Prompt: When you stumble upon a strange artifact, you unknowingly summon a mysterious fog upon the city, bringing with it a wave of sudden Halloween horrors.
IF THERE IS ONE THING, I LOVE IT'S FINDING RANDOM SHIT. I love finding things that seem abandoned.
Necklaces, rings, mementos of the past. I even found one of those time capsules once. Never has finding things ever not worked in my advantage. I made sure not to go on private property even if it was tempting.
Theft isn't a crime I want to be arrested for. Sometimes I'd go through lost and found and look at things that had been there for a while. Mostly jewelry. I loved collecting things.
One of my favorite things to collect are crystals and fancy rocks. Those were harder to find especially natural ones, but they are always a prize to come across. I love encountering them.
My favorites were a geode and then an amethyst cluster I had found.
I was lucky enough to be able to travel around the world frequently. My job enabled me and any of my finds that I didn't like I brought back to my shop to sell.
This was a new experience for me.
I've seen many rings before but this one was different. Most of the time they were easily identifiable from the time period and even the stone in it.
I had come to some city in America and had my typical spelunking adventure into a cave. When wandering around I found a ring embedded in some stone. With some tools I managed to get it out.
The ring was made of some glossy glazed looking blue stone. It looked foggy and in the middle was a raw blue stone that I couldn't identify. Typically, I'm good at identifying my crystals but this one puzzled me.
I inspected the ring for a little bit more before deciding to pocket it. I'd bring it back home and do some more research into it.
"Hey, Drew I'm coming back up now." I said into the walkie talkie.
"Alright, I'll be waiting."
Repositioning myself, I began backtracking up the cave. All of the sports I did in high school came into handy with all the crazy shit I do now adays. I'm on the constant move so track sure did help.
I backtracked through the cave making sure not to catch my gear on anything or lose the ring in the spiraling cave system.
After about an hour of backtracking I finally made it out of the cave. Despite this city not being huge the cave system itself is ginormous.
If things go well, I might go back down tomorrow. I'd bet that this cave system might stretch out straight into the city. It's always fun seeing the way caves work. I love exploring them.
By the time I reached the top I was tired and ready to call it a night.
The air outside the cave is a nice crisp coolness. Fall weather is always one of my favorite times of year. Cold enough to require a jacket but not to be freezing.
Although the peaceful air seemed to dull quickly when I saw a fog had rolled in. I always check the weather and there was no fog due. Not even for the morning. I don't know why a fog had rolled in.
That was the first sign I foolishly ignored.
The second one is I couldn't find Drew.
Drew is basically my assistant. He was a fresh out of high school nineteen-year-old who had been more than happy to come traveling with me. He's a trust fund baby and has more than enough money to support himself as well as me.
And I had come to enjoy his company. Sometimes he comes down spelunking with me but tonight he opted out of it. He decided to stay outside and do check-ups with me.
Not seeing him had me worried.
"Drew?" I called out.
There was no response. It is close to Halloween so my first thought is that Drew might be playing a prank on me. He's not the type to do pranks but who knows with him.
But when I rounded to our shared truck it became clear that wasn't the case.
I found him crumpled up by the truck and I rushed over to him.
"Drew what happened?"
After a few shakes his eyes opened.
He clutched his head and after an inspection I could feel the back swelling.
"Shit, I. How long?" Drew asked.
"Maybe an hour, I just got out." I told him.
"What the hell happened?" I demanded.
"I... it was a pumpkin." He sounded confused at his statement.
"What?"
"The person, the thing that attacked me it had a pumpkin for a head." Drew told me.
"Drew you better not be playing some Halloween prank on me." I told him.
"I'm not. It was a pumpkin. I--- right after you buzzed in this thick fog rolled in. And I heard a horse and then a man with a pumpkin appeared on the horse. It's all fuzzy from there."
Before I could question him even further fate decided to prove him right.
I heard the whinny of a horse which had Drew going pale.
I turned around to see a pale white horse emerge from the fog. The horse looked both chilling and sick. Despite that it was strong and full of energy. A man sat atop him and just like Drew said he has a literal pumpkin on his head that glowed within.
I had seen enough horror movies to know to get the f on out of this city.
The horse began to rear and stomp on the ground. By the time the first spark came from its hooves I had tossed a droopy Drew into the truck and launched myself into the driver seat. I revved the car up and thanked every god out there that my car didn't give me any issues.
I then sped off just as the horse charged at the car.
"You saw it too right T?" Drew asked.
"Yeah, I saw it, we're leaving. I'll refund our hotel room and get us a new one states away." I told him.
"I mean what even caused it." Drew mumbled.
Before I could answer something had leapt from the fog making take a very sudden turn to avoid it. I nearly crashed but managed to get my truck back on the road again.
I turned around to see what looked like a bipedal wolf behind me.
"I think the fog is sending Halloween horrors." I murmured.
"That's like a horror movie script, you didn't strike me as that type." Drew mumbled.
"Seeing a werewolf changed my mind. When exactly did this start?" I asked.
"Around the time you called and said you were coming back." Drew answered.
The ring began to feel heavy in my pocket.
"I think I just disturbed an ancient ring that is now sending out horrors on this city." I told him.
"Are you going to put it back?" Drew asked.
"You are more than welcome to go back there and toss that ring in, unless you want to just toss it out a window." I told him.
Drew looked at me.
"I think we'll evaluate the situation once we are out of here." Drew mumbled.
"Then let's work on getting out of here. The residents here can deal with this."
1190. Uncaring spelunkers and gem finders with too much money on their hands start an apocalypse of Halloween horrors. Maybe it could even tie into the dystopian one I did. ***
