Rows of carnival games and food stalls surround me and my group of friends. The ground is made of rough brick and the roof is even rougher with stalactites drooping down. The underground cave that is this place is holding a festival and we are attending.

I go up to one of the stalls and try my hand at the presented game. As explained by the well dressed man in a tuxedo and holding a too big of a smile, the rules are simple, I have to shoot the targets that pop up on the back wall and each successful shot is a point, points reset at the end of the game.

Aiming my pellet gun at the wall the man gives a countdown from four, yelling ‘GO’ once he reaches two. A small plastic target pops up from below the divider held in the hand of someone's arm, the arm is bruised and has lots of Band-Aids. Taking my shot I miss and hit the arm instead lodging the pellet in the skin of the wrist which starts to slightly bleed. The target is held up for a few more seconds before dropping down.

This repeats for fifteen targets of which I only manage to hit nine of. The man informs me that time is up and to place the gun back in its holder. He informs me that I have nine points and wishes me better luck next time. Looking at the prizes I see that the cheapest prize costs sixteen points.

Instead of putting down the gun I aim and fire at the gentleman but he just bends his torso almost 180 degrees down and to his right. He lifts his head up from his left and calmly informs me that I have been blacklisted from attempting his game again.

I put the gun back in its holder and walked off to rejoin the group. They say that there's a haunted house not far from here and ask if I wanted to join them. Accepting, we walk further down the pathway until we hit an intersection. To the front, left, and back are more stalls but to the right is a tunnel that leads outside.

In the middle of the night we all race each other to the ‘haunted house’ which really is just a darkly decorated mansion. The left and right of the mansion grounds are lined with trees and the driveway is off center to the right before turning into the entrance.

…

I leap forward as I dodge another blast of energy, dropping behind a couch which then also explodes before I sprint off again trying not to die.

I am in an expanded basement of some kind, furniture dots the place randomly from couches and beds to small tables with lamps on them providing me light, brick walls appearing and disappearing sporadically and randomly. A few metres from me stands a giant fully armoured body designed to give off the image of a fearsome knight, all except for the purple star symbol wizard hat on its head and the relatively diminutive wand held in its grip.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Dodging yet another blast I reach a dead end, a dark tunnel leads to the right and seems to be my only hope. I run into the tunnel and before I take even a few steps in, a whole lot of glowing yellow eyes attached to some sort of head open up and focus on me. Freezing, I take two slow steps backwards, turn around, and sprint off even faster than before.

The monster chases me, its head is similar to a giant distorted human face. Its skin is grey and wrinkly, its torso reaches double my height, full of fat of indeterminate shape, and eight double jointed arms that are used as legs reach out from it. As it reaches the basement and is able to look around, it spots the armoured wizard which seems to freeze in place like I did before.

The monster completely ignores me, focusing all of its attention on the figure. It roars revealing teeth like a leach and behind that innumerable glowing orange egg sacks. It charges and the armoured wizard and monster fight. Using the distraction I use this to sneak past and up a set of stairs.

The stairs lead to the third floor of the mansion and a hallway. The hallway is covered from the floor to the walls and roof with seamless beige carpet. I hear multiple heavy fleshy footsteps rapidly ascending the spiral staircase behind me so I run off to hide.

The monster emerges from the stairs and starts searching the place for anything living. It comes across an open door into a bar area, turning over chairs and tables to find anything. From behind the bar counter emerges another monster, a mirror image of the first one.

They both roar at each other, the second monster able to rev its teeth like a chainsaw. The first monster attempts to take the other one down and vice versa. The first monster seeing that it's losing attempts to retreat by running out the door but not before the second monster is able to rip a chunk of flesh off its back.

The first monster flees further down the hall smashing through a small single door that leads into a double staircase, sliding to a stop before it breaks through the giant stained glass window that makes up the entire back wall. The second monster jumps the first one from behind, both breaking through the window.

Both monsters are blinded with glass shards and rain. They both fight wildly against each other even while blinded, and as a result the first monster is pushed backwards. A giant dark ravine looms behind the monster, a broken rope bridge the only thing visible from the other side.

The first monster is dropped into the maw of the ravine, its arms desperately clawing at the rock for purchase but it finds none. Nails off the monster break off along with rocks that form the ledge of the pit before it falls into the abyss.

The surviving monster roars into the ravine, then runs back to enter the inside of the mansion. The monster plows its way through a wire fence, destroying a generator and power transformer in its way. A regular sized door with a service sign is broken down to splinters as the monster forces its way inside.