It was a cold and windy evening at ERA, Halloween had arrived and the whole vibe could be felt all around. Spider webs were placed in various places like ceilings, jack-o ‘- lanterns were all around the shops in the shopping district and paper bats were hung from wall to wall. The Stores themselves had stocked up with fake blood; make up, masks and a great amount of costumes to choose from for the occasion.
The hallways of the classrooms had more of the same aesthetic and the students seemed to like what the staff did for most of the decorations, except for one time where they had painted a red trail on the floor. That sure gave a huge scare, such a huge one that almost half the school complained about, thus causing it to be removed.
There was one person that wasn’t super fond of the whole “spooky” theme however, that person being Nathaniel Smith, who was just now coming back from finishing one of his duties at the shopping district. It sure wasn’t great having to take care of the trash of the other restaurants when they themselves would have handled it just fine.
“Stupid community service. When the hell am I gonna be able to just start livin’ a normal life and not have to care about any of this shit!?” He moaned, having his hands inside the pockets of his jacket and staring down to the ground while still moving about.
Around the stores there were many students trying to scare each other with their phony outfits and masks, others were having a meal outside or inside the restaurants and some were just appreciating the spooky night, with the cowboy wishing he could’ve had that kind of fun and not be so grumpy about his current situation.
Suddenly however, he heard a small conversation between some nearby pedestrians that seemed to peek his attention.
“Hey, did you hear about the rumors going around the abandoned building?” A guy wearing a hockey mask carrying a machete with him.
“Rumors? What kind of rumors?” A girl wearing a bob cut wig, oversized orange sweater with a red skirt and nerdy glasses outfit inquired.
“That apparently some activity is happening on it. Ghosts, hands coming out of walls, blood. Y’know, the really scary shit.”
“W-wow… For real?” Another man of the group stuttered, holding his hands together while wearing a fuchsia sweater vest, cream colored sleeveless shirt and grey brown shorts. “That sounds like something we should be concerned about, maybe we should contact someone?”
“Oh pl-EASE, it’s probably not real man. You don’t have to be such a sissy all the time.” The girl with the orange sweater rolled her eyes, resting her hands on her hips as she walked alongside the other two, leaving Nathaniel alone.
An abandoned buildin’…? I don’t recall hearin’ about that at all. Maybe I forgot about it? But… If somethin’s going down in there, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and check what’s goin’ on.
Then, in a flurry of emotions, the cowboy remembered the last time he had to face something terrifying and scary, that being the beast that was summoned by the cultist Carrie Thompson back at the wild card tournament. He wasn’t willing to risk going alone in this type of quest considering his previous background interacting with the supposedly supernatural.
Not without some company though… Can’t be too safe. He shuddered, holding himself with his hands, before shaking his head to snap himself out of it.
After leaving the shopping district, he went straight into the dorms, knocking on dorm four’s door, inhaling and exhaling slowly in order to recollect himself after the alarming memories.
He was greeted by Kay, who was rocking her Halloween costume for this year: Marie from Splatoon.
“Oh, hey Nathaniel.” The black girl greeted with a smile and a wave.
“Uh… Do I know you?” Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, keeping his hands on his hips before realizing who he was actually talking to you. “What… Kay? That you?”
“Yeah…? Who else could it be? You already know my voice, my face, my height and a lot of other things.” Kay tilted her head, confused at the cowboy.
“Oh… It’s just that the costume completely threw me off… Why do ya look like you came straight outta a tuna can?”
“Because I am technically a fish person! This Halloween I ended up dressing up as a character from a video game where all the characters are like sea animals or organisms. Fish, squids, jellyfishes and a lot more in general.” She started playing around with her tentacle-like hair, rolling it up onto her finger while Nathaniel looked at her still dumbfounded.
“Okay… I guess… anyway. I wanted to tell you somethin’ that I heard some people were talkin’ ‘bout in the shoppin’ district. It was ‘bout an abandoned buildin’ that’s ‘round here somewhere and I… um…” He gulped. “Was gonna ask you if you wanted to check it out alongside me. It’s just that… I felt it could be somethin’ important or at least entertainin’ that we could do.”
“The abandoned building…?” She pondered with a worried look on her eye. “Yeah, I would be down. Just give me a few minutes, alright?”
“Alright. Just give me a knock whenever you’re ready. Thank you Kay.” Then, Nathaniel walked over to his dorm. He quickly entered, closing the door and taking a seat on his bed, trying to think of what could be awaiting them at the isolated location.
Kay meanwhile went over to one of her friend’s dorms a bit later. Dorm 3 to be exact. She knocked on the door and had the well known straight man himself appear to open it up.
“Kay? What are you doing here? I thought the Halloween party was gonna happen a bit later.” Brown frowned.
“Yeah… about that… we might need to skip the party.” She scratched the back of her head with disappointment.
“Ugh… What now? Did Skyber burn the tables again because we didn’t get her some wine?”
“No. Nathaniel just told me that he heard some people talk about the abandoned building and I think that’s something that we should take care of. That’s like the secret spot of Collateral Damage!”
