P2: The 19th Hole

E2: “Don’t Let it Lick You!”

Recap: Lenny shook off the weird feeling of something tugging at his hair, blaming spider webs or swooping sparrows. Rory shook off the weird scene of the pitch-black middle pane of the bank of stained-glass windows over the stairs. Doc entered from the rear door of the clubhouse to ask, “Did anyone else see the lights out in the woods back here? I’d swear they were bouncing along like some kind of will-o-wisps.”

Rory Shaw/’The Fence’ (Riley K)

Red ‘Doc’ Gordon/’The Cleaner’ (Thom R)

Davey Mould/’The Driver’ (Kent B)

Lenny Dobbins/’The Bruiser’ (Bill R)

Ian McDougal/Street Punk (Julian)

Let’s Split Up: Davey stood at the entry door keeping an eye on the car and the 2 hired hands (Abernathy and Gimel) while the others paired up. He was ready to rip the mooks a new one if they sat on his car again. Meanwhile, Doc and Lenny climbed the stairs as Rory and Ian crossed under the bank of stained-glass windows. Rory puzzled at the 3 glass scenes: a man teeing off, and the last of a man chipping out of a bunker. The middle was pitch black which forced him to feel the lead outline of the glass pieces to realize it depicted a man putting. “Did they use the wrong materials to make the glass for this middle pane?”

He was talking to himself as Ian had walked on to the golf shop which was freshly painted with bare electrical wiring sticking out of empty light fixtures. Rory soon entered finding Ian kneeling and running his hand over scratches in the floor. “At first I thought scratches from moving furniture but now realize someone carved an ‘X’. Maybe disgruntled workers showing what they think of no pay?” Rory grabbed a couple of golf balls and tees and was ready to leave, “You hear that? Faint. Like a cat scratching a post. Must be a mouser they let roam to catch the field mice that get in. Let’s go down the Great Hall past the dressing rooms to the other outside door.”

Doc and Lenny climbed past another bank of stained-glass windows. These too with the middle panel pitch black. Both discounted it as workers having left tape-and-paper on the outside for painting. Something caught Doc’s eye, “You see that? Thought there was movement in the panes. Must have been a bird flying past outside.”

Davey was trying to keep an eye on everyone. Watch their back as they climbed the stairs or roamed the halls. He turned to look back outside when he heard the mooks jabbering. Saw them excitedly pointing toward the trees, “Damn it! It was black, not blue. Hey, boss! We saw Black Jamie! Swear to God! Out there.” Boredom or curiosity, Davey stepped outside, “Just a stray dog digging something up. Show me where.”

At the top of the stairs, with gun drawn, Doc checked the door on his right (“I heard noise”) with Lenny right on his heels. Together they pushed the door in, expecting to find the culprit. Instead… Doc held onto the doorknob as he FELL INTO the room, “What the hell?!” Gravity turned on its side, a carnival funhouse, smoke and mirrors? Doc tried to hold tight to the doorknob as he dangled feet-first over the room with a pile of furniture below him on the … floor? What should be a wall! Tried to hold… except Lenny fell in too… and grabbed at Doc’s feet as he fell past. Pulling Doc from his safe perch.

Outside, Davey followed the wary buffoons toward the cope of trees where they swore, they’d seen the hound. At first, they noticed multiple birds dead on the ground. As if melted! The air felt…thick? “Did the groundskeeper dig up a gas-line?! Do you smell gas?” And that’s when he thought he could hear Doc faintly screaming in pain back inside the clubhouse. “Forget about the dog. Stand guard while I go check on my partners.” Meanwhile, Rory and Ian heard a loud clatter above, “Come on! Doc must be in trouble.”

Room#1: Rory stood at the open door looking in, “You alright Doc? What the hell?!” Doc was already scolding Lenny, “The fall was bad enough; you didn’t have to crush me. [8 pts injury] Witches I say. Funhouse, mirrors, and witches. What kind of clubhouse are they building?” Rory directed Davey just arriving, “Go to the car and grab a rope from the trunk.” Meanwhile, Doc and Lenny moved the broken furniture out of the way to get at another door under the jumbled mess. “Careful, I don’t want to fall UP in the next room.” With the door open, Lenny dropped in a broken table leg. Fucking weird how it fell straight down thru the doorframe to then drop to the floor of a normal gravity room.

