                      Waxworks: Complete Game Manual
                                 
WAXWORKS
         
         TABLE OF CONTENTS
         Warning: Danger Ahead ......................      1
         lust the Basics ............................      5
           How Do I Move Around? ....................      5
           What's All This Stuff? ...................      7
           What Do I Do With The Stuff? .............      7
         Main Screen ................................      8
           Exhibit Window ...........................      9
           Who am 1?.................................      9
           Where am 1? ..............................      9
           How am I Doing? ..........................      9
           Display Box...............................      10
           Text Box .................................      10
           Activity Icons ...........................      10
           Object Actions ...........................      11
           I Need a Break (Pause) ...................      11
           Get Me Out of Here (Quit) ................      12
           Things Look Grim ISave and Restore) ......      12
         Interacting With The Inhabitants ...........      13
           Fighting For Your Life ...................      13
           What to Do With a Dead Body ..............      15
           Let's Talk................................      15
         Help Me, Uncle Boris .......................      15         
         
         
WARNING: DANGER AHEAD
                          
Still dazed from the strange and terrifying events of the past week, 
you pause at the cold, forbidding entrance to Uncle Boris' eerie 
stone mansion. Inside awaits the Waxworks You really don't want to 
be here. You want to turn on your heel and flee this vile, revolting 
place, never to return 
                     
             But you can't. You must master your fears and go on. 
Remember that only you can free your possessed twin Alex from the 
dreaded curse of Ixona and save the world from the diabolical forces 
of evil he is preparing to unleash. You must face the horrors that 
await you in the Waxworks. And you must face them alone. 
                     
             Lifting the curse of Ixona and saving Alex will not be 
easy. You'l] need extraordinary skill and cunning to avoid the 
flesh-rending traps and solve the mind-perplexing puzzles that await 
you. You'll need heroic courage and superhuman strength to face the 
ruthless fiends that lurk within the bowels of the perilous 
Waxworks. Take heart. You'll have the benevolent spirit of Uncle 
Boris to guide you if you falter. 
                      
             The forbidding doors slowly open with a low mournful 
wail. Your flesh crawls as the faint smell of the musty old wax 
museum pervades the air around you. You find yourself staring into 
the lifeless eyes of a huge, creepy apparition in a butler's suit. 
He escorts you through the halls leading to the exhibits. The 
corridors appear harmless but you stil] feel uneasy. Things are not 
as they appear. 
                     
             There are four dangerous, challenging quests to master 
and survive before you can save Alex. You will journey to the 
mysterious land of the Pharaohs to explore the Great Pyramid and 
rescue a beautiful princess. You will have to tread the dark 
menacing streets of 1888 London to confront the murder- ous lack the 
Ripper and foil his malevo]ent plot. You will also be required to 
descend into the treacherous iron mines to battle a huge mutant 
plant with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. And you must 
enter an unworldly graveyard to confront and vanquish the evil 
Necromancer and the rotting, mindless horde of zombies who do his 
bidding. 
                           
             The time has come for you to enter the exhibits and 
face your destiny. Chances a,re you won't survive. You'll probably 
be horribly tortured and gruesomely mutilated, before this is over. 
You may even lose your life. We wish you luck. You will need it. 
                        
JUST THE BASICS 
                         
Your ult'imate quest is to discover the secret of the Waxworks and 
lift the curse of Ixona that plagues your family. Try to ignore the 
gnawing fear in your gut, the feeling of impending disaster that 
threatens to overwhelm you. The ghastly exhibits inside hold the key 
to your fate. 

You have to explore the intricate passages, alleys, and tunnels that 
make up the Waxworks. Be warned that once you enter an exhibit, the 
only way out is to solve the puzzle, win a terrible battle, or die a 
horrible death. When you complete an exhibit, you will be 
transported back into your Uncle Boris' wax museum, ready for your 
next adventure. 

How Do I Move Around? 

It's time for you to take action. You can't lift the curse if you're 
just standing there.

Start by checking the directions you can go with the Direction 
Arrows. If you prefer to check direction with a compass, position 
the pointer over the Compass icon in the right corner of your screen 
and click. The Direction Arrows change to a Compass (Fig. 11. 
Possible directions are highlighted. The top of the Direction Arrow 
display or the Compass represents the direction you are facing. 

Use any of the following methods to move: 

Press the arrow key on your keyboard that corresponds to the 
direction you want to move; 

ù or move the pointer to the edge of the Exhibit Window toward the 
direction you want to move in. When the pointer changes to a 
direction pointer, click (Fig. 2); 

ù or using the Direction Arrows or Compass, position the pointer on 
the direction you want to move in and click. 