“No way! They are messing with our place again!?” Brown shook his head, placing his hand over his temple and rubbing it with frustration. “So now what? We’re supposed to go there and handle whatever shenanigans are going on there and miss the party? And why does it have to be me Kay? Couldn’t you try to hit up Kai, Hugo or someone else?”
“I tried asking our friends but most of them seem to be busy right now. Pearl’s writing a new song and she told me that she wanted to really focus on it. Kai is practicing some boxing because he wanted to do some type of show or performance, I don’t know where Carrie or Hugo’s been and Nova’s also missing… sooo… don’t got that many options to rely on right now.” She shrugged with her brows knit and with a small smile.
With that answer delivered, Brown slid his hand down his face stretching it in frustration, giving out a reluctant sigh. “Fine… but you’re gonna have to binge some horror movies with me after this or something. And we’re gonna wear our Halloween costumes too… I dunno, make up for us losing the party?” He scratched his head.
“Deal. What were you going to wear anyways?”
“Well… It’s kinda hard to explain because it’s super niche and I just found out about it a few weeks ago while doing some Youtube binging.” He took a deep breath, holding as much air as he could before letting it all out in a well thought out explanation. “Okay so, there was this series of rail shooter horror games made by Sega called House Of The Dead that was pretty popular in the 90s and that basically set a lot of standards of how rail shooters work today. They ended up making the sequel in like 99 or something and it was also a hit, but that was also when the Dreamcast, their last console was in the market.
The console could do online, carry a small virtual memory card thing and it also had keyboard support. What they thought of to help people be able to type and also be what they considered a “fun” experience was to make a new version of the second game where instead of using a controller or a gun from the arcade, you had to use the Dreamcast keyboard and type full sentences in order to kill the zombies. They went so deep into the idea that they also had the main characters use the keyboards in canon to fight the zombies and what I wanted to do this year is basically grab the fanciest clothes I’ve got, wear them, grab a keyboard and strap it on and go around talking to people, but before I say anything to anybody, I would have to type it in first, then say it. If I did a typo I also would have to say it, no matter how bad it was, so if I typed: Hello Skyber, you look pretty rubbishing today, I would have to say it and then get burned to death because I said that Skyber looked like rubbish.”
“Wow… I didn’t think you had those kinds of plans Brown, I’m really sorry.” Kay exhaled, and then she gave a comforting grin. “Hey, when we come back from checking out this place, you can do that whole idea with me, or to however is still around after the party ends, that sound good?”
“Hmm… I guess… yeah.” Brown crossed his arms, looking to the side not entirely convinced of the proposition.
“Now come on, Nathan’s waiting for us.”
“Wait, you didn’t tell me we were gonna go with that guy!”
“I thought that was already implied?” She raised an eyebrow towards the man in shorts.
“No!? You only said that Nathaniel told you about it, not that he was also gonna come with us! I don’t really like the guy in general, now you want me to go on this excursion alongside him!?”
“He kinda insisted on coming along and well… he was the one to approach me about it in the first place. I can’t really let him out of it like that Brown.”
“Yes you can. He told you about it but you don’t have to go with him. He already did his good deed. He shouldn’t go to a place that we consider a hide away from people like him and especially after what he has tried to pull off with taking out food from the cafeteria, which was pretty stupid because the food was free and he doesn’t shut up about wanting to be the best bandit on Earth. What if he steals something from there?” Brown tapped his fingers on his arms, still with his face showing frustration.
“He’s… trying to change now, Brown.” She held her arm and turned her head for a second before switching back to her friend. “I’m willing to give him a chance after the things we spoke about and what he’s been doing to do better. Would you at least consider giving him the benefit of the doubt?”
“Not after he broke your eye, gave you a concussion and called you a slur, or when he was going crazy against Pearl in their tournament match. He hasn’t changed at all and I doubt he ever will, Kay.”
“Well, If you don’t trust him this much, then we should try to stick to him even more, don’tcha think?” Kay crossed her arms, with Brown trying to raise a finger and a new point alongside it.
Unfortunately, he’s completely blank. Nothing came out of his head to refute and he knew that probably meant that he had to settle with the circumstances. “Ugh… why do you guys always drag me into these adventures… fine, but I’ll keep a good eye on him.”
With that resolved, Kay changed into her regular clothes and went to Nathaniel’s dorm, knocking on the door and being greeted by the blue bandit.
“There you are. That took ya longer than I…” He spotted Brown, who was pouting and looking away from the door. “Expected…”
“Yeah… I kinda needed him to come too, Nathan. That place is kinda… important to Brown.” She smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
“Yeah, so you better don’t trash it, or steal anything from there, or take us there into a trap.” Brown hissed, glaring at Nathaniel with distrust.
“…” Nathaniel scowled in response to Brown’s comment, and then rolled his eyes to face Kay’s. “You sure this is a good idea? Mister shorts here doesn’t seem to be particularly excited ‘bout the excursion.”
