Round 3: Shake, Rattle, and Roll
At the path's end, the corridor opened up into the spacious circular field that served as the center of the maze. Sitting across from them was Luna's organ and in it's seat, shadowed from the bright lights of the energy aura and lightning, was the possessed body of Luna Loud, still currently occupied by the Sumerian god of fear and playing a haunting song.
Lincoln's eyes narrowed. Out of all his siblings, the boy held a special relationship with Luna and the sight of both her body and her musical genius being exploited for such a sadistic cause filled with him with anger and determination. Gripping his paintball gun tightly, he stepped into the center, and the music suddenly stopped.
"Well… well… well," the demon's head spun around on his shoulders to face the boy, "Lincoln Loud. You're braver than I thought. I really should have hired better help."
"Game's over Dormus," Lincoln bravely declared. "Now get out of my sister's body and get out of my town!" The demon threw his head back and let out a roar of laughter.
"No," he got up from his seat, his body turning to align with his head. "I don't think I will."
He began to slowly pace, keeping his eyes locked on the boy. "I like it here, Lincoln. You humans have become too much easier to scare. All this," he motioned upwards to the storm, "in one night? I used to have to generate plagues or famine to get this type of reception! Now all I have to do is jump out and go 'BOO!'"
He yelled the last word in a deeper, demonic voice, causing the boys to jump and him to laugh again. "Besides," he stepped into the light. "I'm really digging this new form."
Lincoln gasped. Luna's bodysuit was gone, along with all her flesh and blood. Aside from her eyes (blazing bright red) and pixie cut (atop which still sat her top hat), her entire body consisted of nothing but bare bones.
"Sweet, isn't it?"
Snapping out of his stunned state, Lincoln spoke, anger once again filling his voice. "I don't care how much you like it, demon!" He brought up his gun. "I'm sending you back to the spirit world!"
He fired, but Dormus merely sidestepped and dodged the shots.
"Really dude? I'm at full power and you think you can vanquish me with a little candy?" "It's worked for us so far," Lincoln replied.
Dormus chuckled. "You've got a lot to learn about demons, kid. Too bad Lucy won't be around long enough to teach you."
Furious, Lincoln grabbed several Sugar Bombs and tossed them at Dormus. The demon once again evaded the attack, laughing as he did so, but Lincoln stood his ground.
"I'm not leaving without my sister."
Dormus raised an eyebrow. "So, that's how it's going to be, huh? Well then, let's make it a bit more fair." He snapped his fingers and huge bones sprouted out of the ground around Clyde, trapping him. "Clyde!" Lincoln yelled.
"I'm okay!" His friend peered through the gap in the cage. "Kick his butt, Linc!"
Dormus laughed as Lincoln turned to face him, gun at the ready.
"You sure you don't want to run?"
"In your dreams."
"Then let's go… little boy."
The organ started playing by itself and Dormus began singing.
"When darkness falls
on the house of Loud,
Around every turn
New terror abounds"
Huge flaming jack-o-lanterns appeared above the demon.
"You don't want to lose your head."
The organ ran down the keys as the pumpkins were launched at Lincoln, who rolled forward to dodge them.
"You can run
But you can't hide"
Lincoln fired a volley of candy, but Dormus sidestepped them all.
"They know that you taste better alive"
Without missing a beat, he summoned a horde of zombies around Lincoln and they pounced on the boy.
"I don't think they've been fed
In a long long time"
Lincoln broke free, slashing them all to dust with his licorice sword to the beat of the next few lines.
"Every corner, every door
Watch out, they ain't herbivores
Ghastly ghouls out for blood"
He fired his gun, but Dormus vanished.
"Sorry bud, you got tricked"
"Ahh!" Lincoln jumped as Dormus appeared behind him in the form of a giant skull.
"You got tricked"
Several more skulls appeared around the boy, all singing along as giant bones and flaming pumpkins were summoned and thrown at him.
"You got punked and pranked
With a spooky twist
Before you wet your pants
Better get out quick"
The boy was barely able to dodge them, suffering several cuts and burns in the process. He fired at the skulls, but they each vanished before the shot could hit.
