Splatterhouse 3

Chapter 1: Deception and Frustration

The room smelt of strawberries and vanilla which wafted from scented candles. A poster of a Lamb of God album was put on the wall and there was clothes littered across the floor in piles. Many sorted by underwear, pants and shirts. A young man and woman sorted through a pile of laundry, tossing them in the appropriate piles. The man had short brown hair and black framed glasses. He wore a simple black t-shirt and jeans with holes in the knee's, a chain hung from his pants.

A beautiful young woman with blond hair that hung down to the center of her back smiled nervously at the man. Unlike the young man, she was much more immodestly dressed. She wore a braw and shorts with slippers on her feet.

The young man looked up at her. "What is it Jen?"

Jennifer, the young woman, looked down and bit her lip. "Rick, we're graduating in three months."

Rick nodded. "Yeah, pretty exciting, isn't it. I'm kinda nervous myself."

She looked up at him and sighed. "Well, how would you feel about a baby?"

Rick shrugged. "Well it's not that I'm not interested in having kids, but I don't think I'm ready just yet."

She frowned. "Yeah..." She looked away from him, at the wall. "Well... I'm kind of... pregnant."

Rick lay on the bed, two months had passed. He stared at the ceiling, a bone mask was face up on his chest. They were still trying to make up their minds on what to do.

"You know, if you don't make up your mind soon, Jen's gonna be in the third trimester and you will be stuck with a crying brat." The mask remained immobile, but Rick could still hear the voice in his head.

"I know," Rick said out loud. "I'm just gonna cool my head at the music festival. I'll be meeting up with some friends there, it'll help me calm down." He sighed. "Man, why is THIS so much harder? I thought I'd done it all, now I'm freaking out."

"Babies do that to a man, they chop of their dicks generally."

"Shut up," Rick looked at the television. Army of Darkness was playing.

"So why'd you lie to Jen and say it was a horror convention?"

"So I could be alone. I wanna relax, it'll help me think." Rick closed his eyes.

"You know, I really wish they'd use real blood for these movies. All I see is black and white." The mask commented. "Kind of takes away from the movie."

"If only we had been more careful." Rick looked at the bathroom door next to his bed. "I thought we were safe."

"Not a hundred percent effective, dumbass." The mask said. "But you humans are disgusting in bed. I have to listen to you two fucking every other night. I've got it down to a science, I can tell what kind of shouts mean you're-"

"Not now," Rick sighed. "Can't wait, tomorrow I get on the plane."

The mask paused. "Take me with you."

"No," Rick didn't even hesitate.

"Come on, I'll be on my best behavior, I swear!"

Rick picked up the mask and sat up, looking it through its eye-holes. "Your best behavior?" He looked skeptical.

"Rick, I'm bored out of my mind, every day I spend locked in your drawer except a couple hours I get to watch horror movies with you every couple days. I'm going to go insane. Just tie me to your backpack once your wife drops you off at the airport, I'll be a decoration."

Rick's eyebrows raised. "No," He sat up and walked to the drawer next to his bed, he pulled out the bottom drawer and reached a finger to the edge of the bottom of the drawer, pulling up a false bottom. He gripped the mask through the eye holes to put him in the drawer.

"Well then maybe..." The masks deep voice growled in his head. "Maybe I'll just tell Jennifer while you're out what you've been hiding in your home."

Rick looked at the mask with a narrowed gaze.

"Don't think she'd be too fond of you hiding artifacts from the abyss in your room or lying to her about the festival."

Rick scowled. "That's blackmail!"

"I know what it is, you don't have to tell me."

Rick bit his lip and set the mask on his bed. He considered his options and sighed. "Alright, fine, you get to come." He didn't like it, but he didn't have a choice. Jennifer would likely be furious if she knew he was keeping secrets so important from her. She'd also be pretty mad at him for lying about where he was going. She was a music fan too.

Rick stood in the airport, he had a pair of baggy jeans on and a t-shirt featuring Freddy Krueger with the Nightmare on Elm Street logo across it. He had a backpack on and a black suitcase. Jennifer was saying goodbye. She kissed him and he smiled at her. "Bye sweetie, have fun at your convention." She laughed and Rick looked at her stomach, she was starting to bulge slightly. He smiled back at her and waved as she left and blew her a kiss.