“Look, I know we have been talking about a lot of things and I’m glad we can interact better than before… but you’re still not off the hook. I don’t want to risk things either and maybe coming along with someone that doesn’t like you can prove that you’re still willing to change, no matter the challenge.” Kay delivered with a firmer tone, placing one of her hands on her waist.
“Well…” Nathaniel put his knuckle under his chin while his elbow was supported by his other hand, thinking of the situation. “If that’s what it takes, then I’ll do it. I’m wantin’ to see that place and I’m stickin’ to my guns ‘bout bein’ better, so let’s get goin’.”
The trio then headed out the dorms and into the path where the building was, not saying anything else throughout the outing, until Kay decided to speak up.
“Soo… why are you so interested in the building Nathaniel? I’m pretty sure you’ve been to other abandoned places before, or at least that’s what I think. With you being a bandit and all.” She looked at him, waiting for a response.
“I’m interested ‘cause I’ve never seen anythin’ like the structures that y’all have here. Everythin’ seems to be advanced and usable, so to hear that one of ‘em isn’t bein’ used is kinda interestin’. Why would somethin’ in this academy be left behind? Why are people usin’ it now? What do they desire to do with it?” He stared into the path in front of him, full of intrigue. “What did they want to hide?”
“It really isn’t that special dude. Right now it probably just has some furniture, some drinks and snack bags.” Brown voiced at the cowboy, who really preferred if Smith didn’t meddle with his hideout.
“Uh… Brown…?” The black girl signaled at the location, which now apparently had been completely transformed into a decrypt, scary mansion. “I don’t think it’s just some furniture anymore.”
“What the!?” Brown held onto his hair, shocked at the sight of the previously deserted edifice now having gone through such an extreme transformation.
“Um… is this how the building’s supposed to look?” Nathaniel tilted his head up to see how big the structure itself was and it was quite huge, almost like a skyscraper.
“No!?” The lock boy changed his view from the mansion to the cowboy. “Why would we have a building like this in a FUCKING ACADEMY!?”
“Calm down Brown, maybe there’s an explanation for this. It could be that the academy is actually wanting to use this dump for once, or that someone else did this for Halloween.” Kay leaned closer to the ruffled student, putting her hand on his shoulder to provide some sort of comfort.
“Kay, there’s NO way they could’ve renovated this place in so little time. Last time I went here was a few months ago. This type of attraction tends to take YEARS for it to look like THIS!”
“Well, who cares who built it? The important thing is that we’ve got to figure out who’s behind it all and try to see if they can turn it back to the way it was or somethin’. It’s givin’ me the creeps, but at least I wanna see what it has inside before it’s turned back into the shitty hole that it was before, or demolished, or whatever happens to it.” Nathaniel then began to venture towards the door of the spooky manor, inspecting the surroundings to see if he might find suspicious about it, with Kay and Brown joining soon after.
“Hmmm… It don’t seem to have anythin’ odd ‘bout it. It’s just some wood.” The cowboy mentioned as he kept pining himself on the door, knocking on it, passing his hand through it, doing everything that he could except opening it.
“…” Brown and Kay couldn’t help but focus their attention on the frontiersman, eyebrows raised. “Hey… Kay… You sure he was a bandit…?”
“That’s what he’s been telling me…”
“It really doesn’t look like it.” The two gossiped in whispers until the door opened by itself, launching Nathaniel to the ground.
“Agh! What the fuck!?” Smith cried, observing that the inside of the mansion was a dark, gloomy and empty void, apparently barren of any type of life or even furniture. “H-how… how is it empty…?”
“They probably don’t have the lights on, that’s why we can’t see anything inside. Do you even know how lights work dude?” Brown chided.
“Do you have to be Mr. Smart pants all the time?” The blue bandit helped himself with his hand to get on his feet and soon after dusted off his clothes. “That kind of darkness ain’t normal, pal. I’ve been in the fuckin’ woods, campin’ in the middle of the night. I KNOW how somethin’ that’s dark should look like, and that definitely ain’t it.” He pointed towards the abyss, with his finger starting to tremble a bit while doing so.
“Ugh, why are you so scared of just exploring a building all of the sudden? Aren’t you supposed to be, y’know… a fucking bandit!?”
“Gee, I guess bandits can’t be humans that can fear shit then. Do ya even hear yourself!?”
“GUYS!” Kay interrupted, standing in the middle of the two. “Can you two PLEASE fucking stop!? We’re supposed to be on this together. Whether you like it or not, we’re gonna have to enter that place as a group. If we split up, we probably would have a harder time in general and we don’t even know if it’s safe to go inside alone. So stop whining like babies and let’s go. Got it!?” She crossed her arms, expecting a positive response from the pair.
The two of them interchanged glares for a few seconds before conceding to the black girl’s orders. “Okay…” The two jet black men sighed, finally taking a step forward into the darkness, with Kay accompanying shortly.
They walked along the obscured path, not sure of what they could encounter. Eventually they reached a new door, with Nathaniel opening it. The three young adults inspected the surroundings and were mesmerized by what they had encountered.
