The moon hung low over the thick, fog-choked path, casting an eerie glow as the group fled Dracula's castle. Their footsteps pounded against the earth, a frantic rhythm of survival. They had escaped, but the feeling of being hunted clung to them like a second skin. Stacey was at the front, breathless but still determined, with her usual cheery optimism threatening to break through the terror.
"Just a little further, guys!" she gasped, her voice high-pitched with panic. "My house isn't far. We'll be safe there!"
Tammy, still clutching the makeshift weapon she'd used to smack Dracula away, shot her a look of disbelief. "Safe? At your place?" She was out of breath but still full of sarcastic fury. "I doubt your fancy mansion has vampire-proof windows."
"I bet it has pink curtains, though," Derek muttered, clutching his Dungeons & Dragons dice as if they could ward off evil spirits. His eyes darted around, paranoid and twitchy. "Do you really think we're going to make it through the night?"
Brad, the jock, was barely keeping up with the pace, his face flushed and his usual bravado absent. He hadn't spoken much since the castle, likely in shock from all the running. "Can't we just… rest for a second? I think I'm dying. Again."
"No resting!" Stacey called over her shoulder. "We're almost there, I swear!"
Morgana, bringing up the rear, walked with an eerie calm. Her voice was soft but tinged with amusement. "Rest? There's no resting when death is this close. You can't hide from it forever."
The others ignored her morbid commentary, but her words hung in the air. Despite their racing hearts and adrenaline-fueled desperation, they couldn't shake the feeling that something, someone, was still chasing them. They didn't dare look back.
It wasn't long before they reached the gates of Stacey's home. The mansion loomed ahead of them, starkly out of place compared to the gothic terror they had just fled. The sprawling suburban estate, with its perfectly manicured lawns and glaringly bright porch lights, looked like something out of a TV commercial. The pink fountain in the front yard was particularly hard to miss, bubbling softly in the night, the water almost fluorescent under the moonlight.
"There it is!" Stacey called triumphantly as they stumbled toward the front door, barely able to keep herself from breaking into a grin. "Casa Stacey! We're safe now!"
Tammy, hands on her knees and breathing hard, scowled up at the mansion. "Safe? You think this is safe? Girl, this place looks like a haunted Barbie dream house!"
Brad wiped the sweat from his brow, gazing up at the mansion in awe. "You live here? This place is, like, ten times bigger than my house."
Derek, still clutching his dice, remained skeptical. His eyes scanned the perimeter of the mansion, clearly still on edge. "Yeah, but is it safe?" he asked, his voice quivering. "No secret passages or creepy paintings, right?"
"Stop worrying," Stacey replied, flipping her hair back as she unlocked the door. "It's just a house. And besides, I'm pretty sure vampires can't come in unless you invite them."
"Is that… actually true?" Derek mumbled, unsure.
Morgana glided past them all, gazing up at the mansion with mild interest. "The real question is, how long can we run from what's coming? Because death will catch up, one way or another."
The front door creaked open, and they filed inside, stepping into what felt like an entirely different world. Stacey's house was absurdly pristine, painfully pristine. The white marble floors gleamed under the lights, and the walls were lined with framed portraits of Stacey and her family, all smiling in matching outfits. Everything was bright and polished, a stark contrast to the dark, oppressive air that had surrounded Dracula's castle.
"Welcome!" Stacey beamed, despite the lingering terror on everyone's faces. "You guys can crash here until we figure out what to do next. Isn't it cozy?"
Brad let out a low whistle, looking around the massive living room. "This place is insane. You could fit my entire high school gym in here."
Tammy rolled her eyes, glancing at the pink throw pillows on the immaculate white couches. "This place is ridiculous. But hey, at least it doesn't smell like death."
Derek, still fidgety, checked his phone, but of course, there was no signal. "I don't know… This doesn't feel right. What if Dracula or the werewolf followed us? We should be doing something other than standing here, waiting to die."
Stacey clapped her hands together, the sound echoing through the large room. "I know what we can do!" she exclaimed. "We'll set up traps! Like in Home Alone! We'll totally trap Dracula if he shows up!"
Everyone turned to stare at her.
"Home Alone?" Tammy raised an eyebrow. "You wanna throw paint cans at a vampire? I don't think that's gonna work."
"No, no," Stacey insisted, "not paint cans! Like, deadlier stuff. We can rig the whole house with traps, just in case! C'mon, it'll be fun!"
