The Grey's Curse

Chapter Twenty Three - Plushy

"Okay okay, I think I need a break from the rides" I chuckled, slightly breathless from all the screaming. We had just spent thirty minutes to an hour just going on rides, waiting in line not included.

We were casually strolling around the fair while I leaned on Tanner who had a grin on his face and his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

"Yeah that's probably a good idea, is there any games that you want to try?" I shrugged, not feeling particularly picky "Nah, you can pick" soon we stopped at a booth where you had to knock down three pins with a ball.

Sounds easy enough.

Right now I was working on getting a stuffed llama plushie "I'm not leaving without this llama" I was stubborn in that, the moment I saw the llama plushie I knew I wasn't leaving without it.

Tanner who was watching from the sidelines, chuckled at my words "I hate to break it to you, but I think this is rigged" I made a 'psh' sound and smirked at him.

"You're just mad that you missed" I teased him with a smirk, making his jaw drop as he looked at me with shock "You know that was rigged, my aim was perfect!" He retorted with a pout and crossed his arms.

I laughed and gave him side eye with a disbelieving look "Yeah, sure" he shook his head at me, mumbling under his breath nearly too low for me to hear "Always so mean to me" I sighed, feeling a little bad for him even if he was joking.

I looked at my last ball then back up at the lone pin 'Come on Maria, just one more pin' I reared my arm back and focused on the lone pin before throwing the ball and watched as it darted forward with anticipation.

'Come on, come on'

Clang!

I let out a breath of relief as it hit it's target head on and knocked the pin right off the stand.

The person behind the counter smiled at me and began to reach for the llama, already knowing which plushie I wanted from overhearing my rant with Tanner on getting said plushie but I stopped them when I discreetly shook my head and pointed at a dinosaur plushie that I knew Tanner had been eyeing and when I looked back at the llama, it looked as if it was hurt that I didn't choose it 'Sorry Mr. llama' I could've swore I saw it's black and brown marble eyes tear up.

I looked back at Tanner and saw him sulking to himself, not noticing the change in plushies "Here" he looked at me and the dinosaur with confusion in his eyes "What?" I nudged the dinosaur closer to him, tempting him to grab it.

"Here, it's yours" he hesitated to grab the plushie, still looking at me with shock "But I thought you wanted the llama?" I shook my head with a reassuring smile "Nah and besides, think of it as a thank you gift for being there for me" it was true, from day one that, he listened to my rants and worries without a complaint, something that I deeply appreciated.

He smiled and gazed down at the dinosaur "Thank you" I couldn't stop the smile that grew on my face, happy that he liked the dinosaur plushie and laughed when he made the dinosaur 'eat me'

"But you know, usually it's the guy winning and giving the cute girl a prize" I rolled my eyes at his words  "Yeah yeah yeah, whatever big strong man" I joked and went to playfully push him but my hand only touched air.

Confused, I look back at where he was when I saw that he was gone, as if he had just disappeared in thin air making my chuckles immediately stop as confusion took over "Tanner?" There was no way he could've disappeared 'He was just here' I tensed up when suddenly everyone's head snapped to look at me.

'What's happening?'

I jumped at the suddenness and the sight before me had me gagging as I covered my mouth with my hand; desperately trying to keep the bile rising in my throat at bay when I saw that those that had their backs turned away from me, had spun their heads around like an owl in my direction; breaking their necks so harshly that it caused their skin to split and made blood begin to spill out.

My fight didn't last two seconds before the grotesque and gruesome sight before me proved to be too much and had the rising bile in my throat force it's way out, making me double over and nearly throw up on my shoes and I winced at the burn in my throat.

The stench of blood mixed with my throw up nearly made me sick again "Oh my g-" I was interrupted when they all suddenly smiled way to inhumanly wide, showing their blood stained teeth. I took a step back, tripping over my own feet and making my back hit the counter behind me.

I froze when a hand placed itself on my shoulder and gripped it tightly, I slowly turned my head to look at whoever had touched me and screamed when I saw the kind stand owner from earlier had the same eerie smile that everyone else had but when I looked at them, I was horrified to see their eyes had rolled into the back of their head and popped out of their skull.

I jumped and tried to take their hand off me when the eyes landed on the counter and rolled towards me, making me gag and grab the hand that was still on my shoulder and try to pull it off but the skin kept sliding off as if it wasn't even attached to them. I stared with wide terrified eyes when they opened their mouth impossibly wide and released an ear piercing scream, making the others follow in it's lead and scream with them.

I winced in pain and thankfully break away from away their tight hold, my ears aching from the screams and it was only a few seconds later that I noticed that everything went quiet.

I hesitantly bring my finger up to my ear when I felt something warm trickle down and a wet substance come off my ear and transferred on to my finger. I pulled my shaky hand back and saw blood coated all over my trembling fingers 'My ears are bleeding...' I stared at the blood with wide eyes.

'I can't hear anything'

I slowly looked up and saw everyone was in the same spot as before except instead of the wide smile they had before was now replaced with their jaws hanging loosely from their face, undoubtedly broken from the unnatural screaming.

I looked all around me and see no way out 'I'm surrounded' one took a step towards me and the rest followed it. they were all in sync with one another as they all crowded around me, the putrid metallic stench of blood made me nauseous.

"Help" I whispered quietly "Please" the white lights were slowly getting replaced by a dark red color and everyone was within arms length of me "Tanner" tears welled up in my eyes.

"PLEASE HELP ME!" I screeched so harshly that it hurt my throat, making silence quickly follow replacing the white noise 'The silence is worse' I felt like I was going crazy as a dark red tent covered everything like a filter.

"TANNER! WHERE ARE YOU?!" I was screaming so loud that my voice was already hoarse and my throat was sore. I felt hands grab me, some were pulling my hair and making fist fulls of hair come out in clumps, some were digging their nails into my skin, no doubt cutting it and I collapsed to my knees with tears, hair and blood everywhere.

I knew I was going into a panic attack when my breathing got faster and harder. There was blood falling in my eyes making them burn, I fought to wipe my eyes, pushing the things away temporarily, when I could see, my heart drops when I saw a black shadow in front of me, too large to be any of these things that were surrounding me.

'The monster...'