Tales From The Asylum Presents Trick or Treat
By Ariesjade
Disclaimer: I do not own gargoyles or tales from the crypt.
A stream of skeletal lightning illuminates the otherwise black night sky and the ten foot tall iron gate open before you.
Travel down the long gravel driveway and through the massive oak doors. Continue past the zombie like nursing staff, down the empty corridor and take a right, that will lead to a narrow staircase. Descend deeper into the eerie building and find two door with a sign above that read "Criminally insane". Fallow the dark passage all the way to the end and turn to the left.
A deranged woman frees herself from her restraints and bolt upright up of her bed at your arrival. She laughs maniacally and clasps her metallic hands together.
Tales from the Asylum
"Good evening kiddies! So good to maim your acquaintance. I'm your host for the fright, Hyena. Welcome to the asylum!" She exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "It's about time someone came to visit me, not even my mummy will come to see me in here." She wiped a non-existent tear from her eye in mock sadness and sniffed.
"Well boils and ghouls, let me introduce you around. In the cell to our right is Hannibal Lecter, I'm a big fan of his work. Show him the respect he deserves while you're here. Across the hall is Mallory Knox, a pioneer of her time and last but not least, beside Mallory is the one, the only Michael Myers! He makes stabbing and slashing into an art form." Hyena gushed. "My fiends and I have been looking forward to seeing you for what seems like and eternity." Hyena and her cell mates all smiled wickedly at the statement. "...And we've prepared a very special titillating, terrifying tale to disgust and disturb you." She slithered around her cell like a snake poised for the strike. "So strap on your straight jackets, take your meds and hold on to your vomit bags! Tonight, I'll explain why sometimes it's best if you don't get the one thing you want most in..."
Trick or Treat
Amber slumped further into her chair as the clock on the wall ticked towards three o' cock. She knew watching it so vigilantly would only make the time go by all the slower but she couldn't help herself. Tonight was the night , her night. She looked forward to halloween all 359 days of the rest of the year.
"Miss Bellows..." Her teacher, Professor Allan stood at the front of his physics class impatiently tapping his hairy knuckled fore finger on his desk waiting for Amber to acknowledge his presence. "Amber Bellows!" He beckoned.
Amber twitched out of her time induced trance and sighed. "Yes, sir." A statement rather then a response.
Professor Allan raised an eyebrow at her bemusement. "I'm so sorry, am I boring you?" He asked, sarcastically.
Amber decided there was nothing to be gained from starting an argument this late in the day, even though it was in her nature to do just that, especially considering her contempt for this particular class and it's chosen leader. So she just gritted her teeth and instead of telling the good professor that he had all the personality of a tortuous on morphine and the clock is far more interesting, she replied. "No, sir! I was just so mesmerized by your brilliance that I'm having a hard time taking it all in." She said with the biggest, fakest smile she could muster.
"Hmpf..." The professor frowned at her then continued with his endless lecture.
Finally, the clock struck three and the students, Amber in the lead, stampeded from the classroom with glee.
"Freedom!" Was heard being shouted through the halls of the school as the doors of every classroom flew open and the anxious teens flooded out in search of the nearest exit.
The teachers were anxious as well, but for another reason all together. They were in a hurry to get their paperwork done and rush home to protect their soon to be toilet paper and egg drenched homes.
Amber fought her way through the chaos and out the main doors. She scanned the front lawn and found her target quickly without hassle. There they were, right on time, waiting impatiently for her arrival. She jogged up to meet her friends at the old oak with a devious grin on her pale face.
"Hey guys!"
"Amber, about damn time!" Eric proclaimed.
"How do you guys always beat me out here?" She asked.
"Easy, skip out on this fascist prison early. Like I've been telling you all along." Monica explained in her usual mocking tone as she rolled her eyes to emphasize her point.
"Yeah, Amber. You know if you spent more time out in the real world and less time in school, you might learn something." Eric chimed in again through a mouthful of hotdog.
