Tales of Carrion Mansion. Episode 6. @1999 by Skytower
Months ago while babysitting Jeremy and Helga Carion, Elvira Peterson was tickled, shrunk, asaulted by a mutated aunt, tickled, grown to three times her normal height, shrunk and then bound. Now she's back.
Elvira and the Witches kids
Part 6
Old potions never die
Elvira Peterson slowed her moped to a stop and took a deep breath. A chill breeze curled around her, defeating the early evening spring sunshine. Deepening shadows were growing slowly around her, but none compared to Carrion Mansion. Weakly lit by the dying day the mansion loomed before her, it's semi-gothic architecture deceptively welcoming.
"Stop it." she scolded herself. "Houses are just wood and glass and other stuff."
If the mansion heard her it did not react. It just sat, as it had sat for years on the small rise on the outskirts of town. A grey stone wall surrounded the house, though it wasn't really needed. Over many years and after many unexplained occurences (not to mention a few disappearances) no one in town was fool enough to go near the mansion.
"Well, almost no one." she whispered, getting off of her moped. But then, she thought, I really don't have much choice.
As it had done months before the wrought iron gate opened on it's own, but something new had been added to it. A black gargoyle's face glared at her as the gate swung back. Pitted and scared by the elements the face seemed to mutely curse her. Hurrying past it Elvira jogged up to the front steps. Leaning the moped to one side she picked up her pack and walked over to the door. Two more gargoyle head knockers stared at her. She knocked, then took a step back as the sound shook the house.
"Get a grip." she told herself crossly. "Your not a rookie." Elvira was pretty by almost any standard, though not stunningly beautiful by Hollywood standards. She stood about halfway over five feet, with long brown hair that was currently tucked into a wool cap. Loose fitting jeans and a Bruins warm up jacket further obscured a slight but appealing figure. Her face was gamin like, with high forehead, rich brown eyes and a slightly too small nose over a soft mouth.
The door opened and an extremely tall woman with crimson hair greeted her.
"Welcome Elivra." Lillith Carion said, retreating a little to let the babysitter in. The elder Carion had not changed at all since the last time Elvira had seen her. Extremely tall and thin, with a face seemingly chissled out of pale marble. Framing that face was dark red hair. The most striking feature in the face were a pair of bright green eyes. She was wearing a black sequined evening gown and looked exoticly (or terrifyingly Elvira told herself) beautiful. Elvira walked in, setting her bag down near the stairs. Carion Mansion had not changed in the few months she'd been away. Infront of her a set of stairs led upward to the second floor, branching off into the two main wings of the house. To her right was the entrance to the dinning room, to her left the kitchen. At the top of the stairs Jeremy and Helga Carrion stood and smiled at her. They were twins, with the same crimson hair as their mother. Like her their skin was pale, both faces were thin, his to the point of looking pinched, her's merely looking chunky. His red hair was cut short, almost a buzz cut, her's was long, nearly to her waiste. Four green eyes gazed at her, giving the babysitter the feeling that she was in the sights of some archane weapon.
"Nice to see you again." Jeremy said.
"At full size." Helga added.
"Children." Mrs. Carrion said, her tone one of warning as she put on her coat. "I do not wish to hear of any unpleasentness on Monday. Is that understood?" "Yes mother." Jeremy and Helga said at the same time, in the same voice. The voice did nothing to reasure the babysitter.
"Here are the emergency numbers." Mrs. Carrion said, handing Elvira a small black book. Goodby."
"See ya." Elvria said.
"Okay." Elvira said, marching up the stairs as soon as the door closed. "A couple of things to clear up. First: where's Aunt Petunia?"
"Father took her to a specialist in the old country." Jeremy said.
"He was a little upset after she tried to eat us."
"Yea? How did he feel about the two of you mutating her?"
"He said that it was: 'excuseable youthfull exuberance' Jeremy said.
"Of course, everyone mutates their aunt."
"Why are you back with us?" Jeremy asked as they followed her down the hallway. "I haven't heard anything about Hell freezing over."
