7 The Black Phone
When Daniel first picked up the box, he couldn't help but notice how light it was. Every other box in the storage room was filled to the brim and quite heavy, but this was felt almost as if it were empty. Aside from how light it was, there was nothing special about this box that would make anyone think it was any different. It was the same shape, the same color, the same size, there just wasn't anything about it that felt special.
Setting the box on one of the lower shelves, Daniel slowly opened it up, and oddly enough he found the box packed to the brim with, packing peanuts. The white small grains of foam filled the entire box from top to bottom. Daniel stuck his hand inside the box slowly moving it around until he felt something hard. Firmly grasping the hard object, Daniel pulled back his hand and looked over to find a black phone along with a small piece of paper taped to the back.
A phone? Out of all the things that I could've found it had to be a phone? Who would even waste their time putting a phone in a box if they were just going to leave in the storage room?
Turning the phone over, Daniel peeled the note away from the back and started reading.
For those who don't fear neither the dead nor the living, welcome to a brand new world.
Thinking that it was some sort of prank, Daniel crumpled the note in his hand and threw it far away into the corner. He slowly looked over the phone, but he couldn't find any logo that would tie it to a company, so he pressed the power button on the side and watched as the logo of a haunted house manifested on the screen.
The logo slowly thinned out and was replaced by the words 'Haunted House Manager.'
What's this, Haunted House Manager? Is this some sort of game?
Eventually even the words faded out, as a sleek black-purple menu suddenly popped up on screen. Daniel looked at the options closely and from top to bottom he saw; Scenario Manager, Missions, Employees, and Haunted House Roulette. Deciding to go along with it, Daniel first clicked on scenario manager, however before he could go in a text box appeared on screen.
*There are currently no scenarios.*
It's locked? Then what exactly is it that I'm supposed to be managing? What kind of haunted house manager doesn't have any scenarios to manage, without realizing the irony behind those words Daniel quickly tapped on the x to close the text box. Whatever lets check out missions.
Unlike the first option, when Daniel pressed his thumb on the missions tab the screen changed and a whole new array of options popped up.
System Missions: *currently locked*
Daily Missions: 3 (please choose one)
Easy: How can any self-respecting haunted house manager allow his haunted house to be such a mess. For this missions all you have to do is clean up the haunted house and throw out all the broken props.
Medium: Aren't you curious what happened to the last owner of the haunted house? Why don't you ask around and see if you can find out more.
Nightmare: Ever wanted to speak to the dead, well why don't you head up to the third floor. It seems that the previous owner left a big surprise in one of the cabinets.
Special Missions: 0
Isn't this too real? It's one thing to suddenly find a black phone left abandoned in a box, but why does it feel as if this haunted house manager app is talking about this haunted house.
Even thought he felt that something was wrong, Daniel still couldn't help but tap on the easy mission. If his suspicions were right and this phone was somehow connected to this haunted house, then by doing the easy mission he could test out his theory without getting into any potential trouble. If Daniel were to ask around about the prevous owner and it turns out that something had happened to him, then he might tip off the wrong person and get himself in trouble. He also didn't want to risk anything by trying to look for the 'big surprise' that the previous owner left behind.
Daniel himself didn't know why he was taking things so seriously, but he just felt a feeling in his gut that told him that this is what he should be doing. It felt so natural that Daniel didn't think twice before pocketing the phone and leaving the storage room.
Well it's not like it matters right now anyways, I still have this mess to deal with. Daniel walked to the staff bathroom and got all the cleaning supplies he could find before leaving Elena to play with her phone once again, and thus began a cleaning of epic proportions.
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Eight hours later, Daniel collapsed onto his bed as his body, which was absolutely sore at this point, refused to listen to him for one more second after several empty promises of a short break. Exhuasted, beated and battered, Daniel felt like he had just gotten off an Iron Man marathon. However, it wasn't all for nothing. The house was unrecognizeable from the past, and even Daniel had to admit that he felt a little proud of how it came out in the end. Alas even the almighty pride Daniel felt was not enough to rid him of all the hard labor he had just gone through.
While cleaning all three floors of the haunted house Daniel did find a couple of odd things. For one there was actually a cabinet on the third floor just as mentioned by the phone, except that there was a very strong lock that prevented Daniel from taking a peek inside. He also found a couple of picture frames around the house, and they were all of the same person and a dog. The man in the pictures looked fairly stocky but he had kind eyebrows, and by the expression of his face lived a fairly good life. In all the pictures the man stood in front of the haunted house with the dog, who Daniel was almost sure was a golden retriever.
He must be the previous owner of the haunted house. I haven't seen him anywhere in the park, I wonder what happened to him?
Before Daniel could finish his thoughts he felt something moving around his pocket. He stuck his hand inside and pulled out a black phone that was vibrating intensely. Daniel turned it on, and he was surpised when he saw the Haunted House Manager app had opened up by itself.
Daily Mission completed:
*Remember even though certain levels of clutter are essential in a haunted house, there is a difference between dirty and scary.*
Reward: 1x Haunted House Lottery ticket, system missions unlocked.
Immediately after having seen this message Daniel dropped the phone onto the ground. How did it know? He had just finished cleaning the house five minutes ago and all of the sudden he recieves a message saying that the mission was completed. At first Daniel thought that he was being watched but he quickly dismissed that idea. The haunted house didn't have any windows on the second and third floors, not to mention that he didn't find any cameras anywhere. It also couldn't have been Elena as she had stayed in the break room the entire time and Jack never came back from his smoke break.
Could this app actually be real, but how is it even possible? Even if Daniel had seen a ghost before, this was different, at least the existance of ghosts had been debated over before, but this was new. The only time Daniel had ever seen something like this was in books and TV, but to see it in real life was a whole different feeling.
Daniel was shaking, but this time it wasn't from fear, he was actually excited. He had always been jealous of how normal he seemed in comparison to the main characters in the shows that he watched or the books he read. Even if he could see ghosts Daniel didn't feel blessed, rather he felt that he was cursed, but now he could suddenly see a light at the end of the tunnel. By combining his gift and this haunted house manager app Daniel could be like one of the main characters in a show, well somewhat. While Daniel wasn't exactly the bravest hh manager, he was certainly the most delusional.
Having found a new purpose in life, Daniel picked up the phone and held it carefully as thought it were a precious artifact. After having accepted the mission, Daniel had forgotten to check out the rest of the options for the HH manager. Since he just got a ticket for the lottery, he though that he might as well test it out and see if it was any good. When Daniel tapped on the HH Lottery tab he saw a purple roulette, however unlike a normal roulette this one was filled with ? on every divison. Underneath the roulette there were two options; 100 haunted house points, 1x ticket.
Haunted house point? How am I supposed to earn those? Daniel tried tapping on the haunted house points option, only to get an insufficient amount of points notification. I guess I'll find out later.
For now Daniel ignored the first option and decide to press the second option, and soon enough the wheel started spinning. After a few seconds the wheel started to slow down, and soon enough the pointer fell upon one of the ?.
