Roped In Part 3

Panicked, Stephanie ran to the front door and tried to pull it open. Unfortunately it wouldn't budge.

"Come on! Open!" she said, shaking the door. Then she stepped back and took a deep breath.

"Ok, calm down," she told herself. "There're no such things as ghosts. This is obviously a prank that Emily is playing on me. And I guess the other girls were in on it." She turned around.

"Ok guys, that's very funny," she called. "Yes, I was very scared. Now stop hiding and get out here!" There was no answer.

"Seriously! Joke's over!" she said angrily. Still no answer.

"Grr…alright, that's it!" she shouted. "If you won't come to me, I'll come to you, and when I catch you guys, you are all so dead!" She started to storm through the mansion, trying to find her prankster friends. But every room she entered was empty.

Finally, after quite a bit of searching, she opened a door and found it led to a room that was not empty. However, what was inside made her heart stop. Her anger vanished and was replaced by pure terror. What she found were her friends – bound and gagged! They were all sitting in chairs that were arranged in a line. Brown ropes were wrapped around their bodies and legs, which were all also tethered to the chairs, and their arms were tied behind their backs. They were each also cleave-gagged by white cloths. Stephanie stood there, completely frozen.

"G-guys?" she barely managed to breath.

"Mmmph!" the others screamed through their gags. Stephanie ran up to Laura.

"Don't worry, I'll let you out," she said, reaching for her gag. However, before she could grab it, Laura let out a scream. Her panicked eyes were looked right behind Stephanie, who turned her body (but not her legs) to look behind herself. All she could see was a wooden chair much like the ones her friends were sitting in.

"What in the world…" she wondered. "That wasn't there when I came in." She stared at the chair for a few seconds. Suddenly, it flew right at her!

"Eep!" she yelped as it scooped her up. It then parked right next to Laura. Then, while Stephanie was too stunned, a coil of rope flew seemingly out of nowhere and tied her up! Soon, before she even had a chance to react, she was bound just like her friends were. She opened her mouth to scream, but before she had a chance to make a sound, a white cloth went between her lips and was tied behind her head.

"Mmmph!" she screamed, struggling to escape her bonds. But they held fast.

For the next seemingly long while, all the girls struggled and squirmed, but to no avail. Suddenly they heard a voice.

"WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER?!" it boomed. The girls stopped struggling and sat there, trembling. The twins even started to cry.

"ALL WHO ENTER THIS HOUSE SHALL BECOME MY PRISONERS!" the voice went on. Tonya began to cry then. Laura and Stephanie looked at each other with fearful eyes. The voice was not a girl's voice, meaning Emily was not behind this. But it wasn't necessarily male either. It was ghastly. Inhuman.

"FOREVER!!!" the voice yelled. The entire room shook. At that point, even Laura, who was not afraid of anything except earthquakes, started to cry, so only Stephanie still had dry eyes.

"AND NOW, FOR YOUR REAL PUNISHMENT," the voice boomed. Suddenly five pairs of feathers materialized in front of them. Stephanie's eyes grew wider than they already were. She knew what was coming, and she couldn't stand it. Finally she started to cry. This was just like what happened last time!

"…wait a second!" she said to herself. She stopped crying and looked up.

"Mmph-mmph?!" she screamed angrily. She knew exactly who was behind all this. The disembodied voice laughed. Suddenly a hidden panel in the wall slid open and out walked a young man in a completely black ensemble. He had blonde hair and looked a lot like Stephanie.

"Hey, sis," he said through a microphone. The other girls stopped crying and stared at him. Laura knew who he was, but the others had no idea. The man grinned. Then, with the flick of a wrist, he untied the gags. They fell to the girls' laps.

"Stephen?!" Stephanie repeated, this time audibly. "You did this?"

"Of course!" her brother replied.

"I knew you would freak out after you saw the feathers. I also knew you'd figure out it was me behind this, but it was definitely worth it. You should have seen your face!" He started to laugh. Stephanie's rage grew.

"This was exactly what happened when we were little!" she fumed. "I mean, it was less elaborate, but still! I went in with my friends, and one by one they vanished. Then we all got tied to chairs and tickled until we said 'Uncle'!"

"Well we were playing Uncle!" Stephen replied.

"Well aren't you a little old to still be playing that?" Laura wondered.

"Hey, you're never too old to mess with a sibling," Stephen replied.

"Wait, but how did you know we were gonna be here?" Tonya asked.

"Well, Emily is my girlfriend," Stephen explained. "She told me about what she asked you all to do, and I couldn't let this chance get by me."

"But how'd you do all that…" Melissa started.

"…weird, telekinetic stuff?" Clarissa finished.

"Oh, you mean this?" Stephen said. He flicked his wrist again and the ropes all fell to the ground. The girls all stood up and stretched.

"Well I've been in Japan for the past month-" Stephen started to explain.

"And never told me when you were coming back, which was why I never suspected you were the one behind this, even though I probably should have," Stephanie interrupted.

"…working on a new technology," Stephen continued, smirking at Stephanie but otherwise completely disregarding everything she said. "See, those ropes and cloths are…I mean they basically…they have…oh, you know what? This explanation will probably be way over all of your heads, so let's just leave it at "weird telekinetic stuff", ok?" Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Stephanie glaring at him like an enraged bull.

"Now let's all get out of here and put this whole thing behind us, huh?" he said, slightly nervous.

"Oh, we'll put it behind us," Stephanie told him. "That is, after I kick your behind!" Stephen suddenly took off towards the exit, with his sister close on his heels. The other girls just watched them fly out of the house.

"Wow," Laura said. "Getting chased by your furious little sister? Now that's scary."