Haunted & Hunted

"Man that sucks..A servent bot with no master.  Must be the worst. I wonder why the project was trashed." Lillith crossed her arms." Oh well that's in the past. You know maybe when this is all over, I can take you to a Workshop or something and get you a voice chip. They're not that expensive since Machines are starting to becocome the norm. " Liela sighed. The war that was going on made sure people should have better machines.

Tap. Tap. Tap

"Voice is my last concern," she argued. "I'm more focused on maintenance and making myself appear as close to regular folk, as possible." This also included accurately implementing traditionally feminine features, which are too obvious to specify.

To answer some of Lilith's questions, Kit took out her diary, turned to a specific page and gave it to her. The writing was neat, easy to read and it included a heart at the very end.

The ghost was confused. Was he no longer a threat?
"You uh, still know that I'm here, right?" he remarked, his voice much more calm the one he used in the threats just a few minutes ago.

Lillith took the book and started to read the page. Liela heard The confused ghost and gave a smile. "I know you're still here. Nice to hear you not mad and have finally calmed down. Maybe now can we have a normal conversation. Do you have a name or am I going to have to keep calling you" ghost?" I don't want to be rude." Liela was truly glad that the ghost seemed to actually care if they paid attention to him. First sign of knowing that a ghost isn't entirely evil.

The page read:

"Day 227

Alright, after searching both my own databanks and some newspaper clippings from various robot fanatics (to which I had to lie about my identity), I found out quite a lot.

Roughly ten years ago, an engineer started working on a hobby project to make a mechanical replica of his deceased daughter. He had no background in robotics, but somehow managed to build a very rough prototype with some AI functionatiliy in just four years. A company noticed him and offered him a contract to build a steward bot, citing how they were the future of services.

He agreed and was appointed the lead designer in the project.

Progress was going along smoothly, but in the seventh year, he was contacted by the army and offered a counter-contract to instead build a bulky, all-purpose for their purposes. Of course, he disagreed, but under the threat of his work being destroyed, he reluctantly accepted their offer.

Then he stalled the project various times so that he could keep working on his original idea. When the army ran out of patience after a year of waiting, they forcefully closed the project down and auctioned off the most functional of many, many prototypes.

I'm willing to believe that the mentioned unit is me and that no matter what, I have to find him.

I have to find my dad."

The ghost was silent, but eventually decided to reply. "We are many," he told her, several other voices echoing alongside his. "We were behind the death of our young mistress and we weren't. We watched. We screamed. She fell."

"Wow the army are jerks. Glad I'm not a part of that." Lillith gave to book back to kit. "Sometimes these things are meant to happen. Maybe you have a greater purpose than being just a servant." Liela's face saddened. "So than you guys caused a death but didn't. I don't... Is there a way for us to help you guys. Are you all trapped here?" Liela didn't know what else to say.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"But I have no powers, no gimmick," she argued, looking at the ground. "I'm a pretender at best and a fake at worst." What possible use could she have to anyone? No purpose, no dream; her only goal was to find him.

The amalgamation of ghosts' voice quickly returned to the usual deep and threatening. "Silence, fool!" thousands of voices spoke in unison. "She made the mistake of slithering where she shouldn't have, uttering what she shouldn't have! Now the world shall know of me. It shall my say my name, nay, scream it!" 





Each time the name was uttered, the walls shook, more and more. Green mist peered through the newly created cracks and eyes stared back at whoever was brave enough to look through it. 


The door at the end of hallway was being torn from its hinges.

"And what if you find your dad and he doesn't want you? Than what? Are you going to crawl in a corner. If you keep thinking you're not meant for more than you'll never be anything more." Lillith was going to continue but the house started to shake and look more scary. "Aphoal? APHOAL!!! STOP THIS MADNESS! SO JUST BECAUSE ONE PERSON DID SOMETHING WRONG WE ALL HAVE TO PAY? IS THERE REALLY NO OTHER WAY? TELL ME! I'M NOT GOING TO RUN AWAY FROM ANY OF YOUR TRICKS! YOU CAN MAKE THIS HOUSE HELL. I DON'T CARE. I JUST WANT TO HELP! "

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Then I guess I'll have to find some other way to fit in," she replied. "Everything I know, everything I am is because of him. Only thing I want from him is to tell what I should be; a machine or a living being?" It was funny how oblivious the two of them were to the current events. Kit figured that if it really meant harm, it would have already done something.

