Alone in the Dark 2

THE GROUND FLOOR DINING ROOM

The grenade I had sent down from the attic had thinned the enemy’s ranks.
Only three gangsters were left to enjoy the Christmas present Santy had
brought them. When the smoke finally cleared, I was tickled to see those
hardened killers had actually decorated a Christmas tree! Underneath it
all, they were just lovable rascals. A shiny ball on the tree attracted
my attention: it seemed to weigh down the branch more than it should. It
turned out to be a pool ball. Weird. I thought of the message from
Christmas Acme Limited informing One Eyed Jack they couldn’t deliver a
red pool ball. But there was another connection that my brain refused to
make. I went through all the objects I had collected. The included quite
a lot of written documents: books. parchments journals; but nothing I
could use now. Then I read this message: “The ball of fire opens the gate
to Hell”. That was it! The ball of fire had to be the red pool ball, and
the gate to Hell was surely a secret door of some kind. I ran out of
there and up to the pool room like a bat out of Hell’s Kitchen! I tried
out my theory on the pool table. Nothing! I did every damn thing with
that ball, but no secret door opened. Well one more good idea that turned
out bad. Then I noticed the Chinese billiards table. Two seconds later, I
dropped the ball inside. Bingo! The bookcase creaked open. My secret door
beckoned. It was locked but I had a key, the one I took from the bad guy
in the attic.

ONE EYED JACK’S SECRET ROOM
–
As soon as l set foot in One Eyed Jack’s secret room, I sensed the
danger. That place was a dark as the inside of a shark’s belly. My nose
hit something hard. Then a ghastly laugh froze my blood. Then a blinding
light blinded me. After a few seconds, I was able to squint: no doubt
about the man with the gun. This was One Eyed Jack himself! I would have
jumped on him, only I was stuck in some kind of bird cage. Jack was
smiling down at a little girl. That’s right, there was Grace Saunders,
happily playing next to one of the great psycho-killers of history. One
Eyed Jack wasn’t in any hurry to put me out of my misery. That suited me.
He sensed the solemnity of the occasion and decided to tell me the moving
story of his dastardly deeds. When that was over, he raised his revolver,
no doubt feeling it was time for me to meet my maker. I glanced one last
time at the poor little infant I had been unable to save from the
clutches of this heartless evildoer. As you can imagine, it all happened
very fast. As Jack lovingly squeezed the trigger of his gun, Grace ran
straight out of the room! jack hesitated between finishing me off and
running after the girl, and decided to finish me off. Only kidding!
Actually, he sprinted after the little girl. I thanked the powers that be
for my reprieve, unlocked the door of my prison with the hook I won from
the accordion player, and ran after One Eyed Jack and the Saunders child.
I bounded down the stairs and heard the front door open. If the gangsters
intended leaping into a car, then it was all over. But that’s not what
happened. The front door was shut. I rushed into the guard room, where
I’d noticed some windows. The howling wind at my back made me turn round.
Elisabeth Jarret was a very decorative dame. But what a lousy sense of
hospitality! She came at me, and she meant business. Being a gentleman, I
stepped back a pace or two and would have kept on going if the wall
hadn’t stopped me. Well. I tried one of my relaxed grins. She grinned
right back. The next thing I knew. I was floating up in the air. My head
felt like it was inside a bell, doing the ringing. I lost consciousness.