If you want to turn around to see what''s coming or where you've 
been, click on the center of the Direction Arrows or Compass. This 
turns you around 180 degrees without affecting your position. As you 
progress through an exhibit, you may find you can go up or down to 
other levels. At that point, the up or down arrow will light up. 

Caution: Its not a good idea to stay in one place too long. Beings 
hungry for your blood can come up from behind, stun. and eventually 
slaughter you if you aren't paying attention. If you see stars, you 
better make a quick 180 degree turn and see who's beating on your 
head. Then you can pause and think about what all this means. For 
details. see Interacting with the Inhabitants        
What's All This Stum 

Each exhibit contains lots of objects you can look at, pick up, and 
manipu- late. Plaques, papers, and other objects may have something 
for you to read. You can use some objects/ like swords and knives, 
to perform actions. An object may contain other objects. 

Some objects have a hidden purpose, so you may have to examine 
things more than once and spend some time to thoroughly evaluate 
what they do. Even mutilated bodies may hold some secret, so don't 
be too squeamish about rifling their pockets. 

To look at something, move the pointer over an object. A brief 
description appears in the Text Box. Click once and the Object 
Actions appear on the right side of your screen. Object Actions tell 
you what you can do with the object and allow you to examine objects 
in greater detail. You can EXAMINE the ob ject by clicking on it 
again. Extra information is shown in the Display Box (Fig. 33. 

Sometimes when you click on something, like a large object, corpse, 
or in jured inhabitant, the Exhibit Screen shows a close-up of the 
item you clicked. You can tell it's a close-up because a large R 
appears in the right corner. When you are done examining and 
performing other actions within the object, position the pointer 
over the R (return and click. The Exhibit Screen returns to normal 
view 

What Do I Do With The Stuff? 

You can take almost anything you can touch with your pointer, except 
large, heavy objects, things fixed in place, and decomposing 
corpses. Some of the stuff is useful, some is not. For instance, you 
might want to grab a weapon at your earliest opportunity, in case 
something hungry for fresh meat comes your way. 

Some objects combine with other objects to form a third, more useful 
object. Other times, you may try to use one object on another object 
to see if anything interesting happens. The bottom line: ob jects 
are not always as they seem at first glance. 

Tip: If you can't find what you need, you may have to combine items. 

What Do I Do With The Stuff? (continued) 

Before you can do something with an object, you must possess it. 
There are several ways to do this. 

One way: 

Move the pointer over the Hand icon and click. The pointer changes 
to a hand. 

Move the hand over an object and click. The object is added to 
your inventory. Another way: 

Move the pointer over an ob ject and click. 

Move the pointer over the Hand icon and click. The object is added 
to your inventory. Yet another way: 

Move the pointer over an object. 

While holding down the left mouse button drag the object into the 
Display Box. The object is added to your inventory. 

The Display Box shows objects you have taken and added to your 
inven- tory (Fig. 3). When you have more stuff than fits in the 
Display Box, use the arrows that appear on the right side of the 
Display Box to move the display up and down.  

Exhibit Window 

This is where all the action takes place. Each time you move, the 
Exhibit Window shows your new location. Use it to watch for creepy 
inhabitants who might walk right up to you and start hacking away. 
Use it to find objects you'll need to solve the mysteries that await 
you. Use it to play Waxworks. 

Who am l? 

When you step into an exhibit, you become an inhabitant of the 
exhibit, a character in the time period you have stepped into. The 
Character Box in the top left corner of your screen shows who you 
are (Fig. 3). 

Where am l? 

That's a good question. When you're running around dark alleys and 
twisting corridors, things can get pretty confusing. You may want to 
take some extra time and create a map of each exhibit as you go 
along. 

How am I Doing? 

The Status Line across the bottom shows you the state of your 
current character (Fig. 3). It shows the following four very 
important pieces of information: 

HP Hit Points: Goes up with your level. (;oes down when you are 
under attack from some nasty inhabitant. If HP reaches zero, you're 
dead and it's not a pretty sight. Uncle Boris may be able to help 
you increase your HP if you are in jured, and have the items he 
needs. 

LEV Level: Goes up as you gain experience; other powers increase 
allowing you to gain more HP and fight fiercer, scarier opponents. 

EXP Experience: Goes up as you explore the exhibits, solve puzzles, 
and kill things. As EXP reaches a certain point, your level goes up. 

PSY Psychic Energy: Reflects how much psychic energy you have to 
contact your Uncle Boris using the Crystal Ball Decreases when you 
get hints, information about the game, or healing from Uncle Boris.