"I need your help."
"Our help?"
Elvira opened the door to her old room, noting that they had fixed up the damage from her last visit. Going inside she threw her pack down on the bed and turned to them.
"Yea, I'm still going up and down a lot."
"The formulea is still active?"
"Good work Jeremy!" Helga exclaimed, slapping him on the back.
"I'm brilliant." he agreed with false modesty.
"Hey!" Elvira protested. "Master mind! I've still got a problem. Everytime I laugh too much or..."
"Engage in intercourse enough to reach an orgasmic level of satisfaction?" Helga suggested as Elvira faltered.
"Yea." Elvira said, blushing. "I either shrink or grow, or grow too much."
"Well as long as you avoid hillarity and sex you should be ok." Jeremy said.
"I'm a teenager Jeremy."
"I didn't know you were that promiscuous."
"I'm not..."
"I hope your carefull." Helga said.
"What?"
"She's right," Jeremy agreed, "the formulea could be transferable."
"I wonder if her and her partner could grow simultaneaously?"
"Maybe, but I..."
"Enough!" Elvira shouted. Jumping off the bed she grabed the two children by the throats. "Can you cure me?"
Jeremy hummed to himself and Elvira released them.
Keep your temper, she thought. They shrunk ya last time, who knows what they've worked on since then.
"Was that a good hum or a bad hum?"
"That was a; 'I'm running out of a air ' hum." he said, rubbing his neck. "But in answer to your first question: yes I think I can cure you. But we'll have to go the lab."
"The lab." Elvira repeated. "Okay lets go to the lab."
As they walked through the corridors of Carion Mansion Elvira looked around. The place was still the same, high ceilings, dark wood paneling, a few tapestries and suits of armor. Lit by flickering lamps it was the model of a haunted house. Unfortunately it wasn't haunted. Elvira would have welcomed ghost instead of the two children who walked in front of her. Trusting the two of them again was not what Elvira wanted to do, but it beat explaining things to her parents. Or ending up spending another night in her little sisters Malibu Stacy dream house.
They came to the end of the corridor and stopped. Elvira braced herself as Jeremy pulled a sword on one of the armored suits. The floor vanished and they fell into darkness.
This time Elvira landed on her feet. Getting up slowly she looked around. Jeremy and Helga bounced up and went over to a computer console. The console was new, and big, taking up the entire south wall.
"I thought you went in for magic and alchemy and stuff." Elvira said, walking over to him. The sound of chemicals bubbling and boiling filled the her ears, even as chemical scents asaulted her nose.
"I am, but there is no law that says a computer can't hold a spell." he patted the console. "Father got this for me for my birthday."
"Nice, I got a new hockey stick." Elvira said, studdying the machine. It looked like every computer she had ever seen on tv. A keyboard, large monitor, dozens of dials and switches neatly arranged. Near the top center was an outline and three empty holes. "Should I be worried the manufacturers logo's missing?"
"Not at all." Jeremy said. "I've made extensive modifications."
"Oh great." Elvira muttered.
"Just give me a few seconds to call up your file."
Leaving him to the machine Elvira wandered over to Helga. The little girl was making a notation on a notepad. Suspended in mid air was a small ball that looked like green jelly.
"Still working on bringing that doll to life?" Elvira asked.
"We did that already. " Helga said. "She and Mr. Bear ran of and got married. Thier on their honeymoon."
"Oh." the babysitters mind whirled for a moment as she tried to picture a teddy bear with the spirit of an english buttler making love to an animated Malibu Stacy doll. "What's that then?"
"A transformation pill." Helga glanced up at her and smiled.
"Forget it." Elvira said, backing away. "I'm not ending up as a spider centaur."
"That was Jeremy's experiment." the little girl protested, a hurt look comming over her face. "I don't turn people into spiders."
"Sorry."
Mollified Helga turned back to the experiment. Elvira gave her a ten count before asking the inviteable question.
"What does it do?"
"Either a bird, a mouse or a cat, I'm not sure yet. Jeremy's the one who likes nice orderly things, that's why he went into science."
