Halloween Event (Pt. 2): Haunting the Haunted House

--- Jon ---

After confirming that he’d take first shift as the hunter, he made his way into the haunted house before climbing up into the rafters above. A place that not only was great for dropping down and scaring people, but was also the one place none of the cameras he and his Ma had set up could see.

Making it the perfect place to summon Noctis without his Ma seeing.

Unlike his previous summons where everyone would appear from a swirl of lights, this time Noctis came into being as a patch of shadows seemed to darken to the point of being pitch black before withdrawing and revealing the bogeyman hiding within.

The Nightmarian looked around for a moment before giving him a curious look. “Alright, you didn’t summon me in daylight again which is good, but I don’t see any creeps in need of a crippling. So -giving you the benefit of the doubt one last time- why did you summon me on Halloween? Arguably the busiest time of the year for my people.”

“Oh, well, uh, my ma and I built this haunted house and we’re going to have a bunch of, um, kids, adults, and teens passing through.” He tried to explain. “I was kind of hoping that since you’re a bogeyman you’d be able to help give everyone a good scare. And since you were so defensive of kids when we talked that last time I figured you wouldn’t traumatize any of them by accident like some of my other summons might.”

Which was a sad truth, given how no matter how kind she was, Wolf was, well, a wolf and the ways she could scare people were probably a little much for kids. Similarly he and Pix hadn’t actually put that much effort into her illusionary traps and such, so no matter how good she was with kids he wasn’t willing to risk one of her illusions ensnaring someone who couldn’t handle them. (And I sincerely doubt Melon could pull off spooky let alone scary,)

Thus leaving him with only one summon who could give a proper scare and hopefully go no further.

Noctis gave him a look before seeming to tilt his head side to side. “Hmm, well I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to take a little break, but I’ll have to get back to it before the night is done. The later it gets the more monsters tend to prowl on this night.”

“That’s fair.” He nodded, having not intended to take Noctis away from his work but simply hoping he could find something to do with the summons that didn’t involve violence like the Nightmarian kept asking. “I’m probably only going to be on this side of things for a couple of hours myself.”

“So, how exactly were you planning on doing this?” Noctis asked, crouching onto the rafter like him but unlike Jon requiring his hands to keep balance by gripping said rafter.

“Well, like any other haunted house they’ll be wandering around while my Ma sets off traps to frighten people from the control room. What makes this one different though is the fact that you and I will be playing Hunter as we follow people around and gaslight them into being more scared. Or if they tap out escorting them to the exits.” He frowned as something finally occurred to him. “Or, uh, I’ll be escorting them since my Ma doesn’t actually know I’ve got magic.”

Noctis gave him a look he couldn’t quite decipher. “Don’t trust her to know?”

“Not quite…” He hedged, not wanting to give someone the wrong idea. “I know she’s okay with magic users since she’s friends with Miss Edna, but at the same time admitting I know magic would lead into the circumstances of why and how I learned magic. Which were…”

(Fangs bit into flesh as he flexed his wrist, calling the axe back into his hand and causing the blade to cleave through the beast's skull in a gruesome display of blood and bone.)

“-not the best circumstances to tell the single parent worried about their only child.” (Or any parent really.)

Noctis continued to stare at him with his odd expression before shaking his head and muttering, “Not my business either way.”

He ran a hand through his hair, not sure what he could say after that.

At least until the entrance to the haunted house opened, and both monsters shifted as their first prey passed beneath them.

---

A pair of teens walked into through the entrance to the haunted house, a faint fog drifting around their legs as they started walking.

“So how cheesy do you think this is going to be?” The female of the pair asked.

“No telling, I mean it’s a cheap haunted house made by the cops. I doubt it’s going to be all that impressive.” The male answered as something above them creaked and a bit of dust fell. “Probably just going to be a bunch of homemade props and a jump scare or two.”

“Yeah, probably…” The girl frowned as they found their path blocked by a door, a flickering light visible from beneath it. “How much you want to bet there’s someone waiting behind this for one of those scares?”

“No bet.” The boy scoffed before opening the door and finding someone sitting in an old electrical chair. “Think he’ll jump while we’re watching him or wait until we leave the room?”

“Eh, he’s got to get us before we leave the room or else it’s a waste.” The girl whispered back before pausing as she felt something squishing underfoot. “The hell is this?”

The boy made a disgusted sound as he looked at the red substance sticking to his shoes. “Whatever it is, I hope it washes off.”

“Is this supposed to be blood or something?” The girl wondered. “Kind of want to know how they got the consistency like this, if I didn’t know better I’d think it was real blood.”

“Probably corn syrup and food dye or-” They both jumped as the door slammed shut behind them. “And there’s the jump scare.”

“Nah, look, this guy is starting to shake in his chair.” The girl pointed out, just before the lights turned off.

“Okay… are they just going to leave us in the dark?” The boy asked after a moment, a touch of wariness to his voice.

