Chapter 45. Come on

“Come on~” A wife was trying to pull her unwilling husband to the main entrance of Boulderville. “We’ve got to go innnn, let’s go~” The man shook his head in response, his feet firmly planted on the ground hardly budging from her tug.

“No, no, no not today, nuh uh I said we either go early or late, not this day.” The man was adamant in his refusal. “Why do this to me?” The man questioned. His wife always forces him to participate in the scare Boulderville throws yearly in celebration for the upcoming arrival of the kids.

“Because it’s fun~” The wife replied. Every year before their child returned the wife would bring the husband to Boulderville on the day of the event and participate in getting scared. She is less startled when it comes to the jump scares the villagers normally do whereas her husband is completely terrified.

“Let’s go, it’s only once a year.” She pleaded pulling her husband who finally relented. Near the entrance to Boulderville crowds of people gathered, the husband and wife already expected this. Every year new people who didn’t know of the scares the villagers do will gather intel and ask if it was safe to enter. About a third would enter whereas the rest decides to camp outside until the event was over.

It was fair game for anyone who chooses to enter, most would attempt to make a full run straight for the Inn, because it was a safe zone. However, the villagers had already expected of this after it happened one year causing them to make the pathway to the Inn the filled with jump scares.

“Are you willing to go in?” The guard at the entrance asked. The wife nodded her head vigorously whereas the husband continued to shake his head.

Their vastly different expressions made the guard chuckle and stepped aside. Their choice was for them to make. The husband stood before the entrance while the wife continued to try to budge him by pushing him from the back.

“AHHHHH” A loud scream coming from inside halted the wife’s push while the husband maintained at the spot, completely shuddering in fright. Short seconds later multiple screams could be heard all around the village.

“Why’re they screaming so much?” The wife calmly asked the gatekeeper standing there. The past years it’ll only be a quick yelp and then complete silence, however every single scream was long and continuous as if they were running for their life.

“This year is a little different, we’ve made it scarier.” The gatekeeper replied. Seeing the nervous look on her face he continued “Don’t worry, it’s all just scares you won’t get harmed by it in any way.” He quickly added “Unless you trip or run into a wall or something then that’s on you.”

“Do you still want to go?” The husband nervously asked his wife, he hoped the screams and what the gatekeeper had said would deter her from taking that final step. When wife saw the smirk on the gatekeeper’s face and saw how terrified her husband was. She tugged on his arm and quickly pulled him through.

The instant they stepped through the gate the temperature within the village dropped by dozens of degrees becoming chilly to the point that they can see their own breath. The once bright and warm morning sky was replaced with a murky evening darkness. Visibility became poor as dense fog rolled in obscuring anything beyond what lied a couple steps ahead.

The sudden change in atmosphere alarmed both husband and wife who immediately turned around only to see that the entrance they once walked through was gone. The husband ran towards the wall and felt all around it, there was no entrance there anymore. He pounded hard on it hoping to get a response from the other side, but there was none.

“Wha-what? How did that happen?” The husband stuttered; his teeth was chattering nonstop as he looked around. The once small and welcoming homes they’ve passed by dozens of times on the side of the road became startling nightmarish as if all the inhabitants disappeared overnight leaving their houses turned to ruin.

Some homes had their doors tightly shut while others opened just a narrow bit. The doors that were opened released an eerie creaking sound as it swayed open and close.

“MOVE.” A voice could be heard booming from behind immediately alarming them. They turned around only to see that there was nothing there.

“Did you just hear that!?” The husband asked his wife, he was beyond scared. “Yeah, we should listen to what it said and start moving.” The wife calmly replied.

The wife and husband duo took slow steps down the pathway before them, loud screams can be heard echoing off in the distance.

A small silhouette came into view as they continued forward. The husband and wife stopped the moment they noticed the small thing on the road.

“Mew.” The thing meowed at them from afar. “A cat?” The wife asked, their first obstacle was a kitten on the road?

“Shoo shoo, go away kitty!” The husband tried to shoo the kitten away from afar hoping his loud voice would make it budge. It remained in the same spot mewing in repetition like a broken record player.