"Eric, the irony of that statement is epic and I'd love to discuss it further out of pure morbid fascination, but we're short on time already." Amber quipped with a triumphant, yet sad smile. Eric was a sexy and funny guy but he was also intensely stupid and had a bad attitude. Amber had known him since the third grade so she couldn't blame him for his short comings. He'd gotten the shit end of the stick when it came to upbringings. His mother abandoned him with his alcoholic father who made a living via the nastiest strip club in town.
"Well, maybe we should get our asses in gear then." Monica stated flatly.
The three headed out towards the parking lot where the remainder of their group would be waiting in this evenings transportation. As the old mustang came into view, Monica noticed that the windows were fogged up.
"Looks like we're a little early."
"Ha! Shit no, we're right on time girl!" Eric through his arms in the air and took off at full speed towards the rocking car. Amber and Monica looked at each other and shook their heads in unison but made no attempt to quicken their pace.
Eric rammed into the driver's side of the car with full force, screaming like a wild mann in hopes of scaring the two lovebirds right out of the passenger side door.
His plan didn't work perfectly but it was successful in scaring the hell out of his friends, non the less. Julie and Mike looked out out him through the foggy window in shock.
"Jesus christ, Eric! What the hell are you thinking? You might have dented the war machine!" Mike shrieked as he shoved the car door open and stepped out to examine the damage. Julie fallowed suit. Eric just laughed and clapped his hands with pride.
"Can't you two keep your sweaty hands off each other for five seconds?" Monica called out as she and Amber approached.
Mike whirled around to face his accusers. "That was a hell of a lot longer then five seconds!" He retorted in his heavy Brooklyn accent. "What, did you guys try to slither your way over here?"
"Yeah, yeah, bitch, bitch. Look, if you can keep it in your pants for a whole few hours then we can get going." Amber replied.
"Your chariot awaits, my queen." Amber looked past Mike to find Eric standing on the other side of the car with the door already open, waiting for her. Her face softened and she smiled her first genuine smile of the day. She and the rest of the group piled into the cherry red 1960's mustang and speed out of the school parking lot, towards Manhattan.
"Well..." Fox waltzed into the room, swishing and swirling her long, medieval witch costume around majestically as she danced across the floor. "What do you think?"
"You look dashing, as always, my dear." Xanatos gushed, as smooth as ever.
Fox eyed her husband up and down with out a hint of modesty. She admired the well suited devil costume, it wasn't cheesy, tacky or plain but simply perfect. "You're not so bad yourself, handsome."
Xanatos' lips curled up into his classic satisfied smirk. "Let's go say goodnight to Alex."
"I can't wait till he's old enough to take trick or treating. He'll be the scariest little man on the block." Fox purred as they made their way down the hall. They entered the nursery to find Owen had already began Alex's nightly bedtime ritual. The infant had been changed, bathed and fed, all that was left was a goodnight kiss.
"Good evening sir and madam." Owen acknowledged his employers presence without turning towards them.
"Good evening Owen." Xanatos replied cheerfully.
"How's my baby boy?" Fox chirped as she picked Alex up for a hug.
"We'll probably be out till early morning." Xanatos continued. "You know how rowdy these socialite special events can get." He somehow said while keeping a straight face.
"Understood sir." Owen replied flatly.
"We better be off then." Fox chimed in, taking her place at her husbands side. "Good night, Owen."
"Good night, miss."
The Xanatos' took their leave and Owen picked Alex back up out of his crib. He held the baby out at arms length, high in the air and let an uncharacteristic smile creep across his lips. Shimmering smoke engulfed the two of them as Owen made the transformation into his true form. Alex giggled at the display.
"Well kiddo, how about you and I have some real halloween fun?" Puck asked rhetorically.
"Oh, lord of darkness. Oh, master of pain and depravity, we worship thee!"
Brooklyn and Lexington were barely able to hush the hysterical laughter that threatened to give away their element of surprise. The idiocy of this display was truly priceless and to pass up an opportunity such as this would have been equally idiotic. So, they crouched down, wings tucked in as tight as possible, behind one of the many massive headstones that populated the cemetery.
