Splatterhouse 2

Stage 7: The Ritual of the Dark Stone

The air was thick with the sounds of screams, bones crunching and blood splattered across every inch of wall. Rick Taylor rammed head on through a large crowd of particularly small beasts. Most of them were small, lanky, horned beasts on four legs that came up to Rick's waist. He bent low in a charge. He grabbed one of them as he skidded to the end of the hallway and held them up, he put his leg up to them and punted them into the crowd behind him, the force of the blow crushing about 5 others. Rick ran forwards and grabbed on by the feet and slid it in a circle around himself, knocking over others and finally slammed down the creature, the force of which ended up breaking it apart, tearing it in half. Rick looked at the stunned remains of his enemies, he was covered in blood from head to his bare toes. He stretched the muscles of his arms and twisted to one side and then the other as he did so.

"Fuck, there's a shit ton of these things." Rick smirked as he heard the cry of a beast behind a double door that was at the end of the bloody hallway he was in. His feet tapped quietly on the stone floor and he looked at a blotch of sekurium on the wall next to him. He saw a shadow forming in it and he slammed his fist into it, cracking the metal. The shadow engulfed the sekurium and through the cracks, blood spurted out as if something had ran headfirst into it from the other side.

"I can't believe it's that easy to stop them." Rick said coolly as blood dripped down the wall, he ignored the groan he heard from the other side of the metal and kicked open the door, which was lined with black flesh that seemed to grow everywhere in the building. He cracked his knuckles as he walked into a round room with a set of stairs that led to a door on the ceiling, as if to an attic or roof.

"We're on the fourth floor now, right?" Rick asked.

"Yup, that's the roof." The mask said.

The ground was made of earth. It seemed more like sand. The stones formed the edges of the ground and flesh grew across the walls. Rick moved forwards as the ground moved and parted. He smelt the familiar waft of rotting flesh. The room was fairly large and mostly long like a rectangle. Rick could probably could stack two of himself in the room and reach the ceiling. The sand parted and a massive hand pulled out of it. The skin melting off the creatures body, revealing muscle and tendons. The head poked out of the ground with tiny, beady red eyes with the same melted appearance.

"Hell Chaos! Buddy!" The mask sounded cheerful. "Kill this prick like we did in the 80's!" The mask paused. "On second thought, don't do that. Kill him like we kill shit now."

Rick shrugged and ran at the head, he jumped and landed in a slide, colliding with Hell Chaos's head with surprising force. His head tilted back from the force and he growled loudly, sinking back into the ground.

"I said like we kill shit NOW!" The mask said.

"I don't even know what you're talking about." Rick said in response, he honestly didn't care what the mask was babbling about.

"Yeah, course you don't." The mask sounded disappointed.

Rick got to his feet, he watched the ground rumble and a hand rose out of the ground. Rick rolled to the side as it slammed where he was. It pulled back into the ground and Rick looked around, only to notice a shadow on the ground from behind him. His eyes widened as he realized what it was. "Oh fuck," He felt Hell Chaos's hand slam down on top of him and force him to the ground. It grabbed his leg and threw him into the wall, he crashed to the ground and shook his head.

"Try not to get us killed Rick. Thanks!" The mask said condescendingly.

Rick stumbled to his feet and saw that Hell Chaos's head had surfaced. Rick ran up to it, his fists glowing with an orange power. He jumped and slammed his fists on its head, releasing a circle of energy and denting the skull inwards somewhat. The monster cried out, its beady eyes widening. It sank into the ground and Rick saw the shadow behind him. He rolled forwards as the hand slammed down where he was. He looked to his right to see another hand pushing out of the earth. He rolled to the side and got his feet as the hand slammed down. He dived onto the rotting flesh and gripped the finger. He planted his feet on the ground as the hand pulled away to retract into the earth. He began punching the hand with his right hand and gripping the finger with his left, he feel the flesh starting to break and tear as he reached his fourth or fifth punch. His right leg was grabbed and he was lifted off his feet.