"Tricked, tricked, tricked,"
Lincoln suddenly was lifted off the ground. He turned and saw that Dormus had reappeared and had in a telekinetic grip.
"You got… tricked."
On that last word, he swung and slammed Lincoln into the ground. As the song launched into the second verse, the boy picked himself up and charged again, leaping over a pack of hellhounds.
"Beware of fangs and bloody fur,"
Lincoln aimed at Dormus, but a giant bat suddenly grabbed him and lifted him up into the air. " A Loud House chainsaw massacre
"There's no chance that you'll get out,"
As the demon pelvic-thrust to the beat, Lincoln freed himself from the straps of his candy tank. He launched himself down at Dormus, licorice sword raised above his head, but the demon caught him in another telekinetic grip and slammed him to the ground.
"Ghost writing your eulogy,"
He summoned a bunch of razor-sharp bones and tossed them at the fallen boy.
" Heads are rolling literally,"
Lincoln army-rolled, barely keeping his head.
"So who needs their mommy now?"
Springing to his feet, the boy charged with his sword, but Dormus evaded each strike, all the while keeping up with the beat.
"Spilling guts on the floor
Clean up on aisle 4
Why you running off so soon?"
Lincoln slashed at his neck, but the demon's head literally jumped off his shoulders and over the blade. Before he could bring the blade back, Dormus grabbed his sword arm.
" Sorry dude, you got tricked"
On that last word, he delivered a huge kick to Lincoln's stomach, sending him flying across the field. " You got tricked,"
Clutching his stomach, Lincoln rose, but Dormus had vanished. His eyes widened as he looked up and saw the demon's face plastered over the full moon. Glaring down at the boy with a sadistic smile, the moon kept singing.
"You got punked and pranked
With a spooky twist
Before you wet your pants
Better get out quick"
Vanishing from the moon, Dormus teleported around Lincoln, taunting him with the final lyrics of the song.
He appeared behind Lincoln with a flaming pumpkin.
"You got… tricked."
He launched the pumpkin, but Lincoln ducked and it smashed into the organ, destroying it.
"NO!" The demon yelled in frustration. "Aw man! I was having fun!"
He looked over at his opponent, panting and sweating from the fight, and sighed. "Oh well, back to work."
With a single motion, tendrils of vines shot out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Lincoln before he could get away.
"Hey! Nooo!" He tried to cut them, but more tendrils yanked his licorice sword out of hand and tore it apart.
"You should have stayed home, little boy," Dormus laughed. Two giant beanstalks grew under him and Lincoln, carrying them both up high above the maze.
"You thought you could stop me?" Dormus laughed. "You thought you could stop this ?!"
As he said that, Lincoln felt his beanstalk shift to face the direction of Royal Woods, giving him a good look at the chaos.
The entire town was blanketed in glowing vines. The surrounding farmland had been replaced with a sea of beanstalks, each spewing out more and more green earthly tentacles that snaked across the ground like living beasts.
"Like I said, this is just the beginning," Dormus continued.
"My storm will cover the globe and my monsters will overrun the human race."
The McBrides stood on top of their dining table, using a broom and frying pan to hold back the horde of goblins surrounding them. As Harold raised his pan, bundles of vines smashed through the window and wrapped around his arm, engulfing his whole body in moments. Howard only had time to scream his husband's name before he was engulfed as well.
"Oh there will be resistance, but it won't last long. After all, everyone is afraid of something."
Mr. Glouse fumbled around in his pockets for more ammo as more and more zombies descended on his lawn. Before he could reload, vines burst from the lawn and tied him up, leaving the old-timer to scream in terror as the undead approached him.
"Civilization will collapse and the survivors will cower at my feet, broken and begging for mercy. They will be my slaves and upon their backs, I will build my empire!"
Lynn Sr. rocked back and forth in the attic, whimpering as vines snaked their way up the sides of the house.
