I'm back for another long-term story project, another horror, maybe one not as bloody this time around. Enjoy.
Settings: Still Paper Mario.
Midnight's Devils
Chapter 1: Escape The Wrath
Rougeport was normally quiet at night, but tonight it was unnaturally quiet, as if the town had been abandoned. No lights were on, no sounds came from the houses, even the moon seemed to have gone to sleep, giving no light from behind a gathering of storm clouds.
Ms Mowz was asleep in her bedroom behind her shop, The Lovely Howz of Badges. Her room was small, with a small desk in one corner, her bed in another corner and a window on one of her walls, with a door on the opposite wall. She started to stir, her closed eyes tightening. She started to thrash around, tossing and turning in her covers.
"No...NO...N...Aaah!...NO!" She cried, then she shot upright, wide awake. Her breathing was heavy and she shivered in fear and from the cold.
"What was that about?"" She asked herself. She tossed back her covers and went over her nightmare. Some papers blew off the top of her desk, scattering themselves across the ground. Ms Mowz turned towards the papers in surprise, forgetting her nightmare. With the windows closed, no wind should have been able to pass through. The papers started to rustle, then words started to appear on the papers, but the words were written in blood. A knot of fear started to build in Mowz's stomach. The words read: 'Beware, little fool.'
A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder broke out outside of her window, briefly illuminating the room in a pool of light before disappearing. Ms Mowz's fear was quickly turning into terror. She started shivering again, this time completely out of fear. Whispering hisses started to float through the air, filling Ms Mowz's minds with threats and fear.
"What's happening?" Ms Mowz squeaked in fear, unable to understand what was going on. She looked up towards the top corners of her room. Blood, dark and flowing, started to drip down the walls. Ms Mowz's stomach tightened. Her head was spinning from nausea and fear. More blood started to drip from other places: The corners of the walls, the roof, her table and the windows.
The door creaked open slowly. Ms Mowz turned towards the door with a gasp. Dark, shadowy tentacles made of bits of dust and what looked to Ms Mowz like pure darkness started to enter her room. She stood still, petrified from fear. The shadow tentacles stopped, as if detecting a presence, and it took all of Ms Mowz's willpower to stay perfectly still, not even breathing,hoping inside herself that the tentacles wouldn't notice her. Blood continued to fall from the walls and the window, until no more moonlight could be seen through the coating of blood. The tentacles tensed, then struck out at Ms Mowz. Ms Mowz screamed as the tentacles quickly wrapped around her, pulling her towards them. Ms Mowz desperately fought down her panic and twisted her arm as hard as she could, but the tentacles wouldn't let her go.
"Let me go!" She shouted. She kicked at the tentacles, and they released their grip for a split second, enough for Ms Mowz to get away from them. She backed up and tried to slow down her breathing. The tentacles lunged again, but this time Ms Mowz sidestepped them then jumped over them and fled out of the door and down the hallways.
Ms Mowz shut the back door of her shop and locked it tight, before catching her breath. A thousand questions ran through her mind. What was going on? Why were the shadow tentacles chasing her? What did they want from her?
Cracks in the ceiling were dripping more blood, down the walls and straight to the floor or to the store counter, gathering in puddles. Even the few pictures she hung on the walls had blood dripping through them coating the faces of Ms Mowz and her friends.
Ms Mowz thought about her friends. What was going to happen to them?
A hammering on the door snapped Ms Mowz to her senses. There was no time to be distracted. First, she had to escape these tentacles.
But before she could form a solid plan, shadows started to snake through from under the door, slithering around Ms Mowz's feet. She quickly sprinted towards the front door, but the shadows followed her. She had just opened the front door when the shadows turned back into tentacles, one wrapping around Ms Mowz's foot. Ms Mowz squeaked in surprise and fear as she was brought to the ground. The other shadows snaked in front of her and started to morph into figures.
"Please," She whispered desperately. "What do you want from me?"
