I do not own any of the characters from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
A/N: A story of autumn . . . and vampires . . . and gruesome revenge. Rated M. Horror. Mandy. Complete.
Leaves
Prologue:
It started at the end of summer. The whisperings. The stifling humidity lingered long after the autumnal equinox arrived. Something was wrong with the air-conditioner, but the whispers came, promising cool relief from the heat, if only she would leave her windows open at night. This the girl did, as she thought little of these whisperings, thinking them to be just the sound of approaching breezes, nothing more.
They came calling in the early morning hours, when the heat was most unbearable, and the young girl, on the cusp of womanhood, would get up, still drowsy from the stupor of sleep, to sit half-awake on the bench just below the window sill.
The voices promised cool relief, and they didn't fail to deliver. She held her arms out to her sides, and gasped as the refreshing wind seemed to lick the perspiration from her skin. It wrapped around her, flitting between the material of her nightgown and her body, and she welcomed the feel of it. It felt marvelous, exciting her in ways she never thought possible. Like cool hands, it traveled across her naked skin, caressing every inch of her, exploring every part of her being.
She threw her head back and inhaled deeply, as the cool air rushed into her lungs like a living thing, and stole the very heat from her body.
That first morning, the young blonde woke feeling very refreshed, cool, but not chilled. Oddly though, there was the feel of two pin pricks on the side of her neck. An inspection in the mirror revealed nothing, so she shrugged it off as nothing more than having slept with her head in a bad position. Aside from that, she found herself extremely lubricated, as if she had been touching herself all night. Things were about to take a turn for the worse.
Leaves
Over the course of the next three weeks, the young girl grew weaker, paler, until she was finally unable to get out of bed to go to school. Only a virus she had thought.
Her bed began to shake and the nick-knacks on the shelves rattled. From out of a cloud of acrid smoke, a dark figure materialized at the side of her bed, and stood looming over her. He spoke plainly, in a thick Jamaican accent.
"Ya know yer dyin', Mandy." She looked at him through barely opened eyes.
"And so you've come for my soul? Is that it?"
"Unfortunately, no. Yer soul has already been spoken for." Mandy struggled, pulling herself up to lean against her headboard.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been bitten by a vampire, and it seems to have been goin' on for a while. When you die, you will belong to it, body and soul."
"I will belong to no one but myself," she sounded off, indignant, "Fix this, Grim!"
"I can do nuthin' at dis point. It's too late. Perhaps if you had come to me earlier, I might have been able to stop him."
"Him?"
"Not de red guy! Da short, fat, ugly nerd wit de glasses." Mandy's dark eyes flew open at the mention.
"Irwin! I should have had you reap that little pig years ago!"
"It's too late now. Very soon, he will become your master."
Mandy slumped back to her pillow, a look of desperation on her face. "I . . . I can't go like this, Grim, not to him! I can't be made into one of his followers! There . . . there were no marks on my neck! How could I have known! Isn't there something that can be done?" Grim sighed.
"Vampires have become a stealthy bunch since de early days. Now, after dey bite ya, dey lick de wound until it closes up on its own. Dere is a way you can get out of dis, but it involves making a sacrifice. You cannot possibly destroy Irwin in yer weakened condition. You'll need a stronger body, one more suited for vampire slayin'."
"And where can I obtain this vampire-killing body?"
"I know a place. I'll take you dere dis evenin'. Ya don't have much time left."
The Pyramid
That night Grim came to take Mandy to a temple high in the mountains. She was very cold to the touch, and paler than usual. He looked closely at the girl he held in his arms. Mandy was already on the verge of vampire-hood. Fangs began to sprout just beneath her lips, and she mumbled deliriously of her unseen "masters." The reaper tapped his scythe on the floor, and the two were swallowed up by a vortex of eerie green flames.
They reappeared near the bottom of a very long, and very old, stone stairway. A little pavilion where a large iron bell hung, lay off to one side.
