CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

18

“Alright, that’s it,” I said, audible enough for Granny to definitely hear me. “That monster killed someone I cared so deeply about for eight years,” I snarled, “and I’m going to avenge her!”

I ran up the stairs to the basement, making sure that my feet hit the floor especially hard. I was in the basement; and so was she. I was seething with fury. Every fiber of my being was shaking. Not from fright, but from a fit of anger so red hot it could melt through the entire North Pole. I was going to get back at her. And I knew just how.

I jumped, putting all my weight into it. Resulting in a loud BOOM! she quickly turned around and started speed shuffling towards me. I stood there in my place until she was about a yard away from me. Then with a quick, slight maneuver of my hands, I grabbed her club. She stood there and looked at me with those cold, dead eyes. And a sinister smile crossed my face.

“HEY, BATTER, BATTER, HEY, BATTER, BATTER, SWING!” I sang as swiftly swung the club towards her head. She grunted and hit the ground hard as the club contacted the right side of her head. “Hehe, just like a pinata.” I giggled. Freaking payback, glitch. I thought. I kneeled down and searched her. Checking her from her socks to her collar (We do not speak of the in-between, ewewewew) looking for her keys. I searched frantically. For those of you who have never played Granny before, when you kill her, she only stays ‘dead’ for a certain amount of time, so I had to work fast. I didn’t find any-freaking-thing. “NAG DABBIT!” I cried (That was my version of “dag nabbit” but backward). Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shiny.

Oh, my god! It’s a keyring! The worst part was, they were in her head. Right where I hit her. When I hit her, I bashed her skull, that’s how I saw them. “Ughhhhhhhh,” I groaned as I fished the keys out of her head, “eww, nasty,” they were covered in . . . slime? It didn’t matter, it was gross. I wanted to barf. BUT I FINALLY HAD THE KEYS! I ran downstairs, “DANNY!” I screamed. He silently ran over to me and covered my mouth. 

“Shut up, Brownie! Are you trying to get clubbed again?” 

“It’s okay!” I beamed, muffled, “I killed her!”

“What?” he said in a normal tone. “You did?”

“Yeah and,” I pulled out the keys, “lookit!” 

His eyes grew wide with joy and he hugged me tightly. We tried getting the garage door opened with one of the keys but it wouldn’t budge. Must be rusted shut. Guess the car thing was a bust. We walked upstairs to the main floor and walked to the front door. Mmph. There was the millionth glitch in the game. There was only one keyhole, there’s usually several. I tried every key on the ring. Just as I was running out of hope, I put in the third from last key and twisted, heard a loud CLICK! and the door opened!

Yes, Yes, Yes!

I opened the door and it creaked a little bit, this whole house needs some WD-40, I thought as I opened it. Upon opening it, I paused. It was the same dark smoky room as before. Right back where we started. Danny walked out first. Then I stood there foolishly with the door open. Once again staring into the black abyss.

Danny looked down at me with a mix of sadness and excitement on his face. Then, his expression quickly morphed into sheer terror. He rapidly grabbed my hand and yanked me out of the doorway. 

Grandpa was approaching the door.

He looked out at us as he slowly walked near. Danny, putting all his strength behind it, slammed the door shut as Grandpa’s hand was on the doorway. The lock clicked. Grandpa’s fingers got caught in the door. All you could hear were the agonizing screams coming from the old man’s pain. It chopped his fingers off. They were laying on the ground right in front of us. I cannot stress how repulsive that was.

“They -- they killed Olive.” I quietly said as it slowly sunk in, I started to sob. “Her blood was on the walls, I knew it was her’s; I could feel it,” I screamed and sank to the ground. I curled my hand into a fist and aimed it at the Granny dimension door. Then, as soon as my fist was about an inch away from it, the door -- disappeared. It just up and vanished. Both of us were completely baffled. 

“Daniel, there’s something I have to tell you,” I almost whispered, stunned.

“Yeah, what is it, B?”

“Remember when I had wings, and I set you down and then I disappeared into the haunted house night ‘sky’ for a while?” 

“Yeah, what happened to you anyway?”

“Well, when I was flying, soaring through the air, enjoying my wings, they disappeared when I was in mid-air and I started to fall, I was so scared; I thought I was falling to my death. When I landed, I landed on a trampoline or something black and bouncy. I closed my eyes for a split second, then all of a sudden, “you” were beside me,” his eyebrows raised in confusion, “but it turned out to not be you, like, it was a robot made to look like you. Then, like magic, I was in a hospital, the walls that were once black, infinite darkness, melted into clean, white hospital walls. The trampoline I was in turned into a hospital bed and I looked in front of me and noticed my ankle was in a cast. Then ‘robot you’ told me that I was hit by a semi, then the Haunted Housers system must’ve glitched and then revealed my mission.”

“Mission?”

“Robo you said I had to find Elizabeth and take her out of the haunted house before time ‘runs out’ but I don’t know what he meant when he said something about time,” tears welled up in my eyes, “maybe that’s what happened to Olive . . .” My voice was breaking, “maybe she ran out of time.”

I broke into tears as I sat on the ground. Danny dropped down next to me, he sat there and held me for who knows how long.

“I have something,” He whispered in my ear and dangled something shiny and sparkly in front of my face after my crying settled down; It was Olive’s sparkly rose gold smartwatch! “I found it in the sub-basement while you were upstairs, it was laying on the floor right underneath the car. It’s just something of hers that you can keep as a memory of her forever.” I turned around and looked at him. He smiled that perfect smile that took four awkward years of braces to get like that at me. Then, like magnets, our faces were drawn to each other. Our lips were inches away when -- TICK. TICK. TICK. A loud ticking noise, like a bomb timer, came from out of nowhere, giving both me and Danny a start; resulting in us both jumping, and tearing apart from each other to check out the commotion.

There was a giant clock with red ticking numbers on one of the giant indoor trees. Counting down from 3:00:00. We had three hours left to find Lizzy and get out of here . . . or we’re dead.