Music Box

[serpentoflore]

"I think this place is quite perfect." Attra spoke, smiling as she walked in the morbid setting. Dark and chilling, a perfect setting to find what to do. Her eyes examined a fountain, a finger to her chin. "If all holidays were this perfect, one would not have to worry about petty happiness."

'My parents are here?! What are you doing?!'

"Finding Clues."

[Secondary Characters]

Not much longer after the strange woman would appear, a trio of misbehaved little brats would come running from the direction of the hinterlands. One of them, possibly the eldest wearing a red devil costume and a matching mask, would be laughing cruelly and throwing painted eggs behind him at a taller child, a girl wearing a witch costume and again masked. Also, she would be oddly covered in the trimmings of wrapping paper and scotch tape. She was in hot pursuit, flinging large globs of mashed potatoes and gravy from a bowl, cackling all the way. Bringing up the rear, a little boy in a skeleton costume, laughing obnoxiously as he threw firecrackers this way and that, a shamrock or two falling from his messy hair behind his skull mask.

"You'll never catch me!" laughed the little devil as he ran.

"No fair, I have the big bowl!!" shrieked the witch as she chased.

"Guys, guys! Watch me blow up that pumpkin over there!" chuckled the skeleton boy, still much further behind than the others.

Distracted, the little devil boy would slam into the woman's leg, dropping colourful eggs everywhere. "Hey! Watch where you're going, old lady!!" he'd yell, then receive his "just desserts" as the girl came up behind him and dumped the mashed potatoes over his head!

"I win! I win!" she giggled, hopping around excitedly. And though he was the furthest behind, the skeleton boy would slam into her from behind, initiating a fight between themselves, in which the messy devil boy would immediately participate. The three would attack each other with slaps and chokes and all around nastiness until called to do otherwise...

[serpentoflore]

Attra had no patience for little kids. Nivea was enough, but these little brats held no value to her. Glaring, she picked up one of the kids, the one with the witch hat and glared. "Old lady am I?" A smirk came onto her face. "Then you don't mind of this geezer punishes bad kids then? After all, I'm better than you three toddlers at being evil." She chuckled, thinking of what to do with them.

[Secondary Characters]

"H-hey! Put me down!!" The little witch would scream, flailing lightly as she was lifted from the ground.

"You heard her, old-timer!" yelled the devilboy who would run up and swiftly kick at Attra's shin sharply, hoping to intice the woman to drop his sister. Lucky for him, the action would yield results and the witch would come falling down right on top of the smallest of the three, who had tried to jump and grab her prior to the devil-boy's swift thinking.

The three ran off a little ways, putting some distance between them and Attra before turning around and pulling up their masks. Their faces would shockingly match the features of their disguises, save for the chocolate smeared over their mouths and the little candy hearts stuck to the insides of their masks. They would begin pulling their faces into mocking shapes as they called out "Nyah! Nyah!!" back at the woman.

"You're no BAD GUY!" laughed the little devil boy, who was making obscene gestures at her.

"If you were REALLY bad, you'd be out stealing stuff like us!" laughed the witch-girl, who was busy sticking her tounge out at the woman.

"Like all the cool stuff in the doc's lab! That's super-bad!!" laughed the final of the three, the little skeleton who was now turning around and dropping his trousers to shake his bare rump at the woman.

"Loser!" shouted the red-clothed boy once more, as he waved for his siblings to follow him away from the weirdo.

[serpentoflore]

Attra's eyes remained hostile, though the idea of bothering the Professor became a bit more enticing. Letting the annoying brats go on their way, she walked towards the houses. A large observatory came into view as she walked. "Perhaps the infamous Professor knows a few things."

'You sure? This doesn't seem the place they could-'

"Trust me Nivea... Those idiotic things you call parents would abandon you when it benefited them the most. This is where they might start."

'Shut up! You don't know anything about them!'

"I get it girl scout of the year."

She put a hand to the gray hair, making sure the brat's hadn't ruined it. The observatory seemed a good idea to start. Whatever that professor had must be pretty important. She pushed the gate open slowly, beginning to walk towards the house.

[Secondary Characters]

The gates leading up to Doctor Finklestein's observatory/laboratory would be unlocked. After all, this was a nice community with good people in it. Why should he lock his gates? Irrelevant, moving on. The DOOR, however, would be locked, with a large sign which read "Out for Supplies, back when I feel like it. ~ Dr. F"

This would leave a few options. One was to pick the lock, another was to bash the door down, but possibly the most attractive and least bothersome of these was the open window maybe six feet off the ground to the door's left. Apparently, the good doctor had been airing out his lab, as the faint scent of sulfur could still be smelled on the air. An explosion, perhaps?

There was no sign of anybody nearby. The doll had earlier gone to visit Jack, so they were busy on the other side of town. The three amigos of wrong-doing were still out playing their little games, so they weren't here "assisting" in their usual manner. Even the passers-by on the streets barely seemed to register the woman's presence, just enjoying another day closer to Halloween!

So, what will it be? Option 1, Option 2, or Option 3?

[serpentoflore]

"Looks like the Professor left his place unprotected." Attra spoked to herself, her scythe appearing in her hands. An open window was much more tempting than a locked door. Going towards the wall, she raised the scythe up. She jumped in the air, attaching the scythe to the wall when she reached how far she could jump. There was no point in seeing what the locked door could have behind it. Using the Scythe, she jumped again, removing the blade to catch the next mark.

