A mysterious ladder with a demanding guard

As the three friends walked away from the weird pool, a cool breeze blew at them from ahead. Thomas, wearing nothing but shorts, started to shiver, and Melanie's bare legs grew gooseflesh. The nips on Jill's sizable, wet tits were now even more prominent than they were when they climbed out of the pool.

The path they traveled led them downhill until they came to a door in built into the side of a hill. Jill reached for the knob, and it easily turned, revealing an underground passage illuminated only by torchlight.

"No fucking way I'm going in there," Jill stammered.

"What choice do we have?" Melissa asked.

"Fuuuuuuuck," Jill replied.

Thomas offered, "Let me go first" and stepped into the creepy passageway.

It was fairly simple, a straight hallway that continued to slope downhill. It was getting colder the farther they walked, and Thomas desperately hoped they'd reach the end soon.

Eventually, the passage opened into a large room. The room was in two levels; the friends had entered on the ground floor, and a wall in front of them formed the base of the higher level further on. Set into the wall was a ladder; on either side of the ladder, a creepy-looking gargoyle.

"I don't like the looks of this," Melissa said, rubbing her legs to try to bring some warmth back into them.

"Me neither," Thomas said, massaging his arms.

"Fuck it!" Jill said and strode toward the ladder. As she approached, the ladder quickly retracted as if spring-loaded, causing her to help in surprise. "What the hell?" Jill jumped, trying to reach the bottom of the ladder, but to no avail. She tried to climb onto one of the nearby gargoyles but quickly realized that they wouldn't give her enough height to reach the ladder. "Well fuck me," she said as she stood where the ladder used to be. She remained still, trying to solve the mysterious puzzle.

After a moment, the ladder started to descend.

"Jill, check it out!" Thomas shouted, pointing. Jill started and looked up, shouting with surprise and delight. She reached for the ladder again, but once again it sprang out of her grasp.

"Damn it!" she shouted in frustration. Jill stormed away from the ladder to rejoin her two friends, and as she did, the ladder made its way back to the ground. "I won't fall for that again," Jill said, glaring at the mischievous ladder.

"Let me try," Thomas said, approaching the same way Jill had. As he passed the gargoyles, the ladder sprang out of reach. Like Jill, he stood still, and after a moment, the ladder started to descend. He waited, frozen, until it touched the ground, and he reached his hand out again. As soon as he moved, the ladder sprang away.

"Wait, hold on a sec!" Melissa called. "Stay still." Melissa approached the ugly statues while Thomas remained motionless and Jill looked on with frustration. As before, the ladder descended. "Now, Tommy, you stay still." He obeyed, and Melissa waved her hand in front of one the face of one of the gargoyles. As soon as her finger passed its eyes, the ladder shot up. "That's it!" Melissa cried triumphantly! "There's a fucking motion sensor in the gargoyle."

Thomas sprang over to Melissa and gave her a high five. "Nice work, Sherlock!" he called.

"Yeah, nice work," Jill spat. "But how are we supposed to get up the ladder?"

Thinking back to their recent exploits, the answer seemed obvious. "Shiiiiit," Melissa said.

"What?" asked Thomas.

"We need to cover its fucking eyes!"

"What the FUCK!" Jill shouted with exasperation. "This funhouse is insane!"

"OK, damn. But OK, at least we know what we need to do," Melissa said. "Once again, of course, we have nothing but our clothes."

They looked at each other. Thomas was wearing only a pair of shorts. Jill was wearing a form-fitting t-shirt and tight jean shorts. Melissa had a sundress with a broken strap and Thomas's extra-large t-shirt over it. None of them had any underwear.

"So....." Thomas said.