Here is my take on a spooky Howloween fic. I finished it minutes before deadline, and nobody had time to proofread it. So if you find mistakes, keep them, heard them, make sure they'll flourish.
Writing the Howlstrian/Grrman accent was fun. Just think of the worst German impressions you know from TV and speak Mr. Isegrims parts loud and clear when you have trouble reading it.
It's playing out like a second part of the first Episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities - "Lot 36". If you want to watch it first, I recommend you do that.
Zootopia is still not mine, I tried to buy Disney last week, but I woke up with a Donald Duck head in my bed. So I pulled my offer back and Disney is still owning it. One day Mickey, One day *shaking fist*
"Kits, gather around, it's storytime" a gray bunny called into the den. It was Howloween again, the night of mischief and horror. In the Hopps manor, the big community room was decorated for this festivity. Cobwebs in every corner, fake bats hung from the ceiling, a fake skull of a sheep was hung above the fireplace. Last one was burning slowly, and in front of it was a half transparent, red filter. Thanks to this, the room was lit in a dark reddish color, the red carpet and orange wallpapers helped, to make it to the ideal story den for this night.
In the center of the room were cushions and blankets, laid out in a circle around a big pile of sweets and a bowl with kits punch - of course it was dark red, like blood. One mammal already took his seat in the front. A glass of red wine in his paws, he was dressed like an 18th century Lord. Though, said Lords never would've "wings" sewed between their arm-sleeves and jackets. The red fur shone just right in this light, the normal green in his eyes was hidden behind white contact lenses, and a trail of fake blood was painted on his throat, down to his bushy blouse. All in all, Nick Wilde was looking good in his Count costume.
His wife strode over to him, in her white nightgown from the same time, so it was more like a long, one piece pajama. 2 teeth peeked out from her mouth, she had the same contact lenses, and her gown was dirty and full of fake blood. Judy kissed her husband on the nose, smiling "So, ready for another scary night, mylord?"
"Always, you know, I love spooky stories" the vulpine answer with a smile.
The earth shattering rumbling announced the fluffy mass of the Hopps household. 20 little kits stormed into the room through the way too small door. Without asking, they jumped onto the pillows and grabbed some sweets. Exuberance was the motto of this evening, and you could feel it.
"Kits, kits, slow down, you don't want to trip the punch, do you?" came a yell from behind. Vivian Wilde, dressed in her Witch of the Wild costume, a running gag in the family, had their families newest addition in her arms. Charlie, a little marble fox who lost his parents and got adopted by the Wilde's, when they investigated their case. With 4 years, he was maybe a bit old to be carried around, but Vivian didn't mind and after what he went through, he had some leeway.
"Don't worry mom," the gray doe said "they will look out for such stuff. This is pretty normal here. You'll get used to it. And if they manage to actually tip the bowl, it's made to stand up again, kits-proof you know." Vivian looked at the strange tableware. The bottom was round, actually round, the top was shaped inward to prevent spilling. All dishes in the Hopps household were made to withstand small catastrophes. Vivian never would've thought about that.
Everyone was on the ground now, some on a cushion, some rolled into a blanket. They just got comfy and hoped this evening would never end. Nick's mother and her adopted grandson took their places besides Nick and Judy, who already sat down.
"SO" the young vulpine said out loud to get their attention, "who is ready for a story, which happened to your aunt and me on the beat?" He made grabby paws and showed his teeth even more.
"But it's Howloween, time for a scary story" a white doe screamed.
"Oh snowflake, you will see, it is a scary story. We barely made it out with our fur on our hides, quite literally." He looked sincere at the doe. "Now take your sweets and some punch, because from here on out, I tell you the story, about a case we had, called 'The one book' ".
6 months prior.
"So, where is this company again?" Judy asked mockingly.
"It's between the docks, Sahara and Tundratown. And don't be like that." Her vulpine partner answered.
"Like what? Driving to some storage unit company, because a guy says his brother was eaten by a daemon that is living in a storage unit there, is practically normal for us. We always solve supernatural mysteries, like Dean and Sam Clawchester. Oh wait no, that was a fictional thing. What was the other one called?"
"Ghostchasers, and no, we are not like them. I guess, there is a kernel of truth there. And if we can help this poor soul, getting some rest…"
"By burning their remains…. Oh, did you bring rocksalt and iron crowbars?"
"Haha fluff. No, I guess he has lost his brother and is just searching for some answers."
