Deanna and the case of the Puzzle house
CHAPTER ONE
Deanna was woken up by the sound of her bedside telephone ringing, Her slender fingers fumbled around for a few seconds until they found what they were searching for, she slowly put the phone to her ear and though still half asleep said “who’s there?” It was a male voice at the other end; he quickly told her about the break in and the missing artifact. Deanna told the man that she would be right there, once the phone was back on the hook she slid her long shapely legs out of the bed and shakily headed for the bathroom, moments later she was dressed in her white blouse, short red plaid skirt, black silky soft opaque tights and a pair of black Mary Jane shoes. Quickly she headed out of the door and into her red sports car. At only twenty one she looked incredible with her long legs and slim figure and beautiful face with a sweet innocent smile.
She soon arrived at the museum for the paranormal; Deanna opened her car door wide and in a lady like fashion swung both her legs out, her slender pantyhose legs swished as she walked, outside the curator of the museum was waiting for her. He walked slowly down the rag stone steps to greet her, and with his right hand extended towards her spoke, in a strong English accent. “Hello Miss Deanna Taylor, Thank you so much for coming. It’s awfully good of you to come at such a un earthly hour”. She looked at him for a second, as she was having a little trouble with the British accent. (Being a British myself and living in America, I know from experience that a lot of Americans find it hard to understand our accent.) The two of them walked up the stairs and into the museum, Deanna headed for the room where the artifact had been stolen. The center row of florescent light flicked, slowly and with expert precision she looked around for clues, but there were none to be found, for who ever had committed this crime obviously knew what they were doing.
Deanna felt the cold clammy hand upon her should and when she looked round she could see this bony old woman with icy cold eyes staring her, she croakily told Deanna to look at the painting labeled Puzzle house in the old art gallery, there she would find the clues she was looking for. Deanna heard a noise quickly turned round, but when she turned back again the old lady had vanished, and so she decided to head for the art gallery. The painting was of a strange old looking mansion, what was strange about it was the fact that it almost looked endless.
“Are I see you found the painting called puzzle house” The curator said as he walked into the gallery.
“Yes” replied Deanna in her softly spoken voice.
“You know the strange thing about that painting asides the fact that it appears to go on for ever, is the fact that the missing artifact is suppose to be a key, which once placed upon the peddle stool in the center of the main room, will unlock the gateway to a dark and evil dimension”.
Deanna just stared at him for what seemed like an eternity, before he bothered to speak again. “Well that’s the myth anyway”, and with that he turned around and walked out of the gallery leaving Deanna to think that perhaps someone was indeed trying to open the portal of which the curator had spoke of.. She knew she had to find this house and that some how it would be the key to this whole mystery. Suddenly two strong arms wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her sides, another hand placed a damp rag over her nose and mouth and she recognized the sweet smell of chloroform. Deanna’s eyes grew heavy and it wasn’t long before she passed out. Slowly the fuzziness begun to fade as Deanna regained her senses, she could tell that her hands had been tightly bound behind her back and her shapely ankles had also been tightly bound together and then lashed to the side of the van that she was now traveling in. Deanna tried to make a sound but all she could manage was a few mmmppphhhh. Deanna knew that getting bound hand and foot often went with the job, but still she wished she had a buck for every time it had happened to her, the van screeched to a halt and she could hear the sound of two doors sliding back, next there was the blinding light of the sun as the van doors opened up and she was roughly carried out of the van and into the mansion from the painting.
Deanna found herself dump on the floor in the middle of a huge hallway, she was then untied and before she could utter a single word the men rushed out of the house locking the front door. She noticed a note on the floor, which read go to the front room and watch the video, Curiosity got the better of her and since she was trapped in the house anyway decided to do as the note read. This middle aged man appeared on the screen and told her of the many supernatural traps that abide inside the house, he told her that some were tentacles, some rope, some were just plain entrapment. The middle aged man went on to tell her that she had meddled in to many of his affairs in the passed and though he would like to see the end of her he wanted to make things sporting, so in typical villain style, he would give her a fighting chance, by solving the puzzle house and finding the artifact and thus gaining her freedom, it was then that the video ended. Well I best get started she thought to herself, but which room to start in? Deanna decided the room straight in front of her would be as good as any.
