Chapter 3: A Pumpkin’s Soul – Part Three – The Finale
The trio was soon reunited, all of them sitting on the couch together again as a fifteen-minute break was being held before the round started. Last round, the hostess had managed to be fairly vague in explaining the rules to the guests and was waiting until the break ended to tell the people the rules and who'd end up being on their team this time around. Some guests were in the room over eating a couple of snacks and others were just relaxing, each expecting the unexpected to happen after the occurrences of the first round.
"So, how'd your task go with the pumpkin guy over there?" The vampires asked. "He looks pretty intimidating."
"We passed, so I suppose it was fine."
"Ah, ambiguous as always. And, of course, we ended up completing our task as well. But what's the deal with the sabotager? We all have to be on guard for the next round whether we're on the same team or not," the knight explained. Neither of the two responded. They sat thinking up the possibilities of the next part of the party.
Fifteen minutes later, the hostess came back into the room along with the rest of the remaining contestants, the eliminated guests not making an appearance.
She was anxious to start the next round as she got straight to the point, "The next part of this party of games will not be a challenge to be exact, but a competition. This will be a showcase of the best costumes! This is a Halloween party, after all."
The creature sat through the round wondering when it'd be over. It was such a disinteresting subject to the creature, it didn't know what to do. But the other guests at the party didn't have the same mindset. Some were nervous, and others confident in their Halloween attire. It was much to the distaste of the creature.
As the hostess went on and on, the round quickly came to an end, not nearly as long as the first. It seemed that all she wanted to do was quickly end the party at first, but that definitely wasn't the case. The next thing the partygoers knew, two more people were eliminated from the game. It was another boy and girl, and the reason for elimination was their costumes. The boy was simply wearing a skeleton bodysuit and the girl a school uniform. After the guests had each cast a vote on the worst costume, they were the ones chosen. They lightly contested their loss, but the hostess always had a counter as she told them the invitations had told them to wear the best costume possible. Just like that, now there were six.
Now, once the two newest defeated contestants decided they wanted to join the other two in the other room, the night quickly continued.
"Wait, so three people are going to be eliminated this round?" The witch asked.
"Yes, they are. This will be a three versus three battle to stay in the game. Exciting, isn't it? And all you have to do is not lose!" The hostess joked. "The objective is simple, whichever group finds the culprit first wins…"
The guests looked around at each other in confusion as the knight spoke up, "What do you mean, hostess?"
"I know you all won't believe me or think I'm crazy, but I will soon parish. All I ask is that you find the culprit, and destroy it, whoever it ends up being-" She was interrupted in an instant as the lights of the room started flickering just like strobe lights, catching everyone off-guard. A couple of seconds of silence went by with the stunned looks of the guests filling the room.
The creature watched as the lights completely turned off, and the loud gasp reverberated throughout the room. When the lights turned back on, all eyes were on the hostess as she laid motionless on her side in front of the still-lit fireplace.
The witch, who'd been the partner of the cat-girl the first round, was sitting next to her on the beanbag chair as she spoke, thinking she figured out the scenario. "I get it, it's a murder mystery type thing," she stood up and walked up to the hostess' body.
The creature watched as the witch picked up a piece of paper from the hostess' grasping hand, "It says: 'T1: Vampire, Mask, and Witch.' And on the other side: 'T2: Knight, Cat, and Pumpkin.'"
"Oh, those must be the teams," the vampire noticed.
"You must be right," the witch responded. "That's not all that's on here, though. There is a sentence under the teams as well. It says: 'There is a parasite hiding amongst one of the people in this room. You must all work together to find the culprit and end them for good. If this ends up being the last round of the party before I go, I was only able to narrow the suspects down to six. It is up to you all now, and this isn't just a game of life and death, It's a game of Heaven or Hell.'" The guests weren't sure how to respond to the hostess's ending message. They didn't know what to think and didn't even know the rules, They were speechless.
"There's a parasite in this room? What does she mean by that?" The witch wondered.
The vampire responded, "I believe she wants us to find the one who murdered her, but I don't understand the team concept if that's the case. Is there a murderer on each team?"
The masked boy was speculating on the situation, and couldn't find a reasonable solution for the vampire's theory. This couldn't have been a murder by one of the guests here, especially not two. The boy watched the others as the lights flickered. None of them moved from their seats while the events took place, so it couldn't have been someone in this room. But, the lights weren't off long enough for any of the eliminated guests to come in and kill her, then make their way back out of the room, either. The boy stayed silent while the other guests discussed the matter. He couldn't find a reasonable explanation for the situation. That's when he decided to go up to the hostess herself.
Everyone watched as he looked closely over the girl, and he noticed that she was being too well versed in acting. He knew what had happened before he checked, but it was true. The hostess wasn't just acting dead, she was actually dead.