ACT 2: THE GALLEON 
==================

IN IRONS

When I came around, I was in irons deep in the hold of a ship. Beside me
was the poor little Saunders girl, exhausted, no doubt in deep shock from
the horrors she had witnessed. Then I saw Elisabeth Jarret. Her cold eyes
bore into mine, and I felt she was rummaging through my soul. In her
hands, she held a doll, and it looked like someone I knew very well. Me.
My first thought was “voodoo”. She then told me her life story. `More
than two centuries ago, Elisabeth Jarret arrived in Haiti. I was an
innocent little girl then. But my new tutor, Henry Cotton, taught me fear
and contempt. But in hiding, a slave from the plantation taught me to
ride the shadows. Soon the pupil grew stronger than the master… And
Cotten felt the weight of my revenge… and became my creature. Soldiers
captured us, but did they recognize Cotten? The Flying Dutchman was my
prison. I was thrown into the hold with my creature… I could “see” the
captain kept the spare key to my irons. My spirit wandered… One-Eyed
Jack “heard” my call and knew what reward awaited him. My soul guided
him… Death is my ally. One-Eyed Jack signed the pact and he and his
crew became immortal. Every hundred years, we had but to sacrifice an
innocent girl: she would grow old instead of us… At long last, I felt
the breath of freedom.’ Her story was over. As she flew off, the witch
contemptuously twisted the doll she held. Pain seared through my body. My
muscles felt like they were tearing apart. After an eternity she relaxed
her grip. Every ounce of energy had been wrung from me. As I slipped into
oblivion, I saw Grace pushing a plank.

THE GUARD ROOM

Grace tiptoed into the Guard Room. She was welcomed by a parrot with
things to say. A little birdseed was enough to get him singing. Grace
listened with great care to this little rhyme: If it is the staff you’re
looking for, It has been hidden, what a bore, In the cabin of the
one-eyed man. That’s where you should seek it, if you can. If you please,
Do not sneeze. Grace managed to find a sandwich to eat, and a pepperpot.
On the wall, she saw a useful plan of the ship, which indicated, among
other things the position of the captain’s cabin on the first level. She
also noticed that in the ship’s galley, a small service elevator for
food, called a dumbwaiter, communicated with the kitchen up in the house.

THE SECOND LEVEL CORRIDOR
–
Grace now had to get to One Eyed Jack’s cabin, by way of he north ladder
to the first level. She had just left the Guard Room when the sound of
footsteps came from her right Grace instinctively ran of to the left. It
was a dead-end! Both doors were locked. The footsteps were getting
closer. Grace hid under the steps and held her breath. Just in time, The
guard turned into the corridor and stopped. He seemed to hesitate.
Turning his back to her, the guard gave Grace a chance to escape: she ran
down the corridor and scrambled up the ladder to safety. From the first
level, Grace was able to climb another ladder to the deck.

THE SHIP’S DECK
–
The deck of the Flying Dutchman was littered with reminders of a bygone
era: coils of rope, cannons and kegs, not to mention quite a few drunken
seadogs singing shanties no fragile young ears ought to hear. Very
slowly, Grace slipped from hiding-place to hiding-place, making her way
to the captain’s cabin. A thunder of applause made her look at the
pirates. They were cheering the acrobatic feats of the amazing Mr. Eye.
In the excitement of the moment, no one noticed him drop his tinderbox
lighter. No one except Grace, that is. It lay beside a hiding-place, so
she was able to get it without any of the pirates seeing her. The little
girl finally made it to the hatchway that looked down onto the captain’s
cabin. They say that fortune favors the brave. Well, Grace had been brave
all right, and now she got a lucky break: a rope was hanging inside.
Grace disappeared through the hatchway and slid down the rope.

ONE EYED JACK’S CABIN
–
Once inside the captain’s cabin, Grace noticed his staff lying on the
bed. She took it and went to leave. The rope to the hatchway had become
unhooked. The only way out was the cabin door. Judging from the coarse
laughter nearby, the trip wasn’t going to be easy. Grace stayed very calm
and worked out a devilish scheme. She opened a chest that lay on the
floor and found a miniature cannon. She positioned it carefully in front
of the door to the corridor. Then she shook her pepperpot inside the
barrel of the cannon. Finally, threw a crystal vase from the bookshelves
onto the floor. The nearby laughter stopped. The door was thrown open and
light flooded in. A threatening figure stood in the doorway. Grace lit
the fuse with her tinderbox lighter. The figure kept coming, until at
last the cannon fired a cloud of pepper in his face. He sneezed so hard,
he banged his head on the door-frame and went down for the count! Grace
searched him quickly and discovered a little bell, which she kept. She
silently went along the corridor. When she got to the galley, she heard
footsteps, and they were coming her way. Praying nobody would see her,
Grace slipped into the galley.