"Yeah ok, lets see what we can do there," the bunny answered truthfully, "but you know, these storage units are full of garbage. We should watch out when we are in there. And only to prevent the curse of the mummy or something." She laughed out loud at her own joke, Nick couldn't hold back anymore.
"Yes, or open the door to Hel. Or maybe, we find a closet in one unit with a passageway to the Fairy Kingdom."
"Or hey, maybe we find the holy grail, or the lost ark. If you see a sword in a stone, let me try first!"
"No way, it says King not Queen in the myth."
"Hey, modern times, I can try it too!" she slapped blindly to her right and hit her mark.
"Ouch, ok ok, take the next exit, and stay North, it's North-East of Hump Street."
They drove off the outer freeway and reached their target just 10 minutes later.
Parking in front of the storage unit main facility, a Badger ran to them. "Ey jo, finally. Did you make breakfast on your way? Made out on the beach? I called it in two hours ago! What took you so long?"
Both officers left their car. Judy wanted to answer, but Nick was faster "Oh you know, we prioritize the calls based on multiple things, one is, supernatural cases go to our special unit first, They are working on a different case though in Deerbroke, so they sent us." a smug grin plastered the vulpines face.
"Pff, yeah, what case? Of the vanished doughnut?" the black furred mammal spat.
"Sadly yes, we don't know how to catch the thief. My best guess, it's a flying yeti. So, you have called in and said something about a demon that ate your brother and a customer. Can you imagine how high you are on the list?"
"Yeah ok, I get it. I didn't say that, the gray wolf there said it. He took my phone when I called you and screamed something about a book and demons and stuff like that. Before I could add anything, he hung up. He refused to leave the property after that and still has my phone. So I don't have a supernatural problem, I have a super-psycho problem. Please help me out, maybe I have some fairy dust in one storage unit to get your flying yeti, but super nutjob first please. Randy Dennenhoning by the way." The badger laughed at his own pun.
"Nick and Judy Wilde, pleasure to meet you Randy. So that changes the situation." Both officers checked their tranq-gun darts and tasers for the appropriate size and setting "Let's have a word with your special guest. Stay behind us and don't get in our way. I have the feeling, this wolf needs a new jacket."
Judy was proud her husband became professional, even when he still diffuses situations like this with some humor. Walking casually over to the entry door of the main wing of the facility, and to an agitated wolf who was walking up and down the loading zone, they took position in a way he could not run away easily.
Judy, as the senior officer, spoke first "Good morning sir. We are here because you called us. Your brother was killed, you've said?"
The wolf was shaken out of his stupor. He looked at the officers and smiled wide and said in a thick accent "Yes, yes I called, or he did and I had to take his phone." He started to walk to the officers, who took a step back. "Oh don't you worry please, I have no weapon or somezing."
It finally dawned on them from where he was, Nick walked a few steps to him, his paw at his tranq gun "So you are Grrrman. What are you doing here in Zootopia? Search for demons?"
"Oh no, not searching…" The wolf started just to be stopped by the badger. "He is more searching for phones that don't belong to him." The wolf understood, smiled and with his left paw up in the air, he showed the little electric device to them and walked to Judy "Ah yes, sorry about zhat, here you go." The bunny took it and gave it back to the badger.
"Now as I was saying, I'm not searching for phones or stuff like zat. I'm a merchant. We had a call from a friend, her client was in possession of a few really rare books - okult books, used in black ceremonies to call a demon. He gave him five zausend Zollars for the first zree books and zen, the zellar zaid, he had a vault with more stuff in it. Zey searched for the last book ze same night, but after a text message from my brozer, I did not hear back from him and his phone is unconnected to analyzing. Zis is ze last place his phone was, but for a week no sign. When I have asked, ehm, was war das noch, ah ja, Video overwatzing, this badscher did show me somezing he had, and zat was enough. Zat is ze reason, I have asked for police. I found ze ozer zree books, and secured zem. But we have to look in ze vault for him."
Nick and Judy look at each other, knowing what they both thought, looked back at the wolf, who then added "Ok I get it, it's strange to you, I know it has to be, it always is. But I've been working with okkul zings for my whole life, I know ze signs. Please ask ze badscher what we saw on zese tapes."
"No buddy, I'm not a horror story writer here. I can give them the CCTV footage of that night, but that's it!" Randy waved his arms in rejection.
