It was Halloween night and six young teenagers had no idea what they were getting into as they decorated for their Halloween party. All their work from the past months, would be ruined by the end of the night. Miri's father, the mayor had won priority for renting out the Lancaster mansion for their party.
Miri, the gymnast of the bunch, hung banners, Rowan and Fen cleaned out all the floors, Livia organized and bought coasters, cups, and bowls for the food, which she and Sadie bought. The birthday girl: Sadie carved pumpkins and made desserts. Nikolas set up the lights and placed the jack-o-lanterns around the house.
During decorating, Miri told the story of Lancaster mansion. The Lancaster family had lived in the 1960s and they'd been doomed from the moment they moved into the manor down the street from the graveyard. They were ripped to shreds, the mother hung by a noose from a chandelier, the father was wrapped in ropes with a knife in his huge belly, a surprised look on his distorted face. The little girl twins were tied together by their arms, scratch marks all up their bodies. The older brother was found in two pieces, each on opposite sides of the house, multiple scratches across his once handsome face and a backwards leg. The middle child: a girl, had been strangled with her own long, golden hair and draped over the railing, her ankles torn to the bone.
They brought in specialists from around the world, but they all died within the week. Nobody knows who did it and the case was reluctantly thrown out as unsolved by Rowan's father, the sheriff, in 2012. The house seemed to be surrounded by death because there were also multiple murders around the house, even years after the house was condemned.
The night was finally here and the group was excitedly getting their costumes on at Sadie's house. They were all wearing something to reflect their personalities. Miri was an angel, having been voted nicest student of the year in the yearbook last year. Nikolas got into a hellhound costume, he has major anger issues. Rowan was dressed up like the Hulk, he's the strongest boy at the teens' high school. Livia, a lover of water, had transformed into a mermaid with blonde hair (instead of her usual Ariel-red). Fen had decided to go simple and become a werewolf, figuring he loves any kind of meat. Sadie, the girl surrounded by death, changed into a banshee costume, complete with zombie-like makeup and a light grey dress.
They all rode in Rowan's sleek black Jeep to the manor, planning on arriving two hours early to make sure everything was ready. When they got out of the car they heard a howl, Miri being the jumpiest, screamed and the others teased her for a while, before going inside. The door creaked upon opening it, which it had never done before and they all exchanged creeped out glances before laughing it off. They all went their separate ways to check each other's area of expertise in the previous weeks. Suddenly, they all heard a terrified scream.
They all gathered in the entrance hall and frantically looked around for who was missing, Liv found it was Miri. They all began panicking, Fen voiced his opinion, saying it was probably a prank to get them back for laughing at her earlier. Nikolas pushed Fen into a flimsy wall and held him by the throat, his anger getting the best of him. He berated Fen for suggesting that, saying Miri wouldn't do that, even if she was mad for being laughed at. Sadie finally pulled Nik off Fen and convinced them all to search for their lost friend.
Nik stayed on the main floor, Sadie and Fen searched upstairs, while Rowan and Liv searched the basement.
They all heard a yell, a thump and then Fen shouting, "Get off her," at something. They all ran upstairs to see Fen clawing at a metal door that hadn't been there the other times. He looked like he was hyperventilating until Liv slapped him to get him out of his craziness.
He finally became coherent (after several more slaps, courtesy of Liv) and explained that some THING had grabbed Sadie and disappeared behind the door. He'd heard thumping and a cry of pain from behind the door, so he'd tried to open it, but it was to no avail.
They agreed to look for something to break open the door, but they were forced to separate again, Fen and Nik went looking for a strong weapon while Liv and Rowan watched the door, neither willing to leave the other alone.
Liv got a Snapchat from an unknown number and excused herself to go look from around the corner. Rowan started getting worried when he heard groaning noises from inside the locked room. He began to shake the door, just as Liv came back around the corner. She screamed for him to stop, but he didn't seem to hear her, he yanked the door off its hinges and carelessly threw behind him. Liv's reflexes saved her from being crushed under the heavy door and she chased after him just as he entered the dark room. She saw glowing red eyes from the darkness and freaked out. She sprinted even faster towards the door.
She reached the doorway and something propelled her backwards, she fell on her backside just as she heard a yelp and a loud thump. She began screaming Rowan's name, panicking and that was all it took for Fen and Nik to race up the stairs, scared that she was hurt. They reached her just as she was about to throw herself at the sealed door once again.
They tried asking her what had happened but she couldn't string a full sentence together, her eyes full of terror. They all tried to get into the room that seemed to be blocked by some type of magic, but none of them succeeded. Liv seemed to be getting more insane by the minute, abruptly, she leaped at Fen, her… tail striking the back of his head. Nik raced to his side and felt his pulse, sighing with relief when it beat against his probing fingertips. He turned, just in time for Liv's bright red eyes to catch his forest green ones.