"Whoa!" Rick yelled in surprise.

The hand he had a grip on was trying to pull away while the hand gripping his leg was also pulling on him. He gripped the hand that was trying to escape more firmly and continued to punch it with his right hand. His eyes widened as he felt the flesh of his leg tear and the bones break. He braced himself for the pain as his leg was ripped messily off. The hand retracted into the ground, gripping his leg. He still punched the knuckles of the hand, which were starting to bleed and he could hear the bones crunching. He lost his grip as it finally pulled into the ground. He crawled forwards on the ground, unable to stand with his missing leg. The sand in front of him parted and Hell Chaos's head surfaced in front of him.

Rick smirked under the mask and he gripped the bridge of Hell Chaos's nose. He increased the pressure and lifted himself up, he started pulling and the cartilage began to snap. "Got your nose." Rick said as he ripped off Hell Chaos's nose and tossed it to the side. "Ah, you beat me to it." The mask said playfully as blood sprayed on their face.

The creature screamed with a combination of pain and indignation, sinking back into the ground. Rick looked to the ground next to him. He pushed himself into a sitting position as the rotting hand lifted from the ground. Rick's body transformed in an instant, his leg growing back in this same instant. The blades extending from his arms, he swung them forwards like scissors, slicing horizontal gashes into Hell Chaos's wrist. The hand clenched as blood dripped down and pulled back into the ground.

Rick got to his feet as he heard Hell Chaos scream. At one end of the room, farthest away from the door and the stairs, which were across from one another, the ground rumbled and parted. Hell Chaos's head rose out of the ground, his two hands tore out of the earth, spreading sand everywhere. They slammed to the ground and pulled Hell Chaos's torso into view. The same melted flesh covered the somewhat athletic looking torso. He growled at Rick and swiped his right hand across the ground. He couldn't pull himself up any further, that much was obvious, his head was ducked low from the roof and his hunched form took up nearly a third of the room. With his hands being easily larger than Rick, after all, he could fit his arm around a finger. His large hands could easily fit around his entire face and his fingers could likely reach over the top of his head, which was roughly Rick's size.

"Time to kick it up a notch." Rick raced towards Hell Chaos, who's beady eyes were locked on him. Hell Chaos growled, his wounds very noticeable as he dripped blood onto the sand, which quickly began to move their way over to Rick, sucking up his body and into his skin. The monster slammed his right hand to the side, hitting Rick and slamming him into the stone wall. As the hand pulled away, Rick stumbled upon landing on his feet. He swayed back and forth and fell over.

"How could you not know to dodge that? You SAW THAT COMING!" The mask shouted angrily.

Rick shook his head and pushed himself to his feet. He watched as Hell Chaos considered him. He reached a massive hand forward and as he did so, the Terror Mask burned on his face.

"You're incompetent and it's my turn!" Rick's muscles bulged and bones burst from his flesh, his arms, his right leg and his back, skin tearing across the right half of his chest to reveal messy patches of red muscle. The mask shifted its form and clenched their fists together and slammed them down to the ground, a wave of bones burst from the ground and Hell Chaos screamed as they collided with his chest and tore a gaping hole in it. His rib cage was showing. The bones sank back into the ground, vanishing. The mask ran forwards and grabbed the exposed rib cage. Hell Chaos yelled out loud in pain as the mask sank their clawed toes into the ground and began to walk backwards. Hell Chaos gripped the walls as it cried out, as if begging for mercy as it was slowly pulled out of the sandy ground. The mask positioned itself more below Hell Chaos and gripped the rib cage over its shoulder. It began to run and ripped Hell Chaos clear out of the ground, revealing only a flailing spine wrapped in bits of red flesh. The mask continued to run to the other side of the room and threw Hell Chaos over it. The force of the throw slammed the screaming creature through the stone wall and into the air, he crashed to the ground below. The monster landed with a deafening thud and flailed on the earth, its spinal chord waving around wildly, blood pouring from its wounded body and most prominently from its chest. Hell Chaos screamed its last scream and lay limp on the ground, dead.