CHAPTER TWO
As she entered the room, her mouth opened wide. “Oh my god, this room is incredible!” She screamed the room ceiling had a blue sky with white clouds painted on it and beautiful birds flying across it. In the middle was a huge chandelier and straight in front of her was an old fire place with logs and an old painting, of what she presumed to be the original owner. Deanna continued walking around the room, looking carefully at everything in the hopes of finding some sort of clue. She lifted up the cushions of the four seater sofa, hoping that there might be a scrap of paper or something, anything the might help find a way out of this nightmare house, she then decided to move onto the large bookcase that sat in the far corner of the room. As she started to make her way over to it she heard this voice come out of no where saying over and over again.
“Getting warmer, getting very warm,” she knew that they were taunting her, but at least their taunts might help to lead her in the right direction. Something glistened within the bookcase and the closer she got to it, the more she realized that it was indeed some sort of key, but a key to what she wondered. Deanna cursed to herself as she came to realize that the only way she was going to reach the key was to pull the heavy four seater sofa over to the book case and climb up onto the arm of it. She pulled and pushed the sofa towards the bookcase and after an exhausting half hour finally managed to move it into the right position, carefully she climbed up onto the arm of the sofa, but still she couldn’t quite reach, only by standing on tip toe and stretching her fingers was she able to reach the key. Deanna was so focused on looking at the gold key with the letter GA on it that she didn’t pay attention to what she was doing and instead of placing her right foot on the floor she placed it on the edge of the sofa cushion nearest to the arm. With most of her weight on her right leg, her right foot slid down pass the cushion and was forced between the springs of the sofa and the side of the arm, her right ankle was now tightly wedged in the sofa. No matter how hard she pulled Deanna was unable to free her long silky hosed leg.
“Dam it, how could I be so stupid!” she screamed out in frustration as she struggled and squirmed.
“I see you’ve got your self in quite a predicament” the voice laughed as it broke the silence of the room.
Deanna chose to ignore the comment and focused on her predicament, she placed both of her hands on her right leg’s calf and pulled hard, but nothing happened. Her slim ankle remained trapped, after another half hour of struggling, an idea came to her, so she carefully placed her left foot on the cushion of the sofa and using her wait was able to push down and maneuver the springs into a forty five degree angle which allowed her to free her trapped leg. “Well there is something to be said about being supple” Deanna thought to herself as she gently rubbed her ankle. She was surprised to find that she felt no pain, which was one of the rules of the puzzle house; Deanna took a long hard look at the gold key with the letter GA on it. She wondered if the letter was some kind of symbol and if so what it represented, moments later she left the room and head for the room next door. Since Deanna had no map to the room and no idea where each clue might be, she had no option but to check out each room with the knowledge that each room may hold some kind of hidden peril just waiting to jump out and grab her. She carefully opened the large door covered in red padded leather; from somewhere inside the room she could here this muffling sound. Deanna noticed the drab paint work within the room and the black curtains, she couldn’t help but to think, who in their right mind would paint an entire room black.
As she walked deeper and deeper into the room the mmmpppfff sounds got louder and louder, to the far left of the room hidden in a dark corner was a large blue chest and when she slowly opened the chest she found to her surprise her friend Tracey, dressed in a tight black top, very short black pleated mini skirt, black opaque pantyhose and white trainers. Her wrists were bound behind her back with rope going around her chest and her legs had been bound at the ankles, knees and thighs. She also had a cleave gag on, she looked at Deanna with pleading eyes. Quickly she freed her friend Tracey, who told her how she was grabbed by two men in a black van, as she was on her way home from collage. She had been knocked out and when she came too had found her self bound hand and foot in this huge chest. Part of Deanna was sorry to hear what had happened to her close friend, but another part of her was grateful that she was here and that she wouldn’t have to face this house alone.
“Well I guess, now the gang is all here and the games can truly begin” echoed the unknown voice.
“Who was that?” Tracey asked, in a nervous voice.
“Our captor, but don’t worry I’m sure that between are brilliant minds we will crack this case and get out of here” replied Deanna. Deanna quickly filled in Tracey and they both got back to the work in hand, which was to find the missing artifact and to get the hell out of there.