It was the entrance of a well lit and preserved mansion hall. Oak wood had been used for the floor, stairs, railings and furniture. It also had a cream colored carpet with brown Victorian patterns underneath their feet with the walls being plastered with the same colors and pattern Right beside the stairs were two small pedestals that held two heads of Aristotle and Socrates for decoration.
There was another room to the left which had more furniture and appeared to be a place perfect for a tea break, while the path forwards was towards the stairs, which both led to a room upstairs.
“Where the hell are we!? How did this place get completely transformed into a Victorian mansion!?” Brown raised his voice, walking towards the railing and touching it, feeling the sturdy texture of the wood. The smell was quite apparent too.
“This doesn’t make any sense man. There has to be something else going on. It just has to!” Kay agreed, mesmerized at the whole structure that she was witnessing. She had never been in a place this old but fancy before, so it was certainly a new experience for the girl.
The cowboy however didn’t seem to be that surprised by the location. “Huh… this is… weird. Kinda reminds me of the house of a rich fuck I got into one night.”
“Wait, you actually infiltrated into a mansion?” The guy on the striped shirt asked.
“Yup. My gang and I got inside for some good ol’ payback. It was worth it too and bein’ honest, it was one of our most successful heists.” He smiled with fondness and a ton of confidence.
“And here I was thinking you only tried to steal from banks and some old lady that you found in the woods.” The girl with the green robe approached the bandit, only to hit him on his shoulder.
“Ow! What was that for!?”
“For being proud of stealing. You’re supposed to start leaving that behind, remember?” She huffed, arms crossed and with a frown present on her face.
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we should get goin’. I think the best way would be upstairs. The other room don’t seem that interestin’ to me and I think it’s more likely we’ll encounter the fuck who’s behind all this.” Nathaniel then motioned himself towards the stairs, eager to see what they could encounter.
Just on his first step however, things were starting to get weird. The stairs began to break while also slanting downwards. The floor itself began to crack and detach, forming a hole where the same type of darkness that they witnessed before could be seen, but in a darker red hue.
“Wow, wow, wow!” Brown said while trying to stay on his feet and not fall into the abyss.
“Shit!” Kay spouted, running towards Brown and Nathaniel and lifting herself into the air, trying to hold on to them.
“What’s the fuckin’ problem with this house!? It’s already fallin’ apart and I just got on the stairs!” The frontiersman blurted out while staring down at the disaster that was now still expanding and looking worse by each passing second. So much so that they began to see some eyes light up from the dark and red void.
The trio’s eyes widened in absolute fear, timorous of what could happen to them if they didn’t flee from there soon. Fortunately for them, the door from above appeared to be intact, although now it was floating in the air with no real explanation.
“KAY! THE DOOR!” The youngster in shorts exclaimed while pointing at the door that was a bit lower, being desperate for a way out of the nightmare they were now in.
Without hesitation, Kay went as fast as she could to the frame while falling down, getting hold of the knob and pushing onwards, with the door not budging a single bit.
“Why is it not opening!? Come on! We have to get in!” Brown said while making his own attempt of opening it up, pushing into it with all the strength he had in one hand while still holding Kay’s hand.
“Try pullin’ it!” Nathaniel voiced, and then checked behind his back to see if there was anything pursuing them. Oh he found something alright. Something that made him hyperventilate. “Pu-pull… PULL IIIIIT!!!!!!!!!” He screamed while having his eyes glued to the monster that had just appeared. One that was fluorescent, all covered in slime with multiple eyes on its torso, arms and upper body, inching closer and closer with its tentacles.
Following the cowboy’s advice in a hurry, both Brown and Kay pulled on the door, opening it and entering it as soon as they saw the next room be revealed. Immediately after the trio made it through, the doors slammed shut, locking the monster behind with no way of getting in.
The forest girl, the youngster from nowhere and the frontiersman were all gasping for air, their minds running circles, not understanding a single bit of what was happening, why it happened or how it happened.
“This… place… isn’t… normal… Kay…” Brown gazed upon the girl, who was heaving from the previous scare.
“Yeah… no fucking kidding. Now I don’t think we can go back from where we came from…” She then darted her head towards the cowboy, who was lying on the ground in a fetal position, shivering and holding his arms with his hands. “Nathaniel…?”
“No more monsters, no more monsters, no more monsters, please no more monsters.” Nathaniel whispered, not daring to look at Kay or Brown.
“Shit… it’s getting to him more than I think it would.”
“Yeah… when he was scared of Carrie’s monsters in the tournament it seemed to be bad, but this is honestly far worse…” Kay confided to Brown, frowning at the sight of the poor man lying on the floor.
“Hey… Nathan…?” She came closer to Nathaniel, who was still quite scared, but was beginning to come back to himself. He rolled his eyes to face Kay while still shaking.
“K-k-k…” He couldn’t speak quite yet, but he was at least able to sit down and stare at his colleague.
“You’re really scared right now… right?” Kay spoke softly, waiting for a response while sitting down to Nathaniel’s level.
