Splatterhouse 2
Stage 1: Loss in Blood
The eclipse had ended, the shadow of the moon still in the sky as it eased away from the sun, within hours, it would be out of sight completely. It was evening and the sun's light shone red over a mansion on a cliff-top. The surrounding grounds were soaked with blood. A cemetery, various buildings including a chapel, a mausoleum. Beyond the grounds of the graves and structures was a large open space. Corpses littered the ground and blood was oozing slowly down the steps of a jet black, marble altar.
What looked like a massive, still beating heart lay close by the altar, spewing out blood by the gallons. Not far off was a transparent purple mass of tentacles out of the ground, they waved around, almost like they were feeling for something.
In front of the altar, a young blond haired woman was in the arms of a masked brute, grizzled muscle across every inch of its body. Clearly male, it looked like it could tear the woman in half using only his little fingers. Looking remarkably human, he wore shredded shorts with a simple brown belt around his waste. They had holes around the ends of the legs. He stood easily at 10 feet tall or more with green lined sneakers. Some of the blood on the ground was slowly sucking up the brutes body and into the bone mask over his face, his eyes glowed yellow.
The woman looked at this behemoth with kind eyes. "You saved me, Rick." Clearly this was the name of the muscle-bound creature gently embracing her.
"She seems okay to me," Rick thought to himself. "Granted, I've never heard her call me "Darling" before." He looked at the girl, Jennifer, with kind eyes, his gentle expression obscured by the bone mask, which seemed to have lined edges that had sunken into his skull.
"Leonora?" A man lay on the steps, his right arm had been ripped clean off and lay next to him on the steps below the altar. The stump of his arm was still issuing blood that continued to pool on the ground, only to slowly move up the steps and up Rick's body. The man, Dr. Henry West, had short gray hair, his body mangled. He could only open one eye, his other was obviously too bruised to move, and his good eye had popped blood vessels in it. The stains over his lab coat and tie seemed like older bloodstains. "Leonora?" He pushed himself up with his arm and looked with a desperate look in his eye.
"The Corrupted are gone West. You lose." Rick said sharply, he sounded surprisingly normal for having such a strange appearance. He sounded like a normal young man, probably in his early to mid-twenties.
Rick turned away from Jennifer and put his massive hands over the rim of the mask, they seemed more like gorilla's hands with large palms and shorter fingers. "Let go, she's fine."
"Sure about that Ricky?" It was a deep voice that issued from Rick, like an older male. He had a certain playful tone to his voice, but it still sent a chill down ones spine. It was the mask, the mask was alive.
"Rick? Are you okay?" Jennifer looked concerned and put a hand over Rick's face.
"All that effort, wasted. Rick.. why couldn't you have just DIED?!" West scowled at the behemoth as he lay on the steps, grabbing his bleeding stump and pushing himself forwards with his legs, only to slip on the blood he was leaking onto the ground. "My beloved Leonora..." He let himself collapse onto the stone steps, looking at the ground with a desperate expression.
Rick glanced at the Doctor and then back to Jennifer. "LOOK OUT!" The mask shouted before Rick even finished turning his head. He felt himself lifted off his feet as a blade sank through his gut and barely poked out through his back. Jennifer was lifting him. Her right arm mutated to a strange blade, soaked with blood and flesh stretched over the bone-like weapon. With inhuman strength, she tossed him back several meters, Rick hit the blood soaked ground and got to his feet.
Jennifer hunched over as her body mutated, bones crunching loudly, flesh tearing and stretching across the blade on her right arm. She screamed out loud as her legs lengthened, her shoes tearing apart as her feet changed to talons. Her left arm became larger with her hands becoming claws, which extended to five feet in length, only to retract into her fingers. Her flesh turned brown and her head lengthened, becoming a long snout with jagged teeth. She let out a howl of agony, various patches of flesh were wrapped tightly around her body so some points literally had no skin, only revealing the bloody muscle underneath, which had grown.
Rick took a step back. "What the fuck is this?"
"Does it matter? Just fucking kill it." The mask shouted, a hint of blood lust in its tone.
"So where is the real Jen?" Rick began to race towards Jennifer, he rolled to the side as it snapped at him with its jaws.
