Wonderland's Country Estate of Shadows (part 9)

Zack knew when people say, ‘country estate,’ they usually mean a big grand house with a lot of beauty and land. But the house that they were looking at was everything that Adaline had made it to be; terrifying and somewhat nightmarish. The building rose forbidding and brutal as if it had been waiting for them to come and save the others. Dan, Damian, Tina, and Zack stared at the unfamiliar countryside; the hills shot up like knives and the air was crisp. The moon had started to peek out from behind one of the hills; they had spent almost half the day in the maze. Damian looked at Tina, who was crunching her hands into fists at her sides as her eyes darkened into a ruby-red color, “Hey, take it easy,” he said as he pulled one of the nearby roses out of the ground. Something in Tina snapped, “DON’T TELL ME TO TAKE IT EASY! WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO TAKE IT EASY, IF YOUR BOYFRIEND WAS DEAD AND YOUR TWIN SISTER WAS BEING HELD CAPTIVE BY A MURDER?!” Tina stalked away from them in utter fury. Dan and Damian exchanged glances with Zack, who just shrugged it off and said, “Look, Tina,” Tina whirled around and cut him off saying, “NO, ZACK! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M GOING THROUGH!” Dan looked over at her and muttered, “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations,” under his breath. Zack shook his head, “Right now that doesn’t matter, because the others need our help.” They all looked up at each other and nodded...  

The wolf masked figure stood in the middle of the basement door as her followers started to open the nearby gas containers and a purple-ish mist came out. Liz watched the others slowly fall back to sleep as the gas came closer to her. Just before she blacked out she could hear the sweet voice of Adaline coming from the wolf-masked figure, “Hello, unwelcome guests.” And saw Simon pull out one of the oracle cards and drop it onto the floor, then the world went black... 

 When Tina and the others stepped into the house, the pen of death’s power kicked in. Tina saw the ghosts of children and the victims of the masked figures. One of the ghost kids was a boy who had two different colored eyes; one was baby blue and the other was a light brown. Tina looked at the others to see if they saw the ghosts too, “Hey, guys?” Zack whispered to Tina before she could continue, “They can’t see what we see because the pens chose us.” Zack couldn’t see ghosts but what he saw was worse; demons of every emotion were around afflicting different energies onto nearby objects. A human-looking demon who was wearing a black and white scarf bent down and ran his fingers across the floorboards causing them to creak. Tina glared at Zack, “Why us?” Zack couldn’t answer that. He just stared at the one demon that he recognized; standing a few feet in front of them was the “The ghoul girl of crazy nightmares”. Zack turned to the others, “I think we should split up to find the others; me and Damian are a team, and Dan and Tina are a team, that way each team has a person with the pens’ powers.” They all looked at each other with hidden anxiety and went their separate ways down long, dark hallways... 

When Simon woke up, he found himself tied to a chair with barb wire sitting at a dining table. The room was black and when he tried to extend his hands to the nearest object he could feel the wire’s blades dig into his skin. Fear overcame him and his heart started to race. He took a wheezy breath. It felt like there was barb wire in his throat as well; breathing was like having razor blades shredding his throat as he swallowed. Simon could hear the others breathing but no one said anything. When Simon went to open his mouth something held it in place as if it was sewn shut. Simon’s muffled screams were joined by a chorus of silent fear... 

Adaline stood outside of the home of her inner demon who hides behind sweet smiles. The building was the embodiment of her love of horror and gore; the perfect place for a murder and killer cult to live and work in. Her body then started to shape-shift into a wolf in armor. Her brown fur peeked out from in between the steel plates. She was a smaller wolf this time and her paws had black ink splattered on them. Adaline headed for the door... 

Zack could sense the demon following him but remain calm cause he couldn’t have Damian think he was going crazy. Zack looked down at the floor to avoid thinking about her and noticed black paw prints. Zack’s eyes widened, “Addie’s here!” he whispered to Damian as they bent down to examine the marks. Damian raised an eyebrow, “How can you tell?” Zack picked up light brown fur that had been in the ink as he smiled for the first time since Addie disappeared, “Addie’s wolf fur.” They followed the tracks to a long hallway leading them to an old wooden door at the end. Zack and Damian braced themselves for whatever may come out of the room on the other side of the door. The door creaked as it opened, revealing a small room with one broken window. When Zack saw what was in the center of the room all hope finding and bringing Addie home faded. Standing in the middle of the room, bathing in the moonlight coming from the window, was a stone statue of a wolf covered in black roses. Ink dripped from the tip of her ear and down her cheek before it fell to the floor... 

Harper had done it; Kelsey was encased in stone. She had burns on her hands and was out of breath, but she had done it. She had made him fell into the well. Harper turned to go help the others when she felt a little pinch on the back of her neck. She reached and pulled out a moose tranquilizing dart as her knees gave out. The world slowly began to spin around her as a pair of teenagers stepped out from behind the nearby bushes; one was a boy and the other was a girl. The girl was truly a snake in human form with reddish-almost black eyes that peered out from behind a snake mask and long raven hair with two blood-red streaks. Her thin body was wrapped in snakeskin and black leather. The boy had curly red hair that bounced as he walked; just like his big brother...