ENTERING THE GAME
Chapter Fifteen
"Halloween Part II"
Andy felt needles all over his body. He shook, then realized he could move again, if stiffly. He forced himself up off the wet ground. Dang! He hoped he didn't run into any more ghouls. He felt awful!
Andy looked around in the dark at his friends, lying unmoving on the ground. He forced himself to his feet and staggered over to the smallest figure.
"Penny?" he said. "Hey, you okay?" There was no answer. He bent stiffly over and touched her arm. He felt something wet that wasn't rain. Had she peed herself? No, this felt like-like blood...
He picked her up carefully. Penny was like a limp rag. What could he do? He heard a faint groan. Was that David? He hurried over to the paladin.
"Hey!" he cried. "You okay?"
"Feels like needles and pins sticking me," David said groggily. "What happened?"
"Never mind that!" Andy said. "Penny's hurt bad! You have to do that cure thing you did with me!"
"I can only do that once a day," David pointed out, struggling to get up. "Are you sure she needs it? One of the others might need it more."
"She's bleeding!" Andy said. "She's been bleeding all over me since I picked her up! You gotta save her!"
"Okay, okay," David said, rubbing his hand nervously through his hair. "Okay," he said again, reaching out towards Penny. "Let's see if I can remember what I did before..."
...
Help...oh please, someone, anyone, help me! Linda begged, hearing footsteps walking in the mud heading her way. She was so terrified now, not to mention soaked and frozen from the still pouring rain, she no longer cared if the boys saw her breasts, as long as they saved her. She could feel her heart pounding so hard and loud, it seemed like it was trying to burst from her chest.
"Not so proud and prissy now, are you?" came a voice Linda had come to strongly dislike, and really hated now. S're-tal'gis stepped into Linda's field of vision. There was a thick gold collar around her neck, a matching gold belt, and a wide gold band around her right ankle, something like Ancient Egyptian clothing Linda had seen in a book on ancient costumes. She walked up to what looked like a large stone bowl, sitting on some sort of stone pedestal set between the two slabs, a few feet from the two trapped girls' feet. She picked up the bowl and walked over to Linda. Setting it on the ground, she dipped her finger in it, then raised her hand towards Linda's face. Her finger was blood red in the dim light of the single torch burning in a brazier set at the edge of Linda's sight, a sort of lean-to built over it. The fire hissed and shook violently as the rain and wind struggled to put it out. Linda's skin crawled as she felt the demoness' finger touch her. Dipping her finger in several more times, Sre'-tal'gis drew a blood red circle on Linda's belly from her sternum to her navel. Inside of the circle she drew a five-pointed star, pointing downwards. Linda had read enough horror stories to know she now had a pentagram on her stomach. And pointing down it meant evil magic. "Don't worry," the demoness told her. "The sacrificial knife is quite sharp and will kill you quickly." She smirked nastily. "That is...if I let it!"
"You monster! I knew you were no good!" Linda sobbed. "What did you do with my friends, you tramp?!"
S're-tal'gis slapped her face. "Your friends were fools, and deserved to die like fools!" she hissed.
Linda's heart, already pounding painfully in her chest, seemed to skip a beat. She gagged, tasting vomit. Already freezing from the howling wind and pouring rain, her body turned even colder. They were all dead...? "No! I don't believe you!" she yelled.
The demoness laughed. She turned towards the other slab. "Believe what you will! If they were still alive, I'd have some fun toying with each of those stupid boys until I grew weary of them. Then I'd...by Azzagrat!" she cried, getting her first good look at Russet. "A dwarf?! That should be that rude mouthed little elf!" She spun around on one cloven hoof. "Where is that fool of a ghoul!" she growled, stomping off.
Linda shut her eyes. If she had thought Penny would be tied up beside her, then there was a chance that the younger girl was still alive. But the boys? Were they really dead? David. Tom. Greg. Even Andy...
She struggled again against her bonds. There had to be some way to get loose. To find, or if necessary, avenge her friends.
"How could anything be so stupid as to confuse me with a stupid elf?!" Russet complained.
