Heya. Been quite a while since I wrote anything. Hoping to try and get back into updating by trying this new idea I had. This is my first attempt at trying write a horror story, or at least a story with horror elements to it, so please feel free to add feedback in the comments so I can see where I can improve. Hope you enjoy this, but please be aware that the main reason this is rated M is because there will be, or are plans to, a lot of blood, death, and generally gross stuff that people may be sensitive to. Please consider choosing another fic to read if none of that sounds like your cup of tea.
Oh, and inspiration for Roman's outfit, and from that, a Cinder's outfit, came from a drawing by theasgardiandetective on tumblr. ( post/129371690900/my-idea-for-torchwicks-possible-design) And by inspiration, I mean I copied a lot of his bits while changing some to try and be original. If you liked the outfit, I suggest you check out the rest of their cool blog.
The fresh heat of sunlight on her face as she stumbled out from amid the dark curtains covering the exit was a welcome relief to the chill of fear that was clinging to the girl's skin. Pausing now that she was out from the darkened maze, the teen managed to take in a deep breath, letting it exhale out as two more came out behind her, though they seemed less eager than she had been in to get out.
"You're meant to walk through it, sis, not bolt towards the exit." One teased with a bright smile, long blonde curls falling down her back. Coming up beside the first girl out, she raised a hand to ruffle the short dark hair on the other's head, her smile only widening at the grumbling protests that came out. "Did you even see that shrunken corpse animatronic prop they had in there, Ruby? I almost started laughing at it when it started gurgling and glowing its eyes blue!"
Still grumbling, Ruby fixed down her hair to have it back to normal, one side hanging down longer at the front than the other. Red tints to the edges of her dark hair were more visible out in the sunlight, even as she attempted to shove back at her taller sister, not even earning a budge but a laugh instead.
"It was a little lacklustre than what I was expecting, to be honest." The third of their party commented, hair the colour of fall leaves held in a long ponytail. A map was being opened in her hands, checking over the darkened pictures bordered with ghosts and jack o' lanterns. "Though, it is supposed to be the easiest of the mazes. Still…" She paused, glancing around, eyebrows coming down slightly as she searched for something around them. "…wasn't Jaune right behind us?"
A soft thump signalled another person exiting, a straggly blonde teen boy flailing his arms through the curtains as he rushed out. He stopped only long enough to spot the nearest garbage bin, sprinting over to it with hands over his mouth. The three girls turned away as the retching sounds started, not wanting to see what he had had for lunch make a reappearance.
Other people that were waiting in the long line nearby to go into the same horror maze as them, as well as those walking past on the way to other rides, all started to steer clear as Jaune continued to hurl his stomach out. Screams echoed down from a nearby rollercoaster as a carriage rattled down a slope, managing to come out above the steady noise of conversations and laughter of people around them in the amusement park today.
"I still don't see why you had to drag me along to this Halloween event." Ruby continued on, going to being annoyed now that the fear had passed. "You know I can't take horror stuff."
"Says the girl who spent most of this morning watching an old Godzilla and other giant monster films marathon on TV."
"They're different!" She immediately insisted, arms crossing over her chest and the loose red hoodie jacket the smaller sister was wearing. While she did feel warmer now that the adrenaline was running out of her system, they had come dressed for the mid fall weather that came with Halloween. The only one of them that wasn't in jeans and a jacket was Yang, who never seemed to be affected by the cold until winter hit. "They just fight each other or destroy cities! Not try to see how many gruesome ways they can kill people and show it on screen!" She was cut off from trying to point out what made them better by the other sister reaching to grab her hood and yank it over her face. "Yang!"
"Lighten up, Ruby, I'm just teasing." Despite being annoyed, Ruby did know that much, which was why she only pushed the hood back off and said nothing about it. "Still, I wish you weren't so skittish about scary films and such. All that was in this maze was a few actors dressed as clowns and some decorative props, and you were clinging to me most of the way before sprinting right out when that last actor jumped out. I think you actually managed to scare him with the speed you put on going past him."
Ruby's mouth drew into a thin line as she turned towards the crowd waiting to go through the entrance to the walk through maze. Even with the jagged mouth of a painted clown face wrapped round the darkened entrance, almost all she could see were smiling or otherwise anticipating getting inside. And yet she had spent most of the five to ten minutes they had spent waiting as a group half trying to convince Yang to let her go and wait for them, half trying to help trick herself into that she could handle it. Not that it had helped much.