Displag Box 

Shows critical information about exhibits, objects, and inhabitants 
you encounter during your quest Fig. 3). It allows you to: Look at 
what you~ve collected 

Find out more about an object 

Receive messages about your progress 

Talk to the inhabitants 

Text Box 

Displays a brief description of the object on which the pointer is 
positioned.

Activity icons let you manipulate objects in Waxworks. To animate a 
par- ticular icon, move the pointer over it and click (Fig. 4). 

Compass Icon 

To toggle between the Direction Arrow and Compass Indicator (located 
on the left side of the screen), move the pointer over the Compass 
icon and click. 

Hand Icon 

Picks up and moves objects. The pointer changes to a hand. Position 
the hand over an object and click. The object is added to your 
inventory 

Crystal Ball Icon 

Contacts Uncle Boris. Uncle Boris guides you on your journey by 
providing hints, information about your objective in each exhibit, 
and healing. Using the Crystal Ball will cost you Psychic Energy. 

Inventory Icon 

Returns the inventory display to the Display Box. Use after a 
message, when searching a large object, or any other activity which 
causes your inventory to disappear from the Display Box. 

Axe Icon 

Gets your weapon ready for use. Displays all weapons from your 
inventory that you can use to fight. See Fighting For Your Life for 
details. 

Sword Icon 

Use the sword icon to engage in a fight. The pointer changes to a 
sword. See Fighting For Your Life for details. 

Object Actions 

Object Actions appear on the right side of the screen (Fig. 3). They 
display what you can do with an object. They appear when you move 
the pointer over an object and click. Some common Ob ject Actions 
are EXAMINE, USE, OPEN, CLOSE, LOOK IN, and DROP. Move the pointer 
over the action you want and click. 

I Need a Break (Pause) 

At any time, you can take a break and think about the latest 
life-threatening problem you've encountered. Iust move the pointer 
over the ZZZ icon IFig. 3) and click. The game pauses. When you are 
ready to continue, click on CONTINUE or press any key. 
Get Me Out of Here (Quit) 

You can leave the Waxworks at anytime. To do this, move the pointer 
over the Disk icon ( Fig. 3) and click. Move the pointer over the 
Quit option and click. If you change your mind, click on any blank 
area within the Quit box or click on the word NO. 

Note: Considering saving your position before you quit. Then the 
next time you play Waxworks, you can start from where you left off.

Things Look Grim (Save and Restore) 

Death can come swiftly and painfully in Waxworks. When you face a 
vicious foe, or have completed some complicated series of actions, 
you'll probably want to save your position. 

1 Move the pointer over the Disk icon (Fig. 3) and click. 

2 Move the pointer over the Save option and click. 

3 Enter the name (up to eight characters) for the position you want 
to save. Pick a name that wil] later help you remember what the 
position represents. Press Enter to save the game. 

Note: Any previous saved-positions appear on your screen. You can 
update a previously-saved position with your current position. To do 
this, move the pointer over the name of the previously saved 
position and double click. 

After you have saved your position, you can return to it at any 
time. 

To Restore a Previously Saved Game: 

1 Move the pointer over the Disk icon (Fig. 3) and click. 

2 Move the pointer over the Restore option and click. 

3 Move the pointer over the position name you want to restore and 
click. 

To return to the game without saving or restoring a position, move 
the pointer over the word EXIT and click. 

Note: If you have more than 26 saved games, Waxworks will create a 
second page of saved games. To retrieve a game from the second page, 
position the pointer over the word MORE and click. The select the 
position restore and click.

INTERACTING WITH THE INHABITANTS 

You are going to encounter many strange inhabitants while you are 
wander- ing around the exhibits. When you see someone, you can: 

Fight them; the most common form of interaction in Waxworks 

Search them; for interesting ob jects, if they are dead 

Talk to them; ask questions to obtain useful bits of information 

Fighting For Your Life 

Trying to figure out when to fight and when to talk? If you're 
confronted by a monster or a guard, chances are your opponent won't 
want to talk. He may want to chop off your head, or cut out your 
heart, but it's unlikely he'll have chit-chat in mind. Which means 
you're going to have to fight--a lot. 

Be on the lookout for effective weapons, such as axes,.spears, and 
swords. You may even have to make do with an object like a shovel 
until you can find or make something better. 

After you've picked up a weapon, you need to ready it for fighting. 
To do this, position the pointer over the Axe icon and click. All 
available weap- ons in your inventory appear in the Display Box. 
Positjon the pointer over the weapon you want to use and click. 
Then, move the pointer over the Object Actions labelled USE and 
click. 

