The Tome of Night Terror

Trigger warning: violence, mentions of Hell, and gruesome deaths.

The Bat Wing Society bookstores had many customers come and go, renting spellbooks to those who wanted to experiment and use them for whatever purpose they wanted. The lady of this particular Pondview store, Miss Foxglove, cautioned against using books that involved the use of dark arts, especially necromancy. She kept certain books like a book with the face of a blue demon on the cover locked up as a precaution. Miss Foxglove wanted to ensure that no one stole them at night or that the people who rented those would use them for ill intent. This was all put into place ever since a particular incident took place at the store one Halloween ago.

A kid named Irwin Doyle went into the store wanting to rent out a book known as the Tome of Night Terror. He asked Miss Foxglove about it and showed her the book with the face of a blue demon on the cover. As she handed him the book as he was about to pay for the rental she asked, "What do you want to use the Tome for, young man?" Irwin replied, "To summon the Night Terror to have an interesting Halloween."

The lady raised an eyebrow and warned while giving him the book back, "The Night Terror is a fickle spirit to command, boy. He could cause unspeakable mayhem on you or the town if you try to direct his power onto your enemies." Irwin replies, "Whatever, lady. Mind your own business." Irwin left as Miss Foxglove watched him leave. She knew that whatever the boy was going to do with that Tome was not going to end well.

That night, Irwin was in a cemetery, right by a mausoleum, as he lit some candles and opened the book. He invoked the incantation, "Antikva mondo de koŝmaroj! Venu al mi! Alvoku Noktan Teruron! Mi havas taskon por vi!"

A gust of wind came and blew out the candles in an instant. The nearby mausoleum rumbled as the inner door opened to reveal a bluish purple flame glowing from within. A blue hand came through and gripped the doorframe and what exited out was a blue demon clad in purple robes with three pairs of red eyes and a pair of horns on his bald head. Irwin noticed he was missing a right arm, as he then bellowed out as loud as he could. Bluish purple flames erupted from his mouth as the mausoleum crumbled and burned away until it formed a right arm made of stone and his flames. The demon bellowed out, "Night Terror has risen!"

The demonic Night Terror turned to face Irwin, who was surprised to see that the summoning spell actually worked. He floated over to the boy and bellowed, "Wherefore hast thee summoned me?" Irwin was surprised and intimidated by the demon before him, and he roared out, "Speak!"

"I need you to cause terror by raising the dead for me!" Irwin says before showing a picture of the three kids that tormented him repeatedly. He then notes, "There are these bullies who keep harassing me for my height and I need them to pay."

"Thee wouldst continueth to feedeth the beast of Nemesis?" Night Terror asked him. He narrowed his eyes and stared into Irwin before commanding, "Summoning the dead can beest done, but f'r a price. What art thee willing to giveth?"

Irwin proclaimed, "The souls of those tainted by evil! Now get to work, Terror!"

Night Terror cackled and then roared, "Thee shalt has't Death itself boweth to thy pow'r, up until the end of the witching hour!"

The demon then spewed out all the fire in his mouth, which landed in the graves within the cemetery, bringing up zombies within that had bluish purple eyes to them. Night Terror raised his right arm made of stone and pointed out to the town, directing the zombies to where they needed to go.

The zombies wreaked havoc on the way to the houses of the three boys Irwin wanted to be rid of, causing people to scream and run into oncoming traffic. Miss Foxglove could only watch in horror as the zombies caused people's demise due to being obstacles in their quest to find Irwin's targets.

Night Terror hovered over the town, and saw the zombies nab the first boy, Pete Long, out of his house and bit him turning him into a zombie himself.

The second boy, Luis Felix, was thrown out of a window when the zombies got past his folks. He was lucky that he landed in his family's pool but was taken by the zombies despite evading death.

Then there was Gary Snyder, the leader of the three, who was out walking back from getting some food at a nearby fast food place when the zombies swarmed him too. He tried to run, but he ran into the blue demon, who snatched him up with the stone arm.

Night Terror gathered the three right by a middle school. One zombified, and the other two looking roughed up. Night Terror cackled at the intimidated boys and bellowed, "Ahhh, appetizers." He touched Pete with the stone arm, causing his soul to leave his body which then disintegrated into the ground below. "The souls of those tainted by evil," he said.

Gary retorted, "Tainted by evil?! Who told you that, bozo?!"

Night Terror then looked at the boy and told him, "Should it matter?"

The demon then was about to touch Gary with his left arm, but then he grabbed Luis, causing him to look at the monster that morphed into a giant octopus with many tendrils all around him and Luis was in that pool but deeper. This caused the boy to literally die of fright, causing his ghost to leave his body.

Night Terror then bellows, "The most wondrous f'r lasteth, thy doom hast been cast." He grabs Gary and the remains of the other two with telekinesis before flying back over to Irwin dropping them to his feet, much to his horror.

Irwin held back from vomiting as Night Terror appeared between him and the bullies. Gary recognized Irwin and retorted, "You! You did this?!"

Irwin then told Night Terror, "I wanted them roughed up, not dead!"

Night Terror then looked at Irwin and told him, "Should it matter?"

The demon grabbed Irwin with the left arm and retorted, "Desp'ration breeds rash decisions. Souls’ taint'd by evil belongeth in Hell, especially those who is't useth the pow'r of Death on one's enemies. And so, the bargain shalt beest completeth."

The clock tolls at four in the early morning and the hole in the ground of where the mausoleum stood glowed a bluish purple. It then erupted with a pillar of flames which sucked the zombies towards the cemetery, back from whence they came.

Night Terror then lifted his right stone arm to telekinetically lift Gary and the remains of Pete and Luis into the air before proclaiming with bluish flames in his mouth, "So tolls the endeth of the witching hour, and with it, comes the price of using Death's pow'r!"

Irwin and Gary screamed as they and the remains were thrown into the flaming pit below by the blue demon. He followed after them as his right arm came off his body and formed into debris to close off the pillar of flames and the hole in the mausoleum grounds.

Miss Foxglove walked over to grab the Tome of Night Terror that was left behind at the ruined cemetery. She knew this particular book was too dangerous for people to rent from the store, so she had to put that and other spellbooks deemed too dangerous for use on a shelf that had a lock to it and a tracking spell put onto them. Miss Foxglove imposed a rule in the store that ensured people who rented certain books to be upfront about the intention of their use of the spellbooks. She did this to keep people from using or even breaking into the store at night to steal one of these books for selfish reasons.

Miss Foxglove did this to serve as a reminder of the mayhem levied on the town of Pondview by one kid who dared to invoke the Terror that was named Night.