Kreepy Krugers

Ahmond always hated things that were creepy, and was never a fan of horror based novels or comics, or anything. But Lilu, well, that hyena wasn't scared of anything. Every time Ahmond showed her something even remotely related to horror, Lilu made sure to tell her that it wasn't scary.

"I never said it was scary," Ahmond wanted to say. But she always held her lips, and wondered why Lilu had to protest so much how unscary everything was, as if anyone cared. Maybe, Ahmond needed to prove Lilu could be scared.

So when Ahmond grabbed a bowl of candy, Baynana asked, "What are you doing?"

"It's a prank," Ahmond said. "I'm going to put my paw through the bowl, and when Lilu grabs the candy, my arm grabs hers."

"Why are you doing that?" Baynana raised an eyebrow. "I thought you two were friends, or at least, companions."

Ahmond said, "Yeah, but Lilu thinks she's so high and mighty and above it all because supposedly she's not afraid of anything, even though no one said anything otherwise. She's so... You know, what the term is for someone who has to prove they're something they're not."

Baynana asked Ahmond, "What if this won't scare her?"

Ahmond said, "Then we go one step further!"

Lilu knocked on the front door. Her mother had told her to stay away from the Ice Cream Pack, so logically Lilu didn't care for a second. As far as Jazmyn was concerned, Lilu spent her time at Rosod's, and Rosod would cover for her.

Ahmond answered the door, and presented a bowl of hard candies. "Want some?"

"No," Lilu said.

Ahmond blinked and said, "Uh, it's candy. It tastes really good and sweet, I swear."

"No," Lilu said, as she brushed past Ahmond.

Baynana giggled, and Ahmond shook her head, while Lilu toured the house. "I have to admit, this place is quite nice."

Baynana said, "You live in a palace. I'm sure this place isn't anywhere near as good as, um, a palace."

Lilu sniffed the air, brought her eyes to the ground, and raised her ears. "No sign of my mother... So it's way better than living at my palace! Now, anyway, what are you all planning to do?"

Ahmond got an idea. "Feel like playing a game of towers?" She knew the perfect set of cards, Undead cards, with their horrible brain eating fighters in action.

Lilu said, "I didn't bring my deck."

"Just use one of ours," Ahmond said.

But Lilu seemed to be one step ahead, almost as if she knew what Ahmond was trying to do. "To be real, I'm not in the mood for Towers, at least not right now. Besides, I only play with my own deck."

Baynana stared at Ahmond, and saw a vein bulging in her temple. "Are you okay?" she asked Ahmond.

"Yeah, just great."

"Good to know," Baynana said with a smile, not understanding Ahmond's sarcasm, while she walked around with Lilu.

Ahmond needed a rally, some kind of prank or scare that would really make Lilu uncomfortable. Maybe, maybe if she made some kind of story up.

"Oh, Lilu, by the way, you don't want to head to far out into the woods near here," Ahmond said.

"Wasn't going to," Lilu said.

"Because," Ahmond said, continuing despite not being asked, "there's the story of the Woodsman."

Lilu nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, in the rare event I need to head out into the woods. That won't happen."

Baynana frowned, and said, "Uh, what's the Woodsman? We go near the woods all the time, and the woods are only half a mile away from us!"

Ahmond grinned. The isolation of their house was perfect for the horror factor, and their nearest neighbors were relatively far away. As she began her tale, she realized something, something truly dreadful, something that sank in the pit of her soul.

She didn't know the story of the Woodsman.

Didn't someone tell her the story of the Woodsman before? Alright, well, maybe she could make something up, and make it up in an instant. "Okay, so once upon a time-"

"Is this a fairy tale?" Lilu asked, with a small grin.

Ahmond's face fell. "Basically there was a violat, who went out into the woods and never returned. No one knows what happened to him. Some say he died - because he did!"

Baynana's eyes bulged from her skull, while Lilu gave a blank stare.

Ahmond bit her lower lip. "Uh, Lilu? You're not really having much of a reaction."

"Not scary," Lilu said.

"I'm not even done yet!" Ahmond whined, before continuing her tale. "So anyway, at midnight he walks the streets of Wysdom, and when he finds someone, they have only a few minutes left before he gets them!"

