Hey everyone, it's Paradigm of Writing here with Chapter 11 of Pluto Vacation, Crimson Stained Games. Our Freak has been revealed to be Kuro, which I bet none of you are surprised at and even if you are, there had to be a moment of suspicion, especially given the circumstances. Many points alluded to it, such as the baseball bat having the letter 'F' standing for the psychopath's name and all. But, I digress. This will be quite the long and momentous chapter, so get ready for a long and wild ride.
3:54 AM, Husen Family Resort, Location Unknown, Denver, Colorado, December 20th, 2015
The four friends stared in shock at the now laughing dark haired boy believed to be dead. Kuro Husen and all of his amber eyed cockish glory bent over his knees, coughing and hacking the life out of him with a humorous air behind it. "You should have seen your faces guys... I mean..." he wiped tears away from his eyes.
Sheik and Samus made the bold statement to step forward, fists clenched. "Have you lost your fucking mind?" the latter asked.
"I knew it... he did stop taking his medication." Luigi frowned, trying to process what was even happening in front of him. Mind numbing shock if asked, perhaps. How he'd been forced to shoot himself in the jaw with a gun or shoot the one person who meant more to him than anyone else in the world... how could someone be that cold?
"Medication?" Sheik echoed.
"Yeah," the boy clad in green said again. "He had been prescribed depression and suicidal medication from a psychiatrist named Mario after Lucina and Midna died."
"Or did he kill them too..." Peach asked hollowly.
Kuro's eyes turned to slits, and his face turned beet red. "I didn't kill my sisters, you assholes!"
"But you tried killing us! You did kill us!" Samus argued back.
The Husen boy blinked. "No... I didn't. The gun had blanks, those weren't supposed to hurt unless shot at the heart, which I explicitly told him not to do... and the solution I used against you had zero lethal substances in it."
"Don't try and play innocent with us!" Sheik snapped.
"I'm not! Who are you referring to?" Kuro's voice sounded genuinely confused and misplaced, as if he couldn't tell the truth from lies anymore.
"Robin and Red are dead! She had been stabbed in the throat with a knife, Red burned alive," Samus screamed, almost leaping for him. "You killed them both, you bastard! Link and Zelda haven't been seen all night. I bet you had something to do with that too, didn't you? I got chased through this fucking house for your precious little game... were you going to kill me too? You took Marth from the guest cabin, having Sheik run after him! You're a monster!"
Luigi rubbed his neck. "Guys... I don't think Kuro is lying..."
"Oh, that there's someone else on the mountain by the name of Freak killing all of us?" Sheik responded sarcastically.
Kuro made a grim smile. "Sheik... Samus, I don't remember killing anyone... I didn't kill anyone! The only thing I did was kidnap Lucas and Peach into the shed with me where I faked getting captured... and then I went after Samus... I haven't seen anyone else all night."
Peach rose her head up. "But you were in the room with me when we got attacked... does that mean someone else played Freak for you? Then swapped roles?" The girl groaned, clutching her head. It made no sense.
"Yeah. You're right about that." He couldn't meet her eyes.
Samus made a backwards motion with her hands. "I saw you die in front of my own eyes, Kuro. A spike straight through the chest, bleeding everywhere, eyes glazed over... you couldn't possibly have faked that."
"Oh, but I did, Adderage. It's called using a dummy body, and the spike also wasn't sharp, it was made of paper machete. The blood was old packets of ketchup gone terribly old."
"Who would have possibly been-" Sheik started, when a loud knock cut her off. Everyone minus Kuro jumped. He grinned to himself.
"Time to make things right."
Everyone's head flicked to the door, where the two blonde rescuers had come from just ten minutes earlier, to see another blonde head peek through, covered in dust, blood, and other horrendous extremities. Lucas.
"Lucas!" Peach screamed, racing out of Luigi's arms to the injured boy, wrapping her arms around him.
"Ow!" he hissed.
"S- sorry."
Now it was time for Luigi's face to turn ashen. "But... the cabin... it destructed itself and crushed you. I saw the blood. How are you alive?"
"House was made out of paper machete too, the entire thing." Lucas grinned.
"Are you alright?" Samus asked.
"I suppose so. Few scrapes and bruises."