"Penny isn't stupid!" Linda said angrily. "She's a sweet little girl, and certainly kinder than a hateful creature like you!"
"If she's your friend, I know she's a moron!" the dwarf retorted.
"Oh shut up, and let me think of a way out of here!" Linda cried.
"You're trying to think?!" the dwarf snorted. "I wondered what that rattling noise was!"
Linda stuck out her tongue. The dwarf did the same. Well, this wasn't going to get them anywhere. Linda turned her head away and looked about her. Other than the slabs, the bowl and its pedestal, and the now badly flickering and smoking torch in its place, there was nothing but mud, since it was still raining. Linda shivered. Even if she somehow escaped, she'd probably catch pneumonia. But how could she escape? There was no way she could cut through the ropes holding her hands and feet to the slab. Her sickle was gone, and with her wrists tied above her head she couldn't have used it even if it was still there.
Having powers didn't help her one bit. What could a druid do? Talk to animals? She doubted there were any animals around to call on for help, even if she knew how to send out a message. Weren't they afraid of things like zombies and ghouls, and would run away from them? Those were probably the only kind of creatures that would hear a call anywhere around this horrible place, and they sure wouldn't come to help her!
"If I could just get one hand loose..." she heard the dwarf mutter. Russet was struggling against her bonds, but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Linda flexed her fingers. Her arms were tied wide apart, and she could barely touch the ropes with her fingernails. She rubbed them desperately against the ropes, wishing for once she was one of those silly girls that had long fingernails. She rubbed her big toes against the ropes holding her feet together. It didn't seem likely she could saw through the ropes with her toenails, but it was the only thing she could think of.
After a couple of minutes, she sighed. She couldn't tell if she was even making a dent in the ropes, and if she was it would probably take hours this way to wear them through. Time she was sure she didn't have. That demoness could be back at any moment. Her or the witches she hadn't even seen yet. Linda was supposed to have powers, but talking to animals wouldn't help her here. Why couldn't she be able to make fire to burn the ropes? Or...or...anything useful? Predicting the weather...what good would that do her now? She didn't need powers to know it was raining!
Wait. What was that sound? Footsteps? Was the demon coming back already? Oh no. No no no. Linda sobbed. She didn't want to die! Her parents would never even know what happened to her!
A dark figure came slowly into view. As it moved into the light of the sputtering torch, Linda screamed. It had once been a man, but now it was purple. Bloated. Eyes blank and staring in different directions at nothing. As it reached for her, maggots dropped from its rotted arm and hand, one dropping onto her stomach. Everything began to spin, then go black. Linda had fainted.
...
Penny shook violently as David touched her wounds. She inhaled loudly then cried out, then started to cough.
"That's all I can do," David said, moving away from the siblings. "I can feel the power, whatever it is, leaving me."
"Penny?" Andy asked, hugging his still shaking and coughing sister. "Are you okay?"
"She's too ornery to die," Greg said, walking over to them. "Hey, how do we defend against that weird paralyzing attack?"
"Don't get hit," David suggested. "We really need a cleric in our group."
"Hey," Tom said, looking around. "Where's Linda?"
"She has to be here somewhere!" Andy cried. "Linda? Linda! Where are you!"
"Don't yell!" Penny whimpered. "My head hurts!"
"You have a big ugly scratch on your forehead," Andy said.
"Oh no!" Penny whined. "Is it gonna leave a scar? I don't wanna be ugly!"
"Too late," Greg told her.
"You shut up!" Penny said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Both of you shut up!" Andy yelled. "We have to find Linda!"
"Be quiet, all of you," David said softly. "You'll attract more ghouls!"
"How many ghouls could be around here?" Tom asked, picking up Linda's sickle.
"The book said...six to thirty-six could be found in one place," David said, struggling to remember what he'd read on their entry in the Monster Manual. "There's also a more powerful monster that looks just like them, the ghast. It has twice as many hit points, and can even paralyze elves, so be careful if we run into more ghouls, Penny."
