Round robin story #1 - Story only

[Coruscate]

Okay, now that it's moving...

No sign up is necessary, but when you decide to contribute, make a quick reply that says "I got next."

Then write your reply in a text editor, and edit your "I got next" reply and slip in your piece. This will prevent people from crossing their wires when they write a reply.

Don't add a "I got next" reply unless you're about to do it though. And if you can't that night for whatever reason, delete your post so someone else can take your place. Simple.

Update : Jamie has asked what restrictions there are on this story. I say none, other than respect what has been written previously. That means, don't change his name without good reason, don't ignore rooms, etc. The story is taking a "Silen Hill" type twist with the spookieness so rooms can change and what not, but don't try to have him suddenly appear in a circus or wake up and it all be a dream or something stupid like that.

--
Round Robin Story #1
Contributors
Eri Anikemi
Etheric Dreamer
FreeFall
Handmaiden Kougetsu
Lioconvoy
Mizuno Recca
Princess Jamie
Scarplo
Sia
Stephanie
And anyone else who wants to join in. Just post a contribution and your name will be added.

----
Alexander felt the smoothly polished tables with his bare hand. When he examined his fingers, he failed to see any dirt at all. Oak furniture added a rich, luxurious feel to every room in his sight. Against the wall a study lay, with a clean, delicate cloth and a very large mirror above it. His footsteps were the only sound heard in the mansion. It's lawn had long since overgrown with weeds, so it was quite strange to see the interior in such good shape, especially since the windows had been borded up and the white pain on the romanesque columns had begun to peel.

Very, very odd for an abandoned house.

[scarplo]

The buisnessman adjusted his faux armani suit and made a note to send someone over here for the furniture at a later date, or look into aquiring the deed to this place. Aside from the peeling paint and boarded windows, the place was quite solidly built. The polished wood floors didn't creek under his footsteps, the walls had an immaculate, if odd, paint pattern.

Noting the photorealistic paintings of fruit, meats and drinks dying the dining room walls, an amusing thought popped in his head. Perhaps the place had been the home of an artist clique. An absurdly well off one, he noted as the gleeming oaken table caught his eye.

Odd, though. No sign of his keys near the windows, nor even any broken glass. That weird little pickpocket in blue had thrown them in a window near here...

---
Next up?

[Sia]

He turned back toward the table to see a deck of cards had been fanned out on its surface. Alexander did a doubletake. He could have sworn there was nothing on the table before...

"Don't be stupid..." he urged himself, "... windows don't fix themselves and decks of cards don't just mysteriously appear out of nowhere..."

He made his way over to the table and saw that the cards weren't playing crads, but tarot cards. He picked up the one on the very right and stared at the intricate pattern on the backside before flipping it to see what he had picked up...

The Queen of Cups.

[Coruscate]

He felt the intuitively, questioning his surroundings while barely aware of his own process. The card felt thick, rigid, fresh. It was as clean and clear as the day it was printed. He looked around himself once more. Hearing nothing. Smelling nothing. And seeing nothing more than an elaborately decorated house.

His mind rolled back through the horror movies he had seen as a teenager, and he dismissed them as casually as a princess would snub a pauper.

As he placed the card back on the deck he heard a faint "hmph" Sound. Clearly feminine, it came from behind him. He straightened his posture and turned around.

[Mizuno Recca]

To see nothing and no one.

He was quite sure of himself that he had indeed heard someone, but the room was empty people wise. Just himself alone at the table. He scaned the room again looking for his keys when a white cat ran though the room and up some stairs. From what he could tell the cat was carrying something and he was a bit curious as to what.

[scarplo]

Alex, having little else to do, chased after the cat. The stairs were as solid as the rest of the house, barely even thumping under his foot falls.

Had Alex been focused on anything other than the cat, he might've noticed the stair's jungle motief. How a purplish sky creaped through painted leaves, and was even aparent on the handrail.

Alex was focused on the cat, which he as reasonably certain had his keys. Nevermind about the broken window... this place was simply weird. Just get the keys and get out, he rationalized.

The second floor, a cross of hallways lined with doors, kind of shot that idea down, as the kitty was no where to be seen.

[Sia]

There were nine doors, with four on each side of him and one down the hallway directly across from him. Each door was a different color and marked with the Roman numerals I - IX. Mysteriously, they all seemed to be closed, but the cat was nowhere in sight.

[Coruscate]

He stopped for a moment, and looked down each hallway several times, his brows furrowed. A soft click grabbed his attention, and he turned around to see the door closed. He expected to see a face, or a person, but saw nothing. It was still daylight outside, however, his nervousness was creeping up on him like the tide of the ocean. He expected to see signs of a thunderstorm and odd music and wailing, yet he saw nothing.

Silence.

Silence lead to confusion. Confusion lead to thought. Thought lead to more fear. He placed his hands on the wall and looked every which way, and saw, and heard nothing. No tables. No windows. No place the cat could have gone.

He spun around several times, expecting the scenery to change, but nothing had.

He knew he couldn't walk home, it was too far. So he had to find the keys. He really didn't have much of a choice.

But it was fear that kept him in check. The same kind of fear that keeps a child with a parched throat in bed because they know the minute they set foot in darkness, the monsters would get him.

He slowly strode down the hallways, examining the numbers.

"7 is lucky... but three is the magic number... but X marks the spot."

He thought for a moment.

"Is there a tenth door maybe...?"

He laughed at his own childish stupidity, but walked the halls again, looking.

