[WP] You’ve won a mansion from a contest you didn’t enter...

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The map said I was close to the mansion I’d won. Dark, dead trees lined the path, the tops blending into the black, starless sky; the only light coming from my flashlight. The only sounds were my feet crunching on gravel and the occasional screech of a crow.

Though I had never entered a contest that I could have won a mansion from, I thought it would be interesting and harmless to at least go and check it out. To further protect myself, I’d invited my brother, Mario, to come see it with me. He said he’d get there before me to make sure it was safe. Classic Mario, always thinking he could handle things himself.

The path curved ahead of me and all of a sudden the trees cleared and there it was: three stories tall and completely dark. Two giant windows on the second floor and a set of double doors on the first made it look like the mansion had an evil face. Mario was nowhere to be seen.

“Mario?” I called. No answer. He must have already gone inside, though I was hoping he’d wait for me outside so we could go in together. I didn’t want to enter by myself; I wasn’t typically the brave one.

Hands shaking, teeth chattering, I pushed open the double doors, which squeaked loudly enough to announce to whatever was in the house that I had arrived. It was dark everywhere.

I scanned my flashlight across the room, revealing another set of double doors directly in front of me surrounded by a staircase on each side, and a big glass chandelier directly above me.

Again, I called for Mario without a reply. I approached this second set of double doors and tried to open them. Locked. I thought I heard the faint sounds of high-pitched laughter, so I spun around.

Nothing.

Still shaking, I climbed the rightmost set of stairs to the second floor. The second floor was a small hall with a door at each end and yet another set of double doors in the middle, directly above the bottom set. These were unlocked, so I went inside.

This looked like some sort of dining room. On the far left corner against the wall, opposite the doors, was a dresser with teapots and dishes on top. I could see myself out of a mirror above the dresser. Long tables lined the left and right walls, their clean white cloths almost touching the floor. There was another door in the far right corner.

I gasped. There was a red cap – just like the one my brother wore – in the middle of the room.

“Mario!” I yelled and ran into the middle of the room. I picked up his cap and searched the room with my flashlight, looking under both tables, but he wasn’t there.

I caught a flash of something out of the corner of my eye and yelled, spinning to find an orange tinted apparition with big blue eyes and a grinning face, floating a few feet above the ground, slowly making its way toward me from the other side of the room. I yelled and tried to run backwards, tripping and falling. It was still smiling and making a noise that sounded like laughter as it approached.

I used my arms and legs to push myself backwards, towards the table. The apparition was about six feet away.

Suddenly, the lights turned on and I heard a loud noise, like sucking air. The apparition froze and turned toward the door at the corner of the room. A tiny man came bounding out, a single piece of wavy, thick hair standing up on the middle of his bald head. He pointed a tube-looking device at the apparition and it struggled to escape, slowly being sucked toward the tiny man.

Finally, there was a loud pop and the apparition vanished when it touched the tube. The man bent over and caught his breath. I stood up.

“Hello,” he said, looking at me. “I’m Professor E. Gadd.”

“I’m Luigi,” I said, taking his hand. “What the hell just happened?”

“That,” he said, “was a ghost. This mansion is full of them. This badboy,” he slapped his tube-like contraption that was connected by a hose to a red box on his back, “is the only thing that can handle them.”

“Is that a vacuum?” I asked.

“This is the Poltergeist 3000,” he said proudly. “My latest invention and the best one for getting rid of ghosts. If you plan to stay here, you’re going to need it.”

“Have you seen a man in red clothing and overalls? He was wearing this cap,” I said, showing him Mario’s cap in my hand.

“Oh, dear,” he said. “Yes. I saw him enter the mansion several hours ago, from my home near the mansion grounds. If you found that cap without him, he probably wasn’t as lucky as you were just now.”

Shit. The ghosts had taken my brother. I had planned only to see what this hoax was about as a joke and then to leave with my brother. I didn’t think it was going to lead to anything serious. I sighed.

“Can I borrow that?” I asked, pointing at his vacuum. It seemed I was in for a long weekend.

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