Written by Daniel Kitchen.
Halloween 2402
A Halloween Party was being thrown in the Unity Cafeteria.
Dimicari was near the food table trying out some of the candies, enjoying himself immensely. She was dressed as a Pirate, with an eye patch covering her blind eye.
Ariel was on the stage that had been set there to be used for Karaoke singing, also enjoying herself. She was dressed as a mermaid, having done so because someone suggested it would be funny. She didn’t get the joke but she decided to do it anyway. Since she could basically float with her wind magic it actually worked really well.
Kiri was Bobbing for Apples, no surprise there. She was dressed as a Japanese ghost, wearing a black wig, black lipstick, and a long white kimono with blood painted on (here wings were tucked inside it). She also managed to get some pure black contacts to complete the look.
There was a bunch of other people at the party doing all sorts of things. It was going really well and everyone was having fun.
Kenneth then walked in with Fern by his side. Kenneth was dressed as a Zombie, wearing ripped cloths and makeup which made it look like his cheek had fallen off. He was grinning with an evil look in his eye. Fern was dressed in his normal cloths because it already made him look like a ninja. To add effect to that he had put a metal plate on his headband with a fire symbol on it.
When Kiri saw them come in she stopped what she was doing and went over.
Kiri: Well hello there Ken, I didn’t expect to see you here for the party. I thought you said you didn’t like the idea of holidays.
Kenneth: Well yes normally that’s true, but that’s only because they interrupt my training schedule. However, I find Halloween to be a great chance for a very special type of training.
Kiri: (Raising eyebrow) Oh and what is that?
Kenneth: (Smile growing) Fear training.
Kiri: Ah… you are making me worried, what do you mean by that?
Kenneth: Don’t worry I’m not planning anything big, just a scary story I think everyone should hear.
Kiri: (still wary) Okay… I guess it is kind of tradition. (Shaking of her worries) You know what, why not? I’d love to hear a good scary story.
Kenneth: Excellent
Kenneth then went over to Ariel. After a few greetings and a hug by Ariel, Kenneth whispered something into her ear.
Ariel: (Into the Microphone) Okay everyone, its time of a scary story, everyone please gather round the magic fire in the center of the cafeteria. Oh and could the lights also be turned out?
After everything was prepared everyone gathered in the center. All of them were eager to hear the story.
Kiri: (To Kenneth) So what is this oh so scary story you want to tell?
Kenneth: Oh I’m not telling the story, my friend Fern is going to do the honors.
Kiri: (Surprised) Oh really? Fern hardly ever talks, even I don’t know that much about him. How did you get him to agree to tell a story to everyone here?
Kenneth: Well he told me the story a while back when I found him having a nervous breakdown during one of my training sessions. He said he’d tell it to everyone else once he had time to get used to Unity.
Kiri: Why did he pick today?
Kenneth: I don’t know, but he asked me to bring him here to tell it today out of nowhere. I felt it was a good idea as well. (Smiles) Mostly cause I want to see what you guys look like when afraid.
Kiri: We’ll see.
Fern goes onto the stage. He then takes off the wrapping around his head to reveal his face. Since most of the members had never seen his face this came as a surprise to everyone, even Kenneth.
Ariel: (Whispering to Dimicari) Is that Makeup? The red lines on his face look like they are pulsing.
Dimicari: No that’s his real face. He usually only takes it off when he’s at the pool. I made an agreement with him that he can sleep there once it’s closed. Apparently he can only sleep when submerged in water.
Ariel: Really? I thought he was a fire mage. Why would he even like water? And why does he look like that.
Dimicari: His powers are special according to Kenneth. I haven’t seen him use them myself, but water seems to actually help his powers in a way. As for his looks, I have no idea.
Ariel then notices that Fern was staring at her. After a bit of a shock she realizes that he wanted the microphone she was holding, so she handed it over.
Fern: (into the microphone) Hello everyone, I’m happy you are all here. Halloween was never my favorite holiday, in fact I used to avoid participating in it. However after being in Unity for so long I feel it’s time for me to be more open. This story I’m about to tell is very scary, but also very true. It happened around 15 years ago, in an uncharted area to the far north.
