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

[Driz 1,552]

"GOD DAMN IT YOU SON OF A BITCH JUST DIE!! THIS IS GETTING SO FREAKING OLD!!" Lory snapped, growling furiously. She swiftly moved towards the ladder and began climbing it. She'd lost count of how many fake outs they'd gone through in the past few minutes. "Celestia above, these people are absolutely insane! This'll never end!"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"No, it ends when we get the hell out of here, and we go the police and tell 'em all about this messed up freakshow of a family!" Raze said, making his way to the top of the ladder. He saw it led to a little platform just above the entire garage. There was a metal table in front of him with a small box labeled "Steel Boy Shot Shells". He looked inside and found two shotgun shells. He took it and put them in his backpack.

"If there's shotgun ammo here, then there's a shotgun around here somewhere," he said to himself. He looked to his right, noticing a small metal shelf with more handgun clips. Inspecting them, he saw there were about 8 bullets in them, and pocketed those. He then noticed a weird picture frame next to the ammo, holding a statuette of some kind. It looked like the bottom half of an ox. Raze remembered that the weird metal door had an indentation shaped like an ox; perhaps this must be the thing to open it.  He tried taking it out but it was stuck in place. Turning the picture frame around, he saw that it was screwed in from the back, so he took the screw out, causing the statuette to fall out. He picked it up, and put it in the backpack.

He saw that the shelf was in front of a large empty space that looked like it led right back to the small metal door used to enter the garage. He moved the shelf, and hopped down.

"Over here, Lory!" he called out to her, then made his way back up the stairs and back to the kitchen hall. He then walked all the way over to the metal door, taking out the ox statuette.

"Alright, let's see what this does," he said, sticking it inside the indentation. It fit perfectly, and suddenly the lock holding it down began to move, and the door opened slightly. He pushed it open, and saw they were now in a huge room.

"This might be the main hall," Raze said.

[Driz 1,552]

"Huh... Cozy." Lory commented as she strolled around the hall, taking a look around it. If not for the fact that there was an undying demonic entity chasing them around, she would have found that room an ideal place to take a break and relax. She wondered to herself just what was the Goldhoof residence like before it became the slaughterhouse she'd met with. Walking towards the table at the center of the room, she looked up to see the second floor's balcony, and the staircase leading up to it.

"I'll check out the upstairs, see if I can find anything other than nightmare fuel." She said to Raze as she began climbing the stairs.

Edited June 25, 2017 by driz

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Alright," Raze said slowly walking around himself. He began to take a look around for more supplies, opening another drawer and taking out a first aid med bottle, storing it in his pack. He could feel it getting full.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing... he thought. He turned around and made his way to the opposite end of the hall, near the stairs. 

"Oh shit!" he exclaimed at what he saw. It was a small room, with a metal door that was wide open revealing a statue of an Equestrian soldier holding a real pump action shotgun in its hands. 

"So that's where they keep the shotgun..." he said, walking into the room. He took the shotgun off the statue and picked it up but as he did, he could hear the statue being lifted up slightly, and behind him the metal door quickly shut behind him. He banged on the door.

"Crap!" he said, quickly putting the shotgun back, which opened the door.

"So it's a trap... looks like I'll have to replace the shotgun with something of equal weight." He walked out the door. "Hey, ya find anything?" he called out quietly to Lory.

[Driz 1,552]

"Dust... Dust... Some dust... Oh, and some dust, too." She sarcastically answered, leaning over the balcony to meet eyes with Raze. She pointed her thumb towards the back end of the floor. "There are doors up here, but I haven't checked them out yet... If we're done with this area, we should really move on: madman on the loose 'n all."

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Right," Raze responsed. He was about to head up the stairs, when he heard a phone ring throughout the hall. He quickly ran towards it, and picked it up.

"Did my daddy give you a hard time?" It was Dawn. Raze was confused.

"Wait... is that... actually your father? So you're--"

"Yes, that is my father. Well... he used to be..." Her voice had a hint of sadness to it. "Anyway, what happened to him?"

"Well, I'm sorry, but... I think he's... dead."

She began to chuckle. "You just might be able to pull this off," she said.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Alright, there's something I need you to do, but you won't be able to do so in there. You may need some sort of keys to do it, but find a way out of the main house. I'll be in touch."

