The sky is orange by the time everyone has gathered at Evan's house. Ricky, Andy, Conan, Carly Beth, Amy, and now Jerry Hawkins, another one that managed to slip under Evan's nose, but according to Ricky, he's a target too, and Evan trusts Ricky despite his teasing. Overall, it's far from the army Evan had hoped for, but it's something. No doubt others were being summoned to Dark Falls as they spoke. Others like them, but it was now or never for Evan, and you can guess which one of the two he was choosing. Gathered in Evan's living room, the group doesn't look like much, but they do, in a strange way, look like survivors and Evan knows now he's standing amongst some of the bravest people he'll ever meet. People who actually share some kind of connection with him.
"What we're doing tonight may be the stupidest thing we've ever done in our lives." Evan says at the front of the room, as if he's giving a lecture or a pep talk. Evan's not used to being a leader.
He glances at Andy as he says this statement, fully expecting her to make some kind of side comment on this, and his intuition proves correct as she bites her lip and chooses not to say whatever it was she was going to say.
"It might also be the most important." Evan says. "Because breaking into Dead House might be the only way to save the world as we know it. We're not kids anymore. We can do this." Evan lingers on that last part, wanting to focus on the sheer drama of his words and let it float in the air like a ghost.
Andy just furrows her brow at him. Her "be serious, Evan" expression. He recognizes that one too. It was true, though, and none of them can deny it.
"All of us are here because one way or another, we encountered something supernatural as kids. More likely than not that experience changed who we are. And now Mr. Dark wants to punish us for something that was out of our control." Evan explains.
"Hell yeah!" Ricky says, as if wanting to lead a group cheer.
It doesn't work, and the others are just staring at Evan intently, waiting for what he'll say next.
"This isn't the first time I've been drawn into some crazy conspiracy," Carly Beth says. "Mr. Dark doesn't scare me."
Evan tries to read Carly Beth but ultimately fails. It's hard to know whether she's truly scared or just trying to play brave.
"As you know, my name is Evan Ross. For years, I've been haunted by my experiences with a substance known as Monster Blood, a green slime that grows and consumes everything it can. The first summer I encountered it, the Monster Blood was cursed by a witch named Sarabeth to get revenge on my great-aunt Kathryn. It wouldn't be the last time I encountered Monster Blood, far from it, and now Mr. Dark wants it for himself and his own evil goals." Evan explains.
"You mean like the toy Monster Blood?" Jerry asks. "I thought that stuff was just a gag item, like for pranks and stuff."
"It's far more deadly than you can imagine, Jerry. It has the capability to destroy an entire town." Evan replies. "I can't let it hurt anyone else ever again. It's done enough damage already."
"Damn." Jerry replies. Evan wants him to know he's not joking around here.
"This is my best friend, Andy. She's been with me since the first summer, and we've dealt with the Monster Blood each time together. She knows what it can do." Evan says pointing at her.
Evan knows how much Andy hates being the center of attention, maybe just as much as she hates being called Andrea, which always struck him as a little odd considering her penchant for bright neon colors, but he has to mention her, or else she'll kill him.
"Uh-huh. Hi everyone." Andy replies simply, doing an awkward little wave, waggling her fingers, before flashing a wink right at Carly Beth.
Evan can hardly believe it, but then he totally CAN believe it, because it's exactly something Andy would do. She always has a better flirt game than him. Not that that's very difficult, but still.
"And.. Conan Barber." Evan says. He almost doesn't want to proceed. He wants to say "my friend", but can't bring himself to. "He's been there too."
Conan flashes a thumbs up at everyone and ALSO winks at Carly Beth. Amy too. Jesus, Evan thinks, but he decides not to say anything.
"Ricky.. want to introduce yourself?" Evan asks.
Ricky has no problem with the attention. In fact, he seems to crave it.
"Sure thing! My name is Ricky Beamer. When I was 12, I was bullied by pretty much everyone. Including these 4 kids- Wart, Brenda, David, and Jared. I called them my four enemies. You can probably guess why. One day, I wanted to pull a little prank on another enemy of mine- a girl named Tasha McClain. I put an ad in the school newspaper with her phone number asking "Creeps" to call her." Ricky says.
At this, Amy gives him a disgusted look. "Why would you do something that gross, Ricky?"
"Okay, Yeah, I know how that sounds but hear me out- it gets worse. I wasn't exactly that great of a kid to begin with. The prank backfired. Totally. Tasha found out and put my own number in the paper, and soon, I was getting calls from these Creeps, and I quickly found out these weren't pranks at all- but actual aliens. My four enemies were in fact Creeps and they wanted to turn the whole planet into creatures like them by planting identity seeds inside food for them to consume. I was so tired of being picked on, I almost let them go through with it.. but not before I let myself become one of them."
