Part 3 on Mirage Chamber

Haunted School

February 15, 2013 8:09 AM

Part 3 by Haunted School

Once they stepped through the hole in the maze, students would find themselves slipping swiftly down a spooky slide. There were turns and drops to churn the stomach, as well as creepy noises and the feeling of spider webs hanging everywhere, and all of this in complete darkness. Several spine-chilling seconds after setting off from the top of the slide, students would reach the bottom of the chute. Stepping out, each group would then find itself in an open, sandy expanse of desert. It was night; stars twinkled in the sky above, and the echoing howls of hidden beasts trembled through the air. Even those who had entered the mirage chamber before might be intimidated by the unfamiliar and barren environment.

As if all this were not sufficiently unusual, a short distance away from the bottom of the giant slide was a swirling magical vortex, guarded by a young Sphinx. When approached by the students, the creature would speak, its voice eerie and taunting, its expression hungry.

“Your next challenge lies just past this gateway. I will grant you access when you successfully solve this riddle: What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?”

When the students provided the correct answer, the sphinx would stand aside and allow the group to pass through the vortex which lead out of the chamber. The longer the students deliberated over the riddle, the closer the distant howling and snarling would become, and the more tempestuous the guard. Naturally, this being the mirage chamber, none of the animals – not even the sphinx – were real, and therefore no harm could befall the students. While this knowledge might lessen the anxiety of those who had it, it would not make the situation itself any more comfortable.

0 Haunted School Part 3 0 Haunted School 1 5

Annabelle Pierce

March 07, 2013 2:45 PM

As slides go, I've ridden cleaner ones by Annabelle Pierce

There were two types of shrieks returning to the library in Annette's wake. Annabelle wasn't sure the others could distinguish them as easily as she did, but it was clear as day that, while most of the noise was an indictation that the dark slide was immensely fun, there was definitely also something more terrifying involved as well.

She flinched a bit as the last sounds they heard from her sister was a gleeful, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" that abruptly broke off into a horrified, "Aaaaagggghhh!" before the hole in the ground fell eerily silent.

Looking nervously at the other team members still in the library, "If we all die, my ghost is totally going to sue the school," she declared before settling down on the hole edge and following her sister into the darkness.

She quickly discovered what both types of shrieking were all about, and reeated Annette's performance, joyfully yelling out as the slide tossed her about and dropped her down in momentary freefalls in pitch blackness that made it impossible to tell how long the would fall before landing on more of the slide on speeding on in absolutely splendid exhilaration.

The terror came, not from the speed or falls - those were amazing - but from the spider webs that caught at her face and hair and even got in her mouth once, and the unexpected and unidentified noises that seemed to come from right next to her.

Reaching the bottom, she stumbled, blinking at the relative brightness of starlight in the desert she now found herself in and wiping her hands all over herself, trying to remove the clinging sense that she was covered in sticky webs.

She smiled in gratitude and relief as she saw Annette was in one piece and, even better, sweeping them both spider-free with simple cleansing charms. "Thanks," Annabelle told Annette.

"Sure," her sister dismissed the gratitude lightly, grinning at her with brightly shining dark blue eyes, "Drop the cobwebs, and that was the best slide ever," Annette declared.

Annabelle nodded in agreement, then looked out to see what the next part of the challenge would entail. In the middle distance, beyond Cepheus, was what looked like ....

"Please tell me they did not drop us out in the middle of the Sonora dessert and that there is not a real sphinx between us and the way back to the school," she requested, very politely, but very urgently.

1 Annabelle Pierce As slides go, I've ridden cleaner ones 246 Annabelle Pierce 0 5

Preston

March 10, 2013 9:45 PM

Not a fan of slides, really. by Preston

The mirror labyrinth had been pretty creepy. The different images had left Preston feeling uneasy. He had tried to stay away from the mirrors as much as possible. At one time he had seen his head floating in the reflection. His hands had automatically started touching his body to make sure it was still there. When he had been reassured that his head was, indeed, still attached to his body he had moved forward. The redhead had preferred to stay behind his team to look after them. He was the leader, and he needed to lead. He had convinced himself that he was somewhat scared of what could lay ahead and it was better to know what waited for him. Preston had used his younger team mates as explorers. Whoops.

After every single one of the younger children went into the hole in the library, Preston followed them without a second glance the mirrors that he was, thankfully, leaving behind. The screams and gleeful shrieks coming from him made the sixth-year feel better about what he was about to do. He had never been a fan of too much movement and heights, especially if he couldn’t control it through his broomstick. Flying and falling down without any breaks was a whole different thing. The redhead took a significantly deep breath and threw himself into the great unknown.

The turns and slides were making him nauseous. Preston shut his eyes wishing that the experience could just end. He could hear weird noises all around him and feel the spider webs clinging to his face and arms. The Aladren began to count to make the experience a tad bit more enjoyable, but nothing could distract him from his stomach doing weird flip-flops inside of him. He was sure he was seconds from throwing up, but thankfully his sudden stop prevented anything of the sort from happening. He got up with a little bit of difficulty before brushing away any gunk from his robes. His green-eyes looked around the deserted space and shuddered a little bit. He had no idea what was happening or what would happen. This challenge was surely making him question everything about the staff. They were quite creative.

The Aladren grinned a little bit at the exchange between the Pierce twins, but fixated his eyes on what laid ahead: A Sphynx. “It seems like it,” he responded to her question. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere with a Sphynx in their near future. “Who wants to go first?” he asked his team mates.

0 Preston Not a fan of slides, really. 0 Preston 0 5

Cepheus Princeton

March 11, 2013 11:37 AM

Brooms are more my thing. by Cepheus Princeton

It was unfortunate that Cepheus had to be the one to fall in, and head-first at that. He was staring at his feet the entire time, hoping nothing horrible would happen as he felt his head clear a path for the rest of his body instead of his feet. The twists and turns were jolting and one particularly sharp turn gave him enough momentum to right himself again, but another quick turn threw him back off-balance and he had to endure the rest of this ride wondering when it was going to end.

Finally, he felt himself slow and his body stopped with his head hanging off the edge of the slide. Any faster and he would have landed right on his back. He scrambled out and immediately shook out his hair. There were cobwebs all over his clothes which he could handle, but he wouldn't stand for anything staying on his blonde hair. By the time he was satisfied, the twins had come down and he could hear others coming down the slide as well. As the rest of them came down to join them, he looked around. They were in the desert at night. It was rather chilly and lonely. To top it off, there was a Sphynx there looking a bit scary.

Cepheus was used to taking the lead in his family and he considered himself the second leader, second only because Preston was older. He would never tell the older wizard that, but it showed in the way he approached things. He knew enough about Sphynxes to know that they were not to be trusted and they were incredible with riddles.

He was not, he had to admit, very good with riddles. He had hoped one of his team-mates would be, but there was the chance they were all terrible. "I'll go ahead," he said, trembling in the inside, but maintaining a brave exterior. Cepheus walked up to the Sphynx and nearly jumped out of his skin when it spoke. "Your next challenge lies just past this gateway. I will grant you access when you successfully solve this riddle: What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?"

That was all the creature told him and Cepheus turned to look back at his mates as he ran a hand through his blonde hair, a nervous habit. "You all heard that, didn't you?" He feared the Sphynx would try and take a bite out of him if he didn't answer right away, so he moved back to his team. "Is anyone here good at solving riddles?" Please, he added in his head, but he didn't want to sound too desperate to get out of here. He hated not being in control of his surroundings or, at the very least, he hated not having someone else in control of his surroundings.

40 Cepheus Princeton Brooms are more my thing. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5