As soon as you see an opponent, click on the Sword icon. The Sword 
icon activates whatever weapon you've selected and prepares you for 
fighting. If you haven't selected a weapon, you'll be fighting these 
unruly inhabitants with your bare fists. Not a good idea. You might 
want to run away and find a weapon. However, some opponents will 
chase you around, forcing you to fight them eventually. 

Tip: Seeing stars? Someone's behind you knocking on your head. 

Fighting For Your Life (continued) 

When you are ready to fight, your pointer becomes a sword. Now you 
can thrust or slash, hacking away at your opponent until one of you 
dies. Where you position the pointer on the screen determines 
whether you thrust or slash and the body part you attack. For 
example, when you position your weapon in the upper left corner of 
the Exhibit Window and click, the weapon slashes from the top left 
to the lower right, making a crosscut on your opponent's body (Fig. 
5). Also, the body part you click on can make a big difference in a 
fight--a well-placed, quick blow may remove an enemy's arm or some 
other offending appendage. 

Blood gushes from your opponent when you score a hit. Of course, 
blood gushes from your wounds when he hits you But spurting blood 
isn't the only indication of what's going on. The boxes on the left 
and right bottom of your screen become active when you engage an 
enemy (Fig. 6). They tell you about the damage per swing. The 
gruesome monster on the right shows the damage that you take when an 
enemy strikes you. The heroic character on the left shows the damage 
you cause when you strike him. 

Hit points (HP) go down each time you are hit. This continues until 
you kill your opponent, run away, or your hit points reach zero and 
you die. By the way, fighting is to the death. 

What to Do With a Dead Body

There are going to be lots of dead bodies Iying around, some killed 
by other inhabitants, some of your own making. You can search any 
corpse you encounter and take whatever is on the body. 

When you fight a foe, you share your position with him. When you 
kill him, he falls at your feet, disappearing from view. To see the 
body, you have to move away from the position you share with the 
corpse. Take a step for- ward, then turn around 180 degrees. Now 
that you can see the body, you can search it. 

When you want to search a body, position the pointer over it and 
click. Select the SEARCH option from the Object Actions and click. 
You better hope he's really dead. 

Let's Talk 

Not all inhabitants are out for your blood. Some may provide you 
with useful information. Others may follow you around and help 
instead of bludgeoning you into unconsciousness. However, it not 
always going to be real obvious who's who. 

If you think one of the inhabitants wants to get chatty, position 
your pointer on the inhabitant and click. If he's interested in 
talking, a conversa- tion appears in the Display Box. If not, he'll 
probably take a swing at you. 

When you're talking with an inhabitant, you may be given a series of 
questions or answers to select from. Position the pointer over the 
question or answer you wish to communicate and click. 

HELP ME, UNCLE BORIS 

Dying a horrible death doesn't stop someone like your Uncle Boris. 
He's around to provide you with advice and assistance just as if he 
were alive. To call him, just position the pointer over the Crystal 
Ball and click. 

You can ask Uncle Boris for three kinds of help: 

Information; only Uncle Boris knows what he had in mind when he 
created these exhibits. He is more than willing to communicate this 
information to you as you need it. 

HELP ME, UNCLE BORIS (continued) 

Hints; if you're having trouble solving some aspect of the : 
Waxworks, Uncle Boris can share his vast knowledge with you. He can 
help you solve complex puzzles and face challenging situations. 

Healing; your abi]ity to obtain special powers usually depends on 
you having some object in your possession and having achieved a 
specific level. 

Asking for help costs Psychic Energy. The amount of energy depends 
on the kind of help you request. 
Note: Talking with Uncle Boris is just like talking with any other 
inhabitant of the Waxworks.         

The Curse of the Twins          
         
Your life changed the day Uncle Boris was buried. The omens were bad 
right from the start of that cold, wet morning. You'd been up all 
night on a red-eye flight, dreading this your first visit back to 
your birthplace since your twin brother Alex had disappeared so many 
years ago. 

You'd been a teenager the day Alex and you had gone off to explore 
one of the myriad dank tunnels that honey-combed the earth under 
Vista Forge, the coastal mining community where you were born. A 
cloud of bats had suddenly swarmed out of a side shaft, knocking the 
flashlight out of your hand. When you finally found the light and 
turned it back on, Alex was gone. 

A week-long search by the police and fifty volunteers had failed to 
find your brother. He had simply vanished, as if the earth had 
swallowed him whole. Yet, deep in your heart, you had never been 
able to accept Alex's death. Like all identical twins, there was an 
invisible chord between you and your brother, a bond formed in the 
womb that acted as a conduit of feelings and emotions between you. 