After another jump or so, she made it to the smokey window, entering it.

[Secondary Characters]

The windowsill would offer the woman a wonderful view of the laboratory. The walls were all curved, making the room circular. Starting from the north end, near a door which clearly lead upward and onward to the observatory platform, would be a large operating table which had several nightmarish instruments dangling over it. It was like everyone's most secret fear of surgery gone amok. Even the table was slightly blood-stained.

Next to that was a low table bearing a single, massive tome which was opened. The pages exposed would show dark drawings of various unnecessary surgical procedures, most of which were in the process of having notes written next to them... experimental, exploratory type notes. Beyond that were the bookcases, filled with odd tomes such as "1001 uses for witch hazel" and other nonsense. Circling around would reveal charts and plans for projects not yet completed.

Then, the door leading outside. Obvious enough. From this angle, she wouldn't be able to see the personal pictures and awards hanging next to it, but beyond that were several shelves of odd items like floating hands and heads and even a pickle jar of eyes. Afterwards, it circled back to the door that went upstairs. However, none of this was the most interesting feature.

In the middle of the room was a single, humble wood table and on this was a music box. The box sang a sweet song, playing all on its own with no one around. High above, the ceiling was covered with nasty bladed machinery for... who knows what. However, the gentle sound of the music would float up all that way and rebound off those twisted edges to create an odd, metallic version of the melody...

That was... until she entered fully. The second her feet hit the floor, the machinery would lurch to life and lower down onto the room, the blades slicing and dicing at random! What were they protecting???

[serpentoflore]

Attra smiled, moving her scythe to cut the blades that posed an immediate threat. She had expected him to be a bit protective, but not this much. "This professor better not come home or I'll make him face his death trap." She continued cutting the blades, wishing there was something more productive she could do to avoid them. She couldn't corridor to another room or she'd lose her chance to find what was inside.

[Secondary Characters]

As though the blades weren't enough, more madness would soon join the trap. Nearby, a movie projector would flip out of one of the walls, and began to show a self-filmed image on the opposite wall. The man in the picture was short, and sitting on an old-time motorized wheelchair. His head was large and had a sickening series of bolts through the center, horizontally. His dark glasses would flash a little as his beaklike mouth would curl into a smile.

"Hoo hoo! I knew you'd come sooner or later, Jack! Do you like my new mechanations? They're sure to really kill 'em next Halloween!!" he gloated. Clearly, this death trap was intended for someone named Jack, though if it was intended to be so deadly was... suspect. "And if the blades don't scare the nightmars into people..." the image spoke again, prompting the lowest bricks on the surrounding walls to slide away, causing hundreds of little mechanical spiders to come pouring out, heading toward Attra!

"I've truly outdone myself this time!" laughed the man madly, the little spiders crawling up and biting at the woman's ankles, shins, and higher if she waited too long...

[serpentoflore]

Attra smiled, allowing a corridor to appear beneath her feet. Whoever this 'Jack' was, he was certainly suicidal. She moved away from it, allowing some of the spiders to fall. When it closed she aimed for the ones that remained beside her. "Old man's gone bonkers..."

[Secondary Characters]

Luckily for Attra, the spiders would be few that followed her. Only seven. Not bad, considering there were hundreds.

While Attra battled the mechanical, snapping, biting monstrosities, she might take note of the room she was in. It was circular as the room above, but was much more barren. It only had a staircase along one wall leading upward and a small cubboard filled with various potions ingredients. The beauty of this was that it was so simple, she couldn't possibly expect the net turn of events.

Another projector would show up, shining the Doctor on the far wall. He'd chuckle joyfully, that odd malicious glint in his glasses making him seem truly "mad". "What-ho! Clever thinking, Jack my boy! But running into the basement isn't going to free you from MY haunted house! Heee heee!!" Or... was it something else? Malicious wasn't the word...

Just then, along the tops of the walls, tubes would extend into the room and begin to pour water into the room rapidly. Because this room was basically a big bowl, it would begin to fill very fast!

[serpentoflore]

Attra cursed her decision, but followed what seemed to be a set of stairs. If there was a door she could cut it down and find whatever that Professor must be hiding. "Old Coot...why can't he just be nice?!" She spoke in a sarcastic tone, glaring at what would come ahead.

[Secondary Characters]

"Ooh, the stairs! No one would ever think to use those!" laughed the good doctor, his voice so giddy. Just as Attra would set foot on the top stair, they would drop into a slide configuration, intending to send her back into the rapidly filling room.

IF by some grace of Cosmos she made the jump to the top, she'd find herself at the door with the stairs going up and down. Looking into the room would reveal that she was right back where she started... but everything was back to normal! Surely... she had to know there was some kind of trick here! Still that box sat there... tauntingly...

[serpentoflore]

Attra cursed when the stairs began a slide effect. She put her scythe blade into the wall around her, jumping towards the door. Opening the door revealed the same room she had started with! Of all the annoying things that old nut seemed to pull out, this was the worst. She tossed her scythe towards the box, still holding one end if those blades came through again. She wanted to push the thing and smash it into as many pieces as possible.