Just want to say that while this chapter is based on 'Horror Club' the actual story takes place some time after 'Lars and the Cool Kids'. For those wondering the stories timeline.
Heart of Gem
Chapter 3
The Lighthouse Bash
We look on our two adventures as they are setting up items and furniture inside a home of some sort.
Matthew is putting up cloths onto hangers and into a wardrobe inside what can assume is his room, other items of his can be seen from horror film posters, a skull on a shelf, a cookie cat alarm clock with a creepy eye design to it and a guitar beside a stool can be seen near a simple bed with a sea design blanket on it. Pretty much the same things he had in his old room in Sandlot City with some new additions.
Matthew nodded at his work as he jumped onto a firepole that was inside a corner of his room and slide down it.
Matthew then arrived in what appeared to be a large living room, with a simple but quickly build-in kitchen that looked to be made in a rush. A couch with a 60inch screen T.V in front of it can be seen at the back of the room.
Matthew nodded in approval as he smiled widely at the room before him.
Meanwhile Al himself was setting up a room for himself as well in the base floor as he was attaching a bunch of cords and cables to electronic equipment of all sorts. From computers, scanners and printers to other devices that one can't even comprehend what they could be for. A small bed could be seen in a corner of the room.
Al connected two plugs together which brightened about 4-5 computer screens of different sizes to life.
"IT'S ALIVE DUDE! HAHAHAHAAHA!" Al said as he started to cackle like a mad scientist with his computer monitors lightened up behind him. Al stopped his laughing when he saw Matt at his door just staring at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What? Can't I have a mad scientist moment bro?" Al said as he pouted with his arms crossed as if he didn't like being judge by his friend.
Matthew just chuckled as he turned to exit the room. "Whatever you say man."
"Still though…" Al started as the two started to head out of the front entrance of the building they were in. Once outside the two looked back at their new home…Which just so happened to be the very lighthouse that sat atop Steven and the Gems home.
"How did you even get the deed to this place in the first place?" Al asked as he wondered how Matthew even got the money to get such a place.
It has been almost a week since the two first encountered the gem and decided to stay in Beach City. Since they were staying, they needed a place to live. Matthew somehow got the deed to the lighthouse and the two since then have been renovating it to make it more livable.
"Well the deed was just giving to me by the mayor, saying that it was taking up space in his office for his mayorly pamphlets or something. As for the guy who was here previously, I just gave him that E.T coin I had and he went on about some sort of government conspiracy or another and left with all his stuff." Matthew said as he remembered the strange scene of the fry-haired guy who went on about how the government tried to hide the aliens that controlled them with that coin…or something.
"Dude didn't you get that coin from a cereal box or something?" Al asked as he was there when Matthew and him or sorting through old unopened cereal boxes for toys and whatnot to sell online.
Matthew went up to his friend and placed a finger on his lips. "Shhh…He doesn't need to know that, besides…FREE LIGHTHOUSE!"
"True enough bro." Al said and the two shared a high-five with each other and went back inside.
However as soon as Matthew shut the door the was a knocking on it. Matt was confused on who it could be and opened it to reveal…Steven Universe.
"Hi guys!" Steven greeted the two wave a friendly wave.
"Hey little buddy, how's it going?" Matthew greeted one of his newest friends. Since moving Matthew had some time to bond with the little hybrid, finding out they had a lot in common. From cookie cats, puns and music.
"The gems are on another dangerous mission I couldn't go so I decided to come and visit you guys." Steven explained remembering how the gems had to go check out a dangerous place again today.
"Well come on in, Mi Casa is your Casa!" Matthew said as he welcomed Steven into his home.
"Thanks…What does that mean?" Steven said happily at first but then asked with a confused look.
"It means my home is your home and it's Mis casa es tu hogar!" Al said annoyingly as he came out of his own room to greet Steven.
"Wow! You guys have done an amazing job on this place! You guys even put in a firepole, Cool!" Steven said as he admired all the work the two had done to the lighthouse.