THE SHIP’S GALLEY
–
The galley, for that’s what a ship’s kitchen is called, was a smallish
room. Grace peeked through the door and saw two men climbing the south
ladder. Oh no! They were cooks, obviously heading straight for the
kitchen to prepare Christmas dinner. There was no time to lose. The
little girl looked for the dumbwaiter. There it was! She went up to it
and rang her little bell. The result was almost immediate: the
dumbwaiter’s little door opened. Grace had just enough time to grab a
chicken foot and a key from the table, before she squeezed into the
dumbwaiter.

THE HOUSE KITCHEN
–
After a rather scary ride up in the dumbwaiter, Grace Saunders arrived in
the kitchen of the house. Luckily, she was alone. Outside, a man stood
guard. How was she going to get past him! Grace examined the kitchen.
There were lots of sharp and pointy things, but Grace didn’t like the
idea of blood, so she looked for something else. Opening a closet, she
saw the solution to her problem: a pot of molasses and an ice-bucket
filled with ice cubes. She carefully covered the floor with the ice
cubes, then went over to the door. Sticking her tongue out at the
startled guard, Grace backed into the kitchen. The guard sauntered after
her, fairly confident of his ability to defeat her in single combat. he
then stepped on an ice-cube and gained a whole new perspective on the
situation. His very ugly head smacked sickeningly on the floor. Grace
headed for the first story.

THE SECOND STORY HALLWAY

Quiet as a mouse, Grace crept up the stairs to the second story. The
guard who was pacing up and down didn’t look very friendly, and when he
saw the girl, he rushed forward to get his hands on her. Meanwhile, she
fancied a little molasses, but OOPS, spilled it on the floor! That silly
old guard just kept right on coming. When he decided to avoid the sticky
stuff, he was already in it. While he learned how a fly feels when he’s
stuck on fly-paper, Grace went into the billiards room.

THE BILLIARDS ROOM

Inside the billiards room. found a token in one of the pockets of the
billiards table. Then she skipped along to One Eyed Jack’s desk, where
she found out there were lots of drawers she couldn’t open. It was
child’s play to insert the captain’s staff into the matching hole in the
desk. There was a pleasant little click and the top drawer slid open. It
contained a key to nice Mr. Carnby’s shackles which Grace naturally took.
Next stop: the witch’s bedroom.

THE WITCH’S ROOM

As soon as Grace entered the witch’s room, she felt very nervous. All
that spooky stuff, the skulls and weird masks. It was too much like the
scary stories the bigger kids sometimes told her. This time, though it
was more than just a story and all of a sudden she felt very much alone.
But she also knew that her immediate enemy was fear, so she fought it
down and walked into the chamber of sorcery. There, she placed the
captain’s staff on the flat stone in the center of the room. The staff
immediately began to dance and twirl, becoming the staff of Loas, a
powerful Voodoo object. Grace, keeping her imagination in check, took the
staff once more, not knowing what it was.

THE GUARD ROOM

Grace had one objective. To get to Carnby and free him. She figured all
she had to do was go back the way she came, by going to the kitchen and
taking the dumbwaiter down to the ship’s galley. The trouble was the
armed guard near the kitchen door. Grace had a bright idea. As silently
as she could, she made her way into the Guard Room, where she had
previously noticed a foldaway bed. She placed her teddy-bear exactly
underneath, then went to the barrel organ. She hid between the machine
and the wall, then inserted her token. When the music started, the guard
rushed in, saw the teddybear and went to pick it up. When he leaned over,
the bed fell on him with a resounding thud! The way was clear. Grace ran
into the kitchen, rang her little bell in front of the dumbwaiter and
waited. A few instants later, the little door opened and she climbed in.
When she got to the ship’s galley, she was met by a small welcoming
committee. It seemed the two cookies didn’t like little girls taking free
rides in their dumbwaiter. They seized grace and made the mistake of
taking her down to the lockup where Carnby was chained in irons.