"This IS the real Jen. She's just not in control of her body right now." The mask let out a short laugh. "Didn't think it was gonna be this strong though. All the same, should be a piece of cake after The Corrupted."
Rick jumped backwards as the blade swung down and hit the base of the steps, he ran up the bone, Jen started to wobble from the weight, despite being easily twice his size now. He grabbed the shoulder and swung around, grabbing the neck and putting his foot on her back for balance. His free hand glowed orange and he swung his fist into the head, a bit of bone crunching inwards and blood spraying out from the force of the blow. Jennifer toppled over and onto her face. West managed to get to his feet while still holding his bleeding stump and began limping away, trying to get to safety while muttering under his breath.
"But if I kill this thing, Jen will be dead." Rick was crouched on Jennifer's back, poised and hesitating to strike as she let out a growl.
"And if you don't kill her, she will kill you. Now KILL HER!" The mask shouted, Rick felt his fist swing involuntarily downwards, punching her skull into the ground, blood starting to cover his fingers. "Now focus! Fucking focus!"
Jen's clawed hand pointed at him, the claws extended and punctured his chest, shoulder and arms all the way through, the claws then pulled backwards and Jen began to stand up. Rick jumped off her as she got to her feet. His rib cage burst open, the bones curving inwards and his body shifted in an instant, his muscles bulging and bone jutting from his skin, the right half of his body seemed to be missing certain patches of skin and the mask seemed to gain horns on the right side. Rick screamed in agony as blood siphoned from Jennifer to him. The mask groaned softly. "Ooohh yeeessss." Jennifer stiffened up and twitched as she lost blood through the open wounds in her body. Rick seemed to revert to normal as quickly as he had changed, but all his wounds were gone. He seemed just like he did before he had been hurt, there wasn't even a scar.
Jennifer still twitching, he jumped and put both fists together and slammed them on her chest, she was knocked backwards and swung her right arm at him, he grabbed the blade and slid sideways a couple feet. He tightened his grip on the blade as he saw the clawed hand point at him. He grunted and lifted up Jennifer and span her 360 degrees to gain momentum and used the force to slam her head first into the ground, her skull dented inwards and one of her extended claws snapped clean off. Rick released her as she slowly wobbled to her feet. Rick ran past Jennifer and rolled, grabbing onto the broken claw as he did, when he landed on his feet, he held the bone like a spear.
Jennifer groaned and shrank, her skin reforming and the woman's battered body reverting to normal before his eyes as the body snapped and shrunk loudly and the flesh turning back to its normal complexion. She looked at Rick, her clothes shredded, her naked body exposed and already bloody. "Rick, why? Why would you do this to me?" She looked desperate and broken, reaching out to Rick, who stepped forwards to reach out to her.
"It's a trick, don't fall for it kid!" The mask spoke with Rick's mouth this time.
Jennifer's expression turned hateful, her body seemed to change in just under two seconds, in a shower of blood, the beast was back. It's wounds still fresh. Rick moved forwards and tossed the claw into the air, with both his fists clenched and glowing, he made a right hook into Jennifer's stomach, a circle of energy seemed to be released from the impact and Jennifer stumbled backwards. He caught the claw with the right and and moved forwards again. He swung his left fist into her gut, the same circle of energy being released upon contact. Her rib cage crunched inwards from the blow.
The beast fell backwards and Rick jumped forwards and onto her chest, he raised the claw over her head and hesitated. "Dammit, do I have to do everything myself?!" The mask shouted in frustration.
Rick slammed the claw downwards, looking away as he did so. It jammed into the skull and Jennifer lay motionless with a final cry. Rick jumped off of Jennifer's body as it shrunk back to its normal state. He gently lifted her head and pulling the bone out of her skull. Jennifer looked at Rick with dead eyes. "Jen... I'm.." Rick's voice shuddered. "I failed."
"Rick, there's nothing that could have been done." The mask said in a softer voice. It seemed genuinely sympathetic.
A green transparent thing flew out of Jennifer's corpse, it looked a lot like a jellyfish. Wrapped in its tentacles was a pure white light. "What is that thing?" Rick managed to say, though his voice was choked slightly.