"You want him off the property, and we have a missing mammal here. You have CCTV, we wanna see." The fox made their position clear, the badger sighed and signaled them to come with him.
The wolf also followed, which made the officers twitch. "No worries officers, I just want to show you what we found out. I'm Thomas Isegrim, if you want my pass" he held up a red booklet, and they saw it was a passport. Nick took it. "So…. Mr. Isegrim, what is your reason to visit Zootopia. Oh, you are Howlstrian, not Grrrmany?" They continued their walk to the office.
"Ha, no, you always mix us up, it must be ze akzent. I'm a collector, searching for ehm, ze occult things. Tables, books, cursed medallions, puppets and so"
"Puppets?" Judy laughed. "What could a puppet do when it's possessed? Talk bad stuff?"
"Yes Officer, ze puppet I found some time ago, it is possessed by an evil being and could talk. It made people do zings, like kill zeir parents and zen zemschelvs. I didn't hear ze puppet talk, but we had a video of the lamb talking to ze puppet, zhen changed completely and walked like it was under hypnose. It tried to kill ze parents, but it was too clumsy and the fafer took the knife of her. In hospital, ze kit said, ze puppet ordered her to kill ze parents and zen stab the knife into its own zroat. On the recording, we just heard ze lamb, not ze puppet. A friend is now studying zis entity."
Bunny and fox looked horrified at the wolf, even the badger, hearing the story at the office door, had his neck fur raised.
"And zats ze reason we have to look what happened here. I know ze former owner of zis storage unit was from a pretty bad family. Zey delivered weapons to ze wrong side in ze war and zey became rich in ze genozide 80 years ago. Ze family also was part of ze black church, doing unspeakable zings and it is said, he, ze owner of vault 36, called a demon and put it into his own sister."
"Ok, stop it now, I don't want to know what is in these units." The badger was shaking now "But maybe I have something else to show you."
He put in an old video tape and pressed play "The owner of vaul….. unit 36 was our loyal customer for 60 years. In this time, he came in every day, really, every damn day. He brought something with him in a bag and left without it. Every day for 60 years. I installed cameras some time ago, because I wanted to make sure, he is not up to something bad…." Nick just rolled his eyes, signaling Judy he suspects more "and look at how he enters his unit."
The video played, showing a gray wolf, really old, walking into the maze of this storage facility and shortly before his destination he stopped. Rearranging his bag, in front of the shutters, he took 3 steps back and like a young pup, he made three jumps forward, one back, to the side and forward, before he opened the storage unit.
"He did this every time. When he made a mistake, he started over, but this happened only one time. See his duffle bag? It's full." The wolf entered his unit and closed the shutters behind him. The tape jumped over 1 hour forward and the same old wolf emerged from the hole in the wall, closing up the unit, made sure the padlock was secure and walked away. His bag empty, the badger pointed out.
"So, he needed a ritual to enter ze vault." Thomas said "It's like, saying here am I. Now show him ze tape of last week." He pressed on.
"Ok, first of all, I installed cameras everywhere with motion systems. If they catch something moving, they will record it onto this digital drive station. I only save strange things down to VHS because of the size of the video files. Now, let's have a look at the night they vanished."
He pointed at the bigger TV in the corner and pressed play on the keyboard. The screen showed twelve cameras, four in each row. Judy pointed something out "All cameras have numbers, but where are they installed and what did they record?"
The badger gave her a drawing of the facility, on it was every camera and which direction it faces. The screen showed how a wolf and a jackal entered the building. The later one drove an old truck, the driver window was open and the windshield was damaged. Stopping the record, Randy pointed at the jackal "This is Nick, a friend of mine. He is buying storage units we are evicting because the owner is not anymore, did not pay and such. He bought number 36 on that day."
"Zat must be ze zellar I meant. Ze ozer wolf is my brozer Heiko. Please let all screens on this time, not only ze on wiz my brozer running."
"Yes, I never saw him with Nick, so he must be new. Nick's truck is still outside, it's bed full with stuff, but wet because of the rain."
"Wait," Judy interjected, "you have had a beat up truck on your property for days now, the owner is probably missing and you did not contact the ZPD?"
Her partner intervened "And because your friend was giving you a cut of the profits, you gave him the units with valuable stuff inside, like one that somebody is visiting every day with something and leaving with an empty bag. You fear somebody got your cashmaker, right?"