Everyone is listening to Ricky's story in pure horror, and it becomes even more shocking as he shows them the same purple scales he showed Evan. That earns quite a few responses.
"Holy shit." Jerry exclaims. "Doesn't that itch?"
"Eh, I've mostly gotten used to it." Ricky replies. "It's just part of me now. As you can probably tell, the Creeps did not succeed and now.. I regret what I did. A whole hell of a lot. I guess you can consider this my redemption. If I stop Mr. Dark, maybe that can alleviate some of the guilt I feel."
"You don't have to feel guilty, Ricky. I understand what it's like to want revenge on your bullies, so badly you'll resort to the darkest of measures." Carly Beth tells him. "Maybe I should tell my story?"
"I'm all ears." Ricky tells her.
"Me too." Evan says.
It's true. Out of them, Carly Beth seems the most secretive by a longshot, and hearing exactly what happened will definitely help him in understanding what kind of a person she is.
"I don't tell this story to most people, just because I'd rather forget it. But I was a lot like you, Ricky. I was bullied when I was little, mostly because I was so easy to scare. I really was afraid of everything. You could jump out and say boo and I'd scream loud enough you'd think there was a murder happening. And so that's just what everyone did. I had these two bullies named Chuck and Steve who loved tormenting me and making me scream, so I wanted payback. It was around Halloween, so I decided I was going to scare them for a change and went to this little party store in town. It was there, I found a basement full of the most horrifying masks I'd ever seen. They were so life-like. The shopkeeper refused to sell me one until he finally relented, and soon, I found out why. When I put on the mask, it became part of my face and began to alter my personality into something darker. All I wanted was pure chaos and sure enough, I scared the hell out of Chuck and Steve, but it wasn't worth it. At all. As I found out, the mask was really some sick experiment by the shopkeeper. He wanted to make real, living faces but they quickly became corrupted and turned into what he referred to as the "Unloved Ones"- neglected for their appearance, until I showed them attention for a change." Carly Beth explains.
"Not going to lie, a mask like that sounds like an awesome prank. Probably not worth getting your face permanently monsterized though." Jerry replies.
"Unloved one? That's a good nickname for Evan." Andy says.
"Shut up, Andrea." Evan tells her.
"Hey, don't you call me Andrea!" Andy snaps. "I've got a lot worse names for you."
This, Evan knows, is definitely true.
"Guys! Stop acting like kids! Let Carly Beth continue." Amy says.
Evan and Andy look at each other a little embarrassed and drop the brief feud.
Ricky is just nodding, too focused on the story to care about what else is going on in the room, as if he's glad to hear someone had a similar experience, even if there are quite a few apparent differences. Evan, however, is pretty spooked by the tale. He can only imagine what Carly Beth, who seems so shy, was like under the evil power of the mask and just what that thing might have looked like. Knowing what the Monster Blood does, he can definitely understand the damage the mask probably caused.
"I know how weird this sounds, but that power must have felt pretty good, didn't it, Carly Beth? I know it did for me."
Carly Beth looks a little reluctant to answer. "It did, yes. It was like I could bury my old, timid self and be someone else. The Haunted Mask was my dark side, and I liked making people afraid for a change."
Ricky continues nodding. "Yeah. I get that." he replies softly. It clearly hit a nerve.
"How did you get it off, Carly Beth?" Evan asks her. "Unless you've got your new face hiding somewhere under there?"
Evan laughs at his own joke, but nobody else does.
"It was my mother. She made this piece of art out of love for me, and it was that love that enabled me to remove the mask from my face. I was able to accept myself for who I was, beneath that ugly mask." Carly Beth replies.
"That's deep." Conan says, always unhelpful.
"I'm just glad I got it off. Like you, Evan. It wouldn't be the last time I dealt with the mask. It's been awhile since then, but I always fear it could come back. If Mr. Dark wants to turn others monstrous like I became, we have to stop him." Carly Beth says.
Everyone agrees, in unison this time.
"There were times me and Andy used the Monster Blood because we wanted revenge.. each time it ended in disaster. I think Mr. Dark's need for revenge could end the very same way it did for us." Evan tells Carly Beth.
"I don't want Slappy harming anybody else either. Him being involved is bad news," Amy chimes in, and she begins to tell her own story. "That dummy almost ruined my entire life. I want to see him pay."
"This may be hard to believe, but I also had an experience with Slappy. In HorrorLand of all places." Carly Beth says. "I guess we'll have to talk more, Amy, but I'm sorry all of that happened. I'm glad things are better between you and your sister."
"Me too." Amy says. "I can't imagine life without her now that we're closer. I'm glad you got rid of that awful mask, Carly Beth."