He waited till she was out of sight and looked around. He was in front where he had to check in his luggage, long lines from each area that was sorted by the companies that owned the planes. He walked over to the Air America line and swung his backpack in front of him. He reached inside and pulled out the bone mask, he unbuckled a strap on the front of the bag and slid the straps through the masks eyes. He buckled them together and the mask hung from his backpack like a decoration. A creepy, evil, supernatural decoration made from the remains of the innocent.

"Happy now?" Rick muttered to the mask, looking around to make sure no one could see his lips moving. Thankfully nobody was even glancing at him. All focused on their families or glancing at their watches, their tickets and so on.

"It's not as good as some other options, but for now, yes."

Rick paused and reached into his pocket, pulling out a bluetooth headset. He put it on his ear and turned it on. "Okay, now I can talk to you without anyone thinking I'm schizophrenic." He swung the backpack back over his shoulder.

He waited in line, showing his ticket and checking in his one suitcase. After he was done he walked through the bustling hallways, looking around for the proper line. He passed by a set of restaurants and he glanced at a Sbarro's. He felt into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, checking how much money he had. He did some quick math in his head and looked back at the restaurant and checked the time on his phone. "I've got time."

"Are they selling a Stephen King book over there? Get it and I can read it on the plane." The mask was faced towards a small bookstore, on display up front was Stephen King's "Pet Semetary".

Rick turned around and looked at the display and rolled his eyes. "No,"

"Rick, I'm gonna be bored fuckless on that plane." The mask almost seemed to swing lightly towards the display on the backpack.

"I brought a book already. Which I will be reading." Rick went in line at the Sbarro's and payed for a combination pizza slice. He tossed the plate as he went back to searching for the appropriate line and folded the slice in his hand and ate as he went.

"Your school book, right?"

Rick chewed a particularly big bite and swallowed. "Can't pass my big tests if I don't study. If I don't pass em, I don't graduate." His eyes widened as he saw a line reaching across the hallway and grimaced as he saw the checkpoint. People showing I.D and walking through scanners, several were being frisked by men in uniforms. "Damn, that's a long line."

"Oh! I can't wait. Haven't you humans been freaking out about terrorists lately and now you're strip searching old ladies in wheel chairs?" The mask sounded like he was going to laugh.

"Yes," Rick walked to the end of the line and sighed.

"I hope you enjoy the free hand job." The mask laughed darkly.

"Oh, shut up, I don't want to think about it." Monsters he could handle, at least they didn't feel him up.

"You humans are just hilarious, you freak out about other humans when there's another world clawing at yours and just waiting to tear you to shreds." He laughed more loudly and Rick felt shivers go down his spine as he heard the familiar laugh echo in his mind. He was actually used to it, but it didn't stop him from shivering a bit.

"I know, the irony is rather thick, isn't it?" He said casually.

They waited in line for a half hour, the mask occasionally mocking Rick about his upcoming frisking. Rick sighed, he was almost up next. A small child was behind him, not that he was paying attention. The little girl was sucking on her thumb and staring intently at the bone mask, her other hand being gripped by her mother.

"The fuck are you looking at, you little cunt-sucker?" The mask snapped.

The little girl's eyes widened as she heard the words in her mind. "Cunt-sucker?" She asked out loud.

The mother paused and looked at her daughter, kneeling down. "Wait, did you just say your first words?" She looked excited.

"Cunt-sucker!" The little girl repeated excitedly.

Rick turned around at the words, looking at the child curiously while the mother's face turned pale. He hadn't heard the mask speaking to the child but he quickly put two and two together. Only one "person" would throw that phrase around in front of a small child. He glared behind him at the corner of the mask he could see over his shoulder.

"Baby, where did you hear that word?" The mother asked.

The little girl shrugged and the mother looked at Rick, who had a very interested expression on his face.

"You said it, didn't you?" She stood up and shouted at Rick.

Rick recoiled, if there was one thing he didn't want, it was to start trouble in the middle of an airport. "Whoa, I didn't say anything ma'am. And I certainly wouldn't say THAT to a little kid."

"Kind of funny how you're getting blamed for what I did, isn't it?" The mask sounded very amused.

The woman swelled slightly and Rick felt his guard instinctively raise. "Then where would she have heard it?"

"Maybe you need to look at your family?" Rick shrugged, doing his best to look clueless, but his eyes glinted a bit, countering his expression. "How am I supposed to know?"

A man behind the woman spoke up. "I'm sorry, but I saw the whole thing, this lad didn't say anything."

She looked at him and then back to Rick and frowned.

