short stories

Halloween oneshot

(i just noticed. HALLOween.)

The hermits were walking to their bases when they saw a mysterious structure on a hill they asked around.. None of them had built it. None of them knew what lay inside those crumbling walls. What was at the top of that falling-apart tower. The darkness closed in around them as they approached. An eerie noise, sounding like distorted singing, sounded.

"That- that sounded like the noise in Phasmo before the ghost hunts." Grian's voice trembles in fear.

Impulse, Scar, and Etho nodded their heads. All of them agreed; it was haunted. Tentatively, Wels put his hand on the doorknob of the near-broken door. It was his job to protect them as the knight of the server. The door creaked open. A disembodied voice whispered "come in". Wels took a step into the unknown. Slowly, the rest of the hermits followed. They split up and tiptoed around the house. Impulse found an artifact from Phasmophobia; a monkey paw. He called out to his friends. "I found the monkey paw!" The hermits got together with Ren dragging Doc's dead body along. He was in tears.

"The ghost got him." he spoke through his sobs. "I couldn't stop him from killing himself at its hands."

Impulse spoke, trying to help his friend. "There's still hope. The monkey paw can bring someone back from the dead. But only once. And it could kill you"

Ren nodded his head sullenly. "What do I have to do?"

Impulse handed him the monkey paw and told him to say the words.

"I wish for life."

Ren watched as Doc's body came back to life, but this time his skin had a green hue.

Suddenly, Ren's hands started moving up to his neck. Doc cried out. "No! I can't lose you!"

Doc tried to pull Ren's hands off his neck. Somehow, he was strongest in his dying moments. The spirit gave Ren inhuman strength, just to kill himself. Luckily, Doc had inhuman strength too due to his cyborg parts. He managed to save Ren.'s life, just like Ren had saved his.

Ren looked down at his hands, which last he saw were trying to kill him. But now, the ghost's presence is gone. He was safe from himself.

Ren sat down, shook. "Thanks, Doc. I guess we both owe each other our lives."

Doc, his heart warmed, spoke. "I couldn't lose you. Not after everything. I love you."

Ren looked at Doc, his eyes filled with joy. "I thought I was the only one who felt that way. You mean everything to me."

They embraced each other, thrilled not only to be alive but that the one they loved loved them back.

The spirit, however, was not content with this romance and happy endings. It wanted someone to share its pain with. I was tired of being alone. It locked the door. The hermits ran from it, up to the tower. TFC stood in front of them, arm blocking the ghost from his friends.

But that's not what the ghost wanted. After all, why have one hermit when you could have 20?

The tower fell into the building, sending the walls tumbling down. "Run!" TFC called out. I'll hold it off!"

X couldn't handle losing someone. "no! You have to come! You have to live!"

TFC shook his head sullenly as the building came tumbling down. "I'm dying anyways. Let me go out the way I wish. Now run!"

X reluctantly obliged. The extra few seconds TFC's sacrifice gave them saved them all. They stood outside of the building just as it came crashing down.

They looked at the rubble of what was once a creaky, abandoned house, staring at the remains of wood, stone, and...

All of their eyes looked over it at the same time and gasped in horror. There amidst the rubble was the body of TFC. the body of the man who saved them.

X put his hand on the body and removed his mask. No one had ever seen X without his mask. They still never would. All they saw was brown hair.

Clutching the monkey paw, he tried desperately to save his friend. "I wish for life! I wish for life! Please!"

X turned his head as Impulse spoke. He quickly put his mask back on. No one could see what he looked like behind his mask. "The monkey paw only grants wishes once. Doc being alive now means that TFC can't be."

X turned back to the body and removed his mask once more.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you. It was my job as Admin. I let you down, and everyone who ever knew you. You were a great man. I let you down. I let us all down. It's all my fault. I don't deserve to be an Admin. I'm so sorry."

A bluish-white light appeared at the edge of X's view. He looked up reluctantly. Floating there was TFC's ghost.

X's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!"

The ghost spoke. "No. I knew I would die. I wanted to die saving my friends rather than die from lung cancer that was slowly getting to me. I would rather die defending what I care about than by succumbing to an illness. So what if I survived a few more weeks. You would all be dead. I'm going to the afterlife as we speak, so this is probably the last time you'll ever see me. I'll miss you. Goodbye."

TFC's ghost faded into oblivion.Just after TFC said goodbye. This time, he knew it was for good.

X, with his mask still off, turned around and faced the Hermits. "We lost a brave man today. Let's go home and give him a hero's burial. The burial he deserves."

So the hermits went home, but their lives changed. Through tragedy comes hope. But he was still gone.

Their lives were changed forever.