"If they look just like regular ghouls, how can you tell the difference?" Penny asked.
"They smell like rotting meat," David said.
"Oh great," she snorted. "So I have to get close enough for them to touch me before I can tell if I shouldn't let them get close enough to let them touch me? Brilliant!"
"Just stay away from all of them if you can," Andy said. "I know I sure am!"
...
"S-stop! S-stop! I...gasp...can't...gasp...run...gasp...no more!" Beth wheezed, her chest hurting so much she wondered if it was possible for somebody her age to have a heart attack.
"You're shockingly out of shape for a rogue," the boy said, finally letting go of her hand. Beth plopped onto the ground, coughing and gasping for breath. "Been living an easy life, have you?"
An easy life?! She had no friends and her parents were rarely around for her. Well, maybe she had all the food she wanted, but that had caused her to get fat, which had probably caused her not to have friends since she always felt self-conscience around thin people. Thinking of food made her hungry. To her embarrassment her stomach suddenly growled.
"Sorry, but we're out of rations," the boy said with a grin. What was his name again? Beth was lousy with names. And directions. She got lost easily. She hoped he knew where they were going, because every tree looked the same to her.
"You lost everything, didn't you?" she asked him.
"That's all right," he said good naturedly. "Everything I had, I stole, so I can just steal something else."
Beth found it disturbing that he admitted so freely that he stole things. But then, he thought she was a killer, so he wouldn't have any problem admitting his crimes to a worst criminal, would he? She wished she had picked some other character. But then, would he have helped her if she'd been a good person? And was she a good person? If she was, why did she decide to pick something as awful as assassin in the first place?
Beth shivered, and not just from that disturbing thought. She was certain that she was going to catch pneumonia, standing barefoot in the pouring rain in a soaking wet nightgown. "Where can we go to get out of the rain?" she asked, pulling her dark, soggy hair out of her eyes.
"No idea," he admitted. "But a little water never hurt nobody."
"But your little sister will catch cold if we don't find shelter," Beth said, not wanting to admit she was afraid of herself catching cold.
"I wouldn't worry about that," he assured her. "She likes it cold, don't you?"
Beth looked over at the little girl, who turned to look back at her. As she did, the hood of her soggy cloak fell back, allowing Beth to see her face for the first time. The girl from Earth had to struggle to hold in a scream.
...
"Human!" came a voice in the darkness. "Human! Wake up! Stop being so useless!"
Linda moaned and opened her eyes. It took a moment for them to focus. When they did, she screamed again. The rotting corpse was still standing over her!
"Don't faint again, stupid!" came the voice again. The dwarf girl. "Whatever that thing is, all it's doing is staring at you!"
"But...but why?" Linda asked, trying to pull away from it. "What does it want?"
"Perhaps it likes looking at your dugs," the dwarf said with a snort.
"Go away!" Linda cried. The zombie turned and started to shamble away.
"It obeyed you!" the dwarf said. "Try calling it back!"
"I don't want it to come back!" Linda moaned.
"Hey, you! Come back!" the dwarf yelled. But the zombie kept walking. "It listened to you before! Give it an order!"
"What?" Linda gasped. "But...but druids can't control...d-d-dead things!"
"Try anyway, stupid!"
Linda pouted. She was terrified, but she was really sick of being called stupid. "W-walk over to h-her," she stammered. To her shock, the zombie did what she said.
"It does obey you!" the dwarf cried. "Quick! Tell it to free me!"
"Um...break her...um...ropes," Linda said.
The zombie grabbed Russet's wrist and pulled. "Ow! That hurts!" Russet cried as the ropes snapped. "Tell it to be more gentle!"
"Um...pull the ropes from her other arm, but don't pull on her arm," Linda said. Again it obeyed her.
Another command and it freed Russet's feet. The dwarf girl jumped up, moving carefully away from the rotting corpse. "Good luck, human!" she said, turning and hurrying away.
"Hey!" Linda cried. "Wait! Come back! What do I do now?!"