Growing up, you'd felt the pain whenever Alex hurt him- self, and 
the paralyzing fear the time he locked himself in an old 
refrigerator. That link between you hadn't been broken, and 
sometimes in bed at night you would smell a musty odor, or taste 
something strange in your mouth, and you wondered...you wondered. 

There was another odd physical manifestation you were convinced was 
somehow linked to Alex. Often, just before you drifted off to sleep, 
you would suddenly have a very strong mental image of your brother 
and at that moment your toes would curl down under toward your heels 
so violently that your feet still hurt in the morning. 

The streets were slick and puddled from the rain as you drove your 
rented car away from the airport. You glanced at your watch and 
realized you'd be late for the service at the cemetery. Memories 
flooded back as you drove through town. It seemed like nothing in 
Vista Forge had changed; same houses, same storefronts, same 
dispirited looks on the faces of the people on the sidewalks. Even 
the trees and bushes looked like they hadn't grown an inch since 
you'd left. 

Nearing the storm lashed coast, you caught sight of Uncle Boris' 
eerie stone mansion set on a cliff overlooking the pounding surf. 
The house had been built over a yawning sea cave and you remembered 
the rumors that the wave-swept cavity was connected to the mine 
tunnels further inland. 

Even from a distance, the house had a weird look about it, a spooky 
aura that reflected the man who'd owned it. Uncle Boris had always 
been strange. He had a macabre fascination with everything evil, 
from torture devices to mass murderers. So obsessed was he with the 
demoniac netherworld that he d converted his lonely home into a 
Waxworks filled with witches, monsters and evil beings. 

Not long after Uncle Boris began his Waxworks, word began to spread 
through Vista Forge of horrible screams coming from the stone house, 
and fishermen spreading their nets offshore swore they saw monstrous 
shapes passing the lighted windows at night Everyone in the 
community gave the Waxworks a wide berth, and after one visit not 
even your parents would go near the ghoulish mansion. 

Once, you and Alex had played hookey from,school and a delighted 
Uncle Boris had given you a tour of the creepy chambers. You had 
shuddered at the sight of Jack the Ripper and the Egyptian mummy and 
other fiendish exhibits. Yet Alex had been both fascinated and 
fearless, and almost every week after that he would sneak over to 
the Waxworks and spend hours alone with Uncle Boris' collection of 
monsters 

After Alex disappeared, your parents were afraid the tunnels under 
Vista Forge would claim you too. They sold their house, vowing never 
to return, and the three of you moved far away. 

By the time you got to the cemetery, the rain was coming down in 
cold, sLanting sheets, running in rivulets between the gravestones. 
You were the last one to arrive, and the little knot of people at 
the grave site threw you accusing looks, obviously put out you'd 
kept them waiting in the downpour. 

There was no other family member there to say goodbye to Uncle 
Boris, only two unshaven grave diggers in oilcloth rain-slickers and 
a stoop shouldered minister who continu- ously coughed deep in his 
chest and wiped his dripping nose with a sopping, threadbare 
handkerchief. 

The pasty-faced minister droned through a brief prayer and had 
hardly said Amen before the grave diggers were pulling out the 
planks holding the casket over the grave. The wet ropes slipped 
quickly through their hands as they lowered the coffin into the 
ground. 

Suddenly a blinding flash stabbed down from the sky and a lightning 
bolt split open an old oak tree only yards up the slope. Startled 
witless, the grave diggers let loose the ropes and Uncle Boris' 
coffin plunged into the rectangular pit. 

As the coffin hit bottom, a tremendous clap of thunder shook the 
graveyard, echoing madly off the rain-streaked walls of the 
surrounding mausoleums. Before the echo of the thunder died away a 
nauseous slurping sound burst from the - grave, as if the water in a 
huge sink were being sucked down a tunnel-sized drain. The sickening 
sound grew louder and louder, and now you could feel the ground 
trembling beneath your feet. 

The grave diggers stared down into the hole in disbelief, their 
faces masks of revulsion and fear. Then they turned and ran, sliding 
and falling as they disappeared into the pelting rain. The minister 
stood there dumbfounded, his mouth open as you stepped carefully up 
to the side of the grave and peered down at the coffin.

Only there wasn't any coffin. The bottom of the pit was empty Where 
the rectangular walls ended, a funnel shaped '' hole descended down 
into a black void. Like Alex, Uncle Boris had been swallowed up by 
the earth. 

Then, you couldn't be sure, but you thought you saw movement far 
below. The next moment there was a face in the dark gloom. Your 
face! For an instant you thought you were going mad. Was there a 
mirror down there in the muddy pit? Then y~3ur throat constricted 
and you couldn't breath as you realized you weren't seeing a 
reflection of your face but a replica. 

