Devil's Night: The Hunt for Laughing Jack

II: DANSE MACABRE (Pt. 4)

II: DANSE MACABRE (Pt. 4)
(Dedicated at heart (still not a thing on the app - request to BEN processing) to SpaceTrash328 for being such a hilarious and wonderful reader/commenter/reign of terror. Chaos just isn't the same without her!)

"-What happened to you?" Smiley questioned, his glowing eyes following their backs as they trudged past him, quiet as mouses, shadows of stirring forest branches ghosting along their forlorn faces.

Frowning, Dark Link opened his mouth to speak, prominent red bump throbbing on his forehead. But before a single word left his torn lip, Smirky's arm coiled over his shoulders in the deadly wrap of a python, suffocating his voice like a glass over a candle's tongue of flame.

"This poor, clumsy creature took an awful tumble down a small hill. Didn't you, Darkie?" the illusionist cooed, nails digging into his silken sleeve.

Making a peculiarly soft and strangled choking sound at the back of his throat, Dark Link garbled out, "numh-uhm," which could've been interpreted as yes or no.

"Was that... a yes?" Smiley guessed hesitantly.

The illusionist made Dark Link nod by manipulating a handful of his snowy hair from behind like a puppet string.

Bewildered by their odd behaviour, Smiley pried no further into the matter and returned to his game. As soon as his brother turned away, Smirky tore his hands off Dark Link and pushed the shade out of his personal space.

"Shoo, pervert!"

"But I- but you- hah..." Rubbing the back of his head, the shade tactfully retreated from a doomed battle and busied himself with fussing over their bruised jack-o-lantern, which had been left on an overturned log by an illusion.

A grey lizard, brownish in the eerie orange light, scurried from a hole in the creaking, decayed wood when he hefted the pumpkin into his arms. It sped over Jeff's shoe and off down the path from whence they'd all came, waddling like it owned the world. Dark Link tilted his head to watch it.

(CAW!)

In front of his very eyes, a haggard crow dived from a gap in the flittering treetops and caught the reptile in its skeletal talons, landing in a noisy flutter. Took its flailing prey into his beak, grim feathers illuminated in approving moonlight. Glittering black eyes, cold as stone, locked with his own. Crunch.

The lizard jerked then moved no more, broken and resigned to its fate.

You could've stopped me. Breaking their stare, the crow beat its wings and vanished into the darkness, lost amongst rippling shadows once more.

Desensitised to death, Dark Link nonetheless felt a morbid chill for watching the cruel act and wanted to put it behind him quickly. He turned to his friends and began strongly dropping hints about wrapping up their game and leaving, but soon realized that they weren't even listening to a word he said. 

Creepypastas were competitive by nature, but this was bordering on ridiculous.

Smiley and Jeff were playing Go Fish, sitting on swirled, enchanted forest-esque tree stumps. A whimsical sight to behold, if not for BEN on all fours between them, serving as their substitute table.

BEN was being hand-fed snacks to keep him happy.

A Doritos bag, the source of the feed, rested wide open and half devoured on Jeff's lap, though most of its contents were heading into his own mouth instead of the elf's.