Halloween 2021: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 8
Reminder from Drew: If you can’t see the polls, don’t forget to turn off your ad-blocker.
Join the Choose Your Spooky Outcome Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3QGPvdzaFw
“I’m not sure how this could be related to a burned room or some cursed mirrors, at least the dead guardian was another creature. It fits better than anything else we’ve got. Victoria, would you show us to the grave?”
“Very well. We came here tonight to visit the past, I suppose we shall see it through.” With a grand sweep of her arms, Victoria steps down from the stage.
Thad is close behind, stepping out of the snare circle only seconds before a metal chair glides through the air, bouncing through several ropes and getting tangled in two. “Boooo,” Jim yells. “Why didn’t one of them snag the chair and whip it through the air. I grabbed the power-up that boosts accuracy.” It’s at this point you realize Jim has donned a pair of glasses and added them to his Partyzilla costume, almost certainly taken from one of the other attendees during the chaos.
Of course, the reason that the chair didn’t move is because you would need to yank the right rope and free it’s counterweight. Deciding there’s no harm, you free one of the ropes entangling the chair, sending it whipping up into the catwalk and earning a delighted squeal from Jim.
By the time you make it to the front, everyone has gathered near the exit. At a glance, it’s clear the floor-waxer won’t be going back through the doors, even if all of you could fit on there’s no space for turning it around. Pumpkin does take the fog machine though, after clicking it off. Proceeding on foot, you follow Victoria as she leads you out from the theater.
“Thornglade High was once a very different educational institute. Founded to pass on the ancient ways that elders feared were dying out, it was merely Thornglade, a school among the shadows.” Victoria’s voice is soft, yet not a whisper, as you all make your way through the halls. “That came to an end due to the family’s head having a massive gambling problem. Money was short, debts were called, and when the dust settled power had changed hands. Their new leader was more concerned with surviving to see the next century than preserving the prior one, and set about rebuilding the family’s resources.”
“How does turning their weird academy into a public school help that?”
The answer comes from everyone around you, their words all-but overrunning one another.
“Tax break from a donation,” Thad says.
“Profits from selling the land,” Pumpkin tells you.
“That chudder-wudder cheese man.” You’re not sure if that’s slang for money or gibberish, by this point in most nights Jim’s connection with reality is batting about fifty-fifty.
“I get it, I get it. They turned their school into money.”
Bright red rectangles appear before you all, fire-exit doors that are meant to sound an alarm when parted. Victoria presses them open, and the only sound that comes is that of a gentle wind. “They did, but not happily. Many Thornglades were displeased with the circumstances, believing the day would come when they would return to the old ways. Some of the magics were left on this academy, hidden away so as not to draw too much suspicion. The mirrors, for example, will only activate on a specific day and time unless one knows the incantation. Generations of students have stood before them without any idea of the potential danger.”
Everyone files out, into the night air. Victoria is cutting a swift path through the night, toward a large tree around the school’s rear. It casts a lonely figure, the only one of its kind in sight. Legends says there was once an entire forest of the dense trees and their twisting, warped branches. Then somebody wanted to expand the parking lot, and this became the lone survivor.
“The guardian was unique. A creature born upon these lands and raised for their protection, moving on was never an option. So the Thornglades kept it weakened, likely expecting it would wither and die. When I arrived, it started to sense my nature, and senior year during the homecoming assembly, it finally made a move.”
Like a bolt, memories bubble up in your mind. The homecoming assembly was one of the few weird occurrences in your boring high school days. A mandatory gathering the day of Thorndglade’s biggest football game, you still remember how the electrical surge blew out half the gym lights, showering the entire room in sparks. There had been people yelling and crying, some in true hysterics. A few freaked out so much they thought they saw something… a shape flitting between the lights.
“There was no electrical surge during our assembly, was there?”
Victoria shakes her head, coming to a sudden stop. Following her eyes, you see a hole in the grass, nestled between a pair of the tree’s creeping roots. Her head tilts, and she leans forward, muttering softly. “It wasn’t quite there… but so close.”
The others arrive on the scene, and Jim lets out a low groan. “Oh man, I hope this isn’t another tree that re-animates dead shit. Fighting zombified versions of people’s beloved pets is just a real bummer all around.”
“Kind of glad I missed that one,” Thad admits.
Victoria has her arm jammed into the ground, wiggling it around with growing confusion. Finally she pulls back, casting the dirt from her arm in a single flick. “When I buried the guardian, I put protections over it’s grave. Unfortunately, because I was young and inexperienced, they were over it in a literal sense, I only protected the top. By chance or design, it seems someone dug deeply nearby and the grave broke open on it’s side. I can’t be certain we’re facing the guardian returned, but it definitely isn’t down here anymore.”
On instinct, your eyes dart around the empty night, expecting the creature to come lunging out as if on cue. “Is there anywhere it might go?”
“Perhaps. There was a nest in the basement, a place it hid from the world. I wiped it away after our battle, but the area might hold some significance to the creature.”
“So far it’s gone after gatherings of people,” Thad pointed out. “If we find the rest of your classmates, there’s a fair chance it might still be hunting.”
“Or, we go with the obvious solution: big ass light.” Jim beams proudly, only explaining after several seconds of silence. “Because it used to be a moth, and moths like light.”
You look to Pumpkin, who shrugs. “This is your scene, I’m just along for the ride. Although I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on this damn thing, still annoyed that it slipped away the first time.”
As Pumpkin said, this is your scene, time to decide how it plays out next.