"And you like things crazy?"
"Chaotic." Helga agreed.
"Found the file." Jeremy called. Elvira and Helga went over to the computer and looked at the screen. A complex chain of chemicals was dancing across the monitor.
"Pretty colors," Elvira conceded, "what do they mean."
"It is hard to say." he punched the keyboard a few times and the chemicals danced some more. "Can you tell me the exact moments and circumstances when the changes took place?"
"Oh yea, it's not something I foget easily. First time was about a month after I left the fun house here. "
Elvira sighed, remembering.
"Polly's hitting me!"
"I am not."
"Settle down!" Elvira shouted, trying to keep the tray of snacks ballanced as she moved across the room. Her sister Guinevere held court on her bed, explaining to one and all how a perfect snowball was made. Elsewhere in the room a cauldron of little girls sought mischeife.
"Everything alright dear?" the call came from her mothers room, a safe fortress in the remote rescesses of the hallway.
"Just fine mom!" Elvira called back, setting the tray down and pulling back in time to avoid getting trampled. Impossible, she thought. There must be more than four girls here.
Muffled; "Thank you's" were heard.
Elvira closed the door, hoping her mother wouldn't be tempted to get out of bed. A broken leg needed time to heal, and she was determined to give her mother that time.
"Game time!" Guinevere cried out.
"Tho it doth cost me my sanity." Elvira whispered to herself.
Where Elvira took after her fathers side of the family, her sister leaned more toward her mother. Blonde hair, cute face, arms and legs already surpassing her body, Guinever had five or six years before growing into the true beauty she would become.
"One game only." Elvira called back. "And everyone gets to play."
"Darts." Polly called out. Polly was the closest thing to a punk ten year old Elvira had ever seen. She had blue highlights in her hair and was a little pudgy.
"No sharp objects."
"Makeovers." Danielle called. She was the fashion plate of the group, with great blue eyes and long black hair.
"No chemicals."
"Doom." Mary called, she loved either the computer or the tv, and had the thick glasses to prove it.
"And let you near the computer again? Forget it."
It went on like that for a while, Elvira rejecting one game after another. Then Guenivere called out: "Twister!"
"What is Twister?" Jeremy asked.
"You never played?"
"If I had played, I would have known what the game was, and therefore I would not have asked."
He's gonna be a principle when he grows up, Elvira thougtht.
"Twister is game where you place a mat on the floor. On the mat are different coloured dots. Arranged in a criss cross pattern. A person has a big color chart divided with parts of the body. You spin an arrow and it lands on say Blue under left foot. The person on the mat whose turn it is has to put his left foot on a blue dot. They have to do it without taking there other feet or hands off the mat. At least that's the rules we used."
"I bet Aunt Petunia could win that game." Helga said.
The game seemed benign enough. At the very least Elvira thought it would tire them out. She said ok and a space was cleared. The game started off ok, with all four girls on the mat and Elvira spinning the arrow. Soon the mat was a twisted mass of young girls. Then Guinevere, reaching for a blue dot, brushed her hand against Polly's foot. The gigling started, and soon a full scale tickle war was in progress. Elvira waded into the melee...
"Not a very bright thing to do." Jeremy pointed out. The babysitter ignored him and went on.
... and got tripped.
"Get her." Guenivere shouted.
Eight little hands imediately roamed over her body, none more dangerous that her little sister, who knew where to tickle. Elvira fought to get up but it was no use. She was prepared to let the girls tire themselves out when she felt a familiar feeling come over her. Desperately she tried to escape, but it was too late. There was a tingling feeling on her skin, the world was lit by strobe lights, her cloths suddenly felt loose.
Then it was over and a now miniature Elvira crawled out from under her cloths to the astonished stares of her charges.
"I take it your sister was surprised."
"No kidding." Elvira said.
"What did they do?" Helga asked.