"Told you I could kick your ass again." The mask reverted Rick back to his normal hulking self. "Punk!"

Rick shouted out loud, clearly feeling an incredible rush from their victory. "Hell YES!" He turned towards the stairs and ran up them, pushing the final door open. He stepped out onto the stone roof. He looked around. The Evil One stood there, his back turned to Rick. In front of him was a massive circular stone. It was a surprise this thing hadn't been visible from the ground. It had hundreds of thousands of lights in it. Round indentations with these beautiful little orbs in them. It clicked in Rick's mind. They weren't lights, they were souls. Jen must be among them. He gulped, if this was the case, there was at least a million of them. It would take a very long time to figure out which one was which. He paused, noticing there was a small indentation that was empty. He looked at the Evil One, who was looking at a soul in his hand.

"Hand over Jennifer!" Rick shouted. He walked forwards. The stone rim around the roof had numerous statues, each seemed to be screaming in agony, facing inwards. The roof was laced with bits of black flesh that coated mainly the outer rim of the roof and wrapped around the statues.

The Evil One turned around, looking at Rick. He crossed his arms, not responding. There was something about his posture, he seemed confident, almost triumphant. "Alpha Male... Rick Taylor. You are an impressive specimen amongst humans, you know that?"

Rick paused, raising his guard and ready for a fight.

"No beast that ever wore the Terror Mask has ever done as much damage as you have done." The Evil One gripped tightly the soul in his hand and he began to walk towards Rick. "No human has ever been as strong as you are now. No human has ever survived being as heavily contaminated by Necro Energy as you have." He stopped. "Perhaps this is coincidence. Perhaps this is a sign of the Terror Masks power. Perhaps this is a sign of your power. Perhaps the Fates have gathered together to give me what I need. But I never expected a human and a slave to kill nearly all of my beasts and all of my most powerful servants." The Evil One jumped backwards and landed on the circle, standing sideways and defying gravity to insert Jennifer's soul carefully into the slot it belonged too. "But you know what is most surprising?" The Evil One had an mischievous tone to his voice.

Rick walked forwards and stood in front of the circle. "What?"

"That you, Rick Taylor, Alpha Male..." He smirked. "Are the final key to my homemade ritual."

Rick's eyes widened and the ground below him began to glow as a symbol appeared on the ground. A small black crystal on a stand stood between his legs. It was so small, he had overlooked it. "What the fuck?!"

The crystal began to glow and Rick felt something inside of himself burn. He held his chest as he felt a pain grow more and more intense inside of him. He shivered and fell to his knee's, he grunted. "What's happening?" He managed to gasp.

"I know what you know about my ritual, Alpha Male." The Evil One said coolly. "But what you don't now is that the Dark Stone needs to absorb a Tainted Soul if it is to be activated and channel energy. And a living body as strong as yours is the perfect buffer. And the Dark Stone is in between your legs, right now. All the pieces are in place. The mask is about to lose its host and you are about to lose your very soul."

Rick shivered as he felt like he was being torn apart, he grunted and as his body burned, he screamed out loud. "Rick!" The mask shouted.

Rick staggered to the edge of the rune on the ground. He leaned forwards to fall, only to hit the wall of a barrier that the rune was forming around. "I..." Rick couldn't move, he fell to his knee's and looked at the crystal. His vision was starting to blur. "I can't... Jenny." He muttered.

"Rick!" The mask shouted again. "Listen to me, kid. You have to cooperate with me, okay?"

"I... can't move." Rick could feel his consciousness fading as pain overwhelmed him, he was too weak to even scream and he couldn't really feel his arms, which were starting to shake and give, he collapsed in a heap.

