The art gallery the friends entered was a large octagonal room, its walls were covered with four paintings that hung on a backdrop of bubblegum-striped wallpaper. The ceiling was a plaster relief recessed in its center overhead and on a narrow ledge below the paintings were gargoyle statues holding candles in their claw hands and leering down at the ninja turtles and allies with evil grinning faces. As Leo and his comrades stepped into the room, the door behind them slid closed.
NINJARA
Guys, we shouldn't come in here, I'm scared.
LEONARDO
I don't see a way out. There are no doors, not even a window.
LEATHERHEAD
So how do we get out of here, huh? <confused> I don't even see the door we came thru.
MICHAELANGELO
Oh, no. Now another door closes in our faces and we're trapped in another room again.
DONATELLO
Hold on, let's stay calm and not panic. If there's a way in, there's a way out.
The others look at him as if he has something in mind of getting out of their predicament so to speak and Donnie explains.
DONATELLO
Mansions, like this one built long ago had secret passageways or hidden tunnels connected to various rooms cleverly concealed behind false panels or walls that allowed butlers, maids, servants to find their way around in case they got lost or confused as to where they were going.
RAPHAEL
So, what you're saying is...
DONATELLO
There has to be a hidden passageway behind one of these wall panels in this gallery. All we have to do is find that hollow section of wall, in other words tap or knock against it to listen to the dull sound it makes which will enable us to locate the hidden door to escape.
USAGI
Sounds like a good plan to me, Don. Let's get started.
LEONARDO
I agree, you work over that way and we'll work over this way and meet back here.
NINJARA
Okay, I guess...<shrugs helplessly>
Even as the gang split up and started feeling along the walls to locate that false panel concealing the hidden door the voice of the ghost host echoes throughout the chamber as if he were standing with them in the room, giving his guided tour through his home.
GHOST HOST
Here, in the gallery...you see there paintings of some of our residents as they appeared in their coruptable mortal state...Even in this flickering gloom, your cadavorous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding...your trusting mortal eyes tell you that these walls are streching...
Suddenly without warning a strange change began to take form within the gallery, it was as if the walls were actually moving up, streching themselves taller as the ceiling began to move away! Simultanously the paintings were also streching too.
LEATHERHEAD
What-the?! <shocked by what he sees> What's happening to the paintings?
MICHAELANGELO
Aaaaaaaugh! <again he screams like Charlie Brown> They're streching!
RAPHAEL
Good grief! They are getting bigger.
USAGI
This can't be real, it cannot be happening.
NINJARA
A-aaaaaaaaa...<tries speaking or screaming but is paralyzed>
LEONARDO
The walls, they're streching themselves taller. What's going on here?
DONATELLO
I don't know, bro. Must be some kind of illusion or mind-tricks our eyes are playing on us as though this chamber is expanding itself.
LEONARDO
Well, I don't like it. <nervous> Who knows what will happen next.
MICHAELANGELO
I hope nothing happens, I wish it would stop!
Raph, Leatherhead, even Ninjara agree with Mikey's comments. Leo, Usagi and Don just stare in stunned alarm as the gallery continued getting taller before their eyes while the ghost host continues his narrative.
GHOST HOST
But logic says no, it's mere hallucination...then look above you, examine everything carefully...Your logic cannot deny that this chamber has no windows and no doors...which offers a rather logical challenge, to find a way out...hmhmmhmmmahahahaah, of course, there's always my way...
Suddenly all the candles in the room went out as if snuffed out by an unfelt wind, including the candelabra Donnie held that also blew out. Then lightning flashed from above the room, illuminating the attic area, there seemed to be no roof. From the rafters a corpse of a dead body of an unknown person swayed, dangling by a taut rope. Leo, Mike, Raph, Don, Usagi, Ninjara, Leatherhead stared with eyes wide and mouths open in horror at this terrifying scene before the room plunged into darkness again. Without warning a loud scream cut through the stillness as if some unseen victim was falling to his death.
GHOST SCREAM
Ahhhhhhhhh!!!...
Then it was lost or swallowed in another booming crash of thunder & lightning. Just then a black crow came flying from out of nowhere into the gallery to perch atop one of the gargoyle statues to peer down at the mutants and spoke in a voice that was not its own.
CROW
Caw-caw, the courage way out. He chose the courage way out, caw-caw-caw!
Then it flapped its wings and flew away into the darkness and was gone. Ninjara clutched Raph's arm during what seemed to be an endless darkness, Mikey and Leatherhead huddled against each other in terror, Donnie, Usagi and Leo standing like frozen statues in fear themselves. In a few seconds the candles relit by magic to reveal the gallery restored back to its normal state, it was as if nothing had happened.
LEONARDO
Whoa, the gallery is normal again, the walls no longer moving.
LEATHERHEAD
Yes, even the portraits are normal also.
MICHAELANGELO
Whew, <sighs in relief> thank goodness for that.
USAGI <hears a sound>
What was that?
Across the chamber a false panel slid sideways to expose a dimly lit hallway beyond.
NINJARA
Yo! There's the hidden door!
DONATELLO
Yes, we found it, or...the ghost host found it for us.
RAPHAEL
Right! <not impressed> And I suppose he intended to scare us with the lights-out trick, eh?
LEONARDO
I don't think so, Raph. He was only giving us a tour, not trying to frighten us.
RAPHAEL
Well, he's doing a good job of it, at the moment.
NINJARA
Boys, can we leave, now?
MICHAELANGELO
Yes, get out of this chamber before anything else happens.
LEONARDO
C'mon, ninjas. Follow me and stay close.
And with that the gang hurried out of the haunted art gallery and into the hallway with no knowledge of what awaited them on this bizzare journey into the unknown. Even as they exited the gallery the ghost host appologized for scaring his visitors.
GHOST HOST
Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you prematurely, hmhmmhmmm...the real chills come later...Now, as they say, look alive...and we'll continue our little tour and let's all stay together, please...
TO BE CONTINUED...
Chapter 3
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