Linda's stomach dropped as she realized what she needed to do now. "Um...please free me," she said. "And don't pull on my arms!" Her skin crawled as the dead thing touched her arms, then her feet. She sat up, pulled her long blonde hair over her chest, and started rubbing the circulation back into her sore wrists and arms. "Um...thank you," she said to the zombie. "Um...I guess...you can go now..."
The zombie turned and began to shuffle away. Soon it was out of sight.
Linda rubbed her ankles and calves, then got up. The dwarf's muscles must have been a lot stronger than hers, because she nearly fell on the ground, and when she tried she found that she could barely walk. But she knew she had to get out of there, and fast. She bent almost double and creeped away into the shadows. She had no idea where she was, or where her friends, if they were still alive, might be, but she had to try to find them. They had to get off this horrible mountain before the witches came after them again.
In the darkness, she heard a voice, and started to reply, when she realized it was a woman's voice. A witch! She ducked behind a rock. She heard another voice reply to the first one. Another witch! Then she heard a third voice. It was the demoness! Linda dropped down onto the soggy mud, cringing as she felt the slimy muck cover her belly and squish against her knees. Her heart started pounding loud and fast again. How could they possibly not hear it? She put her hand over her mouth to cover her breathing. Her hand shook against her face.
"That stupid ghoul is useless!" the demoness yelled. "Find the little elf! The master will want her, dead or alive!"
Why did the demons want Penny? Because she had had that demon familiar? Why had a demon come to her in the first place? And why had they wanted Linda and not any of the boys?
"Hurry!" the demoness cried. "I sense the master has sent someone to oversee the ceremony!"
Linda heard footsteps move away and decided to try crawling along the ground in another direction. She had to struggle not to make sounds of disgust as her hands and arms were covered with sludge. What was that on her stomach? A nightcrawler?! She shuddered, forcing herself not to scream or jump up. She crawled towards an ugly bush. It wasn't much but any bit of cover at this time was better than nothing. She tried to calm the pounding of her heart. Was it possible for a girl her age to have a heart attack?
...
A quick search of the area of the battle showed no sign of Linda. "Why did they just want her?" David wondered.
"Maybe they just wanted a pretty girl," Greg suggested, bending over a ghoul.
"They didn't take me..." Penny muttered.
"I said pretty," he told her, checking the ghoul's pockets.
Penny turned red. "Some day when I'm a beautiful woman, you'll wish you'd been nicer to me!"
"That'll be the day," he said. "Come to papa!"
"What the heck are you doing?" she demanded.
"Don't you know the rules of this game?" Greg said. "You kill monsters then steal their treasure!"
"You're robbing the dead?!" Penny cried, making a face. "You're a bigger ghoul than the ghouls!"
"These guys have been dead a long time," Greg said, walking towards another ghoul. "They're not gonna mind if we take their stuff."
"You can have it!" Penny said, holding her nose. "I ain't touching those rotten things!" She wondered off out of sight.
"Hey! Don't go far!" her brother yelled.
"Wish it would stop raining," Tom said. "It's hard to see, and if we have to make a run for it we'll slip in the mud!"
"Thank you, Mister Obvious!" Greg said. "Dang it! More copper! Don't monsters ever have gold coins?!"
"Some monsters don't have any treasure at all," David said. "Hey, that's supposed to be for the whole party!"
"It ain't enough for even one person to buy anything," Greg complained. "Why didn't you give the monsters more treasure?"
"I didn't expect to fight them for real," David pointed out.
Andy started after his sister. "Penny? Hey, Penny! Where'd you go?"
"Don't yell! You'll attract more monsters!" Tom reminded him.
Just then Penny screamed. Andy rushed after her. The others followed.
.
Back on her feet, Linda moved slowly, shuffling her feet. She'd decided her best chance was to pretend to be one of the ghouls that had attacked her and her party. It was freezing, but she didn't dare shiver. She didn't know much about the undead, but she was certain they weren't affected by the cold. She had no idea where she was, but hoped if she kept going downhill she'd eventually reach the cave she wished they had all stayed in. She could dry off and cover herself in her robe.
