Inspired by "The Night" by Disturbed.
…Okay, and maybe a little bit of Disturbia. But not the Rhianna version. The Punk Goes Pop version, which I like much better. 'Tis addicting, I'll admit it.
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It was a bright and sunny day…not. Actually, it was raining. Hard. The sky was dark and, by the window, a certain Abby Fenton was pouting.
"And there goes the beach trip," she muttered.
"I don't see what the big deal is," Jake responded. "We'll just go another time."
"You're just happy because you're afraid of the ocean," she snapped back.
"Am not!" he defended. "I'm just…aware of ocean-related safety hazards."
She rolled her eyes. "I don't see why. It's just like a big lake and you're fine with those."
"A big lake with riptides. And strong currents. Not to mention sharp rocks. A lot of sharp rocks."
"So you can look a ghost in the face, but you're scared to get anywhere near an oversized wave pool?" she taunted.
"Abby, stop teasing your brother," Sam scolded, walking by them.
"It was eight years ago!"
"So?" Jake argued. "I almost drowned!"
"Dad saved you," she mumbled back.
"That's not the point."
"Alright, end of discussion, you two," Sam ordered.
Jake gladly walked away and stomped his way up to his bedroom. He smashed his fist against his wall and let out a deep breath at an attempt to calm himself.
"Have mercy on the wall," Sam said, leaning against the doorframe.
"Doesn't anyone in this house ever knock?" Jake muttered.
"Not when half of the family has a tendency to walk through solid objects," the mother replied. Her eyes softened. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Even as he said this, his voice was a little bit strained with suppressed anger.
Sam walked over and put an arm around her only son. "Jake, I can tell when you're lying. Please stop making a habit out of it."
His shoulders stiffened. Oh, great. She knew he'd been lying to her a lot. He choked back his dread and answered, "Why can't she just drop it?"
"Because she can't imagine being stuck in a situation like that."
"But she was there when I got smashed against those rocks. She was even there when I had to go get the stitches all up my arm. That's what really bugs me. She knew how bad it was, but she still can't shut up."
Sam smiled gently. "I know. I told her that if she ever says anything like that again, she'll be grounded." The mother retracted her arm and went back to the door. "Will you be okay?"
"Mom," he groaned, "I'm not a little kid."
"Maybe not, but mothers always worry." And with that, she was gone.
Jake groaned and leaned his head against the wall he was just punching. "Joy," he muttered. To add to that, his ghost sense went off. "Even more joy." The goth glanced out the window quickly. "I think I'll sit this one out."
A crash sounded, followed by a "Take that, ghost!" from Abby. Jake winced. He definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of that. Rule one: Don't get into a ghost fight with Abby when she's in a really bad mood.
A scream sounded.
And rule two: Find out what was going on when that sound was made.
Jake ignored the second rule and opted to fall onto his bed. He slipped on a pair of earphones and turned the volume up to block out the sounds of the fight.
So he couldn't hear things crashing and breaking or the screaming of citizens outside.
Rule three: when you heard that; run.
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Abby barged into the kitchen looking a mess. Her snowy hair was all out of place and tears in her uniform were almost more common than actual fabric. Through her panting, she gasped out, "Mom, we need back up. Fast."
"What happened?" Sam bristled.
"Freaky ghost," the younger gasped. "Name's Sylvio. He bites people and turns them into his slaves."
The mother pressed a button behind a picture hanging innocently on the wall. A rack of ghost weapons rose up from the floor. Sam grabbed an ecto-gun while continuing to talk to Abby. "So, a ghost who thinks he's a vampire?"
Abby nodded. "Fangs, red eyes, and everything. Same goes for the victims. Except Sylvio has these weird black tattoos all over him."
Sam rushed upstairs and pounded frantically on a door. No answer.
"Jake!" she called loudly. She tried the handle. It was locked.
"Allow me," Abby said, appearing right next to her. The half-ghost girl phased into the room and threw her brother out through the door. He landed with a thud and an "Ow," banging his head against the wall.
"What's wrong with you?" he growled out.
"Me?" she asked, appalled. "What's wrong with you? Did you not hear the screaming?" She then noticed the earphones hanging half-way out of her brother's ears. She yanked them off and he yelped. She glared at him, dangling the small listening devices. "It's chaos out there. Some ghost named Sylvio is turning the whole town into his slaves. Everyone who can has to help out." She grabbed an ecto-gun from her Mom and tossed it at Jake. "And since, apparently, you do have some actual skill at this, that includes you."
