private Sanctuary, Appaloosa (1x1 Reboot w/ driz)

[Driz 1,552]

"...Oh, yes! Lovely. Let's just dive head first into certain death and have our faces impaled on a rusty metal stake. Sounds like a plan~" Lory's sarcastic tone was more than evident. "Are you freaking mental, dude? Like, really?? Did you even watch that tape? I'd much rather try and just make a door with brute-force rather than explore any more of this screwed up place. I am not going down there." She refused.

((OOC: she might take some convincing. ))

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Alright sure, keep doing the thing you know isn't gonna work. See where that gets us!" Raze retorted back. "Look, whoever did that is probably gone by now, and we don't even know what's down there yet! What if the place opens up to the outside world? I'd rather take that chance than stay up here all night banging on a door that refuses to open no matter what we do. Besides, you'll fine; I used to serve in the Royal Guard you know, I'm more than prepared to take on whatever comes at us. Now you coming or what?"

 

[Driz 1,552]

Lory kept aggressively tapping her hoof on the ground with her arms crossed. She shifted glances between Raze, the hidden fireplace passageway, and the dark room they were in. She tried her absolute best to come up with something - anything - that sounded like a better, safer plan. After a few seconds of hesitation and as she progressively got more and more frustrated with the situation, she finally gave in with a huge, prolonged sigh.

"Celestia above, I hate your fucking guts." She shook her head as she reluctantly approached the fireplace, and crawled inside it. "This is madness. Madness! Stupid goddamn paranormal bullshit. Stupid hillbilly countryside-ass place." She grumbled incessantly.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Hate me later when we're both out of here alive," he said, crouching beneath the hidden entrance. He made his way over to the wooden ladder and slowly began to climb down, but after making his way down a few steps, one of the rungs snapped, causing him to lose his grip and fall.

"Agh!" Raze exclaimed, startled, as he landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Ughhh... damn it," he said, carefully getting up. He inspected himself. No real damage whatsoever. He then opened his backpack to see if his camera took any damage. Surprisingly, it was fine.

He looked up at Lory. "Don't worry I'm fine! But I'm gonna need you to jump down. Don't worry, I'll catch you!" He held his arms out.

[Driz 1,552]

As she watched from above the ladder, she held up the pocket flashlight, trying to illuminate the pitch-black basement as much as possible: given the lantern's small size, the area it reached wasn't exceptionally wide, but it helped nevertheless.

"Damn it, Ray-Ray, be more careful! Don't you go breaking your leg like that, as if we didn't have enough problems already." She scolded him as she prepared to drop down. "Sure, I'll jump. I mean, whatever. It's not like this could get any worse." As she prepared herself.

"Alright... Here I go... I swear to god, if you don't catch me, I'm gonna haunt you from the afterlife and pull off your blanket while you sleep. Alright... Oh man... Three!... Two!... ONE!!" And there she goes.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze immediately caught her, and gently set her down.

"I don't know if that was supposed to be a threat, but... whatever. Let's keep it moving." He saw an entrance ahead and began to walk toward it, but not until he noticed something else to his right. It was a corpse, filled with maggots. Silver Colt's.

"Tch..." he grit his teeth, averting his eyes from the horrible sight. "Sorry, bud... hope the afterlife treats you better... Well, now we know that tape is definitely real. We gotta report this to the police."  

He made his way through the entrance and turned left. There was a small ledge that he dropped down, then turned right, coming across a long hallway with a wooden door at the end of it.

[Driz 1,552]

Upon witnessing the horrific sight of the corpse displayed at the bottom of the ladder, Lory had the same reaction as she did back outside with the cow ornament: her gag reflex immediately kicked in as she tried to fight back the feeling of dread mixed with extreme revulsion. Only, this time around, the condition was way more severe, given the obvious fact that it wasn't a cow at all, but instead was one of their own kind, left to rot after being killed by something inconceivable. As much as she tried to convince herself that it was only a prop - part of an elaborated prank -, her mind refused to fantasize as she clung to the idea that they were in grave danger.

Trying her hardest to calm down and not panic, she swallowed her fear after giving the maggot-infested body another swift look. Then, she quickly hurried along the path, catching up with Raze. She grabbed him by the shoulder and stared deep into his eyes.