A ten year old kid was walking on a trail, having gone down it to explore. No one had gone up that road for a long time, having been closed off long ago for a reason long forgotten. The boy held a stick in his hand, lighting the tip on fire and waving it around for fun. Because of this he didn’t notice how dark it was getting around him, so he continued forward without a thought, not noticing a pair of yellow eyes staring at him from the forest next to him.
The kid then heard a voice and looked around. He then saw a girl in a black dress even younger than he was waving at him from the forest. As the boy went closer he noticed she was a Shadow mage. His parents had warned him to stay away from shadows, saying they are dangerous and untrustworthy. However this one didn’t seem threatening, and was even smiling at him.
“She’s just a child, probably not even 6” the boy thought “so even my fire magic is strong enough to defeat her if she attacks me.”
So the boy went over to her, waving back at her in a friendly way. However when he got close enough to her she ran away into the forest. At first the boy thought he had done something wrong, but then he saw her deeper in the forest, beckoning him to follow her. In the back of his mind the boy knew that he shouldn’t follow her, but for some reason he really wanted to. After a few minutes of following her he lost sight of her. He called out for her but didn’t hear anything in reply. This worried him, as he now realized he had no idea where he was.
The boy began to run around while calling out for the girl. The fire he held was barely illuminating the forest, and for some reason seemed to be getting dimmer even though he was using all his magic to keep it alive. It soon got the point where the boy could barely see 3 feet in front of him. The boy tried not to panic and started to run faster, screaming loudly for somebody to find him.
Suddenly he felt something grab his ankle and tripped, causing his fire to go out completely. The boy lay face down in the dirt for a few second breathing heavily in shock, but managed to snap himself out of it when he realized his foot had just been caught in something. Slowing his breath in an attempt to calm down he took a look around.
The forest was actually brighter now that his fire had gone out, illuminated by a faint bluish light. It wasn’t that thick of a forest, giving plenty of room to walk between the trees. The forest floor was covered in vines, which twisted up around the trees and bushes around him. He noticed that what he was caught in was a bunch of vines that had twisted together to create a bump in the floor of the otherwise flat forest.
He struggles to get it loose but his foot had ended up really tangled in the vines. He tried to burn them but he couldn't seem to keep the flame going. He blamed this on his nerves and tried to focus, but still the flames refused to light the vines. He looked around for the girl again hoping she could help, but even lit up it was hard to see that far into the woods. He wanted to call for her again, but decided against it in fear he would attract other things to him while he was caught in the vine. So instead he continued to pull at his leg, hoping the vines would eventually let go. After about 3 minutes of pulling he finally managed to get his leg free. Breathing a sigh of relief he started to walk away, but stopped when he noticed something strange was inside the now broken vines. He looks closer, but once he saw what was in there he froze in place.
There was a corpse inside the vines, mostly bones, with its eyes perfectly preserved. It was kneeling down looking towards the sky. Enough of its face was left to show it was a female human and that she was smiling at the time. The arm on the boy’s side was missing, and he soon noticed to his horror that it was grasped around his leg. Shaking it off he started to run. He had only run a few meters when he ran into an opening in the forest.
These were a lot more corpses here, some completely covered in vines, others where the vines had only started to come up, and even more with no vines at all. There seemed to be every species of humanoid, be it human, mage, or hybrid. There were even some animal corpses trapped in the vines. All of them where kneeling down and looking towards the sky, and no matter how decayed the body was the eyes of the corpses were perfectly preserved.
As the boy stared he noticed that some of the corpses weren’t corpses at all, but actually still alive, breathing, and even muttering to themselves. Each had a different expression, some crying, some smiling, and one that had its mouth a gape as if trying to scream. None seemed to notice the boy.
Now scared out of his mind the boy started to run again, but then stopped. In the back of his mind he felt that if he continued to run around like this he would just bump into more and more horrible things. However he also knew that he couldn’t stay here either, but he couldn’t think of what to do. Looking around for something, anything that could point the way out, he saw a yellow light on the other side of the field. Having nowhere else to go he ran toward it, but once he saw what it was he stopped.
