Welcome to the House of Fun! [Plot]

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    Atilla jerked his gaze away from the cat. "Yes." he replied, once again in control. His thoughts, however, were spinning out of his reach. How long has this crazed cat been following me? If it knows that I killed this cat, the rest of the Dark Star could be next-


    No, that was foolish. He was giving way to the unreasonable fear of realizing that this cat knew him. He had to remain calm, don't let the panic get him. He was as good as dead if that happened.


    There's a reason it isn't Jeremi or Agony hanging from that door. This cat couldn't take on one of them, let alone both of them, and they travel together. For that matter, the entire group would have noticed them. A kidnapping is one thing, but murdering one of the leaders is another. The entire Dark Star would be howling for his blood. And if Agony tracked down the murderer of his father for moons, imagine what he would do to the assassin of his half-twin...


    Reassured, he looked to the source of the crash. "I'm hoping that that one isn't a body too." he muttered, turning to go check it out. He paused, glanced at Ravi, and tilted his head. "Coming to check it out?"


    He didn't notice the scratches that were beneath the body, as they were hidden in the shadows. Not to mention he couldn't actually read them in the first place.

    Although Atilla still looked disturbed, or more, deep in thought, Ravi accepted it and nodded. "Me too, I don't think I can handle much else." They've been there for, what, two or three hours already, and he was already beginning to fly off the handle. If this next thing is another body, he'd completely lose it! Ravi didn't know what the body meant, or anything else for that matter, but he was bent on finding out, because it might mean getting out...Alive. "Yeah, I'm coming." Ravi took one last sorrowful glance at the mangled body, and turned away to begin padding next to Atilla, but with more enthusiasm to get away from the body. Unless, of course, investigating the next loud noise would mean yet another unsettling, morbid, mind-destroying sight, he was game. "I hope whatever we see...Is something, you know...Less morbid, I guess." He tried to strike up a conversation, but try he may, this situation was just too serious for even Ravi to make better.

    Nymph slinked out after the two cats slowly, blue eyes dancing as she follwoed Ravi and another cat she didn't recognize "Did you guys hear that crash?" She mews, her calm voice echoing around the old building, the voices silencing in her head

    The post was edited 1 time, last by Rubymoonandglitteringblue ().

    Ghoststare was apprehensive to find another 'surprise'. Still, she followed behind the cats as they moved toward the sound of the loud crash similar to the one that had brought the group to the mangled white cat. She was still troubled at Atilla's reaction to the cat. He wasn't frightened. He wasn't sickened... he just stared. It was as if he knew the cat that was murdered. It was as if he saw a challenge rather than a threat.


    As she padded into the room where the sound had come from, her stomach sunk. There was the distinct smell of blood as they approached. Something told her she wasn't going to like what she found.

    Nymph backed away at the smell of blood, her big blue eyes widening as she slunk around the corner, and took in her surroundings slowly, ears back and darting about with each little paw step, her claws scraping the blackened old wood

    'Perhaps pictures would better suit Atiila?' The tom thought, his gaze now following the cat's entering the next room.
    During this the wound from his shoulder continue to leak, now spiralling down his creamy pelt and dropping through a gap in the floorboards. Muffled sounds were heard in the corner of the room, in which he was present, hearing this caused the tom to turn abruptly upon a swag bag. His ice blue eyes narrowed, he approached the bag and unsheathed his claws before aiming them at the bag and hitting it several times.

    Nymph stared at the curtain rod upon the ground, looking around the room, the smell of blood coursing her nose. She wasn't phased by the blood smell, she was all too used to it, the smell of her own familys death still clung to her fur, along with the sweet scent of lilac that seemed to hang around her like moths on a light. The siamese creme and brown fur swished as she dilicatly placed each paw down on the floor boards, causing them to creak with a eerieness at aroused the voices in her head once more

    What was that he smelled?


    Blood.


    Smells like home. he thought with amusement, getting a better hold on himself. He had learned to control his emotions, how they showed... but too much more and he didn't know what he would do.


    Does this cat have something against me? Am I supposed to confess?


    Fat chance. But if it were his reputation against his freedom...