CHAPTER 3
Tracey spotted this antique looking chair and so decided to wonder over to it, her fingers lightly glided over the soft padded back and the soft seat the material felt like velvet, she also noticed the strange pattern which look like ivy running all over the arms and legs of the chair, Tracey suddenly had this irresistible urge to sit on the chair. As her well formed bottom sat upon it and her arms rested upon the chair’s arms, she could feel this odd wriggle movement as if something was alive on the arms of it. Before she had a chance to stand up, ivy pattern wrapped itself around her waist and neck pinning her to the chair, she could only sit there and watch as the ivy on the arms slowly moved around her wrists pinning them to the chair, next she felt the ivy move slowly around her slender ankles, once, twice, three times before they to pinned her long to die for legs to the chair.
“Deanna, help me!” She screamed in a terrified voice. Deanna quickly turned round and gasped when she saw her friend pinned to the chair, as she looked on in horror more and more ivy was working its way around Tracey’s leg, locking them firmly to the chair. Deanna pulled at the ivy as her friend Tracey wriggled and squirmed in her own vain attempt to gain freedom. But she found herself not strong enough to break the vines bonds
“I’m going to try to find something to break the ivy” Deanna told Tracey in as calm a voice as she could manage, but with all of her attention focused on trying to free her friend, she hadn’t felt or noticed the ivy that had wrapped itself around her right ankle, as Deanna turned round and tried to walked forward her right leg was pulled behind her and she fell onto the floor. Deanna turned her head round and looked at her trapped ankle, before she had any chance of pulling her other leg out of the way, three vines slivered out from the chair and snaked their way up around her long silky hosed left leg, all the way to her slim waist. The same was done to her right leg and she too was now helplessly trapped by the chair. Deanna kicked her long legs in a scissor movement, but it was hopeless. Her finger nails clawed at the floor as she tried desperately to break free. Just as she was about to give up, she noticed something glistening under the chest, and so she stretched and strained her way to it, but as she pull the shiny object from under the chest she discovered that not only was it a knife with which to free the pair of them but it was also the second key with the letters TE. Quickly she cut her way through the ivy that held her legs and then she freed Tracey. The pair of them quickly fled the room before more vines could rein snare them. They could hear the sound of scratching upon the door which they had closed.
“Well I guess it’s up stairs next, that’s if your up to it Tracey?”
“You bet, the sooner we find those keys and the artifact the quicker we get out of this dreadful place” she replied.
The two of them carefully made their way up the wide staircase, once they had nearly reached the top of the staircase they noticed that it split off to the left and right, the one to the right look dark and foreboding, whilst the left looked more inviting. “Well guess we will have to split up for the time being” Deanna said to Tracey with as brave a smile that she could muster. Tracey gave her a nervous look and then slowly nodded; Deanna chose the right side as she knew how scared her friend was. The two of them gave each other a huge hug and then set off in their separate directions. Tracey slowly climbed the stairs, by now her mind was working over time as she imagined monsters and fiends hiding in the shadows, just waiting to snag her ankles. Get a hold of your self she thought to herself, for she knew that Deanna would be counting on her and that they had survived many a scrape like The Glass Ruby and the Lair of the octagon. Once she had reached the top she noticed the solid oak door a few meters in front of her, slowly and cautiously she made her way down the, what seemed to her log corridor. Tracey’s trembling fingers slowly reached for the brass door knob of the solid oak door, the door creaked as she opened it, her fingers searched for the light switch and in just mere seconds a bright light filled the hallway that had lay hidden behind the door. As Tracey made her way inside her right hosed glad leg brushed against something, tearing a hole in her tights.
“Damn!” she shouted out in annoyance. Tracey opened the door immediately to her right and walked in; she soon realized that she had entered one of the bedrooms, just of to her left was a huge chest of draws which she slowly opened and to her delight inside sat a bran new pair of tan coloured spandex opaque pantyhose, which without a seconds thought she put on, Tracey then dropped her ruined pair into the bedside rubbish bin. After a careful search of the room she found nothing of importance and so chose to leave and try another room.