Yang's smile also dropped, knowing she had touched a sore spot. No one liked being reminded of their weaknesses.
"…but I guess that means all that practice you've been putting in for the next track meet has been really paying off." She tried to steer back.
"In case anyone wanted to ask," Jaune had walked back over during the conversation, a hand wiping at the corner of his mouth to make sure nothing was left from his trip to the bin. "Those hot dogs I ate before we came in must have been bad. That was not nerves." That cued an eye roll from both sisters.
Ruby still couldn't see why the sports queen, Pyrrha, had been going out with him for a few weeks now. Sure, he was nice, and was a dork about the same things Ruby was into, which had made them instant friends, but he just seemed so mismatched next to her. Maybe it was the way his eyes sparked up at seeing Pyrrha come closer, offering a water bottle to wash out the last remaining dregs of stomach upheaval, the curve of his smile matching hers as he gave a quick thanks before taking it, fingers brushing over each other's.
"So, uh." They may have been officially dating for at least three weeks now, but any direct contact with his girlfriend seemed to scramble Jaune's mind. "Have you heard from your friends who said they could join us today?"
"They called before we went in, saying they were stuck in traffic. Apparently Ren was starting to regret letting Nora drive the car." Now there was an actual horror. Pyrrha pulled out a phone from her pants, screen brightening at a press of a button. "Oh, they're not too far off now! About two streets off, trying to figure out where to park. Nora's trying to insist she can fit the car in a parallel park spot."
"Guess that means enough time for one more ride!" Yang paused for a moment. "Or maybe grab something to eat?" Jaune clutched at his stomach and grimaced at the mention of food.
"We just had lunch less than two hours ago!"
"Hey, a growing girl needs to eat!"
"You're twenty years old! There's no part left of you that needs to grow!" Yang stuck her tongue out in response, head tilted down over her sister that was a full head shorter than her.
"Too bad I can't say the same for you!"
"Say, why don't we go into the Coney Island?" Pyrrha pointed to the location on the map, trying to head off the sibling fight before they could attract the attention of security. "It looks to be full of fun stuff, like those warped mirrors and moving floors. And there should be a snack stand somewhere in there too, it looks like."
"Oh!" Yang considered it for a moment, holding her struggling sister in a loose headlock. "Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good way to spend the time till they get here. Don't they have some kind of mirror maze in there too?"
"Yes…" Fighting her way out from her sister's clutches, Ruby didn't like the way that pause dragged out. "…but that's also become one of the horror mazes for today."
"Ah. Well, we don't have to go in it while we're waiting. Probably a long line for it anyways." Given how that hadn't stopped them before when they had spotted the Clown Containment Unit, Ruby could guess what, or whom, was the unsaid reason the blonde was holding back for now. Especially when a glance and a smile was shot her way.
Minutes later, Jaune was flailing again as he tried to keep his balance on the section of wooden walkway that was sliding back and forth underneath him. A pair of kids less than half his size darted right past him, Ruby, who was waiting for him at the other end of the section, and a grinning Yang further down who was taking a photo with her phone of the scene.
The more kids she saw coming through the relatively easy 'wacky' obstacles on the way to Coney Island proper that was further inside, the more the teen was being convinced this was meant to be mostly only for those twelve and under.
"Come on, there's more just past here." Yang called as Jaune finally stumbled through, narrowly missing tripping to the floor as he wound up passing Ruby. "Pyrrha's waiting on the other side." And yet again, it was easy to see the way his head perked up at the name, ducking through the curtains despite not knowing what else lay on the other side for him to look a fool on. Her sister followed after, a quick check back to make sure Ruby was following along with a grin before she too disappeared from sight.
"Hey, wait up!" She pushed through the curtain too, only to find herself stuck behind another. Was this another one of the 'fun' obstacles? It was a little bit of a struggle to push past the thick material strips only to find more. The sound of Jaune and Yang ahead of her was getting muffled. They must be getting further and further ahead of her, even though they should have been getting stuck too. "Wait up Yang!"
