Halloween 2020: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 13 (Dead End)
Seeing as Pumpkin managed to accomplish the journey here, seems a safe bet she can be trusted to recount it. Motioning for her to go ahead, you slowly climb to your feet, head still a bit woozy.
“Pleasure to meet you all, though in a way, I’ve known you since I was young,” Pumpkin says. “My dad used to tell us these crazy stories about his adventures in another version of the world, and of course I heard about the uncle he always wished we could meet.”
“Hang on, uncle?” Thad seems to be piecing it together, shock and uncertainty warring for control of his face.
Pumpkin offers a thumbs-up as confirmation. “The age thing is a bit weird, I’ll grant you, but traversing countless worlds searching for your dad’s stolen soul takes a while. Had to pick up a touch of magic to make sure I could live long enough.” Shifting her hand, Pumpkin gestures to the orange streak in her hair, evidently more than just a fashion choice. “I’m getting ahead of myself though. Should probably start things off with names, and mine is Pumpkin… Pumpkin… wait, what?”
Her face twists, eyes suddenly darting about. “Where did it go? Where the hell did my last name go?”
The sound of Thad’s hands clapping together echoes through the cavern, nearly shifting the ground under your feet. Victoria’s eyes go wide and Jim leaps behind Thad’s back like he’s taking cover from an unseen threat. Your brother pays neither any mind, there’s a wild glint to his eyes all of a sudden. “Finally! I knew it, I knew there was something off. I tried to ask you the first night we reconnected, but then it slipped away. It’s been there though, like an itch I couldn’t reach until Pumpkin called it out.” Thad turns to look you dead-on.
“Bro, why don’t you have a name anymore?”
For a moment, the world seems to pause, the very air around you growing still, even the torrent holds in place for the tiniest sliver of time. Just that flicker of an instant, then it’s all moving again. Well, the air and the torrent of light are moving.
Your friends are just falling.
They hit the ground limp, motionless. Thad and Jim collapsed in a scrambled heap, Victoria slumped against a rock, even Pumpkin lays still atop the stone floor. No breath, no blood. They weren’t killed so much as their life was snapped away, severed in an instant.
Turning slowly, you look around the cave, finding only the shifting designs looking back. You came so far tonight, yet it seems some things can’t simply be outrun.
“I get it.”
No response. No change. Only the hellish silence you’ve found yourself trapped in.
“I get it!” This time it’s a scream, one rebounding off the walls. “Don’t ask about the name. Never ask about the name. Please. I’ll take the lesson.”
Kneeling down, you lift the already cooling hand of a daughter you’d once thought lost forever. The idea of twice… it’s not an option.
“I understand. Pleas-”
The last syllable is lost as your head tumbles neatly from your shoulders, severed too fast for the pain to reach. As your skull falls forward, it lands with a grateful smile fixed in place. This is one fate you’re glad to see become a…