"Cunt-sucker!" The little girl shouted.

"My duty here is done!" The mask said in a professional tone.

Rick frowned at the masks comment and looked at the line and realized he was next. He set the bag down on the belt that led into the scanner and took off any electronic or metal devices on his person, walked through the metal detector and sighed as he looked at the man on the other side who rubbed the back of his neck. "Routine pat-down. This place hasn't gotten the scanners yet." Rick frowned and faced the scanner as his bag slid through the other side, the mask could see him as the man patted him down and both of them grimaced as the man had to feel below the belt. Rick groaned and blushed as the little girl's eyes were covered by her mother. "You're clean, move along." The man said.

Rick walked over to his bag and picked it up and filled his pockets with his loose items. "That looked fun." The mask noted cheerfully.

Rick walked away from the line and looked around, trying to figure out which terminal to go to. He put the bluetooth headset back on. "I thought you said you were going to be on your best behavior!" He whispered as loudly as he thought he could get away with.

"Ricky, ensuring a child's first words are "cunt-sucker" IS my best behavior."

Rick rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "I believe you." He sounded mortified.

"So did you enjoy the hand job?"

"Fuck you," Rick looked at the sign in front of him, the crowded hallway. He needed to go to Terminal D and look for flight 30.

"Rick-O! I think he felt your no-no's!" The mask cackled and Rick felt his cheeks burn red as he attempted to ignore the Terror Mask. He walked to the right to terminals D through F.

"I'm gonna kill you one of these days." Rick said aloud.

The mask condescended to him. "Oh, I'm so scared. Watch me shiver!"

He didn't notice the woman from before passing by him while dragging her child. He put his finger to his ear. "Up yours! You fucking prick!" He said into the device.

"Prick!" The little girl said out loud.

Rick's face turned bright red as soon as he heard it. He looked at the woman who was glaring at him. He put his hands together and smiled nervously. "I'm sorry?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled her daughter away. "I hope you never become a father." She said. "He'd probably end up a hoodlum like you."

Rick scowled at her behind her back. "Fuck you, you judgmental bitch." He muttered just loud enough that the mask could hear it.

"I hope you become a father, that way I can teach him all sorts of fun words." The mask said mischievously.

Rick frowned as he spotted Gate 30. "I'm actually hoping for a little girl if I have a kid." He walked over to it and sat down in the seats, putting his hand up to his ear so it would be more obvious he was talking on a phone. "I mean, I'll be happy either way, but I like girls better. Less aggressive, more likely to stay out of trouble."

"Less likely to give into peer pressure and break their leg sliding down the roof on a garbage can lid and bust your neighbors car."

Rick laughed a bit. "Yeah, that was dumb." He smiled. "Fun, but dumb."

He set the bag on the ground next to a seeing eye dog. It growled at the mask.

"Shoo! Fuck off!" The mask said.

The dog sniffed the mask intently, touching its wet nose against the surface of the mask. "Rick, it's touching me! Get it away from me! I hate them!" It growled at the mask again, baring its teeth.

Rick grabbed his bag and stood up, walking away from the dog and its owner, who patted his dog to calm him down. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised a dog would know something is wrong."

"I fucking hate those things." The mask would have been spitting if it could.

Rick sat down closer to the gate to the plane. "I'm not too fond of them either. Ever since I got back from the..." He looked around. "You know where... Dogs don't trust me very easily. And cats hate me." He rubbed his forehead. "Cats used to love me. Now they hiss and run away any time I come within five feet of them." He looked around. "And don't even get me started on pet stores. I can't walk into them without anything within a certain range of me freaking out."

"They sense the contamination of Necro Energy, usually anything with that much Necro in it is dangerous. That means they think YOU are dangerous."

"I guessed as much." He looked at the ground. "But only a couple people get wigged out by me. They just don't trust me until they get to know me."

"Like I said, it happens to anyone who wears me. And even though you only wore me for a short amount of time." The mask whistled. "You killed non-stop pretty much the whole time. So you're glowing, to say the least."

"Hope my "boring shit" is safe." Rick leaned forwards and put his elbow on his knee and propped up his head on his hand.

"Nobody is gonna look in there. Even if Jen finds it, she's not going to care. It's just a rock to anyone who doesn't recognize it. Souls are blind and deaf, cut off from all 5 senses, she's not gonna know what it is. Without a body to support it, a soul is helpless and unable to distinguish a single thing about the world around it."