"I honestly don't think you're giving this situation the importance it deserves, dude. We just saw someone's dead freaking body! Someone that had been here before us, and they got goddamn murdered by some demented farmer, in this exact same place!! We're in some deep water here, Raze! We gotta bounce, right the fuck now!" She exclaimed as she ran ahead along the corridor, towards the door.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Yeah, and you're not supposed to panic in a situation like this!" Raze said to her while trying to catch up. "The last thing you wanna do is panic, so calm down!! We'll find a way out, I swear..."

He opened the door and looked around. It was somewhat of a small room with cobblestone walls, nothing out of the ordinary, save for the toilet filled with syringes. He didn't want to know. To the right of the toilet was another path which he followed. It led to a straight hallway, and at the end of it, a brightly lit room with a cell door.

"Hold on, what's that?" he said, then carefully made his way over to the door. Peeking through the bars, he saw... a girl, laying sideways on a bed. Her back was turned towards him, so he couldn't see what it was.

"Oh, shit..." Raze started to say, and was about to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. He saw that it was chained up. 

"Lory! Take a look. There's someone inside here..."

[Driz 1,552]

After hearing Raze call her out, she started jogging right over to the cell. When she saw the girl on the bed, her eyes widened in astonishment. Given everything else they'd seen until then, that scene made it seem like the mysterious girl was awaiting her demise inside some sort of twisted death row.

"W...We have to get her out!" She thought out loud as she tried to force open the door herself, but to no avail. Lory then extended her arm inside the room as far as she could - unable to reach her. For a third attempt, she began calling her out:

"Hey... Hey!" She banged against the iron bars. "Wake up! C'mon, sleepyhead! It's lets-get-the-hell-outta-here o'clock already."

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze looked around for anything that might help them get the door open, like a key to the lock that held the chains together. He spotted a pair of bolt cutters on a table nearby. He quickly walked toward them and picked them up. As he was about to cut open the chain, he noticed something else on the table: a sheet of paper. Upon further inspection, there were various names written on it, with either the words "dead" or "turned" next to them. Silver Colt's name turned up amongst them, "dead" written next to it. There were a couple of other names he recognized: Artic Breeze and Honey Glow. Nothing was written next to them, which Raze thought meant they were still alive somehow. Still... this list bothered him.

 

"What the hell is going on here...?" he said quietly to himself, but shook his head. First, he had to help out the girl in the cell. He walked over to the door.

"Hold on, move a bit," he said to Lory, putting the bolt cutters over the chains and pushing firmly on the handles. The chains broke, and the door was open.

Raze quickly went over to the girl, and slowly nudged her on the shoulder.

 

"Hey! Heeey!" he whispered into her ear. "You ok?" He turned her over to get a better look at her. 

 

She was... unharmed. Not a single scratch on her. She had a yellowish coat and a bright orange mane. And her face... 

 

She's the girl from the tape! Raze said. Honey Glow...

"Ugh... who..." she said slowly, and began to wake up.

"Hey, are you ok?" he said to her quietly. "C'mon, sit up..." He tried to help her up.

 

"...Huh...?" she said groggily, then realizing what was happening, suddenly became more alert. "Wait... w-who are you people? What are you doing here...?!"

"Woah, easy there..." he said to her. "We're not going to hurt you, we just wanna help. You're Honey Glow, right?"

 

"Yeah... hold on... how do you know my name?"

He pulled out the videotape from the kitchen. "We saw you in this. You gave your name at the beginning of the tape."

She wearily took the tape from his hands and quietly read the label. Suddenly, her eyes showed signs of panic, and she stood up. "W-where's Arctic? Where's Silver? Are they ok?!" She tried to walk out the door.

"Hooooold on there, we don't know where they are... you're the only person that we've seen in the entire building!" Raze half-lied to her, not wanting to tell her that her friend's rotting corpse was just a few feet from where they were.

She lowered her head, showing signs of sadness, but then quickly showed signs of urgency. "Did anyone see you come down here? Did HE see you?!"

Raze was confused. "'He'? Who the hell's 'he'?"

Her breath began to become unsteady, and she looked scared. "Daddy's coming! We need to go!"

"Waitwaitwait-- 'daddy'? What the--"

"We need to leave RIGHT NOW!!!" She quickly exited the cell and went past where the bolt cutters went.

