just get this over with. Hold this."

I handed Liberty the torch, and using as much strength as I had. Pushed the lid off the coffin and inside was a decaying corpse. The horrid smell of it's decomposition flung through my nostrils.

"Oh man! And I thought certain types of dogs smelt bad on the outside."

I noticed in his hand though, there was a small key. It was just as Leota had said. We had found it.

"Sorry, to bother you, dude. But I'm gonna need that," I said to the corpse.

Trying my best not to let the stench bother me much more, I reached in and with seemingly little effort, pried the key out of the hands of the body.

"Got it," I said. "ok. That wasn't so hard at all. Let's get out of here."

I grabbed the torch back from Liberty.

"For sure, Madame Leota had me thinking it would be hard. That was easy."

The three of us began to walk out. But we heard rumbling and groaning behind us. "That doesn't sound good," I said fearfully. We turned around and saw the corpse rising out of the black coffin.

"Oh, that's not good at all!" Zeke exclaimed.

The zombie advanced towards us. Several of the walls burst open and more of them poured out, a few more rising out of the coffins and tombs.

"Anybody got a flamethrower, a browning machine gun or type 100 or something?" Zeke asked fearfully.

"No, Zeke! Because this isn't call of duty zombies mode!" I shouted.

The three of us ran out of the room. There stood dozens of them in front of us. We stopped in our tracks ready to run. Suddenly they all started to groove as if getting down with a funky pop beat melody. They were dancing like out of an 80's music video.

"We'll have to dance fight our way through," I said. "Anybody know capoeira or something?"

They all looked at me as if saying no.

"I got a better idea. I'll try to distract them while you guys get to the door and open the passage."

Liberty and Zeke nodded. They ran off in different directions while I kept the zombies occupied.

"Alright. Let's see if I still got this!" I exclaimed. I began to dance about. Climbing on top of something it seemed I had their attention. Before too long, they opened the door and called out to me. After hearing them, I jumped down and barged my way through the zombies, running past them all and followed my friends into the doorway. We closed the door behind us.

"Ok," I said. "That was close." Suddenly, the zombies started banging through the door trying to break it down.

"Maybe we better just go," I said.

"Yeah, good idea," Zeke said. "Let's quit messing around and get the hell out of here."

"Leaving so soon?" Said the ghost host's voice speaking out of nowhere. "I do hope you all enjoyed your visit. Come back again. Bring your friends. If they'll believe the story you tell. Pleasant dreams." He vanished again with a maniacal laugh.

"He didn't even tell us where the door is," Zeke said. "What a creep. And I don't mean that lightly."

"Yes. He does have quite the personality," another voice said. We turned around and saw from out of the shadows came a rather distinguished looking gentleman.