Two giant yellow eyes stared down at him, glowing brightly in the darkness. They seemed to brighten when they looked at him, and the immediately disappeared. The boy continued staring where the eyes were a second ago. Normal he would think he was seeing thing, but at this point nothing would surprise him, even if it would still terrify him. Suddenly the sounds of silence and muttering were joined by soft footsteps, getting closer and closer to him.
The boy had had enough, from what he had seem so far he knew that whatever was coming this way was going to be horrible, so he began to run. He had only gotten a few meter when he tripped again. Looking back he saw that one of the corpses had grabbed his leg. It was no longer looking at the sky, but instead directly at him. All the others, alive or dead, slowly turned towards him, standing up and walking slowly his way.
At that point the fear forced his magic to come back to him, and fire burst from his body burning all those around him. Some fell apart while others burned while still walking his way, but none flinched even slightly. He was about to try again when he was hit with a wave of water. 3 of the corpses going towards, all water mages, continued to hit him with water. This hurt immensely, plus all his energy seemed to be going away. Two Avians had grabbed his arms and were holding him in the air, while other hands had reach out from the ground, grabbing his legs. Despite the lake of flesh on the arms and lack of feathers in the wings of the Avians they still where strong enough to keep the boy from moving.
As the boy struggled the rest of the corpses went back to where they had been, again looking towards the sky. They all stopped moving expect the ones holding him down, as well as two of the water mages, which had stop attacking him at the moment. Then the boy saw the yellow eye appear again. Underneath them he saw someone else walking forward. It was the girl from earlier. She smiled a waved at him, but as she walked closer she began to change.
The first thing that happened was the girl’s eyes fell out, leaving behind empty and bloody eye sockets. The dress she was wearing ripped and rotted, turning a brownish green color due to the mold growing on it. Her smile and cheeks ripped themselves off her face, showing shard teeth stained black with dried blood, along with what was left of her gums, still being eaten by Maggots. Her hands grew sharp nails, similar to claws, and her ears lost their tips. The vines on the ground seemed to twist into her black hair, but also died as soon as the touched her. Her tail remained the same, but started emitting a black mist. The boy saw that the yellow eyes were also surrounded by the same mist, floating above the girl.
The corpses holding him moved him into the same positions as the others, kneeling down facing upwards. The girl can towards him and looked down at him, the eyes above her doing the same. Maggots began to fall on the boys face, making him want to scream but also afraid to open his mouth. The girl seemed to study him for a moment before grabbing onto his face. Her nails dug into his cheeks and the boy screamed in pain. With his mouth open the girl grabbed his jaw and broke it, causing the boy to scream louder. The pain caused his magic to burst again, burning the girl’s hands, but the water mages attacked again when this happened. The girl stepped back when this happened and looked at her hands.
The girl then began to laugh.
The laughter sounded like glass breaking and blood sprayed from the girl’s mouth while she did it, but it was still obviously laughter. The girl stopped, stared at the boy, and lunged forward, shoving her arm down his throat. He could feel her scratching his insides, and he fainted from the pain.
While he was out he had a dream. He saw lands being turned black with fire and ash. He saw the sun explode it the sky and the moon break into pieces. He saw himself, eating a corpse and smiling. When he looked closer he saw the corpse was his own, still crying even with most of his face missing. He then felt himself begin to burn.
When he woke the girl was holding something in her hand. It looked like an organ of some kind, but his eyes were blurred from the pain and he couldn’t see more than that. The girl ate the organ and then looked back at him. She was about to shove her hand down his throat again but stopped, noticing the boy was awake. She looked confused for some reason, and was looking closer at the boy’s face. The boy then felt himself burning again. There was no fire but the pain was shooting through every point of his body, causing him to writhe violently. He was still kept in place by the corpses, but the girl herself started to walk away from him. She still looked confused, but also looked like she didn’t care enough about the boy to waste the effort in keeping him still. When she had left the corpses let go and went back to where they had been. The boy was still in pain on the ground, burning in pain but with no fire escaping him.
What happened next not even the boy knew, as the pain had caused him to stop thinking. When he finally was able to think again he found himself floating in a lake. He never found the forest again and most of the people he told about it in the days after didn’t believe him. The burning never left him completely, but what stuck with him more was the memory of the event. That had been burned a deeper wound than and fire could. Why the boy wasn’t killed in the woods remains a mystery, but he lived on. What happened to him is a story for another time.
