“Stay here!” Polly told the group before she ran in the direction of the yelling. What could have happened? She had brought her guns in case she needed to use them, but she didn’t think she would have to. This was something everyone looked forward to every year. Surely someone wouldn’t want to ruin that?

She thought of the possibilities. Maybe the scream was an overreaction to an otherwise harmless prank, the woman it belonged to just simply being scared out of her mind for a moment before realizing it was a joke.

Those were stopped immediately when Polly saw them. A crowd gathered. People ran away from the scene, others threw up on the ground, whatever it was, it was definitely not a prank.

Polly went to get a closer look, and what she saw caused a gasp to escape from her mouth.

The remains of the two men that were there only a few minutes earlier were bloody on the floor. They were torn to pieces, leaving them in a state that was unrecognizable.

At least they would be. If Polly had not noticed a couple of remains of the costumes that were worn. She kneeled down to get a closer look.

There was no doubt. These were the remains of the two guys she and Dolly had talked to earlier.

“Who did this?!” A woman, the one who had let out the scream that lured Polly over, cried.

“You’re asking me?!” A freaked-out man started backing away. “This is not the kind Halloween madness I was looking for!”

“I know who did it!” A voice all too familiar to Polly yelled out. Matteo. He stood next to Daphne as they wore a knight and princess costume respectively. “It was that masked freak! She finally lost it!”

The crying woman was about to respond when her eyes suddenly widened, her body sent into uncontrollable shaking. The people behind her followed suit. Polly slowly got up as she noticed what they were looking at. She quickly took out a gun.

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Daphne freaked out and hid behind Matteo. “Hey! Are you-“

The woman was suddenly grabbed from behind. Daphne didn’t respond as she had just went silent, a look of horror on her face as she looked into the eyes of what had grabbed her.

A monster. One with the head of a pumpkin, growled at the frightened Daphne. It was big. It had bush features around its body that would allow it to blend into the wilderness.

Polly thought for a moment thought her eyes were deceiving her. But once she realized they weren’t she got ready to defend the frightened people around her.

“Put her down!” Polly shouted. There were questions running through her mind. Where did this creature come from? Why was it here now? She knew what it wanted. The torn-up remains on the ground made it obvious. But she still couldn’t piece together the questions she had.

She would have to figure it out later. Right now, what was important was keeping these people safe.

When the creature didn’t listen and moved Daphne closer towards its mouth, Polly fired a shot, not at the creature, but near it, to give a warning.

The pumpkin monster was not happy and roared at the blonde. It tossed Daphne to the side before charging at Polly.

Polly put her guns away. Daphne was free from it’s grasp so there was no need for them. She didn’t want to kill the creature, only beat it.

She jumped out of the way of the creature’s hand when it swung it down to hit her. She landed on her feet and looked at it once again.

“Do you have a name?” Polly asked softly.

The only response the creature gave was a ferocious roar. Its eyes moved to its surroundings, spotting a large rock. The creature grabbed it and threw it at Polly, who jumped out of the way again.

“Please don’t make me do this!” Polly said. “You did a horrible, horrible thing. But-“

“What are you doing?!” The crying woman from before yelled. “Stop talking to it and fight it! Why did you put your guns away?!”

“I recognize that voice!” Matteo growled. “It’s that freak! Apparently she’s also an idiot too!”

Polly ignored them. But the more she fought the monster and dodged its attacks despite not showing she didn’t want to fight, the more she knew that the monster was doing this out of complete malice. Its desires were entirely evil. But why?

That’s what she intended to find out. Just because it hadn’t spoke when she tried talking to it doesn’t mean it couldn’t at all. After all, she didn’t think monsters existed yet here one was in front of her. Who’s to say they couldn’t talk as well?

“Polly!” Filbert’s voice called out. He had arrived on the scene with Ernest and Gianna. They must’ve gotten worried.

“Get as many people as you can out of here!” Polly said.

“But what about you?!” Filbert asked. “Look at that thing!”

“I’ll be fine!” Polly assured him. She turned and saw the monster was making a grab for her again. This time she jumped up and swung her foot to kick it in the face. The monster went back a bit. Polly ran and jumped at it again, this time giving it a couple of good punches.

With the creature briefly occupied, she looked to see Filbert and the elderly couple helping others away from the scene. She was glad they were all getting to safety. She didn’t know how this fight would go and the last thing she wanted was a possible casualty. She gasped when a certain person came to her mind.

Dolly.

She hadn’t seen the artist since she had gone to the bathroom. She called to her cousin, “Filbert!”

She had called just when Filbert got a couple more people away from the fight. He turned to her. “Yeah?!”

“Where’s Dol-“ Polly was interrupted when the creature had struck while she was distracted.