HALLOWEEN NIGHT FEVER
A/N: Written for Writers Anonymous' Halloween Challenge. Thanks to VStarTraveler for providing another set of eyes.
All disclaimers apply.
He'd always wanted to let Mika enjoy the town's festivities; a kid deserved something more than staying inside a chilly morgue with him. But he was damn sure that he would soon regret what he'd done.
The horde had come. Led by an orgman in a black suit, those silver-skinned corpses marched down the bustling street.
Funnily enough, the costumed humans around dismissed the legion of mutated undead as though they were part of the Halloween street party. Well, Brandon couldn't really blame them. His body odor, smelling like a combination of pungent chemicals and rotten meat according to Mika, didn't even bother them. Maybe those silly humans considered that stench as part of his costume. Or perhaps, going everywhere with a little girl had humanized him too much. A monster would never walk side by side with a kid, while a kid would never cling to a monster as though he was her daddy.
Better ignore them and get going.
Suddenly, Mika hugged his forearm tightly. "Orgmen! Th-they're coming this way!"
He looked down at her. "I'll protect you."
"B-but there are so many of them!" she screamed, sobbing into his sleeve. "Y-you can't possibly-"
With a whoosh, the constant buzz changed into an inharmonious chorus of shrieks. The crowd dispersed, revealing a lone orgman - the death scythe - in the distance. Blood dripped down the large saber attached to its right arm. Two fake monsters lay motionless before the silver-skinned man, bleeding out from their stomachs.
Others couldn't escape either. Those grim reapers attacked from everywhere, splattering the pavement and the pumpkin lanterns with blood and entrails.
Brandon immediately took a step ahead, staring at the incoming death scythe. And the crystalline saber came. Dodging it with a tilt of his body, he smashed the back of his fist against the orgman's jaw. One down. Temporarily. It managed to slash across his stomach, leaving a bleeding, yet painless gash.
Before the death scythe rose to its feet, Brandon landed his sound foot on its right shoulder. Hunching, he grabbed the writhing orgman's bladed arm and tore it off. The lengthy saber and pole made it look more like a spear than a scythe, but either way, this was one hell of a versatile weapon.
Amid the orgman's agonized scream, he heard Mika shout, "Brandon, behind us!"
A whirl, a swish, and a thud. The orgman behind Mika crashed to the ground as a headless corpse. Suddenly, he spotted another silver-skinned grim reaper in the air. Another swing, another decapitation.
He returned his attention to the death scythe beneath him, who had begun banging its fist against his leg. Quickly, he drove the saber into its forehead.
Looking up, he caught a glimpse of an approaching death scythe. A swing of his weapon deflected its strike, and he leapt, his spear ready to impale. With a crash, the orgman's head shattered along with the concrete. Good thing orgmen possessed neither a real brain nor the ability to bleed.
No more incoming death scythes. Good. However, this only happened because they were all busy chasing and slaughtering the poor souls around. More and more gore and dismembered corpses added to the already nightmarish environment.
His face crumpled at the sight of the women and the kids there. They ran, but those death scythes easily caught up with them and cut them down. He wished he could help those people as well, but doing so would leave his child unprotected.
Shaking his head and growing a little teary, Brandon turned around. A trembling Mika stood still, her gaze fixed upon a man's severed head beside her feet. That thing stared back at her, draining the color from her face.
From beside her, a death scythe jumped over a beheaded corpse and raised its bladed arm.
That is the last thing you will ever do in your 'life'.
Brandon dashed towards Mika. Gritting his teeth, he swung his weapon with such a force that dust and rocks followed the swipe. And the orgman fell, its torso separated from its lower half.
Despite that, it continued to creep towards them, letting out a high-pitched cry as it dragged its body along the rough road.
Like hell would he let it touch Mika. Brandon simply crushed its head under his sound foot.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a pale and shivering Mika. Those wobbly legs couldn't possibly help her escape, so he rushed to her, getting behind her. With his teeth, he picked her up by the back of her cardigan and began running away from the killing field. He only had to pray that the fabric was strong and elastic enough until he reached their van.
Unfortunately, they never made it to their destination. An orgman in a black suit stood before them, guarded by two death scythes. Shades off and thrown away, it bared its gleaming red eyes.
Brandon's eye widened when it flexed its muscles like a bodybuilder. Damn. If that thing managed to grow to full size, his weapon would have a hard time piercing through its flesh.