Randy sunk down in his seat, knowing he was caught "Yes officers. I didn't make a fuss about it because… Nick was not really the best mammal, he had his flaws and one was, he was in debt with a money shark. I know what you think, but they visited me a few days later and I had to tell them the same thing: Nick vanished." Reversing the record a few hours, it showed how Nick was loading up his truck. When he went in, a Polarbear appeared and pulled him out, knocking him down with a small bat and said something to him. He started to walk away, but not before hitting the windshield with the bat and saying his last words to the jackal.
"Nick, is this a bear of the Big family?" the bunny asked.
"Now, it's called Polarbear, not Bigbear." The fox grinned "But for real. Big's bears are used by many small-time criminals for such stuff. Intimidating others is easy with them, and beating up too. If they search for him here, they did not ice him, if that's what your first thought went to. Ok Randy, this Nick was owing money to somebody and you pointed out the good units. He bought them and you split the money. Moraly questionable, but still legal, even if barely. You told him, number 36 is filled with gold, the auction was rigged by you and he won and then, the big bust, it's full of crap. We saw him loading up "furniture", no gold bars or stolen art from Furope. What went wrong?"
"I don't know, honestly" the badger pleaded.
"But that explains why you didn't want Mr. Isegrim to enter the unit, you think there is something valuable inside." Judy put more pressure on him.
"No, I swear no, and when you see the rest of the record, you will see why. I want this wolf off the property, because he is searching the wrong place!" hyperventilating, Randy now just wanted to run away.
"So, you think the CCTV records, which are not even legal, because I didn't see any warning signs, will proof, you are innocent." The fox concluded. "Then, by all means, show us."
Randy pressed some keys and they saw Nick and Heiko arrive. They went into the facility and straight to the unit. Nick opened it up and both looked inside the unit.
"He did not do ze ritual" the wolf said, Randy paused the recording. "Yes, I showed Nick that the old owner did that, but he didn't care. He said it's for kits. So I guess your brother didn't know of it either then."
They resumed the record and every now and then, Nick went out and put on the lights again.
"Timer switches," the Honeybadger explained, "in the night, they give you light for a few minutes, then you have to rewind them again. Old tech, but it works. The newer ones have motion sensors, but for that, we would've to get into the units and pull cables."
The next half hour they watched Nick getting out for the lights and loading up a cart with garbage. He pushed the cart out, saying something to the wolf in unit 36 before he left and outside, filling up the garbage container. "Hey, can you zoom this camera?" Judy asked, Randy did his best, "look, at the corner, there is somebody watching." the bunny pointed out. But with all the rain, you could see nothing.
"Maybe a homeless mammal?" Thomas said.
"No, it's not, but you will see her later." Randy rearranged the setup to the multiple screens and resumed play. They watched him doing the light and garbage game until 4am in the night.
Then, the Jackal ran out of the storage unit like somebody wanted to kill him. Multiple cameras went blank with just static on them. "That's strange," Nick said, "digital cameras should not have these static pictures."
"Right?" Randy said "But it gets worse."
You could see the jackal getting to a corner and going back in fear, looking around the corner and then running away in the direction he came from. Judy looked at the camera numbers and where they were, so they could track down where he went. The camera in the corridor Nick looked into was static and then, normal again, but now the camera in the corridor Nick ran into was static "As if something is following him" she said."
"Ze demon," Thomas said, "two went in, one came out, and now is running for his life."
Nick reached the door to the loading dock. It was closed. He couldn't open it and hammered against it. Judy saw, the cameras changed again. The thing that followed him was on its right track. The outside camera showed somebody coming around the corner, a meerkat.
"That's Mrs. Lopez. She was ejected last week and Nick bought her unit in the auction. It was a bad misunderstanding though. I sent her to Nick to get her stuff back. But he is not the most social mammal if you know what I mean." The honey badger zoomed in and she was looking at him through the door. He was screaming at her, pleading for help it seems. She just took out a padlock, and hung it into the latch.
"Now that's the strange thing," Randy said and paused the video, "this door is never locked. The only way to lock it is with a padlock like this, because the lock itself is busted for decades. We clearly see, he can't get out, and the padlock was placed by Mrs. Lopez long after Nick arrived and should've left the facility there. He did all night long for his garbage runs and we never saw in the camera that somebody did something to this door. Why did he not just open it and leave?"
"Again, ze demon. And because he did not ze ritual, he was killed by it." Thomas said this, like he was reading the daily news.