"Alex!" you screamed, an instant before the face vanished again. 

Confused and frightened now, you staggered back away from the grave. 
The minister had disappeared. Drenched to the skin, your head 
splitting, you trudged off through the rain toward the cemetery 
office. 

When you got there the director was waiting, and the pale faced 
grave diggers were throwing back shots of whiskey in the corner. The 
bald, black-suited director wrung his bony hands as he apologized 
for the terrible incident. He knew this would happen some day, he 
said, wetting his dry lips, for like most of the Vista Forge the 
ground beneath the cemetery was a labyrinth of mine tunnels and 
shafts. A cave-in was inevitable. He promised to send some men down 
into the grave pit as soon as the rain stopped. They'd rebury Uncle 
Boris at the cemetery's expense. 

The explanation seemed logical, but still the grotesque incident had 
unnerved you. When you mumbled that you'd seen a face in the grave, 
a face like yours, the director had shrugged and said you'd 
undoubtedly seen your own face reflected back by a puddle down 
below. You clung to his explanation. A water reflection, of course, 
why hadn't you thought of that. That had to be it. 

By the time you reached the motel where you'd reserved a room, you 
weren't sure what had happened. All you knew was that you wanted out 
of Vista Forge. Fast. Your first impulse was to fly home 
immediately. But then, after a fitful hour of indecision, you 
decided you'd stay over for the night. You were scheduled to attend 
a reading of Uncle Boris' will at an attorney's office the next 
morning, and in his last letter the eccentric old gentleman had 
written that you were to inherit his entire estate. 

Nightmares plagued your sleep that night, terrible visions of the 
animated corpses of Alex and Uncle Boris wandering the perpetually 
dark tunnels below Vista Forge, their putrefying flesh scaling off 
their faces in rancid slabs. 

At 3 a.m. you gave up on sleep and lay there in your hotel bed 
thinking, remembering. You recalled Uncle Boris' one and only visit 
to your home several years after you'd moved away from Vista Forge. 

When Uncle Boris walked in the door that day long ago, he d stared 
at you for several long moments without saying a word. Then, when 
your parents were both off in the kitchen, he'd suddenly turned and 
told you how much you looked like Alex. The remark had unnerved you 
for Alex was dead, had been for years by then. 

Shortly afterwards, you'd all sat down to dinner. The talk had 
gradually shifted to the family history. Your ancestors on your 
mother's side had come from a tiny village in Walachia, a Rumanian 
province deep in the Transylvanian Alps. It was a region where 
werewolves and vampires were said to roam the countryside on 
moonless nights, and peasants feared nothing more than an evil 
curse. 

Your mother had tried to shift the conversation, but Uncle Boris 
insisted on telling of the legend of Ixona, a dark family secret for 
centuries past. During the barbarous days of the Middle Ages, he 
said, one of your ancestors had caught an old witch named Ixona 
stealing chickens from his farm. As punish- ment, he had cut off the 
screaming hag's right hand with an ax. 

Lying in the dirt of the farmyard, the ragged crone had drawn a 
crystal ball from beneath her blood-caked cloak and set it in the 
dust before her. "In every family there is dormant evil waiting to 
be awakened," she'd said in an agonized voice. "For spilling my 
blood, I shall call forth an ancient curse to poison yours." 

Your ancestor had brought up his ax to finish off the hag, but his 
pregnant wife had stayed his arm, terrified that killing the crone 
would rain evil down upon both of them. 

Her face twisted in agony, the witch had stared into the murky 
depths of the glass globe before her. "Two thousand years ago one of 
your Egyptian ancestors had twin boys. One was good, but the other 
was cursed by an evil pharaoh and turned into a monster." 

The witch had struggled to her feet, hate raging in her bloodshot 
eyes as she clutched the crystal ball against her. "I call upon the 
curse of the Pharaoh to return. Once more, in every generation in 
which your family bears twins, one shall belong to Beelzebub." 

The farmer's wife screamed in fright for the village midwife had 
told her she would have twins. Your ancestor had tried to smash the 
crystal ball with his ax but the witch had whirled out of reach and 
quickly fled to the safety of the nearby dark woods. 

Soon afterward the farmer's wife gave birth to twin sons. One, 
Druec, grew up to be a decent hardworking farmer, but the other, 
Vladimir, was corrupt and lusted after money and power. As the 
witch's evil curse took hold of him, it was said, his feet became 
cloven and he was forced to wear special boots to walk 

Gathering the miscreants of the province, Vladimir pillaged 
neighboring villages, and gradually gathered an army of cruel 
mercenaries around him. In 1448 he seized the throne of Walachia and 
instituted a reign of terror as Vlad IV. 

