The Dance of Death

The Dance of Death

It was the night of the party as I got my suit on and walked out of my apartment. The wedding had happened yesterday and for some odd reason they had the party the day after. I don’t know why but I didn’t care. I hopped in the car and drove off to the spot. 

When I got there I saw my girlfriend, the newlyweds, and a bunch of other people. My friend, Tony, ran up to me.

“Hey Dude, whats poppin’?”

“Good. what about you?”

“Eh, still haven't found a girl.”

“I thought you were dating sarah?”

“Nah, she was WAYYYY too picky about everything.”

“Sorry to hear that man.”

“Hey Ethan, at least i’m happy for you.”

“Thanks Tony.” 

“Hey Ollie! Come here!” My girlfriend Sophia called. I walked over to her and she got on the dance floor.

“Care to take a dance?”

“I've always been better at dancing.”

“Pfffff. Think what you want to, But you're wrong.”

“Whatever.” I jumped onto the dance floor and then the newly weds signalled everyone to come on the dance floor. We were all just jumping to the djs music when Karen, the newly wed wife, called to the dj.

“Play something slow, like a soothing song to slow dance to.”

“You got it boss girl.” The dj said as he changed it to something slow. I started slow dancing with Sophia and I saw a girl I had never seen before. She walked up to another guy and he asked her to dance. I shrugged and continued dancing with Sophia.

“You look worried. Why?” 

“Dunno. Saw a girl I have never seen before and for some reason she just gave me the wrong vibe.” Then the lights cut out. The music stopped. And I heard metal on metal. Grinding. The lights came back on and there was the guy who was dancing with the suspicious lady, dead. 

I ran to his body to investigate. I wasn’t an investigator or anything but always wanted to be and watched a bunch of shows about it. I Inspected the wounds. There were five long holes stabbed through him. He moved a bit and he spit blood out of his mouth.

“Are you ok?” Are you with me?” I asked as he just looked at me. His mouth opened very wide and I backed up from where I was squatting. A long, cylindrical item lifted from his mouth as I saw long, black rows of teeth. I shuttered as I went to Sophia. The item fell out of his mouth as he turned to dusk. 

I looked at the cylindrical item and opened the top. It looked like some sort of can? When I did these beetles seemed to fly out and  form into a… a human? I blinked twice as they turned into the strange girl I saw earlier. She laughed and circled around the group of us people.

“Well well well. Looks as if my henchmen killed the right person after all. 

“Who are you?!” someone yelled at her.

“Your worst nightmare. Now, Thank you Olliver for freeing me. I'll make sure your death is rather quick.” 

She chuckled as she came up to me and pushed me on the ground. She got a sickle from who knows where and stabbed it in my leg. I screamed in pain as she flung me across the room. My hand got stabbed into a metal hook in the wall and she laughed.

“I'll finish you all later.” she said as she left in a trail of bugs. Sophia ran to me and tried to help me down.

“No stop!” I cried as she backed away. “If you pull me down it'll kill me!” I screamed in pain as I pulled my hand out of the metal hook and landed on the floor. Someone brought medicine and poured it all over my hand. I flexed my hand and looked it over.

“Well that's gonna leave a scar.” I said as I got up and ran to the door. Outside were two people with giant people with giant hammers. They guarded the door.

“We can't leave through the front door. We gotta find a way out.” I said as everyone started feeling around the walls for some secret. A guy named Jim yelled from across the room.

There's a hole here! We can get out!” But the guards heard the ruckus and busted in. We all ran for the hole and jumped in. One guy jumped in but he got stuck. 

“Come on! We gotta help him!” but it was too late. His corpse flew through the hole like a bullet when he got smashed by one of the hammers. We didn’t want to look so we kept on moving through what looked like a cave. 

We moved as fast as we could to get to the end of the cave. It started getting darker and darker, and the ceiling was getting lower and lower.

“I found a hatch!” someone called from up ahead. We all exited into the snowing night. As we kept walking we found a house.