"Fun?" Derek squeaked. "I think we have very different definitions of 'fun.'"
Brad rubbed the back of his neck, thinking it over. "Honestly… it's not the worst idea. If something's coming after us, we should be prepared."
Morgana, always the cryptic one, smiled darkly. "A house full of death traps… Yes, let's. Let the castle come to us."
With some reluctance, the group agreed. After all, it wasn't like they had any better ideas. If they couldn't run, they would have to fight, or at least, slow Dracula and his monsters down. Stacey's plan was unconventional (and somewhat insane), but desperate times called for desperate measures.
With renewed purpose, the group scattered throughout the house, gathering anything and everything that could be used as part of Stacey's improvised death trap system. Pots, pans, ropes, household chemicals, it all became fair game in their mad scramble to turn the mansion into a fortress of lethal pranks.
Brad worked in the entryway, rigging up a complicated tripwire system. He looped ropes around the chandelier and attached them to the dumbbells he'd found in Stacey's personal gym. The idea was simple: trip the wire, and the dumbbells would swing down from the ceiling like deadly pendulums.
Nearby, Derek, who was jittery and paranoid, set up his trap in the hall near the kitchen. He carefully balanced a bucket of nails on the top of a doorframe, tying a string to the doorknob. One wrong move, and the nails would come raining down on whoever, or whatever, walked through.
Tammy wasn't about to let the boys show her up. In the kitchen, she poured cooking oil on the floor, making it slick and impossible to stand on. She then strategically placed knives along the counters, ready to swing if someone slipped. It was like a scene from a deathtrap cooking show.
Morgana, meanwhile, took to the backyard. She dug a spike pit just outside the back door, using some stakes she found in Stacey's shed. Covering it with a tarp and placing fake grass on top, she admired her work with a satisfied smirk.
And Stacey, true to form, went for the most over-the-top creation. She built a makeshift flamethrower, taping aerosol cans to the wall, with a lighter precariously rigged to a garden hose nozzle. She grinned as she admired her masterpiece, proud of her ingenuity.
The group reconvened after an hour of hard work, each of them standing among the various traps they had built.
"This better work," Tammy muttered, eyeing the slick kitchen floor.
"It has to," Derek whispered, wiping sweat from his brow.
"We've created a house of death," Morgana said softly, smiling. "It's beautiful."
The mansion had been transformed into a minefield of deadly traps, a stark contrast to its previously pristine, suburban aesthetic. The group, exhausted from their frantic efforts, gathered in Stacey's massive living room, each of them casting nervous glances at the windows and doors. Outside, the night was eerily silent, the fog curling around the edges of the property, as if waiting for the inevitable horror to descend upon them.
Stacey, sitting cross-legged on the couch, beamed proudly. "I think we're ready! No way Dracula or that creepy werewolf can get in now."
Derek was pacing, still clutching his bag of dice. He looked like a nervous wreck, his eyes darting to every corner of the room. "Ready? You really think we're ready? What if we missed something? What if they come from, I don't know, the ceiling or something?"
Tammy, leaning against the marble countertop in the open kitchen, rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Derek. We rigged this place up like a damn fortress. If anything comes through, they're gonna get hit with nails, knives, or flaming death. We've got it covered."
Brad, stretching his legs out on the armchair, nodded. "Yeah, man, relax. Besides, I think I'm starting to get the hang of all this crazy supernatural stuff. We'll be fine."
Morgana, sitting in the shadows by the fireplace, looked at the flickering flames with a calm smile. "They're coming. I can feel it. But this time, we're ready. The traps will only delay the inevitable… but it will be fun to watch."
Derek stared at her, wide-eyed. "Fun? You think this is fun?"
Before Morgana could answer, the lights flickered. The group froze. A chill swept through the room, and the temperature seemed to drop by several degrees. The camera zoomed in on each of their faces, confusion, then fear, as they realized that something was approaching.
Stacey, still trying to keep the mood light, giggled nervously. "Must be a power surge or something. Happens all the time in old houses, right?"
Tammy didn't look convinced. She picked up her makeshift weapon, a hefty iron skillet she'd found in Stacey's gourmet kitchen, and hefted it onto her shoulder. "Yeah, sure. Because this feels normal."