Rick looked interested. "Didn't know that." He smirked. "Guess that means no ghosts?"

"Except souls that are heavily contaminated, if they know how to use the contamination, they can become a poltergeist. But that's unlikely." The mask sounded bored.

"I could become a poltergeist?" Rick's right eye twitched slightly. "That's creepy."

"Don't worry kid, becoming a poltergeist is a choice. You choose to use the contamination to see and generate an artificial shell that allows you to see and manipulate the world around you. Only people like West would be likely to choose that option OR know how to take it."

"Creepy," Rick noted the announcement. First class passengers were getting on the plane. "That was a short wait."

He didn't have too long to get on the plane. He walked down the aisle and looked around for his seat. He walked to the back of the plane and found his seat next to an emergency exit. "Sweet, more leg-room."

He slid his bag off his shoulder and opened the overhead compartment. "Rick, don't!" The mask said sharply.

Rick raised his bag to his face and whispered. "Why?"

"I am not going in the overhead compartment!"

"Yes, you are."

"Fuck you! No, I'm not!" The mask was shouting in his head.

Rick rolled his eyes and closed the overhead compartment and moved to his seat and sat down. He set the bag on the ground and tried to slide it under the seat in front of him. "No fucking way, Rick!"

He raised his bag to his face and looked around. No one was next to him yet. "What is your problem?" He whispered.

"I want to sit in your lap so I can look around." The mask said.

Rick clenched his right hand and clenched his teeth together. "I am not leaving this bag on my lap the whole flight."

"Well then, perhaps you wouldn't mind if I started bothering the other passengers on the flight?"

Rick's eyes widened and he looked at the mask. "You wouldn't dare."

"Remember that kid I taught a new word? I can do a whole lot worse than that. I'm sure with enough work the superstitious morons who are on here would think there's a demon on the plane and their panicking would probably cancel the flight AND your little vacation too."

Rick put his hand over his face and he sank his fingernails into his forehead. This was so frustrating. He looked around, a person was looking at the seat number and sat down next to him. Rick looked at the mask as the person slid their bag under the seat. He mouthed the word "Fine," and held his bag in his lap.

The flight was surprisingly boring, Rick used the two and half hour flight to study his weakest subject for this semester, which was made extremely difficult by the Terror Mask constantly bothering him and it was impossible to block out the sound when there wasn't any sound. He was sure it was doing this on purpose since he couldn't respond to anything without his neighbor thinking he was insane. It was clearly enjoying itself as his fist clenched in reaction to its commentary. He just wanted to tell it to be quiet, but that probably wouldn't work and it was much better than the alternative. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be bothered, but he was extremely nervous since he didn't even want to take the Terror Mask with him. On more than one occasion he had just let it bother him while he studied, but on a plane and him unable to respond, it made things more uncomfortable.

He was felt sweet relief when the plane finally landed and he was able to get off and pick up his luggage on his way out of the building. He sighed and looked around the road in front of the building that led to the parking lot. "Okay, taxi..." He raised his arm and hailed a cab and pulled his luggage inside. He put on the bluetooth headset and pretended to fiddle with his phone. "Hey, asshole."

"You talking to me?" The mask wasn't sure if Rick was really on the phone or not.

"Yes, I'm talking to you." Rick said. "Listen, when we get to my friends place, try not to be as much of an ass as you were an unspoken amount of time ago. You were driving me insane."

"No promises, Rick."

"Yes, promises!" Rick snapped. He looked at the cab driver. "Take me to 7134 Trade Avenue, please."

The cab driver grunted in response and drove out of the airport and quickly headed south on the highway.

Rick sighed and leaned back. "I'm hanging up, I'm serious about you behaving. I don't want to repeat the "cunt-sucker" incident."

"Rick, she was asking for it. That little bitch was staring at me for over three minutes. Just oggling at me."

Rick took off the headset and sighed, looking out the window. "I've done enough sitting to last a lifetime."

"Oh don't bitch, I've been sitting in your drawer for two years." The mask snapped. "How do you think I feel?"

Rick casually put a hand next to the mask and flicked his finger against the side of it in response. After a few seconds his eyes widened and he jerked forward as it felt like his brain was dumped in a bucket of ice water. "What the fuck was that?" His voice shook as he spoke, he was looking down at his shoes and holding his head.

"I don't know, I felt it too." The mask growled. "Maybe I'll get more exercise than I thought here."