Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.66 Diner goblins

After splitting up into small groups, everyone placed themselves across town in different locations as they pulled out their weapons to prepare for a fight. Not knowing what they were up against, everyone just made sure they were prepared to face anything. At the 'Wonder diner', Lauren, Amanda, and Ilene stood in the center of the diner clutching their weapons while waiting nervously for an attack.

"Keep your eyes and ears opened girls" Lauren advised while clutching some butcher knives "They can come any second."

At that moment, they heard something knock over in the kitchen as they froze. Clutching their weapons while feeling their hearts racing, the girls waited for anything to come out from the kitchen, but after a few seconds, nothing came out.

"Should I check?" Lauren whispered.

"If you must" Ilene whispered back while holding her ax "We'll be right behind you."

Slowly making her way to the kitchen door, Lauren kept a hold of her knives while peeping through the door window, only to see nothing. But needing to check, she slowly pushed opened the door and peeked inside to see that a pan had fallen off from the shelf.

"I think the pan just fell off" she declared.

But just when she was about to close the door, something small, gray, and covered in bristly hair jumped onto her face with a loud shriek as it held onto her face as she began to scream while trying to pry it off. Dropping her knives to fight against the creature, Ilene and Amanda tried to pry whatever it was off Lauren's face as she continued to scream in terror.

Pretty soon, Ilene was able to tear the creature off as she threw it against the wall as Amanda quickly used her sledgehammer to smash it until its green blood was splattered on the wall.

"What the hell was that?!" Lauren exclaimed.

"That was a damn goblin!" Amanda huffed while checking out the green blood on her sledgehammer.

"Ugh!" Ilene groaned "I hate those things!"

"Well you're about to be pissed!" Lauren's eyes widen while looking into the kitchen "Cause we've got more!"

She quickly picked up her knives just as another goblin tried to jump on her as she slashed her knife across its stomach as it dropped dead on the floor. As more goblins came out, the girls used their weapons against the critters while getting more of their green blood everywhere. After a while, they noticed that the goblins were escaping through the door and some even jumped through the windows to get out.

Covered in the green blood with their hair a mess from the goblin's attacks, the girls all breathed heavily while watching the remaining goblins flee.

"I'm not done" Ilene panted "I'm thirsty for more."

_________

Inside the Storybrooke Hospital, knowing they were the only ones in there, Brenden, Christina, Courtly, and Chase walked through the hospital that had little light while looking around for any upcoming attacks.

"It's creepy as hell in here" Courtly commented while swinging her bat back and forth in her hand "Feels like I'm in a horror movie."

"We kinda are at the moment if you think about it" Christina responded while holding onto a croquet mallet that had a sharp end.

As they continued to walk around, they suddenly noticed that Chase had a bit of a sad look on his face as he avoided eye contact.

"Chase you okay?" Brenden asked.

"Oh um, I'm fine" he mumbled with his sword dangling by his side.

"I wouldn't be fine if I were you" Courtly replied, "Nobody should, we're in a bloody apocalypse."

"I don't think that's what he's upset about" Christina opinionated "I bet he's thinking about Darling."

At that point, he let out a deep sigh "Guilty."

"You're still not over her are you?"

"I thought I would be, but I'm not" he admitted dully.

"Hey-" Brenden spoke, "If you miss her, then why don't you go ahead and get back with her? I mean it's the apocalypse, you might as well try before you die."

He gave a small snicker "I don't know man, I mean I'm pretty sure she hasn't gotten over me either, but I gotta see first."

"Well you might wanna do it soon, we don't know when our town will reach that Shadow High and get wiped out."

He replied with a shrug just as he spotted something in front of him that caught his eye. Falling slowly from above was a large feather of different warm colors as he caught it in his hand.

"What is that?" Courtly asked.

"It's a big ass feather," he remarked.

"Wait let me see that" Brenden held out his hand as Chase handed him the feather as he studied it "This is a Jubjub bird's feather."

"Wait what?" Christina's eyes widen just as they heard the sound of something moving above them.

Frozen with fear, everyone slowly looked up to see the dangerous Wonderland bird resting on a pole above them and looking straight down into their eyes.

"Nobody move a muscle" Brenden whispered as they all stood still while staring up at the Jubjub bird.

Already too scared to move, everyone continued to stare up at the bird as it stared down at them with its sharp eyes. But just when they thought things couldn't get worse, Christina suddenly felt something crawling up her leg as she looked down to see a large rat which caused her to shriek while shaking it off. And just like that, the bird gave out a loud screech while spreading out its wings.

"Go!" Brenden yelled as they began to run from the bird.

While ducking from the bird's swoops, everyone knew they had to do something to get rid of the bird. So when she quickly turned around, Courtly swung her bat across the bird's face as it toppled over and landed onto the floor in pain. With the bird distracted by its pain, Chase spotted the door to the underground asylum as he pulled it opened.

"Guys in here!" he called as Brenden felt his heart drop.

"Oh no!" he declared "I am not going in there!"

"You don't have a choice!" Christina yelled while grabbing his arm and yanking him into the room followed by Courtly as they shut the door and locked it just as the Jubjub bird had gotten up.

After failing to open the door, the bird gave up, but instead of leaving, it stayed in front of the door, waiting for them to come out.

"Looks like we won't be leaving this way" Chase concluded.

"Oh great" Brenden grunted, "I'm already at the top of the stairs and I'm already getting horrible memories of this place."