She hung up. Raze set the phone down, and sighed. 

"Well... better start looking," he said, climbing up the stairs to meet Lory.

"It's Dawn... Dawn Goldhoof, apparently," he said to her. "She said she needs us to do something, but we need to find some sort of way to get out of the house."

 

[Driz 1,552]

"Yeah, no shit we need to get out of the house! That's what we've been trying to do this entire time!" She responded, annoyed. "Ugh... I really hate being bossed around like that by some random-ass phone lady... Like we have any other choice, though." She sighed. "And now she's related to that grumpy old fart... I'll tell ya, this is getting sketchier by the second." Then, she began walking towards one of the doors on the second floor.

"C'mon, let's roll."

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze nodded and followed her, opening the door. It led to a hall that split into two paths, the left one leading further into the house, and the right one leading to a veranda overlooking the backyard. He decided he'd go left. He passed a weird looking door and tried to open it. Locked. Upon further inspection, a white statue of a snake was attached to it. He raised a brow.

"Hmm... interesting," he said. He kept walking forward and found another room to his right. It looked like a recreation room. There was a large pool table in the center, along with a minibar on the left side. In the corner, stacks of board games could be seen in small baskets or sitting on drawers.

"Huh... how lavish," he said, taking a look around. "Let's search the room, see if we can find anything," he said to Lory.

[Driz 1,552]

"Ooo! I like this place!" Lory commented as she waltzed into the room. Back in her hometown, she used to be one with the nightlife: she was well acquainted with the environment around clubs, bars, and the like, so a recreation room really did interest her. Aside from the deplorable, abandoned state of the house, she hoped to be able to make use of at least something.

The mare moved over towards the bar area and began searching through the counter and cupboards. After a few seconds of nosing around, she put her hands on her hips and puffed. "Not even a single drop of booze..." She sighed quietly to herself in disappointment. Back near the bar counter, a discernible rectangular object quickly caught her eye. Curious, she carefully picked it.

"Hey, Ray-Ray!... Ain't this another one of them videotapes we found before?" She held it up.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze looked at the tape. "Might be." He read the label out loud. "Honey Glow... the girl?" He looked to his right. Next to the tape was a TV showing static and a VHS player. He eyed it suspiciously. "Looks like whoever put this here really wants us to watch it..." He put the tape away. "Let's just watch it later. Right now, we need to find something to escape. He turned around, and saw another weird looking door behind the pool table. It reminded him of the snake door, but instead of a snake, there were scorpions attached to it instead. He walked over to it and turned the handle. Locked.

"Just like that other door..." he said under his breath. There were small windows next to the sides of the door and in one of them, another shotgun could be seen leaning on it.

"Aha! Looks like another shotgun I could use. All I need is a key..." 

He looked around for anything else. He walked over to where the board games were.

"There's a lot of these here," he said, something catching his eye. "Wait... don't tell me..." He reached down into one of the stacks and grabbed a large box. It was a somewhat dusty box of Light Souls: The Board Game. He looked inside. All the game pieces were intact. Making sure Lory wasn't looking, he quietly slipped it into the backpack. It took up quite a bit of space, so he transferred the first aid bottles to the front compartment of the pack. Now everything was able to fit. 

"Yes, yes...!" he whispered in glee. He then walked over to the minibar and started looking for other supplies, finding one bottle of first aid med, which he stuck with the others.

[Driz 1,552]

Casually strolling across the room after performing her search, she went over by the pool table and leaned on it. She wouldn't mind playing a match if they had the time, but evidently they had larger concerns to take care of. For a moment Lory got lost in thought, reminiscing about the times before she became a paranormal investigator. The typical punk, rebellious teenager performing, celebrating; all without any regards to the outside world. Youth sure flew by.

After a lengthy sigh, she walked back near Raze.

"I had my hopes up thinking we could find alcohol in here... That would've been my solace, man... But no luck." She shrugged. "Did you find what you needed?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Nothing, really..." Raze said, looking behind him. Just a bunch of empty liquor bottles on a shelf. However, looking closely, he found a large bottle that was untouched and grabbed it. 

"Holy crap... this is premium stuff!" he said, looking at the label.

