Halloween Event (Pt. 4): Wayward Children And Midnight Monsters

--- Autumn ---

The night had started out well enough.

It was Halloween, and while her sister had warned her about how dangerous it could be at night her dads had decided to take her to a halloween party being held at the local police station.

(I wish they’d listened to her…)

At first everything was fine, she’d dressed up as a witch -More to taunt her sister than any other reason.- and found out that her friend Izzy’s family had come to the station too. Meaning that neither of them were really alone since all of Izzy’s elder siblings had gone to some party for teenagers, and her brother Seamus was a little too young to hang out with.

The party itself was fine enough. The police had cleared out a few of their rooms for everyone and covered everything with lots of cheesy halloween decorations. From there the kids and pre-teens had largely been left in a room filled with snacks, a bunch of toys and stuff for younger kids, and a couple of TVs playing some kids' Halloween movies.

Movies with monsters far nicer than the few she’d seen when following her sister around. (Which is probably why the Dads don’t like me doing that…)

Izzy had gotten bored pretty quickly, finding the board games that had been left out infinitely less entertaining without her sibling’s bickering and cheating. Personally she was more than okay with the fact that she only had one sister, (even if she’s not around all that often…)

Regardless, she’d long since learned a bored Izzy -or any Williams kid really- was a bomb just ticking away. Which is why when her friend decided to leave the room and explore the police station, she’d followed along.

(I really wish we’d just stayed in the kids room…)

In the beginning that was fine, especially since she knew her dads were just down the hall if she needed them and that there were plenty of police officers just milling about without actually telling them to turn around. At least until they got to the haunted house, and the officer at the door said they were just a little too young to be entering it without a parent.

Honestly, that was fine too since it meant Izzy wouldn’t punch anyone and get them in trouble.

Unfortunately, this also meant that their exploration of the station strayed even further from where their parents were.

Something they immediately regretted when the lights died around them, and they realized that there weren’t any officers nearby.

“W-what do you think is happening?” She asked, adjusting her glasses as she followed Izzy back the way they came. The only light is the occasional glow of an arrow pointing towards the exit. (Though I’m not sure that’s the exit we want to take if we want to get back to everyone…)

“There’s uh, someone probably messed with the neighborhood’s power.” Izzy offered.

“But what caused that?” She pressed, remembering all of her sister’s stories about what goes bump in the night.

“Probably, probably just a Mask fight nearby. You know they always act up this time of year.” Izzy reminded her of the numerous videos that tended to appear online around Halloween.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“R-right…”

She’d just begun to convince herself that there was no real emergency when a distant banging sound echoed through the halls.

“Were-were those gunshots?” She swallowed, her fear returning with new strength.

“They, um, they sound like they were outside.” Izzy told her despite the fact that neither of them had actually heard gunshots outside of movies and video games.

The next round of gunshots sounded significantly closer, as in ‘just down the hall’ closer.

She grabbed Izzy’s shoulder. “M-maybe we should try to find a different way?”

Izzy glanced down the hall. “If, if there’s a gunshot then… then that would mean there’s a cop that way, right?”

“But what if the gunshots are whoever is attacking the police?” She pointed out.

Izzy bit her lip. “Then we just take a quick peek and run the other direction if there’s something other than a cop over there.”

She glanced down the ominously quiet hall before reluctantly nodding. “Alright, but, but just a quick peek and even if no one is there we go back the other way.”

“Y-yeah…” Izzy nodded back. “Especially if there is no one over here.”

With that agreed upon, they both creeped forward as quietly as they could before eventually peeking down the side hall they thought the gunshots had come from.

They immediately regretted it.

Even if they couldn’t see a clear picture with the darkness around them, there was just enough light from the red glow of a nearby exit sign for them to make out the hunched figure of something eating something else… something with very human legs.

In fright they both froze as something twisted inside and they realized just what they were looking at.

And just as they froze, so did the monster… only it began moving before them as it slowly turned its head towards them.

“W-we need to run!” She hissed at Izzy, dragging the other girl away from the hall filled with a horror too much for their young minds.

Izzy didn’t say anything but she did follow after Autumn, if mostly because she refused to let go of her friend’s hand. A hand her grip slowly tightened around as she heard the distinct sound of something chasing after them, its claws scraping against the ground.

Knowing that the monster was following them, and the fact that the other girl was in significantly better shape than her, Izzy quickly ran ahead of her and began pulling her along as their roles reversed.

Izzy turned around a corner, and with a glance over her shoulder, Autumn watched the monster skid along the ground almost missing the turn if it hadn’t gripped the corner of the hall with one of its claws leaving several deep gashes as it corrected its course after them.

“Where is everybody?” Izzy asked as they moved through halls that she knew there had been officers in not even half an hour prior.

“They, they must’ve all headed towards the gunshots.” She figured, wishing that she’d picked up at least some of her sister’s magical talent before this whole mess began. (At the very least some of her vines would’ve slowed this thing down.)

“Crap.” Izzy cursed as they hastily turned a corner and found themselves in an office room full of desks rather than another hall. “Around the desks!”

Moving quickly they weaved around the various desks hoping that the obstacles would slow the monster hunting them, and for a moment it seemed like it would as the beast crashed into a desk and toppled over it in its attempt to chase them.

The beast easily climbed atop the second desk before leaping onto one much closer to them with a wide sweep of its claws. One they avoided solely due to the luck of her tripping and sending them both skidding along the ground as the monster’s claws tore through her witch’s cape.

Scrambling to try and sit up, they found themselves backing into one of the desks as the creature stared down at them from above, blood and drool dripping from its snarling maul.

The monster lunged at them, and she couldn’t help but close her eyes as she waited for the inevitably painful end.

…

An end that never came.

Slowly, and ever so frightfully, she opened her eyes and found a teenager standing in front of her with his arm shoved into the beast’s mouth, holding it back even as the monster’s teeth tore into the flesh of his arm.

The teenager gave them a quick glance with gracious green eyes before slowly meeting the monster’s gaze as his eyes turned a raging red. “That was your only mistake.”

And she just knew that nothing was going to hurt her tonight.