Sheik looked at Kuro. "So... you decided to scare us all out of our fucking minds for some prank? Why? I thought you said you didn't want to hurt anyone-"
"I didn't," the Husen boy reprimanded. "That's why the cabin I trapped Lucas, Peach, and myself in was made harmlessly, in case someone got crushed."
"Did you know about this whole thing?" Samus questioned Lucas, the boy swapping hugs between Peach and Luigi.
"Pretty much, yeah. A majority of the details, Kuro filled me in on them while we waited for you all to get here. I acted as Freak when Peach and him were captured, then he woke up from hurt him, and did the same to me. Simple stuff."
"I don't understand the pranking though..." Luigi frowned, rubbing his chin, glancing back at Kuro.
The amber eyed male growled low in his throat. "That's because you don't! Lucina and Midna were amazing girls, brilliant and beautiful sisters till you all fucked up and pulled a prank on them that got them killed. Lucina and Midna can't laugh about it now, can they? Nope, they're gone! So I wanted to make you feel the exhilarated fright, the feeling of terror that keeps you standing stock still... you'd feel the pain and die from it in your heart!"
"He told me all of that, too," Lucas breathed heavily. "Not that I necessarily agreed with him either on any of the things mentioned, but it felt like good payback. Believe him when he says it, he had no intention of killing or hurting anyone. Me on the other hand..." the blonde trailed off.
An uneasy silence settled over the room. Peach automatically resided to Luigi's side, hands clutching together. Samus's voice dropped into a low whisper. "Lucas... what are you talking about?"
The blonde had en eerily quiet calm wash over him. "Isn't it so simple? Sheik of all people should remember my face by now..."
Said girl gasped. "Fuck! Guys-"
Lucas nodded. "Yes, that was indeed me. My voiceover, in the guest cabin. It's why Kuro got so angry when finding out I killed his sisters, that I raped them. How I killed Red and Robin with the expert flip of my hand. I took Marth from the cabin, causing Sheik to run after him and I, to watch her loved one die in front of her very own eyes. How I tricked Zelda and Link onto the fire tower, only to send it plummeting to the snow below, causing it to collapse into the mines... all of it was done by me. And how it made me have to tell you this all now in the sudden instance of revelation for it to finally piece the fuck together... you're all so damn stupid and slow," The boy made a movement into his jacket. "It's a shame I can't leave any of you alive now, at this point it is too risky."
Kuro's eyebrows furrowed together, skin turning a more jackal red. "Lucas... are you saying-"
"Yes, I did everything. Your sisters had such lovely screams, and so do you." the blonde said with an emotionless face. He pulled out a pistol, taking one point blank shot straight for the Husen boy's head, killing him instantly.
He turned around to fire more shots, noticing that the company of friends had all screamed and ran out of the basement, probably heading for the sanity of the upstairs. Lucas snorted. "And God said, let there be light. I'm that light. Enjoy, my fellow angels!"
Peach ran up the staircase to the main floor, screaming her belligerent head off. How could they have been so stupid to not realize it? They got played perfectly into Lucas's hand, that there had always been something off about the blonde pilot, and she couldn't quite pierce it together. Why out of all the friends chosen to be taken into the hands of the evil killer, he had been. The boy blatantly refused to partake in the game, but on the same token, made no attempt to dissuade the others in fulfilling their dreadful dream, and even then did his efforts seem full of vain in the end.
She did find it peculiar how Lucas went to bed so early that evening when they had just arrived in the cabin, the day hadn't been too tiring, but it clicked on her, he had spent all day hooking everything up to kill them with.
"Holy shit... we are all so stupid." the blonde girl thought mournfully, before stopping dead up in the main floor of the lodge.
A worse for wear Zelda Friedrich and Link Dillon stood in the living room of the lodge, the latter holding an unconscious Marth Lowell in his arms. Sheik stopped by Peach, her heart caught in her throat. "Oh my god... Marth!"
Samus had reached the duo, hugging them. "Thank the heavens you're safe. Listen, we all need to get out of here and we can explain later-"
"Tisk, tisk, Miss Adderage. Nothing is as simple as that, ever. At least, not with me." Lucas's voice cutting her off, his own coming from behind them.