CHAPTER 4
Deanna slowly felt her way along the corridor that lay at the top of the stairs, her slim delicate fingers felt the warm wood paneling, and her dainty feet echoed along the wooden floor. Seconds after Deanna had found a light switch and turned on the hallway lights, icy fingers closed around her slim ankle with a vice like grip. Deanna looked down and made a startled cry, she tried to kick her foot out, but found the grip of the hand too strong for her, another hand appeared from out of nowhere, it lunged at her slender left silky hosed ankle and locked onto it with a grip equal to the first hand. Deanna tried to pull her long athletic legs free of the hands, but found little movement, she then placed both of her hands on her right calf and pulled, but still the hands held her legs firmly. Suddenly her legs were pulled from under her and she landed on her back with a thud, though she was physically unharmed, she was a little dazed having had the wind knocked out of her. Before she had the chance to regain her full senses, the hands started to drag her down the hallway and through an open doorway. She did however notice a symbol on the doorway which looked a like a giant ink stain. Once she was well and truly inside the room the hands released her and the door slammed shut, slowly she stood up and brushed herself down, once all of her clothes were straightened out. Deanna set about trying to open the door but it refused to open. She then noticed round wooden table to her right and a small pouch on it, when Deanna opened the pouch she found inside the third key with the letters WA on it.
Deanna looked at all three keys as she gently placed them on the table, the gold key had the letters GA and the silver key had the letters TE and the third one which was black had the letters WA. Seeing the keys next to each other told Deanna that they were in fact spelling a word which she guessed to be GATEWAY. “Hmm, looks like just one more key to find” Deanna whispered to herself as she placed all three keys back into the pouch and then into her blouse pocket. As she turned round there was this loud creaking sound and slowly the door opened, Deanna begun to make her way to the door, when her feet found something sticky on the floor. “What the hell” Deanna said out loud as she looked down at her feet, she watched with pure horror on her flawless face as the green sticky ooze begun to slowly envelope her feet and then crawl its way inch by inch up her smooth calves. She twisted and turned in desperation trying to break its grip, but the ooze just kept climbing up her legs. In no time at all it had reached her waist and then for some strange reason just stopped. Deanna could feel the ooze slowly start to harden around her legs. If I don’t get out of this stuff soon I’m going to be trapped here for a long time, she thought to herself as she looked around the room looking for something that she could use to regain her freedom.
Tracey decided to try the door directly in front of her. Tracey now found herself in what could only be described as a child’s playroom, slowly she walked into the center of the room, and she could hear whispering from under the bed, Tracey’s heart begun to beat faster and faster as she proceeded to walk towards the bed. Tracey suddenly stopped a couple of feet from the bed, for she couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing, a dozen plastic fairy dolls flew out from under the bed with rope in their hands, the dolls looked to be about a foot long and the rope was approximately half an inch thick. They swarmed around Tracey’s long legs. And before long Tracey found her legs being drawn together as the dolls wrapped the rope around them in a crisscross pattern. Her startling slender legs were completely hidden under the rope. Tracey begun to rock backwards and forwards, with her legs so tightly bound she was finding it difficult to keep her balance. Two of the fairy dolls stopped tying her legs and flew up to her shoulders where they then supported her so that she wouldn’t fall over, the remaining ten continued to wrap ropes around her slender waist and arms. Tracey realized the dolls were wrapping her up like a column. It wasn’t long before her entire body was hidden under rope and all that was left uncovered was her neck, head and feet.
The dolls slowly lowered her to the floor and Tracey was surprised to find how stiff the ropes made her legs. She strained against her bonds, but found very little movement, for toy dolls they sure knew how to restrain a person, she thought to herself. All Tracey could do was lay there and watch the fairy dolls jump up and down triumphantly on her stomach. Tracey rolled onto her side sending the fairy dolls sliding across the room, she then rolled onto her stomach and tried to worm her way across the room towards the door in the hopes of finding someway of getting herself free. But the dolls were too quick for her, they quickly lassoed her bound ankles and begun the process of dragging her back. Tracey screamed at the top of her voice for them to let her go, but her pleads went unheard; they merely continued to torment and tease her. One of the fairy dolls slowly begun to undo the laces of her trainers and then started to remove her sport shoes, she tried to kick her legs up hi into the air in order to prevent her trainers being removed, but because of the tight ropes that bound her long slender legs, she found that she could only lift her legs a few inches, which meant that the fairy doll had little trouble in removing her shoes. Two of the dolls started to tickle her feet, Tracey begun to buck madly as she tried desperately to avoid the attacking fairy doll hands.