Ugh. Her nose scrunched up at a smell wafting up. Had one of those kids ahead let off one of those fart bomb toys? It certainly smelled like it, but not quite the same either. The light overhead flickered with a loud buzz. She could now hear that more than she could her sister and friends ahead. In fact, as she shoved past another curtain, torn and tattered down one side, she couldn't make out any voices ahead at all.
"Yang?"
There had to be an end to all this. Maybe they were just waiting at the other end, Yang ready to jump out and shock her once she finally made it. A little light under the next curtain raised her hopes. One more shove and then…
Bright light shining directly on her made her freeze up, an arm going up to block it from her eyes. Was that a spotlight?
The sound of clapping and cheers was going up around her, though she was still too blinded to see where it was coming from exactly. It did sound kind of warped, like maybe it was through a broken speaker system?
"Ladies and gentlemen! Looks like the next act for tonight has arrived! Let's give them a big hand, shall we?"
That certainly wasn't Yang or Jaune. Not unless, as she could start to see with her eyes adjusting, one of them had turned into an older man with bright orange hair that covered a good portion of half his face, though she only saw that for a second before he turned to face where the clapping was coming from, growing louder briefly in response to his words.
A black top hat was perched on a precarious tilt on top of his head, a dark feather sticking out of it's red band. Gold and embossed embroidery on the shoulders and cuffs of a white jacket gleamed under the light as he raised his arms up, black gloved hands ushering the noise back under his control, one holding a dark cane by it's silver handle. Black dress pants ran on to be tucked into sturdy tan boots, that themselves started just below his knees. As he turned back to her, she could see the bottom of a grey waistcoat under the single button holding the jacket together, a pristine white shirt appearing in the section above the button, and an ashen scarf pulled into a knot before his throat.
"Now." The end of the cane landed with a quiet thud onto the ground, both of his hands resting on it. "What's the name of our lucky person here?" She could have sworn there were a couple of snickers and hushed laughs at that. It was still hard to see much past the large circle of light she was in with this man, but the shape of chairs in a wide semi-circle were taking form in her vision, the blurred forms of people filling up most of them.
"Uh, Ruby." The air felt weird for being inside what should have been an air-conditioned building, like the humidity of a summer night that refused to cool. This was some kind of special show the amusement park was doing? Maybe Yang and the others were those snickers she heard. Wouldn't her sister be right at the front of the seats if they were responsible for this though?
"Well there Ruby." A gloved hand rose up towards her in an obvious gesture. "I'm Mister Torchwick, ringmaster." She hesitated for a moment, before giving taking up the handshake. As her palm met his glove, she could swear something moved just behind her, like something heavy dropping an inch from hitting her. The corner of Torchwick's mouth twitched upwards, green eye moving from her hand to face. Properly face to face now, she could see the heavy eyeliner on the one visible eye, strokes coming away underneath like an attempt to draw lashes onto skin. "So, little Red, I'm sure you're wondering just why you are on this stage, right?"
"Ah, yeah. I was just heading into the Coney Island and then I'm-" He cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"We're here, to play a little game of chance." Holding up a hand, thumb and middle finger slid against each other, a surprisingly sharp sound of his fingers snapping echoing out despite his gloves. A pair of bright red dice dropped down from above into his now open and waiting palm.
"Now, it wouldn't be a proper game without something at stake, would it? But what should the wagers be?" The cane made a twirl round before tapping into the floor once more, Torchwick now leaning on it with one hand as he searched inside his jacket with the other. "How about this, kiddo?" His hand reappeared, a small pumpkin no bigger than his palm glowing brightly orange now with the dice, the toothy cliché smile of a jack o' lantern on it.
A small exhale of air went out Ruby's nose as she sought not to laugh at it. It looked like a nightlight toy that one of the park's stores would probably be selling especially for tonight. Still, it was a little bit cute at least. "Sure, why not?"
"Excellent!" The twitch to his mouth before had pulled up into a confident smirk. "But what will you bring to the table?"
"Oh." She had to put something up for it? "Well, let's see here…" She started rummaging through the pockets of her hoodie for something. The snickering happened again, her cheeks heating up in response. "What about-"
"Your soul." What. She stopped at that to look at him. He hadn't moved from leaning on his cane. "How about you wager your soul?"