"Well first I had a fun time explaining what was going on. Then I had to convince them I wasn't a toy. I'm telling you right now, nail polish is not meant for a girl six inches tall, and crayons aren't much fun either." Elvira shuddered. "Finaly I spent the night modeling Malibu Stacy outfits. Got to sleep in her dream house and worked my way back to full size the next morning in the bathroom."
"Tickling or masturbation?" Jeremy asked.
"Masturbation." Elvira said blushing.
"What did you tell your sister?" Helga asked.
"I told her about you two, and that your mad scientist, and that the effect wears off after a couple of hours."
"Why not tell her the truth?" Jeremy entered some more data into the computer.
"She's way to young."
"We know."
"But we're more advanced than normal children." Helga pointed out.
"Advanced isn't the word I'd use."
"When was the next time?"
"Well after that night word was out. " An ironic smile graced Elvira's face. "Within a week I was the most popular babysitter in town. A couple of parents even had a bidding war over me one night. My bank acounts never been so good. Every kid wanted to shrink me and play with thier new doll."
"And you thought we were unique." Jeremy said.
"Wrong word kid, wrong word. " Elvira took a deep breath. "Well a week after the party Polly and her little brother got me. They threw a blanket over my head and kept tickling until I was small. After that I spent the next few hours trying to stay afloat in their bathtub. Had a dicey moment when Polly pulled the plug. Then there was the delightfull time I had with Mary's brother. He tied her up after I was shrunk and I had to recite lines from: 'Peter Pan'. Two weeks later I was babysitting Danielle. She crawled under the couch and slapped two handcuffs on my ankles. Once I was small I spent an hour behind her radiator finding her lucky necklace, as well as two dollars in change, five baseball cards and a nice mouse named Jerry. "
"Did he say anything?" Helga asked.
"I was making the last part up." Elvira told her.
"Shouldn't do that."
"Over the past few months nearly every kid in town has tried to shrink me." Elvira said, ignoring her. "A few have tried to take pictures too. Mary taped me down on her scanner and I was nearly sent out on the internet. All I need is for some kid to give his parents proof and..." she paused, searching for the consequences. "Well I don't know, but I don't want it to happen."
"Have you grown overly large at all?" Jeremy asked.
"Once." Elvira said, blushing again.
The only sound for a moment was the hum of the computer and the gurgle of chemicals.
"Oh all right." Elvira said, giving way to the inviteable. "Teddy and I were making out after practice, we got a little hot and the next thing I know I'm giganta again."
"He must have been very surprised." Jeremy said.
"Not really. We were under a tree and when I grew I slammed him into it, knocked him out. By the time he came too I gotten myself back to normal size. Lucky we were near the practice rink so I had a spare set of cloths."
"How did you manage to tickle yourself into shrinking again?" Helga asked.
"Held my feet over a floor buffer set on low."
"Inventive." Jeremy said. "How far did he get before you grew?"
"What?"
Jeremy leaned back, a thoughtfull expression on his face.
"Well were you actually..."
"He was just feeling me up." Elvira exlclaimed. "One hand on my breast. Satisfied?"
"Left or right?"
"Hand?"
"Breast."
"Right."
"There is a pattern." Jeremy's fingers flew over the keyboard and the display changed to a different molecule. "What we have here is two distinct reactions to two seperate stimulea. Possilby because you were exposed to two different forms of the serum. I think I can solve the problem, but I'll have to do some test."
"Should I get some samples?" Helga asked, holding up a pair of pliers and hedge clippers.
"No, for this we'll have to use the table."
"Not that I'm going to like the answer to this," Elvira said, "but what table?"
Jeremy operated a control and part of the floor in the center of the lab dropped away, taking a table full of experiments with it. There was a pause and then a new table rose from the floor. It was ten feet long, with a universal ball joint for a base. A slight humanoid depression lay in the center. Though big enough for a normal human, metal polls for arms and legs extended from the side. The gleaming chrome and black metal seemed to stare at her.
"Just take your cloths off and lay down." Jeremy said. "We'll do the rest."
"Trust us." Helga said.
Brother and sister smiled at her.
{will Elvira be cured? Once they get her onto the table will they even try? Stay tuned.]
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