"Thanks Steve, it was a lot of work but I think we finally got the place to feel like home." Matthew said as he put his hands on his sides with pride.
Steven then sudden let out a large gasp as he put his hands on his cheeks and had stars in his eyes. "We need to have a 'welcome to the city' party for you guys!"
"A party?" Matthew asked, wondering where Steven was going with this.
"Yeah! You guys just moved in so we should have a party to welcome you guys to Beach City!" Steven said enthusiastic as he flailed his arms around with excitement.
Al came around and leaned against the couch they had with a chill smile. "Sounds like fun, why don't we make it into a horror movie night then?"
"Hell yeah, we haven't done one of those for a while!" Matthew expressed his own excitement for a horror movie night party.
"Then it's decided! I'll go ask some of my other friends if they want to come tonight! This is going to be so much fun! See you guys later!" Steven said excitedly as he rushed out of the house and towards the city.
"Later Steve. Man, I am actually looking forward to this. So, what movies should we show?" Matthew asked as he faced his friend.
"Bro, leave that to me. You just worry about setting everything up." Al said as he had a slight mischievous smile on his face.
O-O-O
"So where is this party supposed to be anyway?" Lars asked disgruntled as he walked beside Steven, Sadie and another girl around Steven age by the name of Connie. The four were walking towards the beachfront at night as that was when Sadie and Lars were done work.
"It's right up there!" Steven said dramatically as he pointed at the lighthouse. Which oddly enough had lightning thundered behind it to give it more of a scary tone.
"The lighthouse? Isn't that where that social napalm Ronaldo hides out?" Lar asked as he was aware of the alienist used to hide out there.
"Didn't he move out of there and into the cities water tower a week ago?" Connie questioned as she remembers seeing the Fryman moving all his stuff to the water tower one day.
"Yep! My new friends live there now and we are having a party to welcome them!" Steven told his friend happily as they started making their way towards the lighthouse.
"Pfft, any friend you make must be as weird as you are." Lars said but he was hit in the ribs by Sadie elbowing him.
"I'm sure whoever they are they will be nice to meet." Sadie said showing some kindness to who Stevens new friends could be. Once they arrived at the home Steven knocked on the door. For a while nobody answered so Steven knocked again which made the door open slightly.
"Matthew? Al? Are you guys here?" Steven asked out loud as he slowly opened the door.
When he did the door flew wide open and a man in a rubber lizard mask popped out and roared at them, scaring all of them with Lars hiding behind Sadie. Soon laughter could be heard as the person in the mask took it off to show it was Al. "Hahahah! I got you amigo's good didn't it?"
Everyone except Lars started to laugh along with Al at the scare. Sadie stopped laugh however when she recognized Al. "Hey I know you. Your one of those two guys who came to town a week ago right? My names Sadie."
Realization appeared on Al face as he smiled and snapped his fingers at Sadie. "Oh yeah, you're that donut chica(girl) that gave us those treats that day. Those were pretty good chocolate donuts btw."
Sadie scratched the back of her head a bit as she blushed slightly. "Oh those donuts were just delivered, I just heat them up and glaze them is all."
"Well nice to see you and…Who that hiding behind you?" Al said as he pointed at Lar who was still hiding behind Sadie.
Lars notice what he was doing and stepped forward and pushed Sadie back rudely as he tried to make himself look cool.
"The names Lars. And that was a nice trick but it didn't scare me one bit." Lars lied confidently as he crossed his arms.
Al just gave him a deadpan expression that showed that he didn't believe him. "Sure…And who's this little chica(girl) here Steve?" Al said changing the subject as he leaned down to greet Connie.
"Hora, encantado de conocerte. Mi nombre es Connie. (Hello, nice to meet you. My name is)" Connie said as she greeted Al in his native language of Spanish. Which on Al side was pleasantly surprised by it.