“Let's take refuge in here tonight.” Tony said and we all walked in the house. The cold air vanished as we sat down inside the little two story building. There was fire wood and we went to the fireplace and started one up. There was food that surprisingly not expired and so we ate some.

“I don’t remember seeing this place when we booked the wedding hall for our wedding.” Sarah, the newly wed said.

“I don’t either.” said Luke, the new husband of Sarah.

“Me and Tony always used to hike over here, yet I've never seen this house before.” I looked around the room as I said the words. 

That's because you haven’t

I felt the words as much as I heard them. I could feel an icy grasp rap around my neck as I shivered.

“Did anyone else hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“I heard it,” Sophia looked me dead in the eye, “We gotta go.” As soon as the words left her mouth a metal bar flew across the room and jammed right into the door of the house. We ran to the door and tried to pull it out but it did no good.

All the little beetles flew across the room and formed one person. She laughed as she circled us. People started whimpering like little dogs because they were scared. I looked at the poor people with no mercy. I pulled out my sickle and stabbed someone in the leg and dragged them away.

Wait a second. I thought to myself, I just… I just saw what she saw. I was in her head. I shook my head to see the lady was gone and that guy named Jim was taken away. 

“NO!” I yelled as I ran down the hallway. Her laughing was still ringing through my mind.

“Ollie! Wait!” I heard Sophia yell at me as she started chasing after me.

“Don’t leave me here!” Tony called after and ran too. I turned back to see the others waiting. Sarah, Luke, Duke, Zella, Katie, and Fred all stayed behind. I saw Fred look around and shake his head. Then he started running after us.

I kept running through the dark hallway. It seemed as if I had been running for ages. I finally hit a door at the end of the hallway and everyone bumped into me.

“Where… where are we?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” I said as I opened the door. Sitting there on a rocking chair was an old woman. Lighting flashed outside and I barely got a glimpse of her face. Her head slowly turned around and I saw that she was combing something. Her face was old, moldy, and kind of looked like a porcelain doll. 

The rocking chair flung around and we saw she was combing Jim's hair, except Jim wasn’t Jim. He was a dried husk, like a snake after shedding. His skin was pale as if all the blood had been sucked out of his body. And his eyes. I looked away as soon as I saw them. They were black, just black and all black.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” The doll woman asked. 

“Not really.” Fred said

“Not at all to be exact.” Tony replied. The woman's face just was still. She was smiling. I saw a lonely tear roll down the porcelain face as I looked around for something to use. I saw an axe on the wall and I ran to get it. 

Beetles flew all around me as I reached for the axe. An arm out of nowhere grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. It was now raining outside and in the noise I could barely hear anyone. The girl appeared from where the arm and hand was grabbing me.

“Not so fast boy.” She called. I felt all sandy inside as I looked at my fingers. One by one my fingers were disintegrating to dust. I saw a water droplet hit the lady's dress and sizzle. She winced in pain. Then I had an idea.

“OPEN THE WINDOWS!”

“WHAT?”

“THE WINDOWS!” I called again. Tony ran for the window and rain spewed in. the lady screamed in pain and left in a cluster of beetles. I looked at my hand. One of my fingers was completely gone and the other one very close. I breathed hard as I held my hand.

“Are you ok?” Sophia ran to me and looked at my hand. She looked away at the weird looking fingers.

“It's gonna be hard to play games with me with those hands.”

“If we ever get to play games again.” I said to Tony. I picked up the axe and looked behind me. The doll lady. I forgot about her. 

I slammed the axe head into her head and the porcelain broke into a million pieces. I saw a blue light release from her head.

Thank you, I am now free from her grasp.

I looked as the body crumbled into dust and a skull emerged. It had a crystal inside of it and I pulled it out. We walked out of the room and back down the really long hallway. 