One of his first acts as prince was to send out his army to find the 
old witch who had cursed his family. She was thrown into the dungeon 
and repeatedly tortured, but she refused to lift the curse. 
Infuriated, Vlad had her impaled on a stake driven into the bottom 
of a swamp outside his walls. In the two days it took the old hag to 
die, the bog's snakes and snapping turtles stripped the living flesh 
from her body bite by small bite. 

In the years that followed, Vlad had his enemies in Walachia 
tortured to death, and then ordered their bodies impaled on stakes 
at the borders of his kingdom. History was to know him as Vlad the 
Impaler, one of the bloodiest tyrants ever to rule on the earth. 
The curse of Ixona persisted down through the centuries and whenever 
twins were born into your family one took to evil ways. It was said 
one twin was the head torturer during the Spanish Inquisition, 
another was rumored to be the Marquis de Sade and a female twin was 
burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. 

When Uncle Boris finished his story, your mother looked at you and 
paled, for, though Alex was gone, you too were a twin. Uncle Boris 
saw her look and reached across the table to pat her hand 
reassuringly. She wasn't to worry, he'd said, for he'd found the way 
to finally lift Ixona's curse from the family. 

Uncle Boris leaned back in his chair and went on. As they all knew, 
he had built a Waxworks with recreations of some of history's most 
fiendish murderers and monsters. He had purposely surrounded himself 
with these demonic characters for he was convinced that by immersing 
himself totally in evil he could come to understand the sinister 
forces loose on earth, and thus know better how to lift Ixona's 
curse. 

And it had worked. One night, staring at the wax face of Vlad the 
Impaler, he'd had a vision of a dark bog pocked with broken masonry 
blocks. He'd flown to Walachia and within days had located the swamp 
he'd dreamt of close beside the north wall of the ruined castle. 
He'd hired workmen to drain the marsh and when the water receded 
there, sticking out of the muddy bottom, was the skeleton of a woman 
impaled on an oak stake. 

An iron box was hung around her neck with a chain, and in the box 
was the crystal ball Ixona had used to curse the family 600 years 
before. 

Uncle Boris explained that he had only begun to under- stand the 
powers of the ancient glass sphere. It would take him years, but 
eventually, he promised, he would find a way to lift Ixona's curse. 
That family dinner was the last time you'd seen Uncle Boris alive. 

At 7 a.m. the phone rang. It was the cemetery director. As soon as 
it was light that morning he'd sent men down into the grave to 
retrieve Uncle Boris' body. Just as he'd suspected, there was a mine 
tunnel under the grave site. They found the casket in the dark 
passage. The director hesitated. He didn't know quite how to tell 
you this, but the coffin had been smashed open. The body was gone. 
He had no explanation. 

Without a word, you hung up the phone, feeling a sudden compulsion 
to go down into the tunnels yourself. You would go in the same 
entrance you and Alex had used the day he'd disappeared years 
before. 

You bought a lantern at the local hardware store and forty- five 
minutes later you entered the old mine. You could tell by the thick 
spider webs and undisturbed dust that no one had been in there in 
years. The light soon faded, along with the hum of traffic from the 
nearby interstate, The only sound now was the dripping of water 
leaking in from yesterday's rain and the whistling of the wind 
through the narrow passages. 

Several minutes later you reached the spot where Alex had 
disappeared. All of a sudden, you could feel his presence, like warm 
breath on the back of your neck. As you swung the light around to 
search the gloom, the beam revealed what looked like a pile of dry 
sticks protruding from the dust of the tunnel floor. 

You knelt to pick one up and realized with a start that these 
weren't sticks but bones. Bat bones! How strange, you thought, that 
so many bats would die in exactly the same spot. Then something 
about one of the bones made you look more closely. Your heart began 
to beat wildly. There were teeth marks on the bone. Human teeth 
marks! 
There was another heap of bat bones nearby. And most of them, you 
could see, showed clear signs that someone had butchered and eaten 
the animals. Suddenly your eye caught something glistening beneath a 
thin layer of dust. You bent and brushed away the powder, then 
yanked back your hand in horror. It was a fresh fishhead, the 
remains of one of the saltwater fish that found their way into the 
tunnels from the distant sea cave. 

A sickly sweat coursed from your pores as you turned quickly for the 
entrance, looking back over your shoulder every few paces. Halfway 
back, a side tunnel led off to the right and you noticed fresh 
tracks in the dust. They hadn't been there when you came in, you 
were sure of that. 