The shadows formed into dark figures, all with black clothes, pale skin, demonic red eyes and evil smiles containing knife-like teeth. Two were human, one was a Yoshi and one was a Hammer Bro. The tentacle holding her turned into a Squeek exactly her size, easily locking her in his grip.
"Hello there, Mowz, it's a pleasure to meet you." One of the Human demons snickered with his evil grin.
Ms Mowz stared at him with silent terror. "What do you want from me? What do you want to do to me?
The Yoshi demn laughed, a sound very similar to scratching metal. "Nothing for now, we just came to provide you a little gift."
The way he had said 'gift', Ms Mowz knew it was not a good thing. The Yoshi demon brought out a black stamp with a red-hot tip and moved closer to Ms Mowz's right arm. Ms Mowz tried to jerk away, but the Squeek Demon had a firm lock. The Yoshi demon brought down the end of his stamp against Ms Mowz's skin. Ms Mowz screamed in pain as the red-hot stamp burned into her skin.
The demons laughed with satisfaction. The Yoshi demon pulled back the stamp, and the Squeek demon let go of Ms Mowz. Ms Mowz fell to the ground, her arm burning, her eyes stinging with tears. She looked at her arm, and she saw the mark the demons had left: A black tattoo, designed in the appearance of black fire with a black, reptilian eye in the middle of the flames.
"I hope you appreciate our gift, little girl, because next time we find you, we won't be as merciful." The first Human Demon hissed. The demons started to melt, morphing back into the shadowy tentacles, vanishing into the darkness below,leaving Ms Mowz alone on her knees. Ms Mowz panted heavily, all her energy having been sapped by her encounter. Only one thought ran through her mind.
'What is happening?'
She fell forward and fainted.
When she awoke, it was still as dark as it was before. She slowly got up, wincing in pain, especially on her right arm, where the demon's tattoo had been seared into her skin. She glanced into her shop, coated in blood from the night's mayhem, up towards the clock, which read: 8:45 AM.
"Why is it staying so dark?" She asked herself as she walked inside her shop. She carefully tiptoed across the floor, staying clear of any blood, and walked to her counter, a long, polished wooden table that was built into the wall. She bent down underneath it and pulled out a small box.
"I promised to use you only in an emergency," She said to the box as if it was alive. "and this is definitely an emergency." She opened the box and pulled out a knife, a polished, smooth blade about 9cm in length. She held it in her hands tightly.
"I don't know what those demons are after, but I have to defend myself. And I have to find out what's going on."
Her keen ears picked up a scraping sound from outside. Lightning-quick, she jumped over the counter and brought her knife to the ready. A figure was standing in the doorway, a Hammer Bro with a black shell and helmet. For a moment, Ms Mowz thought he might be a demon, but his skin was yellow like a regular Koopa and his blue eyes were shining with fear. He raised his hands in surrender.
"Please! Don't hurt me!" He begged.
Ms Mowz brought down her knife, still keeping her eyes on him. "Who are you?" She asked.
The Hammer Bro took a breath. "My name is Bilic (pronounced Bill-itch). I came her from the mainland with two of my friends. We were looking for a place to spend the night, when a group of figure's, I think they were demons, appeared out of the shadows and grabbed us. They beat us, then gave us these." He brought down his right arm. Ms Mowz gasped.
He had exactly the same tattoo.
Announcement: I'm accepting OC's for this story. If you want one, add these points:
Name:
Age: (Between 14 and 19)
Gender:
Species:
Appearance:
Fears:
Items (If Any):
Backstory (If wanted):
Here's one that's already been passed on by my buddy, Koopakevic:
Name: Bilic (pronounced Bill-itch)
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Species: Hammer Bro
Appearance: Black Shell, Black Hemet, Ice Blue eyes.
Fears: Snakes, Closed spaces
Items: Black, spiked, two-headed hammer
Backstory: Traveled to Rougeport with two friends for some sightseeing and a camping trip. All changed when the demons attacked him and his friends.
Add these points in a review, favorite and follow, and your OC will appear in the story. Until next chapter, Para-Zackovic out.