The virtual Nick ran back where he came from but as soon he made it to the T junction, the camera went static. Both corridor cameras were now static and after a few seconds, the camera to the exit corridor was normal again. But you could see that the static changed again, corridor by corridor, until it was back to the one with unit 36 and then, every camera was normal again.
Stunned and in silence, everybody looked at the screen, now showing the first customer in the morning, removing the broken padlock that was just hung into the latch, and went into the facility. Randy stopped the recording. "Everything is normal from there on. I looked at storage unit 36 the next day, it was closed and the padlock was installed. Nothing strange happened after this, outside that Nick's car is still there. I guess it is just a fluke in the system what we saw, electrical problems, and we didn't see them leaving. Nothing supernatural."
"So it seems. May I?" Thomas asked and pointed at the controls, Randy nodded.
"You see, he did not ze ritual we saw earlier. You remember?" Everybody nodded. "My guess is, zis demon was protecting somezing, and with not auzenticating, they both were intruders. Now look closely." He rewound the recording to the second Nick went to the T junction and reduced the playback speed. You could see 3 gray massive things coming from the corridor around the corner and Thomas stopped the record right there. "You know what zis is?"
"Three elephants grabbing Nick?" his name-brother asked.
"Elephants don't fit in this facility," Randy said, "and how would three elephants do that with the cameras anyway?"
"You said ze padlock was installed again?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"I ask, who installed it?"
Everybody got goosebumps now. The wolf casually pointed at the open door shutters when Nick was grabbed, and when he forwarded the recording, they were closed and a padlock was to be seen.
"My best guess now is, zer is somezing in zis vault, zat guards somezing of value. We have high noon, sun is up. I would say, we get a bunch of mirrors, and enter zis vault. I have ze proper tools wif me too."
"Mirrors? For what?" was Judy's first reaction. "Wait, why do I ask, this is all ridiculous. We are not in a TV show, we are in real life, demons don't exist."
"Oh mein liebsche, if zis is not enough to make you believe, zen let me show you what's inside zis vault, but wiz my terms. I am ze expert, you know?"
"I have a lot of old mirrors in one storage unit I own. Why do you need them anyway?" Asked the badger, now slowly thinking he was wrong.
"Oh wonderful. We just remove ze outside door, for security measures, installed ze mirrors to redirect sunlight into zis house and into vault 36. I hope, ze demon hates sunlight."
"'I'll give you the mirrors and help you install them, but then, I'm out." the honey badger said.
"I will go alone in zere, no problem. I want to see, what happened to my brozer. Maybe you should have looked earlier and I have to sue." The wolf looked at the badger. "Oh, and zats ze reason, you will help too. Just to show, you are helping."
Randy just nodded in fear of getting sued. Judy and Nick looked at the wolf as if they should call this in. But with all what they have witnessed in the last half hour, it's not really a question if, more like how, they should do this.
Nick put a paw on Judy's shoulder and smiled at her. She knew what he was going to say.
"So, if we follow you into hell, what do we need? Rocksalt, crowbars, holy oil, angel blade?" the fox said to the bigger canine.
"No Officer Wilde, zis is not Lupinatural. I watch zis show wiz ze same disgust as you watch cop shows. It's not how it's in reality. We need a spear zat was soaked in the blood of a holy mammal."
"Oh and you have such a spear just laying around in your glovebox." Judy taunted.
"Ze behind compartment of my Auto actually. I will get it and zen, we will prepare our mission."
As if all was said, the wolf walked out to his car and opened the trunk, pulling out something long and a candle holder. Nick and Judy looked at Randy, who was now getting the full meaning of what is luring inside of his property. Nick walked over and put his paw on his shoulder "Hey, we should get moving with these mirrors." Randy just nodded and walked out, the officers followed.
First, they removed the door completely from the frame, in hope to always have a way to escape. Next, they positioned big mirrors in the facility to route sunlight into it, under the supervision of the Wolf of course. Nobody questioned him anymore. Finally, the shutters to number 36 were illuminated like they had a window above them.
"Perfekt, ze sun should help us here. If zis spear will not work, run. Don't touch anyzing, and always follow my order. Understood?" Thomas said, staying proud with his spear. The team agreed. "Nick, here is a special candle holder. I put in some special candles, I hope it's light will vanquish ze demon." Lighting up the candles, he gave it to the fox.
"So, how do we do it?" Judy asked nervously. Randy had a hockey stick with him, silently following their lead now.