The Reaper struck the bell with the butt of his scythe, and it groaned loudly, disturbing a flock of crows in the nearby tree tops. They left their perches, screeching like thousands of lost souls. A wizened old woman in white, materialized from the darkness, and spoke with the air of one charged with the care of the edifice.
"You've come seeking revenge, have you not?"
"Dis girl is about to become a vampire and wants to destroy de creature dat made her like dis before she becomes one of its minions." The old priestess walked up to look Mandy over, and felt the coldness of her skin. A wave of her hand revealed the previously unseen bite marks on her neck. There was more than one vampire involved.
"I see." the woman remarked. "She must first ascend the stairway to meet the one who dwells at the top. She must go alone. You cannot help her."
"But she can barely stand now, let alone walk up dose stairs." Mandy stirred.
"Put me down Grim. If it's the last thing I ever do, I'll kill that bastard for doing this to me." Grim placed her on the ground, and she stood on her own, still shaky. Mandy was too proud to be laid low by anyone, let alone that greasy little excuse of a blood sucker.
"Excellent!" the old woman chortled at her fiery spirit, "You must first put on this white monk's robe. It will keep you warm, and give you the added strength you'll need to make the climb."
The blonde girl did as she was instructed, and immediately felt some vigor returning to her limbs. She looked up at the stairway, thinking how much it resembled an ancient Aztec pyramid, now surrounded in a dense growth of vegetation. The priestess pulled the hood up and over, covering her head.
"The robe is big, and deliberately so. All parts of your body must be completely hidden before you meet the one in the cave. There are one hundred steps, and you must be at the top by midnight. Good luck climbing." She then vanished back into the mists of night.
"You'd best hurry, child, it's nearly midnight now," Grim said, "and from de looks of it, it won't be an easy climb."
Sacrificed
Mandy began her ascent. The stairs were incredibly steep, more like a ladder instead, and covered with slippery moss. With fierce determination, she put her foot up on the first riser, then the next. Not too bad. The robe indeed provided her with much needed strength, and the higher she climbed, the easier it became. Her body began feeling lighter and lighter with each step. At the halfway point, she looked back down the hill, and saw Grim, still watching her climb. A feeling of vertigo overcame her, and she closed her eyes tightly while she shook it off. She made the remaining steps with relative ease, and looked back down the hill once more. Grim was no longer there, but a howling wind rushed out from the entrance of the cave, swirling around her and dragging her thoughts back to the reason she had come to this godforsaken site in the first place.
The wind quickly settled down, and all become deathly silent. A few more steps brought her to a stone altar, beautifully carved, the kind the Aztecs used to lay their victims on before cutting out their hearts. It hadn't been used in years, maybe centuries. In the dim light of the half moon, the stone floor seemed black, stained by the blood of untold thousands of human sacrifices. Ahead was the cave of the nameless one who would grant her request. She could see nothing inside, but heard a grating sound as if some scaly reptilian beast slithered around in the shadows.
"Come forward, little one," a voice cajoled from within its depths, "and tell me what it is you desire." The voice was neither threatening nor demanding. It was calm and gentle, nothing that Mandy was expecting.
"My body has been compromised, poisoned by a vampire's venom. It needs to be strengthened so that I may destroy the monster that did this to me. I refuse to become a slave to it's whims." From within the darkness of the cave came a snicker.
"I can do this for you. I will give you a body capable of killing any vampire. But there will be a price to pay, a sacrifice to be made. Are you willing to do this?" Mandy swallowed hard, and looked back at the sacrificial stone. She thought hard about her request. At one point in her life, she had wanted Grim to cut her heart out, but this was another entirely different situation, much more real, much more urgent. And, very likely, it would be much more painful.
"There is little time left for me. What choice do I have?" Mandy steeled her nerves. "I will accept your conditions, even if it means tearing out my heart." The thing in the cave shrieked with delight.
"Wonderful! But cutting out your heart will not be necessary. I will exhange your body, and when you are done with your revenge, you must take my place here until another comes to replace you!" The voice began to laugh maniacally, and a terrible sound, . . . a hollow sound, issued from within the cave, like that of a melon . . . or a skull . . . being torn open.