    Either could cost his life. He had to play this very, very carefully. Make allies-here he glanced at Ravi- and make sure he knew his enemies. His gaze drifted to Ghoststare. He had to watch her. Who knew what she had against him? A clanner and an Anticlanner just aren't meant to get along. If he had any chance of revealing his 'dirty little secret' (which he considered quite justified, as it was his duty) that could very likely turn them all against him, he needed something over her.

    Nymph's light footsteps sounded behind Ghoststare and Ravi, her deep blue eyes glittering as she gazed around the room, the smell of blood boiling her nose, although her fur stood on end her icy blue eyes expression didn't change, just coldness and the dark

    As Ghoststare rounded the corner she saw something small and black on the ground before she saw the message scrawled in blood. A tiny raven... Not freshkill, not crowfood. It was preserved. Why a raven...?


    Her eyes shot up to the bloody message -- RAVENCRY.


    "Oh... My... God..." She whispered.


    What was this? Who was doing this to her? What did they know?

    A corpse, a corpse… a bird?


    Frowning in confusion, he bent to examine it. It was old, just somehow preserved. And there were more lines scratched beside it-


    He heard a gasp and his head shot up, looking for the one who had made it. Ghoststare was livin up to her name, staring at it like she had seen a ghost. He noted it down-that gasp told him a million new things-before once again turning to the sounds.


    It was just one word, he realized with relief and curiosity. Something even he could read, thanks to Mars…


    Let's see here. The first sound was straight-round top-line. B? R? P? He knew those were similar, all with the same basic shape. Straight, all shared. He frowned at it, puzzling over it, before remembering that Mars had told him a trick for this very problem.


    "A bee has a hump on the bottommost bit." he recalled faintly-not aloud, Gods forbid! "A pee has no nothing at all. And the ar is…" he hesitated, searching his mind. It took him a moment, but he triumphantly found that it was within his grasp. "The ar is unsteady so there's a stick at the base so that it doesn't tip and fall."


    An R, then? R-something. That hadn't been too bad. He could figure this out without serious problems.

    Rave stared helplessly at the preserved raven, his eyes wide. Not quite as disturbing as the last thing, not very disturbing at all, but it was the word written in blood that got him--RAVENCRY. He didn't know who or what that was, but it seemed to disturb Ghoststare immensely. He wanted to go over and ask her about it, but decided against it. For whatever reason, Ravencry seemed to have something against all of them, although she hadn't really talked to him at all. Ravi just couldn't get along with a cat that didn't like others for no reason. And if she had reason, then so be it.


    Ravi shook his head clear of thoughts, and looked the dead raven and message up and down, once more, to get a grasp on things. The kidnapper, or whatever he should call whoever had brought them here, seemed to be targeting them one at a time. Who was next? What would he do to phase Ravi? He didn't want to think about it, mostly because there was nothing this cat-Or whatever- could do to phase Ravi. He had never experianced deaths, or killed anybody, nor has he stolen a thing! What could possibly be done to him?

    Atilla was busy puzzling over the word. He had gotten up to the E and had just finished the N when he looked up, pttig foggier the first part. R-A-V-E-N. Ruh-ah-vv-ee-en. Rhaahvvin? Raahveen?


    Oh. Not ah, ay. Ray-ven. Raven. Ravensomething. A bird? A strange word? A clanner name?


    The last seemed most likely. A name, a name, a name that disturbed Ghoststare deeply. Interesting…

    With a sigh, the tom had missed how Ghoststare had reacted. His nose crinkled in disgust, irritated by missing the event unfold. However he smeared blood off of his paws and onto the floorboards, a creepy smile beaming magnificently upon his handsome facade. With elegance he padded over to a golden coloured cord and gave it an abrupt tug, causing the house to echo with chime's once again. This time though, small pocket watches fell from tiny crevice's, within the walls, in the room which held the stuffed raven. Roughly a dozen fell, no writing or blood was etched upon them but a certain time which read "five o'clock". He wondered whether the feline's would understand the message, but he wasn't going to wait and find out. His grasped a bloody swag bag and tossed it to one side, now padding across the floorboards which hovered above another room.
    'Ravi...' He thought, pleased that this cat would be next to be tormented.
    On that thought, he opened an attic hatch which overlooked a small hallway.