"Oh fuck it!" The mask shouted, it grew hot on Rick's face and bones jutted from his skin. The mask stood up and blades extended from its arms, they cut through the barrier with ease and the mask walked out of the range of the rune an Rick suddenly felt revitalized. "Whoa!" He said.

"Yeah, being slowly ripped out of your body can hurt. But you're still a fucking pussy." The mask said calmly. "Now, Evil One! I believe I owe you an ass kicking, especially after you tried to steal MY human's soul!"

"Wow, that sounds surprisingly nice of you to care." Rick sounded somewhat dumbstruck.

"Shut the fuck up, Rick."

"There we go,"

"This is not going as I planned. Hell Chaos was supposed to relieve you of your Necro Energy!" The Evil One shouted.

"I have a backup supply I always keep handy, just in case!" The mask said through Rick as their body shrank back to normal size and appearance.

The Evil One sighed and looked away. "Ah yes, the backup plan. Luckily I have one too." He jumped off of the circle and landed in front of Rick and raised his fists.

Rick smirked and moved in close, his fist glowing as he swung a right hook to his opponents' jaw, releasing a wave of energy on impact that formed small cuts across his neck and chest. The Evil One staggered backwards and rubbed the blood dripping from his shadowy cheek. He moved in quick and delivered two quick punches to Rick's stomach, he felt himself lifted slightly off his feet from both and the Evil One swung around to deliver a roundhouse kick to Rick, hitting his shoulder and knocking him to he ground, he slid slightly on impact.

"Okay," He pushed himself up to his hands and knees. "New plan,"

The Evil One walked over to him and gripped the back of Rick's head, kneeling and forcing him down, slamming his head to the ground two times. "I will ensure both of you suffer greatly before you die." He slammed Rick's head to the ground again and released him, standing up.

Rick rolled onto his stomach and the Evil One grabbed his leg and casually swung him around, flinging him into one of the statues. The impact shattered the statue and rubble scattered on the ground. Rick slowly got to his feet. "You know, I can't help but notice that you are getting your ass handed to you by this skinny black and blue FUCK!" The mask shouted.

Rick paused and looked at the rubble as the Evil One calmly walked towards him. He swung his right arm and the rubble hit his opponent in the eye. He stepped back and held his eye. "What on earth?"

Rick grabbed another stone and chucked it. His opponent caught it with his free hand and Rick quickly grabbed the head of the statue and swung with all his might, the statue hit square between the legs and the Evil One collapsed on the spot. "Oh FUCK, that was cheap!"

"Hey, Rick, you got the Evil One to swear, I've never heard him do that before." The mask laughed as Rick ran up to him and grabbed the Evil One by the throat and slammed him over his head and into the ground. He grabbed the Evil One by the leg and flung him to the ground on his other side and once again over his shoulder to the first side. He swung his opponent around, spinning to gain momentum and released, slamming the Evil One into another statue, crushing it.

"Hell yeah!" Rick ran forwards and shifted to a ram, slamming the Evil One further into the rubble of the statue.

"Don't let up, Rick! Keep pounding at him!" Rick grabbed the Evil One and slammed his head into the rubble, blood started splattering about. The Evil One seemed to gain his senses in an instant and reached up to Rick and grabbed his head, slamming it to the ground. He pulled out of the rubble, his face bloodied. He swung his leg forwards and kicked Rick in the side, sending him about a foot off the ground and rolling to his stomach. Rick got to his feet as the Evil One approached and he swung a powerful right hook to the his opponents face. The Evil One staggered back, blood splattering against the wall. He moved in close and made two powerful uppercuts to Rick's stomach, each pushing him off his feet. Rick stood, dazed and his opponent grabbed his head and headbutted Rick.