Raze gave Lory a confused glance. "Who the fuck is 'daddy'?" Then shook his head and followed Honey Glow.

 

[Driz 1,552]

She looked at Raze, pointed a finger to the side of her head and began twirling it around. She had no earthly clue of what that girl was speaking of, although one thing was for certain: she sounded rather anxious about whoever 'he' or 'daddy' were. As much as Lory wanted to talk about how strange that encounter had been, she decided to just follow along and try to understand what the girl meant.

"Hey, hey, hold on! Get back here!" She chased after her. "The blue-eyed hunk asked you a question. Don't be rude!"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Honey Glow turned around, frantic. "There's no time... we have to get out of here, fast! Before he comes back..." She pointed to the hall in front of her. "We need to go this way."

Raze quietly followed behind her. After a minute of silence, he spoke. "You know, I should probably mention... it's been a couple of weeks, almost a month since you came here."

She slowed down to look at him. "W-what...? I know I've been here a while but... almost a month...?"

He nodded slowly. "It's June now."

She looked like she was about to cry. "Oh no... my family... Mom, Dad..." 

"How old are you?" he asked her.

She sniffled. "17."

"Where're you from?"

"Ponyville..."

"Ponyville?! That's miles from here!"

She sniffled again, and nodded. "This way..." she led them over to a somewhat tight corridor that opened up into a bigger room. She hid behind the corner, peeking out just a bit, before moving forward again.

"What the hell is this place? Why were you locked in a room?" he asked.

"Not now... not when he's probably looking for us... once we get out of here... I'll tell you everything, I swear!" 

Edited June 13, 2017 by Jack Baker

[Driz 1,552]

 

Lory paced right behind Raze and Honey Glow. Having to accelerate her steps periodically just to keep up with the crazed girl, she found herself becoming rather annoyed. The girl didn't ever explain anything at all, instead she just began dragging the Paranormal Equestria team around the dungeon-like area towards seemingly random directions. Yes, Lory didn't doubt that there was a real murderer on the loose and that they might've already noticed the intruder's presence, as well as the escapee. But something else seemed to be awfully off.

"'Once we get out of here' can wait, missy. You're being way too sketchy for my tastes, I'll tell you that right now..." She spoke up angrily, panting slightly out of breath. "First of all, how the hell can you even know your way around this place if you've been locked up in that cubicle up until now?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Honey Glow turned around to look at Lory.

"I tried multiple times to escape from here... I ended up memorizing where to go, when the family weren't so sure I'd be able to break out..."

 

"Wait a minute..." Raze interrupted her. "Did you say 'family'?"

Honey Glow began to look scared when he said  it. "Y-y-yes... that's what they called themselves... t-that's what they called me..." 

They came to a stop at some crates and a small metal shelf. It looked like there was just enough room for them to squeeze through.

"Through here!" she said to both Raze and Lory. "The family used to bring me food through here..."

Throughout, Raze was unsure of the whole situation. What kind of family did she meet? The Goldhooves? No, that was impossible. A better question was why this family was keeping her down here? What did they want? And why did they murder Silver Colt? 

So many questions, so little time to ask...

 

"Here it is!" Honey Glow exclaimed, a hint of joy in her voice. She pointed to a lit room. "Through here! There's a door here we can get ou..."

Her voice trailed off as she stopped right in front of a boarded up wall.

 

"No... nonononono! It's not here, it's gone! It's GONE!" Tears began to leak from her eyes and she started crying a bit, then stopped as her gaze turned into that of complete despair.

 

"We're gonna be a family... now that you're here..." She made her way to a nearby couch and slumped down in it. 

"There was a door there... I'm sure of it..."

Raze didn't know what to say at first, but put a reassuring hand on her head.

"Look, don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. Just stay here alright? We'll look for another way out."

[Driz 1,552]

Lory stared in utter confusion as the scene unfolded. She utilized the moment when the girl ceased talking to take a breather and try to gather the absurd amount of information thrown in the air over the span of a few minutes. Ultimately, none of it made much sense to her. Just random words spouted by a poor girl who's lost it completely.

"Uhm... Ray-Ray..." She approached her partner up close, whispering in his ear. "Can I have a word with you over there for a bit?" Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him over to a corner, away from Honey Glow's earshot.