Baynana asked, "How do you know he's picking you?" Meanwhile, Lilu rolled her eyes.

Ahmond said, "Uh, the lights will flicker. Your reflection will move on its own accord. And also, he says... Boogie Boogie."

"That's not scary," both Lilu and now Baynana said at the same time.

Ahmond grunted.

***

"I have no idea, Rosod," Ahmond said as she hung out with her for a bit. Rosod was organizing several rocks based on size, shape, and color, and barely paying attention to Ahmond.

As Ahmond ranted, Rosod said, "Maybe you should stop."

"But I want to scare her!" she told the crimson.

The bipedal weasel said, "Well, if you really want to give her a scare, there are ways to do that." She gestured to Ahmond, and led Ahmond outside of her house. Rosod lived in one of the more upper class city-states, with the biggest library.

"What are we doing in this library?" Ahmond asked. Sure, it was an impressive library, as the shelves towered over, and the librarians walked on ladders to put up the books. "Unless Lilu is afraid of reading."

Rosod said, "Believe it or not..." After all, Lilu was the one most prone to misreading Tower cards when it came to games. "But I was referring to how you can scare Lilu using books. I'll look around, and you look around."

Ahmond grinned and wagged her tail. "Great idea, Rosod!"

"I know it was a great idea, it came from my head." Rosod laughed.

Ahmond knew exactly what to do as she went down into the basement of the library, and scanned for books of the darkest magics from authors who knew insane arcane rituals.

"How to summon a Wight - unleash a dream demon onto your friend." She had picked up one book and read over it.

Usually, the librarians would have to check who was going to check out the books, but Rosod gave her the unlimited library pass, as Rosod was a wealth aristocrat and had access to all of the library.

So as Ahmond grabbed the forbidden book, none of the librarians thought it would be a bad idea to give Ahmond the stamp of approval. Rosod picked out a few books of her own, and both walked back to Rosod's house.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Thanks for helping me," Ahmond said.

Rosod nodded. "It's the least I can do, as Lilu does get my goat a bit too. Anyway, with these books we've gotten, after you read them all, I am a hundred percent sure you'll get Lilu to be so scared she'll be shaking!"

"I'll read them right now!" Ahmond said as she stopped in the road, only to almost get run over by a bigger wolf.

"Watch it, kid!" the wolf said.

Ahmond barked back at him, and said, "I'm trying to read here so I won't grow up to be as stupid as you!"

The wolf paused.

Rosod grabbed Ahmond, and threw her over her shoulder, as crimsons were naturally strong and tall, and they were off before the wolf had a chance to make Ahmond stupider.

Rosod made Ahmond situate herself down near a reading desk. And Ahmond pored over many a volume of quaint- Wait this was something above her bust of reason, and would leave nevermore.

Quoth the Ahmond, "Rosod, I think we had different ideas on what we were supposed to get from the library."

Along with Ahmond's secret forbidden book of spells, Rosod had grabbed a copy of "How to Write Horror So Good, Your Friends Will Regret Leaving the Toilet". And she had also grabbed, "Famous Horror Stories". And even, "Practical Pranks for Purposes of Providing Peeps with Creeps."

Rosod asked, "What do you mean? We agreed we'd get books that would get Lilu scared, so I just grabbed a bunch of urban legend books."

Ahmond admitted, "I may, or may not, have grabbed something from deep down in the basement."

Rosod's eyes widened, and she looked at Ahmond's selection. As she read some of the text, she said, "This is forbidden magic, Ahmond! Wait, some of these are technically light spells, never mind."

Ahmond said, "Some are water spells."

"Blood magic," Rosod said.

Ahmond asked, "Well, should we do it if it's going to work?"

Rosod pursed her lips, and said, "Ahmond, you are going to return these books, and you are not getting to use my library card ever again, you understand that? If something happens as a result of this book, I'll get in big trouble, severe big trouble, because by forbidden spells, they mean flat out illegal spells."

Baynana had already gotten the family in trouble with her dark magics. "Yeah, I guess you're right," Ahmond said. "Seems quite a shame..."

Rosod paused. "Huh?"