"Come forth oh evil one and spread pestilence over the land!" The leader of the small group beckoned into the night in his high pitched, over dramatic voice. His seven quote end quote disciples sat in a circle around him, swaying and lurching about. They all hollered and moaned gibberish. Brooklyn wasn't sure whether they never intended to speak an actual language and were just making noise or if they were just badgering latin. Either way, it was prime entertainment.
The two gargoyles looked at each other and smiled deviously.
"Rise from the depths of hell, master! We invoke thee!" The summoner shrieked.
That was his cue. Brooklyn launched out from behind the tombstone and let out the most fierce loud roar he could muster. He flared his eyes and spread his wings. "Who dares to summon me!" He growled.
The group froze at the sight of him in awe. Brooklyn stepped towards them and pointed his taloned finger square at the leader of the bunch. "You." He accused. And that's all it took, the entire coven screamed bloody murder in unison. They scrambled to their feet and each took off in a different direction. Brooklyn gave a mock chase, more or less running in circles, just to make sure everyone got a good scare.
"Come forth minion!" He gave the signal for Lex to join in on the fun and he too emerged from his hiding spot to terrify the misguided kids. He bound and leapt through the air, screaming and growling.
Eventually, they herded the group towards the cemetery gates.
"Hey, where are you going?" Brooklyn called out after the fleeing teens as they made their escape out into the streets. "I thought you wanted to hang out!" He yelled, not able to stifle the laughter any longer.
Lex continued to give chase until he reached the gates and then bellowed out one last grunt at the kids as an exclamation point, then turned back to his partner in crime and applauded. "Brilliant!" He chuckled and clapped his hands harder.
Brooklyn regained his composure long enough to bow. "Why doesn't anyone want to play with me?" He mocked and then cracked back up again. Lex fell to the ground in an all out giggle fit at the remark and Brooklyn joined him.
They rolled around on the ground, quite proud of themselves for some time, until Goliath and Elisa arrived.
"So..." Goliath boomed, catching the two trouble makers attention instantly. "This explains the kids that just ran screaming into the police station stating they had accidently conjured satan and frantically apologizing." He said, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms over his massive chest.
Brooklyn and Lex jumped to their feet and promptly wiped the smirks off their faces.
"What on earth were you two thinking?" Goliath asked, flabbergasted.
"It was just a prank." Lex squeaked but Brooklyn interjected before any more damage could be done.
"They were satan worshipers, we were scaring them straight, that's all." He said completely straight faced. Goliath wasn't buying it and neither was Elisa. "Though love." Brooklyn continued, half a statement, half a question.
"Don't you have any idea what you've done!" Elisa snapped. "Those kids are gonna be traumatized!"
"Oh come on, those kids don't have enough brains to know how to be traumatized!" Brooklyn quipped.
"Enough!" Goliath roared. "You two will go back to the clock tower and stay there for until further notice."
"What!" Lex howled. "But..."
"No buts." Goliath cut him off. "No halloween, no TV, no music, no computer, no nothing!"
"You're grounding us?" Brooklyn asked. "You've gotta be kidding."
"You want to act like hatchlings, you'll be treated as such. Now go!" Goliath ordered with stern authority.
Brooklyn and Lexington hung their heads in defeat and trudged out of the cemetery.
"Woo! Down with suburbia!" Eric belted out into the night from the back seat passenger window of the mustang.
The group had been planning this event since all the weird stories started filtering out of Manhattan into their quaint little community of Larchmont. Since there were so many strange tales centering around the 23rd precinct among those stories, that seemed the logical place to conduct an investigation... or a wicked place to have a crazy halloween party. Either way, it was going to be a wild night. Considering their mundane suburban teen lives, a wild night in the city was exactly what they needed.
Amber, Mike and Julie joined in with Eric in verbally expressing their excitement. Monica sighed and rolled her eyes. She didn't come to party, she considered herself to be a serious paranormal investigator and took her work very seriously. She took everything seriously with a bit of a snooty attitude and her so-called enlightened state of consciousness made her too intelligent for the standard education system or work force. In short, she was a to cool for school high class bitch.
