When Ben looked around, he was quite surprised of what he saw.
It retrospect, he shouldn't be, considering he was traveling with a ghost, a mummy, a werewolf and two girls covered in stitches. But how can one not be surprised when instead of a clear blue sky, a endless night with purple cobwebs painted across them. Old brick castle-like homes were standing tall and proud. A sea of people between him and the other end of the street.
Except they weren't people, well, not like Ben at least. Ghost were floating in the air holding baskets with groceries in their arms, mummy's and wolves were gossiping, while another wolf was… arm-wrestling with a stitched up man? Seemed random, though judging from the cheering group around them, it seemed like it was a friendly competition. All and all not so bad a neighborhood.
"Come on, we'll show you around!" Viktoria was eager to show her new friend around. She never had the chance to show anyone around before, as everyone new she met already lived there. "Sssh, were trying to blend in, not raise a crowd." Said Beatrice. Some of the people close by had indeed started to look, not really interested, but still curious.
"Why are they looking at me like that? I thought you said I would be fine!" whispered Ben nervously. Ahf-Ryght explained how the town was pretty boring. A new face was news and all news was interesting. "Indeed my friend, tomorrow you will be a celebrity! Everyone will want to meet you!" Lhumin had swung his arm around Ben and was making funny faces. It was obvious even to someone who forgot his own name that the mummy was joking.
After they had walked a while they decided to take a break from their tour of the town and they sat down near a fence at the edge of town. The group had shown Ben the windmill at the west side of the town. Ben had been amazed that from there you could look into the ravine and you would see the very core of the planet. The others thought it was all right, then again, they had seen that sight a million times. Then they had shown him the clock tower, and how you could see the entire town from there. After that they went to the park. It was a nice park. There was a nice pond with little, two-headed eels in it. There were lovely flowers too; which Viktoria told Ben that they were her favorite before she started to collect a bunch of them. The others had sat down on a wooden bench, and they were trying to enjoy the peace the park had to offer.
Key word was tried. Ben had been trying to get a closer look at the eel, eels? He didn't know whether to call a two-headed being one or two animals. Not that it mattered, because when Ben had tried to take a closer look the eel had jumped out of the water into Bens face. He jumped back and into Viktoria. She wanted to give Ben a flower, but now she had fallen into the pond! She was obviously angry, and even after Ben had pulled her out of the water and had apologized multiple times, she was still sulking.
And right now they had stopped near the edge of town. Ben looked around and saw a building that did not look like the buildings he had seen so far. It was made of metal, and a pumpkin field lay in front of it."Hey Lhumin, what is that building over there?" Lhumin looked at the building and said, "That's the Ecto-Lord's castle. Don't get too close. Those pumpkins will stand up and eat you!" Ben didn't believe him. Lhumin had been joking all day. Surely he was joking now too. All the places he had been to and the people he had met were so nice. Pumpkins that eat just you didn't fit, and besides, pumpkins don't walk. They're pumpkins!
Moxy saw the look on Ben's face, and walked over to him. She took one of Viktoria's flowers and threw it over the fence. Immediately the pumpkins opened their eyes, sprouted arms and legs and looked at the flower. There was a short moment of staring. Then they pounced, tearing the poor, innocent flower into tiny pieces, and the pieces into even smaller pieces, and ate it.
Ben was shocked. The attack had been brutal and he wondered what sick mind would plant such things around their home. "Now you know why we told you not to sit on the fence," said Ahf-Ryght. She looked nauseous, could a ghost even be nauseous? Ben didn't know, but he did know that he wanted to leave.
When they got to Beatrice's home, Ben noticed it was quite nice. It was a little small, but not cramped, and the neighborhood looked nice. There was a little playground nearby and a lake to swim in. There weren't any shops, except for a little one that sold food and medical supplies.
When they got inside, everybody just dropped themselves on the couch. Sure the day had been fun, but walking everywhere al day was very tiring! Viktoria sat next to Ben. "Can I see your watch? I wanna know if it has anything cool on it." "Huh? Oh, sure. Why not. Just don't break it." Said Ben. Viktoria began fiddling with it, even though it was still attached to Ben's wrist. "So, what do you think? Do you like our town?" "Yeah, its nice. It's very quaint. But can I ask you something? What's the deal with that Ecto-lord stuff? I mean man eating killer pumpkin? What's with tha-?"
A familiar beeping sound, a green flash and a shriek from Viktoria, interrupted Ben.