Everyone turned to see the blonde boy, now turned serial maniac killer sitting on a chair at the head of the stairs, a royal golden crown sitting atop his head, a purple cloak around his shoulders. He opened out his arms, in a welcoming gesture full of madness. "Care to join me?"
"Can you do us a favor and kindly fuck off?" Zelda hissed.
"I'll gladly fuck one of you instead." Lucas opined.
Luigi gagged. "You're sick."
The killer laughed. "Thank you, I've noticed. No, but seriously, join me for a game. We'll play six rounds of it, because poor Marth Lowell is incapacitated, and our lovely Kuro Husen who never got to truly explain himself now lies dead on the basement floor with a bullet in his forehead. The lovely eight couldn't be reunited to form one again, which is a damn shame."
"Go to hell." Peach said boldly.
"Why, aren't we already there?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"We aren't going to listen to you." Samus stuck her nose in the air defiantly.
"Oh, you're not? I have no issue killing you all again. Nothing wrong with that." the blonde pulled out the same gun and aimed at Samus, firing a bullet that went by her ear. She flinched, almost letting out a scream. The boy meant business.
"You can't expect to threaten all of us..." Link dropped his voice to a low whisper.
"No, but Mr. Dillon, I can bribe you and give you all everything you could possibly dream of... so let's play our game," Lucas smirked, eyes flashing with some sort of emotion. His eyes scanned the crowd, before landing primly on Peach. "Miss Tydal, would you like to let us do the honors?"
She jumped, almost slapping Luigi across the face. "No!"
"Yes!" the killer shouted in enthusiastic craziness.
The boy in green wrapped his arms around her. "Don't you fucking lay a finger on her... or I swear Lucas Samuels, I'll rip you apart-"
"Just like how you promised you'd rip Kuro apart for punching her?" the blonde asked, taunting him.
"Fuck you!"
"Kindly, Mr. Russo," Lucas smiled. "Shall we get started, Peach?"
"Like I said, don't you lay a finger on her." Luigi threatened.
Lucas waggled a finger. "No problem. Besides, I won't be doing the honors of fucking her up anyways. My little friend here will." He pulled out a remote of some sort and stabbed the red button in the middle of the slate cube.
Everyone's head whirled to where a low rumbling sounded from on the main floor. Against the right wall that led into the kitchen, a full suit of a knight in armor shook and rattled. A dim light echoed from inside the mask, before a groan and the sound of gears clinking together caused the knight to move. It stepped off of the pedestal, ripping out from the walls were wires that attached onto the arms and legs. A lethal looking sword was placed in the hands of said creation, and the friends watching gulped in static shock, only hoping that the weapon had been made out of plastic and not metal.
Peach swallowed her fear. "Am I doing a staring contest with it?" she asked hopefully.
"Not even close," Lucas scolded. "I'd like you to fight it. Defeat it, if you will. And don't worry, the blade isn't as sharp as you'd think. You could sustain a few hits before having the sword start to inflict real damage."
She curled her hands into fists. "What do I got to work with?"
"Anything on this bottom floor, my dear lady."
"Do not call me that." Peach said steely.
Lucas feigned surprise. "That's harsh. Miss Tydal, take your fight in full stride."
The knight began to move with a sudden, surprising laxness in the joints, lunging expertly for Peach. The girl screamed, and leaped out of the way. Everyone else minus Lucas jumped back too, Link setting Marth down on the couch so he could rest and eventually wake up from it all. Peach landed harrowingly on her feet, almost losing her balance where the sword could have impaled her.
She delivered a swift kick to the chest of the knight, as if she had just slammed a rose petal into Mt. Everest of all fucking things, her limb responding out in cruel shock. Peach screamed, and then cried out as the knight gripped her ankle and flung the blonde over its shoulder, the girl flying and slamming into the back of a couch. She could feel the metallic taste of copper blood in her mouth, and a really intense pain in the back of her head, but she couldn't stop now. Peach weakly got to her feet, searching for something. A fire poker stuck out at her as a main weapon.