The boy took his fingers off of the girl's wrist and then opened her closed eyelids, looking into her lifeless, drab eyes. He exhaled as he looked her over once more. There were no signs of any physical damage to her body, so it must've been some kind of poison of sorts, or so the boy thought.
"Did you find anything?" The knight asked.
"She's not alive anymore. Dead, in fact," he slid his fingers through his hair. "This wasn't a normal party from the start." The guests' hearts stopped when they heard the revelation from the masked boy.
After a couple more minutes of doubt, a few others went up to the hostess to confirm she was dead. Anxiety was set in stone in the room now, any one of the six could be the murderer at this point. Some of the people even tried escaping the home and calling the police, but either attempt was a failure. Every door and window leading to the outside world was unopenable and unbreakable. Along with that, everyone's phone had no service and were all incapable of informing anyone of their situation.
As the time slowly passed, everyone still in the room stayed in groups, except for the creature. The trio of boys along with the female duo left the creature alone, marking it as the most suspicious prospect.
"But, the team part of the game, how does that factor in? If you're saying no one in here could have possibly killed her, then why is she dead!" The vampire said as he was in conversation with the usually quiet masked boy.
"In her dying wishes, she said something about all of us working together. And, by the sounds of it, she already knew she was going to die. If I had to guess, the teams were a hint for us. I believe the main goal of this party was to track down a killer and capture them. That's why it was an invite-only party, so she could figure out one-by-one who the killer was among us."
"But, by that logic, that would make it seem all ten of us were suspects.���
"Yes, we were all invited because we were suspects."
The knight made his thoughts heard, "This is crazy. I didn't even know there was a murderer in this town, to begin with. And me being on the suspect list really hurts my pride, you know?"
The masked boy ignored the knight's comment and continued, "So going back to the teams, I believe that the hostess had two main suspects in mind, and decided to put them on different teams." He lowered his already quiet voice as he continued, "If my statement is correct, that'd mean that the killer is competitive. Don't mention this fact to anyone else here, especially you, vampire."
The vampire rolled his eyes, "Yeah, okay. So, you have any main suspects? What about that pumpkin guy?"
"I wouldn't say I have any absolute suspects so far. And the pumpkin guy is a strange one for sure."
As the three were talking secretly in their small bubble on the couch, they weren't completely unheard. The creature could hear every word they spoke. It could even feel the smallest of vibrations their heartbeats made. This monster wasn't a human, after all, it could do many things typical humans couldn't. But, the creature wasn't interested in demonstrating its power on the human realm unless it meant getting what it wanted, and now, it wanted to end everyone. Coming into the house wasn't even a part of the creature's plan in the first place as it went with the flow of the chilly night, then ending up in a wasteful situation. Now, it was time. Now, with the creature's pent up patience the party's foolishly wasted, it now made the lives of the guests even more dreadful.
Beaming orange light exploded from out of the creature's head, the stream of supernatural light heading straight for the deceased hostess. But after a couple of seconds, the beam abruptly came to an end as the creature's head went back to normal, the light vanishing. The guests, on the other hand, had no reaction to the occurrence, as they couldn't physically see it on earth. Within the small period of time, the creature had instantaneously entered the soul realm. This was for one purpose only, though. The murder of the hostess the creature had witnessed wasn't a normal murder, this was a cursed murder. This is what the hostess was trying to figure out, and why the party was being held in the first place. And right as the creature came back to the human world, it knew who the murderer was. It could feel it. The prize it had been waiting for all night was about to be revealed.
Right when the creature entered the spirit realm, the culprit could tell right away it'd been spotted. But, even with its cover blown, the murderer still kept calm. It was only a matter of time before the creature got was it'd been waiting to receive all night. After all, the killer wasn't a human either.
The killer – attempting to look non-threatening – eyes sunk when it met with the eyes of the creature. It knew right when the creature entered the spirit realm that it didn't stand a chance. The pumpkin creature was too much of a force of nature and wasn't just any ordinary creature. When the two made eye contact, it knew its time was only temporary at that point, so it attempted to ease its way out of the situation. But, the creature had other plans. Savory plans.
The cat-eared girl quickly jumped out of the beanbag chair while in conversation with the which and shouted, "It's him! It's the pumpkin guy over there. I know it's him! I know!" She pointed at the creature, a fearful look taking over her face.
"Huh, what? How do you know?!" The witch asked, immensely surprised with the outburst.
"I know it's him. I-I watched him sabotage that other group! I didn't want to say anything before, because I was afraid he'd try to do the same thing to me later," the girl had her hands on her face with tears running down her cheeks.
The witch looked at the creature with an irk on her face, "Is that true? Is it?"
The eyes of the entire room looked to the creature as it stared back, giving no answer to the girl.
The cat-girl sat back down on the beanbag with the witch comforting her the best she could as the knight decided to voice his opinion, "No response? That means he's guilty, right? So does he admit it?"
The vampire spoke as well, "No response very well mean he's liable… But, what does that mean for us now?"