Mike and Julie were on the opposite side of the spectrum, they lived for fun and indulgence. For them, it was all about the now, consequences be damned.
Amber was more laid back and definitely had better sense of humor then Monica but understood the consequences of her actions unlike Mike and Julie.
Eric was up for anything, especially anything that involved Amber. As far as he was concerned, she was the only being on the face of the planet that understood him and was trust worthy therefore, she was the only being on the face of the planet worth giving a shit about.
The five adventure seekers speed wildly down the street towards their destination with was now coming into view. Julie was the first to notice.
"There it is! Here we come baby!" She squealed with anticipation and leaned over in her seat to plant a sloppy kiss on Mike who didn't seem to care whether he could see the road or not. Monica reached over from the back seat and ripped Julie from her bo's lips then smacked Mike upside the head.
"Pay attention!" She spat at Mike then turned her glare towards Julie. "Are you trying to get us all killed or are you just that fucking stupid?" She asked with a snarl.
"Eat me!" Was Julies rebuttal.
"Amber, remind me again why we hang out with her." Mike rudely gestured toward Monica.
"You fucking.."
"Hey, shitheads!" Amber cut Monica off before a major fight started. "We're here." She pointed out the window. They pulled up outside the police station and piled out of the cramped car.
"So.." Eric clapped his hands together and bounced about, eager to get things going. "How are we gonna do this? Should I create a distraction while you guys sneak in?"
"Eric, it's a police station." Amber answered flatly.
"You got a better idea?" He asked a little offended.
"Of course I do." Monica interrupted, stepping in between the two. Eric gave her a dirty look as she snatched the car keys from Mike and opened the trunk. She pulled out a duffle bag and opened it revealing their halloween costumes.
"Police uniforms. You gotta be shitting me." Mike gawked at the contents of the duffle bag.
"I shit you not." Monica replied with a big triumphant smile.
"This is all well and good but don't we need badge numbers to get past security?" Eric interjected.
"Ooo, very astute, Eric. You deserve a gold star." Monica mocked him. "Yes, we do need badge numbers and here they are." She said as she reached into the side pocket on the duffle bag and pulled out five very genuine looking badges. She offered them out to everyone in her audience who, except Amber, took them with questioning looks. "It's amazing what you can accomplish via internet." Was her only explanation.
"Well, OK then. Where do we change?" Mike asked with a glimmer in his eyes.
Puck and his pupil arrived at the clock tower via teleportation and mischief was in the air.
"Alright kid, are you ready for your first lesson in shape shifting?" The infant giggled in response. "I've been looking forward to this lesson since you were born. It's a personal favorite of mine, always a gas!" He continued with unbridled enthusiasm then brought Alex closer to whisper in his ear as if the walls had ears. "Just between you and me, we may be jumping the gun a little on this lesson, but I just can't wait to see what you're really capable of!"
With that, Puck took his student and concealed himself in the shadows to wait. The plan was to transform Goliath into human form so that he may experience sunlight, acceptance and love with a certain detective as a gift from Titania for all he and the clan had done for her and her family. Naturally, Puck had to put his own spin on things and, of course, he needed Alex to access his powers, so it all worked out perfectly in his eyes.
He knew timing was the key for this to go smoothly, so he started teaching Alex the incantation weeks ago.
Amber, Eric, Mike, Julie and Monica had no trouble getting past building security which was both fantastic and slightly disturbing at the same time.
They casually made their way to the top floor. Among her other attributes, Monica was a wiz with computers so she was able to hack into NYPD data base to obtain the badge numbers as well as a blueprint of the station so they would at least look like they knew what they were doing.
"Where the hell is the tower entrance?" Monica asked herself as she studied the map she had copied from the illegally downloaded blueprint.
"Holy shit, baby genius is lost. The universe should be collapsing on itself any minute now!" Julie muttered under her breath coaxing a snicker from Mike and the evil eye from Monica.