After that, she didn't have any idea what she would do. If her friends were really gone, then she was alone in this strange world, with no one she could trust. If they were still alive and she found them again, she was going to insist they get off this horrible mountain. If only the boys hadn't fallen for that stupid demon girl. Even Andy. She didn't know where they should go, but anyplace would have been better than a ghoul haunted mountain with witches ready to sacrifice anybody the dead things didn't get.
They're coming to get you, Barbara! Linda didn't watch a lot of horror movies, but she knew in that one that anybody bitten by a ghoul or zombie turned into one! Did that really happen to anyone attacked by such creatures, or was that just a movie idea? She was sure she hadn't been bitten. Had any of her friends?
Suddenly Linda heard shuffling footsteps approaching. She looked around for someplace to hide, but the closest dead bush was where the sound was coming from. She made sure her hair covered her chest in case it was her friends, then, deciding if her disguise didn't fool the monsters that she might as well find out now, began walking slowly towards the sound. She struggled with all her might not to scream as one of the ghouls came into sight!
.
Andy found Penny staring at what looked like a big piece of badly torn cloth. As he came closer and recognized it, his heart sank into his stomach and he felt ill. It was Linda's dress, ripped apart by what looked like sharp claws. Penny looked up at her brother and their eyes met. Hers were full of tears. She offered the ruined clothing to him with shaking hands.
"It's...it's..." she stammered, unable to finish.
Andy took it from her. "I know..." he whispered, clutching it to his chest. Was this all that was left of the only girl he'd ever cared about? He cursed himself for trusting that demon thing. For letting her, no, it, for letting it kiss him. He and Linda hadn't had a relationship except friendship, but now he felt like he had cheated on her.
"What's that?" Tom asked.
"Oh no..." David gasped, recognizing it.
"Did they eat her?" Greg asked.
"They didn't try to eat anybody else," David said.
"Why would they just take her?" Andy demanded, searching the area for signs of where the ghoul might have gone from there. The problem was the still pouring rain had destroyed any tracks that an undead creature carrying a victim might have left.
"Hey, what about that princess?" Greg suddenly asked. "She's all alone!"
"And good riddance to her!" Penny cried. "I'll bet this was all her fault! She's as much a princess as I am! I bet she wasn't transformed at all! I'll bet she was a real devil and she's led us all to Hell!"
"Stop saying that," Andy told her.
"Hell hell hell!" Penny said loudly. "It's dumb not to use that word when you're talking about devils! That's where they come from, right?"
"Actually, I think she was a succubus," David told her. "A demon. They come from the Abyss. Similar to Hell but chaotic."
"What's the difference?" Penny asked.
"Devils are organized into armies and obey their masters," David said. "Demons are wild and crazy and ignore orders if they can get away with it."
"So devils are like Dr. Doom and demons are like the Joker," Greg suggested.
"So devils like Marvel Comics and demons like DC?" Penny asked.
"Never mind what that thing was like," Andy said. "We have to try to find Linda! She might still be..." He couldn't finish his statement.
"We should get out of here!" Greg said. "It took everything we had to fight those things, and they still beat us! And now we're low on hit points and we don't know how many more of them there are."
"We can't just leave Linda!" Andy insisted.
"Face it, she's gone!" Greg told him. "They probably took her back to their lair for dinner. Going after them will just get us all killed!"
"Fine, go save yourself!" Andy said, turning and walk away. "I'm going to find her no matter what happens!"
"It's suicide!" David told him. "We're in no condition to fight, I can't heal anyone, and Penny's used up her magic for today."
"We can still look for her!" Penny told them. "I'm a thief! I can sneak up on the monsters and find her without them seeing me!" She started to walk off. Andy grabbed her by her collar. "Hey! Let go! You'll rip my dress!"
"No going off on your own!" Andy admonished her. "You know what happens in horror movies when people split up!"
"It always works for Scooby Doo..." Penny said, pouting.
"You're not pretty enough to be Daphne," Greg told her unkindly. "Or smart enough to be Velma. So you must be...Scooby Doo!"
