Halloween 2021: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 13
“In fairness to Jim, we did raid his supply pretty heavily to make the plan work. I can think of worse ways to make it up to him than rides, food, and fun. And VIP passes sure don’t hurt.”
Jim lets out a Partyzilla roar, screeching deep into the night with the howl, while Victoria hits a few buttons on her cell phone. Moments later, the lights of her limousine appear, moving steadily toward your location.
“Should we have someone driving on the grass like that?” Thad points out.
“Why? You think we might damage the field.” Pumpkin’s eyes dart over to the crater, half-torn down goal post, and steadily growing pile of ash that used to be Mr. Scary. You’re not sure who is going to get blamed for all of this, but the groundskeeping staff will probably be demanding a raise come Monday morning.
After looking at that, none of you really worry about the tire tracks that Victoria’s limousine leaves behind. It speeds off, past the high school where people are slowly making their way inside, several nursing sprained ankles and sore backs. In no time, you’re on the highway, blazing across town like there’s no traffic to be seen. Whether it’s actually clear out there or Victoria’s driver is merely finding a clear way, you don’t bother glancing from the window to find out.
By the time you all arrive at Shoddyland, Jim has finished the rest of his homemade edibles and bursts from the limo making laser-gun noises with his mouth. It’s a good thing Jim has those VIP passes, because he barely even registers that there is a line, leaving you to clear things up with security.
After explaining your way past, thanks in large part to a pointed look from Victoria at the poor soul manning the entrance, you let the scene wash over you. Flashing lights, plastic masks, “creepy” music and sounds booming through the speaker-system. It’s unexpectedly nice, a reminder of Halloween’s more tame, less life-threatening side. A side you might start seeing more of, now that Victoria won’t be asking you to tagalong on any family business.
You put the thought out of mind as Thad hands out giant corn dogs with mustard and ketchup carefully layered on top to create the poor illusion of a severed finger. They taste better than they look, enough so that Jim wolfs his down in three bites and then races off toward the nearest ride: a giant spinning cylinder that seems like the last thing anyone should ride after eating. Thad darts off after him, while Victoria mutters something about finding paper towels.
Sitting alone on a bench with your daughter from a wiped-out timeline, you’re struck by the joyful mundanity of it all. You start to mention that to Pumpkin, but she’s already speaking.
“This is nice, isn’t it?” She leans back against the bench, autumn breeze tussling the orange streak in her hair. “The park, the fun, the normalcy.”
“Believe it or not, I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Oh trust me, I believe it. Of course I believe it. It’s what you’re supposed to be thinking.” Pumpkin laughs, even as her gaze takes on a hard edge. “Because this is a trap.”
Instantly, you look up, scanning the area for Mr. Scary to come lumbering into view, burned out head screeching for revenge. Instead, you only see Shoddyland wearing it’s Halloween decorations, several attendants watching the spinning cylinder with worry in their eyes, and Victoria walking back with an armload of paper towels. No danger, nothing to fear, except maybe for those poor souls sharing that ride with Jim and Thad.
“Not that kind of trap,” Pumpkin clarifies, watching you hurriedly hunt for an impending threat. From a pocket of her outfit, she produces the EverKey, holding it up. As you examine the artifact, a small hum of power catches your notice. It harkens back to the power the EverKey showed when the night first started, like an echo of a note that will eventually grow into a symphony.
“I don’t understand,” you admit.
“It’s charging again, which means it’s still working. Next Halloween, the way out should be open once more. That’s why we’re sitting here, enjoying the kind of night you wish could go on forever. You need to want that, more than your own freedom, to stay imprisoned. But what happens when the key doesn’t charge again? When there’s no more need for any carrot?” Pumpkin puts the EverKey away, waving Victoria over to your location. “Maybe torment, or nothing, or maybe you will get infinite nights like this, I can’t really say. But when the way out closes, so too goes our leverage. Something wants you complacent, and in my experience, that’s when you should be running the fastest.”
Pumpkin lets the topic fall away as Victoria approaches, though you’re sure to here more about it in the year to come. But those are concerns for next Halloween, and currently you all have to deal with Jim doing a poltergeist impression. In an odd twist of luck, thanks to the ride’s motion Jim’s lost corndog and prior snacks landed on those to his left, and Thad had taken a seat on the right. Of course, it was a twist of bad luck for those in the left-side seats, but at least you didn’t have to scrub vomit off of a giant lizard costume.
The rest of the evening passes in a whirl of rides, drinks, and food, until you end the night in your VIP seats watching the Halloween Parade pass by. Sitting with your friends, stomach full of fried foods and blood warmed by sugary drinks loaded with alcohol, watching people dance around while clad in impressively complex costumes, you can’t ask for a much better ending to a Halloween night.
That sentiment lasts only until you see Jim slam a baggie of some unknown substance into his drink, chug the whole thing, and leap to his feet pointing at a performer in a dragon costume. Shrieking only the words “Kaiju Fight!” Jim leaps for the parade, forcing the rest of you to hurriedly give chase. It might not be the most peaceful of ways to finish a Halloween, but it does feel oddly fitting in…
The End
Since you made it to the end without any Dead Ends, enjoy a Treat from the past.