Peach dove for it, dodging another strike. Lucas watched in curiosity as she grabbed the stabber that moved wood out of the way to allow flame in, when she lunged for the knight and stabbed it in the arm. It practically bounced off harmlessly, and she tried again, while using her right hand to distract the knight, the electrical wiring gave it a mind of its own. Then, using the same hand, she reached for its neck, gripping the metal head like a bottle of water to wrench open, and she twisted it with all of her might, getting a satisfying pop. The deed wasn't over just yet, though.
The blonde yelled with all of her might, thrusting the poker straight into the neck of the knight. A low whirring sound brought her heart back to normal levels before she collapsed into the arms of Luigi, who held her up as her emotions soared, the knight toppling over, decapitated.
Lucas stood up and clapped. "Very well done, despite the short time it took to fight. Who's next? I have the perfect blonde in mind... Sheik Boeing... I gave you too little of a break. Why not join the hilarity of possibly dying?"
Sheik Boeing gritted her teeth together, holding hands with Link out of comfort and reassurance. He blinked, and Zelda scowled, but in the midst of everything that was the least of her problems. She stepped forward. "You want me to be next? Fine. Throw the worst thing you possibly have out there at me."
Lucas made a shrug of the shoulders, eyes twinkling. He tossed down a large bar, one that resembled a power cord strip, except there were five switches. A luck game perhaps? Sheik caught it, examining it, although she decided to ultimately not to touch it. Five different buttons stared back at her in stone cold evil, one crimson, another cerulean, followed by a dark olive, then halcyon, and lastly amaranthine. Hmm...
The serial killer grinned at her confusion, getting riled up beneath his pants. Something about her expression made his body very hot and horny. He closed his eyes briefly, before lowering his assuredness level to a more minimal one. "What you have in front of you is something I call, the 'Choose Who Gets To Live or Die Panel'. Basically, what it does, is that there is a gimmicky system similarly to that of cutting cords for bomb defusing.
Sheik's gaze narrowed. "Another gambling game? Fine by me."
"Each button has a different action corresponding to color. One switch will simply explode responding to touch, perhaps killing you or setting yourself on fire, to so mockingly laugh at how Red Kyne died earlier on this vacation. Another will have a hidden blowgun somewhere in this room fire a dart randomly at one of your friends, which from there will have a poison lacerate their bones. A third switch is the least painful of all, my simply favorite song will be played on the overhead system for five seconds at excruciating volume to hopefully blow out your eardrums. The fourth button turns off the explosive, and the fifth button will shut down the entire panel, making you win this game. Shall you play?"
"I shall." A sudden burst of confidence, and the blonde female felt capable of doing anything.
She looked helplessly at the panel. Lucas's singsong voice mocked her from above. "Oh, my dear Boeing, you must pick one."
Sheik stabbed at the amaranthine switch with a feverish intent. The killer closed his eyes, waiting for something to happen. The red switch inadvertently blinked off, and he grinned. "What- what did I do?" the girl asked impatiently.
"You turned off the explosion switch, which happened to ironically be the red one. Funny how Red Kyne died to fire, which is ironic as flame normally is a ripe and vibrant mix of that and orange. You're lucky. Pick another though. Either the song has to happen, the blow dart, or the simple shut down of the panel. Time starts now, again."
The blonde girl pressed the halcyon button in urgency, not caring exactly what happened. Lucas waited and grinned evilly, a small sound alerting to his correctness. "Oooh, bad luck. I guess the blow dart has made its presence known."
A lost breath hitched itself in Sheik's throat and she stared back at her friends, all whom of which had ducked underneath something or each other, primarily Luigi covering Peach, and Link covering Zelda to take one for the team. Samus took refuge under the sofa. Sheik squinted, seeing something stuck in one of the pillows against the sofa. It looked like a dart.
"It seems as if though your trajectory missed its mark." she smirked.
Lucas frowned, before leaning forward to peer at something. He cussed. "Dammit, you're right."
"What's that?" Sheik raised an eyebrow, almost reveling in glee.
"Peach had moved a photo of Kuro out of the way from being burned by a lit candle. The dart was supposed to come from the picture, so she saved someone. Had it been in the right place, Luigi would've been knocked out, presumably dead at this point. Thank Peach and her worriedness to not set this place on fire."
Luigi let out a huge sigh of relief. Peach made another wailing noise, sobbing into her hands.