Nathaniel responded with a nod, his lips twitching and his hands being put together in an attempt to make them stop shaking.
“Well, for now we’re out of danger, or I hope so at least. I’ll let you have as much time as you might need to recover, but we need to keep moving, okay?” She put her hand on his shoulder.
“O-o-o…” The cowboy shook his head. He was trying to speak, but he couldn’t quite make the word come out.
“It’ll be all right Nathaniel. We’re on this together, got it?” She turned her hand into a fist, shaking it down a little bit to show him her support.
Nathaniel’s expression changed into something softer, giving her a smile and a nod.
After receiving her answer, Kay stood up from the floor and went back to Brown, who was apparently watching the brief conversation.
“So… You sure he’s gonna be fine?” He asked incredulously with his brows knit.
“Yeah. He just needs some time. In the meantime, let’s check where exactly we are.” Kay then inspected the place that they were on properly. It was a hallway with various doors on each side and with another one in front of them while also having a decorative pot of flowers on a table on the left side of the hall.
“Huh… this place isn’t so bad. It feels like another part of the mansion.”
“Yeah, although something about it is familiar… it feels like we’re in a TV show or something. There’s no way there can be that many room entrances in a single hallway, right?” Brown rationalized, walking a bit closer to one of the doors on the left, considering opening it.
“Hey, what if it has a monster or a black hole inside? I don’t think we should open that yet, Brown.” The telekinetic girl advised, being right behind her friend.
“But then how’re we gonna know where to go? We have to find a way to get out of here Kay. If we don’t, who knows what would happen to us or if anybody would even bother trying to find us.” Brown argued, grabbing the door knob and opening it up, seeing another room that he could enter. “See?” He looked at Kay for a second and then went inside, with Kay following soon after.
They noticed that the room itself appeared to be a library with bookshelves, a few desks close by and also stairs that had wheels beneath them to search for a higher placed book.
“Hmm… Now we’re in the library? But the room didn’t seem to be spacious enough to fit the whole library! How is that even possible?” Brown walked on, gazing up to the ceiling and seeing how high the bookshelves could reach.
“I dunno… it feels like this is a dream or something man.” Kay responded, doing a jump to scout the area better while falling slower. Perhaps she could be able to spot something that seemed out of place and could explain their current situation. She only saw a door in the other side of the room, now not being able to spot the door from once they came from. “Uh… Brown…?”
“Don’t tell me the door’s gone.”
“The door’s gone.”
Brown gave out a huge, very tired exhalation, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Guess we’re gonna have to go through the only one that’s here now.” With that said the duo went inside and exited outside the library.
The location that they approached however didn’t make sense. They were back at their starting point.
“Oh god damn it. It’s gonna be one of these puzzles huh?” The lock boy complained, resting his hands on his hips and shaking his head, staring at the floor.
“Where the hell did y’all go?” Nathaniel approached; seemingly better than what he was before.
“Well, we kinda wanted to check out that room and it was a big library that shouldn’t be able to fit and then the door from where we came from disappeared, then we entered the only door that was there and now we’re back here.” Kay explained, scratching her head and inspecting the rest of the entrances with eyes, trying to spot if there were any differences between them that could help in any way on figuring out how they worked.
“What? So… any of these doors will just send us back to the beginnin’?” The blue bandit pondered.
“I guess so? So our best bet is just going to the door right in front of us and keep advancing. If that transports us back here, then we’re gonna have to check every single door and see what happens.” Brown suggested while pointing at the door.
“Whatever works.” Kay shrugged.
Now the trio went inside the entrance that was in sight, hoping to come out into a different room, only to arrive at the beginning of the hall. After seeing the result of their experiment, they decided to go into every single room until they found a way to get out of the hall.
They entered a room that had torturing devices, whips, gloomy and dirty castle walls. It wasn’t a pretty sight and it was even worse with the encounter of an executioner executor.
“RUN!” Nathaniel shouted towards his companions, who ran away from the area and into a door, only to end up back in the hall and making them try out a different entryway, one that transported them into a world made out of candies, deserts and milk.
“Huh… This doesn’t seem that bad. It’s kinda nice.” Brown admired while sitting down on the floor, which was made out of the texture of a jawbreaker. Their peace didn’t last long though, as they saw what appeared to be a person covered in candy canes and chocolate, with their eyes being made out of mint candies. It delivered a haunting growl, extending its arms to reach out to the group.
Again, the trio had to escape from the incoming danger, now having to jump into platforms made out of cookies into a lake made of milk, hoping that the monster wouldn’t be able to catch them. It was at first incapable of reachingto reach out to them directly, as it was scared of jumping into the milk and dissolving in the process.
What it did next caught Nathaniel by surprise, as the monster elongated and shape shifted its arm into a hook, getting hold of the cowboy and yanking him off the platform.
“NATHANIEL!” Brown and Kay cried, witnessing the poor man be dragged onto the beast.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!” The frontiersman yelled, terrified of what the monster might want to do to him. He won’t get to find out fortunately enough, as Brown locked the candy covered being’s arm in place, giving Nathaniel the chance to escape.
