The longest night

They could hear the screams and shouts of excitement just above the festivity appropriate songs of the many parties taking place as they made their way deeper into the Blood hills forest. The joy in the voices of the many people staying on campus grounds partying and pulling pranks amongst one another contrasting greatly with the tense silence that had befallen them, it made David remorseful about having to drag his friends away from the pleasantries of ignorance and normality they had stripped him away from. 

Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve as the most appropriate name as David preferred to call it, and the two following days of November, had always been a festivity with dark origins. The first recordings of the celebration stating it had a deep connection with that of human death and the boundary between worlds blurring for one singular period of time, as well as rituals and deals made with these spirits during this time. Yet were many would say this to be the true origin of the celebration, he was painfully aware of the date’s implications and importance.

The black journal forever in his hold grew heavy in his arms, the lingering essence of the abyss feeding the obscure things that lay within. Ever since coming to Churchwood have the incidents with the abyss and its terrible inhabitants grown in number, with their attempts at secrecy becoming all the more impossible with each one. 

The dark history and upbringing of the now college grounds have allowed for large cracks to appear in the walls keeping both worlds forever apart, creating an efficient bridge between the two. And now that the day in which the boundary falters is but a few moments away from them, they can only imagine what sort of horrors will manage to cross that border.

“Its almost time…” Ash said, pulling his jacket closer to him as the air around them grew unnaturally cold. “and we are getting close.”

At those words everybody tensed, and from the corner of his eye, David could see John raise his nailed bat in anticipation, the many weapons stashed on his large backpack clanging loudly at the sudden movement. 

Out of everyone in their group, David couldn’t help but notice that he was the most normal one in the sense that he never once had an experience with that which exists beyond the veil of reality, yet that lack of full understanding of what lays beyond was what made him the most reliable person to be with when dealing with them. Because no one else was crazy enough to face literal gods with nothing more than a sharp tongue and a polished piece of wood.

The bag of weapons fell to the damp and cold ground with a wet thump, the contents within jangling loudly across the eerily silent forest. “I guess here is as good a place as any. Lets set up and take turns on lookout, tonight is going to be a long one.”

Gazing at the dark path leading into the heart of the cursed forest, a sudden gust of wind made its way to them, their flashlights flickering rapidly before giving out and leaving them with nothing more than the moonlight to keep them from the dark. In that moment the world seemed to still for them, the sound of the forest and the many animals and critters still about be cut short as if pausing a recording, and even the distant music and excited shouts from those partying in the town below became drowned in the deafening silence. 

The terrible atmosphere that had befallen them felt as if something invisible grabbed at their hearts, tentatively squeezing them yet never truly crushing them, but only one of them could fully afford to comprehend the extension of this darkness reaching out. 

Tightening his hold in the book, free hand hovering readily over the section divider solely dedicated to the many spells he had studied, his eyes never once left the path leading further into the forest, weary of every shadow his mind swore lurked just outside his field of vision. It wasn’t until their torches started working again and noise slowly crept back in that David noted how his chest had stilled, his heartbeat almost inexistent after being deprived from oxygen for so long.

“Yeah… I think this is as far as we should go.” He said through a shaky breath that was barely audible to his friends. 

David could feel it, thousand eyes watching them with amusement and sadistic pleasure as midnight grew near, all of them eager to crush their attempts to ensure their imprisonment beyond reality. And with the things they have uncovered of the cursed lands tainted with darkness and evil, part of him feared that this would be the night where they’d finally break free of their chains. 

“Get a fire started,” pulling out seven small flat rocks from his pocket, he tossed them to the ground, the peculiar runes on the glistening in the pale moonlight ethereally. “and whatever you do, don’t let it die. Last thing we want is to get caught in the dark.”

And just like clockwork, all of them did what they knew was their strengths. Be it carving out more blank stones with runes for David to consecrate, sharpening the various dull silver blades that have become an extension of themselves the moment they are in their grasp, or ensuring the totems were still in place, reading themselves to face the lesser horrors that have crawled out of the primal sea of darkness was as natural as breathing. 

By time the alarm clock in their phones rang in unison signaling the start of the 31st day of October, everyone ran back to the newly made campfire, neither one of them failing to get a hold of the various blades brought with them safe for David, who seemed contempt with holding nothing more than just his journal. 

John, Clive, Ash, and David could all feel it in that moment regardless of their affinity to sense the things beyond their terrene perception, that familiar sensation of being dropped from a high altitude and watching how the ground became closer with every passing second brought upon by the crushing feeling of insignificance and hopelessness. Never had it felt so strong and overwhelming as it did in that moment, that they believed that death itself stood before them, not as cause, but as guide to the next life. 

A terrible howl resounded across Bloods hills, a sickening amalgamation of human and animal cries of pain, just barely hiding a third cry of something sinister, feral and cruel underneath, before a chorus of similar howls and screams filled the air. 

Each shadow became possessed by the terrible influence of the darkness beyond, gaining life as they strode alongside the nameless monsters the fester and grow in the abyss. Rows of razor sharp fangs, twisted and sickly elongated claws, and dead black eyes glistening like fireflies under the dim light as they made their way to them, their towering figures moving, their thin legs appearing to almost float across the land, ever closer to the town below. 

Not a single one of them seemed to notice the group watching horror as they marched onwards, nor seemed to care in the slightest of their presence before them, because not even the beasts closest to them made an attempt at striking them down. Not even when the tall pale humanoid creature without a face halted at the edge of the salt circle, watching them through the dark scars that covered is head.

The sea of nightmarish creatures no mind, regardless of how twisted it may be, could conceive was more than anything they’d seen in their entire life facing the void, far too much to not consider that perhaps what they were witnessing in that moment was the beginning of the end. Churchwood had been a synonym to the bizarre, the occult and that unwavering fear of insignificance in the eyes of the universe, but never that they once expected that it too should be seen as the cradle of all evil. 

Looking back at his friends, David could see they were as pale as a snow, cold drops of sweat running down their brows, and even the ever cocky and valiant John seemed frozen in place at the sight, his hold on the nailed bat faltering, and much like it had been for him in the last, their minds only showed visons of ruin and chaos. Fear had completely taken over their bodies.

“Guys…?” the words came more like whisper, and already the feeling of being small slowly crept back to him at the possibility of being alone again. Thankfully it seemed that had been enough to stir them from their paralyzing fear, all three pair if eyes landing on him and welling up with trust and a sliver of confidence despite the odds they were against. 

Still dazed with that existential dread, David’s only response was nothing more than a simple nod from each one and raised weapons. Never in life had a gesture so simple would have felt so reassuring and heartwarming than those at the moment.

And whether it was true bravery or a mere faux cause by dread and loss of sanity in the face of horrors unspoken, neither really cared as they stood their ground unfazed by them. 

Reaching out a hand to the people he trusted, David quickly felt the cold sharp steel begin to cut his palm. The pain was nothing he had not experienced before every time Halloween came by, yet that stinging sensation of his flesh sealing itself back to normal was always a bother each and every time. 

As a child of light, his life has always revolved in being an opposition to the void, a natural nemesis, which would make even a drip of his blood act as a lure to even the great ancient of existence. 

All Hallows' eve has always been a difficult day for them, even with the years of experience amassed, but as they see the swarm of beasts rush towards them, fueled by nothing more than ravenous desire to devour and rip David apart as their natural nemesis, they all knew that this particular Halloween night would be the longest one yet.