You swept the light over the tracks and froze. They were the 
imprints of cloven feet! You knew now. Someone-- something--was 
living in the tunnel, eating bats and fish to survive. You ran as 
fast as you could back down the tunnel and out into the light. 

On the way to the lawyer's office, you couldn't shake the feeling of 
horror that gripped you. Who could be living in the tunnels? Who 
but...Alex. 

The lawyer looked the part, a tall gray haired man in a pin- striped 
suit surrounded by lawbooks. Being the executor of Uncle Boris' 
estate would net him only a small fee and he looked profoundly 
bored. You were the sole heir, the attorney said, something you 
already knew, and Uncle Boris had left you all his holdings. There 
was a small bank account, a ten year old Dodge, and, of course, the 
Waxworks. Finally, there was a sealed envelope from your uncle that 
contained a letter and the keys to his eerie mansion. 

The attomey volunteered to handle the sale of the Wax- works, which 
he assumed you'd want to dispose of as soon as possible. It was an 
unsavory place, the lawyer said, though he'd never been inside. The 
stories about the Waxworks, he added, kept most people from visiting 
the chilling mansion. If it were up to him, he'd tear the place down 
and sell the land to developers. 

You thanked the attorney and left, the envelope from Uncle Boris in 
your coat pocket. Back at the hotel, you decided to read the letter 
later and tossed it on the dresser. You called the airline and 
reserved a seat on the six o'clock plane, then changed into a coat 
and tie for the trip home. As you were knotting your tie in the 
mirror, your eye strayed to the envelope and curiosity got the 
better of you. 

Sitting down on the bed, you slit the seal, took out the keys to the 
Waxworks, and then unfolded your uncle's letter. 

"My Dear Sister's Child," the letter began. "What you will read in 
these pages will shock you, and you will feel revulsion and horror 
at what you learn. Yet, I must tell you all, for now that I have 
gone over to the other side you are the only one on earth who can 
stop the evil that is to come.

"You must know first that your twin brother is alive., all these 
years he has dwelt in the tunnels beneath Vista Forge, emerging from 
his dark lair only at night. He was preordained from birth to come 
under the curse of the ancient witch Ixona and that day he 
disappeared he was taken by the forces of evil. Now, he belongs to 
the dark side and does the bidding of Beelzebub. You must neither 
hate nor blame him, for his will is not his own. 

"It is still not too late to save your twin, to free his tortured 
soul from the evil curse that grips and drives him. Yet, do not 
deceive yourself that his salvation will be easy. He will fight you 
with the ferocity of Beelzebub himself, and he has terrible powers 
undreamed of by sane minds. 
"You see, your brother has been given dominion over the demons of 
the past. His unholy mission is to use his nefarious powers to 
resurrect the evil beings that have tortured and murdered through 
history. Unless you stop him, innocent men, women and children will 
fall prey to these fiends and monsters, and the entire world will 
inexorably come under the control of his zombie slaves. 

"I will help you all I can, appearing to you from the swirling mists 
within Ixona's crystal ball. You must waste no time. Go to the 
Waxworks at once. But go prepared for a journey through the 
supernatural, a trip back through time. You will be surrounded by 
evil, beset by fiends, yet you must not falter. Your brother's 
salvation and the fate of the world is now in your hands. 

Uncle Boris." 

Slowly you put down the letter, your mind reeling. The suspicion, 
the feeling you'd had all these years is true. Your twin brother's 
alive! But in what form? True, he has a face, you saw that in the 
bottom of the grave, and it was like looking in the mirror. But what 
about the rest of him. You shudder at the thought of the cloven 
footprints in the mine tunnel. 

An overpowering urge to flee comes over you. All you can think of is 
getting on that plane and leaving Vista Forge and the Waxworks and 
your cloven-footed brother as far behind you as possible. Yet, you 
know you can't leave. You've inherited the Waxworks, and with it the 
terrible mandate handed down to you by Uncle Boris. 

With dread in your heart, you put on your coat and drive slowly 
toward the Waxworks. The rain has returned and your heartbeat seems 
to synchronize with the rhythmic sound of the wiper blades thumping 
back and forth across the windshield. 

It's dusk when you reach the Waxworks. As you park your car, a 
lightning bolt pierces the rapidly darkening sky and the air feels 
charged with electricity. The clap of thunder that follows is even 
louder that yesterdays booming storm over the cemetery. 

As you walk toward the door of the eerie mansion you know Alex is 
somewhere inside. And with him, his zombie slaves, the most evil 
cast of murderous monsters ever to walk the face of the earth.