"Whoa! That pretty good speaking there Connie. I've been trying to teach Matt how to speak it properly for years. Encantado de conocerte tambien Connie. (Nice to meet you too)" Al said as he greeted Connie back and shook hands with her. While the others just looked at them confused. Not knowing Spanish, themselves.
"Thanks, my mom has been taking me to Spanish lessons. It's a really fun language to learn." Connie said as she explained how she knows how to speak the language.
"Ya done speaking Italian there Al? The parties all ready!" Matthew voice could be heard from within the light
"IT'S SPANISH YOU ASSHOLE!" Al shouted back in annoyance but just rolled his eyes and sigh before smiling at their guest. "Well you heard the man. Come on in!"
Everyone complied and walked inside one at a time. What they saw surprised them, as it looked like someone set up a bunch of Halloween decorations and chips and candy on a table in front of the t.v.
"Wow you guys really went all out for just a movie night." Sadie said as she was impressed by all the work Steven new friend went through.
"It's…Okay I guess." Lars said dismissively as he tried to appear not to care. But in truth he was actually impressed by all the work they put into this.
Soon enough Matthew himself came down on the firepole and spread his arms as he landed on the ground. "Ta-da! Welcome all to the Mercury Mystery Movie Night!"
Everyone looked at Matt in confusion as it was Connie who asked the question. "Mercury Mystery Movie Night?"
"Yeah, me and Matt do this kind of thing at least once a month with some of the other guys back home. Haven't really had a chance lately with all that has been going on." Al said as he explained it to their new friends.
"So, what kind of lame-o movies do you have for us anyway?" Lars asked rudely as Sadie elbowed him in the side.
Matthew ignored the rude comment as he pulled out two movies. "Tonight, we got 'Killer Clowns from Outer Space' or, 'Leprechaun', Pick your poison folks."
Sadie, Steven and Connie looked excited to watch the horror movies that are considered to be some of the more classical but Lars on the other hand…
"What?! Those movies are lame…And old. Don't you guys have anything better?" Lars asked disgruntledly at the old movie choices.
Al leaned in closely to Lars and whispered to him. "Don't worry bro, these are just for the little amigos. Once they are asleep the REAL show will start. You read me?"
Once Al said that he showed Lars the full collect of Insidious to him. Lars smiled as he fingers snapped at Al. "Oh I read you muchacho!"
Al gave Lars a very hard glare after he heard him say that word. "Don't ever talk like that again bro…seriously."
Al left Lars alone as he nervously tugged on his shirts neck. Wondering if he said the wrong thing, Muchacho was the only Spanish word he knew of….kind of.
"Okay guys, first film has been chosen, Killer clowns from outer space!" Matthew announced as he revealed to Lars the cassette tape of said movie.
He then turned towards Steven and Connie. "You two will be okay watching such a movie, right?"
"I've seen some of the latest horror movies, I usually get away with it by telling my mom I'm watching documentary movies. What about you Steven?" Connie told her how she will handle the movie then she turned to face Steve.
"I'll be fine!" Steven said happily as he waved them off.
O-O-O
Halfway through the movie, everyone was enjoying the old classic and the snacks on the second floor of the building. Even Steven himself was watching it all as well…from behind the couch.
Al popped his head from over the couch to check on Steve. "Hey little amigo, you sure you can see the movie okay from there?"
"Yep everything is good here!" Steve said as he gave him the thumbs up. Suddenly the power to the building sudden went out.
"Ah man, I thought you got everything sorted Al!" Matthew angrily yelled at his friend.
"I did yo. Maybe it's a power outage." Al said a he begrudgingly started making his way to the power box.
"So how long have you guys been living here anyway?" Sadie asked, trying to strike a conversation with the newest resident of Beach City.
"About a week, got most of the outer stuff made up, was planning to start putting up walls and such next week." Matthew explained how their work was doing for their new home.
Everyone continued waiting for Al but it wasn't showing that he was coming back.