"That is our perpetrator. Looks like he's grabbing your girl's soul while he's at it too." The mask muttered, though Rick could hear him quite clearly.
"He's what?!" Rick stood up, setting down Jennifer's body and watched as the green entity flew into the portal it came from, the purple mass of tentacles. The portal was surrounded by bloodied corpses. Rick ran towards the the portal, he stomped over the bodies, bones crushing under the weight of the muscle. He dived for the portal, only for it to vanish in the blink of an eye. He landed on his chest, sliding slightly. "Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" Rick pounded the ground with his massive fists, the muscles seemed to flex and loosen was he did so. "No... she's fucking gone."
"Listen, Rick, even if we get her soul back, there's still the problem of the body." Rick felt his head turn involuntarily towards Jennifer's corpse. He felt his heart sink. He couldn't believe he had failed. Not only that, he had been her executioner.
"This... this is all your fault." Rick said coldly.
The mask let out a short laugh. "Well, technically Ricky, it's your fault. YOU killed ten-thousand plus sacrifices. It just slipped my mind to mention it to you."
"You fucking liar! You kept me in the dark on purpose!" Rick punched the ground again, his fists leaving small craters in the ground, he got to his feet and gripped the edges of the mask, trying to pull it off. "Let go!" The mask stretched outwards, its edges stretching away from Rick's face, yet still holding on.
"NO!" The mask responded sharply and snapped back into place. "You're still mine Rick. Now let's get moving."
Rick let out a short, choked laugh. "What?! Why would I do anything more to help you?"
"Because we're bringing your girl back. A deal's still a deal." The mask controlled Rick's body and crossed his arms, looking at Jennifer's body and walking towards it. "Let me do all the talking when we corner West."
Rick stopped, confused, uncrossing his arms. "What good can West do? He never managed to bring his wife back."
The mask sighed, moving Rick forwards, this time forcing Rick's legs to walk a little faster. "He can restore the body and preserve it. He'll cooperate with that."
Rick tried to stop moving, but failed, still walking towards Jen, he stopped in front of her and gently picked her up. "How do you know he will?"
"Because he wants his wife back, still. Even if he doesn't, if he wants to keep his legs, he'll still help." The mask casually used Rick to toss Jennifer over their shoulder. "Now let's find West. After he agrees to work on the body, we'll need to spill a lot of blood to open a new portal. The door just closed for a little while. It won't lock for a few hours, just enough time to spill ten thousand sacrifices worth of blood... again."
"Jen's soul is in the Abyss? How will we get out again?" Rick started running towards the trail of blood West had left, he grabbed West's dismembered arm while he passed by. As ran, the remaining blood rushed up his body, sinking into the mask.
"Well, we could wait a few centuries for the stars to align again, see if we can get someone to prepare the ritual on this end. Or we can cheat and port through time and slip through at a moment where the door is unlocked. Should take quite a bit of cannon fodder to open that portal, though."
Rick kept moving, it didn't take more than a minute to catch up with West, who had opened a tomb. He turned around at the sound of Rick's foot steps. Henry ran into the tomb, his arm still leaking blood, though not as profusely. He grabbed a switch on the inside of the tomb and pulled it downwards. The coffin inside moved to the left and West try to run down the stairs, they were quite narrow, there was no way Rick would be able to fit down them, nonetheless through the door of the tomb. Rick moved forwards and reached inside, grabbing West by his jacket and pulling him out of the tomb. Rick tossed him upwards slightly and caught him by the scruff of the neck.
Henry cringed slightly as Rick looked at him, he expected to be hit. Rick lifted the doctor up to face level. "Alright Doc, we have a job for you. And you're going to do it unless you want to lose another limb." The mask said calmly, through Rick.
"We?" West paused, his eyes widening. "The Terror Mask is alive?"
"Terror Mask? Is that what you're called?" Rick asked, genuinely interested.
"Not now kid." The mask turned its attention back to West. "We need you to fix the girl's body. Repair the damage we did and preserve it like brand new. Can you do that for us Doc?"
"Why would I do that?" Henry looked indignant and even spiteful. "You destroyed everything that was important to me."
