Hello! If you haven't played Horrorvale, I highly recommend it! Its still in the developmental phase but its charm has made me interested in making a fic for the game, I hope you all enjoy!
Horrorvale Sweet Treats
Chapter 1: Alice and her Slimophobia
Alice, the Skeleton Witch girl, stared upon the green slime lake in front of her, seeing her reflection she was quick to notice the hesitation in her eyes, she tried dipping her foot into the cool collection only to retract right before even touching the slime with a flinched expression painted on her pale face.
The girl couldn't do it, feeling as if she would melt from the instant she touches the green-tinted water, Alice sighed as she silently watched her two friends; Wraps and Jekyll play in the lake that Alice was too afraid to hop in.
Alice and her friends wanted to go swimming today in this warm weekend of Horrorvale, a rarity in the perpetually autumn season of the land. So it was not to be wasted by its residents. The group was to go to a community pool, but Alice insisted on going to a lone lake instead. She didn't want to embarrass herself and her friends with her phobia of green slime.
Alice didn't know why she possesses this crippling fear of large bodies of Green Slime, it's not like she was afraid of the green water, she could take a shower or a bath, but the concept of swimming it in and possibly drowning made her bones crawl.
She sat on the grass as she watched her friend Wraps playfully throw a beach ball at her other friend Jekyll who would fall into the green slime from both the sheer force of the throw as well as his skinny frame being unable to support him.
At least Alice had some companionship to ease of her dry solitude, her zombie dog Scruffy patiently plopped beside her with his tongue out, giving her comfort within her, while his loyalty to his owner was intense, it was a great struggle for the dog to remain by her side, the desire of getting in the slime water to get his fur wet agonized the poor zombie pup.
"Oh c'mon Jekyll! I wasn't even like, trying when I threw that thing!" Wraps exclaimed with a little laugh as she helped the nerdy ghoul up.
"I highly doubt that Wraps, I know your true intentions! You can't-fool me!" he mumbled as he readjusted his glasses looking a bit miffed.
"Well, its like, not my fault that you're like, built like a stick dude. If you want to be as buff as your Chat Alter-Ego, you gotta' do the work!" The Mummy girl would then notice her friend Alice was still sitting by the lake, with a sad expression on her face as she would try to preoccupy her time by fiddling with several blades of grass.
"Yo Alice!" Wraps would call, scampering out of the water as she approached the somber Skeleton.
"I know you're scared of swimming, but girl, step one of overcoming your fear is taking that first step! Impy steps!" Wraps would demonstrate her words by taking a single step into the green slime lake, barely going up to the mummy girl's ankles.
"See? Nothing to be afraid of Alice!" Wraps said with a cheerful tone as she would hop in the shallow slime, splashing some green-tinted mud on Alice as she did so, the Skeleton girl flinched from the sudden contact before shaking her head rapidly, having no intention of joining in her friends in the natural pool.
"C'mon Alice! It's not like you're gonna to blow up or something when you join us..." The thought of blowing up like a stick of dynamite as she poked into the pool danced through Alice's mind, making her shuffle a couple of inches back from the green slime lake to avoid an explosive demise. Her dog Scruffy mimicked her like a shadow, but more so in innocent bliss rather than paranoia.
"We both know that's not gonna happen, Alice...You Silly Skelly..." Wraps sighed in defeat as Jekyll joined her side, the sight of her two friends having to stop in their fun to tend to her needs made Alice feel embarrassed, her pale cheeks suddenly being embellished with shades of pink.
"You're smart Jekyll, think you can like, help me with this? This is getting ridiculous." Wraps asked the ghoul, feeling a bit flustered, Jekyll placed a finger on his chin in thought.
"You know how to swim right Alice?" Alice would shake in a quick motion.
"Okay, so I can, totally understand now, but why didn't you tell us this-"
"Wrap it up Wraps!" Jekyll quickly hushed the mummy girl, to which she would fold her arms and turn away in a huff. "Okay so its a physical barrier, we can both probably teach you how to swim, but anyone who can't swim is willing to go in a foot deep at least, is there something else holding you back Alice?" Jekyll would politely ask, being patient with the girl.
Alice gave it some thought and then she would intentionally to act out herself clenching her neck with one hand and reach up in the air with her other hand. Pointing to the green slime lake afterward she mimed the action.
"You're scared of drowning?" Alice would nod, albeit, with slight hesitation.
"But you're a skeleton; you don't need to breathe, you like, can't drown even if you wanted to." Wraps pointed out as she turned back around to face her friends, seemingly cooling off from being silenced by interrupted Jekyll. Alice would shake her head to deny that particular element was not a factor in her fear.
She would then draw on the ground with her finger, allowing both Jekyll and Wraps to understand her more.