"Does…does it usually take this long to fix a power box?" Connie asked, showing that she was getting a little bit afraid.
"Usually? No, plus it's Al so he should have been back by now…Somethings up." Matthew said as he got up from the couched and grabbed a spare flashlight, he had near him.
"What if he got captured by ghost?!" Steven asked scared as he placed his hands on his cheeks.
"Dude don't say that! There's no such thing as ghost! Your sound like Ronaldo." Lars angrily shouted at Steven despite looking scared himself. Suddenly the flashlight in Matt hand flew right off his hands and headed towards Lars face, luckily, he moved his head in time to avoid it.
"Hey, watch it!" Lars shouted angrily at Matt but everyone just stood there staring at him.
"That wasn't me! It just flew out of my hands suddenly!" Matthew told as he revealed his open palms to everyone.
Then things started to get very weird, as ghostly sounds were heard and cupboards and the fridge door started opening and closing all by themselves. The items inside them as well as other objects in the room started flying around the 5.
"Oh my gosh! I think Steven is right, it is a ghost!" Connie announced as everyone avoided a coffee mug being thrown at them.
"Ah man, that was Al favorite mug!" Matthew pointed out, knowing full well his friend will be upset by that.
"How is this happening?!" Sadie asked scared as she had to avoided a frying pan being thrown at her.
"This…is…AMAZING! A real life haunted house!" Steven examined in excitement, showing that he was the only one not scared.
Everyone then sudden jumped to the side to avoid a large barrel being thrown at them. Matthew made a cross with his arms showing his disapproval. "Not amazing, NOT AMAZING!"
"C'mon let's get out of here!" Sadie said as she pointed at the front door. Everyone rushed towards the door only for it to shut on them.
Lars tried urgently to open the door but it wasn't budgeting. "It…won't open!"
"MOVE!" Matthew shouted as he pulled out his weapon from his gem, shocking the 4 there. Especially Connie, Sadie and Lars as they only seen that from the other Crystal Gems. Matthew raised his weapon and cut the door down as everyone rush through. As soon as they did however the door reassembled itself back together.
"Okay…this is getting a tad out of hand! Why didn't anybody say this place was actually haunted?!" Matthew wondered, showing his patients were running thin.
"It happens." Steven calmly said, as if he has dealt with things like this before.
"NO IT DOESN'T! It is not a ghost!" Lars shouted, still trying to show his tough guy attitude but in truth he was just as scared.
"Who cares what it is, we have to get out of here!" Sadie said as he started going down the stairs they were at.
"So Steve, you seem pretty calm about this. Is this like a usual thing for you and the gems?" Matthew asked as he was surprised how calm Steven was acting despite the haunting.
"Pretty much, sometimes two times a week" Steven replied with a happy smile.
"He's right, when we first met, we got stuck in a magic bubble he conjured up." Connie told, backing up Steven.
"We almost downed and got eaten by a monster." Steven continued on what happened to them back then.
"Oh…goodie." Matthew said calmly, as he realized this will be becoming his new norm for the rest of his life. As they continued down the stairs everyone sudden heard what sounded like kids laughing.
"Oh please don't tell me this place is haunted by ghost kids." Matthew said as he really didn't want to go down that road.
"There are no such things as ghost! We are all just hearing things and seeing things and feeling things that aren't real!" Lars said angrily as he rushed down to the bottom of the stairs and rushed the front door, only for it to open up and hit him in the face.
There at the doorway to the outside, were four scarecrows that were moving on their own. And they were moving towards the door. Matthew and Sadie rushed and closed the door on them as they tried to force themselves inside.
"Damnit! I told Al not to brings those scarecrows! But NOOO, 'it belonged to my grandpa' he said!" Matthew said as one of the straw-men slipped through and rushed towards Lars. Lars got out of the way as the scarecrow smashed itself on a wall. But it recovered quickly and rushed Lars again.