"Because if you don't, we will crush you. Also, Rick's girl looks a lot like your wife, don't she? You know, if you fixed the body, that may bring back a chance for bringing back Leonora." The mask had a sly tone to its voice.
Henry hesitated, weighing his options. He quickly picked the obvious one, though reluctantly. "Alright, fine. Now put me down and give me back my arm." Henry said coldly, as he was set gently to the ground. Rick tossed him his arm and he caught it and turned around, towards the cemetery and spoke in an ancient language. A pair of large beasts, a couple feet shorter than Rick came out from behind one of the tombs. The pair had thick teeth and their right arms were oversized bludgeons. Black skin with at least 4 eyes.
"Those are the same things that killed me." Rick thought to himself. He reluctantly handed over Jennifer's body to one of them and West walked after them, as one of them held Jennifer around the middle and dragged her. West muttered something and the creature lifted Jennifer over its shoulder.
"Great, now think, what can we kill to open a new portal? If we can kill something big, really big, we won't need to kill so many chumps to make a new portal." The mask muttered only half to itself and half to Rick.
Rick stretched his arms, leaning one way as he thought. "Hmmm.." An image flashed in his mind. A creature in a tank, its eyes glowing as it pounded with a clawed hand on the glass. It easily was the size of a two story house, maybe bigger. A massive fanged leviathan as it looked with its many eyes at him.
"Good thinking kid, that'll probably do just fine, along with whatever else we can kill along the way." Rick started running towards the mansion, jumping over graves and moving with surprising speed for one so large. He ran past West, actually knocking over the beast not carrying Jennifer. It growled at him in annoyance and got back to its feet. Rick passed through the chapel and down the pathways. He eventually got around the Mausoleum and headed towards the gates of the mansion. He ended up breaking through one of the windows. He landed in a roll and looked around.
At least three dozen small boney creatures looked at him, they had rather long claws and were a sickly gray color, with red tinted stomachs. They looked humanoid, their mouths full of flesh. The house walls were lined with red flesh, which was clearly decomposing. This same flesh was wrapped around the furniture around the edge of the room. From the ceiling hung lines of torn flesh, which was consistently leaking blood onto the ground. The creatures having their fill of it as blood was pooled on the ground up to Rick's ankles. The creatures all dashed towards Rick, whose fists glowed orange, he raised them and paused for only half a second and slammed them down as one of the creatures aimed a blow for his chest, only to be crushed to pulp from the force of the blow, four others were cut in half from the aftershock. He grabbed one of them by the ankles and it squealed loudly onto to be used as a bludgeon to crush another creature, crunching loudly from impact and adding to the blood on the ground, which was sucking up Rick's body.
"Oh more! Yes! More!" The mask let out a malevolent laugh as it sucked the blood up and into itself.
Rick punted one of the creatures upwards, grabbing it with both hands, one hand on its shoulders and the other over its pelvis, he ripped it in half, blood spraying out and the intestines falling to the ground. He knelt forwards and rammed through them, crushing the creatures as he passed and splashing through the blood, which continued to crawl up his body, absorbing into his skin and into the mask. "Fuck yeah, weaklings!" The mask cheered in delight at the carnage, clearly calling him sadistic would have been a massive understatement.
Rick turned around only to watch the last creature rush at him. He crouched down to its level and caught its face in his palm and clenching his fist, crushing its skull. He stood up and shrugged. "Ricky, you're pretty pissed about that whole using you to have revenge on the Corrupted, aren't you?"
"Yes, I'm fucking pissed." Rick turned around and looked at the double doors, kicking them open.
"It was nothing personal kid. I just needed someone to team up with. Now that we've gotten what I want, we can focus entirely on you." His tone changed to mock Rick. "Feel better now?"
"Fuck you." Rick started running down the hallway and he racked his mind for a response. "You're mother was worn by a porn star!"
The mask let out a short laugh. "So my mother was worn by your mother?"
"Up yours." Rick sighed as he ran down the hallway. "Any clue which way to that thing?"
The mask hesitated for a second as he thought to himself. "Yeah, follow my lead kid. I'll get us there in no time."
