Don't Be so Scared

The vampires left. They were now running the streets looking for prey.

The whole city was taken over by people morphed into costumes.

Johnnie was at the head of the group of vampires, still just angry at the skeleton who had tried to tell her what to do.

She planned on taking that out on her food.

***

Catwoman sat at the Skeleton King’s side caressing his skull, whispering to him.

He was sitting up on the drum riser looking at the crowd that he had found a way to become the leader of.

The mummy made some sound that displeased the King.

“Mummy! Go somewhere else!” He demanded turning to the mummy who was sitting in the same place he had been the whole time.

The mummy groaned a response that no one understood and hobbled away.

“We should have the superheroes killed.” She whispered to him. “They keep protecting the human’s and that’s just no good.”

“You know who would do a good job of that?” The Skeleton King said thinking back to a different woman. “The Vampires. They follow that woman well and she is vicious, she would do great as a contract killer.”

Catwoman saw the look in his eyes when he said that and she didn’t like it.

***

Gabe had just finished explaining what he saw going on out there.

“Dude how are we really supposed to believe that.” Suarez said skeptically.

Right after the words escaped his lips the door opened again and this time Butcher the mummy stumbled in.

“Shit.”

“Fuck.”

And a vast array of other swears flew from his bandmates’ mouths.

“Believe me now?!” He shouted and tried to think of some way to get rid of Butcher without permanently damaging him.

Butcher approached the crowd with intent. He planned on sucking their life force from them to regain some life for himself.

“How the hell do you stop a mummy?!” Nate screamed and moved closer to the wall behind him.

“Like any of us fuckin’ know!” Vicky screamed.

That’s when Gabe noticed Jobra’s staff leaning up against the wall, but to get to it he’d have to move toward the mummy and he’s seen the mummy movies.

He darted toward the staff anyways.

He was almost within arms reach of it and the mummy caught a hold of his arm.

The simple contact was all the mummy needed.

Gabe felt his life force being pulled from him, but he continued reaching for the staff.

He got the staff before the mummy could do too much damage and commanded the mummy off.

“Get out of here Mummy!” He commanded after the mummy released him, he was holding the staff up in front of him.

The mummy, who looked slightly revitalized, turned around and walked back out the door.

“Ok, we believe you! Now who was that and how do we stop this?” Ryland asked still terrified but he knew that they had to do something.

“That was Butcher. I’m not really sure how we stop this. I don’t know how it happened.” He said sitting on the couch putting his head in his hands.

“You were out there when it happened right?” Suarez asked and Gabe nodded. “Then how did it start, who did it seem to originate from?”

Gabe racked his brain looking at everything from every angle he could manipulate his memory.

“I think it started with the guys. You know Tony, Mikey, all off TAI, Jack, like everybody who did the intro. Well I didn’t see Jobra and Johnson but that looked like the pattern.” He said after thinking and rethinking it.

“So what happened in the intro.” Vicky-T asked curiously.

“Now that’s the right question.” Gabe said slowly realizing that was the key to solving their problem.

***

“Why would you want their help? We have a million different choices of people and things to take them down.” She purred into his ear. She didn’t want the vampire around him anymore. She was suspicious of his feelings toward the vampire.

She had been suspicious of his feelings toward the girl before everything got turned upside-down, she had plans to meet him after the show and hit on him that was why her costume was so risqué.

It seems as though morphing into your costume didn’t change that much.

“I want them.” He said firmly then turned his face to her. “Are you afraid that I like her?” The smirk was again evident in his eyes.

“No. I’m way better looking than any vampire.” She spit, unhappy with the way he spoke to her, like he didn’t care and would replace her in a moment.

“Than you’ll be fine with me having her slay the heroes.” He could feel her jealousy and he loved it.

“Esmarelda!” He called to the dead tranny hooker without even giving Catwoman a chance to say a word.

“Yes sir.” The voice was one of an obvious man trying to sound like a woman. He approached the skeleton and started caressing the king’s arm, then moved up to his shoulders.

The Skeleton King visibly shuddered at the tranny’s touch.

The skeleton liked women not things that fall somewhere in between.

“I need you to deliver a message for me.”

***

Johnnie and her vampires were now going through people’s homes in search of humans that they could drain dry.

By the time Johnnie and her pack of vampires got out onto the streets all the humans were aware of the danger and went into hiding.

Johnnie was reaching the end of her rope when she heard someone calling for her.

“Nurse! Nurse Blood!” The voice sounded like it only had good intentions.

Johnnie didn’t care she spun around on her heel fangs bared prepared to rip out the throat of whomever was calling for her.

