Scary not Scary (The Holidaze Book 3)

Chapter11

Chapter 11

With one last flourish of malevolent magic, the giant bronze beast, known as the Dragon, stood looking as terrifying as anything George could ever have imagined. A weird sense of familiarity washed over him, so he quickly turned to the awaiting crowd.

"Excellent work, all of you scary, Spookies," George encouraged as he stared around at the many beings of the Halloween Holidaze.

"Thank you, Sire, you humble us," Phineas said as he bowed to his king.

"I'm so proud of each and every one of my Spookies for the extraordinary effort you put into this gargantuan and very scary beast. We shall unveil him tomorrow at the stroke of midnight!" George declared and the crowd cheered in their own morbid way.

He realised that he had started forming an attachment to the Halloween residents. A few days ago, he had labelled them as 'Spookies' and they all beamed at him whenever he used the name. Sure, they had gruesome grins and rotting teeth smiles but it still warmed him that these creatures had started to accept him and him them.

In one swift move, a covering fell over the dragon and hid it from view. Sander had said they needed to do the exact same thing as what they did with the haunted house turned petting zoo. George and Devinah had finished it and left it covered, so they did the same thing now.

Sander and Cupid had done a quick examination of the dragon before leaving. Neither of them said a word about it or their thoughts on what might happen the following day. George had left them to their musings.

After the crowd dispersed, chatting about the thrilling scare awaiting them tomorrow, George couldn't help himself from taking another peek at the dragon. He needed to assure himself that it hadn't turned into anything else the moment they covered it.

With a quick step, he slid under the covering and stared up at the gigantic beast. As utterly terrifying as the visage was, George had that strange sense of familiarity wrap around him again. He stared up as far as he could see, which admittedly wasn't very far at all.

A clang sounded, and George jumped. The Halloween Holidaze was often a raucous place filled with spooky sounds, but this was an unexpected clunk. His eyes drifted to where he heard the noise.

Trying to control the fear that gripped him, he watched as the dragon's head moved towards him. It looked so scarily life like. When the eyes glowed red, which he hadn't expected them to do, he cringed.

The dragon stopped moving as if not wanting to alarm him. George dared another glance up to see the huge talons extending towards him. A whimper escaped him, and his body began to shiver. The sharpness of those talons made him freeze in place. They could slice and dice him with one tiny move.

The claw opened and upon one of the talons hung the ugliest and most menacing key that George had ever seen. The key shone with an eerie green glow.

The dragon made a gesture, as if for George to take it, but he backed up another step. There was no way he wanted to touch that rusty, gnarled, green glowing key. He'd never seen anything more insidious or evil in his life.

The dragon lowered its head, tipped it to the side and assessed George in a way that offered a distracting comfort. George gulped and stared hard at the now beseeching eyes of the dragon. Hadn't they made this dragon to be a scary visage? Why was it looking at him with such caring?

"Take it," a voice said in George's mind.

The dragon once again extended its claw towards George. The key only looked more ominous and creepier where it dangled from a sharp talon.

"Search out the secret room and you will learn the mysteries of your life with this key," the voice spoke in his mind again as the key wriggled on the dragon's talon in a way that made George's skin crawl.