"Sweet Apple Acres limited edition Sweet Apple Whiskey, made with fresh apples picked right off the tree... this shit sells for like 300 bucks on the market!" He carefully put the bottle on the counter. "Just gonna... set that right there." He then found a letter he overlooked while setting it down. 

"Huh... looks like I missed something..." He picked it up and read aloud from it.

 

"Mary, I'm sick and tired of chasing these shitheads around the yard when they escape. We need to hide the three dog head relief keys so they can't open the door to outside. Let's hide them like this: one in the grandfather clock in the living room. One in the rec room, in a large book with a cross on the cover. One on a shelf in the processing area..."

He looked around. To the right of the minibar was a book that fit the letter's description. He picked it up and opened it, and saw a blue colored metal dog's head inside a cut out section of the book. He took it out.

"So these are for a door..." he said. "Well, that's one of them." He put it in the backpack.

[Driz 1,552]

"Dog heads, huh?... Man, what a cliche." She scratched her head. "These people are really devoted to the whole 'demented serial killer' trope... It'd be hilarious, if it wasn't real." She added. Lory was fairly familiar with the making of urban legends and ordinary horror stories, since her current line of work revolved around those. Then again, she'd never met with any that turned out to be true until they decided to tackle the Goldhoof mystery. An unforgettable experience, undoubtedly.

"Oh, and before we forget!" She then gleefully picked the bottle of whiskey from the counter and held it out to Raze. "Put it in your backpack, will ya? Let's save it for later." She said, nearly demanding. "...You don't expect me to carry this around with my hands, right?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"No, no I do not," Raze said with a slight smile, then put it in the backpack. "Come on, let's get moving." He made his way out of the rec room from where he came in, heading toward the first door he saw and opening it. They were in a bathroom of some sort. Raze checked the sink drawer to see if he could find even more of that first aid med. Instead, he found a handgun clip.

"Wow... handgun rounds in the bathroom," he said while taking them. "I'd make a joke, but... I'm feeling more thankful than I am joking." He put the clip in his pocket with the rest he found, then turned to look at the tub. It was filled halfway with some mysterious black liquid, with the edges of the tub lined with another mysterious black material. However, he could see something wooden poking out of the liquid. He carefully grabbed the part sticking out of the liquid then pulled it out, revealing a weird wooden statuette of some kind. He didn't know what to make of it, yet... it felt important to him. Somehow. He put it in his backpack.

"Alright, then," he said to Lory, heading towards the door. "Let's get out of here--"

As he was reaching for the doorknob, the door already began to open, and Nick Goldhoof quickly walked in, the top right half of his face missing, exposing his brain. He was holding some sort of weird weapon, it looked like a large paint roller with nails sticking out of it. He grabbed Raze by the neck, choking him. As he looked at him in terror, he saw Nick's missing part of his face slowly begin to regenerate. He didn't know what he was seeing.

"Heck of a thang, ain't it?" he asked him, grinning. "Sure as shit beats the hell outta dyin'." As he said this, he threw Raze across the tub and back to the sink. He managed to land just before he crashed into it. Still shocked from him entering the room, Raze struggled to unholster his gun and aimed it at him, firing off two shots at his chest. They didn't even faze him, and he began to walk up towards both him and Lory. 

"My little girl has given us a gift, and this gift is with me always," he said, grinning.

[Driz 1,552]

"Hey again, freak!" She said after sharply turning around to face the man, staring daggers at him. Surprisingly, she wasn't nearly as shocked to see him walking around again after taking a heavy beating, completely unscathed. If anything, she felt somewhat relieved to finally find out the reason why: some sort of regenerative power, not too unlike the first-aid meds she and Raze had been using, kept Nick full of vigor and with deadly intents. Lory thought: perhaps it wouldn't be wise to wrestle against him, since she'd only be tiring herself out. They needed a better plan.

With that in mind, while Nick approached, Lory began backing up towards the opposite direction, dancing circles around the bathtub in the middle of the room and slowly but surely making her way towards the door.

"Fuck this, Ray-Ray! Let's bail!" She called out to her partner, urging him to do the same.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze quickly ran out of the bathroom after Lory without hesitating, with Nick walking towards them quickly.

"As you can see, the family is only part of her gift," he said, about to catch up.

Raze turned back and fired a few shots at his head to keep him away, which staggered him just enough for both of them to head out back to the main hall. 