"Y'know, I think I cracked the code... Maybe the guy back at the fireplace wasn't assassinated at all. He most likely killed himself so he could escape from that annoying little caramel-colored brat..." She shook her head with a light giggle, then became serious again. "No, but for real though. I mean..." Lory sighed. "That girl is a goddamn nutcase! She's missing a few screws in the head, man! What's with all this daddy talk and family bullshit and... and there was a door here? Seriously?? I come from Manehattan's back alleys, dude, trust me: I've seen a lot of weird stuff... but I have no idea what that girl's on." She looked around the place for a while, pensive.

"...We should just ditch her. She's just been playing us for idiots this entire time! Opening that birdcage and setting the cuckoo free was a mistake."

Edited June 14, 2017 by driz

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze sighed. "Look... it's obvious to me that the girl's been traumatized. Someone did this to her, probably the same someone that killed her friend. We have to get her to a police station and show them this tape... but we need to find a way out first." He spotted another room nearby. "Come on. Let's check that place out."

He led Lory to the room, all the way to the back. A dead end.

"...Well, I wasn't expecting the room to be this small..." he said. "Maybe we can--"

 

"AHHHHHH!!!" A high pitched squeal came from the other room. "Let go of me!! Leave me alone!!! AAHHHH!!!" There was a loud crashing noise, then... silence.

 

Raze quickly ran back towards Honey Glow, and saw she was missing, however there was a hole in the wall that seem to lead to another room in the house.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. "Come on!!" He motioned for Lory to follow, and he entered the room. Seeing a flight of stairs leading up, he began to climb them.

[Driz 1,552]

"Yeah, see?! What did I just say? She's just bringing us more trouble than we already have!!" She said, indignant, as she promptly hurried along the hole on the wall and climbed up the staircase.

"Who'd have guessed, honeybee was right! There really was a door there!" Lory yelled while running, seeming like her tone of voice was as joyful as before they watched the tape. "Hopefully this is the way out! Let's go!!"

Edited June 14, 2017 by driz

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze opened the door and quickly looked around to see where they were. It looked like a well lit hallway of some kind. There were a few windows placed around, though he couldn't see anything outside. Night had already fallen, and along with it came pouring rain. No sign of the girl anywhere. Carefully, he made his way around, his guard up.

[Driz 1,552]

At last, it looked like they had successfully climbed back to the surface - or at least that's what the window's view of the outside suggested. However, perhaps they had crawled out of one hole, right into another. The unsettling sound of the rain outside was the only thing that filled the air: aside from it, complete silence.

Lory tip-toed right behind Raze across the newly discovered hallway, bracing herself to encounter either Honey Glow, or whatever kidnapped her just then. At that moment, more than anything, she wished she had a weapon to defend herself.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze spotted something lying on top of a drawer. It looked to be a map of some sort. He picked it up and examined the contents. Upon further inspection, he saw it was a layout of the interior of the house.

"So this is the guest house..." he said while reading it. "This'll be useful..." He folded it and put it in his backpack, then kept moving.

He passed by an open room; peeking inside, it looked like a bathroom of some sort. He noticed a green bottle on the counter that had a label with a first aid cross on it. He picked it up. Turning it around, he found some words on the back in bold font: "First Aid Med".

"...Huh," he said, unscrewing the lid and smelling it. It almost smelled like... rubbing alcohol.

She might've been hurt... he thought, putting the bottle in his bag. I'll save it for when we find her...

Suddenly, he heard a noise coming from the other end of the hall he had just come from. Peeking his head out of the bathroom, he could hear banging coming from the basement door.

He looked at Lory, then back at the door. He sighed.

"...Stay here," he said to her. "I'm gonna check it out." He carefully made his way to the door.

[Driz 1,552]

"Stay h-- What the hell do you mean stay here?? This is exactly how the survivors are killed off in horror movies! I thought you were a professional, man!" She complained, but ultimately consented to it. She let a slightly larger distance between her and Raze build as she watched him move towards the source of the noise. In the meantime, she decided to enter the bathroom and look around for some sort of weapon to use.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze shook his head. "All I'm doing is keeping you safe..." he said to himself. He approached the door and the banging seemed to stop as soon as he did. Thunder sounded outside, almost startling Raze a bit. He opened the door slowly. All the light from the basement had shut off, and it was pitch black. He carefully made his way down. As he did, he thought he heard something... like groaning.

