How Festive (Discontinued)

Chapter 4: October 27th

You're looking off into the sea. You don't know how you got here, but you are listening to the waves as you stand. You seemed to be on the edge of some pier, the surrounding area decked out in some sort of red and pink masonry. It's pretty, that you will definitely admit.

It is only after taking in your surroundings though, that you realize you are slowly walking closer towards the edge of the pier. It feels as though you aren't in your own body, as though you were simply watching it move on it's own.

You begin to panic, only to hear hasty footsteps approaching you from behind. You thought you were all alone.
Your body stops and turns ever so slightly to see what is coming up to you. It's a humanoid figure, but you can't seem to place exactly what it looks like. As though some sort of mental fog is barring you from comprehending what exactly you are seeing.

But your train of thought is cut off as your body turns back towards the ocean, walking far more briskly to the edge, until it has broken out into a full on sprint. This is it, you are going to fall in, and the current will sweep you away. You are going to die.

And then, your body comes to a halt, as the figure from earlier finally reaches you and grabs you, just before you fall in.
It's hold on you is snug and you are flush against it, positioned like two lovers who hadn't seen each other in ages; tender.

The mental fog seems to dissipate as your eyes focus upon the face of your savior but all you see is a mask with no features besides two, pitch black eye holes.
It dips you as though dancing, and then, in one swift move, kisses you. You don't know how, it is wearing a mask. But your brain firmly registers that kissing is definitely what is going on at the moment. And your body is returning it in earnest.

You have concluded at this point that you must be in a dream, and with that conclusion, your body's control is rewarded back to you. And your heart swells as you try your best to enjoy this very, very peculiar dream.

As you pull away from the heated exchange, your partner in such an exchange looks you over in a way you cannot help but describe as familiar. Then it sets you upright, and pulls you further into the embrace. It's warm, it's gentle.

It leans back, and after swinging it's hands in yours for a moment, lets you go. You find no reason to speak, everything now feels fuzzy and safe.
The figure begins to walk past you, and just before completely doing so, whispers in your ear, "J is for Jack", the voice hushed and airy.

And then you watch as he leaves.

And then you wake up.

Your body bolts upright as you take in deep breaths, covered in a thick layer of sweat.

Was that a nightmare? What the fuck just happened?

For a moment, you look around and find yourself tucked in bed, the sticky, sweat coated covers sticking to your body.

Your mind goes back to the dream, processing what in the hell you just witnessed. It reminds you of something.
Oh right. Last night.

You get out of bed and rid yourself of your moist clothes as you recount the events that unfolded last night. There was that festival thing, and then the corn maze and then...ah. Now you remember.


After agreeing, the creature outreached its hand, and you took it in yours. An agreement made upon on a hand shake.


You go to the bathroom and take a look at yourself.


Just as the creature said, it gave you a headstart, a full minute before it would begin chasing you. It had pulled out a gold pocket watch, a trinket you were surprised a monster such as itself would have.
It told the time, 6 minutes till 9. Six minutes was exactly what you needed, one for your head start, five for how long you had to last in order to win. It turned from you and the moment it said go, you turned on your heel and you ran.
You ran so fast, faster than you ever thought was possible, at least for you. Your body seemed to understand the dire situation, and put every ounce of adrenaline it had to work.


As you looked at yourself in the mirror, you found scrapes and bruises all over you, as though you had gotten into a fight of some sort. That wasn't exactly the furthest thing from the truth.


Your lungs were starting to burn now, but you couldn't stop. You had no idea how long it had been since you started running, but you were a goner if you risked a look at your phone for the time. The screen's light would immediately give your position away, if your rapid movement and strangled breaths didn't already.
Running through the corn like this wasn't a great idea, and some of the plants were beginning to leave marks on your skin from the friction. Your face was getting all scraped up.


You decided a shower would do you good, considering the fact you knew you hadn't showered the night before. You'd bandage up any worrying cuts and leave the petty ones to heal on their own. Getting clean was the first step however. An infected cut was the last thing you wanted.


As you continued running, you made out an extremely large structure in the distance. You wondered what something like that would be doing out here, but quickly abandoned that train of thought when you realized it would be the perfect hiding spot, or at least a place to catch your breath.


The water felt wonderful against your aching body, dare you say heavenly. The scrapes stung for a moment, but that was to be expected. Soon, they felt soothed.


You found the structure to be some sort of cell tower, or something of a similar degree. You weren't quite sure, but regardless rested behind one of the beams that kept it held up.
Your legs ached and your lungs felt as if they had been lit on fire, you were pushing your body beyond its limit. But you just had to last a little longer, just a little, and then you would be free of this nightmare.


As you began to properly wash yourself, you noticed your neck seemed to sting as the soap ran down it. Oh.
Of course. How could you possibly forget.