Penny crossed her eyes. "That makes you Scrappy, and everybody hates Scrappy!" She stuck her tongue out at him. He stuck his tongue out at her.
"Why are you fighting with a ten year?" Tom asked Greg.
"Shut up," Greg muttered, walking away. "Let's just get out of here while we still can!"
"I'm still going after Linda!" Andy insisted. He turned to Penny. "But you should go back. You almost got killed in that fight!"
"They got lucky!" Penny told him. "I'm okay! And I'm going with you! How could I explain to Mom and Dad, if I ever get home, why I didn't bring my stupid brother back with me?"
"You're going back to the cave!" Andy ordered her. "I don't want to hear any more argument!" He looked down at Linda's ruined dress. "I don't want you to end up like...like..."
"Uh...Andy...?" Tom said.
Andy looked over at his friend. "What?" he asked.
"Your sister just took off up the mountain," Tom told him.
Andy growled. "Doggone you, Penny!" he said, hurrying after her. She was always doing things like that. No patience. No common sense. And once she got an idea in her head nothing could drive it out of there.
Tom looked at David. "So...what do we do?"
David seemed to be considering this. But before he could reply, Greg said, "Well, I'm going back to the cave. See you around, losers!"
"David?" Tom asked again. "What do we do?"
David sighed. "Well, we can't just let them get killed, can we?" he said finally. "Anyway, since we came to this world together, we might have to be together to get back." He started walking up the mountain.
Tom shook his head, then started to follow him. "But if Linda's already dead...wouldn't that mean we're already doomed to stay here forever?"
"I don't know," David admitted. "Just keep your eyes peeled for anything. If we run into more monsters we'll have to run anyway."
"Hard to do in the dark, in the rain," Tom said, trying to make out any obstacles they might bump into or trip over. "And the ghouls didn't have any trouble seeing us!"
"You're right!" David said, starting to hurry. "Come on! We'd better try to catch up to them! Penny can see in the dark, remember!"
Some distance away, Greg looked back to see no one was following him. "Idjits!" he said. "Fine! Go ahead and get yourselves killed! See if I care!"
.
Prudence shivered as she rubbed the oil she'd been given by Hepzibah all over herself. It was part of the initiation into witchhood, she'd been told. She wrinkled her nose. The odor of the rancid stuff was absolutely horrible! She was sure she could smell rotting flesh and blood, as well as manure. Now she smelled like a decaying corpse! She cringed at the touch of the old witch's bony hands rubbing the putrid slop on her back. Perhaps she should have taken her chances with the wolves.
"Hurry, stupid one!" the old witch ordered. The ceremony will begin as soon as the master sends one of his demons to us!"
"All right," Prudence said, wishing she dared make a run for it. Standing out in the pouring rain in the middle of the night with no clothing was not what she'd expected at all. She didn't know what she had thought being a witch would be like, but this was definitely not it.
"Hurry!" Hepzibah repeated, grabbing her arm so tightly her sharp nails dug into Prudence's skin. She dragged her towards the fire. The other witches were standing in a circle, which opened up so they could enter it, closing behind them. Inside, Suzanne knelt in front of the oldest looking and ugliest of the witches, who had a long, curving dagger in her hand. Hepzibah pushed her towards them. "Kneel down next to the other girl, stupid!" she hissed. "And try not to embarrass me!" Prudence dropped to her knees next to Suzanne, eyes fixed nervously on the knife. Just what was she planning to do with it? Hepzibah snorted and pushed her head roughly downwards so that she was looking at the ground.
"Ow..." Prudence said.
The elder witch slapped her face. "No talking during the ceremony!" she screeched in a voice like nails scraping against rock. Prudence clamped her teeth together. Whatever was going to happen, she hoped it was over soon. She was so cold!
.
Linda's heart almost stopped as the ghoul reacted in obvious shock at the sight of her. Had she done something to give herself away, or did ghouls have some kind of magic sense that told them if someone they ran into was one of them or not?
