Chapter 58: Nightmare, Texas Style

Dracula is terrifying, but seeing the crosses startles him, and as he backs away in fear, you cleverly guide him into one of his own ghost prisons, slam the door, and throw the electric switch.

“We did it!” shouts Melvin. “Take that, Dracula!” he shouts at the ghost prison, doing his pixel victory dance. From the electrified cell, you can hear Dracula howling and cursing.

“Come on, Melvin, we have to find the key!” you look around the terrifying basement tomb. In the center is Dracula’s coffin, which you open with nervous hands. Inside, upon the velvet lining, is a large leaden key, with an evil looking skull on the end.

“That must be it!” cries Melvin. “The master key to the Graves Mansion!” You grab it, and are about to head back up the stairs, when you realize you hear another sound: a child’s voice. “Hello?” it says, “Is there anyone there?”

You realize there are two electric ghost trap cells in the basement, and that someone else is in the other one.

“Hello? Hello?” the voice continues. “Please, if you are out there, please let me out!”

You and Melvin look at each other nervously. Here you are in the dark basement of Dracula’s castle, and someone, or something is asking for your help.

Cautiously, you approach the other cell. The electricity buzzes all around it. “Who’s in there?” asks Melvin.

“My name is Sneak,” the voice says, sobbing. “I came here to get the key to help my friend, but got stuck.” You and Melvin look at each other with alarm. 

“Throw the switch, let Sneak out!” says Melvin.

You throw the switch, and open the door. A ghostly child is inside, who looks at you through tearstained eyes in disbelief. “Is it really safe to come out?” Sneak asks.

“Yeah, kid, come on!” shouts Melvin. “We gotta get out of here, before Dracula figures a way out – he sounds pretty mad over there!”

Sneak follows you as you hurry up the stairs, and run out of the house. You find yourself back in the graveyard. The rainbow ghost is there, and does a flying flip with joy. “Is that the master key?” it shouts. “And… SNEAK! Is that you?” The ghost flies up to Sneak, and grabs Sneak’s hands. “I never thought I’d see you again! Peek is going to be so happy to see you!” The ghost scoops Sneak up in an excited ghostly embrace, and carries Sneak high up in the air, and then both of them float back down, laughing. “Wow!” he says to you, “You two really did it! Wait…” says the ghost, suddenly turning serious. “Where’s Dracula?”

“We trapped him in a ghost trap!” says Melvin. “Do you think it will hold him?”

The rainbow ghost laughs. “Doctor Frankenstein’s traps will hold ANYTHING undead. That’s why I’ve stayed away from here so long! Oh, he’s trapped alright!” He looks up with pride at the house. “Oh, I can’t tell you what this means to me! Having my home taken away was so terrible! And now I have it back! I’m going to fly back to Frankenstein’s to get Igor to help me fix up the house the way it used to be. He’s going to be so excited!” He starts laughing. “I can’t believe you actually caught Dracula! This is an incredible day! Goodbye, goodbye!” calls the ghost, as he flies off over the mountains.

Sneak looks up at you, and asks with a quiet voice, “Now that we have the key, can we rescue my friends?”

“Your friends are in the Graves Mansion?” you ask.

“Yes,” says Sneak seriously. “The bad man who killed us all captured our ghosts, and trapped everyone in his house.”

“Why did he do that?” you ask.

Sneak looks at the ground. “He was a greedy man, he wanted to live forever, like Dracula, so he asked Dracula how to do it. Dracula told him he would bite him and he would become a vampire, and live forever. But Mister Graves didn’t want to be a vampire. He wanted to be a regular man, and live forever that way. Dracula said there was another way, but he would only tell it if Mister Graves would help him get rid of the rainbow ghost that haunted his house. So, Mister Graves persuaded Doctor Frankenstein to build the ghost traps for Dracula.”

“This is complicated,” says Melvin.

You ignore him. “Then what happened, Sneak?”

“The rainbow ghost left his house, and was very sad. But Dracula was happy, and told Mister Graves that he needed Queen Stella’s Magic Urn, and a thousand ghosts.” Sneak suddenly looks confused. “It’s funny, for a long time, I forgot about Queen Stella. But a couple days ago, sitting in my cell, I suddenly remembered.”

You and Melvin look at each other. “Then what, Sneak?”