THE LOCK-UP
–
I had trouble believing it. The Saunders kid had actually brought me the
key to my chains! For the moment, she was being roughed up by a bad guy,
who was kind enough to turn his back on me. I used the key Grace threw
over to get free. My Houdini act was kind of noisy and the pirate whirled
round with a dangerous glitter in his eye, and a shiny cutlass all ready
to strike! Well, I had been boiling with rage and frustration for some
time, and beating the brains out of this bozo was the perfect way to
express those emotions. I rushed headlong at him and attacked like a
tornado. The scurvy dog came to a painful end. I was roused now, and this
ship was about to get cleaned out! I picked up the cutlass and went to
the next room, where a noisy parrot covered the oaths of my second victim
in as many minutes. Going through the hall, I took the left-hand
corridor. Somebody tried to stop me. I don’t even remember what the swine
looked like. But he did leave me a short fuse and an old-fashioned pi
stol.

THE SHIP’S LIQUOR STORE
–
The next door I opened was to a room filled with kegs and bottles. These
guys drank to much, even for thirsty cutthroats! Naturally, the place was
guarded. Why, it was none other than Shorty Leg, my old friend from the
statue of One Eyed Jack. “History keeps repeating itself”, as the saying
goes. Not wanting to contradict the wisdom of that fine proverb, I killed
Shorty Leg again although this time, I cut him to bits with swordplay.
Before making his exit, old Shorty managed to drop a pistol, some lead
bullets and a coat of chainmail. I pushed one of the barrels, to find a
second coat of chainmail and a bottle containing an extract from the book
of marvels. I didn’t want to spend too long in that room, so after
putting on the chainmail, I left, heading for the first door on my right.
It wasn’t locked, so I gave it a gentle shove. It opened onto what
appeared to e the ship’s hold

THE SHIP’S HOLD
–
Things went pretty quickly in the ship’s hold. I didn’t see Black Hat at
first, so he had all the time in the world to aim his pair of pistols at
me. The bullet that should have killed me just bounced off the chainmail.
It was his turn to taste cold steel. I stabbed and hacked `til he was
forced to fall down dead. In his will, he left me some bullets for my
charming old pistol. My work in the hold was done. Next stop, the
blacksmith’s.

THE FOUNDRY
–
Inside the foundry, the heat was intense. The two blacksmiths, on the
other hand, eyed me rather coldly. Their fine blades would have turned me
into bite-size chunks, if my footwork hadn’t been as good as it was.
Flashing my well-known daredevil grin, I wielded my own sword, impressing
those hamfisted lugs with the elegance of my deadly technique. They died
at the hands of a master! I calmly inspected their workplace. The
wood-burning furnace was blazing away merrily. Taking great care, I
lifted the white-hot poker that stood before the furnace door. A noble
instrument and a kind weapon, since it wounded and cauterized its victim
with the same stab. I must admit, however, that I felt more adventurous
fighting with a cutlass. I decided to take along the excellent pair of
pincers that lay on the workbench behind the furnace. They looked like
they needed a change of pace. On the floor, I came across a key. The
words “powder magazine were scratched into it. My heart sang with joy;
gunpowder has always been one of my great loves. The key fit the end door
perfectly.

THE POWDER MAGAZINE
–
Like a lot of the rooms I’d visited in Hell’s Kitchen. the powder
magazine was guarded. The fellow who now faced me was no stranger: I had
already killed him. De Witt. you’ll recall was a keen duelist, and set
about me with a flashing bade and some very classy moves. Unfortunately
for him, he never lived long enough to put my lessons to good use. He had
no use for his bag of sand. his little barrel of gunpowder and his book,
so I inherited them. Having done about as much damage as I could down in
he hold of the ship, I decided to climb the metal ladder up to the first
level. The first door I looked through opened onto a room containing a
ship’s cannon. The foundry on the level below connected with this room
via a large opening in the floor. I was intrigued and went in.

