The last of the wisps that had been hovering around Arianna vanished back into the forest as she stumbled towards the creepily lit up two-story house owned by her friend. She was covered in thick, drying mud from the knees down, caused when the purple glowing menaces guided her straight into a soft, sucking mire, in which she had to struggle mightily just to get herself back out of.

Finding a relatively clean and deep looking puddle caused by a natural depression in the now grassy terrain, Ari waded in, the water going up to the bottom of her pants, and began to soak and brush the worst of the offending mud off. After a few minutes of work, and a bit of application of her fire to dry the water off, she was looking...decent enough. It was still obvious what had happened to her as her pants needed a serious washing, but at least she wasn't going to be dropping clumps of mud everywhere inside.

Working her way up the front door of the house, which was lit with some ancient looking tiny buzzing bulbs that looked to be at least 50 years old, she stepped up some wooden stairs, which of course creaked underneath her weight. Cobwebs adorned the underside of the front porch area, a pair of glowing orange pumpkins decorated each side, and moths and other bugs fluttered around the lights. Walking the final steps to the double door, adorned with a welcome mat that was too faded to read, she was about to knock upon it when it opened inward a few inches on its own with a loud creak.

She stopped and peeked within. “Charles?” she called out. Somewhere, an owl hooted, but otherwise only relative silence replied.

Pushing the door fully open with a sustained whine upon its ancient hinges, Ari was greeted with what truly looked like an ancient dwelling. Faded carpets adorned an otherwise solid looking wooden floor, and peeling red wallpaper covered what looked to be simple stucco walls. A bit of different colored wood was on the lower walls, giving the place a bit of a stylized look. Quaint, if a bit creepy, she thought. “Charles? Where are you?”

An ancient candelabra in the ceiling lit up the front entrance, and she was greeted with the building's main stairwell heading upwards and off to the sides out of her vision. In places, lit candles were set in sconces along the walls, giving off some ambiance, although she assumed that they had to be electric, because otherwise lighting them every night would be such a time consuming pain.

She turned, about to close the massive door behind her, when she felt a gust of wind swirl past her, causing it to suddenly slam shut. She paused, shivering a bit despite her clothing. It was just the wind, she told herself, trying to calm her racing heart. Just the wind.

Turning back around, she closed her eyes and focused upon her enhanced werewolf senses. While they weren't anywhere near as effective as they would be in her fluffy self, she figured she could at least have a good guess as to where the place's owner was. Despite that, however, all she could smell was mold and mildew, along with the scent of wax melting, and the occasional hint of the aged wood around her. The noises she heard were just as standard, too; the building creaking slightly from the outside wind, the buzz of electricity flowing through old lights, and the random buzz of a bug of some sort flying around.

Nothing at all that indicated that anyone actually lived here, or had in at least some time.

Maybe I should wait for Sarah, she considered, before curiosity got the best of her, and the worrying of where her old friend had gone.

Picking a direction at random, she started down the hallway to wherever it lead to.

-

The wood creaking under her sandalled feet with every step, it didn't take long before the creepiness of the place started to overwhelm her nerves. First off, was the general lack of light in the entire place. Only the most basic of candles, which she determined were actually real when she got close enough to one of them, lit up the hallway via the walls. It, combined with the large metal barricaded windows that were a constant reminder that it was a moonlit night outside, was the only light the entire place seemed to have. While it was just barely enough for her natural were-enhanced vision, and would be more than plenty if she had shifted, she knew that most anyone else would want their own light source just to get safely around.

Second, were the windows themselves. Other than for what she assumed was for security, she had no idea why they were barred by metal bars on the outside. It's not like she'd want to break into this place for whatever reason. There wasn't anything valuable other than it just being old, at least so far.

Thirdly though, was what she just started encountering. On the walls were various sized paintings that looked like they had been put up forever ago, some adorned with cobwebs in various stages of sizes and activeness. They started being of the house itself, and the landscape around it, but a few pictures in, they were of Charles as she remembered him. While the first few were fine, showing him, or him and his friends, or him and the house, they quickly degraded to ones more of what could only be described as horror themed.