Sheik gritted her teeth once more. How this bastard of a man was affecting them all by once, slowly and surely, where they'd collapse at the waist sides. They wouldn't lost their better halves to the evil known as Lucas Samuels. "I've still got another two switches to go, and they possibly can't be bad as the worst is over. I choose the olive green."
She slammed a finger down on it, and the entire panel fell apart in her grasp. She smirked. Hah. Lucas cussed. "Fine. You fucking win, okay? And since Mr. Russo did to get to keep his life out of random luck, I suppose I'll jump on the bandwagon and call him down. Luigi, time to meet your fate once and for all."
Luigi Russo thought he knew fear. No, he was wrong, absolutely wrong about that. Staring down the face of once a great friend who had the potential to hurt all of those who he cared about, it sold all the old past nightmares and scares when his phone battery percentage would drop below 2%, now it mattered and meant business.
He swallowed the heaviness in his throat he didn't know he had, and the boy clad in green stepped proudly up to the plate. "Give me all you've got."
"Not a wise choice, Mr. Russo." Lucas snickered.
"I bet you've already done the worst of it."
"Stop giving me so much of the credit, please learn to have dignity for a change."
"Give it to me, Lucas." Luigi hissed, his hands curling into fists.
"I Spy." the serial killer said.
What a fucking joke. "You've got to be kidding me," Luigi thought. "I SPY? That's the maniacal madness I've got to work with?"
"I can still shoot you if you fuck up," Lucas reminded him. "You should be grateful that the worst I have to offer you is an elementary school game."
"Perhaps." he said with a low growl.
"So... I spy, with my little eye something blue and unconscious!"
"Marth." Try again.
"Easy," Lucas stuck out his tongue. "I spy, with my little eye, something white that falls from the sky."
"Snow." Even harder next time. What an idiot.
"I spy, with my little eye, a girl who loves you, one who undoubtedly will never stop thinking about you till the day you die."
Luigi frowned. "Who is he talking about? Err... Samus?"
Lucas leveled the gun at his face and fired a warning shot, shooting straight between the boy's legs. He nearly fainted on the spot. "Wrong! Mr. Russo, are you so fucking dumb you can't see the girl straight in front of you. How bad must you be where I have to explain this to you? My dear boy, it's Peach Tydal! Always has been, where she cared too much since it has always been in her DNA. You must have been going soft on me all these years."
The boy in green looked at the blonde, eyes disparaging. "Peach... is- is it true?"
She nodded solemnly, hugging him. "I love you..." Peach whispered into the crook of his neck.
Luigi breathed in. "I love you too."
"Why the fuck not? I guess you're already done, the sappiness is quite disgusting," Lucas shuddered. "New victim! Why, Zelda Friedrich, thank you very much for stepping up to the plate!"
The serial killer examined his nails, not minding the brunette with even the slightest motions. "Man, the beauty from Harvard Law. The girl who so willingly trash talks others for the specific reason of why the fuck not, beautiful in body, nasty in tongue. Miss Zelda Friedrich, I've chosen the easiest game for you, but it requires a fully responsive mind. Do you understand me?"
Zelda nodded, hearing him loud and clear. "Perfectly." Her voice cracked, and she gave Link's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"The fun game of riddles, where you constantly required to be on your toes. Get one flat out wrong, I'll shoot you. Be close enough, but still incorrect, and I'll fire a bullet somewhere at you that could be painful or not hurt at all. Bleeding out is a fun way to go, after all." Lucas teased.
"These were the epitome of awful in my English class. I know too many of them for it to be a challenge."
"Okay, is that so," the blonde raised an eyebrow, hand clutching the pistol in his lap. "Then we shall try, won't we?"
Link leaned into his girlfriend's ear. "Please don't fuck up, oh please."
"We have nothing to worry about it." she snarked back.
Lucas wiped some of his hair out of his eyes. "Let's start then, shall we? What comes down, but never comes up?"
"Easy. Rain. Harder one, please. Don't want me to be sitting here, bored to death."
The serial killer's nostrils flared, he could practically imagine killer her right then and now, but he couldn't break the rules. "Fine. I'm tall when I'm young, but short when I am old. What am I?"