"Which, in a word, means... heh-heh... you're fucked!" Raze could hear him say before closing the door. He made his way down the stairs and through the metal door leading back to the kitchen hall. 

"We just gonna keep hiding, or what?" he said to Lory while running.

[Driz 1,552]

"Fuck if I know! You think I have an entire plan figured out to deal with this??" She responded, anxious. She began slowly making her way down the corridor, deep in thought. "Think, think, think..." The mare quietly repeated to herself while scratching her head. She had no idea whether or not Mr. Goldhoof was still on their tail, so she tried her hardest to come up with a way to escape: hiding wouldn't do them much good in the long run. Plus, it didn't exactly suit her style, either.

"The dog heads... The dog heads... We need three in total, we have one, we need two more..." She continued burning out her thinking juice, before suddenly turning back and skittering towards Raze. "Where are the other pieces? Remember, there was a note, wasn't it? It said where the other heads were hidden, didn't it?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

"Yeah, it did," Raze said. "One should be in the living room, in a grandfather clock. The other's in a 'processing' area... I don't know where that it, probably deeper in the house maybe..."

He could hear the old man kick open the metal door. "This is all too fun!" he shouted. 

"Quick, the laundry room!" he said to Lory, opening the door and shutting it quietly. From behind the door he could hear him cackle outside, searching for them.

[Driz 1,552]

In the laundry room, Lory crouched down silently behind the closed door and listened to the man as he walked around. 

"That place next to the kitchen; that's the living room, right?" She whispered to Raze. "That's not too far from here... We just need to sneak past the old fart." She lifted herself up and placed her ear right next to the door "...Do we just wait it out?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze began to think, think of a way they could easily get past all of this. First, he began to formulate a plan to get around Nick Goldhoof. Sneaking around him would take forever, and although the house was pretty big, there were many places that were locked, meaning there were only so many places to hide and he'd probably find them eventually. It was also too energy consuming, and it also would probably waste a lot of time. A distraction probably wasn't the best idea either, since it seemed he could overpower one of them pretty easily, and who knew where the other two family members were lurking. That would mean their only choice left was to fight him head on... but even that was impossible. Raze saw that he could regenerate his injuries quite easily, which would make him nigh unkillable. Then how would they be able to stop him?!

Just then, Raze remembered something. His mind raced back from Nick crashing the car to him blowing his own brains out. He didn't get up right away when that happened, and it took him some time to find them in the bathroom. Although it seemed the old man was incapable of dying, it also seemed that if he suffered enough damage, something seriously fatal, he could be knocked out for quite a while. He looked down at the gun he was holding, and took a deep breath.

"Alright, hear me out..." he said quietly to Lory. "We're gonna fight this guy, and I know we probably won't be able to kill him; that's not what I'm going for here. I have a theory: if he suffers enough damage, I think his body shuts down for a while, possibly because his healing can't keep up with what's being thrown at him. So if I shoot him and you cut him enough times, he'll go down and we can use that time to find what we need, alright?"

[Driz 1,552]

Lory stared at Raze for a few seconds with an expression of pure astonishment. "...ARE YOU IN--" She rapidly covered her own mouth up with both of her hands. In a sudden reaction, she momentarily neglected the fact that Nick was searching nearby and spoke loudly. She looked towards the door and remained quiet for a few seconds to check for increasing sounds of footsteps - she heard none.

"...Are you insane??" She finished her sentence; quieter this time around, albeit still in disbelief. "Have you not seen what that freak is capable of? He can easily take on both of us without breaking a sweat!... Besides, what's the point in fighting him we know he won't die? We'll just be wasting energy and precious ammunition!" The mare then pondered their situation once more: perhaps either sneaking by him or making a run for it wouldn't be better choices. They didn't know the layout of the house as well as its owner. They would eventually become exhausted and get caught. If they did have a chance to knock the man down temporarily, it would be, in a sense, a somewhat safer route to take. Besides, she did enjoy a good scuffle every now and then. With a sigh, she ultimately gave up.

"...I can't believe we're doing this... This is stupid." She grunted. "I said it once and I'll say it again: I hate your guts."

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze took out his gun and checked the clip. Seven bullets left, along with the extra rounds he had with him.

"And it's just like I said before... hate me later when we're out of this alive. Besides, I don't think that's true. I'm 'your man' after all right?" He smirked and opened the door, turning to see Nick Goldhoof standing outside of the dining room doors.