Her friend tied up. Him in a cage. Wounded, caught, and other more horrific things greeted her as she looked at the various pictures. “...why?” was the only thing she could mutter as she quickly passed them by. Why would anyone keep this up on their walls?

But as she rounded the corner, they got far more disturbing.

Because they were all about her.

In full view of the moonlight, dust motes floating within, were pictures of her restrained, shackled, and bolted to the wall. Of her in obvious pain, of her scared beyond words, of her in serious physical and emotional trouble. And then she saw a random tennis ball for a picture, which made her pause and look at it in complete confusion, as it was utterly out of place.

The next one made her heart drop in fear, however. It was of her shifted white fluffy arms, looking like they were banging against the painting itself from behind, shackles leading to the edges of the picture. And it was clearly her limbs, too. She recognized the stripe patterns for sure.

Impossible. He doesn't know who I am. There's no way. Why would he have these pictures to begin with? What is wrong with him?!

The next one however, she walked closely up to, drawn to it like a moth to flame.

It was of Razira, from the knees on up, but the colors were all...wrong. Her pristine white fur was instead a midnight black, and her red markings were instead a royal blue. Even the outfit, which was a perfect replica of her usual casual hero garb, was opposite in color. It leered down at her with its bright green eyes, sneering at her as if she knew that she was all superior to the person looking at it.

Ari put her left arm out, touching the painting, not able to fathom the how or why of its existence. It being there, alongside all the other paintings of her, and especially the one of her chained up wolf arms, spoke volumes, and spoke of an impossibility. Her friend had to know who she was. There was just no explaining it otherwise.

Head down, arm still against the painting, she thought. Damn it, Sarah, where are you? You need to see this like right this very minute! And where are you, Charles? I have to figure out what you know, and who you have talked to, like yesterday.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she felt something cold and clammy touch her arm. Looking up, her mouth dropped in shock as the painting had started...oozing.

A bright, purplish ooze was leaking out of the painting at every point, including behind it somehow, and it had covered the arm that was touching it in the process. Grossed out, she pulled it back towards her...and found to her shock that it didn't want to move. It was as if it was somehow stuck there!

“Ew!” Throwing her weight back, she pulled harder, and this time she got it to move...but only barely. A thick covering of slime stretched from the painting towards her arm, as if it was glue, greatly resisting her every effort to pull it back towards her. “Gross!”

She went to reposition her feet, to give her better leverage to pull harder, when she stumbled as she found her left foot refused her commands. As her arm splatted back against the goop of the painting, she looked down and gasped in shock – the sticky slime had oozed onto the floor, engulfing her left sandal, and had even splashed up against the foot itself! Getting more scared by the second, she yanked harder, but the sandal refused to move at all, feeling as if it was superglued to the floor! Her bare foot strained uselessly against the straps of the sandal, feeling as if it was tied up in the straps that normally comfortably held it in place!

It was then that she heard a soft chuckle from the painting itself.

Her head snapping back up, her eyes went wide in shock and surprise as she saw that her alternatively colored self was now somehow pulling herself out of the painting. Her hands, completely ignoring the stickiness of the ooze they were pushed against, were on the side of the painting, as she was slowly levering herself forward and out of what was moments ago just a picture, but had now somehow became a dark, smoking portal from the unknown. She sneered in glee, as if excited to see her captive so caught and so close to her, and she was taking her time, knowing that Ari wasn't going anywhere.

Leaning back and pulling on her mired left arm as hard as she could, Ari's right hand burst into a bright, orange flame, praying that at the very least she could use it to free herself, and at best that she could take on the black-furred menace that was bearing down upon her.

---

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The series of pictures involving a most horrific Halloween for Arianna continues with her going inside the so called haunted house...and finding that it may actually be haunted! What happened to its original owner, and will Ari be able to get herself out of this mess? Or will she end up a permanent residence like the chained up arms in the nearby painting show? There's more to come for sure!

 redgraveart continues to show how fantastic of an artist they are (especially involving Halloween!) with this fantastic picture of, well, a picture attacking a quite stuck and trapped Ari. This series is turning out amazing and a massive thanks to the wonderful artist behind them all!