Room#3: Ian remembered the floorplan Rory had shared (found at MacMillian’s house), “I’ll go thru the ballroom to join you at the door.” Ian grabbed his hat that was sucked off his head as he stood dumbfounded starring at a maelstrom vortex swirling inside the ballroom. “Holy Crap! What is this place?! Doc, I don’t think you saw a person up here. You must have seen some of this swirling clutter.” But Doc was already looking out the window of the room (#2), “What are those idiots doing out in the woods?” Lenny ignored him as he gingerly held onto the large conference table inside the room to inch his way towards the door. Knowing any second gravity would go haywire. He peered into the ballroom expecting to let Ian in, when he too saw the swirling vortex. “What the…”

Rooms#4+5: Forewarned, Rory carefully entered the ballroom staying close to the wall to make his way across to the bar counter. Climbing over, he entered the office intend on finding the books. The room was freshly painted with drop-cloths covering everything. A bulge proved to be a rolltop desk. He cocked his head and searched the floor for the source of a faint hissing. “Ssss tthhee ssssee.” “Cats, snakes, what else has found its way into the place?” The desk proved locked and resisted his efforts to yank it open. “Lenny, get in here. I need your muscle.” Lenny exchanged places with Ian at the door and worked his way across the bar counter. Ian followed.

Meanwhile, at the cars, a panicked Abernathy intercepted Davey, “It.. It got Gimel! The dog. Jamie! Out of nowhere. It licked him. I tried to run but I was frozen in fear. Especially as I watched poor Gimel change. Turned grey. Shriveling and older. Oh God!” Davey tried to calm him and reassure him, “What the hell have you boys been drinking? OK, show me but be quick. I’m needed inside.” Not sure what Davey expected to see but when he saw Gimel’s feet sticking out from under a bush, he’d seen enough. “Wait in the car. I’ll be back. And for God’s sake… Don’t let it lick you!” Said in humor? Davey returned with the rope and dropped it into the now vacated sideways room (#1) after securing his end in the door jam. “Doc? You there?” He stood ready to lend aid as Doc re-entered the spooky room and start to climb the rope. “Just like school gym class.”

Room#6+7: As Lenny picked the desk locks, Rory continued searching the next room. Another table with blackboard for staff conferences. He couldn’t resist leaving a message for Ian, “Frick the rookie.” Meanwhile, Ian continued from the bar, thru an empty vestibule passage that led to the kitchen. Void of appliances as still under repair. The unpainted walls had been plastered and sanded, with sawdust littering everything. Ian looked for footprints in the dust but only saw his own. Satisfied no-one had run thru here, he turned to leave, when he heard a… voice? Choppy. Unintelligible. As if someone was playing a record backwards. And that’s when he peripherally spied something. As if the floor dust had been softly swirling. Now settled but in a circular pattern. He couldn’t get out of the kitchen fast enough for fear the vortex was expanding thru the walls.

Doc and Davey decided to have their own peek at the ballroom vortex. Davey dug out a coin and tossed it into the maelstrom. As if a needle striking a balloon, the bubble center of the vortex burst. Centrifugal force released. The swirling objects now missiles in all directions. Thankfully nothing sharp or heavy. Doc and Davey were engulfed in the momentary sandstorm of small projectiles that blasted them.

Rory returned to the office, finding Lenny pulling books out of the desktop. Lenny explained, “You can have these. I haven’t found a cashbox yet. But here’s another clubhouse blueprint. Looks older.” It didn’t take long for ‘the Fence’ to confirm these books were for show. All in order. “In case audited. The boss will be interested in these.” Rory turned at the sound of grating coming from the staff room he’d left. That scratch when someone drags their fingernails across a blackboard, that pains your teeth and ears. Sure enough, Rory’s message had been replaced with downward pointing arrows. “What the fuck?!” Rory said he was just going to drop the books in the car. But Lenny wondered what in the other room scared him. Lenny didn’t need to look. He’d already seen enough scary shit.

Rory soon returned to question, “Where did my 2 hired hands wander off to?” Davey explained leaving Abernathy in the car. And tried to calmly explain what had transpired outside. They watched Davey check out the car, then look toward the trees, before returning. “Where could he have run off to? His car is still out there.”

