Chapter 52: A Ghost of a Chance

Finally, you and Melvin manage to win two consecutive games. Suddenly the cards all disappear, and projections of four creepy houses appear in their place. The Queen speaks as if in a trance. “Tonight you will visit four haunted houses, each more terrifying than the last. One of them contains fragments of…” she struggles for a moment, “…the Urn of Spirit Bay.” You see visions of a powerful magic urn smashed to pieces, and surrounded by ghosts and other horrors. The horrors flash by with increasing speed. You see spiders crawling over dead bodies, a terrifying vampire, an axe wielding mummy, a man in a mask waving a bloody knife, and other things too horrible to contemplate. Suddenly with a flash, the vision ends, and the Queen falls back in her throne, sobbing.

“There, there, my Queen,” says Melvin, quite alarmed, trying to soothe her. “We’ve already dealt with giant snakes from the planet Nekoboh tonight, I’m… sure we can handle this, too.”

She collects herself, sitting up regally and drying her eyes. “I’m sure you can, little missile. The reason I’m crying is because of the horrors I held in place by letting the urn leave our castle. I don’t remember all the details, all I remember is a very cruel man named Zachary Graves who insisted that the urn was his birthright. He used it to do horrible things, in the hopes that he might be able to live forever.”

“So… did it work?” asks Melvin, like a child listening to a ghost story.

“That is never how the power of the urn was meant to be used. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I can see in my mind that it killed him.”

“Oh,” says Melvin, relieved. “So… we just have to find the pieces of it? Should be no problem.”

“Were it that simple, little missile. He tried to bring as much evil into one place as he could, in hopes of amplifying the power of the urn. He trapped hundreds of evil spirits in his house, and so much concentrated evil killed him, and destroyed the urn. I believe he still haunts the house trying to reassemble the urn. The hundreds of horrible spirits he brought to his house are still trapped there as well, getting angrier and angrier. That is the horror you must face.”

You and Melvin are both pale. You think back. “You… said we would visit four haunted houses tonight?”

“Yes,” says the Queen. “No one has entered the Graves mansion for decades. A powerful force makes even approaching the house impossible, unless you have the master key.”

“And where is the key?” asks Melvin, glancing around the many empty alcoves in the throne room.

She shakes her head. “I do not know, little missile. But I feel sure that you will visit four houses tonight in search of it.”

Charlie has been listening quietly, and seriously. “There is a house on the outskirts of town that is supposed to be haunted. It’s up on a hill. It used to be a day care, but… something terrible happened there. Some of my ball players used to talk about it, they were always telling ghost stories.”

“Do we have to do this in the night?” you ask. “It seems like the worst time to visit haunted houses.”

The Queen sighs. “I fear that you must, Player. I’m not sure you can retrieve the urn any other way.”

“Well,” says Melvin, “if we must, we must! It would seem that our game of bridge has led us to a bridge to the unknown. And if it will save our land and our Queen, we will face any terror!”

The Queen gives a small smile. “You are brave, little missile. Player, are you prepared for this challenge?”

“I’m as prepared as I’ll ever be. Charlie, can you point the way?”

Charlie looks out the window, and points ominously to a spooky house, high on a hill outside of town, silhouetted by a rising moon. “It’s easy to find,” he says, “just listen for the music.”

You and Melvin make your way out of the gray gloom that surrounds the castle, through a dark path in the forest. In the far distance, you hear what sounds like a child’s toy piano playing an off-key rendition of “No place like home.” There is something weird and haunting about it. “Melvin, are you sure we should be doing this?”

Melvin is shuddering. “N-no… f-frankly, I think we sh-should just go play p-pinball… b-but… what else can we d-do?”

You reach the top of the steep path, and emerge from the forest, into a clearing, where the house is. The house is dark, but a thin arc of smoke stretches from the chimney across the sky, and the creepy music is clearly coming from inside. You look at Melvin. “I guess we’re doing this,” you say. “I guess so,” says Melvin, gulping. You cautiously walk up the path, and as you step on the landing, it creaks ominously, and the music stops. The door creaks open all by itself. A breath of cold, foul air pours out of the door and surrounds you. You shift your weight uncertainly, and the boards under your feet creak in what sounds like a human voice. “Come… in…” it creaks slowly. Startled, you draw back, stepping on more boards which now form a chorus of increasingly angry voices, “come in come in come in COME IN COME IN COME IN” they cry, and to your horror, you find yourself clapping your hands over your ears and running into the dark house. You trip in the dark, and fall, plunging into what feels like cold water, and suddenly you find yourself sitting in a brightly lit room, looking into the eyes of a little boy.

“Hello,” he says, sitting cross-legged, and playing with a toy truck. “My name is Peek. Will you play hide and seek with me? I have to hide because the bad man is coming. Now, cover your eyes.”

You hesitate. What is this weird place? You look around the room, which is completely bare except for a single green couch. Who is this kid?

“Hurry!” shouts the boy, “Cover your eyes before the bad man comes!” He is laughing, but looks like he could cry at any moment. You cover your eyes, just for a moment, but think better of it, and when you look up, Peek is gone. You hear his giggling voice from far away, “Come find me…” Also far away you hear the child’s piano again, this time playing “Where have you gone, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?” and you get the feeling that if you can’t find him, something quite terrible indeed is going to happen.

Place the Sneak and Peek cartridge into your Atari 2600. Place difficulty settings on b. Use game select 1. Play until you can find Peek three times in a row. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.