Happy Halloween, my fellow viewers! Please enjoy the Halloween Story (Fill free to let me know how do in the horror genre!)

Story 13: Halloween 2013 Special

In the darkness of his room, Marth sat alone. The pale light from the computer screen reflecting on his face. Marth typed away on his computer, passing time until he finally felt tired enough to go to sleep. As he scrolled through the homepage of his favorite social network he stumbled across an article.

"Maniac escaped," the title read. Marth skimmed through the article and read about how a supposed maniac escaped from the local psych ward. The maniac had been known for various acts of murder and it was rumored that he cannibalized his victims. Marth rolled his eyes. Just another Halloween prank he thought to himself.

"Keep all doors and windows locked," the article ended with a final warning. Even though he didn't believe it, Marth walked up to his door and turned the lock. He walked over to his window and began to secure the locks. He peered outside into the night observing the grounds around the smash mansion. As he turned away, movement from outside caught his eye. Marth turned back, but saw nothing. Must have been an animal Marth reassured himself.

Marth lay down on his bed and covered himself with his blankets. His racing thoughts prevented him from sleeping. He tossed and turned throughout the night, the fear of the article seemed to be setting in. It's just a prank… It's just a prank… It's just a prank Marth kept thinking to himself.

As the night went on Marth's thoughts started to calm down. As he was starting to drift to sleep he felt as though he were being watched. Marth's eyes shot open and surveyed the room, no one was there. He turned his head slightly and looked towards the door, it was still locked. His eyes moved to the window. His heart shot up into his throat at what he saw.

Just outside his window was a person. A man with pale, white skin and ruffled red hair was gazing into his window. The man's eyes pierced into the darkness of Marth's room. Marth held his breath and slunk deeper into his blankets. It didn't seem that the man had seen Marth. The man's hot breath created steam on the window which quickly disappeared with the cold autumn air. Marth watched as the man reached his pale, white hands down to the bottom of the window. Marth's heart beat faster as the man attempted to pull the window upwards. The window shook, but remained in place. The man's face showed no sign of emotion. He neither seemed pleased nor upset at the fact that the window would not budge. The man struggled a few more times to raise the window, but after his attempts failed he lowered his hands.

The man stood in front of the window, his breath still spreading across the window. The man then held his fist in the air and pulled back and quickly struck the window his all his strength.

Marth's heart jolted and he sat up straight in his bed. He turned his head toward the window, noticing that it was still intact, and, more importantly, there was no man standing on the other side of it. Marth wiped the sweat from his forehead and sighed loudly. It was just a dream, he thought to himself and laid back down on his bed.

Marth took several deep breaths, in attempt to calm his fears from the now fleeting nightmare. As he closed his eyes in attempt to drift back to sleep, he was interrupted once again. This time, it wasn't a nightmare, what he heard was real. A scream. An ear-shattering scream filled the mansion and echoed through the darkness. Marth threw his feet out of bed and stood up. He ran to his door, and darted out towards the source of the scream. The scream seemed to have alerted a small amount of the mansion. Marth was met with his fellow smashers.

"Who screamed?" Link asked.

"It sounded like one of the girls," Falco replied.

"Where's-a Peach?" Mario asked.

"I think it came from her room!" Snake stated.

The smashers ran towards Peach's room and Snake banged on the door.

"Peach!" Snake yelled. "Peach! Are you all right?! Open the door!" Snake threw himself against the door with great force and forced it open. What the smashers saw shocked them.

Blood covered the floor, and Peach lay in the middle. The life was dimming from her eyes, and her body was shaking in pain. The source of the pain came from her neck. An unrecognizable figure was down on the floor with Peach, its teeth were ripping the skin, blood, and muscles from her neck and chomping on them with his razor-sharp teeth. The man looked at the smashers in the door way, and swallowed Peach's flesh before he stood up and ran out of the room through Peach's window, which had been shattered.

Several smashers turned away from Peach's room, attempting to hold back their vomit. Mario and Luigi ran to Peach, who remained on the floor. Most of her neck had been eaten, and blood seeped from her mouth. Her eyes looked at Mario and she attempted to speak, but was only able to cough more blood.