Smith didn’t want to do that just yet however. He felt like his body was aching for payback and payback he was going to get. He liberated himself from the hook, landing in safe ground and shooting his air bullets at the monster, which was getting pelted by each one, losing its balance with every one that hits. It tried to attack back with its free arm by extending it and giving out a punch, but it was in vain as Nathaniel dodged out of the way and came crashing into the monster, striking it with a tackle and sending it into the sea of bovine fluid.
“THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR FUCKIN’ MESSIN’ WITH ME. YA HEAR!?” He clenched his hand into a fist and shook it, leaning forwards to face the fiend. The candy monster was very slowly dissolving into the lake, letting out various noises of pain and desperation, trying to swim its way out of the liquid, only to succumb to it and only be remains of what it once was.
After that upsetting experience, Kay went over to Nathaniel’s location to pick him up and go back to the cookie where Brown was waiting on. Eventually, they were able to find a door that transported them back into the hall and soon after, they went inside another one, finding a location that looked to be an attic.
It had various objects that would be common place in an attic like boxes, dusty furniture, a CRT TV and various magazines all over the floor.
The color named student in particular was interested in an item that was resting on top of a box, a keyboard that suggested to be for a 1990’s computer with how unkempt, rusty and outdated it was. “Hmmm… this is a pretty vintage keyboard. Where even is this? And whose stuff is all of this?” He questioned while facing Kay and Nathaniel who mostly shrugged off his query. They didn’t really know.
Suddenly, they heard the window of the attic be shattered, with a zombie coming from it. A pale looking zombie with a white shirt completely covered in dirt and filth, so much so that the color of the shirt went from white to a dark yellow color. It wasn’t the only one either, as more and more zombies started to come from the same window.
“This is bad… this is really bad.” The guy in shorts slowly went back to where Nathaniel and Kay were.
“Okay, that’s it. I’M FUCKIN’ TIRED OF BEIN’ SCARED OF THESE SHITS. IF I’M GOIN’ DOWN, I’M BRINGIN’ Y’ALL WITH ME!” The angered frontiersman exclaimed while pointing his fingers at the zombies from a good distance and shooting some air bullets. They didn’t have any type of effect on the undead and they only continued to limp towards the trio.
“I can’t use my powers on them either! It’s like they are glued to the floor or something!” The black girl blurted as she was raising her arm and use her telekinesis. They didn’t have a way out and the zombies were getting closer and closer.
With no other options, Brown looked into the keyboard that he was holding, thinking of an idea, but being unsure if it was going to work. “Well, if this doesn’t work, then I guess nothing will.” He stepped right in front of Kay and Nathaniel and typed out a random word, hoping that this zombie invasion would work like the game he had described to Kay before.
“Fishsticks.” He repeated on instinct after he finished typing the word, saying that one of the zombies crumbled onto the floor. “Oh shit, it worked!” He smiled with relief, but immediately went into a more scared expression, as he saw a zombie raising its hand to hurt him. Before he could be stricken down however, the impact was received by another person: Nathaniel.
“AGH!” He winced at the hit, feeling a burning sensation on his back. “Y-you… okay…?”
“Y-yeah… t-thanks.” Brown responded and went back further, typing out another word, a word that was inspired by the cowboy’s presence. “Corral!”
Another zombie went down, but there were still a lot more coming, now including one of their members. Nathaniel began to foam from his mouth and twitch out of control.
“Na-Nathan…?” The telekinetic girl questioned, gazing with horror at the cowboy, who looked back with his pupils completely dilated.
“Holy shit…” Brown stared at Nathaniel, baffled at his sudden transformation, but he couldn’t be distracted any longer, he had to type as fast as he could to get rid of all the zombies. With a crack of his fingers (which definitely hurt him in some way right away, as he winced after doing so and shook his hands to get rid of the pain) he began to write as fast he could like his life depended on it, because it did.
Shorts! Ass! Google! Cooking Book! Table! Presomptuous! “Fuck!” Brown screamed, shook his head and then continued with his typing. Presumptuous! Garden! Excadrill! Apple! Face! Cock! Dukey Nukey!
Word after word, zombie after zombie dropped, leaving only one more: Nathaniel.
“What do we do about him?” Brown motioned at the zombified cowboy, who was still trying to approach.
“I dunno man… I kinda wanted to help him out but he’s a zombie now… there’s nothing we can do for him.” Kay sighed, frowning at Nathaniel with sorrow. “Maybe there could be a cure, but it’s not something we can think of or find…”
“Yeah…” He shared the same expression as Kay, although it wasn’t for Nathaniel, but rather for her own sake. He didn’t appreciate seeing his friends be affected like this. With a bit of hesitation, Brown decided to type out one last word, that one being something that he’s currently feeling right now.
Sorry.
As soon as the word came out, Nathaniel gave out a weakened howl, lying on the floor without a single bit of life in his body.