    Accidentally, the tom knocked down a box of nails which clattered to the ground and echoed loud and clear. He cursed under his breath, not wishing for this clue to be revealed, but he went with the flow. Within the hallway were two doors, one was open, which the cat's could enter from, while the other was closed. The difference though was that nailed upon the closed door was a blood matted cat with variously shaped nails punctured throughout his body. Blood dripped freely down the door, running upon the floorboards and creating a thick, almost syrup pool of blood. Etched above the cat was no writing but rather a diagram. The diagram showed the cat's a clue as to how to get out, seeing as the door, they enter from, would lock behind them. The diagram consisted of a simple drawing of a cat, a plus sign, a simple drawing of a key, followed by an equals sign, and finally a diagram of the same cat with the key inside it's body.
    It should read something along the line's of "Cat picture + key picture = cat and key picture."

    Fernfur was the only one to speak as the group stared at the stuffed bird and the word RAVENCRY.


    "Ghoststare...?" He asked. "What's Ravencry?..." He had no shame in asking. As terrified as he was, he wanted to know if this cat knew something that would get them out of here. She seemed in a trance as she watched the bloody words. He hoped for an answer from her, and he hoped it meant they would leave soon.


    He was starting to feel like a clock was running on them, and the more time they all stared and whimpered, the less time they would have to escape.

    Ghoststare shook her head. Should she tell them? Would it hurt or help?...


    Against her better judgement, she hung her head and murmured, "Ravencry was my mentor."


    She gave them no more than that. She feared that sharing the whole story might cause her another black out, and this wasn't a time that she could afford to be unconscious.


    Her mouth was dry and scratchy -- everything was so loud; even in the silence of the room. What was happening?


    A loud crash caught her attention. She wasn't sure she wanted to look anymore. What would be next? More dead cats? A warning? Their own deaths?...

    "And so they mean not to kill, not to injure…" Atilla murmured to himself, paying no mind to anyone. "But to torment."


    His grudging respect for their kidnapper grew, as did his guard. But among this was a tiny flicker of hope.

    I'm not like the rest, I can be different. My soul is already tarnished; I don't have fear of killing, nor of torturing. I can be different… or I can be jut another fly in the spiderweb.


    Did he underestimate me? Has he caught a shark instead of a minnow?


    Or did underestimate him? Am I just another piece in this game of his?

    Ravi suddenly came to a morbid, rash realization: They were all pawns in a game. Or at least, that's how he would put it. This message, about Ghoststare's mentor, was definetely creepy, but when tiny clocks began to rain down from the cieling, he really began to believe he had died and gone to Hell. Or he was just insane, that could be a possibility. For some reason, nobody else took notice in the stopwatches or whatever falling down, but he took notice;One hit him straight in the head. "Ouch!" He exclaimed, staring as the clock bounced off of his head and hit the floor. There were numbers on the clock, and he knew how to read it after spending time in the Hoarder's House with Aku. "They all read five o' clock..." Ravi murmured, and looked at Akilla. That obviously meant something.


    "Should...Should we check it out...?" He asked the others, the loud chime sending a shudder through him. Who was next...? "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to check it out..." He was too impatient to wait for their answers, and not ever hearing the saying of curiosity killed the ca, he began to stalk off. Ravi wished one of them would come with him, which hopefuly one would...He had no more time to think. He saw an open door in the hallway, and it seemed beckoning to him, like it was meant for him to go in. Cautiously, nervously, Ravi stepped in...

    Ghoststare ran after Ravi. She didn't want to be reminded of Ravencry or his death any longer... Her nightmares were enough of a reminder.


    "Wait!" She yowled, chasing after Ravi as he sped out of the room. She picked up one of the watches on her way out of the room... Uncertain why, but it seemed like something she wanted with her.

    Ravi heard his name being called by Ghoststare, but only flicked his ears, resuming stalking into the room curiously. He let his gaze run along the wall, his eyes nearly missing the horrid sight-But they didn't. His paws took him towards the dead cat, nailed to the wall, automatically, and his eyes looked the cat up and down, not stopping to see the message. He knew this cat. He loved this cat. He was this cat. A dark dizziness began to spread across his mind, and reality came at him with a ton of bricks and a hatchet. And it all hit him at once. "Oh God..." His voice was choked up as he couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight. "...Aku..."