"According to the map the entrance should be right here." Amber said, reading the map over Monica's shoulder.
"That's a closet." Eric said with a dazed look on his face.
"Really?" Monica asked sarcastically.
"You can give me all the shit you what, Monica, but in the end you're the one who can't read your own map." Eric shot back.
"Hey, guys..." Amber called out. "I found it." She said, already in the closet, pointing at the stairs leading to a hatch in the ceiling.
"Huh, I guess I can read my own map." Monica stated, glaring at Eric. He raised his middle finger in the air as a response.
The group filed into the closet and, one by one, made their way up the stairway.
"Fucking awesome, just fucking awesome!" Brooklyn rumbled as he and Lex landed on the balcony of the clock tower.
"Hey, it was your idea." Lex accused, pointing his taloned finger in his brother's face.
"And it was a god idea." Brooklyn responded in defense.
"Not according to Goliath and Elisa."
"Yeah, well the amazing humorless wonder and his little side kick don't consider any idea that wasn't their own to be of any value." He said flatly.
Lex couldn't help but chuckle at the remark as he swung the door open.
Puck heard the banter on the balcony and realized he might have to go out in search of Goliath rather then wait for him to come home. This put a it of a damper on his mood as he'd gone to so much trouble ensuring it would be Goliath and Elisa who would arrive back at this very moment.
The loud crack and squeal of the floor hatch opening jolted Puck from his thoughts. He watched curiously as five teenagers he'd never seen before slowly and carefully entered the clock tower form below.
The first to step inside was a tall, pale girl with straight waist length black hair. She scanned her surrounding and then motioned for another to fallow. The next was husky jock with scruffy brown hair fallowed by another female with short chocolate brown curly hair and a dark tan and then yet another two emerged, hand in hand. A blond who looked like a budding porn star and a clean cut pretty boy.
Amber was the first to will herself through the opening, she cautiously stepped onto the platform and looked around. Noting that the coast was clear she signaled for Eric to join her fallowed by Monica, Julie and Mike.
They all split off in different directions to explore as soon as they felt safe enough.
This was a prime opportunity to have a little harmless fun. Puck just couldn't help himself. With a smile stretching from ear to ear on his mischievous lip, he sat Alex down on the floor and floated out of the shadows in perfect view of the curious visitors.
"Evening." A voice came from out of nowhere and all five of them simultaneously twitched, Julie screamed at the top of her lungs, and turned towards the phantom voice.
"I believe you're trespassing." Puck continued, wagging his finger in the air. "Naughty, naughty."
"Shit!" Eric exclaimed as he realized where the voice was coming from and pointed out the apparition to his friends.
Julie scrambled for the floor hatch as soon as she spotted what Eric was pointing out but Puck anticipated an escape attempt and closed and locked the hatch before anyone could get to it with the snap of his finger. Julie shrieked and jumped on the door in a panic, trying to rip through it.
"Now, now, you shouldn't have joined in if you didn't want to play the game." Puck laughed as the frantic blond pounded on the floor.
"What the hell are you?" Amber squeaked out.
"What difference does it make... I'm floating!" Puck shouted as he shot from side to side in the air to accentuate his point. He laughed hysterically as his victims scurried about.
Eric ran to Amber and pulled her behind him to shield her. Puck spotted the move and took it as an invitation. He barreled towards them at full speed and stopped just short of Eric's nose.
"You don't really think that's gonna do any good do you?" He whispered. But before Eric could answer something else caught Puck's attention. It was the cooing laughter of the baby that had been left to his own devices in the corner. But he was no longer in the corner, he had made his way onto the banister and he seemed quite interested in the uninvited guests.
"Alex, no, no..." Puck instructed gently, but it was too late. Alex waved his stubby hands in the air and mush mouthed something Puck couldn't decipher. The spell was cast.
A misty white light emerged from the infants eyes and traveled to engulf the teens before Puck could stop it and the they all disappeared from sight.
Puck inspected the floor, the walls and then the roof but had no way of knowing what spell Alex had cast without knowing what words he had spoken.