"Just," Ahmond said, "we have this book. And it's a book that could even protect us against dark magic. Maybe, just maybe, if we used one or two of these spells, in secret, some of the safer ones, and even use some counters in this book, we'd get away with it?"

Rosod told Ahmond, "Stop, and put the book back right now."

Ahmond said, "It's not like Lilu needs her pride."

Rosod resigned and said, "Okay, one spell. You get one spell, as in one dark ritual, and that's it. But we're not summoning anymore demons, okay?"

Ahmond grinned and said, "I think I know exactly what spell I want to use." She showed Rosod the page and Rosod nodded.

***

Lilu had never been afraid of anything, in books, or in comics, or anything. No scary art would ever get to her. If someone had to see the kinds of things that ran through her mind, as she jotted down her own horror ideas, that person would likely die of a heart attack.

The sleepover required a lot of sanctioning from all parents, as Ahmond, Rosod, and Lilu slept under the same roof in Rosod's domain. At least, Lilu fell asleep, on the top bunk. Rosod instead simply meditated in a corner, while Ahmond got bottom bunk.

Rosod opened and eye, and tapped on Ahmond to try and wake her up. When it was clear Ahmond wouldn't awake, as shown by her drooling and kicking the air, Rosod slapped Ahmond on the face.

"Whuhs goin' on?" Ahmond asked, her eyes opened. She put her hand on her yellow face cheek, and asked, "Rosod?"

Rosod said, "The ritual?"

"Oh yeah." Ahmond needed the reminder, and she grabbed a box of jewels. They set three sapphires above Lilu's head on the pillow. "And now to make them into rubies, we need the blood of someone who's afraid."

Rosod said, "Oh my goodness, my parents are walking down the door!"

"Huh?" Ahmond asked, as she stared, body erect. Rosod slashed a claw above Ahmond's eye, nicking it. The drops of blood dangled from her claws, little globules, and she scratched the surfaces of the gems to make them from yellow to blood colored, as was required in the ritual. Lilu was asleep, good.

Ahmond stared down at a peaceful Lilu.

"Now," Rosod said, as she sprinkled some salt around Lilu's head. She put one of the rubies onto Lilu's third eye, and pressed upon it. Lilu squirmed around in her sleep.

"She's dreaming," Rosod said. "The wights will try to keep her from waking up, and the salt will prevent her from escaping them. Anyway, this spell will work over the night."

Ahmond muttered something under her breath as they descended the ladder. As Lilu wouldn't be able to hear them, Ahmond asked, "Are we going too far?"

"She's going to have a bad dream one night," Rosod said, "and that's all there is to it."

"Yeah," Ahmond said. "Still, we're messing with someone's mind, with their psyche itself."

"Yes, and that's why this is considered a forbidden spell," Rosod said. "They aren't forbidden spells simply because someone thinks they're weird or awkward. It's not idle persecution. And besides..." Her gaze drifted around. "You're the one who convinced me we should do it, so it's your fault if things go down sour."

Ahmond said, "I don't know, maybe we should break the spell."

Rosod grunted, and gave her the book. "Okay, fine, you can break the spell. There should be a remedy in these pages somewhere."

After a while, Ahmond said, "There's not."

Rosod blinked. "Huh?"

"There's not." Ahmond showed her how the numbers jumped from 4 to 7. "Someone tore out the fifth and sixth pages, we have no idea how to break the spell."

"You should never cast forbidden magic without knowing how to break it!" Rosod said.

Ahmond said, "Well you were the one who opened the book and read it! Why didn't you speak up about it?"

Rosod released a deep, soothing breath.

Ahmond said, "My family once synched up our dreams when we were dealing with Lhyna. Maybe we should go into Lilu's dream, and try to rescue her?"

Rosod said, "No sense in all of us getting nightmares."

Ahmond said, "Well, I'm going to do it."

Rosod raised an eye, and asked her, "And what would be necessary to do this dream magic?"

"Tinfoil hats," Ahmond admitted.

"I thought so," Rosod said. "But you're going to need to find a way to break yourself out of that realm."

Ahmond said, "There's no spell for that, but I'm sure I can do something!" With that, she got to work, wrapping tin foil around Lilu and her own head, and soon she drifted to slumber.