CHAPTER 5
Deanna could feel the green ooze gradually get harder and harder and just as she was about to give up all hope of ever gaining her freedom, she had a miraculous idea. She got the keys from out of her blouse pocket and begun to scrape them along the ooze, but something even she had not anticipated happened, the keys begun to glow orange and all of a sudden the ooze retreated as if it was in pain. Deanna quickly ran from the room, since that was the only room in the hallway she decided to go find her friend Tracey. Deanna arrived at the same hallway entrance that Tracey had and she begun to wonder which room to try. It was then she heard a loud scream followed by hysterical laughter, that’s Tracey she thought to herself as she ran towards the sound of the screams and laughter. Deanna flung the door to the room were the sounds were coming from wide open, her mouth dropped when she saw her friend lying on the floor all wrapped up and being tickled by plastic fairy dolls. The dolls scrambled back under the bed leaving poor Tracey tightly bound and looking up at her friend.
“Hahahaha, I should leave you like that Tracey, I knew it wouldn’t belong before you got into trouble again!” Deanna laughed.
“I’m glad you find it funny, now get me out of these ropes!” Tracey screamed. But it took Deanna a good five minutes before she could stop laughing enough to untie her friend, Tracey just gave her a little pout before she too started to laugh, the two of them then left the room and once back into the hallway Deanna showed Tracey the third key. But she tactfully left out the part about the trapping ooze.
“I think we should stick together Tracey from now on” Deanna commented. Tracey gave her a little nod whilst putting her trainers back on. She was feeling a little embarrassed, the two of them continued down the hallway which seemed to go on forever, as they turned the corner the pair of them suddenly stopped in their tracks. The carpeted floor turned into a marble one and all along the walls were suits of amour as well as coats of arms of the many royalties that had stayed there, Tracey just looked at Deanna with a wow expression. Slowly the pair of them made their way down the hallway until they came to a dead end, they both turned round to head back the way that they had come but to their astonishment the path they had taken was no longer there instead they were faced with a stone wall.
“What do we do now?” Tracey asked.
“Hmm, I don’t know…..But there must be some hidden panel here” Deanna said as she begun tapping on the wall that they had originally stopped at. Tracey went to lean back against the wall, feeling like she should just give up and not believing that they would ever get out of there, but as she did so instead of finding a sold surface she found nothing but air and fell straight through.
“Tracey!” screamed Deanna as she ran to the point where her friend had fallen through. Without a moments hesitation she would straight through and found her friend standing up brushing herself of and moaning under her breath. The hallway was dimly lit by torches, so the pair of them made their way down very cautiously, once about half way down they come to a coffin standing up against the wall and when Tracey opened they discovered that it was indeed a doorway to another hidden room. Deanna walked in first, closely followed by her friend, the floor creaked and groaned at their weight, because unlike the other floor this one was a rickety wooden floor with holes scattered about it. Deanna’s right foot plunged through the floor down to her hip. She could feel something under the floor, slowly she tried to lift her foot out but as she begun to pull her leg free she could feel cables or something wrapping around her ankle tightly. All Deanna could manage was to get her leg out of the floor up to her knee, before she found too much resistance.
“Deanna, you ok?” Tracey asked, a little worried about her friend.
“I can’t get my leg free, my foot is tangled up in something” Deanna replied in a straining voice as she continued to struggled with her right leg.
“I’ll try to find something to get you free with” Tracey said as she rushed of to find something to help her friend. Tracey search around the room, but could find nothing that would help. She then banged on an old wooden table in frustration; the candle laver that sat upon the table fell off and smashed a small hole in the floor. That’s it you idiot, Tracey thought to herself, I can use that candle stick to make the hole around Deanna leg bigger and then hopefully untangle her trapped leg. Tracey hit the floor as hard as she could. It wasn’t long before the hole was bigger enough for her to reach in and untangle her friend’s ankle.
“Now look, who’s got themselves in trouble” She smirked, as she lifted her friend’s leg free. Deanna looked at her friend and blew her a great big raspberry. The two of them carefully searched the room looking for the last key. But it was Tracey this time that found the red key with the letter Y on it, she shouted out to Deanna that she had found it and the pair of them gave each other a great big hug.