Oh, right. It already did. Ouch.

"Then join me as my ghastly princess," he gave her an offer. "Make us whole again. Bring us gifts. Tell us bedside stories."

"No, we demand cake!"

"And plush toys!"

"Silence, fools! First we shall reap the world and then, we shall crave all the candy!"

Each time he spoke, his voice was different. The one demanding cake even sounded like a bratty little girl. 

Well, he did say he was many.

Lillith gave a real big sigh. "Well than I guess you really are going to have to get him in order to find out that question. Liela looked shocked at the ghosts' offer. She pointed at herself. "You're talking to me, You want me to join you guys?As your... Princess? I.. I..." Liela really did want to help this ghost or ghosts." If that is what it takes to calm you all down than... Sure. "

Someone had cleared his throat. The voice that talked now was that of a fine gentleman. "Apologies, being a collection of souls means that a majority must decide on what to do next and sometimes, the few reasonable of us have to step in before they do something irreversibly stupid." The house quickly returned to how it when they first entered it. The hallway also became a staircase again.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Anyone else getting that feeling? The feeling that we're still sleeping and that we've gone too deep?" She wrote on the phone. Hmpb. Like any of them are gonna get that reference.

"Oh I see... Well than I guess the others offer for me to join was a.just a "stupid" idea,huh? ." Liela looked down a little hurt." I have a question for all of you. Exactly how did you all get... Uhhh well... Stuck together. You all couldn't have possibly died in this house have you? Or is something else going on. " Lillith gave a confused face at kit. "I don't know. Maybe..." ((RIP me not knowing references))

"One theory is that we all died at around the same time and simply refused to move on," the being told her. "Though that would mean there are more of us and last time I checked, we were one of a kind. The important thing, however, is this." The door on the upper floor creaked open and large bugs brought them a most peculiar book. It had no name on the front or the side and appeared to be bound in some sort of leather. The pages appeared golden.

Seeing as she was the only not-quite-mortal thing in the room, Kit took the book and opened it on a random page. Appendages very similiar to tentacles wrapped around her and the book started screaming. Not impressed, she simply closed the book, smiled and handed it to the girls.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Your turn, lol."

"Hmm..." Liela was looking at how the book reacted at to Kit. Kit was going to give them the book when she closed it and Lillith started to back away. "Yeah I'm not touching that thing." Liela rolled her eyes and grabbed the book. "Scaredy cat" Liela then took a deep breath and opened the book. Hoping she doesn't get the same result as Kit.

"We do believe young mistress may have summoned something that should have stayed locked away. We would never harm her." The being told them.

Like lady luck would have it, the book now did nothing and just showed information about something called 'Ur-D'phaggia', wonderfully illustrated as a large snake with the a regular body where its head should be. As the book hissed, more information was revealed, such as how to summon the thing or how it was capable of petrifying anything it looked at, if it felt threatened.

The most important fact — whether it was evil or not – was strangely not mentioned anywhere at tall.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"So, you gonna summon it or not?"

Liela looked at Kit after reading the page. "Why would I want to Summon a monster? Wouldn't that cause problems?." "Yeah, problems!" Lillith crossed her arms and did an agreeing nod to her master." The thing sounds like a gorgon to me and gorgons are nothing but problems! Wanting to Summon such creatures is a death wish."

"Except that she's not a gorgon. Calling her that is a good way of making her angry, if you want her like that, that is. I'm afraid you have no choice but to keep summoning until you find the perperator, as all beings are sent away when a summoner dies. I was allowed to stay because I wasn't summoned; I was trapped within the book itself." It was pretty convenient, safe for the whole trapped-in-a-book thing. Could have been worse. Whoever wrote the book decided on a single volume instead of many.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"I knew it. I knew it! But what if we summon something we don't want, like a giant tentacle monster?" This wasn't a question out of her own fear; it was out of fear for the girls.