The thing tried to claw at Lars with its twig hands but Steven managed to get a hold of it and threw it back outside as Matt and Sadie shut the door for good on them, with Matt actively putting the locks on.
"Have you ever seen a haunting this bad?" Sadie asked as he tried to gather her breath.
"That depends…Real or fictional?" Matthew asked back with a raised eyebrow.
"The Conjuring?" Sadie asked back.
"My girl!" Matthew said as he pointed at Sadie with a smile. Sadie just giggled a bit at Matthew silliness despite the situation.
Lars however had pretty much enough of all this. "Don't act so coy! This is all your guys fault anyway?" Lars said as he pointed a finger at Matthew.
"Me?!" Matthew asked with a raised eyebrow and an offended tone.
"Yeah, this is probably all set up by you guys in the first place! As soon as the Al guy left, all this weirdness started to happen! I bet you guys did all this just to get a scare out of us!" Lars explained what was going on.
"And destroy, might I add new, house that we just bought?! If we did want to do a haunting, we would have gone to a barn or something! So, don't put this on me because you are the one being targeted by all this weirdness!" Matthew shot back as he notices most of the assault were done either at or near Lars himself.
"I think…You should stop being such a dink to Matthew!" Steven added his own thoughts as he saw how Lars was picking on Matthew for what was happening.
"I agree, you're being a bit of a jerk to Matthew who set up a party for all of us." Connie said as well to back up Steven words.
Lars let out a loud groan as he then looked towards Sadie and rushed towards her. "Sadie, you're not an idiot!"
"Hey!" Steven said with a pout.
"That's not nice." Connie said with her arms crossed.
"I take offensive that that!" Matthew shouted with a raised finger.
"Do you believe all of this? All this stuff, they got to be doing it somehow. We got to ditch these guys, c'mon." Lars started to ask Sadie, his nerves showing. Sadie was smiling at the attention she was getting from Lars, but as soon as he mentioned he wanted to ditch everyone she frowned and backed away from him.
"I'm not ditching anyone." Sadie said as he crossed her arms and looked away from Lars shocked expression. Lars was about to retort when the floorboards underneath Sadie opened up with an ominous red light and swallowed her whole before closing up.
"Sadie?" Lars asked in shock as he put his hands on the floor where she once stood.
"Do you believe me now! There is no way we could do something that foreboding!" Matthew told Lars angrily as a floor hatch sudden opened up behind them. The sound of Sadie calling Lars name and Al voice calling out 'bro' could be heard.
"Al?" Matthew wondered as he was the first to approach the hatch. Everyone else followed after him as they entered the basement, which had a sinister red light illuminating it.
"We never really checked the basement yet, so I have no idea what to expect." Matthew warned the others as they all looked around.
"I don't see her anyway?" Lars said as he was looking around solely for Sadie.
"Al's not here either." Matthew said as he was looking for his best friend as well.
"It's close…I can feel it. It's hurting, obsessed." Steven sudden said with a disturb look on his face.
"So can I…It's almost feels like…" Matthew said as well as he turned his flashlight to the far end of the basement. There, pulsing with veins was the words 'LARS'.
Matthew turned angrily at Lars. "This is somehow your fault isn't it?!"
"W-What?!" Lars asked confused as Matthew approached him.
"I don't how or why, but you did something that caused this place to go haunted. Me and Al were being nice guest here and you had to mess it up and now both Al and Sadie are gone because of you Lars!" Matthew told as he looked ready to attack Lars but was held back by both Steven and Connie.
As soon as Matthew said Lars name, the pulsing letters pulsed more and soon a giant mouth opened up from underneath it. A tongue sudden reached out and grabbed hold of Lars before anyone could do anything. It brought Lars up to its mouth and looked ready to bite down on it.
However, it never came as when Lars opened his eyes, he saw Matthew holding the mouth open for him. "You?"
"You may be a jerk Lars…but that don't mean you have to die like one! Besides…you got to…make up…for this…" Matthew said as he struggled to hold the mouth open.