It was as if he were being hypnotized, he was glued to his spot and immediately after he made eye contact with Liv, his eyes turned red as well. Though Liv's eyes were a gentler red, Nik's were a glowing dark red, almost black. Together, they shook Fen awake and he glanced into each of their eyes and became entranced as well. Fen's eyes took on a lighter shade from his usual brown, they turned red-orange, light enough to almost be considered yellow. They all stood and leaped through the doorway toward their impending doom.
Once inside they encountered a shirtless Rowan with greenish skin, a white-winged Miri with dark, crystal blue eyes and Sadie pale hazel eyes and a grey face. Sadie let out a piercing wail… like a banshee. Miri whimpered because she was trying to hide her majestic white feathery wings behind her back, to no avail. Rowan bellowed a war cry and roared in anger, pounding his chest like a baboon would. Liv screeched because she had no idea why she suddenly had the urge to jump into a lake and swim to the bottom. Fen and Nik both growled, not surprisingly, at each other (they had always butted heads, sometimes more than playfully).
Miri and Sadie raced towards Fen and Nik just as they began clawing at each other. The two girls seemed to have shaken themselves out of the "demon" state that they were in and were now trying to help the others do the same. The spirits of the manor weren't having any of THAT!
Two little twin girls appeared and… SURPRISE! One of them was me, Tami Lancaster, the other was my sister, Wendy Lancaster. We appeared in a glowing green light, frightening the girls and shaking the rest out of their stupor to face their doom. We twins had clawed faces that obviously weren't pretty to look at, but the teens gawked at us all the same. We were still tied together by our arms, but we quickly untangled them. Then the rest of my family appeared.
Papa was still bleeding out of his stomach from the knife wound, never having bothered cleaning it up. Mama had a crooked neck that leered precariously to the left. Mark had finally managed to stitch his body back together with my help, but his disturbing face still bore his old injuries, he was limping on one foot because of twisted foot. Mary's hair was half torn out and she could barely walk because of her torn up ankles. All in all, we were your typical 60s family, oh, except for the being evil ghost family part, but we don't like to advertise that part TOO much, it scares our victims (AHEM! Customers) away!
They all did your typical terrified teenager screams and sprinting out the room in unison. My family I giggled a little at the idea that they thought they still had a chance to live. Wendy disappeared to go after Miri while Mary poofed off to toy with Liv. Papa ran after Nik, Mark left to torture Fen. Mama smirked and leaped through the wall to pursue Rowan, leaving me to deal with Sadie.
I found Sadie struggling to open the securely locked front door, right next to a petrified Miri. They were trying to hatch a plan on how to get rid of us and escape.
Not on my watch! I snickered alongside my twin as try slowly turned to see where we were.
Sadie whispered to Miri and I strained to hear the words that would bring me to the brink of no return, "Seriously, they sent us the little twins? Oh, I'm SO scared of a pair of 8 year olds!"
I giggled in response, if only she knew that she was up against one of the oldest demons known to man, Azazel. He had possessed my mind back in the 60s and had continuously come back for more torturing of humans, using my family as a "portal" to Earth. Now it was the incompetent teenage girl's turn to DIE! I advanced on her, towering over her menacingly.
Without any warning, a force barreled into me and knocked me over: Fen, the werewolf in love with my prey. I growled loudly at Mark, who had finally caught Fen by the scruff of his furry little werewolf neck. Nik came sprinting in next, trying to protect Miri from Wendy, Papa running in right behind him. Liv sprinted out of the doorway leading to the basement, crying from Mary's expert mental torture. Rowan came stumbling in from the kitchen, a knife in his hand and a crazed look in his eyes, from Mama's evil look, he'd been tempted to kill his little friends. He ran to Liv and wrapped her in a bear hug, dropping the knife and trying not to cry.
"Nice job Lancaster family, everybody's here!" I shouted with obvious glee. "Now it's time for the real torture to begin!"
All the teens whimpered and gripped each other tightly, suddenly someone's phone rang. It was Sadie's.
"Hello? Yes, I'm aware that I'm in front of a family of murders! I should do WHAT?! Fine. If I die, it's on you big bro!" She turned back to me, "Apparently, we have to cut our visit short, the town is on lockdown, something about Ghostbusters being here?"
The teenagers all laughed and I gasped, "I loved that show as a kid!"
"Really?" Asked the ever-observant Rowan.