***

Lilu ran away from the menaces, from these freaks that were chasing her. Sweat poured down from her forehead, and dripped onto the floor, almost gushed onto the floor.

As she turned the hallway, she found an endless series of steps, steps that would descend down infinitely. And these steps attached to other steps at awkward angles, stairs that went in weird directions, or even traversed into the fourth dimension.

"Lilu!" Ahmond said as she caught up. "Lilu, Lilu, listen, Rosod and I aren't going to do it again!"

Lilu blinked. "You aren't going to do what?"

Ahmond said, "We kinda summoned a dream demon on you." She pawed the ground, and stared up, shyly through a bang. "It's called a wight."

Lilu growled and said, "What is wrong with you!? How are we going to escape from..."

And that's when something came down from the hallway. Ahmond's eyes widened, as did Lilu's, and when they saw the monsters they screamed.

Rosod saw both jerking around in their slumber, and pursed her lips. Maybe they shouldn't have used that forbidden spell after all. But it was only for one night, and she was sure they would be able to handle it.

Ahmond and Lilu kept running from the various creeps. "What are those things?" Ahmond asked, as she saw these distorted, abstract abominations. None of the monsters made sense to her, as instead of having a form, they were formless blobs. However, each blob instilled a sense of dread, a primal sort of fear she never thought she'd access. Like a fear of the dark.

That was when Ahmond stared into an oddly elongated body, combined with some of its sharp teeth.

Despite its squarish shaped eyes, or its thick, knife features, Ahmond knew she could tell what it was. No wonder she had been afraid of it with such bad memories associated of it.

"Uh, Lilu," Ahmond asked, pausing.

Lilu kept running down the steps, not looking back. "You can stay behind, I'm gonna keep on running!"

Ahmond said, "Lilu, that thing's your mom."

Lilu skidded to a halt, but since they were steps, she skidded onto more steps. "Uh... what are you talking about? Those are clearly zombies of some sort."

"No," Ahmond said, as she went up to one of the pink beings, a pink she at first thought was exposed, triangular brains. Instead, she grabbed the being, and threw it down the stairs, where it fell into the dark. "All of these things are simply your mom. I can even recognize the same scent."

Lilu frowned, and would cautiously proceed up the stairs. She sniffed and said, "You're right, these things are just my mom."

"Are you afraid of your mom?" Ahmond asked.

"No," Lilu said, as she stared at the zombies, but then looked down. "I'm afraid of what she can do."

Ahmond said, "It must have been awful seeing how she treated Baynana and I, I guess, and how she could have hurt everyone. Yeah, I guess I would be afraid too." In a weird way, now the zombies weren't scary.

After all, it was just a dream.

Ahmond told Lilu, "It was wrong of us to try this on you. We just did it because you said you couldn't be scared."

Lilu frowned and said, "Ahmond, I'm not scared of a lot of things. I'm not scared of a lot of things that aren't real. And I like to read books and stuff that feature scares and creeps and ghouls, but I don't like to experience this sort of stuff."

Ahmond said, "To be real, I thought you might even like this, that we could summon a bad dream to you."

Lilu said, "This has actually been one of my best dreams ever, Ahmond. Thank you."

Ahmond did a double take. Never had Lilu said "thank you" before, and certainly not when it came to being messed around with. "You're welcome," Ahmond said, half expecting her to reveal it was false gratitude, but wishing it was all genuine.

Lilu said, "I'd recommend you take a turn. You've had a lot of problems yourself, especially in dreams."

Ahmond's ears folded back, and Ahmond admitted, "Yeah, but I'm afraid of what my dreams will be."

"Maybe there's a way to escape?" Lilu said.

"The Forbidden Book lacks a few of the spells," Ahmond said, "but I guess I'll try, since it's only fair."

Both would awake soon, and Rosod asked, "How are you two doing?"

"Fine," Ahmond and Lilu said in agreeance.

For everyone who acts like they're not afraid of the dark, or they're immune to the horrors of the night, truly fears the light. Beyond childish thoughts of boogeymen grabbing stray limbs hanging over the bed, their minds were afraid of when the veil went up. In cases of true horror, they didn't stand strong, they were the first to fall back.

As they had never known quite what true fear was.