Just then, there was a loud thud at the front door. The group collectively jumped, their eyes snapping toward the entrance. Another thud followed, this time louder. The door handle rattled, as if someone, or something, was trying to get inside.
Derek took several steps back, clutching his dice like a lifeline. "Oh no, oh no… they're here. They're here! What do we do?!"
Brad stood up, his muscles tensing. "Calm down, man. We've got this. We just… wait for them to come through the door, and then… bam! Trap time."
Another thud, even louder now, reverberated through the house. The front door creaked under the pressure, the wood groaning as if it would snap any second.
Stacey stood up, still trying to keep up her bubbly facade, but her smile was starting to waver. "Maybe we should… you know, go upstairs? Just in case?"
The camera focused on the front door as the handle jiggled violently again. The camera then cut to the traps they had set up, the bucket of nails precariously balanced over the door, the tripwire leading to the heavy dumbbells, and the oil-covered floor glistening menacingly. Everything was in place, ready to spring into action the moment the door opened.
Narrator (mocking): "Because nothing says safety like a bucket of nails over your head."
Tammy narrowed her eyes at the door. "If it comes through, it's getting nailed. Let's just hope these traps work."
The group cautiously backed away from the front entrance, retreating toward the grand staircase that led to the upper floors of the mansion. Stacey, ever the optimist, led the way, her movements quick and jittery. "Okay, everyone upstairs! We can barricade ourselves in my room, it's got a lock!"
Morgana lingered at the bottom of the staircase, her eyes fixed on the front door as another thud echoed through the house. She seemed almost entranced by the thought of what was coming, but Tammy gave her a shove.
"Move it, Goth Girl," Tammy muttered, gesturing for Morgana to head upstairs. "We'll watch the traps from above."
Morgana smiled faintly, but finally followed the others up the stairs. Once they reached the top, Derek, now fully embracing his role as the paranoid member of the group, quickly scanned the hallway.
"I don't like this. We're just cornering ourselves," Derek mumbled, half to himself.
"You want to go back down there?" Brad quipped. "I'd rather take my chances with the death traps."
Tammy glanced down at the front door from the second-floor landing. The door was still shaking under the pressure from whatever was on the other side. The camera focused on the dumbbells and the tripwires, the tension mounting as the traps seemed ready to spring at any moment.
Narrator (smugly): "Will the traps work? Or will they just make things worse? Stay tuned."
The group burst into Stacey's enormous, pink-themed bedroom, complete with plush carpets, a chandelier, and shelves lined with fluffy stuffed animals. It looked like a teenager's dream room, and under normal circumstances, it would've been laughable. But tonight, it was their fortress.
Stacey shut the door and locked it with a loud click, throwing herself onto the bed. "Okay, we're safe. For now. Totally safe."
Tammy, ever the realist, started pushing furniture against the door, a dresser, a vanity, and even a pink beanbag chair. "Yeah, totally safe. Until whatever's out there gets in."
Brad grabbed a nearby lamp, holding it like a weapon, while Derek kept his back to the wall, still muttering under his breath. "I can't believe this is happening. We're gonna die. We're really gonna die."
Morgana, who had been silent for the last few minutes, finally spoke up, her voice soft but steady. "They're testing us. They want to see if we'll run… or fight."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Tammy asked, glancing at her suspiciously.
Morgana's eyes gleamed with dark excitement. "This is their game. We're just pieces on the board."
Before anyone could respond, there was a deafening crash from downstairs, followed by the sound of the front door slamming open. The house shook with the impact, and the group collectively froze.
"They're in," Derek whispered, his face pale.
Brad gripped the lamp tighter, his knuckles turning white. "Guess we're about to see if Stacey's little Home Alone plan is gonna save our asses."
The camera cut to the front door, now wide open, as something, a shadowy figure, stepped inside. The moment its foot crossed the threshold, the tripwire was triggered. With a loud snap, the bucket of nails came crashing down from above, spilling sharp metal onto the intruder.
But instead of a scream or a cry of pain, there was only a low, menacing growl. The figure barely seemed phased, shaking off the nails as if they were nothing.
Upstairs, Derek was trembling. "It… it didn't work?"
Tammy frowned, looking over the railing. "Great. Just great."
From downstairs, they heard a sudden crash as the dumbbells swung down, smashing into something solid. This time, there was a loud grunt of pain, followed by another growl.
Narrator (chuckling): "Ah, there we go. Guess the dumbbells packed a punch."