THE CANNON ROOM
–
Inside the armourer’s, the guy who was supposed to be guarding the cannon
was in fact catching up with his beauty sleep. He had a lot of catching
up to do. He wasn’t the only one snoring around there. More sleepers
could be heard in the room opposite. I pushed open the door. As I
thought, this was the dormitory. Three pirates, lying in bunk-beds, were
probably dreaming about smoke and plunder on the high seas. They looked
so happy, I hadn’t the heart to wake them up. In fact, I felt it only
right to give those boys all the sleep they needed. I put the little keg
of powder down facing the big cannon over in the armourer’s. Then I went
into the armourer’s and, taking out my pincers, set about cutting through
the chains that held the cannon in place. Everything was going fine, the
only sound was my pincers cutting through tough steel. And the guard had
stopped that horrible snoring. I silently thanked him, then felt the
hairs on the back of my neck running for cover. I span round just in time
to see the guard prepare to impale me. I hate being impaled; its not
dignified. So I had no choice but to kill the guy. Once the chains were
cut through, I turned the cannon round to point directly at the little
powder keg. Pushing that cast-iron monster wasn’t easy but the next bit
made it all worthwhile. I put my short fuse onto the firing nozzle.
Everything was ready. I silently wished the sleepers happy landings, and
lit the fuse with my poker. That little barrel of gunpowder lived up to
expectations. The only things I found in the smoking wreckage of the
dormitory were a flask and a small bag of gold coins. That last item gave
me an idea, so I headed for the galley to try it out.

THE SHIP’S GALLEY
–
As I neared the galley, I heard high-pitched laughter. The door was
locked, but that was no big problem. I just shook my bag of gold coins
and waited. What pirate of the name can resist the sound of pieces of
eight? Sure enough, the galley door flew open and out waddled two tiny
characters wielding hatchets. I chuckled at them but they didn’t see what
was funny. As a matter of fact, they put up quite a fight and I almost
felt sorry when my sword finally ended their very short existence. I went
through to the pantry where I ran into an old sparring partner. T-Bone
wasn’t looking too healthy, even if his blowpipe still sprayed poisoned
darts. But in close-quarter fighting, blowpipes start to look kind of
silly. As he died, he left behind a strange item: a metal jack of
diamonds. I decided it probably functioned as a key. Opposite the
kitchen, I had noticed a door and so I went back and tried the metal card
in the door’s unusual lock. It worked! I entered the room beyond.

THE CAPTAINS ROOM
–
Even as I stepped into the captain’s room, something didn’t feel right.
My fears proved to be justified when, a couple of seconds later, my feet
floated off the floor. A sense of duty made me test my muscles: they were
all out to lunch. The really scary thing was that I could still see and
hear. And I saw a very welcome sight: Grace Saunders grinning from ear to
ear. She tiptoed over to the captain’s statue and placed the staff of
Loas in its outstretched hand. It wasn’t much of a surprise to see a
passage open, leading into Elisabeth Jarret’s room. Miss Jarret was so
busy deciding what nasty thing she wanted to do with the doll she held,
she never noticed Grace. The little girl had read in a book she’d
discovered that a simple chicken leg was all it took to defeat voodoo
magic. Moving towards the witch, Grace held up the drumstick, looking as
though she actually believed everything she read. I’ll never sneer at a
chicken again. It was as if all the witch’s occult powers had turned
against her. Jarret rose in the air and melted before our astonished
gaze! Jarret’s death abruptly ended the spell that held me up in the air.
Luckily my nose was there to cushion the fall. I picked myself up and was
about to do the same to Grace and bring her back to her mommy and daddy,
when a bad thing happened. From the floor in front of me emerged a
creature that was hideous. Worse, it was big, with muscles that rippled
like the surface of a swimming pool just after many elephants dived in at
the same time. I fixed the beast with a masterful stare that works
surprisingly well on smaller dogs. Then I fled up the ladder to the
ship’s deck.

THE SHIP’S DECK
–
After the unspeakable monster in the captain’s cabin it was quite a
relief to face the host of bloodthirsty pirates I ran into on the deck.
My fear now turned to irriation, and Music Man was the first to be
punished. He had made little progress in his music, I was sorry to see.
This time, I had no pact of immortality to tear up, so I just shot him in
the head. His buddies soon joined him in death. I had become a proficient
swordsman and these adversaries were no more than musing playthings. As I
sent them on their way into eternity, I watched Bubble-Blade scramble up
the mizzenmast and Mister Eye climbing up to his lookout post in the
crow’s nest. When I had finished on deck. I followed Mister Eye. The
other mast had no ladder and if I did descend from apes they can’t have
been the tree-dwelling type.

