Video Game
As you get closer to inspect the controller you feel this incredible urge to grab the controller.. Which your body does without you realizing. The instant you realize though it is already too late and you can feel some electricity course through you as the CRT screen suddenly turns on.
A mansion, that's all you could see and as you tried to let go the screen shook violently and sucked you in…
“Zaharisit’s Mansion” was what was suddenly written in the air before you. “Who even is this Zaharisit? And what Mansion?” You might ask yourself. Suddenly the world faded into view and you found yourself within a trail leading to.. well a mansion.
You look around, you don’t see much. The trees became denser after a certain point making it impossible to look past the trail, meanwhile behind you the trail seemed to end in some sort of dark void which you weren’t particularly excited to explore. All there is is this giant mansion.. A shed? You thought you saw a shed by the trail but it was probably your imagination.
You head to the porch of this somewhat dilapidated mansion, crows cawing at you as you pass the last few trees. You climb the stairs carefully as these planks didn’t seem to be very well maintained, creaking with every footstep. Finally you’ve made it to the old double doors. You reach out for the knob and twist it slowly and enter quietly. The Foyer was lit dimly by candlelight on both sides of the massive dual stairway that led to the second floor. Sadly not much was left of that foyer, almost all of the doors and both stairs were blocked by debris. As you stood there nervously a shadowy figure with a key as it’s center of mass float ominously nearby. At first it doesn’t seem to notice you but the moment it does, it darts off letting the key fall out of it’s incorporeal form. The ghostly shadow simply flies into a door and disappears.
You grab the key and head towards the door the spectre flew through but before you could make it you find a skeleton crouched on the stairs.. Its clothes are tattered and torn simply looking like rags at this point. On its back however was a peculiar device, a sort of modified vacuum cleaner.
You pick up the vacuum cleaner off the skeleton dusting it off before equipping it.
You grab the key and slowly shove it into the keyhole, turning it and unlocking the door. You aren’t really sure what lies ahead but you don’t really have anywhere else you can go and so you slowly open the door and enter the room. The room is filled with framed pictures of an obsolete time, and the furniture seemed to come from that same era...
You go and start poking the couch, very dusty but nothing out of the ordinary.. Until you hear a ghostly.. Giggle of sorts? Soon you can feel a ghostly touch which envelops you putting more and more pressure unto you… your body doesn’t last long against the ghostly pressure and you’re made rounder and rounder until you’re nothing but a ball which is then thrown in the corner of the room..
You start vacuuming some of the dust and suddenly the stream of the vacuum moves to the air and a specter is very clearly fighting with all its might being sucked by your vacuum. The number above it's head in the 30s is slowly going down as it tries to pull away.
You pull the vacuum up making it's HP reduce much faster but this ghost had more up it's sleeve! Suddenly it starts throwing objects at you, such as bowling balls and bombs which you somehow manage to evade all while maintaining suction. It's HP now in the 10s it's not long before you vacuum it up! Victory is yours, with a "POP" the ghost is sucked into the machine. Not even a second later the lights in the room turn on revealing a chest in the middle of the room.
You open the chest and collect the key! You assume this key is to access the next room over and so you open the door.
You arrive in a sort of atrium which is illuminated by the moon, which seems to be full. In front of you many doors, one looks like it’ll lead outdoors, one door is marked “I Shall Give you What you Seek” and the rest of the doors seem to be boarded up with: “Opening 2022”.
You open the door to the outdoors; looking around you see a few benches and a fountain. The courtyard was fenced in.. good thing too as looking past the fence you could see many eyes following your movement. As you walked past the decrepit trees and other features you stumble upon another door into the mansion; sadly this one was also marked with: “Coming in 2022” but the door is still accessible so you could try to open it.
You walk over to the door and put your hand on the knob when suddenly the door opens wide slamming you into the wall, flattening you instantly. Your flat body falling stiff like a board once the door closes back again leaving you a flat cardboard cut out right beside the door.
You decide to head to the seeker room, not many more options it seems and so as you walk in you notice a crystal ball and dozens of giant bookshelves. There also seems to be a reception desk, you walk up to it and see a creature unlike any other you have seen before. It’s fur is light yellow while his wings are orange, he is covered with multiple candies and uses a giant gummy worm as a scarf. He looks like a sort of kobold with talons for feet mixed with a small dragon. He’s standing up right just at your eye level and seems unamused at your intense glare
“I’m doing my job; and it seems you’ve made your way to me thru the newest section of this haunted module.” he says sounding slightly annoyed, he seems like he’s done this routine quite a few times already.
“I’m Zaharisit, the spirit of Halloween. Now let’s see now.. how well have you done…?” He asks but before you could answer his question with another he brings out a scroll he seems to be looking at intensely.
“Huh, you uh.. Didn’t reach any of the game overs? How’d you manage that, we got tra--.. I mean huh well you’ve done poorly if what you seek from me is a pin; you clearly haven’t tried anything yet. I banish you now; go back out there and get some endings!”
“My my, you’ve done some of the stuff but not nearly enough to receive this year’s pins! You still have to find uuh.. well seems I don't know what endings you're missing... could you ask me on discord what the hell happened? and that's it! Once you’re done with all that come back here and I’ll give you the pins you seek!” He rolls the scroll back up.
“So do you want to go back to the beginning or would you simply like to be expelled from this branch of the story?”
“Congratulations my minion! You’ve found all of the endings and that means you’re allowed a wonderful prize! Thank you for finding all of the endings! I’m really proud of you! So for this year we have a few pins we can get you.” He walks away from the desk and returns with 2 pins.
“Congratulations, You’ve earned these. Or well that's what I would say if you weren't late.”
"Thanks for playing though, if you come back here in october you just might get next year's pins!"
Well that’s it for this year, come back next year for more. Thanks for playing!
“My, my, my someone knows how to use the dev console don’t they? Well my dear minion, cheating isn’t something you should be doing! But since you’ve gone thru the effort here. Type this in TSG!: .claimRewardHW2021.
With that Zaharisit rolls the scroll and smacks you with it. The scroll hits your face and you can feel everything around you spinning and warping and suddenly you’re right where you started…
With that Zaharisit rolls the scroll and smacks you with it. The scroll hits your face and you can feel everything around you spinning and warping and suddenly you’re back on the dark forest trail…
