Not Your Average Haunted House

The LEP was hosting its annual All Hallows Eve haunted house for the good people of Haven. This would be the first time a human would be attending though. Artemis would be touring the cobweb-ridden police headquarters with his good friend Holly this year. The event was to start at 8 o'clock, it new being 4, and Artemis was the least bit prepared. 'Where is that mask?' he worried. Still at Fowl Manor, not to be transported from Tara to Haven 'til 6, Artemis was causing a hole to be worn in his Persian rug from pacing his room. He knew Holly had a costume already, a simple harlequin mask, and Artemis was to match. But he had lost his mask.

He searched and searched his room, then thought to retrace his steps. He had been dropped off by Butler on his way back from Tara after making the plans with Holly. That had been the previous night, and he was sure he had still had the mask. It wasn't something that would blend into the color scheme of his room either. It was bright red, almost ruby in brightness, with a white back-drop and a black sash to tie behind his head. As his room was mainly of dark blues and browns and blacks, it would instantaneously stand out.

Now the next day, he had woken up, gotten breakfast, eaten, and returned to his room, where he had fiddled with the mask for a moment. So therefore, he had his morning accounted for. Next on his schedule had been to study some chemicals in his laboratory. He wanted to know what had caused his revival after his untimely demise by that awful hell-bent pixie, and had been poring over the flowers and residual energy takes in the area around the Gate. He had done this for roughly two hours, leading into the afternoon.

After trampling Beckett when he abruptly exited his lab, Artemis had gravitated back to his room. Here it had been already two in the afternoon. This had been when he had first discovered his harlequin mask out of its original location. He had been frantically searching for it until the present time. Finally the brilliant idea popped into his head that someone had taken it. But only three people could get into his room, as he changes the keycode on his door constantly and only informs two people; his father and Butler. They were not home, so this left the only option of who could have stolen his costume.

"Holly, I know you're there, and with my mask. Unless you are here to discuss something, I was under the impression you would not be here until nightfall to transport me to Haven. So what is your reason for visiting early?"

"Just stopped by to make sure you wouldn't wuss out and to make sure you remembered to get ready. You are going to a prestigious festival, even if it is a haunted house for everyone in general. But I digress. So hurry up! Here's your mask by the way." She taunted and threw the mask at him, it glimmering as it flew through the air. "Thanks." ***

The LEP headquarters was decked out. Cobwebs, fake reapers at corners, a 'fortune teller', really just an old sprite, was manning the door, giving false 'prophecies', and even a fog rolled throughout the main floor. You could tell they hadn't put that much effort into it this year though. Holly could remember the years when she would visit the place and it was like Armageddon in a nutshell. Haven just hadn't recovered from that plotting pixie's attempt at world domination.

Artemis and Holly entered the building, brushing off the psychopathic sprite, who chanted despair at them. If only they had believed her. ***

The friends were the only ones in the hallway, as the event was practically over near midnight. Children were tucked away in bed, parents hiding the foreign candy Artemis had no taste for, but the officers of the LEP were still cleaning up the headquarters, not to check out until the place was spotless.

Plop! Holly heard the mass of something fall behind them and whirled around, a fully charged Neutrino 3000 pointed at whatever was the culprit. What she spotted was much worse. A body. She released a full-fledged scream.

Holly had been walking with her friend Chix, staking out the building for left over stragglers. She had assumed Artemis had gone home, as he could freely request shuttles to the surface. But he hadn't. What she here was a destroyed corpse of a boy she had known for years, watch grow up, and brought back to life. Only for him to be taken from her so quickly was unacceptable. But here he was, lying face down, brutalized. Holly heard an all too familiar pixie laugh throughout the building.

Artemis Fowl II was dead.