"Nope," I deadpanned, "prepare to die in horrible pain Sadie Theodosia King"
Her friends all chuckled at her middle name and then started screaming for help—help that would never get there in time. My family closed in on the helpless teenagers.
Rowan stepped forward bravely, trying to protect the best friends he'd ever had.
"I love you Livvy," he shouted and threw himself at Mama and Papa. "Livvy" shrieked as they threw him against the staircase, he dropped like a sack of potatoes and didn't get back up. Liv screamed, her eyes turning light red from her demon-possessed anger and tackled Mama, knocking her more solid form out, before Mary picked her up and threw her sideways against the basement door. She managed to get up and went after Mary this time. Papa threw the determined teen into a chair, where she collapsed and fainted from hitting her head, hard.
Nik and Miri roared and yelled accordingly and pounced on Papa, knocking him out as well. Miri turned at Sadie's warning shout, just to be jolted by Mark's rattling hit to the head with a wooden bat. Miri teetered and fell against Nik. Sadie screamed in anguish and raced to Nik's protection, Fen defended her along the way. I popped over to the Nik and Miri Love Story, looking for a good show, and I got it. Nik said he loved her and brushed his calloused fingers against her closed eyelids, she opened them one last time and whispered something in his ear so quietly, even I couldn't hear it. All I saw was a single tear run down Nik's cheek as she took in another shaky breath.
Wendy and I giggled like the little girls we should've been and grinned at each other as Nik got up to face us, the anger on his face as clear as day. He shouted his lover's name and raced at us both, we promptly disappeared and reappeared across the room, allowing him to proceed straight into a pillar. He growled loudly and quite visibly and stalked over to us clenching his fists every time we sniggered at Miri's body, possibly her corpse.
He berated us for laughing and charged at us several times, each time we disappeared and reappeared somewhere else, though he got closer and closer to catching one of us each time. His eyes turned almost black because of Azazel. He grabbed Wendy after his sixth try and she screamed for me. I yelled for the bat from Mark and he tossed it to me. I caught it easily and swung it at Nik's now clawed-up face (courtesy of Wendy). He dropped like he was going to play Limbo, fell to his knees and then, finally, facedown. My first kill in over a decade felt glorious as I basked in my thirst for more spilled blood.
Sadie and Fen yelled in perfect unison and Sadie swung a quick falcon punch at Mary's temple, temporarily putting her out of our little fun. Fen kicked Mark in the crotch and then placed his claws in a pressure point at the back of my brother's neck. They both kicked away their old opponents and faced us.
Fen immediately ran at us, always the reckless one of the two. Surprisingly, Sadie wasn't too far behind him. Wendy slowed him down with her arm but he tossed her off as he began to transform into a full wolf before my eyes. I grinned malevolently, I hadn't fought a full wolf in years, but my body was burning with adrenaline and I was ready for another kill, the last one hadn't satisfied my thirst for blood. I kicked him in the stomach before he finished transforming to quicken the transformation and braced myself for the slaughter I was about to commit. Sadie was already preoccupied with my twin and everyone else was either dead or unconscious, so there was no worry about surprises.
I summoned my Blade of Darkness: Muramasa (as Azazel's favorite, I got his demon sword). I swung the hilt of my sword into Fen's shoulder, all those hours of training with an official demon were finally paying off. I continuously slashed Fen's little werewolf hide, finally I slashed his throat, a quicker death then I gave most.
Sadie screamed in agony and rage when her best friend's body hit the floor, she tackled me and began punching my face repeatedly. I didn't feel anything but triumph, I'd finally broken the unbreakable Sadie King. I felt only a sense of achievement as I shoved the annoying girl off my body.
I decided, in the heat of the moment to let the destroyed girl go, she wouldn't last a day knowing that her friends were dead because of her party. I told her to get out before I killed her and not to look back before she reached the hospital. Strangely enough, she obeyed, I truly had broken her, I thought with satisfaction.
I watched over her the whole night she spent at the hospital, making sure her guardian angel didn't protect her from the demon-like feelings I was sending her through dreams. I tittered each time she gasped or whimpered during the first night, the second night Wendy joined me, the third night I sent her the worst dream of all. I made her believe that she'd slashed Fen's throat, not me.
She couldn't take it anymore. Just as she picked up her Swiss Army knife from her bedside table, I was sent to be judged in front of Lucifer and all his fallen angels. I had achieved my death-long goal: to break Sadie King. I was to be judged on how efficient my work was before I achieved my death wish: a true death with no interferences. The last thing I saw before I "died" was Sadie lifting her beloved birthday knife (from Fen) to her own throat, drawing a tiny drop of crazed perspiration and a single bead blood, her eyes shut tighter than the noose on broken neck.