Lillith bursted out laughing. "I would love to summon a tentacle monster. It doesn't sound that bad. I mean an eternity of pleasur-" "LILLITH!" Liela looked embarrassed and was blushing. "IF a tentacle monster were to come, I can go intangible and you can turn into a puddle of ink okay. But we are not going to summon that!" Liela looked at the book again. "Fine if I have to summon her than I shall." She started to read more about the procedures to summoning the snake-like monster.

The book stated the obvious. Be sure you absolutely sure you want to summon the thing, don't anger it, be sure you actually have adequate room to accomodate it. Be kind, polite; a lot of them can kill you on a whim. Be sure all kids and children are as far from the book as possible. If being turns hostile, dispell by uttering the summon words again.

The summon words were:

'Ur-D'phaggia, hupadgh vulgtm, ya uln yur, n'ghftnyth. Ooboshu, nog, shaggoth. Nog shaggoth Ur-D'haggia uaaah.' The book also wished would-be summoners good luck if it was their first summon and urged them to not throw it across the room if they can't pronounce it properly.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"If you pronounce that, the next thing I want is a tentacle monster." Lines of dormant coding were activated in tandem with new, untested code. Several newly installed components and subroutines were initializing.

Liela stared at the words she was supposed to say. (How the fuck am I supposed to pronounce this???) She tried saying the words in her head until she found a pronunciation that sounded right. "Ok I got it!" She looked at the page one more time. "Ur-D'phaggia, hupadgh vulgtm, ya uln yur, n'ghftnyth. Ooboshu, nog, shaggoth. Nog shaggoth Ur-D'haggia uaaah!" Then Liela waited for something to happen.

(It's R'lyehian. You're not supposed to )

A purple sphere of light appeared in the room and the being walked out of it. It was exactly like the book had described it, snake from waist down. This one in particular was had nice clothes, long hair and big, cutesy eyes. It was as big as Liela.

Unfortunately, they could only get the first look, as it fled and hid inside the cupboard.

"Oh, I forgot to mention – they're rather shy." The amalgamation of souls told them. "Once you do get their trust however, they're real sweethearts."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Or we wrestle it from the cupboard and interrogate it. I mean, we do have a lot of time, I just think it was neccesary to point that out as an option."

Liela was actually a little surprised something happened. She was expecting to fail but luck was on her side for now. She saw a glimpse of the monster before it hid itself."No no we are not going to wrestle her. " Lillith sighed." aww man, you're no fun. " Liela walked over to the cupboard. "Hey it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you. You don't have to hid from me." 

There was a brief moment of silence before the monster spoke to them. "n-no, I'm not not coming out. not after what they made me do last summons." Oh, dear. The implications were troubling to say the least. After all, when someone could summon a girl, at least fifty percent would do the obvious.

Tap.Tap.Tap.

"No use. Just get her out of there."

"Well I'm no like whoever was that summoned you last time. But if you're not coming out willingly than you leave me no choice." Liela went even closer to the cupboard and phased her hands inside. She reached until she was able to touch the creature. Liela tried her best to pull and phase her out of the cupboard. "Please I will not hurt you!"

The skin wasn't slimy as one would expect, instead it was quite soft. The creature did, however, slid away so that she couldn't feel it anymore. "alright, alright, I'm coming, just don't touch me."

Now that they could get a good look at her, she could easily be mistaken for someone normal-looking, if it weren't for the scales and the lower body of a snake. Her confused and scared, big eyes paced around the room. She had never seen a house this big.

Liela pulled her hands out of the cupboard and backed away, giving the monster a little space. "You ok there? Don't worry, I have no intention of touching you now that you are here." "Maybe she has sensitive scales? Or maybe she's sick!" Lillith went behind liela. "and doesn't want us to get infected!" Liela looked at Lillith before turning back to the girl. "I don't think either of those are the truth."