Okay, now this had to be a definite joke. Some prank show that the park would pull on some guests every night of the event, only to pull back the curtain at the end and clap them on the back for being a good sport.
"Okay, sure then." She replied back, rolling her eyes at going along with it.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Torchwick cupped a hand behind one ear, leaning forwards into her space. "You have to say your wager properly. You know, for posterity."
"Alright, I'll wager my soul on the game." The more this went on, the less nervous she became over how dramatic the whole scene was.
"Good! Now then, ladies first…" He tossed the dice to her, Ruby barely able to catch them in both hands before they would have hit her. "All you need to do, is land a higher score than I can."
"That's it?" Strange there was no catch, for some kind of Halloween prank show.
"That's it." He straightened up from his cane. "Just throw them up into the air, and hope for the best."
Something was going to happen to give her a scare, wasn't it? That thought made her reluctant, but knowing that it would probably be best to get it over with quickly then made her hand move, dice tossing up towards darkened ceiling to disappear. Strange, shouldn't they have come back down by no-
Two cubes as tall as she was crashed back down onto the floor in front of her, the ground shaking with the thumps of their impact. A blink, and she could see large white dots on each corner of the side of the nearest cube to her, marking four, inches from her face. That… wasn't such a bad scare actually.
"Time to see what score you earned." Torchwick said, seemingly unaffected even with one of the dice landing right beside him. Lazily, he craned his head over the tops of the comically huge dice, Ruby herself having to go up on her toes to see what was on top. He paused at the sight before him, the same one that made her smile a couple of seconds after him.
"Double sixes! No topping that!" After taking a moment to fist pump (a moment she became acutely aware she had just done so in front of a crowd about doing the next moment after), it became obvious that it had gone dead silent around her. No more from the seated crowd that been at least making a small buzz before. And as she looked out at them while waiting for Torchwick to unfreeze, she could see that all those whose forms she could make out decently in this light, were stock still. Not to mention, it almost looked like she could see through some of them to the chairs behind them.
"No!" A loud bang made her jump, Torchwick's gloved fists still on top of the dice. "That is impossible!" The smirk was gone now, and she didn't like the angry spark to his one visible eye as he turned back towards her. "The dice should not have landed like this!"
"But… they did?" That wasn't exactly something either of them could disprove with the double sixes in front of them. "So I won, right?"
His mouth was a thin line as he stared at her for a moment, before glancing away. When he looked back, the smirk was attempting to come back, though irritation was still evident in his eyes. If she had felt like leaving before, she was certainly wanting to do just that right now.
"How about another bet first? Double or nothing? Winner takes all?"
"Um, no thanks. I kinda just go and find my friends now." The cane slammed against the floor, startling her.
"Another bet! We will play this game the right way!" His mouth was now in a sneer, all pretence of a friendly game gone now. Okay then, time to go. Right behind her was the curtained entrance she had come in through…
Where was it? All that was behind her was thin air and darkness now. How could a corridor with so many damn curtains just up and vanish behind her without Ruby barely moving even ten steps away from it.
"Stupid girl! You come into my realm, somehow land a roll like that, and presume you can just leave, simple as that?" Something hooked around Ruby's neck, the cold metal of the cane's curved handle hauling her back towards Torchwick's side. A gloved hand went round her throat, preventing any escape even if she could figure out where to run to. "We play by my rules here, and those rules say I win, every damn time! Now, you are going to tell me how those dice landed like that!"
The hand on her throat was gripping too tight, choking her. She couldn't answer even she could figure out what he wanted to hear. Her own hands scrabbled at the glove, trying to pry it back for a chance to gasp some air. Why could she not even budge one finger to let some air into her burning lungs? Yang! Pyrrha! Where were they?
"Really? Think playing quiet will help you?" Did he not know how tight his grip was on her throat? "Then maybe you don't need a tongue after all." The hand started to loose, though Ruby didn't want to find out where it was going instead.
The hand jerked away as a jolt went through his body, the cane slipping off as he twisted to the floor. Air rushed into lungs screaming for it as she took this as an opportunity to recover, but there was no time for that when something else grabbed onto one of her arms.