“Nathan…” Kay’s eyes began to water, with Brown coming closer to comfort her.
“Let’s go Kay, we need to get out of here. Maybe we can try out the window over there.”
The forest girl sniffed and in an attempt to keep herself together, she slapped both of her cheeks at the same time. She gave her friend a somewhat forced smirk. “Okay.” Then the duo headed out through the window, taking a jump and seeing some soft green grass below them.
Surprisingly enough, they didn’t touch the floor at all. In fact, they saw the grass and everything around them break, falling into an ocean of water. A particular one at that, as they weren’t really sinking or swimming, but rather falling into it slowly, like they were in space.
After they spent a bit more time, falling slowly with the two of them being confused by the properties of the water, they finally landed on solid ground.
Not soon after, they spotted a familiar face, that one being of a certain blue cowboy.
“Nathaniel!?” Kay and Brown yelled.
“Uh… I don’t really know what the hell happened after I saved Brown from that fuckin’ zombie, but… I guess I’m here now…?” He shrugged, strolling over to the pair. He received a punch to his shoulder as soon as he was close enough. “Auch!”
“That’s for making me think you fucking died.” Kay hissed with anger and a smidge of resentment.
“Hey, that wasn’t my fault! I didn’t know what the hell was happenin’ after I took that hit!”
“Guys, look.” The Arizona tea enjoyer called, staring at the structure that laid dormant on their path.
It was… ERA, an ERA that was destroyed and submerged in the water.
“Holy fuckin’ shit… Are we in the god damn future now!? What the hell happened here!?”
“No… t-this can’t be!” Kay held her hair, shocked and terrified of the rundown academy.
“Jesus… How do we even make it to all of these places!? I don’t want to keep going on with shit like this, I just wanna go home!” Brown exclaimed, very visibly tired of the entire excursion, but without any other option, he had to resign to the idea of having to look into this decrepit and destroyed version of something that he thinks he can call “home.”
Nathaniel and Kay reached the same conclusion and decided to explore the location. The halls were just submerged, the equipment completely destroyed. Any clothes that were once worn and stored now were scattered and with multiple holes, clearly damaged and full of kelps of the sea. The classrooms were in the same situation, with the desks, markers and books floating freely, destroyed and in a state of disrepair. After finishing checking the classrooms, the trio went into the hallway, looking for the dorms and deciding to hold a conversation on the way there.
“Okay so, all of this hasn’t made a single bit of sense at all. This is way too extreme for someone to just create and make these extremely realistic situations for us. It has to be someone with an Electi ability and being honest, I think I have a good candidate for it so far.” Brown started, putting his index and thumb fingers beneath his chin in a thoughtful position.
“Yeah… same here. I think it’s probably Gyssabel doing all of this. There’s no other explanation. I just didn’t really have time to think about it since we were just trying to escape one thing and then we had to deal with something else almost immediately. I hate this destroyed ERA like you have no idea, but at least its letting us think for a little bit.” Kay huffed, crossing her arms while still walking.
“So y’all think the little shit is behind all of this!? That fuckin’ child that participated in the tournament and that the green bastard was beatin’ up!?” Nathaniel insisted, getting more and more heated up by the thought of being tricked by a little girl.
“Yeah. Otherwise it would have to be someone as strong, if not stronger than Nova and Skyber, and I seriously doubt that.” Brown concluded
“But now the question is… how do we find her?” Nathaniel pondered, not sure of a reliable way to catch the witch.
“Hey! Gyssabel! We’ve had enough of this little house of horrors! We only wanted to find out what was going on here and we want to go back home. If you don’t stop this now, we will find you and make you stop, is that clear?” The forest girl voiced in a calm, but serious and firm tone, hoping to have reached the teen.
The group then saw an exit pop out of the floor, opening itself with a welcoming and warm light.
“Finally…” Brown exhaled with relief, while Nathaniel crossed his arms, eager to let out all of his emotions on the smaller girl after the turmoil he’s been through.
Kay also seemed to be pleased with the door, coming along the other two boys and entering through it.
They have made it back to the abandoned building, everything now back to normal, only difference being the presence of Gyssabel.
“Hello a’body.” She waved with a mischievous but also innocent smile.
“You fuckin’…”
“Nathan.” Kay glared back at the cowboy, giving him a disapproving and preventive look, one which the cowboy grumbled at and stopped himself from going any further with his frustration.
“Hey there Gys.” Kay responded with a less than happy tone.
“Did y’all have fun? Was it scary?”
“No, it wasn’t fun at all. We thought our lives were on the line over there! How could you even have fun with any of that!?” The youngster in shorts complained, leaning his body closer to the witch with an angry mug.
“You made me almost get eaten by a goop monster, almost killed by a candy monster and I got hit by a fuckin’ zombie! That wasn’t fun at all!”
“Yeah… what you did was messed up Gyssabel. Those were way more than just some Halloween scares!” Kay reprimanded, upset by the teenager girl’s behavior.