"You purty," the rotting creature said, grinning a hideous grin that showed the yellow and green of its rotten stubs of green teeth. "Me not see you before! Witch call you?"
"Uhh...y-yeah..." Linda stammered. "Me just get here. Very wet."
"Hah hah," the ghoul said, slapping her on the back. She had to force herself not to freak out at its slimly touch. "You funny! Reecarch like. You like Reecarch?"
Was this rotting corpse...flirting with her? She could feel her skin crawl. What if it tried to kiss her? Or more?
"No time talk liking," she said, trying to imitate the ghoul's speech patterns. He sounded like the big green guy in the comics. "Witch say find people. Why we want find them?"
The ghoul snorted. "Demon want elf." He looked around, then leaned close to her. His breath was absolutely horrible! "Me had her but had human girl too. Too heavy carry both. Take human. Now gotta find elf. No like elf! Can't freeze them!"
"You...kill elf girl?" Linda asked, dreading the answer, but needing to know.
"Her fall down. No get up. Not know if dead. Who care? Everybody get dead some day. Me get dead. You get dead. Dead not so bad."
Linda pulled away. He was trying to kiss her! "Which way elf girl?" she asked. "Me find her witch maybe reward."
"How bout kiss purty purty?" the ghoul suggested, grinning even broader. His face wrinkled up like it was made of wet oatmeal.
"No time," she said, trying to hurry away from while still shuffling her feet. "Somebody find her first, they get reward!" To her horror he followed. Dang it! Even as a rotting ghoul she couldn't get guys to leave her alone!
"There you are!" came a voice ahead of her. Linda froze as a little elf came out of the shadows. To her shock, Penny drew a big knife and started towards her. Of course! She thought she was a ghoul! "What did you do to Linda?!" she demanded.
"Stupid elf!" the ghoul cried, starting towards Penny.
Linda started to cry out to her, when she heard footsteps and saw Andy appear. She froze and covered herself with her arms.
"Where is she?" Andy demanded, waving his sword at Linda and the ghoul. "Tell me or I'll cut both of you to pieces!"
As Linda struggled to think of what to do, the ghoul attacked, filthy claws just missing Penny, who jumped back out of reach. Andy swung at the ghoul. Linda made a strangled noise in the back of her throat as the ghoul's arm went flying through the air and just missed hitting her in the face.
"Kill you!" the ghoul yelled, ripping at Andy's armor with his remaining arm. Andy stiffened up and fell over, but Penny had gotten behind the creature and, to Linda's horror, stabbed the ghoul in the back. She backflipped to avoid its claws. Landing next to her brother, she grabbed his sword. The ghoul turned towards Linda, perhaps wondering why she wasn't helping, and Penny struck at that moment. The ghoul's head fell from its shoulders.
Penny bent over her brother. "Andy?" she asked in a shaky voice. "Hey, Bro! You're okay, aren't you!"
Linda started towards them, opening her mouth to ask if he was hurt badly. But Penny spun on her heel and glared at her. Linda backed away with a whimper. She'd never seen such anger, such hate, on her friend's face. Even when she fought with Greg, she didn't look like this!
"What did you do to her?" Penny repeated. "I'll kill you just like I did your boyfriend if you don't talk, you rotting tramp!" Her disguise must have been better than she thought, if she couldn't recognize Linda.
Linda started to reply, when voices could be heard. She wished she really was dead when she saw David and Tom appear.
"Andy? You okay?" David asked.
"I think he's just frozen again," Penny said, not taking her eyes off of Linda.
David noticed what he thought was a ghoul and drew his sword. "Don't kill it yet," he said to Penny. "It might be able to tell us where Linda is!"
"If it can, it better talk fast!" Penny said. "Linda was my best friend, and if they killed her I swear I'll kill every ghoul in the whole wide world!"
Linda froze, mind struggling to think of what to do, what to say. If she told them who she was, she'd just die of embarrassment! But if she didn't...she just might die by the hands of her best friend...
.
Wow! Way too long since the last chapter! Real life stinks!