1 A Pumpkin’s Soul – Part One – The Party

Foggy orange mist radiated from its lit eye sockets as the head of the creature twitched with irritation. It was truly the embodiment of sin and horror itself. Without the constraints of emotion and dilemma holding it back the monster continues to lurk in the shadows and depths of the night's darkness, finding prey it would soon feast upon. The ghastly creature was a rare sight to behold as most of its victims weren't so lucky in keeping the thing they valued most: Their soul.

Halloween night is when the creature comes out and plays. Unbeknownst to the kids and teens trick or treating during the spook-filled night, it was always watching. Hiding in plain sight was its specialty. No one would ever guess that a creature with such a hunger to vanquish could be standing right beside them. They would never even raise any suspicion to the monster as it would be camouflaged in with the other vibrant costumes of the night.

But tonight wasn't just another Halloween night for the creature, tonight was different in a way the creature couldn't process. It made its way through the orange-lit town, walking past laughing kids with their candy-filled bags in hand, enjoying the nightly breeze of the hour. The monster wasn't interested in disheartening the local kids during his annual day of reckoning, though. It was only focused on people who seemed like they were worthy of his presence. But with no worthwhile prey in sight, it set its eyes on a highly decorated building. The building itself was covered in fake cobwebs and orange streamers, colorful lights beaming from its windows. It seemed to be a Halloween party of sorts, but there weren't many people outside. This was the perfect opportunity for the creature to make its move. And it soon did. As it walked past many more trick or treaters, the creature found itself behind three high school-aged boys.

"I don't know about this guys, this party seems like a bad idea. I mean, why don't we just go to Lain's party? There could be an actual murderer here for all we know," one of the boys said anxiously. A vampire was his costume, his cape just an inch from dragging on the ground.

Another boy slapped the boy's back a couple of times, "Stop worrying so much. You do realize this party is exclusive for certain people, right? If we're the ones that got selected out of everyone who could've been selected, we must be doing something right!" The positive boy was wearing the silver armor of a knight, a sheath at his waist.

"Or something wrong…" The last boy said, wearing a blue mask that'd be worn at a masquerade, only covering the eyes and nose of his face. The rest of his attire consisted of a regular black business suit.

The trio stepped foot onto a concrete walkway which led to the entrance of the building which stood before them, the creature following a couple of car-lengths behind. But before them stood a line of people, ranging from the door of the building to the sidewalk. Eleven, that was the number of people in the line.

"Huh, it's not time yet?" the armored boy asked.

The vampire's costume boy pulled his long black sleeve up and looked at the watch that was strapped onto his left wrist. "It's about 8:57, so we still have a couple of minutes before it opens."

"Well, I guess we just have to-" The knight was quickly interrupted between two people up further in the line.

"What the hell did you say to me?!" A man shouted.

"I simply said that you're being an irritation to all of the people here. Now, if you don't act like a normal person, I will be forced to remove you from the list and revoke your invitation. And are you intoxicated? Your breath reeks of liquor," a girl calmly responded.

"What? You can't kick me out, little girl! Where are your parents? Shouldn't you be trick and treating right about now?" The man got up in the girl's face, attempting to use intimidation to scare her now.

She wasn't affected and continued, "This is your last chance, mister. Just this once I will forget about your intoxication, but you can't act inappropriately from now on. Do you accept my proposal?"

The man, who was much older than the rest of the people standing in line, face turned red with anger and his hands grabbed onto the collar of the girl's shirt and pulled her closer to him. Before the people in line had a chance to react, a loud TZZ sound echoed throughout the outside perimeter of the building.

The man instantly fell to the ground, motionless. The girl then stood there in front of all the house's guests and smiled, a taser in her petite hand.

"Welcome, my guests! It's finally time for the party to begin! Now, come one by one and show me your invitation so I can let you in."

All the guests were stunned at the events that had just unfolded. And according to the vampire's uneasiness towards the party earlier, the guests of this party were also unaware of what would exactly go down at this party. Now, their curiosity was now being added to with this new mysterious girl.

As the girl said, one by one the people went into the house, not knowing what to expect next. As for the monster, it stood on standby waiting to make its next move. After each guest passed the limp body traveled inside, the creature noticed the girl, the host, sneaking glances at him through the chilly night air. As soon as the last person to enter the building went inside, the girl casually walked over to the creature and gave a nice long stare at his hollow head.

"I like your costume. Did you make it yourself?"

A question asked to the creature was always a question unanswered as the creature had no physical way of talking back. Under its all-black attire laid a weightless body, and under that, a vengeful soul that would stop at nothing to get its way. The two stood there in silence for a moment before the girl spoke again.

"Oh, I get it! You're just playing a character, aren't you? I understand. Well, it just so happens that I have an extra invitation available tonight. Would you be interested in joining me and the others on a night of Halloween fun?"

It stuck out its gloved hand as the girl gave him the white rectangular invitation.

"Come on, follow me," the creature followed as they walked on the pathway and entered the building. They then went into the unexpectedly large living room of the home, where the other nine guests were waiting. "I'm afraid there is only one spot left in here to choose from. But don't worry, things will be happening soon enough."

The room was now filled with eleven people in total, with one seat left available for the creature. The seats were as follows: A single couch, four bean bag chairs, one recliner, and two chairs that sat together at a small wooden table. All spots together equaled ten people in total, the total number of invitees. The creature scanned the area and noticed the only spot not taken was one of the chairs that sat at the wooden table. The creature then nonchalantly walked to the table and took a seat, curious as to what the human infested house had in store for it tonight.

The creature could feel a stare radiating from the soul that sat beside it, a girl. There was a bored look cast upon her face as her head laid in her hand on the table. Her eyelashes were long, and her nose blackened with makeup. Her cheeks were covered with horizontal black lines, and her head was being occupied by long black hair with cat ears sticking out. But those features didn't matter to the creature as it pondered the area around itself, watching as the hostess of this party stood in front of the room and prepared to speak.

