Back to the present
“Uh, you okay?”
Oliver is hunched over, shivering and breathing heavily
“Uh, hey, um, its okay, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to, uh”
“There, there”
She awkwardly pats his back
Is clumsy, but rhythmic. It grounds him
“You need to do uhh breathing. With numbers, I believe, yes do that”
He does that
They wait for a while until he recuperates his composure
“Uh, do I need to get the other guy here, or are you good now?”
“I’m good to speak now, it’s okay”
“Do you need water or…”
“No need to worry, I’m- I can manage on my own”
“Although I wouldn’t mind getting Ángel in here…
No, if I do so I won’t get any information.
I’m a professional, I can do this”
“How… how do you know about that?”
“… Once dad got a hold of those investigations, he became obsessed”
“He talked day and night about those houses, about their potential, about their location”
“While there have always been Haunted Houses all around the world, they’re actually really difficult to find”
“He has been looking for years and years,
until one day, finally, he found one”
“A house made into an art display, it’s said the people who go in, don’t come out”
A shiver runs down his spine
“The owner was really proud of their art. They wished that the people who came to see them would never leave. Or so the interviews say”
“…I see. That’s- That must have been the purpose”
“Uh, would it be okay for you to elaborate?”
He takes a deep breath
“…The rooms kept changing. I- I couldn’t get out. There wasn’t an exit. Just more and more rooms”
“Was - did the creator get out? Or did they unknowingly doomed themselves as well?”
“That makes sense”
“A lot if haunted houses get lost to time, they get demolished, sold to companies, destroyed.
This house was perfect for the taking, Dad planned on buying it.
I heard him ramble about changing the purpose, he thought there might be someway to override the previous command and make a new one.
I don’t really believe in that theory to be honest, but he wanted to try it, he wanted a haunted house of his own”
“And then you came along”
“You left a petition to demolish it because you got trapped in it and deemed it a danger to people”
“I saw it on the local news, Detective gets trapped in abandoned house, Human remains were found by officers upon investigation, it has now been demolished and replaced by a Starbucks”
“Dad was absolutely furious. You demolished the Haunted house he took years on finding.
He investigated you. It turns out you had a very convenient webpage with a lot of information on how to contact you”
“And now you’re here”
“… Ah Fuck
He wants me dead, doesn’t he?”
“Wait, does that mean…?”
“Your father, the factory, do you think the reason he made all those workers get hurt was because…”
“… He wanted to make a Haunted house out of it, using the will and emotions of the workers”
“What would the purpose even be? To keep working despite anything?”
“I believe so, too. I tried to stop him by exposing it with the speedrunning thing, but I never found out if it actually worked”
“What? Why?”
“Because some asshole that I shall not name bought the company, so now we don’t have any authorization to go in. The guy hasn’t even stepped inside the building! He just sent an email with ‘keep up the good work sunglasses emoji thumbs up emoji’ and left everyone to fend for themselves!”
“What an infuriating man”
“I feel bad for the poor soul who managed to anger her”
She sighs
“But, that aside, here’s the terrible part”
“You’ve heard this is a museum, right? It wasn’t supposed to be made here.
He chose this location”
“… Oh.
Oh no.”
“So, we have 2 alternatives”
“Either he is planning to make this a Haunted house, using us”
“Or, the worst, most likely scenario”
“This house is already Haunted
and we got eaten”