The husband stomped the ground and took a few steps forward hoping it’ll do something. However, no dice as the kitten remained standing there. The wife eventually moved forward past her husband in the direction of the small figure in the middle of the road.

The moment she got close the little kitten scurried away further down the road and continued its meowing. Annoyed by the meows that was loud enough to drown out the screams coming from afar the wife picked up her pace hoping it’ll eventually run away.

The kitten continued to scurry away a few more times whenever they got close to it, causing them to relax and pick up the pace as they followed it. However, this time was different the silhouette of the kitten remained still on the ground even as they got closer.

The husband continued to tug at the sleeve of her coat from behind afraid she would run off and leave him behind. The wife glanced down at small thing beneath her and reached down to pick it up.

“Do-don’t!” The wife rolled her eyes at her husband, it was just a kitten why is he so afraid? The kitten she felt was different than she had expected, it was harder and more solid than she had expected.

The wife held the object in her hand. “A skull? Where’s the kitten?” The wife held the human skull in her hand unamused by the switch the villagers pulled on them. The husband tugged at her telling her to put it down. However, she paid him no mind and stared at it.

“It’s just a skull, what’s there to be afraid of?” The wife stated factually as she examined it.

“Mew” The skull meowed in her hand, its mouth and eye sockets shook and vibrated startling the wife prompting her to drop it in reflex. The husband pulled on her arm and ran ahead the moment the skull meowed at them.

They didn’t stop running for a full minute “Wha-what was that?” The husband had cold sweat dripping down his forehead whereas the wife was starting to feel scared. “It must’ve been an Exotic with strange powers.” The wife replied.

“Mew” The sound of the kitten could be heard again coming from behind them. They instinctively turned around only to see that the kitten was no longer the kitten they saw in the beginning. It was a skull that was rolling straight towards them.

“Mew Mew Mew” The skull continued to meow as it rolled.

“Run!” The husband and wife ran at the same time booking it down the pathway that was getting narrower. Before them was a crossroad, on the sign of the crossroad the left way had the words “scary” written on it and on the right had “not scary.”

Almost instinctively the husband wanted to run to the right to the not scary direction, however he stopped and thought about it. Would the villagers really have a not scary option?

Stuck in a dilemma the duo couldn’t think for long as humanoid figures both large and small walked towards them from the path marked “not scary.” The husband and wife hoped it was other participants who willingly entered, however the moment the figures came closer to view the demonic masks on their face killed all their hope.

They turned and ran to the left only to look over their shoulder a few seconds later. The demonic figures were running after them! “Run we’ve got run!”

The duo turned a corner and ran into an empty home, closing the door shut. They ran and hid in a large cabinet in the corner of the home. They tried to hush their nervous breathing as footsteps got louder and closer towards them.

The door to the home opened as masked figures with heavy weapons in their hands scraping the floor as they walked. “Grrrflkrker” One of the demonic figures spoke to the other. Their voices sounded like pure snarls as they conversed in front of the cabinet.

“Grrrflkrerk, KEEEEEEK”

“KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK”

One of the demonic figures screeched inside the home hoping to scare them out of hiding. The wife covered her husband’s mouth entirely with her hand stopping him from making any noise during the screech. Both were beyond scared now.

The demonic figures grunted towards the other and smashed some of the objects within the home including smacking the cabinet on the side. The husband and wife almost yelped in response when their cabinet got attacked, but desperately held their breath.

The sound of the front door closing caused the husband and wife hidden in the cabinet to gasp for air. “I don’t want to do this no more; can we just hide here?” The husband asked his wife, he just wanted to remain in the cabinet for the night.The wife silently agreed she wanted to just stop here, if the villagers were really acting, they did a great job at being demonic.

“MOVE!”

That same voice boomed directly in their ears as they remained still within the cabinet. The husband and wife didn’t want to listen to this voice and ignored it. What could it do to them?

“MOVE!!”

The cabinet started to shake vigorously before falling off to the side causing the wife to fall onto her husband. The two rolled out of the cabinet doors only to see that the cabinet continued to shake after they had fallen out. It was shaking and breaking off into pieces right before their eyes.

“MOVE MOVE MOVE!”

The house started to shake as the door to the front exploded out breaking off and slamming into the ground. The noise attracted the demonic figures as screeches could be heard in the distance.