“Well now that we have all four keys, let’s go find the door that they go to” smiled Deanna. Both girls now felt a lot happier and they knew that they would soon solve the puzzle of the puzzle house.
CHAPTER 6
Once they had left the room, they found themselves outside surrounded by long grass; they could also see a single black door. Deanna and Tracey started to make their way towards the door, but as they got about half way could here this slithering sound, both girls looked round but could see nothing, so they continued on towards the door, Tracey felt something touch her ankle and she let out a little gasp, but when she looked down she saw nothing there. This happened to her three times and each time she looked down there would be nothing there. On the fourth occasion she ignored the sensation, which was a big mistake. The grass had woven itself into a form of rope and begun to encircle her slim ankle. Because the grass had grabbed her leg meant that she was unable to walk properly and poor Tracey fell over. Another grass rope wrapped itself around her left ankle and then both her slender wrists were ensnared. Tracey looked down at her long legs as she pulled and strained against her grass bonds, she could only lie there and watch as more grass headed towards her legs, they snaked their way up around her legs tightly to her slender waist, next her upper body was covered by the grass and she now found herself held firmly by the grass totally helpless and unable to break free.
Deanna went to help her friend but Tracey screamed at her “No Deanna, get to the door. The only way you can help me now is by solving the puzzle house once and for all!” Deanna looked at her friend with a worried frightened look, but she knew in her heart of hearts that her friend was right. So without a moments delay she ran to the door and once up close she found that the door had four key holes, one of them had one letter whilst the other three had two letters. Deanna carefully placed the keys in the locks and tuned them one at a time, the door begun to shake and shimmer and then in a brilliant explosion of colour, opened wide Allowing access to the room.
Tracey continued her desperate fight against the grass ropes, she tried to kick her legs in a scissor movement, but the grass clung to her legs to firmly. All she could manage was tiny movements, which by themselves exhausted her; I hope Deanna finds the artifact soon, so that I can get free of this entangling grass. Her arms and leg muscles ached from the strain, but she refused to just lie there and give up without a fight and so she continued her futile attempts for freedom. Meanwhile Deanna had walked into the room which was bright white and empty accept for a single pedal which stool in the middle of the room. Carefully Deanna lifted the object of the pedal stool and she knew that she had indeed found the missing artifact. The room then begun to fill with mist which after a short while slowly subsided. Standing in front of Deanna was a ghostly looking figure of an old man.
“I must apologies for what I have put you and your friend Tracey through,”
“Are you trying to tell me that the reason we where kidnapped was because of you?” Deanna replied in an annoyed tone of voice.
“Yes let me explain”
“Please do” she responded sharply.
“I knew that the only way I could get you to free me from the artifact was to come up with this subterfuge.” His voice was croaky and apologetic, just as Deanna was about to respond the middle aged man appeared and removed the mask that he had worn for the video. They told Deanna how they had hired two men to grab them both and how the old man was in fact his brother. The middle aged man also explained that they had needed the best to solve the mystery of the puzzle house. Deanna asked about her friend Tracey and they told her not to worry, her friend would be free and unharmed. Deanna left the room just a little confused but relieved that it was all over. She now found herself and her friend standing outside of her car, which was still sitting in the museum parking lot. On the front seat was an old briefcase and inside that was a letter once again thanking them both for what they had done, plus a quarter of a million dollars for their troubles.
“Wow for that kind of money, we should allow ourselves to get kidnapped and then grabbed by monsters, ropes, etc more often” Tracey giggled. This then started Deanna off giggling. Once Deanna had stopped laughing she suggested to Tracey that they go inside and look to see if the painting was still there, they both searched high and low for it but it was nowhere to be seen, then Tracey walked up to the museum curator and asked him about it and about the artifact. The curator gave them both a very puzzled look saying that he knew of no painting and that he had never called Deanna for her help. Both girls looked at each other puzzled and the room filled with an uneasy silence. It was Deanna who broke the silence, by suggesting that they went for coffee and just put it down to another mystery that had surrounded the puzzle house. Though Deanna didn’t say anything to Tracey, there were still things about the house that didn’t add up like why was the old man put in the artifact? and how come only Tracey and herself have any memory of the event. Also did all the things that happen to them really happen? After all at the end Tracey was in tan coloured spandex pantyhose and now she was in back in her black opaque pantyhose.
THE END