Breathing finally returning to normal, you stood slowly, about to begin running again. That was, until, you felt your body be tackled to the ground.
It found you, dear lord it found you, and of all places, it was on top of you.
"Gotcha," It whispered in glee, it keeping you trapped with it's legs on either side of you, it's hands in your own. You tried wiggling out of it's grasp, but you knew it was of no use. It won the bet; now you would suffer.
"Lets see our results, shall we?" It was ecstatic; you already knew you lost simply from the tone of it's voice.
It released one of your hands, in favor for taking out the pocket watch and checking the time.

A cackle seemed to erupt from it, it's joy turning near sinister as it turned the watch to you, letting you see you missed 9 PM by less than a minute.
You gulped as it shoved the watch back into it's pocket, it's hand moving to the ground near your head.
It switched both of your wrists into it's other hand, as the one previously on the ground went up to it's mask.

It planned this. You knew it must've, it knew you wouldn't be able to outrun it. It probably wasn't even looking for a chase, just a chance to get you to surrender to it completely, willingly. Sly bastard.

It leaned in; just like before, you could feel it's hot breath fan out from the bottom of the mask. This time, instead of being right next to your ear, it was nearly smooshed against the side of your neck, its hand reaching to lift the mask ever so lightly.
It lied, it was going to eat you, holy shit it was going to tear into your throat and eat you, you knew it, you knew you shouldn't have trusted such a monstrous beast. Hypothetical romantic feelings your ass, you were going to die by it's hand. Or rather, it's teeth.

But instead of a tear in your throat, all you felt was a poke. Or rather, a couple pokes, but a poke nonetheless.
It made a noise equivalent to a sigh, or a moan, but you assumed it was the same sort of noise someone would make after taking a bite of their favorite meal.
It's free hand moved from its own face to yours, holding you in quite a fond manner. Like lovers do. Only this supposed lover was nibbling on your neck with literal fangs. What the genuine fuck.


As gentle as he tried to be, the teeth marks on your neck burned terribly, probably because the weirdo decided to suck blood out of you. What kind of stereotypical vampire shit was this guy into?


After realizing you weren't putting up any sort of struggle, you had lost after all, and you weren't about to risk making this thing angry, the creature released your wrists, instead opting to hold one of your hands, as the other continued to cup your face.
It was only then that you realized your neck was bleeding; a sticky sensation coming from the mouth of the creature nipping at your neck.
It was lapping up your blood from the small punctures it made with it's teeth. Was this supposed to be erotic? Did you think it was? Was it simply using you to feed? Was this a fucking vampire?


You sort of laugh at the thought now, as you rinse your hair and body. A vampire? Oh no, of course you just had to be dealing with something much, much worse. You sure had some sort of shit luck for him to be worse than a vampire. Maybe karma was out to get you for something, whatever that something was.
But at least the monster karma gave you was interested in you far more beyond just drinking your blood.
It was also interested in giving you shitty hickeys.


You could truly not believe the predicament you were in. A literal monster, with teeth sharp enough to puncture your skin with nearly no pain on your part, was drinking your blood, lapping it up as if it were the finest ambrosia.
Eventually, the lapping stopped. You thought perhaps you were going to be let go, that it simply enjoyed the smell of your blood or whatever and it wanted a taste. What an oddly, morbidly flattering thought.
But it seemed it hadn't had enough, as it began sucking on the wounds instead of lapping them. And regrettably, you made a noise of surprise. Of astonishment. Of shock! Oh for fuck's sake, you nearly squealed in some sort of taken aback enjoyment.
And then it sucked harder, and you made another sound of shock. At this point, all of your dignity was gone, but you were not about to let some vampire freak man-handle you without even taking you to dinner first, bet or not.

With the strangest bit of confidence, you stood your ground.

"Can you not leave a hickey on my neck? I get you won the bet and all but I am not in the mood to explain a mark like that to my friend."

The creature paused, before releasing your skin from it's mouth with a 'pop' noise. It pushed it's mask back into position, then looked up at you, not saying a word.

"What? Do you not know what a hickey is?"

"I believe it's a bruise that comes from neck marking."

"Yes, and do you know the connotations of 'neck marking'?"

The creature went quiet. Good lord.



As you exited the shower, wrapping a soft towel around you, you nearly doubled down in laughter.
Not knowing what a hickey was? Absolutely hilarious, last night might as well have been a comedy skit.


You really didn't want to explain to this thing what a hickey was, but luckily for you, it spoke before you had a chance.

"Romantic?"

"What?"

"The connotations, they are romantic and possessive."

The two of you paused, simply staring at each other. So, if it had a clue, why would it do that to you?
No way to know except to ask.

"So why did you start making one if you knew what such a mark meant?" Your voice quivered, dear god.
You supposed it could've just been trying to get the blood out of your neck easier, sucking is a lot more effective than licking after all, but still...It wasn't trying to knowingly leave a hickey, was it? Because that would mean...It's reasons were romantic and possessive...dear lord.
The silence was impossibly overwhelming. It didn't last too long, luckily. Or unluckily, considering the answer you got.

"Because my intentions were just that; possessive."

"And romantic?!"