Midwich Elementary School (Nightmare World)

[mother_of_god]

[Monsters: Faceless children, ghost babies, a few roaches]

[Tasks: Wander around inside. The walls and floors are now made of chain link and grating, and covered with blood and similar organic goo. Chains hang from the ceilings, and in several places, strange cloaked statues are displayed in inaccessible rectangular gibbets. The exit doors in the lobby are replaced by a giant set of sharp-bladed fans- trying to get out would result in slicing and dicing.
-There's a pair of the cloaked statues inside the school office, flanking a strange door with no handle. It does, however, have a slot in the center, and a conveniently slot-sized card on the ground in front of it. This door leads to the rest of the school; all the others are jammed or blocked.
-In the first floor girls' bathroom, the sound of a child sobbing breaks out. There are no children to be found inside.
-Upon exiting that bathroom, the characters find themselves on another floor. Reentering will put them in a different bathroom. This time, the stall door opens to reveal a decayed corpse, strung up with medical equipment. "Leonard Rhine- the Monster Lurks" is written on the wall behind it in blood.
-There's a classroom with only a table full of telephones and scattered cards. One telephone may ring and lead to an NPC conversation.
-The library has shelves stocked with religious-looking books. One shelf has a book of fairy tales, open to a relevant page [which I'll put in when the time comes]. Another, more out of the way, has less-relevant but vaguely interesting info [which I'll also put in].
-Depending on how things go and player preference, there may be an NPC encounter and boss fight.]

It's the courtyard again. The snow has turned to a steady, warm rain, and there's something "off" about the whole place- the building looks more distressed, the hedges thornier. The sharp smell of burning bites the nose.

In the concrete in the center, a mysterious occult symbol has been burned.

Comments

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Leonard Rhine. Classy."

She eyes the shotgun with distrust.

"...Batman would really disapprove of this. On the other hand, Batman's not here, and I'm not Batman, and those monster kids are freaking me out..."

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

For its part, the shotgun is about as active as the corpse.

It's got ten rounds in it, but there don't seem to be any refills around.

[alwaysroomforhope]

It's really tempting.

Steph sighs, and picks it up, weighing it in her hands a few times.

Carefully (and with quite a bit of fumbling) she removes the rounds and drops them firmly on the floor.

"No."

But the gun itself will make a better club than her splintering bit of wood, and also, may look threatening. (The wisdom of maybe keeping some rounds to fire into the ceiling or similar does not occur to her.)

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

The shotgun was not part of any sort of trap, or if it was, it is a very slow-moving trap.

There doesn't seem to be anything else of particular interest in the bathroom, unless Steph has developed a sudden interest in rusty grating or filthy walls.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Not so much, no.

Except in that way where her interest revolves around getting away from them.

"Sokka? You came out here and hid, right?" she calls, coming back into the hallway. Or at least, into what she hopes is still the hallway.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

It's the blocked-off hallway from before.

This place is not so much into the standard space-time continuum.

[alwaysroomforhope]

D:

"I AM REALLY STARTING TO HATE THIS PLACE," Steph announces at the top of her lungs before starting down the hallway. Or up. She's kinda lost track of what's where at this point.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

There's... not much there. Unless she really feels like going back to all the locked doors and stuff.

There might be a possibility that the bathroom does its weird teleporting thing more than once, though. hint hint

[alwaysroomforhope]

It can't hurt to try, right?

(WHERE DID THAT IDEA COME FROM?)

"Okay, bathroom. This time, no dead people, yes Sokka, please," Steph says firmly before opening the door again.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

Well, one of the two isn't bad, right? There's a lack of dead people, at least. Also, this time the sound of a child sobbing doesn't happen.

Baby steps?

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Damn."

This time she doesn't waste time poking around the bathroom, just opens the door again to see where it goes this time.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

Aaaand it's back to the not-blocked hallway!

So that, at least, is convenient. If probably headache-inducing.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Not blocked is good. Steph frowns, and calls for Sokka one more time before heading for the exit.

"SOKKAAAAAA!"

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

The place is still empty of life, not counting her. Or the giant roaches. Or the child-monsters.

Most of the classrooms are gutted, except for the occasional single chair or desk.

The library, however, is furnished with books and a table, though all of these have seen better, cleaner days.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew Steph wants OUT.

Or to know what's going on.

Are any of the books there useful? She'll have a quick flick through them to see if there's any more creepy writing or interesting facts.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

Weeeelll, it depends on what you define as "useful." On closer look, many of the books are exactly the same, with illegible text. There's one at the end of a shelf that has something, though:

CHAPTER 3
MANIFESTATIONS OF DELUSIONS
Poltergeists are among these. Negative emotions, like fear, worry, or stress manifest into external energy with physical effects. Nightmares have, in some cases, been shown to trigger them. However, one such phenomena doesn't appear to happen to just anyone. Although it's not clear why, adolescents, especially girls, are prone to such occurrences.

Muffled gunshots puncture the silence- far enough away that they wouldn't normally be heard.

[alwaysroomforhope]

That is startlingly unhelpful.

Wait.

Steph frowns, rereading that last bit.

"So what ... you're saying that because I'm stressed, creepy poltergeists ...? But you're MAKING ME STRESSED, CREEPY LIBRARY!"

Also, making her talk to herself. Which is starting to get a bit worrying, and ---

gunshots?

This is Steph, ditching the books and breaking into a run towards the noise. If she can find it.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

It's an irregular rhythm- bang bang silence silence silence bang bang bang.

She almost makes it to the staircase when the roar of distant sirens and the creeping darkness swallow everything.



Light filters in through the windows, silver from the fog and snow. The school is back to normal. Completely normal- no monster children or anything.

A church bell peals from far away.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph says:

"#@&%#@!!!"

But church bells are a far more welcome noise than gunshots. And light! real light!

"SOKKA?" she yells again, turning around and around in the hallway to try to work out the best way out. "SOKKA!"

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

Footsteps on the stairs.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph pelts towards them, hair and ragged edges flying behind her.

Nobody ever accused her of being overcautious.

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

"Whoa!"

That's not Sokka.

That's a guy with a shotgun (that he's currently holding up like a staff to ward her off).

He looks like he's been through about as much of the place as she has.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph pulls up just short of crashing into him, lifting her own shotgun warily. Until she sees how ragged around the edges he looks, and then she decides he's probably not about to try to eat her.

Probably.

"You're not -- damn it." Quick breath. "Hi, I'm Steph, how do I find my boyfriend and get out?"

[mark-of-samael.livejournal.com]

Blink.

"I'm Harry. I'm not sure myself. I'm looking for my daughter, Cheryl. Have you seen a little girl around here?"

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Oh my God, there's a kid here?" Steph's face falls in dismay. "Oh no. I haven't seen her at all -- oh man, we gotta find her! What does she like, like, where would she go?"

Sokka can look after himself a lot better than a little girl.