This next one is one of my newest favorites. Though I do love all the ideas I have created at least.
Chapter 8: Demons and Mischief Part 1
"Go on, you gotta knock on the door," one of Ventus's friends said. "Then it's supposed to open all on its own."
He stared at the group of friends that he was with and then to the place that they were standing several feet away from. It was an old decrypted house that had been at the edge of the neighborhood for years. It had been abandoned for longer than anyone could remember, and the rumor was that it was either haunted or cursed. Or both. Ventus thought both could very well be an option with house unsettling it all felt. He was getting goosebumps just from staring at it after all!
"Why me again?" Ventus asked, not taking his eyes off the house.
"Cause you drew the shortest straw!" another friend said. "You gotta do it though, otherwise we will never know if it is haunted or not. And it's Halloween and we gotta do something spooky related."
"I still say it's cursed," a different friend interjected.
"Well we know something is strange with this place, or at least that's what I've heard."
Everyone turned towards the friend who had just spoken. Each of them looking at him with curious eyes, waiting for him to continue.
"You guys know of Riku, right? I heard from some other friends that last year on Halloween, he was dared to go knock on the door and walk inside. And then he just up and vanished a few weeks later. No one has seen him since, not even his parents!"
Ventus shuddered. "You know that doesn't make me want to do this more, in fact it's the opposite!"
"Come on Ven, don't be a chicken."
"I think I would rather be a chicken then get cursed," Ventus muttered.
"Ignore the part about Riku then. He was already a weird, quiet guy to begin with. You agree to this dare and you gotta follow through now."
Ventus let out a long sigh, regretting ever agreeing to this. Every instinct he had told him to run as far away as he could go, but his friends would never let him live it down if he backed out now. His only choice was to go through with it and hope for the best.
He stood there for a moment, just breathing. He couldn't let them see that he was scared. They'd pick on him for years. With a heavy exhale, he kept his chin up and began his trek to the front porch of the house. The floorboards creaked loudly as he stepped on them, startling him, threatening to break in half beneath his feet. He stood in front of the door, his heart pounding in his chest. He gulped audibly as he reached out and knocked on the old wood door.
His solicitation was met with an eerie silence. For a moment, he thought he was in the clear… that no one was home and he could finally get away from this creepy place. He waited for a few seconds. Then a few more. He was ready to turn around and leave when he heard a sound. A long, drawn-out squeak of old, poorly-oiled hinges. He tensed up and his stomach dropped like a ton of bricks.
The door was open.
Ventus quickly turned around to look at his friends… only he didn't see them standing at the edge of the property. "G-Guys?"
There was no answer.
"C-Come on guys, this isn't funny!" Ventus shouted.
But none of them showed up from any possible hiding spot. Ventus frowned heavily. "So they wouldn't let me chicken out, but when I go knock on the door they all ditch me. Real mature guys…"
Ventus was half tempted to turn away. With no one to witness him go it not the house, who said he still had to do it? But… on the other hand… the door was open and leading into an old abandoned house. Natural human curiosity was showing it was stronger tonight in Ventus's mind as he decided to step into the house.
"Hello? Anyone there?" Ventus called out. Immediately he bit his tongue, feeling foolish. "It's abandoned! No one is going to answer… though that still leaves the question of how the door opened…"
Ventus stepped a bit further into the house and really began to look around. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. And with no lights on in the house, it was extremely dark and Ventus could barely see what was in front of him.
He felt along the wall and made his way down the hall, trying to see what he could find. But suddenly the area started to feel a lot colder. Ventus slowed his pace until he came to a complete stop. He could almost feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising up.
There was something off about all of this. Something completely wrong.
Ventus turned around to run out the front door, but it slammed shut before he could get close. Everything around him slowly began to grow darker as he felt his body getting heavier. Ventus screamed before dropping to his knees, unable to move anymore.
Slowly in the corner of his eye he saw something moving towards him. Something shadowy and red. He didn't get a chance to look at what it was though, for he blacked out in the next second.
Ventus groaned slightly as he began to open his eyes. The ground felt cold and a gentle breeze was blowing over him. Quickly he shot up and looked around. He was back outside, just on the edge of the property to the old house.
Ventus jumped up to his feet and looked all around him. From where the moon was in the sky, it was still clearly nighttime and hardly any time seemed to have passed. And yet there was still no sign of his friends anywhere.
"Took you long enough to wake up. I was beginning to wonder if you were defective or something."
A deep and gritty voice spoke, taunting and harsh. Ventus froze up with his eyes widening. He looked around, but he saw no one else near him. He shook his head and he started to work in the direction of home. After what just happened, he just wanted to go home and sleep.
"And are you the mute type now? I swear I heard you speaking back there, unless I broke you… there is always that possibility."