"First, we make ze ritual, zen we open it and zen, we see." Standing in front of the shutters, the Wolf took three steps back, hopped 3 times forward, one back, to the left, and forward to the padlock. "Now you you." After everybody did this strange ritual, the wolf slipped something into the padlock and unlocked it without a key. Randy's eyes went wide. "Shims my friends, always good when you get arrested." Thomas smirked and removed the padlock.
"Ready?"
Everybody prepared to strike or run, making sure the mirrors are mostly free. Thomas pulled the shutters up, ready to strike. Inside was just garbage with a corridor in the middle.
"Ok, anticlimactic, but I'm happy to light you the way with my candles." Nick relaxed visibly.
"Zats strange. Let's look inside." The other canine commanded.
Walking slowly into the unit, they checked everything and every corner. Nothing. Nick saw something blinking on a desktop, just a ring. Randy looked bewildered at the unit. "Are you ok?" Judy asked. "Ehm yeah, it's just, the unit is too small."
Nick, who was at the end of the unit, looked at the floor. There were scratches on the bottom in one corner. "The old trick with a double wall. Thomas, help me." They pulled away an old wardrobe. The wolf shoved Nick back a bit, so they had space to move. He removed another padlock and with the spear as a lever, he opened the sliding door at the back, ready to fight.
Something gruesome stood inside the door, everybody went silent in fear. Before them, a giant mess of tentacles with unknown sources was walking on 2 hind paws and what was left of a belly, out of the dungeon. It was like looking into the eternal darkness, but it had teeth buried inside this mess of flabbering and active organs.
Thomas and Nick walked back fast in fear, Judy, who was outside, reacted instinctively and pushed a mirror around, so the light shone directly onto this monstrosity. It screamed and smoke rose from his skin. It turned around and fled into the hole in the wall, leading back into the darkness.
Everybody was shaking and did not say a word for what felt like an eternity. The demon was still screaming, which drove fear into the hearts of our heroes like icy spears. Randy was the first who found his voice again.
"Ok dudes, this is totally against our house rules. But whatever it is, I say we close this door and I weld the unit shut." his whole body trembled now.
"Zis wont work my friend, ze demon will get out again in ze night. Good zinking Officer, I was surprised by myself. Randy, do we have more mirrors?" Thomas' hope was shattered by the shaking of the honey badger's head.
"Then we have to light our way down I guess." Nick held up his 3 armed candle holder.
"Sadly right. Let's go, ze demon must be destroyed today."
Rearranging the mirrors, to shine directly into the hole, in case they had to get out fast, they walked down into a dungeon of horror. On the walls were pages of scripts and sculptures. "Hope to hold ze demon off I guess. Did not work though." The big canine explained and slapped Nick's paw away from a symbol made of gold. "No touching, and don't take anyzing wiz you, it could be cursed."
They saw light at the end of the tunnel, and the demon. It had marks all over his horrific body, like it was burned. Thomas took out a small flask and slowly approached the monster. Signaling Nick to follow his lead, they sneaked into the chamber. A giant pentagram with symbols was on the ground, an empty podium stood in the corner. The pentagram was the lightsource they saw, it was glowing red.
The wolf saw a break of the outer line of the pentagram. Handing Nick the spear, he slowly took a step forward, reached into the pentagram to fix this but the demon sensed him and one of the non burned feelers grabbed his paw.
"VERDAMMT" he screamed, Nick jumped forward with the candles, holding them like a shield, but the demon did not stop and walked toward the group. Judy took out her tranq gun and fired directly into the body or what was left of it. Nothing happened. She and Randy pull the wolf back, in hope to get him out of the iron grip of this thing. It was injured, it must work, they hoped.
"So much for our plan, any other ideas professor?" asked Nick but watched the wolf pouring a liquid onto the tentacle and the monster body "BURN IT" he bellowed. Nick didn't wait and threw the candle holder directly into the mass of the attacker, who instantaneously started to burn. That did the trick and Thomas paw was now free. He corrected the circle of the pentagram, jumping back just inches away from the monster as this burning mess charged forward to stop him.
Unholy screams echoed through the ears of everyone. The demon, jailed again into his invisible cage and still smoldering, tried to escape, ran around in this circle in hope to find a corner it could get out. But there was no escape. It stood in front of the group, waiting.
"Now, I guess I know what killed my brozer and the other Nick." The canine looked like he aged years in mere seconds. Nick offered the spear "I guess we can't arrest this thing, so."