"I will rule over my monsters as the embodiment of fear," Dormus clenched his fists in excitement. "Forever." He wiped away a small tear. "Oh, it's going to be beautiful."
He turned back to look at the captive boy, who'd stopped struggling and was now staring back at him, his face now the color of his disheveled hair. A malicious grin spread across the demon's face.
"Don't worry," he cackled, "I'm not going to kill you. I have other plans for you."
He raised his arm and Lincoln saw 10 more beanstalks sprout up from the maze, clutching the unconscious bodies of his family members. A look of terror spread across his face, causing the demon to grin.
"This is your biggest fear, isn't it Lincoln?" he said. "Losing your family? Knowing that you were the cause of it?"
Lincoln whimpered, both due to the demon's words and the crushing grip of the vines around him.
"I thought so," Dormus chucked. "Well, you're in for one hell of a ride, kid. Had you not intervened, your family would have simply been vessels for my minions, but now that you've really pissed me off, I'm going to slowly torture them each into madness," His grin turned into a perverse smile. "Oh, all the fears I'll get to play with. All those little doubts and insecurities in their heads."
He leaned in and whispered in the boy's ear. "The best part; I'll make sure they all know that you were the cause of their misery, so that whatever's left when I'm done will have nothing, but hatred for you."
Tears were now dripping down Lincoln's face as the image of his family being tortured filled his mind. He whimpered as he gazed helplessly at his bound family members.
"Now…" Dormus mused. "Which one do we start off with first? Lucy maybe? Oh, just think of all the repressed emotions I could get out of her. Or how about dear sweet Leni? It wouldn't take much to twist that tiny, little brain of hers."
However, neither he nor Lincoln took notice of Clyde pulling myself up onto the ledge of the bone cage. During the fight, the boy had been working his way up the walls, all the while grabby vines had kept trying to pull him down. In his struggle, he'd lost his gun and candy tank.
"Lynn Jr perhaps? Oh, I love watching the strong ones break."
"Come on Jack, you've got to do something," Clyde frantically searched his belt, finding one final Sugar Bomb. He pulled it out and aimed it, only for his face to fall upon seeing how high up the other two were. Even with all his strength, Clyde knew he wouldn't be able to reach them.
"Ooooh, how about tiny… little… Lily?"
Yanking off his eye patch, Clyde wrapped the elastic string around his thumb and pulled back on the patch area, creating a slingshot. Placing the Bomb onto the patch, he aimed up at Dormus' back.
"One-Eyed Jack, One-Eyed Jack. Bad guys better-"
He let go and the Bomb went flying at Dormus… only for the demon to suddenly duck and it to soar right into Lincoln's open mouth.
"Oops."
For a moment, everyone was quiet. Dormus looked between the two boys in shock and then burst out laughing.
"Oh, that was priceless!" Wiping away a tear, he raised a hand and several vines snatched Clyde from his seat and pinned him to the ground.
"No-" he gasped as they strangled him.
"You just can't find good help these days, can you Lincoln?" Dormus sighed, only to hear a gagging sound as a reply. He turned to see that the boy was choking, the Sugar Bomb having become lodged in his throat.
"What?!" he yelled. "Oh no, you're not taking the easy way out." Forming a tendril fist, he slammed it into Lincoln's gut. The boy retched, but continued to choke.
"Ugh, you stupid boy!" He punched him again. Lincoln's face was rapidly turning blue and his eyes began to turn bloodshot.
"NO!" Hysterical, Dormus pulled back for one final punch. "STOP CHOKING RIGHT-" PUNCH!
"-NOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"
Lincoln dry heaved and the sweet flew out of his mouth… and right into Dormus'.
"Bletch!" he reared back, gagging as he felt the spit-covered morsel slid down his throat. "Really bro?! Uh, my mouth was open and everyt-"
He paused, feeling a sudden burning rising sensation in his throat. Lincoln's eyes went wide as the demon's whole neck began glowing brighter and brighter.
"NO! NO!" He clutched his throat in agony. "NOOOOOOOOO-"
There was a burst of light and then everything went black.