“Fuck, give me a sec…” The girl told him before pulling out her phone and carving a path of light through the darkness. “Remember there was that sign before we came in suggesting we bring our phones.”

“I thought that thing was telling us not to use our phones.” The boy groaned before fumbling with his pockets. “Hey, what… where the fuck is my phone?”

“Did you leave it in the car?” The girl sighed.

“No, I was just on it outside… where the fuck did it go?”

Something dashed behind the boy and the girl jumped. “The fuck was that?”

“What was what?”

“Something just moved behind you!”

“It was probably that guy in the electric chair.” The boy assured her, and sure enough when they checked the chair it was empty. “See told you it was just the guy in… the… chair…”

They both froze as they watched something dripping onto the chair.

“Is that, uh…”

The girl slowly raised her phone upward to where they saw the guy from the chair with his legs dangling from the rafters.

More importantly however they also saw something hunched over the man’s chest with the audible sound of something chewing.

When the light touched the creature it slowly turned its bloody maw towards them, before opening it wider than the rest of its head and screeching as it revealed hundreds of pointed teeth.

“Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” The boy panicked rushing back to the door that fought him.

“What are you doing? Open the door!” The girl yelled watching as the guy from the chair dropped lifelessly to the floor, blood leaking out of his chest. “Hurry!”

“I’m fucking trying!” The boy yelled back before the door finally gave in and let them escape just in time to slam the door shut in the face of whatever thing was in that room.

---

The officer stumbled over something as his eyes darted around the dimly lit room, trying to find his way out of this hell house that that psychotic Whitaker had built.

Pressing a hand against the wall to steady himself he felt something squelch beneath his touch, before pulling his hand back and finding what he knew without a doubt was real blood.

“What the fuck is wrong with that woman?!” He whimpered.

Damp air brushed against the back of his neck. “There’s plenty wrong with her.”

He spun around, raising his light and desperately wishing he’d brought his gun to deal with whatever nightmarish abominations that witch had let loose in this place.

The space behind him was completely empty.

He let out a shaky breath. “It’s just smoke and mirrors. It’s just smoke and mirrors. It’s just smoke and-” Something wet landed on his shoulder, before falling to the ground with a wet smacking sound.

Swallowing his eyes drifted to the ground where he found a visibly beating heart in an ever widening puddle of red.

“R-right, w-where’s the exit?” He squeaked, quickly backing away from the organ.

A black and white hand reached over his shoulder, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a wriggling mass of eyes and mouths, and too too many eyes…

“That way.” A hundred voices whispered.

Puddle of yellow began around his boot.

---

A mother walked through the maze with her two children, both of whom had insisted on entering the haunted house. And despite her misgivings about whether or not they could handle it, she found herself unable to refuse their mutual tugging while hoping that since this was a community party the police hadn’t made it too scary.

Which she felt decently confident about since the female officer at the entrance had given her daughter a flashlight to ‘scare away the monsters if they get too close’.

And as luck would have it, while the building was fairly spooky with its dim lighting and ever present fog, they’d yet to see anything scarier than the things they’d see in a kids’ Halloween movie. Meaning hopefully they wouldn’t get too bad of nightmares despite the way her youngest clung to her.

Something rattled in the room as she realized this must be the part where someone in a costume would end up trying to scare them.

Only when she caught sight of the thing in front of them she knew without a doubt that the tall -too tall- creature in front of them was most certainly not someone in a costume.

The creature took a step forward and her youngest gasped as she held him closer and began reaching for her daughter who glanced over her shoulder at them before gaining a determined frown and glaring at the monster.

She started to lunge for her daughter as her little girl began to tell the monster off before pointing her flashlight at the creature. A brave if ultimately pointless act, but if they were lucky it might blind the creature long enough for her to grab both of her children and flee.

Instead of simply blinding the creature, the monster screamed as it stumbled back smoke wafting off of its form.

“No, the light it burns!” The monster howled as it seemed to slowly shrink.

“Stay away from my mama and baby bruder!” Her little girl told the creatures as it continued to smoke, before eventually disappearing altogether.

She stood there in silence unsure of what just happened before her daughter held her hand.

“It’s okay mama I made the bad monster go away!” Her brave baby girl assured her with a bright smile.

---

“You are a terrible actor.” He told Noctis once the Nightmarian had rejoined him in the rafters.

“Screw you, I’m a fantastic actor.” Noctis declared with a hand to his chest. “You have no idea how many humans think I’m one of them when I’m about and about at night.”

“Sure, when the lights dim and you’re keeping quiet.” He nodded along. “I mean, who actually says ‘No, the light it burns!’? You’re lucky the kids were too small to see through that.”

Noctis made an odd gesture with his hand -one Jon assumed was something along the lines of the Nightmarian middle finger- before frowning as said Nightmarian caught sight of who had just entered the haunted house.

“Well this’ll be interesting.”

He curiously followed Noctis’s gaze and found