Darkness Falls

Chapter 1: Multiple Chance Encounters

The door's bell chimes as it swings open. "welcome to the mystery shack. No refunds." Robbie grumbles his greeting without looking up at the door. He continues to not care about the door until the person walks up to the counter. "can I help you?" he asks finally glancing up, when he does he sees it's a teen girl he's never met before. He stands up straight and makes eye contact. "oh sorry..."

"no it's ok I imagine you've had a long day." the girl replies with no emotion. she takes a small glance around the room and brings her gaze back to his. "and yes you can help me." she looks around on the counter until she finds a bumper sticker that says Pines Mystery Shack. "pines... where would I find that person. the pines that owns this place."

"well that a little difficult to say." Robbie frowns. "Stan and ford went off to explore the world and stuff, and the little guys aren't due back till..." he turns to check a calendar on the wall. "oh I guess they'll be visiting here in a few days so Stan and Ford might come back for the summer."

"oh I see." She replies. "well I suppose I will just come back in a few days then." She turns to leave.

"oh hey wait a sec!" Robbie calls to her abandoning the counter to follow her to the door before she leaves. "hey are you like new around here or something?" he casually leans against the door frame to seem cooler.

"no." the girl replies then after a small pause she reflects and changes her statement. "rather I mean I'm not a new person but I am new to the area I guess you could say since things have changed drastically since last time I was here."

"really?" Robbie raises an eyebrow curiously. "it hasn't changed that much ever. In fact, it's about the same and just as boring as it's been since I was a kid."

The girl pauses for a moment before then starting for the door again.

"my name is Robbie by the way." Robbie calls after her. "I'm only working here as a temp but maybe I'll see ya around sometime."

The girl pauses briefly again before turning back to face Robbie. "Vanessa... and I don't believe I will, but should I happen upon you again I will be more than be glad to have a conversation again." She then turns and leaves.

Robbie watches her leave feeling conflicted. It really didn't seemed like she was nice but rather secluded, and he wondered how somebody could be that way. "maybe her family life is rough?" he shrugs it off and goes back to the counter. "either way i hope to see her again."

-later that night-

Robbie is stuck taking out a gross bag of trash before he heads home from the mystery shack. "I thought I was just helping with the counter I didn't realize I was going to get stuck with disgusting work." Robbie grumbles making his way around back to the dumpster. Leaving the gross bag in the trash dump he starts to make his way towards the path to town but a sound off in the trees distracts him. "is that... blue grass music?" Robbie wonders glancing around. "who would be out here playing blue grass this late at night?"

A twig snaps and the music gets louder.

Robbie turns around to face the woods. "h-hello somebody there?"

From out of the shadows of the forest a dark figure emerges slapping its elbows and belly in some kind of rhythm that Robbie isn't familiar with.

"what the...!?" Robbie backs away from the dark figure with the bright jagged grin. "what is this thing!?"

The monster lurches towards Robbie but misses as Robbie dodges and runs like an idiot towards the forest because in his mind it would be easier to lose whatever was chasing him. The thing behind him gives chase and he soon finds himself sprinting for his life deeper and deeper into the woods.

Robbie trips on an upped tree root and slides through the dirt covering him from top to bottom in dust. "omf!?"

As he pulls himself back up he realizes the beastly thing is right on top of him but before he can let out a scream he is violently shoved to the ground again and rolls as if something had jumped on him. he scrambles back to his feet and doesn't see anyone or anything but the monster except for a guitar lying on the ground with writing on it that says 'shred me'. no time to stop and think about it Robbie grabs the guitar to use it as a weapon of defense. He swings it but this does not deter the Kill Billy monster.

The monster back hand slaps Robbie into a tree trunk then approaches the dazed teen slowly.

"why is this thing after me?" Robbie wonders watching helplessly as it gets ever closer, then something happens neither Robbie nor the Kill Billy expected. From behind the trees appears another shadow too far away to see clearly in the dark. It wields a guitar and strums it loudly drawing the attention of both Robbie and the creature.

"hey monster. You like music why don't you check out these sick licks!" the figure growls out her statement before shredding and epic guitar solo. (if you are having trouble picturing this look up 'cliffs of dover' on youtube.)

The monster cover's it's ears and runs into the trees screeching.

Robbie stares at the figure of this new person as she approaches him. "you... you saved me... but why?"

"you're lucky I happened to be out here Robbie or you would have just been killed by that Hillbilly monster." Vanessa growls tossing the guitar to the ground at Robbie's feet. "if you run into another play the damn Guitar. They can't stand how it sounds. It's enough to drive them off but it won't defeat them so keep your wits about you."

Robbie glances at the guitar then back up at Vanessa. "you were the one who tackled me earlier... why didn't you just tell me you were here?"

"because I didn't want you to know." Vanessa grumbles. "thanks to you I had to come out of hiding. Do you have any idea how busy I am?! Go home." Vanessa growls and then leaves.

Robbie stands up guitar in hand watching the area of the woods where Vanessa had disappeared. "something is definitely up with her. I just need to figure out what it is. Maybe next time I see her I should take her out or something and see if she opens up." he debates about whether or not to turn and leave the forest when he realizes he has no idea where he is relative to the shack. He then decides to run after Vanessa and hopefully catch up to her.

Making his way through the trees he notices that the woods seem to get thicker the further he goes until suddenly for some reason it just stops. Robbie finds himself in a clearing staring up at the silhouette of a house. "the heck is this doing out here in the middle of the woods?"