THE LOOKOUT POST

The lookout post was perfect for anyone looking for the best way to break
your neck. This tiny little platform sixty feet above the deck was home
to Mister Eye. Let me fill you in a his background. He was born at
Nouamghar, and ended up being deported to Haiti. A meaningless existence,
until he made Miss Jarret’s acquaintance. She initiated him into voodoo
as her servant. After the attack on December 25th, he was made lookout
because of his exceptional view. He also handled the harpoon with
remarkable dexterity. I managed to best him, though, forcing him on the
defensive with thrust and parry, until finally he just stepped back into
thin air! Bubble-Blade was still alive, which was a situation I intended
to correct. I was up the mainmast, and he was over on the mizzenmast. He
was in no hurry to come to me, so I had to take the initiative. And there
wasn’t much time to lose: One Eyed Jack was down on deck, getting Grace
ready for sacrifice. Inwardly swearing at fate for landing me in this
mess, I used my hook to grab a dangling rope, closed my eyes and leaped.

THE FOREYARD

There we were, Bubble-Blade and I, standing on a horizontal pole high
above the deck and about to fight a duel. My adversary tried to bolster
my confidence by performing cute acrobatic tricks that should have been
impossible. He was also an expert with a sword. Thinking that I might as
well get it over with I attacked first. Bubble-Blade was surprised by
this; he clearly expected me to be paralyzed with fear by this time.
Anyhow, he hesitated for a second, just to show me how disgusted he was.
I didn’t want him to change his opinion of me, so I attacked again, with
all the violence I had in me. He wasn’t used to getting killed that way,
and he took it real badly. Well, the time had come at last for my
showdown with the evil boss of all that murderous riffraff, the infamous
One Eyed Jack himself Leaping to the deck, I went to where captain
Nichols’ sword stuck up from the deck. I had read that this weapon alone
could put an end to Jack’s evil career.

THE FINAL COMBAT

With captain Nichols’ sword in hand, I walked with a firm step to where
One Eyed Jack waited. He did not attempt to stop me from cutting through
Grace’s chains with my pincers. She scampered to temporary safety, as
Jack and I squared off to decide her fate. He slashed at me. I dodged the
blow with a split second to spare. My enemy’s one good eye stared at me
stonily. His two swords twirled in the air like dancers. I parried as
best I could. The fight went on, deadly and bitter and hard. I was
growing tired. Soon, I was bound to make a mistake and then Jack would
strike like lightning. I had to gamble on a sudden attack; it worked!
Jack stared at me in disbelief, then crumpled to the deck. I closed my
eyes and laughed with relief. Another laugh, bloodcurling, the cackle of
the tomb, echoed round that cavern. One Eyed Jack was back on his feet.
He lashed out at me with the power of demons. Where I found the speed and
strength to parry that attack I will never know. Maybe I had come too far
and seen too much to let that scumbag beat me. Maybe it was the thought
of getting Grace back to her home for Christmas. Or maybe it was because
Ted Striker was one of the few friends I ever had. Maybe it was all of
those. One Eyed Jack couldn’t be allowe d to continue his reign of
terror. I found the energy I needed, and destroyed him. There was no time
to lose. I grabbed Grace and jumped into the lifeboat. We were
practically out of the cavern when an explosion reverberated through the
air. The ghostly figure of One Eyed Jack was firing the ship’s cannons.
Huge lumps of rock fell from the cavern walls and smashed into the ship
below. Giant waves dashed against each other. Our rowboat was tossed out
onto the ocean. Outside, the sea was calm. We were safe at last. The sun

was peeping over the horizon. It was going to be a beautiful day.

Cheats

32,000 hit points:
Wait until you are in the house. Go to the kitchen. Take the frying pan. Take the poison that is next to the dumb waiter, and the other poison on the counter. Create poisoned wine. Drink the wine. Hold the [Enter] until the “Inventory And Actions” list appears again. Your hit points should be lower than -1000. Repeat this process until your hit points are out of the negative range. You should have approximately 32,000 hit points. Use the frying pan to keep sober.