The already quiet room got quieter as she spoke, "First of all, I would like to thank all of you for coming to this exclusive party of mine. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all how grateful I am that you all decided to spend your Halloween here with me tonight. I'm very happy with the turnout, for the most part anyway."

The Inside of the room was decorated with more Halloween decor, with the focal point being the fireplace the hostess was standing in front of. A colorful lit wreath hanging above it with a giant fake black spider sticking onto it. The girl looked at the active fire behind her and decided to take a seat on the brick-laid step in front of the fireplace, a lit smiling carved pumpkin beside her. She stuck out her hand and felt the heat of the fire, then continued.

"I expect you all must've figured you were coming to a Halloween party, right? Well, while this is a Halloween party, it also serves the purpose of being a testing ground for a special party game of sorts. To put it simply, you all are going to be participating in a game tonight."

The girl beside the creature sighed, "I knew I shouldn't have come here…"

The room started to generate electricity as the volume of the guests slightly rose with hints of curiosity and shock. The trio the creature followed here, who took up the three spots on the couch, were talking among themselves about the situation. The vampire seemed more anxious about the party than he did prior, and he let the other two know about it.

"Guys, I knew this was a sketchy party to begin with, and this game… doesn't sound too hot. If that girl says something about the losers getting killed when they lose, I'm busting out of this place."

The knight, who sat in the middle of the three, chuckled, "Stop worrying so much! If anything goes wrong we can leave, no problem. But for now, I want to see what comes next." The masked boy on the other end of the couch stayed quiet as the hostess decided she was ready to continue on with her party introduction.

"Now that you all know the basics, I believe it's about time you all know what this game is all about," she ran her hand through her short blonde hair. "Everyone, take a look at your white invitation card and flip it over to the back. There you should see a number. Now, whatever your number is will determine who your partner is going forward."

"Partner?" One of the people sitting in a beanbag quickly asked, everyone else thinking the same thing. The volume of the room raised a tad louder before the hostess answered.

"Yes, you all will have one partner. But your partner isn't set in stone, you see. The number printed on your card will determine your partner. If you have an odd number, you must match up with another player with an odd number. The same goes for the ones with even numbers. To make it even, I made five of the invitations numbers even and five odd, so everyone should have a partner."

The three boys on the couch looked at each other with worried looks on their faces as they checked to see what number they were blessed with.

"My number is Twenty-four. What about you guys," the knight said, on edge.

"Agh, it doesn't even matter. One of us is going to have to split from the group," the vampire looked down at his invitation. "But I got seventy-six." The two then looked over at the quiet masked boy with concerned looks in their eyes.

"Fifteen," he said. The other boys looked down with dismay, knowing he was going to be left out by them.

The knight spoke encouragingly, "Don't worry about it, though. We still don't know the specifics of this party and this game. The partner thing could only be the first part of the game for all we know. I'm sure we'll come back together at some point."

The masked boy glanced over at the two then glanced back forward, "I'll be fine. I can handle myself."

Ninety-three. That was it's number, although the creature couldn't care less about the game it'd found itself participating in. It just wanted to find the perfect fix for its desires. Nothing more, nothing less. And it wasn't just the creature, everyone at the party had their reasons for being there, for better or for worse. This wasn't a normal Halloween party, after all.

The cat-eared girl that sat beside the monster was still interestless. Her ventures to the party were seemingly all for nothing as she peeked at her number. It was seventy-eight, an even number. She didn't reveal her number to the intimidating creature as she stayed quiet and waited for the next step from the hostess. The other guests in the room talked amongst themselves before quieting down once more to let the girl continue on with the game's rules.

"Before I let you all decide on who your partner will be, I suppose I should tell you what you all will be doing tonight. First, I will assign each pair a certain role for the game we'll be playing as the game uses roles in its way of determining who the winners are. There are four parts to this game, and after each part, two people will be eliminated from contention. Of course, this will only leave us with two people at the end who will then fight for victory. Any question so far?"

A girl with a droopy witch's hat on, sitting in a beanbag chair, asked a question to the girl, "Do we have to be in pairs, or can we just stay solo? I can't just partner with anyone, I don't even know anyone here."

The host quickly responded, "Although that is an understandable concern, everyone here is required to have a partner or you will not be able to participate."

After that statement, the eyes in the room started to wonder heavily, a good partner attempting to be scouted quickly.

The hostess continued, "You may now find a partner." Most of the room stood up anxiously and started asking one another what number they had until after a minute or so when the pairs were mostly complete.

The creature hadn't moved from the spot it'd been sitting, and before it knew it, the only person it could now be paired with came up to the table and took the seat where the cat-girl was previously sitting. They both looked at each other, then back towards the front of the room at the fireplace where the girl was still sitting, neither making an effort to communicate with the other.

"It seems the pairs are now complete. Now, give me a moment to write down the tasks for each group," she left the current room and then proceeded to come back a couple of minutes later with a couple of business-sized cards in her hand.

After giving each group one card, she spoke again, "These cards contain secret information, and in no way should you share these with any other group. I forbid you to. They contain the information needed for your group to proceed on to the next round. But, moving on means that one pair will have to be eliminated. That pair will be the last ones that are yet to finish their assigned task after everyone else already has. Now, start!"

Everyone in the room quickly examined their card with their partner. Some going into different rooms, and some talking to their partner about the strategy they'd use to win. This wasn't the case for the creature's group as they both sat, looking at the words that appeared on the card. They both soon realized this wasn't just a normal game once they got to the period.

[Successfully sabotage an enemy pair so that they are unable to complete their task in time. Use any means necessary.]