[Lioconvoy]

And he found it. Now more then ever he was confused. Every thing about this house was odd, the inside not matching the outside, no broken windows, the deck of cards, the voice, the cat, and now a tenth door where before there were only nine.

He shruged this off. And turned the nob, the door was unlocked. He opened it and then stepped inside. The room was actaully quite plain looking a desk, a desk chair, a bed, and a mirror. However there they were on the desk. His keys.

He pickeded them up and breithed a sigh of relief. Then the door behind him shut.

[scarplo]

Alex whirled at the sound and stared at the featureless door. "You've got to be kidding."

He walked over to it, a bit of nervous energy making his strides a bit longer, and shoved on it. The smooth surface didn't give.

Cursing, he slammed his shoulder into it once, brusing his shoulder for the effort. The buisness man rubbed his skipping-gym-class-reminder when his eyes settled on the chair. A thoughtful smile crossed his lips. "Hrm."

As it turned out, the door could take a beating with the chair better than said chair. Alex kicked the cracked seat's remains in frustration, then grabbed his now bruised foot.

Whimpering a bit, the conquered hero hopped to the bed, sat down carefully, half expecting a beartrap, and continued rubbing his reminders of vincability.

Okay... inventory, Alex. Think. What have you got to work with? There's a desk, a bed, that mirror, my keys... no window, but the place is lit. The door is stuck... huh. The walls aren't painted.

[Princess Jaimie]

Looking around the room again, Alex sighed in frustration, then settled himself and gathered his thoughts. Okay, think this through. This is a bedroom, from the way it looks, so why isn't there a place to store clothes?

He stood up and gave the room a second, more thorough look. After a short while of searching, he was rewarded by finding a pair of indentations in one of the unpainted walls, that looked a bit like a pair of handles. He took a breath, and pulled the concealed doors open to reveal...

A closet. With clothing inside; it seemed that half of the closet had mainly shirts, pants, and other guy clothes in it, while the other half had skirts, blouses, and other women's clothing. He pulled a random article of clothing out of the closet to inspect it, and was only marginally surprised to discover that it looked practically brand-new. Just like the tarot cards from earlier.

[Mizuno Recca]

While inspecting the article of clothing he heard a chrip of a bird. The sound came from behind him.

He turned only to see the Mirror, although something was strange about the refection. It wasn't him, it was a girl wearing the article of clothing he had in his hands(which happen to be a white sundress).

He looked at the mirror and closely at the girl. She could of very well passed for his sister. A very cute younger sister.

--_
-/--\
|----|
\__/

[Coruscate]

Alex watched the reflection intently, his hands clammy and his heart racing. He was no fool, he could tell that the reflection was him, but it couldn't be, he was male. He looked down, expecting to see breasts, but was relieved to see all of his body parts were where they belonged. When he looked up, he saw the image in the mirror was unchanged, it was still his "other self." He saw something flutter out from the dress she held, which in his case, was a pair of pants.

Alex took a deep breath, and looked down.

It was another tarot card.

The lady in the mirror bent down when he did, and followed his moves exactly. He picked up the card and flipped it over; the hanged man.

"...now I wish I studied the occult. Where's the exorcist when I need him?"

He looked up at the mirror and stepped towards.

He examined his other self. Much younger, much cuter. The kind of girl that was in the... specialty magazines he read, but was usually too young for someone his age. At least not without money being involved.

Suddenly he had an idea. He turned the card around so it would show in the reflection.

His heart skipped a beat.

The reflection was not a backwards copy of the hanged man; it was the image of death, reading the correct way.

"Curioser and curiouser" he said aloud.

That's when the girl in the reflection smiled.

[Princess Jaimie]

Alex started as the reflection smiled at him, and gasped in shock. As before, the girl mimicked his movements exactly, and there didn't seem to be any trace of the smile on her face when he glanced at it again. "Maybe I imagined it," he wondered, as his heartbeat returned to normal. It was only then that he realized he was still clutching the sundress; in fact, was holding it up against himself, held fast to his body, apparently in reaction to the shock he had just received.

His reflection was in the same pose, except that she wasn't holding anything in her arms; thus, it seemed as if she were simply crossing her arms across her chest. He shook his head in confusion, barely noticing that his counterpart in the mirror had done the same, and feeling his hair brush his shoulders as he did so. "This is so confusing," he began, and then stopped suddenly. He blinked, then felt at his hair with one hand. It still felt the same, so why had he felt something brushing his shoulders--which were covered by his suit coat in any case.

[Janitor]

Watching the girl carefully, Alex turned his head to the left, then swung it to the right. Something touched his shoulders while her hair swished. "Oh, good. I'm going insane."

She smiled again.

A thrown dress and Alex's wincing stomp to the desk said shut up for him. Emptying his pockets onto the polished wood, the bruised and annoyed buisnessman took stock of his options.

Cellphone can't get a signal.
Credit cards might be able to open a normal lock, but that thing might as well be deadbolted.
The keys could break that mirror, if he threw them hard enough.
Then there was the closet full of clothes, the desk... drawers?

The drawer opened with a clunk and a rumble, revealing a pair of torn cards; one depicting an old man on a throne, the other a man at a table holding a candle over a cup, a paintbrush and a small jar of brown paint.
Not a key.

Looking at the door itself, Alex realized that probably didn't matter. Except for the doornob, the door might have been nothing more than another blank wall with a few lines painted on it.

Alex grumbled a bit as he turned from the door back to the desk. "When I get out of here, I'm having a few dozen Long Islands."

Feeling that smile on him again, he turned back to the mirror, intent on giving her a piece of his mind, only to see his own reflection smiling back.