Ventus came to a dead stop at the sound of the voice again. Clearly he was hearing something, it was either that or he had gone crazy. He only noticed now that the voice had a bit of an echo to it and that made him start to worry. Hoping that it wasn't the second option, Ventus decided to try something to figure it out.
"Who's there?"
"Oh so you aren't broken. That's a relief. Honestly, I would have been upset if I broke my new little toy right after getting it."
Before Ventus could ask what the voice meant or where it was coming from, someone miraculously appeared in front of him. In response Ventus yelped and stumbled back to the ground. The person let out a rather intimidating laugh as he looked down at Ventus.
Now that he had time to focus, he got a good idea who he was looking at… or really what he was looking at.
The person in question sure did look like a person… looking around Ventus's age… yet at the same time they didn't all too human. Their hair was a spikey mess and was as black as the thick darkness. And their ears were seen sticking out from the mess of hair, pointing at the tips. Aside from that there was also the person's eyes… where normally there would be the whites of the eyes… these were also black. The eyes themselves were a blood red. Even the person's hands were off looking, with the fingers and nails looking in the shape of claws.
The person soon stopped laughing and grinned at Ventus, revealing sharp and pointed teeth. Just another thing that marked this person off as not normal. There was also what this person wore, while it wasn't the strangest compared to everything, it did fit with the theme. The person wore what looked to be a red and black blazer jacket with a black shirt under it. And they even had black pants and heeled boots to go along with the rest of the look.
Whomever they were leaned in closer to Ventus's face. "You still going to stay there and gawk? Come on, I really would like to have a normal conversation."
The voice was still dark sounding, but it no longer echoed like moments before. Ventus still couldn't believe it though. "Was this… is he because I entered the abandoned house? Was it really cursed?"
"Hey congrats idiot you figured it out!" the guy laughed, causing Ventus's eyes widened again.
"H-How… how did you-"
"We're connected idiot, shouldn't that be obvious by now? You entered the house and I entered your heart and connected myself to your soul and mind. So hearing your thoughts is just one of the benefits I get."
"But… who are you? Wh-what are you?" Ventus asked softly, finding what he was hearing almost too hard to believe.
"You can call me Vanitas. And I am your new personal demon," Vanitas replied as he proudly placed a hand over his chest and gave a dramatic bow.
"A d-demon?!" Ventus shouted. He wished that he was closer towards the other house at this point. Surely someone would hear him shouting and they would come to check. But he wasn't close to any house aside from the one he definitely knew was cursed now.
"Yeah, that's what I just said. You're a bit slow aren't ya Venty-Wenty?" Vanitas crowned down and smirked at Ventus.
"Hey! Don't call me that! How do you even know my name?!"
Vanitas rolled his eyes and sighed. "Weren't you listening? I'm connected to you, I can get inside your mind and see what you know."
"What do you want with me?" Ventus asked directly afterwards, just wanting to get straight to the answer.
"I needed a host body of course, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to leave that house. So now I am free to do as I please… well relatively. I'm tied to you after all so I can't be all that free. But I think it will be fun having a new little friend."
Ventus finally found his strength to stand up. He glared at harashly at Vanitas as he could. "Well I didn't ask to have a demon tied to me! Now leave me alone!"
Ventus took off running as fast as he could, heading in the direction of home. He didn't even bother to look back. He wasn't going to check if Vantias was following him or not. But soon enough he tripped over something and stumbled to the ground.
He gritted his teeth as the pavement scraped across his hands after he braced himself from the fall. He looked behind himself to see that there was nothing there. There was nothing at all that he had tripped over.
"Seriously," Vanitas scoffed appearing in front of Ventus again. "I said that we were tied to each other. You can't just run away from me. I go wherever you go. But heheh, your fall was pretty amusing at least."
"What are you going to do with me?" Ventus asked quietly. "I mean… you are a demon… don't you have some evil plan or something to ruin my life or destroy the world?"
Vanitas raised an eyebrow at him, but then he laughed. "Destroy the world? Hah, I wish. Nah, that's not my style. Sure there are other demons that want to do that, but I don't care to put in such effort. I'm more about having fun and messing with people. Like how you tripped and fell stupidly, that's my kind of stuff."
"So… pranks? You are a demon that just likes to prank people?" Ventus asked, still not too sure what to make of Vanitas at this point..
"I guess you could say it like that. And let me tell you, I got plenty of good pranks I wanna play. And now that I have you, I can finally achieve them."
"No way! I am not about to involve myself with whatever it is that you want to do! I'll find a way to get rid of you first!"
"Fat chance. Just face it Ventus," Vanitas said as he stepped closer to Ventus. He placed a hand out onto Ventus's cheek, and Ventus flinched at how cold the touch of his fingers were. A cold smirk stretched across Vanitas's face. "You're stuck with me, whether you like it or not."
Demon Vanitas is a scary boy who just wants to mess around with people. Such chaos that could happen. And yes as you see, there will be another part :D