"This is all hard to wrap my head around but.. I believe you guys and your crazy stories." Jerry says. "While I've tried to forget it myself, something really bad happened to me too. Not exactly like yours. No evil dummies or haunted masks, but bad nonetheless, even if no aliens are involved. Sorry, Ricky."
"No problem." Ricky replies.
Like Carly Beth, Evan's eager to hear Jerry's story, just to see what's beneath his joke-y exterior.
"So, my family moved to a new house in a new town- a real creepy-looking place. I always had an overactive imagination and while exploring, I found an old piano in the attic. My dad brought it downstairs to fix it up and I decided I wanted to try out some lessons. So I started seeing the only music teacher in town- a guy named Dr. Shreek, which should be a dead giveaway already this guy is up to good, and you'd be right. The guy would teach me piano but was totally obsessed with my hands. Like, he'd stare and pet them, calling them beautiful and perfect." Jerry says.
At this, everyone responds in uncomfortable disgust.
"I know, right? Disturbing. To make things weirder, my house was totally haunted by this, like piano-playing ghost. She wasn't bad-looking, well, until her face melted off, that is."
"Nice." Conan replies.
"Like you, Amy, neither of my parents believed me about her and eventually, my lessons with Dr. Shreek graduated to going to his school. Meanwhile, this ghost was warning me to stay away from Dr. Shreek, but I didn't listen. There, I found out, and brace yourself, folks, Shreek was just a robot built by a crazy janitor named Mr. Toggle. He wanted to play beautiful music free of human error so he created Dr. Shreek to lure in children for their hands- which he then took for that very goal." Jerry says.
"Wait," Andy chimes in. "Why not just make robot hands?"
Jerry forces a chuckle. "He said hands were too hard to build, so he needed real ones. That ghost in my house was actually one of Mr. Toggle's victims, hence explaining her lack of hands and well.. it all ended with him getting dragged away by those ghosts. I'd call that poetic justice. Who knows what they did to him? But hell, Mr. Toggle deserved it. I was lucky not to die that day. They saved my life and I guess I'd like to be the one to save someone else's for a change." Jerry says. Now he looks terrified.
Evan never could have imagined he was hiding a story like this, but it's wild enough to be real.
"That's horrible, Jerry. I'm sorry you went through that." Carly Beth tells him.
"Thanks.. life has been pretty normal since then. No ghosts, and I've definitely dropped any kind of interest in piano or other music. Guess somehow I've been dragged right back, huh?" Jerry asks.
"We can do this guys." Evan tells them. "I have faith. Mr. Dark underestimates us."
"Fuck yeah he does." Andy says. "And he's going to get what's coming to him. Now how about we break into that house?"
Evan can't exactly say no, and soon, all of them are piled into Andy's car, shoulder to shoulder, driving back to the Dead House, where Evan hoped he'd never have to return. But this, this is definitely a HAVE TO kind of moment.
"Don't make me turn this car around." Andy teases.
Somehow, Evan's still in the back, in-between Conan and Ricky, while Carly Beth is in the passenger seat. Soon, the ominous sight of Dead House is back in view, looming over them with its sloped roof and dark shutters and the six of them pause to take it all in.
"This is AWESOME." Andy admires the building from afar.
She's the only one who seems to appreciate the building for its gothic exterior, except for Conan, who really doesn't say much of anything, just goes along with Andy. But even he seems a little spooked.
"This is way more horrifying than I imagined." Jerry says.
"It's even worse than the Carpenter Mansion." Carly Beth comments.
"God, why are we doing this again?" Amy asks. "Just look at it! That's a murder house!"
"Yeah, we're definitely going to die here." Ricky says. He means it too.
"We're not going to die, Ricky. We just need to move carefully. Mr. Dark has a room full of supernatural antiques- stuff he's collected related to cases like ours. We should hit there first." Evan tells him.
"I'll hold you to that, Ginger." Ricky says.
They unbuckle their seat belts and Evan points toward an open window.
"We go through there. It shouldn't be that difficult to climb. That way, Mr. Dark won't see us coming." Evan says.
The rest nod, before they hear what sounds like a creaking door behind them.
"Is that door opening?" Andy asks.
Sure enough, Evan sees the front door of Dead House opening up, pouring out rays of fiery orange light. From inside a silhouette emerges- Mr. Dark, currently in a fancy red suit, made bulky by his large frame and with his black hair slicked back and shiny. It's hard to tell if it's hair-gel or slime, but Evan can tell just how greasy and sticky it is from down here. With a slight smirk, he raises a black candelabra, illuminating his face with flames in the darkness that covers the whole house in shadow.
"Ah, children. I'm so glad you came! I was just about to send an invitation!"