They began to search the clubhouse. In the Great Hall, Rory heard noise from the men’s locker. “Probably shit his pants and went to clean up.” Indeed, they found Abernathy inside. That icy, distant stare of someone in shock. “It touched me; the claws touched me. I… I went thru the vortex.” Hysterical laughter in a raspy pneumonia gasp. It wasn’t the laughter that freaked everyone. It was the hole in Abernathy’s upper shoulder. Clear thru. They could see the locker behind him thru the hole! That kind of hole! No blood.

They knew Doc well enough to know he didn’t kill Abernathy to put him out of HIS misery. Maybe it was for their own relief. “What the hell is going on in this place?! Witches I say. Lenny, get your finger out of the man’s hole and join us tracking down this shit.” Guns out. Rory led them thru the locker room to the shower. And froze.

A HUGE insectoid creature towered before him flexing its pinchers! “Blam!” His pistol shot splattered ichor and gore across the shower walls. Which only pissed off the creature. Lenny responded to the shot, entering to shoot… but probably shit his pants first. Doc too, who got off 3 shots [miss, miss, 01] before the thing just up and disappeared. It just flashed out of existence. Almost sucked out of existence, sounded with a thunderclap. “WHAT THE FUCK?!”

With only a tire-iron, Davey was already backing up, “I ain’t getting licked by Black Jamie!! Let’s cut our losses and get out of here!”” Ian was just as panicked, “We gotta be ready to go. I didn’t bring a gun. I’m just a thug; not a killer.” Lenny offered, “We could take Abernathy’s body and tell the big boss it’s Mr. MacMillian. I’m sure Doc could fix him up to look like the man.” But Rory was insistent, “We got a job to do. Find the real MacMillian and THEN get the hell away from this creep joint.”

Lenny pulled out the recently found blueprint, “This one is older and slightly different. If you look closely, there are extra rooms in the basement. See? Behind the wine cellar and electrical rooms. Davey, if you’ll lend me your tire-iron, I can breakdown the fake wall under the stairs to gain access. Maybe a rival mafia gang did in MacMillian, stole the boss’ money, and hid MacMillian’s body there. Let’s make it quick and get out of here.”

Davey remained in the car with Lenny’s traded cosh as protection, “I’ll keep it running. Hurry up!” Rory led the way to the basement stairs, using the club keys to unlock the concealed access door. Rory was about to send Lenny down first, when the brute noticed, “Hey boss; there’s a shine at the bottom of the stairs. The steps almost look spiderweb like.” Rory tossed in a golf-ball that bounced down the steps. And sounded with a “Crack” as it hit the bottom steps just before the turn. “Ice?”

They were already rethinking their plan, “I say arson is always a good option to cover ourselves. Say we had to fight our way out and MacMillian was caught in the crossfire or fire.” “I don’t know about you; but there’s enough fuckery for me to just leave.” “Tell Davey to get some gas-cans ready… just in case. But let’s try a little more before we quit. I got a reputation to uphold with the boss.”

They held onto the handrails as they descended. And noticed frost on their breathes. “It’s colder than a witches’ tit, Doc. Must be near 40 below.” But Doc was distracted, remembering better times, “I remember Dan. The one I lit on fire out on that frozen lake. Fire didn’t seem to melt the ice much.” They pulled their coats tighter, trying to stay warm. Their readied guns were already dancing as their hands began to shake from the cold. “Hurry up. We’ve best only got a few minutes of useful action in this freezing temperature.” Lenny was already in the storage room and around the corner under the stairs trying to smash his way thru the brick wall where he thought an entrance should be. The others made their way around the clutter of stacked furniture as they made their way to the boiler room. “Maybe we can get the furnace operating. And check the wall in there for access to the hidden rooms.”

Outside, Davey nervously waited. Constantly checking his watch. “What’s taking them so long?” He had half a mind to just pack up and leave. But that’s when he felt the front of the car rise. From a weight on the rear bumper? He made the mistake of looking in the rearview mirror. “Oooohhh SHIT!” The mirror was filled with the chest of the enormous beast. Black Jamie!! [failed Sanity: 8 points. Bout-of-Madness]

Link to conclusion… https://rigglew4.blogspot.com/2022/06/p3conclusion-19th-hole.html