Thomas nodded, took the spear and rammed it into the center of nothingness. It was like stabbing through air, no resistance, it did not come out on the other side either, but it worked. For a second, it was silent in the chamber, then the pentagram on the ground started to burn, with it, the demon and it was wailing while it went up to smoke. Thomas pulled back the spear, not that it gets destroyed too, and they watched a hole in the middle of the demon jail open up, sucking the demon back where it came from. His fight to hold onto something was to no avail, in seconds, the horror was over, and the room was drenched into darkness. Silent darkness. It felt like minutes, but nothing happened.
"Oh if only somebody had brought some candles" Nick said mockingly. Judy already turned on her flashlight, followed by Nick. Looking around in the room, there was a book where seconds before, a portal to hell was.
Thomas walked to it, took out a bag and shoved the book into it. Knowing that it has to be the fourth book and too dangerous to be left here. Taking out his smartphone, the wolf turned on the flashlight app and said "Lucky me, I brought somezing better zen candles." and smiled "Let's get out of here, I need some chocolate."
"Ehm, sir, the book… " Judy started
"Is better wiz me, trust me. I will seal it away, deep in our archives, wiz ze rest of it."
Not arguing about this one sided decision, they left this lair of darkness.
"Now kits, that was how your aunt and I nearly were sucked down to hel."
Everybody was fixated on the vulpine but started to laugh and relax again.
"Oh man uncle Nick, you can tell stories. If they wouldn't be so unbelievable, we would not sleep tonight." little Andrew said.
"Yes" a smaller doe agreed "good that there are no monsters. I would never be able to sleep again."
Everybody else agreed to that.
"But why did 'ze ritual' not work?" a black buck asked, Nick couldn't remember the name.
"Oh, somebody found this little 'plothole'. We asked Mr. Isegrim, but he just said, and I quote, 'Huh, eizer it was not for zis demon, or he was just a lunatic. Maybe, there is somezing different in zis unit.'. Needless to say, Randy did not wait for us to return to the storage unit to get some pictures. He welded everything shut. Mr. Isegrim flew back home and is researching the case. The unit could contain more cursed items, but this is his territory now. Our bodycams and the recordings of the facility, are the only record of this incident, and only a pawfull saw it. One was our Chief, who put a seal on them, and off they went to an unknown archive. Nobody has access to them anymore."
"Of course uncle Nick, I would say the same thing when I forgot something important in MY story and want to make sure, nobody gets 'proof' of this." The black buck finished his assessment and sat proud on his pillow, arms crossed. The adult had to snicker at the smug look he was wearing now.
"So, next year, we should go to the cave again, that was fun" Richy, who nearly faded 2 years ago, asked and took another sweet from the pot.
"No children, after what happened to Uncle Mattheus, we do not go back there. He is still missing." answered Judy in a stern voice "Now everybody got another candy and some punch and get ready for bed, it's already late." she ordered. Vivian helped to get the kerfluffle under control. Sending Charlie out with the other kits, just to have Bonnie, Stu and a few other adult Hopps take their place.
"And?" Stu asked with his paws in his pockets "Did they behave?"
"Oh they were a delight" Vivian said "I never had a party with such a big family. Nick and I were alone on every Howloween, I can't wait for the other holidays."
"Richy asked to go to the cave again" Judy said solemnly "we said no of course. If only Mattheus would've stayed home and waited for daylight to get his phone…."
Her husband pulled her into a hug "Don't be like that fluff. Who knows what happened to him."
For a minute they stood silently in the community room, when Stu had enough "I would say, we go get some real punch and have our own little Howloween Party. Come, let's get the food, booze and everything we need, and party for the dead."
Most of them left the room to do what Stu ordered. Judy, Vivian and Nick waited for them to come back, they didn't really help when they stood in their way, not knowing where everything was stored. Vivian laid a paw on Nick's shoulder "Nicky, I don't know where you've read this story, but it was really scary. For a moment, I thought you really experienced this. Ha, listen to me, the old Witch of the Wild, scared by a story." She laughed heartily at that.
Judy and Nick looked at each other for a second "Yeah mom, just think if we would've fought a demon from hel, in a cheap storage unit facility" Judy answered, they laughed nervously. Looking down to his golden ring with the black pearl in the middle, Nick rubbed it with a thumb and smiled at his mother "As if such things happen in the real world."
I hope you liked it a bit, I already have the next story in mind, the cliffhanger should be clear.