Rick staggered back himself, his rib cage burst open, the bones curving inwards and his body transformed, the mask changing in a split second as bones pushed out of his skin. Rick screamed as blood sucked from the Evil One to Rick, who's body reverted back to normal after a couple seconds of blood sucking from one body to another. Rick's wounds were completely healed. He moved in as the Evil One tried to regain his senses and Rick grabbed him by the throat with his left hand and his right glowed with an orange light. He slammed his fist into his opponents face and pulled back as the wave of energy was released. His opponent was getting pretty bloody, most of it was sucking up Rick's arm. His fist glowed again and he tossed up the Evil One, as he fell, Rick's right hook hit him in the face again, he was pushed backwards. The Evil One landed in a roll and got to his feet again, he still had fight left in him.

"I've got enough, I'm gonna kill him myself!" The mask shouted as it grew hot on Rick's face, it took him over, the usual changes were made to him and the Mask ran forwards, the blades extending from his arms. He swung them forwards and the Evil One held his arms out, catching a blade in each hand. He lifted up the mask by the blades, span him around in a circle and slammed him to the ground. The blades retracted and the Terror Mask pushed himself up, he charged at the Evil One, who charged back. He jumped and landed in a slide, the mask was knocked off his feet in mid-charge, he ended up rolling to his feet and standing up. "That cheap bastard stole your move!"

"What are you talking about?" Rick asked.

The mask sighed. "Never-fucking-mind,"

The Evil One moved in and the mask swung an extended blade at him. The Evil One was knocked off guard, the gash in his chest bleeding profusely and the mask grabbed the Evil One's skull and pressed inwards,. The Evil One struggled and tried to pry apart the hands, he yelled out loud and the mask crushed his opponents skull in his palms, reducing the skull to a bloody mess. The mask watched at the Evil One's corpse collapsed in a heap. It reverted Rick to his normal form. Rick looked at the body and heaved a sigh of relief. He looked up at the circle that held the souls and jumped upwards, he grabbed onto the side of the structure and climbed up, he leaned sideways and reached in, he remembered exactly where Jennifer had been put. He grabbed her soul and dropped down.

He glanced at the tiny crystal and walked over to it. He bent down and grabbed it, looking at it. He pocketed it and walked back in front of the circle. "Where's the portal?"

"Gimme a second Ricky boy." The lights on the circle suddenly started to vanish, one by one and as they did so, a sort of scream emanated from them. Rick's eyebrows raised. And after fraction of them had vanished a portal opened next to him.

"You just killed them to make this portal, didn't you?"

"Kinda, yeah."

Rick put a hand against the structure and pushed. It toppled over and crumbled. The lights zipped out in mass, into the sheets that seemed to make up the sky. "Well, at least no one will be using them anymore." Rick turned towards the portal and stood in it, he sank down and the portal vanished behind him.

Rick Taylor sat in his room, he looked completely different. He no longer had the mask covering his face to reveal a normal looking young adult with black framed glasses. He had dark brown hair and a trimmed goatee. He was sitting on his bed, his build was fairly athletic. His room was rather unremarkable, posters on the walls, one was labeled "Zombie Survival Poster" and had numerous tips on how to survive a zombie outbreak. He had posters featuring metal bands, including Goat Whore. The comforter he was one was dark blue and there was a lamp on a drawer next to his bed. He was watching the ending of "House of a Thousand Corpses". Next to the lamp was a bottle of liquor that was half empty. Jennifer walked out of the bathroom, dressed in a simple white t-shirt and jeans with a black jacket. Unlike Rick, who was wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. She had her purse over her shoulder and she smiled at Rick.

"So, you're sure your okay with me going out with my friends alone?" Jennifer asked, she leaned to one side as she spoke.

"Yeah, I'm fine, the worst that can happen has already happened. Besides, you need to relax and calm down with your friends." Rick said in a slightly off-level tone. He was obviously drunk.

She smiled and walked up to Rick, leaned over the bed and kissed him on the lips. Rick reached his hand casually up her shirt and felt the line of her bra and then slid his hand on her lower back, clearly resisting temptation at the moment. She didn't like to make out with him much when he was drunk.