When we got to the end we saw the others, kinda. I saw their shedded skin and their black eyes. Beetles started flying everywhere around the room forming a lady again. She laughed and grabbed me by the neck and threw me against the wall. Everything went black.

I woke up in darkness. I rubbed my head and looked around. I saw people in the distance and I stood up and ran to them. When I got to the people I saw Jeff, my abusive step dad, beating my mom. 

“No stop!” I screamed as I ran at him. They faded into dust. Then I saw Jeff circling me, saying the same words he used to say.

“You're nothing. You're not smart. You're worthless. You minus well go die.” he said as he switched me, again again and again. Then, he was gone, but his words still rang through my ears. I saw a gun in front of me, and I picked it up.

“I'm nothing. Im stupid. I'm worthless. I will die.” I said as I put the gun to my head. I was pulling the trigger slowly when I heard a familiar voice. It was… it was my own. It was speaking.

“I’m something. I'm smart. I'm worth something. I will not die, and I won't let my friends die.” I quaked as I heard those words spew from myself. I put the gun down and heard breathing behind me. I wiped around to see an old man who looked like a wizard.

“Hello Tomas.”

“I’m Olliver.”

“Well it's Olliver now but Jeff legally changed your name to Olliver because it was a “worthless” name. What an idiot.”

“So, I'm Tomas?” 

“Yeah.”

“OK. Why are you here. I need to get back and help my friends.”

“Because, Tomas Olliver, you have something very important.”

“Which is?”

“That stone.” He pointed to the little glowing crystal in my hand. I didn’t even realize it was there before.

“Why?”

“You want to kill that witch, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then use that stone.”

“I thought it was a crystal.”

“Stone crystal yada yada same thing no one cares.”

“Ok? But how do I use it?”

“Oh Tomas Olliver, you have something special in you.”

“Why?” 

“Dunno, He just chose you.”

“Who did?”

“Who do you think?”

“The maker?”

“I guess.”

“You're very bland by the way.”

“I know. Anyways, eat that stone crystal yada yada.”

“You want me to eat it.”

“That's what I said, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok then. I'll make it easier for you to eat.” He turned the sharp edged crystal into a thin circle looking thing.

“Thanks?”

“Anytime. Oh and one more thing. t=That thing makes you teleport.”

“Wait, what did you say?”

“Bye!” he called as he walked through a portal and left me in darkness. I looked at the pull looking stone and the gun in my hand. I swallowed the stone crystal yada yada and looked around. 

There wasn't much to look at but I had an idea. I shot a bullet into the sky and the blackness broke. 

I woke up with a jerk. I looked in my hand to see a gun and in the other the pill like stone crystal. I swallowed it and looked up. I saw Sophia's face in front of mine. A giant beetle swarm flew everywhere and I saw Fred and Tony on the other wall, blood flowing from their heads. 

Sophia was injured also. She helped me up and limped against the wall. I looked at the giant beetle swarm and heard the witch's voice.

“You can’t kill me, you know that right.” She said. Her human woman form pushed me to the ground again and I shot.

“Those human weapons do nothing against me.”

“Wasn't aiming for you.” I said as the glass window behind her shattered and rain and cold air flowed in.

“You stupid human!” she yelled at me as she started to freeze. She pulled out her sickle

 and tried to hit me with it, but I shot it out of her hand.

“Even if you freeze me. I won't die! I will just break the ice and kill you and your family!”

“I don't have a family anymore.” I said as I shot another window. She screamed in pain as her body froze up. I saw Fred and Tony wake up as the house started crumbling.

“We gotta leave.” Tony said and we all limped out. The two giants with hammers were turned into dust and their skulls on the ground piece of wood fell and were about to hit us when I teleported us out of the way.

“How did you do that?”

“Dunno.” Tony grabbed one of the skulls and threw it up like a baseball.

“Take this!” He said as he threw it at the frozen body. The body crumpled into a pile of dead beetles and dust as the house fell apart. We took one last look at the house and just walked away.

    The End