Finally done with his story Fern bowed and wrapped his mask back on. Many people clapped and cheered, including Kenneth, while others remained silent in awe. Ariel and Dimicari were clinging to each other in horror and Kiri seemed to have been on the verge of either screaming or crying but had shaken herself out of it.
Kenneth: (To Fern) That was amazing kid. Glad you finally got up the courage to do it.
Fern: Thanks, it was nice to get it off my chest.
Fern was quickly surrounded by people either complementing his story or asking if it was real. He seemed a bit uncomfortable with so many people being around him but seemed to enjoy talking with them as well.
Kiri: (To Kenneth) That was a true story wasn’t it?
Kenneth: That’s what he tells me. And really I’m not surprised. It explains a lot about him, and I’ve seen enough in my time to know something like that could happen.
Kiri: That is quite sad, I’m glad he was able to live a normal life after that.
Kenneth: He’s done more than lived a normal life, he used that experience to make himself stronger. That’s why he and I became friends, we think similarly in that way.
Back at Fern Ariel has recovered from the story and was talking with Fern.
Ariel: So the organ she ate was your inner fire?
Fern: Correct, I had some doctor check and they said it was indeed missing.
Ariel: So you can’t use fire magic anymore?
Fern: No, not in the traditional way anyway.
Ariel: What do you mean?
Fern: Well the doctor said that the reason I’m still alive without the organ is because my body increased its absorption of heat to make up for it. So no, I can’t create fire, but my body temperature is so high that the heat I give off can burn an enemy as well. Hurts like hell though, but I’ve gotten used to it. Plus it makes being in water feel REALLY good.
Ariel: Wow… I’m sorry. Is there any way you can stop the pain completely?
Fern: I’ve tried a lot of things but none of them have worked so far. The only way to fix it realistically would be to get another inner flame, but those are impossible to extract without them burning up when removed. No idea how the Nightmare Girl was able to do it.
Ariel: Well if you ever find a way I’ll help you. In fact, I’ll look for a way to help too if you want.
Fern: Really? (Embarrassed) Wow… thank you that means a lot.
Ariel: How could I not? We look out for each other here.
Fern: Yeah I know… I guess that’s one reason I joined.
After a bit more talk Ariel waved goodbye. She was going to hug him goodbye but fern advised against it, as even with the heat proof clothes he was wearing that would still burn her. She then bumped into the other 3 leader.
Ariel: Did you guys know that story was true?
Kiri: Yes
Kenneth: Yep
Dimicari: I figured
Ariel: Do you think there is anything we can do to help Fern?
Kenneth: I’ve actually been looking up things about it for a while. I think the best bet would be to capture this Nightmare Girl, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Ariel: Why not?
Kenneth: I’ve looked into this Nightmare Girl, but not enough is known about her. Rumors are the best I’ve found. No one knows where this forest is, and even if they did, capturing her would probably be impossible. We could lose a lot of men if we went against her, there is no doubt about that.
Kiri: We all want to help him Ariel, and we will at least find where the girl is, but at the moment we can’t afford it. From the intelligence Kenneth has gathered we know enough to assume the girl could take on an army.
Dimicari: I want to help him as well Ariel, but we need to wait. Fern’s life is in no danger at the moment and he has told me that in water the pain goes away. He’s fine at the moment.
Ariel: I know but…
Kenneth: Tell you what Ariel, we can all look for the forest during our missions if we have time. If we ever find the forest we will discuss what to do then. But for now I think we should focus on our main objectives. That sound good to you?
Ariel: …Yeah it does. I’m just glad you are all helping as well.
Kenneth: Good. What about you Fern? That good with you?
The other 3 then noticed that Fern had been listening to them the whole time.
Fern: That sounds great. I’m really just happy you guys are helping at all.
Dimicari: Don’t sound surprised, it’s what we do.
Ariel: You can’t blame us for caring about our own.
Kiri: I’m sure everyone else would gladly help too.
Kenneth: You don’t have to worry, we’re really good at this sort of thing.
Fern smiled, steam coming from his eyes. He usually only felt happy while in water, but right now he felt happier than he had in years. The five soon returned to the party and enjoyed themselves, glad to be a part of this wonderful place.