“Well…” says Sneak, “Mister Graves stole the Urn from Queen Stella, but he didn’t have a thousand ghosts, so…” Sneak starts to cry. “He started killing everyone. That’s why he killed us, and trapped us in his house.” Sneak cries a little more, and then gets serious again. “But we weren’t enough ghosts, so he got an idea: he would burn down the jail and the insane asylum to get all the ghosts he’d need to live forever.”

You stare at Sneak in wide-eyed horror. “And he did that?”

“Yes,” says Sneak.

“And you were trapped in there with those terrible ghosts?” asks Melvin.

“Yes,” says Sneak, starting to cry again, but then he laughs. “It was scary at first, but we were good hiders. We had a special room the others couldn’t find. We felt safe there, me, my friends, and our teacher.”

“Were you trapped by electric walls, like in Dracula’s castle?” asks Melvin.

“No,” says Sneak. “We were trapped by magic. The Graves Mansion is very special.” He points at the master key. “When you turn that key, it makes all the walls of the mansion magically sealed, so that nothing can get in or out, even ghosts. For generations, the Graves family used it to keep away ghosts, who like to live in the attics of big houses. They also say it protected the house during the great earthquake of 1890. But Mister Graves realized he could use it to keep ghosts in, not just keep them out. Once he had his thousand ghosts, he wanted to make sure no ghosts took the key, so he gave the key to Dracula, and asked him to lock the house so no one could get in or out. Dracula locked it up tight, and took the master key back to his castle.”

“Why did he want to be locked in a house with a thousand ghosts?” asks Melvin, confused.

“Then he could say the magic words, and the urn would suck all of us in, and make Mister Graves live forever.”

“Is that what happened?” you ask.

“It was going to. But I snuck out. I found a crack in the magic in our little room, and slipped through it. Then Mister Graves didn’t have enough ghosts.”

“Why didn’t your friends come with you?” asks Melvin.

“The crack was too small. They couldn’t do it. But I could talk to them through it. They told me that Mister Graves was furious when it didn’t work, and he started shouting at all the bad ghosts. They got angry, and smashed the urn, and killed him.”

“Oh, the irony!” shouts Melvin, delighted. “We have 999 happy haunts here, but there’s room for a thousand!” He laughs, “Now he has a thousand ghosts, but he’s one of them!”

“Wait…” you say, confused. “So… if he’s a ghost, won’t he… live forever?”

Sneak looks at you solemnly. “Ghosts aren’t supposed to stay here. They only stay when something keeps them here. Peek and I are still here because we want to rescue our friends. When our friends are saved, we can go to where we are supposed to. My friends told me that Mister Graves roams the house trying to find the urn pieces and put it back together. But the bad ghosts keep hiding the pieces from him. He thinks if he can find the pieces, the urn will bring him back to life, and he can live forever.”

“Is that true?” asks Melvin.

Sneak shrugs. “I don’t know. But the reason I was trapped at Dracula’s house for all those years is because I was trying to get the key to set my friends free.” Sneak looks at the key longingly. “They’ve been trapped in that house so long. Can we go there now, and set them free?”

You and Melvin look at each other. “I… guess so,” you say. “How do we get there?”

Sneak says, “Hold my hands, and close your eyes.” You take Sneak’s tiny, cold, ghostly hand in yours, and close your eyes. Just as you are wondering how Melvin is holding Sneak’s hand, you open your eyes, and realize you are somewhere else. You hear the ocean, and look up to see a creepy New England mansion looming over you, on a cliff overlooking a bay. “We’re here,” says Sneak. “Please,” he implores you, “open the door. My friends have been waiting for so long.” The moonlight glints off the evil eyes of the skull on the heavy lead key as you slide it into the keyhole, and start to turn it.

“Wait a minute!” shouts Melvin, as you hear a click in the lock. “Won’t all the evil ghosts get out, too?” But it is too late. The door flies open and an ice cold firehose of monstrous evil ghosts blast through your body and mind. Horrible thoughts, feelings, and visions take you over as you slump lifelessly to the ground. You suddenly find yourself somewhere else. Somewhere hot. And while it is hot outside, you are cold inside. Cold with a terrible rage. You look down to see a chainsaw in your hands, and feeling yourself taken over by an evil presence that cackles wickedly, you survey a landscape of brambles, fences, and discarded wheelchairs, and know what you are going to do.

Place the Texas Chainsaw Massacre cartridge into your Atari 2600. Play until you get 13,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.