"Uh oh..." He mumbled, lightly clapping his hands together and pursing his lips. The guilty look on his face quickly gave way to a grimace when he heard the door to the balcony open. "Time for stealth mode." He grumbled as he picked Alex up into his arms. The two faded out of sight just as Brooklyn and Lexington entered the clock tower, completely oblivious to their presence.
Lex sighed. "So, what do we do now?"
As the strange mist that had swallowed them up subsided, Amber, Eric, Mike, Julie and Monica tried to collect themselves.
"What... the... fuck?" Eric asked, flabbergasted as he looked around in a daze.
"Where are we?" Julie squeaked, careful to remain motionless just in case.
"Alright, I'm done with this bullshit!" Monica snapped as she shoved her way through the cluster that her friends had formed, trying to gain some sort of sense of security. "Hey, you creepy little fucker, whatever prank you're trying to pull isn't amusing so knock it off!"
"Monica, shut the fuck up." Amber whispered.
"Why?" She shot back. "You're not really scared are you? It's all just smoke and mirrors. That freak is probably just an out of work magician looking to mindfuck us because we discovered that he was squatting here.
"Monica.." Mike tried to cut her off but she didn'tcare.
"In fact, this explains all the weird shit that's been going on here..."
"Monica..." Mike tried again, more forcibly this time.
" so come on out, loser, your little game is done!" She hollered into the empty air.
"Monica!" Mike bellowed.
"Oh, for fuck's sake, what?" She turned violently towards him and quickly fell silent.
The group stood in silent shock, staring at what, until then, was impossible as a giant foot lifted into the air and fell back to the ground with a earthshaking rumble.
They all turned their gaze upwards in unison to discover the massive foot belonged to the supposed magician.
His gargantuan head lowered closer to their height and came nearly nose to mammoth nose with Monica, though he didn't seem to notice her. He swept the area with his eyes then returned to full height.
"Uh oh..." They heard him mumble. "Time to go to stealth mode." And then he was gone.
"Jesus christ." Amber gasped as she lowered her wide eyed gaze back down to their level.
"No, it's just not possible." Monica said in a shaking voice.
"What the hell do we do?"Julie asked no one in particular.
"No, no, this isn't real."Monica continued to try to convince herself, trembling violently.
"I don't know..." Mike answered Julie, paying no attention to Monica's rambling.
"Well, is everybody ok at least?" Eric chimed in. All answered with nods and confirming noises, except, of course for Monica.
"Ok?" She squeaked. "Ok? No I'm not Ok, this is not Ok!"
"Mon, this is not a suitable time for a breakdown. Let's just..."
"NO!" She cut him off in wild spasm. "No, no, no, no!" She screeched over and over at deafening level.
"Take it easy!" Eric tried to yell over her relentless harpy like howling. But it did no good, her sanity was a lost cause. She tore off on a rampage, flailing her limbs around maniacally, never even pausing her screams to take another breath.
"Monica, stop!" Amber called after the terrified girl. "We should stay together!"
"Where are you going?" Julie joined in with Amber.
Monica continued on her path of destruction, wailing all the time. The others gave chase but she was far out ahead of them and in her panicked state she didn't notice the fast approaching danger until it was too late.
"Mon, look out!" Amber shrieked.
A nauseating crunch echoed through the air as a giant green taloned foot came crashing down on top of the fleeing girl.
"Eww." Lex moaned.
"What happened?" Brooklyn asked
"Stepped on a bug." He replied.
"Yummy." Brooklyn mocked as he inspected the tiny dot of bug guts on the floor.
"Oh, god!" Julie howled, falling to her knees and wailing hysterically.
As the foot ascended Monica's remains came into view. She had been reduced to a pile of crushed bone fragments, smeared organs and hair melting into a bubbling pool of blood.
Mike began projectile vomiting at the sight of it. Julie continued to scream and rock back and forth in denial. Amber clung to Eric and cried uncontrollably.
"Mon, no, Mon!" Amber begged. "Oh, god! Oh, god!"
TBC...