Releasing Mika, he told her, "Stay behind me. Scream when something tries to sneak up on you." Two crystalline blades came, but a swing of his makeshift spear deflected them. "It will die." Another swing, and the lengthy saber sliced through the orgmen's necks.
Mika only stood still, looking at him with concerned eyes. He didn't need any word to understand what they meant anyway; she feared that he wouldn't stand a chance against the bloating orgman. Truth be told, he also knew he had a very small chance of winning.
But this wasn't the time to be sentimental; the orgman's swelling muscles had begun shredding its suit. "Stay back!" he snapped. But as tough as he tried to be, he couldn't help but grimace at the fact that he'd screamed at her.
Stifling a nod, Mika sprinted past him. At the same time, something towered over him. The orgman now stood as tall as a two-story building.
The giant brought its palm down, but Brandon bolted out of harm's way. He stopped before its colossal leg and swung his spear.
But his blow never landed. With a kick, the orgman sent him flying away.
Brandon crashed head-first against a lamp post and smashed into the ground along with it. Regaining his composure, he realized that he had whizzed past Mika. Nothing stood between her and the orgman now.
Rushing towards her, he shouted, "Run, Mika! Run!"
She listened to him. Fortunately, her unsteady legs could still carry her away from the orgman's earth-shattering stomp.
Before she reached him, he suddenly found it a tad harder to breathe. Looking down, he saw a bloodstained blade sticking out of his chest. A sneaky death scythe, he concluded, glancing over his shoulder. It lacked intelligence, though; this kind of attack would cause neither pain nor disability to a dead man like him. He only had to be careful not to bleed to death.
Dropping his makeshift spear, he held the death scythe's arm and yanked it off.
"Brandon!" Mika's cry echoed across the street.
Boom!
Looking ahead, Brandon saw his nightmare. Instead of Mika, a sinewy leg stood before him. Blood stained the smashed concrete beneath the foot.
His child, the very person who had taught him to love like a human again, was gone.
Tears streamed out of his eye. Roaring, he ripped the blade out of his chest and threw it at the behemoth. It hit the bastard in the left eye and brought about a painful howl.
Not enough.
Letting out an ear-splitting battle cry, he jumped at the giant. His knuckles struck the ogre in the chest, and he fell along with the behemoth. As he crawled towards the orgman's head, a palm came down on him. A backhand punch knocked it away.
Like a petulant child, Brandon wailed and slammed his fist against the orgman's neck rapidly and repeatedly. The ogre, despite coughing and letting out raucous cries, could still muster up the strength to grab and lift him into the air. Its fingers constricted, threatening to pulverize every single bone in his body.
With a roar, Brandon spread his limbs and broke the crushing grip. However, a huge cavity had opened up on each of its fingertips, turning its fingers into huge cannons. Once he landed on its torso, the ogre pointed the massive barrels at him.
A burst of blue light overwhelmed his vision.
His eye snapped open, and he screamed. Gasping for breath and rising to a sitting position, he let his hand travel around the smooth, flat surface of something. Wait... I survived that blast? This is my bed.
"Calm down. You need to rest."
That light voice of a man... It sounded like the doctor. Right. A man in a lab coat sat at the computer desk. Apparently, he had somehow returned to the trailer and received medical care.
But what was this? He found a small piece of soaked cloth on his forehead. And armpits. And groin. That wasn't the right treatment for his wounds, was it?
Looking down at his hand, he saw an IV line. To his surprise, the tube contained transparent liquid instead of crimson fluid. Why wasn't he receiving any blood? He needed a transfusion to stay alive, especially when injured...
Did he sustain any wounds after all? He recalled having a blade piercing through his chest, but only his rapidly pounding heart haunted him now.
His gaze traveled up the line and towards a bottle hanging on the IV stand. Seeing the word on the label, he let out a sigh of relief.
Acetaminophen. Something to alleviate my fever.
Looking around the trailer, though, he saw no sign of Mika.
"I'm not completely sure we aren't all living in a hallucination now." - Marc Maron
Notes:
1. The orgmen subspecies names are taken from the game universe, although they also appear in the anime several times. The death scythes are in episode 21, while the black suit is very common throughout the anime.
2. This is inspired by my experience during internal medicine department. Some patients can burn up during blood transfusion. When they do and the body temperature rises too high, they tend to behave strangely and even have nightmares.