It was finally here, the time once a year they were meant to come out, three men stood around in a circle, each one standing at equidistant points from one another. Each glanced to the others,their faces hidden beneath cowls of different colors, one green, one red, and one blue, each had different magical designs on them, though they seemed to move around the fabric as it flapped around in the wind. They seemed to be waiting for something as the clouds moved overhead, pumpkins around them glowed with candlelight, and the moon shone bright and silver.
Then, within a moment the moon turned a dark red color, as though blood had been poured into a silver dish, casting a faint red glow upon the three. They promptly removed their hoods, revealing three young men, each of blonde hair and a smirk upon their face, each of their eyes reflecting the same light as their robes. They looked back and forth each one another as they raised their arms above the circle, glancing up toward the moon above them, which seemed to shine light directly on top of them, though not quite centered.
They then turned back to each other, one one in cloak of green speaking up, his English accent seeming all the more frightening under these condition "Gentlemen, we have all gathered here tonight… The Viking Shaman…" he glanced to the one in blue, who looked almost bored. "The Vampire Dragon…" he turned to the one in red, who had a playful smirk on his face, barring a set of lethal shark-like fangs. "And myself the Dark Sorcerer, to perform a kind of magic that can only be done once every hundred years, on this very full moon when the clock strikes midnight, at the time of the dead. Are we all in understanding as to what we are doing?"
They all nodded, their arms still raised as they all looked up to the moon, closing their eyes as the light slowly inched toward their positions, and they began to hum a soft tune under their breaths that seemed estranged, almost like a summoning song, though there were no words, until the light finally centered.
"Trap these men, in their skin
Trap their siblings, trap their kin
For tonight we toil in sin
Change their minds, change their forms
Let them rot, leave them to the worms
Hear their cries, hear their lovely morns
Hear us now, oh hear us please, we ask for change today
For this is the scene, when the dead come out to play
Listen now, as we decree, life shall change, as we say
The forms these fools will take tonight
Shall give them all quite the fright
Under our eternal great red light"
Then they all took a breath, the circle beneath them glowing, and as they sang designs extended inside the circle from the drawing on the ground, swirling around to form a treyarch, each of the corners pointing toward one of the three of them. It didn't stop there, no, in each of the spaces it continued to make different shapes and symbols, and they continued their chant, this time changing languages
"Quorum insidias in cute
Multivorum eorum siblings, cognati sui caperent
Hac nocte certantes in peccatum
Animum mutant figuram
Sit corrumpuntur, vermes dimittes
Audi voces audi amoena morns
Audite nunc, o exaudi nos placere quaerimus hodie mutationi
Hoc enim arcu, ludere cum mortuis
Audi nunc ut decretum mutetur vita, ut patet
Formae hae stultorum nocte assumam
Is pavor in eis itidem
Sub nostra aeterna magnus rufus lux"
There was one full symbol in each of the spaces now, one had the Egyptian Ankh, in another laid the sign of the Greek Omega, and the last had a Pentagram, the magic line disappearing for a moment until it began to move again.
"Lovushka etikh lyudey, v ikh kozhe
Lovushka ikh brat'yev i sester , poymat' ikh rodstvennikov
Dlya segodnya trudimsya vo grekhe
Peredumat' , izmenit' svoi formy
Pust' gniyet, ostavit' ikh na chervey
Uslyshat' ikh kriki , uslyshat' ikh prekrasnyy Morns
Uslysh'te nas seychas, okh uslyshat' nas pozhaluysta, my prosim izmeneniye segodnya
Ibo eto yest' stsena , kogda mertvyye vykhodyat igrat'
Slushayte teper' , kak my ukaz , zhizn' dolzhna izmenit'sya, kak my govorim
Formy eti duraki sostoitsya segodnya vecherom
Dadim im vse dovol'noispuga
Pod nashim vechnym bol'shoy krasnyy svet"
Finally the last symbol were in place, this symbol closer to the center than the other was, there was a Viking ægishjálmr, The Chinese Symbol for Magic, and then an Aztec Symbol for the God Tezcatlipoca. Then the white light stopped and everything it had made turned a dark red and the light shone up toward the three men, their cloaks began to billow up in the wind.
The were all smiling down, their hands raised up to the sky as the red-cloaked man spoke up "This is it, my friends!" and then the one in blue turned toward the others "This is our time of year!" and then the one in green closed his eyes, then opened them again as the light began to fade, causing a portion of his face to darken as he spoke "Happy Halloween!"
Ivan stepped forward, waving his hands in front of his face as he looked around, his head looking around to try and see past the cloth on his face "Hello? I can't really see out of this thing-" around him Alfred, Toris, Yao, and Kiku were all laughing at Ivan's predicament, he obviously didn't think his costume through, even if it was creepy as hell. Or maybe that was just Ivan naturally and the costume wasn't really that scary.