"Bye bye fiance." She giggled and pulled away, walking out the door of the room and shutting it behind her.

He waited till he heard the soft click of the door to their apartment being locked. "Okay, Rick, she's gone now! Get me the FUCK out of this DRAWER!"

Rick paused, noting the voice he heard quite clearly in his mind. He opened the drawer next to his bed and pulled up a false bottom, revealing a pure white bone mask. He grabbed it by the eyes and put it next to him on the bed. "Damn, I hate that drawer. It's so fucking dark."

"Yeah," Rick reached over the mask and grabbed the bottle, taking another swig from it.

"You know, you're pretty hammered, maybe you should lay off the booze."

Rick glared at the mask with an annoyed expression on his face. "I'm sorry, did JESUS save the world and then immediately after, the entire MULTIVERSE from certain doom? No!? Then shut the fuck up, I deserve to drink as much as I want."

The mask just lay there but the tone Rick could hear in his mind was clear. "Sheesh Rick, you don't have to get so snippy."

Rick watched the ending credits of the movie. "Well, since you're planning on passing out in a puddle of your own drool, do you mind putting on the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street? I overheard you saying you got it yesterday and your girl is gonna be out all night."

"My fiance," Rick corrected. "And sure,"

"Whatever,"

Rick got off the bed and stumbled as he stood, making his way over to the television and pulled out a DVD case from over the player. He pulled out the disc and grabbed another case beside the TV and popped the disc in. He stumbled back over to the bed and sat on it, positioning himself next to the mask and grabbing the remote to the DVD player.

"So, how's Jen doing?" The mask was clearly bored and didn't actually care about the answer.

"Good, a little shaken up, but good."

"How's West?"

"No clue, he disappeared after we brought Jen back and rumor has it he quit the day after we returned from the Abyss. Said something about a nephew"

"Stopped pissing blood yet?"

"Nope," Rick wasn't completely paying attention, but unfortunately it was difficult to ignore someone who wasn't talking to you out loud as much as they were in your head. He pressed play when it got to the menu.

"What about Arkham?"

"In a panic, lot of people got hurt when the meteorites rained from the sky and all those earthquakes happened." He didn't sound very thrilled when he spoke. "Destroyed some houses and nobody knows how to explain it."

"Been interviewed by any police?"

"Nope, Jen and I are still trying to decide if it's a good idea to try to tell anyone about what West did. Nobody would believe us and anyone who broke into the mansion would be killed."

The mask waited as it watched the opening to the movie, watching scenes mostly involving children or children's toys. "I still can't believe you kept the Dark Stone."

Rick looked at the mask. "What was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave it in the Abyss, it could get everyone free."

"You hid it in your CLOSET in a box labeled 'Boring shit, do not open.'"

"Who's actually going to look in there?" Rick said defensively.

"I will,"

Rick shrugged, looking at the screen. "You don't have a host and you're not leaving my apartment."

"If Jen finds me, she's gonna be pissed."

"I don't think she even understands that you're alive."

"So much for dropping me in the ocean."

Rick sighed, grabbing the 2 liter container of water next to the liquor and drinking, it was also half empty. "I can't drop you in the ocean, you're a dangerous artifact that can destroy everything." He looked at the mask. "So for the safety of this world, I'm keeping you."

"Real fucking noble Rick. I've gone 3 weeks without any blood and you're still pissing it."

Rick looked away from the mask. "I don't even want to consider that."

"Hey! I don't care where it comes from. Blood is blood."

Rick smirked and looked at the mask. "Well, it hardly matters, you're not going anywhere."

The mask remained silent as it watched the screen for a few seconds and then turned its attention back to Rick. "Whatever... I suppose I'll have to settle for TV violence for now."

Rick set the water down on the table and turned off the light. "Yup, good night asshole."

"Sleep tight, pussy."

Rick lay down on the bed, not bothering to move under the covers. "Yeah? Well fuck you." He muttered.

"No Rick... fuck you."