The husband immediately got up and pulled his wife directly out of the house. He took the lead and pulled on her arm down the path deeper down the road. They ran without looking back, only the sound of their footsteps can be heard echoing in the night.

Two demonic figures stood before the house the couple had just escaped from and glance at the door. One of them removed the mask on them. “This is too fun!” Arthur shouted in excitement.

“Grrrflkerkr”

“What?”

“Put your mask back on, we’ve got to follow them.” Michael replied. Their duty was to both chase and scare and bring anyone who was too unable to continue back to the Inn.

“Looks like they’re headed towards the maze, remember to only chase them until they run into the walls. Don’t touch the walls or you’ll teleport with them.”

“I know.”

“Remember, Boss said he’s not responsible for us if we teleport.”

“I know.”

“Remember—”

“—I know!” Arthur placed his mask back on and rushed ahead. Michael sighed and followed suit catching up to the boy.

They saw their prey in sight again after another 10 minutes of maintaining speed. The husband and wife duo entered the teleporting maze ways. It was the same invisible teleporting maze they dealt with during Boss’ training with them only on a much bigger scale.

“Wh-where are we now?” The husband swatted away the dense spooky fog wafting all

around them. “I-I don’t know, everything is different this year.” The wife stuttered.

“Wait are you scared?”

“N-no!” The wife replied, grabbing onto her husband’s hand, they both clung onto each other and sluggishly continued forward.

“Grrgflkarla keeee!” A demonic figure rushed at them from behind with a blade in its hands. In panic the husband and wife ran for their life while being chased by the demon half their size. Subconsciously avoiding the invisible walls as they ran down twists and turns of the maze.

“Keee!” The little demon chased them into a corner, the husband and wife closed their eyes and ran into the dense fog in front of them. Blasting out of the fog the husband and wife glanced around only to find themselves in an open world filled with unmoving lifelike masked men and woman surrounding them on both sides.

They huddled close to each other and took small steps maintaining their eyes on the dozens of masked figures all around them. The figures remained unmoving allowing the duo to inwardly sigh that the figures were inanimate objects.

“Do-does it feel like they’re all looking at us?” The husband asked. “Don’t say that, they’re not real.” The wife stated quickly picking up her pace. She turned to look at one figure on her right that was smaller than the rest. The figure turned its head and looked directly at her. The wife stopped in place causing her husband to bump directly into her from behind.

“Wh-why’d you stop?” The husband asked, the mask figures all around him was creeping him out completely, he just wanted to run away if possible. His wife didn’t answer he saw her pale face completely frozen with her eyes looking in a certain direction.

The husband turned his head and looked towards what she had seen, it was just a smaller figure. The husband thought to himself, until the masked figure turned its head towards him making eye contact.

The moment they both made eye contact with the figure, every single figure that was surrounding them turned their heads at the couple. The small figure took a small step towards them. That one step was followed by over a dozen figures making the same move.

“AHHHHHHHHH” The husband and wife ran for their life away from demonic masked figures that was surrounding them.

“KEEEEEEEE” The roar of over a dozen figures echoed from behind.

“See Michael, I didn’t walk through the fog.” Arthur stood at the corner as Michael’s figure caught up.

“That’s good” Michael removed his mask and nodded. “Now let’s put it our mask back on, Boss said not to keep it off for too long in here.” Michael quickly placed the mask back on his face.

“Alright.” Arthur replied and held the mask before his face. His eyes looked beyond the distance past Michael’s figure.

Rumble rumble

A familiar rumbling could be felt off in the distance shaking the ground. Michael’s figure tilted his head confused as to why Arthur hadn’t put on his mask yet, oblivious to what the kid was seeing.

The silhouette of the figure got closer and closer, causing the kid’s eyes to widen in fear. In front of the kid’s eyes the familiar silhouette loomed over Michael’s back staring down directly at him.

“Grrrrrekler?” Michael asked.

“Se-seraphim!” The boy’s legs turned to mush as he fell backwards.

Michael turned his head around and looked left and right Did he say Seraphim? How come I don’t see it?

Michael turned back to ask Arthur exactly what he saw, only to see that the boy wasn’t there anymore.

He freaking touched the wall!