He stopped in his tracks, as he could see someone slowly crawling up the stairs. Not sure what to do, he stood still...

Suddenly the figure rushed up into his face, and he got a good look. It was Honey Glow, although she didn't look the same as before. Her yellow coat was now grayish in color, her eyes black as night. Her face looked diseased, and her teeth were the color of tar. She groaned in front of Raze, who jumped back. 

"What the hell?!?!" he exclaimed, but before he could do anything else, she grabbed him by the neck and, with some sort of superhuman strength, threw him back upstairs and against the wall.

 

"Agh!!" he yelled out, slumping on the ground. He slowly stood up, and when he got back up fully, she was already standing in front of him, holding a knife backhanded. She was about to stab him, but he grabbed her arm and pushed her away, backing up to where Lory was. Honey Glow quickly recovered, and charged towards Raze.

 

"No wait wait wait, WAIT!!" he yelled at her, before she pounced on him, bringing him to the ground and trying to stab him. He used his arms to block her, feeling the knife graze him from time to time. He tried pushing her away, but she recoiled, and came back in quickly. He manage to shield himself at the last minute, but the knife went through his palm.

 

"GAAAAHHH!!!" Raze cried out in pain.

[Driz 1,552]

"You little BITCH!!" Lory yelled as she flew into the scene as fast as she could. Moving to the girl's side, she gripped Honey Glow's shoulders tight and lifted her back in order to free Raze from her grasp. With every single ounce of strength she were physically capable of mustering, she pushed Honey Glow away with an awkwardly-placed kick to her stomach area. Lory then took a step back herself, acquiring a stance akin to one of a boxer fighter: with her clenched fists held up in front of her face while swinging her body from side to side.

"You got some guts sneaking up on my man like that-- CAMERAman... I mean man as in cameraman, not... Ugh, whatever..." Her face displayed a somewhat twisted grin. "Say, how about you drop that sharp lil' toy and take me on fair and square, huh? Mano a mano? C'mon, kid! PUT 'EM UP!! You got me pumped now, dollface! Now that I know you're the killer, I feel stupid for being scared earlier!" Lory taunted the fiend furiously, even though she could very well regret it later. Despite the show she was able to put on, she wasn't exactly a good fighter - at least not without a sturdy blunt weapon in her possession. Knowing that, she began slowly but surely retreating back near Raze. No matter how bad she got beat up, one thing was for certain: she was going to protect him.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Honey Glow did not respond, instead running towards her like mad. Once she was in range she began to try and stab Lory repeatedly in the face, with no intent on stopping.

 

((OOC: Last post for tonight  ))

[Driz 1,552]

((OOC: Same. ))

Every inch Honey sprinted in her direction, Lory's expression became more and more terrified. "This is GODDAMN CHEATING!!" She exclaimed in desperation right before it was too late. Once the lunatic began flailing the knife wildly, Lory took a couple more steps back in order to dodge, even though that wouldn't last long. Before she could properly react, the sharp object was thrust at a range impossible to evade. Thus, in an act of pure instinct, the red mare grabbed the knife with her right hand, having its edge cut the inside of her palm.

"AAAAGGHH!!" She wailed in utter pain. The more she tried to hold the attack back, the more strength Honey seemed to put into it, therefore, more tightly Lory was obligated to squeeze the blade. As the knife trembled just a couple of inches away from her face, she then grabbed Honey Glow by the wrist using her left hand, being able to acquire a better grasp. After a couple more seconds of wrestling for her life, she somehow managed to overpower the girl, twisting her hand and forcing her to drop the weapon to the ground. Unfortunately, Lory was dazed by the stinging pain, and could not follow up with a counter attack. Still, she did manage to kick the knife far enough away.

"S...Stay the fuck back!" She began backing away while pressing against her wounds to stop the blood from flowing any further. She sent a glance towards Raze, still on the ground, and then back at Honey Glow. "I...I swear to g...god... I'm gonna floor you... with a single punch, right in the middle of that pretty little snout of yours..." She warned - her taunting words faint and ineffective. The adrenaline enabled her to overcome the pain and stand her ground: she simply did not know for how long.

"C...Crazy bitch..."