The male twin pried himself from the floor to stand next to her. Glaring, he replied, "Fine," and darted down the stairs. Sam and Abby followed closely behind, but by the time they go to the bottom of the stairs, Jake was already transformed and in the air, out of their sight. The ghost boy darted around town, assessing the damage. Abby was right: the town was a ruin. Buildings were crumbling and entranced citizens scoured the area, displaying the red eyes and fangs that Abby had described earlier.
"Looks like a horror movie," he noted. "At least the rain stopped." Still, it was pretty cloudy. There wasn't a speck of sunlight to be seen. Down below, he saw the Blue Huntress trying to fend off a group of the minions. He veered downward and made his presence known with a well-aimed ecto-blast. It knocked one person down and the domino effect took care of five others.
"Hey," she said distractedly as he landed next to her to join in.
"So, what's going on?" he inquired.
"So far, we're failing miserably," she answered bitterly, blowing another former-citizen back. "That Sylvio guy is making these guys faster than we can take care of them and it's not like we can kill them."
"Alright," Shadow said. "Who's been bitten so far? Anyone we know?"
Her tone changed into a strained one. Beneath the visor, a hard frown appeared. "Matt."
Shadow felt like someone had just slapped him, but refused to stop fighting. Suddenly, Tori was jumped from behind and tackled to the ground. Before her fighting partner could even say a word, the attacker ripped off her helmet and had its fangs by her neck.
"Tori!"
And then everything just stopped. The creature took its fangs away from Tori's neck and perked its head toward the sky. The others followed the action. The two ghost fighters could barely wonder what was happening before they all fled in the same direction, fading into shadows and then thin air as if they were ghosts themselves.
"Well that was weird," Tori stated, standing and grabbing her helmet. She carefully put it back on after seeing that it was undamaged. Her jet sled jumped to life beneath her. "Let's scan the rest of the town. See what we can find."
The two soared into the sky, zipping over the tops of the remaining buildings. The streets below were void of life. Amity Park was now exhibiting both sides of the phrase "ghost town."
"This is too creepy, even for me," Shadow admitted.
"I know what you mean," Tori agreed. "I don't see anyone. Wait…no, there's some people." She pointed toward a building where non-bitten people were filing out cautiously.
"Good," Shadow breathed. "So it's not the whole town against us."
"Other than that," Tori continued, "it looks clean. Should we head back?"
"Yeah," Shadow agreed. "Let's go to my place. Maybe they have more information for us."
"Okay, but you'll have to change back first. You can hop on the back of my board and it'll look like we were fighting together."
Shadow agreed, seeing as there were no people below to see them. He climbed on behind Tori and let his ghost form slip away. Together, they zipped out across the sky.
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In a dark cave, over a hundred dark masses were crowded together. All that could be seen was the occasional flicker of red in their eyes. At the head of it all stood one figure dimly illuminated by a candle. Even so, every one of his features was sharp. His eyes glowed red like that of his minions, only stronger. Dark locks of hair hung around his angled face, making him wild-looking. It contrasted greatly with his stark-white skin. He wore a black trench coat, but no shirt underneath it, just long grey pants. As striking as all that was, the most distinguishable quality about him was the tattoos. Black swirls and patterns covered every inch of bare skin, with a particularly curious one spiraling out from where his heart would be. Not even his face was spared from the designs.
"A new era begins," he cried to his audience. "One without suffering from the mistakes of others. One where justice rules. You, my army, will help to create that new era. We will build a better world…together!" The crowd cheered loudly. A grin grew on his face, showing off pointed fangs. He quickly exchanged it for a serious expression. "But we will have complications. We cannot let the sun's light touch us, which is why I had to recall you from that place. Also, the town from which we will start this revolution is heavily guarded by strange, human-scented ghosts. We will need to test those defenses, so I will call on a scout to search the area." His ruby eyes scanned over the group. "You!" he shouted, pointing into the crowd. Because of the lack of lighting, the figure could not be identified. "Tonight, I want you to go to that town and locate the easiest point to take it from. An important base of some sort. Understand?" The figure nodded. In response, the leader threw a pair of sunglasses to the chosen scout. "You can use these to hide your eyes. As soon as night falls, go. Do you accept this position?"
The figured stepped forward into the candlelight, revealing his face and the cracked glasses that still covered his eyes. "Yes, Sylvio," Matt agreed.
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Wow, Matt is the poster boy for classic monsters, huh? First a werewolf and now this.
Also, these are going to be some long chapters. After writing this, I can just feel it.
Hope this turns out to be more creative.