Halloween 2022: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 2
Taking a long breath, you slowly respond. “I guess… if you’re sure it’s the right thing… maybe we can try the EverKey.”
Wait, you’re doing what?
“Finally!” In a snap of motion, Pumpkin is already going, the EverKey snatched up from it’s position on the coffee table. All around you, the others speak up.
Thad taps his longboard once. “Just me let get into something more-”
Jim is heading for the bedroom. “I need to grab a few-”
Victoria has moved closer to you, one of the garment bags slipping to the forefront. “Of course we’ll need to ensure-”
They all stop at the same time, however, cut off by the wet squelch of a metal object carving into your chest. Pumpkin pushes, driving it in deeper, whispering as she works. “No more tricks. No more distractions. This ends tonight.”
When Pumpkin described stabbing you in the heart with the EverKey, part of you assumed it would be a magical process, the enchanted tool sliding into some symbolic lock of your soul. Instead, the cold hunk of metal is sticking out of your chest as you collapse to the ground, darkness closing in.
You’re dying, this close to the end you can feel the rush of familiar memories, the myriad of times you’ve previously met your end. Yet the world doesn’t halt or rewind, untwisting the most recent turn of fate. Instead, the EverKey only glows brighter and brighter as the world appears to fall away into shadow.
Pumpkin is holding onto you tightly, her resolute expression a humorous contrast to the streak of orange running through the hair above it. Nails painted a familiar shade of purple take hold of your other arm, as Victoria appears overhead. Staggering into view from the edge of the room are Jim and Thad, who each take hold of a leg.
Shadow and darkness crash over you all, the grasp of death somehow diverted by the magical artifact jammed into your sternum. Slowly, the waves ebb, then partially recede. Their lingering touch stains everything around you, a sense of unease permeating the living room, which feels somehow slightly off in a way you can’t quite pin down.
With a thunk the EverKey slides from your chest, the eyes in it’s skull burning fiercely. Your body is healed, no sign of the wound that unleashed the tide of terror. Pumpkin doesn’t need to goad you to pick it up, the object calls to you now, as though you are connected.
“Was that it? Is he free?” Thad asks, the subtle tones of fear in his voice giving away the query as wishful thinking.
“Barely the beginning,” Pumpkin replies. “That was just to get us here.”
“The living room? Seems like overkill.” Jim walks over to the kitchen fridge and pops it open, coming out with a beer. “Wait, what the shitberry stout is this doing here?”
Raising his hands, Jim brings into view a bottle of Slizarast Stout, an old favorite beer you haven’t been able to get for years. That’s mostly because you spent a Thanksgiving tangling with old Slizarast himself, who was using the proceeds to fuel an interdimensional portal for an invasion. Sadly, when his factory was destroyed, the recipe and supply of beer were all lost too.
Ripping the cap off, Jim guzzles it down before anyone can shout a word of caution, smacking in satisfaction. “Yup, that’s the real deal.”
“Perhaps you should all join me in looking beyond these four walls,” Victoria calls from the open door no one bothered to close. Jogging over, you try to brace for whatever strange sights are awaiting. Monsters, mayhem, you may even be gazing onto hell itself.
Instead, what awaits you is perhaps the one sight you were in no way expecting: your own house. It’s right there across the street, and again slightly further down, and again next to the home you’re currently standing in. Up and down the street, your house, repeating over and over.
“Weird.” Thad’s voice behind nearly makes you leap out of your skin, but he pretends not to notice as he peers over your head. “There’s so many, and with only minor differences.”
“What differences?” You strain to see, catching the first inconsistency even as the question leaves your mouth. On the house across the street, one of the rain gutters has been knocked askew. The one next door has a bicycle on the porch. Near the end of the block, you notice one of the homes has a mailbox decorated to look like a horrific tentacle monster.
That one snags your attention, pulling at a memory from recent years. “Hang on, I know that mailbox. Jim was dead-set on putting it up for the longest time. Wilbur and I had to beat him at high-stakes-roommate-board-game-night to finally settle the issue.”
“Fucking bullshit Parcheesi,” Jim mutters darkly, a duffel bag from his room slung over his shoulder.
“What does it mean though?” Turning to your friends, none glow with the flash of an epiphany, though Victoria appears contemplative.
After staring out the door for a touch longer, she finally speaks. “I have… a notion. One that is quite rough, and would require more extensive searching of the area to be sure. It may not be worth spending the time staying put, however. Even for all I have been shown and told, we are beyond the limits of my knowledge.”
Rattling from the kitchen pulls your attention to Jim, who is stuffing beers into his duffel bag. “I’m cool with whatever! Just loading up on some essential supplies.”
It’s nice to know that even in a weird repeating house world, some things are still consistent.
“My instinct is to move,” Thad pitches in. “There has to be more than just this house over and over. Any journey that starts with getting impaled through the heart isn’t going to be easy, I’d bet whatever we’re after is a long trek from here.”
“You’re probably not wrong, but I doubt it will be as easy as taking a stroll,” Pumpkin says. “Personally, if it were me, I’d say we don’t set foot out that door until we’ve scoured this place for some potential weapons. It’s not, though. You’re the one with the EverKey, you lead the way.”
Between searching the nearby homes for clues, hunting through your current house for weapons, or going off exploring, you’re sure not hurting for options. Time, on the other hand, is a less certain variable. Best not to waste yours and decide what you attempt next.