At that very moment, Mandy's black hair band broke in two, and fell to the ground. A pink object sailed out of the cave's entrance and landed at her feet. It looked very much like one of her sun dresses. A second object filled her with revulsion. A strange mass, limp and shapeless, had dropped in front of her like a wet rag. It looked like some dead animal, except it had pale skin . . . and golden hair. Two more pieces, a pair of shoes, black and shiny, came tumbling out.
"You'll be needing those when you return." The voice reverbrated from within the grotto.
There was a sound again, amplified, like that of a roast chicken having it's legs pulled apart, the joints being twisted and dislocated. The crunching of bones, and the rending of flesh followed closely.
Mandy stared with confusion at two round spheres the creature had just spat out. They looked like eyes, . . . blue eyes . . . much like her own. She stooped low to pick one up, but gasped, then stood back up quickly. What emerged from the sleeve of her robe was not a hand, but a claw. A wooden claw. A claw covered in razor sharp thorns, and made from pieces of bark. She tore off her robe only to find she no longer had any semblance of the body she once possessed. What she did have was made of leaves and twigs, and bits of broken branches. She tried to scream, but had no voice, just a hiss . . . like the crackle of dried, rustling leaves.
The howling wind returned, and swept everything, leaves and sticks, up into the air, carrying what remained of Mandy, far off into the inky blackness of the night sky.
Stuffed
The next morning, a macabre discovery. Two bodies, that of the creepy neighbor boy and his vampire grandfather, had been found, . . . stripped naked, . . . and skinned. No flesh nor bones nor blood remained, and no sign at all of the perpetrator. They lay there on the floor like two obscene, grotesque pillows, arms and legs distended, their skins stuffed to the bursting point with leaves, their orifices stitched shut with pieces of twigs and thorns.
Epilogue:
Several nights later, with the coming of the full moon, Grim paid a visit back to the mysterious temple. He was greeted once again by the priestess, no longer aged and wizened, but now young and beautiful. She smiled sweetly at him.
"That child you brought over the other night is so nice. She shared her 'catch' with me!" The priestess pranced about, very much pleased with her now youthful appearance.
"May I have a few words wit her, den?"
"By all means, please do. She would have no real interest in you since you are only bones!" Grim laughed nervously, then tapped his scythe on the ground, magically transporting himself to the top.
He found Mandy outside the cave, lying on the sacrificial altar, staring up at the moon.
"So good of you to come visiting, Grim." Her voice a cold, dispassionate monotone. She made no move to face him, but Grim had expected no such courtesy from her anyway.
"I see yer back to yer normal self once more." She sneered at him.
"Hah!" she smirked, "I'll never be 'normal' again. By devouring Irwin and his grandfather, I gained their immortality without having to become a vampire myself." Grim sighed, and looked off into the distance, towards Endsville.
"Billy's been askin' for ya." Mandy closed her eyes, and smiled, licking her lips.
"Tell him not to come looking for me. I cannot leave this mountain until another comes to take my place, and he would be too tempting."
"I understand." Grim turned to leave just as Mandy had a thought.
"But if you wouldn't mind, perhaps you could persuade Mindy to come up here. I know I could offer her a deal she wouldn't pass up. There are many more vampires to be had in this world, and I'm sure I'll grow hungry soon."
Mandy burst into laughter, and then, like the howling wind she had become, disappeared back into the depths of her lair.
The End
A/N: Frankly I'm surprised that a series based on the supernatural and the Grim Reaper has so few stories in the Horror genre.
The ancient Aztecs worshipped a diety named Xipe Totec. He was known as the "God of the Flayed Skin." When a sacrificial victim had his heart removed, his body would be thrown down the pyramid steps, where priests of the god would then carefully remove its skin. These skins would then be worn like a suit by the priests . . . for the next twenty days.
Forget the werewolves, Edward Cullen . . . Mandy hungers.
Happy Halloween.