"This way!" A new voice was what stopped her from trying to yank out of it as the hand on her wrist as it dragged her towards where the audience had been, now completely empty of anyone. Stumbling behind the stranger through a gap between the chairs and away from the only source of light, she almost slammed into them when they suddenly stopped, barely able to see in this darkness the sheet of canvas in front of them.
"I swear I came in right here!" They hissed quietly, patting at the apparently now immoveable sheet. She could barely make out the form of the person leading her, but glowing cat eyes turning back towards where they had left Torchwick was not something she could miss. "Shit! Get down!"
The hand moved to her shoulder, pulling her down alongside the person. Looking back to where they had been, Ruby could see the man already getting to his feet, cane planted in the ground to help pull himself up with.
"Are you really going to try and escape still?" He called out, eyes scanning for their figures. "Do you actually think having that Cat with you is going to help?"
"Just stay quiet and down low." The person whispered to Ruby. "He can't see any better into this dark than you can." They were still patting along the sheet wall, trying to find something.
"This is all some kind of prank show right?" Even though there was very little hope for that scenario after having her throat almost crushed, Ruby still wanted to try for some reasonable explanation for this. Those eyes turned back to her, slightly curved in as if the person was frowning at her. "Just some kind of act meant to scare people?"
"If it was only that, I wouldn't have had to risk my own neck saving yours. Right now though, we need out of here." A frustrated noise slipped out as they gave one last tap to the sheet. "Not here. We need to keep moving while I try to find an exit. Stay close and do as I say."
Despite the assurance that he couldn't spot them easily, Ruby didn't like how she could see him almost staring right at where they were shuffling behind the last set of chairs. She had to tear her eyes away to stop getting unnerved when his gaze had stopped, almost looking right at her for a few moments before looking elsewhere.
"So what is going on here then? I walked in to find myself in the middle of this room, and then the way I came in was gone! Completely vanished!"
"Quiet." Ruby put a hand to her mouth, only realising that her voice had been getting louder as she questioned. "We need to focus on what's most important right now, and that's getting out of here and away from him." She could hear the sheet sliding as they tried moving it around. Up close, it made Ruby think of the tent walls that would make up a circus, sturdy canvas over and around a large structure to prevent rain and wind getting in. Just like this room. And hopefully that was indeed the rush of wind she could hear now.
"…is that it here? Yes!" The canvas parted into two flaps, some light coming from the gap.
"What do you mean there's no exit?"
She couldn't help herself. Ruby looked back at the stage. A tall man now stood with Torchwick, standing over him with fists curled by his sides. He hadn't been there a minute ago. Watching the ringmaster make some gestures around them, it became obvious that the man wasn't liking what he was hearing when those fists raised up.
"You show me the exit, or I'll break your face!" A swing, and a miss, as Torchwick simply took a step back to avoid it. A roar of outrage, and the man kept trying to punch him, advancing on him as each miss kept coming.
"What are you doing?" The person tugged at Ruby's wrist. "We need to move. Now." Torchwick was now backed up against one of the dice. The man lunged, thinking he was cornered. And as much as she wanted to leave, Ruby also wanted the satisfaction of seeing a blow land on the asshole.
Torchwick's cane tapped on the dice, before he simply slid to the side. The man kept going, right at the dice… And into it? From this angle, all she could see was the man probably disappear behind the dice? Whooping and yelling rose up from the empty seats around as Torchwick walked calmly round the side, the dice box now shaking from side to side, arms wide to take in the attention of the non-existent audience.
"Shouldn't we go help him?"
"Are you crazy? We'd both wind up dead trying that now! And it's probably too late for him. Come on!" There was no time to ask what that meant, the grip on her basically hauling her behind the other person as they threw open the flap, light spilling in as Ruby's view of Torchwick raising his cane to the dice box was cutoff. His head jerked away from the dice as they pushed through the exit.
The ground shook once as something fell right behind with a thump and a squelch, a small tap to one heel as the canvas swung back a sign of just how close that something had come to squashing her. The other person stopped, letting Ruby look back at the large circus tent they had come out of, the canvas flap with gaudy stripes of red and black slapping against the side of the large dice that had dropped behind them. Stone rose up as one giant wall opposite it, forming one small path beside the tent. The person had started heading over to the left of the exit, only to stop when it became obvious that the stone wall curved round to hug the side of the tent, making a dead end.