Her drawing depicted three stick figures, one with a witch's hat to signify Alice, one with twin-tails to symbolize Wraps and one with thick glasses to signify Jekyll. They were all playing in the lake, only for the Alice Stick Figure to suddenly sink to the bottom of the lake.
She then drew another drawing in the loose dirt, this time depicting a much more morbid image of her two friends drowning as they tried to pull their sunken friend up from the bottom of the lake. Giant X's were drawn over their eyes as their hands were clenching a helpless Alice in a failed rescue attempt.
Alice's two friends would stare in silence in a stunned state for a moment before Wraps spoke up.
"Oh, my Ra Alice..." Wraps would quietly exclaim as she looked at her drawings collecting herself. The illustrations going from sweet in one drawing to horrific in the next was very jarring for the Mummy Girl. Alice would then dust everything off, giving her a blank dirt slate to write on.
'I don't want my friends to get hurt because of my limitations. So please, have fun without me. I don't want to be a burden. I have Scruffy to keep me company while you two enjoy the warm day.' She then somberly wrote on the dirt, apparently not liking what she had to say but feeling that this was the best compromise she could come up with.
"Alice, while I appreciate your concern for our well-being, but, isn't the scenario you're conjuring up in your head is a little...Irrational?" Alice shook her head, firmly believing in her overly-cautious thoughts.
"Okay, how about we go to like, an impy pool instead? It's only like, three feet deep at best; we can totally teach you how to swim in there! Once you learn how to swim, then you won't be so scared anymore!" Wraps suggested remaining hopeful. Wallowing in her somberness, Alice would stay put in her resistance.
She would then draw another picture in loose dirt, once again drawing the three monster stick figures, but instead redrawing the drowning scenario, she instead drew something else entirely. When she hugged her dog Scruffy to imply that she was done, the finished drawing made both Wraps and Jekyll raise eyebrows.
"Okay, accidentally drowning your friends is plausible...Being the main reason why your friends get attacked by a bearshark? That's impossible Alice..." Jekyll would argue, finding her scenarios, imaginative but unrealistic.
The illustration was a drawing of the lake with a giant shark-headed bear rising from the slime, grabbing ahold and biting the heads of off stick figure Wraps and Jekyll because stick figure Alice sank to the bottom disturbing an underwater cave due to her inability to swim; which also so happens to be a home for a hungry bearshark who couldn't eat Alice for she was nothing but bones.
'I read it in a book, it happens all the time.' Alice would defend her wild imagination.
"I highly doubt that Alice." Jekyll responded with a snarky tone. Wraps pressed her palm against her face and groaned in frustration, now finding this whole situation ridiculous.
"Alright, you know what Alice? Since we can't, like, bring you to the water to have fun...Then we might as well..." The Mummy girl would then surprisingly set herself right next to Alice and dropped down on the ground in a relaxed manner.
"Bring the fun to you, ain't that right Jekyll?" Wraps would say in a kind tone, petting Scruffy who would bark happily from the new company.
"That's correct Wraps, friends stick together, its not enjoyable to leave someone out." Jekyll agreed as he would slowly and awkwardly sit opposite to Wraps, making Alice the middle-monster between the three. The Skeleton girl would remorsefully shake her head, feeling like she was forcing her friends to include her in their activities.
'But-' Wraps would messily swipe the loose dirt around to keep Alice from objecting with her written defenses. "I'm so like, totally done with your drawings Alice..." Wraps would say seriously, causing Alice to feel a shiver down her spine.
"Allow me, a totally awesome artist to draw one of those bearsharks!" Alice gave a look of confusion from her friend's sudden change of subject, but before she knew it, Wraps would then begin drawing her own version of the elusive bearshark on the ground.
"Look at me! I'm like the next Zomcasso!" Wraps would playfully gloat, acting as if she was the greatest artist in all of Horrorvale.
"Wraps, a bearshark isn't supposed to have two heads, you can't announce yourself as an awesome artist if you can't even get your biological facts straight! Let me show a physically correct drawing of a bearshark!" Jekyll challenged as he began drawing his own version of the beast, Alice would watch her two friends duke it out in a sudden drawing competition. Slowly finding amusement in their antics.
'Hold on.' Alice wrote between the two competing monsters, both Wraps and Jekyll would pause to look at Alice to hear what she has to say.
'You two are both wrong. This is how you draw a bearshark!' she announced proudly as she began to happily redraw the animal once again, this time not eating her friends but rather, in a fearsome and intimidating pose instead.
The three friends would spend the rest of the afternoon, out of the green slime lake and instead all together on dry land, firstly in a drawing competition, then into a game of catch with the beach ball that Wraps brought. And then finally ending with the three monsters and their zombie dog relaxing until it was starting to get dark.
In the end, While Alice was still afraid of the Green Slime water, she left the lake a lot happier than before.
Silently grateful that her friends didn't gave up on her.