The reanimated corpse continued running at her. It was the tranny running toward her.

“What?” Johnnie hissed out.

It’s common knowledge that vampires aren’t the nicest when they’re hungry.

Esmarelda stopped dead in her tracks.

No pun intended.

Afraid of Johnnie already.

“The Skeleton King, the one you had your stand-off with, requested your presence. He’d like your help.” Esmarelda said with fear more than obvious in her voice. As she said it she messed with the hem of her purple dress.

Jaedyn laughed so hard when Sisky told her he was going to be a woman for Halloween.

Now she couldn’t even enjoy his very feminine mannerisms.

“Why did he want me?” Her curiosity was peaked.

“He thought you and your vampires would be perfect for a job.” She spoke slightly more at ease.

A cruel smile played on Johnnie’s lips. ”This is exactly why men shouldn’t lead. Don’t let a man do a woman’s job.”

***

“So what in the intro stood out?” Alex Suarez said from the same position as everyone else in the room, sitting with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.

“The whole fuckin’ thing didn’t you see it during the rehearsal at least? It was amazing!” Gabe said frustrating himself by putting the whole thing under a microscope in his mind.

“We all saw it bro, just what about it caused this? We know they all had killer costumes and entrances but what went wrong?” Suarez continued.

They all just continued staring at the floor between their fingers as they strained their brains for anything that could have been the beginning to this mess.

“What if we try to remind people of who they are? Maybe they’ll snap back into themselves. They would have the best information on what may have triggered this.” Vicky-T came across an intriguing idea.

“Who do we try that on first?” Ryland asked as he stood up ready to attempt to fix the world.

***

“I’m glad you agreed to see me Ms Blood.” He spoke in a very official tone.

The smile she got when Esmarelda told her the skeleton needed her hadn’t left her face for a moment.

Her vampires standing behind her she stood front and center, right in front of the skeleton king.

“I heard you needed my help of course I came. Men have been fucking up the world for far to long. I wasn’t going to let you continue the trend.” She said with her head held high arrogance seeping out of every pore.

The Skeleton King was offended by her comment but took it in stride knowing that she would respond poorly to him trying to outdo her in arrogance.

“Well I’d like to know if you and your vampires could take care of the superheroes for me. They keep getting in the way and protecting humans, and we’re all getting rather irritated.”

“What’s in it for us?”

In the king’s thoughts that was exactly what she should have thought, go straight to the thoughts about yourself.

“What can give you?” He responded easily, bartering was something he was good at.

“Power.” Came from her perfect smirking lips.

***

Gabe followed Ryland who was now leading the group trying desperately to find one of their friends.

Then they spotted Dr Fear, once Mike Carden, running after someone with a knife in hand and the creepy smile still in tact and an even creepier voice came out of his mouth, the wacky sounding clown voice sounding much more sinister.

“Come ‘ere I’m a doctor. I took that hypocritical oath.” He didn’t misspeak he knew the oath real doctors took was the Hippocratic Oath. He laughed the creepy clown laugh as he continued following the kid.

“Mike Carden!” Nate started.

Dr Fear didn’t turn or even slow.

Vicky who came up with the idea guessed at how this would work best.

“Dr Fear!” She called as she stepped out in front of the bunch, standing boldly even though she knew she could be in danger.

He turned toward her eerily slow and looked at her.

“What seems to be the problem, my dear? Nothing a surgery won‘t fix I‘m sure.” He started walking toward her. No need to rush seeing as she wasn’t running.

“Your real name is Michael Carden. You’re from Chicago.” She started reciting facts and he still advanced. “You love watching sports you think everyone should route for the Bears come football season.”

He stopped and shook his head like he was clearing it but it wasn’t quite enough to stop him from continuing toward her.

“Tina misses you very much and you talk to her every night, she’s your beautiful girlfriend.” She spoke these last words the slowest, this was the best she could think of with the tip of his knife coming near her throat.

He stopped, fell to his knees, and the knife slipped out of his fingers.

“What the hell is going on?” His own voice was back.

Cobra let out a collective sigh of relief glad that they wouldn’t have to take any drastic measures to stop their friend.

“Chaos.” The word slipped past Vicky’s lips as she leaned down to help him up.

“I need to wash this make-up off.” He said in a slightly frantic tone and rushed straight into Cobra’s dressing room.

They followed him and watched him with anticipation as he scrubbed at his face over he sink watching as the water ran clear.

“Why won’t it come off?!” He screamed when the stuff wouldn’t even smudge.

“It’s not make-up anymore Carden, that’s your face.” The horrified voice of Gabe caused everybody to glance at each other than stare straight at their friend whose clown face was contorted in dread.