"Tch." The flap blew outward, Torchwick striding through after them. "I need to work on my aim more." He frowned, taking a moment to glance down at his boots. Some dark red liquid had somehow gotten onto the tip of one boot. Her eyes drawn to it, Ruby noticed a couple of footprints had the same red smudging them, leading back towards the dice where a puddle was leaking out from one corner. "And now I've got the blood of some idiot ruining my shoes. I hope you're happy about all this, because I'm not! Now you are going to tell me one way or another how you managed to get a perfect score or-"
"Or what, Roman?" He paused at hearing the calm voice come from the other side of the corridor, one foot retreating from having been about to stride towards the pair. With him blocking the way, it was hard to see much more than the edges of the speaker that he half turned to. "Surely there's nothing wrong with a stroke of luck. Unless the dice were meant to be impossible to win with. And you know what the Rules are for that."
There was a sneer to his lips as his gaze switched between both ends, from his prey to the interrupter. At the mere mention of some 'rules', he grimaced, pausing only for a moment before that pumpkin nightlight appeared in one hand.
"Of course the ringmaster wouldn't break the rules. Unless you're ready to accuse me of such?" All Ruby could see come as a response was a small shrug of the shoulders. Torchwick turned to the pair, a flick of his wrist sending the pumpkin flying at Ruby, her own hands fumbling with it as it came. "Take your trinket reward. Not like you'll be able to make use of it anyways. Not when the next time we meet, you will be dead."
Sneer pulling up even more, he turned abruptly on one heel to stride back into the tent. A low moan came from the giant dice as he passed it, but by the time that the canvas had closed behind Torchwick and momentum swung it inwards, both it and the man were gone, the inside no longer a single spotlight and darkness. Now, it was just dim lighting and a completely space that she could see inside before the flap closed shut. The only sign left behind was the large red puddle that had leaked out from underneath the canvas, the edges already drying in the humid warmth.
"Not many manage to survive meeting the ringmaster straight after entering here." Long black hair was falling down over one shoulder, curving around one amber eye. Her ensemble resembled that of Torchwick's, save for some differences. No top hat, a red coat instead of white that had spiralling gold patterns dancing along the sleeves and shoulders, waistcoat black instead of grey, and her boots were darker and had heels to them. "Fewer still are those that take up his game and win."
"And just who are you then?" Out in better light, Ruby got her first good look at her rescuer. She barely came up to the shoulder of the faunus, immediately spotting the pair of dark furred cat ears perched atop her head amidst similarly coloured hair that fell behind her. Skin almost the same hue as mahogany wood made gold eyes stand out even more as she stared right back at the other woman, spine tall and straight. Tan suspenders ran over her shoulders, pressing into the buttoned up shirt she had on, the sleeves of it rolled up to the elbows. Brown form fitting slacks was the last article of clothing, Ruby noticing that she was going barefoot.
As the opportunity for a chance to breathe and bring her heart rate down allowed her to become more aware of those she was around, Ruby couldn't help but notice that somehow during the escape and confrontation, one of her hands had gripped onto the nearest wrist of the faunus. White knuckles showed under tightened skin as she still clung to them like she had to Yang during the horror act. Cheeks flushed as Ruby immediately let go and shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, grateful that either her partner here had not noticed it or just decided not to say anything about it.
"Someone who may be able to give you enough information to keep you alive, if only for a little while." She turned and walked out towards where this corridor would open up, a glance back at them the only clue that she wanted them to follow her. With no real other options, the two looked at each other before following after. "Like perhaps, knowing what slice of hell you two have managed to fall into." She stopped, half turning towards them while raising her arms with open palms to show the sight that lay before them now.
The light that they were seeing by was not sunlight, not with their new sky being the ceiling of a giant stone cavern miles above their heads, thick metal beams like that that would make up a bridge criss-crossing over it's surface. They could see more tents, many covered in the same stripes as the one next to them. Some rides could be made out too, like a large ferris wheel that kept rolling continuously with no stops, and a rollercoaster track that punched into the cavern wall and out of sight. Spot lamps and strings of light bulbs hung around, their light becoming almost solid in the wisps of smoke that rolled like a faint mist round the ground.
"Welcome, to the Carnival."