"Peach," Mario whispered as he held her hand tightly in his. Peach continued to cough until the life from her eyes finally flickered out. Her hand went limp in Mario's. Mario screamed in anger as tears dripped down his cheeks. Luigi's eyes filled with tears and he helped his brother up from the ground, and embraced him in a hug.

"The maniac…" Marth whispered. "He's real."

"Who?" Falco asked, turning his attention to Marth.

"I read this article tonight," Marth stated. "It talked about a maniac who escaped and was terrorizing the area. They mentioned he murders and eats his victims… I… I just thought it was a prank for Halloween."

Falco remained silent as the quiet sounds of Mario and Luigi's sobs filled the darkness of the mansion.

"Do you think he'll come back?" Falco finally asked Marth. Marth shrugged.

"I hope not," he responded.

"Where is everybody else?" Falco asked. "We need to tell everyone what's going on."

"Luigi, Link, Mario, Snake, you, and I seemed to have been the only ones to hear Peach's scream." Marth responded. "Let's go wake the others." Falco nodded in response and followed Marth as he walked away from Peach's room.

"Fox," Falco said as he knocked on Fox's door. "Wake up, we've got an emergency." Falco knocked a little louder, there was no response. Marth saw Falco's face drop as worry set in. "Fox… Open this damn door." His voice full with fear. Falco looked at Marth, then back to the door. Falco threw his body against the door, and the door flew open. Falco collapsed in despair at what he saw. Fox was sprawled across the floor, and the room was covered in blood. Most of Fox's face was missing, and his body completely motionless.

"Fox…" Falco said with his voice cracking. Falco ran to his friend. The room was filled with cool autumnal air, a breeze was blowing in from a Fox's window which, being unlocked, had been raised from outside.

"The maniac was here a long time ago," Marth said to Falco who was crying next to his best friend. Fox's dead hand was clutched tightly in Falco's. "Falco… I'm afraid the maniac may have killed many more before Peach."

Marth's suspicion was confirmed as he ran through the mansion, the only ones who had heard Peach's scream were the only ones left alive. Snake, Link, Luigi, Mario, Falco, and Marth.

Marth returned to Fox's room and walked up to Falco who was still mourning the loss of his best friend.

"Falco," Marth said calmly. "We have to stop this maniac. He'll kill us all if we don't act now."

Falco looked up to Marth and nodded. Falco stood up, the knees of his pants were stained with the blood from Fox. Falco looked down to Fox and spoke.

"Rest in peace, buddy." Falco said slowly before he followed Marth out of the room. The two walked to the Mansion's lobby and met with the surviving smashers. Luigi and Mario sat together silently, Link looked out a window, and Snake was pacing back and forth.

"We're the only ones left," Falco said. "We need to come up with a plan."

"Everyone needs to stick together," Snake said. "There's six of us, and only one of him."

"Agreed," Marth said.

There was the sound of shattering glass that came from deep in the mansion. The men stood in silence for several seconds.

"That sounded like it came from my room," Marth said. Everyone nodded and followed Marth through the mansion towards his room. A cool breeze was flowing from his room, and chilled the smashers skin. Marth walked in his room. His window had been shattered, but there was no sign of the maniac.

"He's in the mansion again," Marth said as he turned back to the smashers. "We have to be extra careful."

The smashers nodded, and they returned to the lobby, a loud clunk echoed through the night. Their heads lifted up quickly and their attention directed towards the sound.

"He's in the cafeteria," Snake stated. "I'll go check it out."

"No. We're sticking together," Marth stated. "We're going together." Snake nodded and the smashers followed him to the cafeteria.

The double doors of the cafeteria creaked open and the smashers walked into the dark, silent cafeteria.

"We have to find him, and corner him," Snake said. The smashers nodded and began to spread out across the cafeteria.