"There's my little boy!" he said with an evil grin, walking towards him. Raze carefully aimed the gun at his head and fired three shots, all hitting their mark and causing Nick to stagger backwards.

"Now, Lory!" he said, firing two more shots. He had two left.

[Driz 1,552]

"Here goes nothing!" She exclaimed as she dashed out of the laundry room, taking the knife out of her pocket and unfolding it. With a battle cry, she held the weapon in front of her with both hands and charged full-speed at the staggered Nick Goldhoof, stabbing him in the stomach area. Afterwards, she pulled the knife back and backed away.

Once the man regained his composure, he took a vertical swing with his polearm-like crudely crafted weapon. "Oh fuck." Instinctively, she raised her arms up in front of her and blocked the attack. Once the blow connected, it scratched her left arm in several places. Although the cuts weren't worryingly deep, they still bled a fair amount. Moaning in pain yet filled with adrenaline, Lory braced through and quickly went back to the offensive, delivering a slash across his chest. She did struggle to reach any vital points of his structure, considering Nick stood considerably taller than herself.

[Jack Baker 698]

@driz

Raze kept the gun steady, trying to make sure he wouldn't hit Lory. Once he thought he had a good mark on Nick's head, he fired.

The shot hit him and caused him to stagger back; his whole body beginning to spasm violently, while he made a noise almost closer to choking. Raze lowered his gun, not sure what to do next. After a few more seconds of spasms, he dropped to his knees and became limp, falling down on the ground. He showed no signs of life, though Raze knew that wasn't the case.

He quickly holstered the gun and approached Lory, quickly taking out a first aid med from his backpack and applying it to her injuries. When he was finished, he grabbed her by the hand and quickly went through the dining room and into the living room. Quickly scanning the room, he found the grandfather clock, but couldn't really see what they were looking for.

"What the heck? There should be another one in here!" he said, checking the sides and the back of the clock. Nothing. He sighed in frustration.

"Maybe we're missing something..." he said to himself. "Whatever. Let's just find the other one. I don't know how much time we have before he gets back up," he said to Lory. He walked over Nick's body and back to the main hall, looking for something that might help them.

"Now, where could this processing area be..." he said, then spotted something interesting. At one end of the hall near one of the stairs was a projector of some sort, shining on a painting. He walked over to it, not sure of what to make of it. The painting was of a hawk that was baring down on a dog, looking ready to strike it down. The hawk looked blurred out from the rest of the painting. On the bottom of the painting was the title: "Sky Hunter".

Raze opened his backpack to see what they had that might help him with this. First aid mess, the board game, the bottle of whiskey, and the wooden figure he got from the bathroom. He looked at it more carefully, moving it around in his hands. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it kind of made the figure of the hawk in the painting when angled a certain way.

"Hmm..." He looked at the projector. "Maybe if I..."

He held the statuette up against the projector and moved it around until he got was he was looking for: the silhouette of the hawk. He then moved it over the blurred out one in the painting, and suddenly, something clicked. The blurred hawk then colored itself in until it was visible, and the wall that held the painting opened up and revealed a tight space just big enough for Raze and Lory to slip through.

"Geez... who the hell needs this in their house?" he said. "More importantly... who builds this shit for them?" He shook his head and decided to slip through, and once he made his way out, he found himself in a large room. It looked like a... break room or a lounge of some kind, with a taxidermy deer and a large couch in the center of the room. There was also a large fireplace in front of the couch.

"Alright... I don't think he can find us here..." he said. "Looks safe enough. Hey..." he turned to Lory. "I think we should take a bit of a breather... we've been running around a lot, and it's important we regain our energy."

[Driz 1,552]

"Ugh, thank heavens... You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment." Lory said, sighing deeply in relief. Promptly, she walked over near the couch and threw herself on it without hesitation, slouching on it. Letting out a grunt of delight, she made herself comfortable and allowed her eyes to close while facing the ceiling. A brief instant of tranquility and relaxation had been one of her many desires.

Not too long after having lied down, however, she sat up on the couch. She turned her body to face Raze and extended her arm towards him.

"Can we open the bottle?" She referenced the whisky they'd found earlier. "I need to drown my sorrows real quick..."