"Dude, I knew you'd like Slender, but I didn't think you'd dress up as Slenderman, that's freaking amazing, you're already tall and shit so it's totally perfect!" Alfred was pointing and laughing, not because Ivan couldn't see but because he couldn't believe the situation. He'd shown Ivan Slender a few days before Halloween in an attempt to scare him, but Ivan had actually been very fascinated by it, determined to pass it. Alfred had only just gotten the text last night from Ivan saying that he'd pass it, and seeing that he was going as Slenderman for Halloween? Priceless.
Yao shook his head, wiping at the tears at his eyes, he was dressed as Mulan from the Disney movie-the only thing from Disney he'd admit he liked-as a joke that Leon had suggested. He was wearing the man's clothes of course-no way he would wear a dress with all the crap he got for looking like a girl-with a sword at his side and his hair tied up in a nice ball and of course a small plush dragon to be Mushu. Though he was probably the least strange out of all the costumes that were being worn, at least in his opinion, strange westerners….
Alfred was wearing a set of white robes and carrying the Assassin Tomahawk from Assassin's Creed 3, obviously dressed as Connor from the game, complete with his own functional weapons. Though as far as any of the others were concerned they were totally props, and he wouldn't hurt anyone with them if they confronted him. His favorite part about his outfit was the hidden blade though, he'd been playing with it quite often through the night when his hands were unoccupied. Arthur, Feliciano, and Sadik had agreed to come as Edward Kenway, Ezio Auditore, and Altair, Feliciano and Sadik were there already, but he had no idea where Arthur was.
Kiku had designed himself to be an android, wearing a helmet that showed off his brain with a wig just like his own hair overtop it, then of course he had the makeup, contacts, and other things to make it look more realistic. Of course no one knew more about androids that Kiku, so his costume was absolutely perfect, without any kind of flaws in the designs, even the inner wiring that could be seen was near-perfect.
Toris was in a simple outfit, bunny ears and all that, he was the bunny that led Alice into Wonderland, and one could only guess who happened to go as Alice. Natalia was off somewhere else getting something to drink and Alfred had been surprised Toris didn't trail after her, apparently watching Ivan walk around blinded was more inviting than that. He looked quite happy tonight, no broken fingers, and no broken spirit either, he was doing great! Alfred was glad he was doing alright, it was nice to see one of his great friend having a good time.
Then of course there was Ivan, walking around in his Slenderman outfit that covered his eyes with the white cloth, Alfred wasn't sure where his tentacles came from, but they moved naturally and they were kinda creepy, but Alfred didn't really mind too much, they weren't creepy enough to intimidate a hero! They were all having a good time, he saw Yetakerina dressed as Pocahontas at the refreshments table, Basch, Lili, Elizabeta, and Roderich were nearby dressed as characters from Legend of Zelda, and everyone was having a good time.
That was, of course, until the announcements came.
Alfred had been at the snack table when he heard it, almost like an overvoice that would normally be done by Morgan Freeman, where you could hear it perfectly everywhere. "Are you all enjoying the party~?" It was Arthur, that British accent was unmistakable, but the strange thing was the fact that he snickered after he finished speaking. Of course, while everyone else looked around to try and find where Arthur was, Alfred was the first one to speak up.
Alfred stepped into the middle of the room, a huge grin on his face as he raised his tomahawk to the sky "Yeah dude, we're having an epic time! Where are you? You're missing the party!" he shouted out, a large grin on his face as he pushed back his cowl, attempting to find his older brother as he scratched his head, twirling his tomahawk around nonchalantly, and putting out his hidden blade with a flick of the wrist.
Arthur laughed once more, this one was long and drawn-out before a soft mist coated the room and he began to speak once more. "Oh, I'm not interested in your games and treats, this halloween, I think I'm going to choose trick!" he said, and then laughed again, a mist setting itself around the room, reaching up to his knees; it seemed almost cold, and it made his legs feel almost sluggish when he tries to walk.
Alfred grinned and raised a brow to the invisible Englishman-maybe he'd come as the invisible man this year-and nodded "Alright dude, I'll take your challenge! I'll beat you in any trick you got!" he said, and he crossed his arms all badass-like, acting as though he was actually Connor and he had his skills and years of training, which he definitely didn't, he had no idea how to actually use his tomahawk, or effectively use his hidden blade.
Suddenly three columns of smoke appeared in the middle of the room, they smashed to the floor and in their places stood the three men in cloaks from before, Arthur being the only one with his cowl down. "Oh, but you see, this is going to be the ultimate trick!" he said, and then the three men quickly turned into smoke which dissipated throughout the room, and suddenly Alfred's vision went dark and he felt himself collapsing, his head hitting the ground hard, and his last moments of consciousness were spent watching everyone else experience the same, some of their bodies completely changing as they did so.