The room was silent for a couple of seconds before the masked boy stood up from the couch and walked slowly towards the creature, "Knight, why were you so eager to believe the cat's statement?"
The knight looked stunned at his comment and responded, "Well, it has to be someone, right? And he is the most suspicious one. Besides, I have no reason not to believe her. C'mon, you're gonna take that stranger's side over your own pal's?"
The boy looked back over at the cat-girl, "I'm not sure what you've seen at this party tonight, but the pumpkin-man couldn't have been the one to sabotage that group. He was sitting right there the entire time. So, why would you make such a bizarre statement?"
The girl kept sobbing as the knight spoke again, "So you're telling me you saw him in this room the entire hour that challenge was going on? Because I thought everyone's tasks had to be outside of this room."
The boy looked over at the creature and thought for a second before speaking, "Well, no, I wasn't in here the entire time."
"See! Unless anyone else can vouch for him being in here the entire time, then he's the culprit."
The creature could tell by the attitude of the killer it was on its last leg. Its only hope now was to deceive the other people in the room, to sway them in its favor. But the creature was fairly lucky, having the boy protest his innocence like this. It gave the creature much needed time for its soul energy to recharge. The time it's been since its last meal had been a while, so slow recharging was necessary at this point. As the creature was nearing one-hundred percent, the next sentence said solidified the creature's conjecture.
The masked boy continued, "But he couldn't have been the one to sabotage because…"
"Because why?" The knight asked.
"Because… I… I think you were… correct. It is him."
After the boy had gotten done with that sentence, the creature got up from its seat for the first time all night and walked up to the fireplace, the flames of the fire the brightest they'd been all night. It then picked up the candle from the spot above the fireplace and put it right in front of its carved mouth. The others then watched as the flames of the underworld blew out from the creature's mouth, giving the candle an extravagant purple color to its wick. They couldn't believe what they'd just seen. The observation of the creature using its powers also temporarily broke the curse from the house. The creature wasn't stupid, it knew how to deal with its prey. All you have to do is bait them out, then attack. Simple.
The creature watched as the imposter's face went white, it knew its plan was over. Now, it had nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. This was the Pumpkin Soul's territory now.
The aroma of the newly-lit candle was slowly driving the killer mad as the aroma sunk deeper and deeper into the killer with every breath it took. A few seconds after the candle's scent had gotten around the room for everyone to smell, everyone was passed out on the ground. The only two left standing were the creature and the imposter, or in other words, the knight.
With the knight noticing all of its dolls were of no use anymore and having no options left, he quickly charged towards the creature hoping to catch it off-guard. When the knight got within a couple of finger lengths away, it instantaneously dropped the candle and grabbed the neck of the knight, pulling him up in the air with his feet no longer touching the ground. The knight then struggled, waving his arms and legs aimlessly but to no avail. The creature watched as the knight had its final moments in this world.
With his final breaths, the knight muttered in an attempt to save his own life, "Please, let me live. Us, we're one and the same. We… could rule the human realm together…"
The body of the knight was soon drained as the head of the creature was fully lit. The creature's mouth expanded to an impossible size as it sucked the soul out from within the knight. The knight's limp body was soon tossed to the ground, now free from the cursed soul inhabiting him. The creature had finally managed to satisfy its desire, and the curse was now broken.
It was a soul, a cursed soul that the creature was attracted to. The entire reason for showing up at the house in the first place was because of the darkness and stench of the soul radiating from the knight as the trio walked past not too many hours ago. But the creature didn't care about the humans or their horrendous social gatherings, it just wanted the treat of savoring a lost soul.
The creature looked down at the candle that it'd dropped on the ground, it had caught onto a pumpkin rug that had been lying in the middle of the room, then spread to the Halloween decor near the fireplace. The creature had no intention of stopping it, though. As the supernatural flames created by the creature himself spread further across the room, with the guests still unconscious, the creature took one last look around before heading towards the door to the outside.
As it opened the door, it heard a faint voice and looked back, "I-I didn't mean what I said, really. I couldn't control my actions for a moment…" From the ground, the masked boy spoke hazily, "I knew… you were innocent."
The creature slowly walked over to the strained masked boy through the flames. It crouched down in front of the boy and slowly put its hand on his mask, looking into his eyes. It then got back up and walked towards the door, the boy lost for words.
As the creature had a foot out the door, the boy spoke with all the energy he had left, "I'm glad you were my partner." The creature looked back at the boy for an instant before vanishing in the dark of the night. The masked boy fell unconscious soon after.
The creature didn't care what it ended up doing or how it ended up doing it. All it cared about was the reward. The prize of a sweet and savory soul was irresistible to the creature. That's all it cared about. Nothing else in the human nor the soul world would change its mind. Whether it's an easy task or difficult, the Pumpkin Soul will always be there to dispose of the lost souls who haunt the human realm. The creature may not have a heart or feelings, but it sure did have a soul. And with a soul, comes endless possibilities.
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