He then reopened his eyes which revealed them to be both red now, as he gained a sudden burst of strength. He pushed the mouth open more and held it with one hand as he reached for his weapon with his other.
He then slashed his weapon sideways on the mouth wide's and the cut down making a cross cut on the mouth. Once the attack was done the mouth poofed into dust, the ominous red light was gone and both Matt and Lars were on the ground.
Both Sadie and All popped their head from the rubble remains of the monster mouth. "Bro, what the hell just happened?! One moment I was heading to the power box then I find myself inside the lighthouse wall?" Al asked, confused by what exactly happened to him.
"You got eaten by a ghost that was possessing the house." Matthew easily explained to Al what happened.
"…What?!" Al asked, not entirely sure he heard his friend right.
There lying at the feet of the two was a large black gem. Steven went up to it and grabbed it. "It's a gem."
"I know what to do with this then!" Matthew said, his eyes returning back to it's normal green/red shade. He then walked up to Steven to grab the gem.
However, before he could do anything else with it, it started to glow a bright light and soon a hologram image of a kid Lars and another kid was shown. The hologram image showed Lars being a dork with the other kid as they were making the lighthouse their new secret clubhouse.
It then showed Lars was the one who engraved his name onto the wall. However just as he was finished one of the wall board popped out and smacked younger Lars in the face.
The younger kid took a picture of you Lars getting hit in the face and young Lars took offensive to it as they both argued with each other. It ended with young kid saying young Lars only cares about what people think about him.
Young Lars then retorted by saying that the young kid wouldn't say that if he knew what other people said about him. Young Lars then left the scene crying. Ending the hologram image.
"Bro…You're a dick." Al finally said as Lars was cowing behind them all, trying to block the memory.
"Let me just…bubble that for you Steve." Matthew said as he kindly took the gem from Steven hands and bubbled it with his powers.
"When it was stuck in the wall, the house must have been it's body. So, when Lars engraved his name on it must have hurt it a lot." Connie explained, giving her input on why it acted the way it did.
"Must have been why it went after me as well since I cut that hole for the fire pole." All said as he does remember that odd tremor that happened as he was installing the firepole to the house.
"So, all that lashing out was just from it being hurt and trapped for so long." Sadie wondered, feeling sorry for it for being trapped like that for so long.
"I didn't mean to hurt it okay! So you can stop talking about me." Lars said sullenly as he was brooding in the corner.
"Anyway…you two okay from being…yeah." Matthew asked as he wanted to make sure his friend was okay.
"I'm okay, nothing serious." Sadie said as she placed her hand on her forehead.
"A few splinters, but nothing bad yo." Al said as he pulled out a sliver of wood out of his eyebrow, he didn't react but you could see a tear in his eye.
Lars finally realized that about Sadie as he showed his worry. "Oh, uh yeah. We were all worried about you."
Sadie smiled a bit at Lars showing that he was worried about her.
"I don't know about you guys but…I think I am ready to go home now." Connie said finally was she pretty much was adventured out today.
"At least you didn't get eaten by a gem yo. Speaking of I think we should get the gems to do a search over just in case." Al said, as now he was worried that there might be more gems hiding in the lighthouse.
"True that. But do you guys really want to leave…I mean we still didn't finish watching the movie!" Matthew said shyly as he held the movie box in his hands.
Everyone just stared at him as if he grew a second head. "What?
"Bro…seriously?"
Once again, I am using an auto-translator for Al's Spanish words, so if I am wrong or you take offensive for it I am incredible sorry. I am doing it because I think it adds a little extra character to the story and Al as a whole and the funny scenes I can make with Matthew and Pearl (who doesn't understand it yet)
Reviews
OMNISENSE95: Good guess, Bloodstone is Matthew gem and the gem on the cover art. Thought it fit since Matthew half human and humans have blood.
Kyrogue23: Oh you have no idea, some they will be involved and some will be by their own doing…like the next chapter :)