"A candle. Heard that one a million and one fucking times. Can we do something better here?" Zelda yawned, disrespecting Lucas right to his face.
Samus hooted. "That's right. Beat his ass to the ground with words."
"Want to play that game, do you? Sure, we can do that. What has a foot, but no legs?"
"A snail." the brunette said without a moment's hesitation.
"Fuck off." Lucas snarled.
"Oh, and I'm hurting you by knowing how to play the game? Newsflash, Mr. Blondie, you've had me at, a game of riddles."
"Free to go..." the serial killer whined.
"Thank you."
Samus Adderage had been through enough with watching her friends die and become close to dying right in front of her. All it took now was a simple game of intelligence and smarts, which is why she had Peach's fire poker clutched in her hands so she could throw it at the blonde fucker the moment she got to.
Lucas smiled to himself in the freaky way only he knew how to, and crossed his legs to how a girl could sit. "Oh, why, it's my lovely blonde Sam friend. Glad to see you're doing well. How was that bath?"
"Fuck you, bastard."
"How couth."
"We never said anything about respectful of each other, you know." Samus pointed out.
"I suppose not," the boy laughed. "But it is fun pretending we chose a civil path to express our differences. That's why, for you, all I simply want to do is talk. A blonde friend to another blonde friend. You can sometimes be as boring as white toothpaste."
"Well, we've always said you needed to be clean." she fired back.
He raised his head at this. "Dangerous game, Miss Adderage."
"Remember that conversation we had on reaction time before you let Kuro open the front door to the lodge?"
"Yes, what about it?"
"I find it ironic now, given our current situation."
"Nothing ironic about it at all, dear Sam." Lucas frowned.
Samus smirked. "If only that were the case." Then, with lighting fast reflexes, she chucked the poker at the blonde serial killer, forcing her throwing arm with all her might.
His eyes widened, and he ducked. "Fuck!" he screamed.
"Everyone, get out of here, now," she yelled. When the others didn't move, she screamed at them again. "I said now, motherfuckers! Zelda, toss me your lighter."
The brunette made a smart ass remark before tossing her a lighter in her pocket. When Samus had thrown the poker, Lucas had ducked, and instead the poker slammed into a lamp, shattering the glass façade around the bulb easily, leaving everything open to explosion.
At this point and time, Marth Lowell decided to unceremoniously wake up at the commotion. The bluenette sat up, scratching his head and giving a low groan. "Guys... what in the hell happened?" He got an eye full view of Samus tossing a lighter over Lucas's head, the blonde still assessing any of the damage. A little inferno roared behind the boy, as flame met with open shards of glass and electrons.
Lucas laughed. "You'll have to do better than that, Samus Adderage, to stump me."
She ran for the door, grabbing Marth by the hand. A thought dawned on her. "Hey... Marth, could you pretty please do something for me?"
He blinked. "Yeah. Sure. What is it?"
"Flick the light switch." Samus said sweetly.
Marth shrugged, and did as he was told. "Okay."
Lucas, who managed to hear the entire exchange, widened his eyes. "Oh... fucking hell. You son of a bitch-"
The blonde serial killer never got to say more, as Marth flicked the light switch on, causing the shattered lamp light bulb to 'turn on' igniting a flame to then erupt. Lucas screamed in agony as a bursting supernova of flame and fire drowned out the entire cabin in an explosion.
Samus and Marth went flying back, the girl groaning as her head hit something sharp.
She felt blood pour down her back, when she was hit with an oncoming wave of darkness as unconsciousness ate away at her mind.
There we are guys! I mean, holy shit, we are done with the first primary eleven chapters of Pluto Vacation! I never thought I would've gotten this far and I am beyond happy and surprised to have done so well, I mean, thank you, thank you so much for all the support I've gotten, and we've got one more chapter left to go. So, in the end, while Kuro did do everything he did as a prank, Lucas was the true Freak of the story, chasing after everyone and killing those he did for reasons we'll learn about in the next chapter, our Epilogue, coming March 7th, #12: Going Crazy. Man, my heart is racing after writing this chapter, and having the Pokemon DPPt music playing on repeat while making this chapter, well, it certainly added to the tension. Thanks for reading, please review, and I'll see you all again soon! Bye!
~ Paradigm