Silence weighed on them as they stalked through the cafeteria. Mario and Luigi walked towards the back of the cafeteria to the kitchen. They walked past shelves and around pots and pans hanging from the ceiling. They surveyed the area. As they turned around to leave they found themselves face to face with the maniac. The maniac stared at them for several, silent seconds. From behind his back the maniac revealed a large butcher knife and with a maniacal scream, he lunged at Mario. Luigi jumped back in fright and screamed loudly. The butcher knife sliced into Mario's neck, and blood shot across the kitchen floor. Mario fought back for only a few seconds, until he quickly succumbed to death and went limp in the maniac's arms. The maniac continued to thrust in the knife in and out of Mario's neck. The maniac smiled and let Mario fall lifelessly to the blood covered floor.

Luigi stood back and his hands began to fill with green fire. The maniac turned his piercing eyes towards Luigi. Luigi extended his hand and shot a fire ball at the maniac, who was completely unfazed by the attack. Luigi backed up farther, and hit the wall behind him. The maniac charged at him, with a menacing smile.

The other smashers ran into the kitchen just as the knife entered Luigi's stomach. Luigi's mouth fell open as the knife drove deep inside him. The maniac moved the knife side to side in Luigi who yelled in pain, but his yells were stifled as blood began to fill up in his throat. Luigi fell to the ground as the knife was removed.

The maniac turned toward Link, Snake, Marth and Falco. Falco pulled out his blaster, Link with his bow and arrow and the two released a shot into the chest of the maniac. The beam from the blaster absorbed into the maniac's skin. The arrow pierced his chest, but the maniac didn't even acknowledge it. With knife in hand, the maniac lunged toward Link and Snake. With one swift movement the maniac swung his knife through the air and slit the throat of the both of them. Link released his bow and arrow and the two men dropped to their knees. The blood from their necks fell to the floor and splattered across the floor. Marth grabbed Falco's wrist and the two darted out of the cafeteria.

The maniac smiled as the two fled. He dropped his knife and fell to the ground next to his latest victim, Snake. Snake's eyes still flittered with life as he saw the maniac kneel next to him. He closed his eyes in pain as he felt the razor-sharp teeth dig into his neck. Snake was unable to scream as his flesh was ripped from his neck.

"Marth!" Falco shouted as they ran down to the opposite end of the mansion. "Did you see that? He was completely unfazed by an arrow to the chest. This guy is a monster… He can't be human!"

"We have to stick together, Falco," Marth said. The two reached the end of the mansion, and panted in attempt to catch their breath.

"We don't stand a chance against this guy," Falco said.

"We have to get out of here," Marth said. "Let's head to the front door." Marth began walking towards the lobby, but Falco remained motionless. Marth turned back to him. "Falco… Come on!"

Falco placed his hand on his blaster. "I don't want to die the way they did."

"You won't, let's get out of here!" Marth shouted.

Falco pulled his blaster from his holster. "We're trapped."

"Falco," Marth said extending his hand towards Falco. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not going to die the way they did!" Falco shouted, his voice trembling with desperation. He opened his mouth and placed the blaster inside. Marth's eyes widened and lunged towards Falco.

"Falco! Stop!" Marth shouted. Marth's body jolted as Falco pulled the trigger. Blood shot out from the back of Falco's head and splattered against the wall. Falco's body collapsed to the ground, and Marth's mouth fell open as he watched.

Marth closed his eyes and turned away from Falco's lifeless body. I'm the only one left. Marth's heart beat faster and faster as he decided to run back to his room. Marth slammed his door shut it and turned the lock. He climbed back on to his bed. His heavy breathing and the breeze blowing in from the broken window were the only sounds filling his room. Marth's eyes filled with warm tears and dripped down his cheeks. Suddenly something struck him. Something's not right. Marth said. There was an extra sound in the room, it wasn't his breath, and it wasn't the wind. It was something else he couldn't identify.

In an attempt to hear better Marth held his breath. Marth's eyes widened as he realized what it was. There was someone else in his room, someone else breathing. The source of the raspy breath was coming directly from underneath his bed.

Well guys! I hope you liked my first Halloween special! I can't say I have much experience writing in the horror genre. What do you guys think? Hope it was good enough.

Happy Halloween!

And make sure to lock your doors and windows, you never know who may be lurking on the otherside…