“Well, sometimes things can get out of hand, deh ya think? It was a zany adventure! With twists and turns and even the cowboy gave himself to save ye and he was the one with the skiddies all the way through! Ain’t that gonna count for somethin’?” She smiled with a shrug, trying to justify her actions in some capacity.
“Why did you even do this in the first place? Just for the heck of it? Were you bored because nobody wanted to spend Halloween with you or something?” Brown inquired, letting his arms rest on his sides but opening his hands to receive an explanation.
“Ah ended up doin’ this whole thing ‘cause ah was promised some candy, candy that ah’m ur keepin’ in a safe place and that ah’m ur gonna eat later. It was all worth it!”
“That’s not a good reason to do all of that! Don’t you remember what happened last time when Kai broke your wand and you had a breakdown or something!?”
“Ah just wanted to have some fun in Halloween, all right? Deh get yer behouchie tight.” Gyssabel crossed her arms, pouting and rolling her eyes.
“If you wanna do that, then don’t take things to these kinds of extremes Gys. It’s not okay and some people aren’t going to take it too well in general.” Kay insisted.
“Aye, aye, I hear ya. I’ll try to tone it down.”
“And don’t come back. We already warned you about coming here, so stop pushing your luck.” Brown told the girl, just wanting to go back to his dorm and get some sleep after so much chaos and not have to care about his hideout being tampered with anymore.
“Anno, anno. Golly ye can be such a pain on the butt. Ah’m ur gonna leave now.” And with that, Gyssabel disappeared like if she had never been there in the first place.
“I didn’t scream at her stupid face just ‘cause of you Kay. I hope you know that.” Nathaniel glared, giving out a sigh of frustration while holding his belt.
“I know and I’m kinda pissed at you for that. She’s a child. She doesn’t need to get yelled at for doing something that she thought was mostly innocent and you have honestly done far worse dude.”
“I LITERALLY HAD A FUCKIN’ BREAKDOWN, ALMOST GOT KILLED BY THE CANDY MONSTER AND GOT CONVERTED INTO A ZOMBIE, HOW DO YA EXPECT ME TO NOT WANT TO SCREAM AT THE LITTLE GREMLIN’!?”
“IT WASN’T REAL NATHANIEL. IT’S NOT AS BAD AS YOU MAKE IT OUT TO BE!” The forest girl and the cowboy bickered on and on and on. Brown didn’t want anything to do with any of this anymore, so instead of staying and saying goodbye, he walked onwards to his dorm, only desiring to sleep in his bed and forget any of this happened at all, that it was only a nightmare.
A nightmare that was just centered around… A building of horrors.
Well, that’s the story folks. I hope it was a good read, but something I wanted to do and add as a small little bonus was a segment that I felt would be way too long with an already long story but that would’ve been fun to have, so here you go!
Brown, Kay and Nathaniel had just opened a new door and were in a seemingly dark room, one that had a lot of ceramics on the walls and floor. Nothing was out of the ordinary, just a simple room.
“I can’t see shit ‘round here. Can y’all spot a switch or somethin’?” Nathaniel asked while trying to walk around the space, hoping to find the lights.
“No. It’s dark for everybody Nathaniel, it’s not just you being blind.” Brown rolled his eyes, taking his own steps at a different direction with the same idea that the cowboy had.
Kay went along Brown, keeping watch of his back in case something would come out of nowhere and make an assault.
After a few minutes of strolling, they weren’t able to find a light switch and returned to their starting point, not sure of what to do.
“So what’s the trick of this room? Do we have to light It up ourselves with a fire or what?”
“Probably not Brown. Maybe we have to press one of these tiles and it’s gonna reveal a secret passage where we can exit.” Kay offered, now touching the walls with her hands, inspecting every nook and cranny that she could see.
With the trio now distracted with the wall, something else started to occur right behind their backs. A red portal appeared in the floor, summoning a being of unconceivable power covered with a black robe, a black scythe covered in mist being held by skeletal hands and with their eye sockets filled with a blue, continuously dancing fire.
With the group now feeling an chilling cold on their backs, as well as a lot more pressure than usual, they decided to turn around to see what was looming abaft. They could witness the creature being a floating skeleton covered in a robe and it was as clear as the day that the figure was not going to be friendly, since it was preparing itself for a swing of its scythe.
“IS THAT THE GRIM REAPER!?” Brown yelled, holding his head in panic.
Nathaniel was hyperventilating, holding his chest on reaction, feeling his heart jump up and down in a faster rate.
“How and when did you even get here!?” Kay challenged, getting herself into a fighting position.
The trio however didn’t have enough time to dodge, as the grim reaper’s strike had already been swung. After being hit by the scythe, they felt how their souls left their bodies, only leaving empty, dead slumps behind. They were now in the free hand of the reaper as small fire balls of energy. The skeletal being smiled at his prize, satisfied with what it had done.
What happened after was unexpected however, as the reaper raised its arm and launched the three balls with all of its force, breaking down one of the walls by the sheer strength of the impact, making Brown, Kay and Nathaniel arrive at their next destination.
THE END