Burn In Violet

11: Laughing Death

Evan had just finished making a circle on the asphalt using bits of old garbage he found behind the gas station. “All right, here! We gather here!”

In a few moments, all six individuals: Holly, Mimi, Evan, Tamaki, Akemi and the boy were standing inside the circle. Akemi’s briefcase was in her hand, while the boy held her forearm. Holly had Mimi on one side and Tamaki on the other. She glanced to see that everyone was already holding hands.

“Don’t let go, Holly,” Mimi reminded earnestly.

In Holly’s mind, a question came too late, but she asked anyway, “Why aren’t we using the Rabbit Hole?”

“We have reasons,” was all that Mimi answered. Before Holly could press on, there was a blinding flash, the unpleasant sensation of having her body being fragmented into atom-sized particles, and then she felt herself coming together again. Her feet hit solid ground, and she lost her balance. But the hands holding hers stopped her from falling. Her vision returning, the world appeared to spin. It felt like motion sickness.

That was when Akemi’s briefcase appeared in front of Holly’s face and fell on her toes. Holly yelped and hopped on one foot, tears streaming. “Ow!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Akemi hurried to check the damage. “Wha… Why does everything I let go hit you?”

It appeared that they were now on a mountain slope as gray as the sky.

“Here we are, the gate is just…” Mimi’s sentence died as she saw what was waiting for them.

As large as a hellish train, the abomination was spewing sooty smoke from its mouth.

It looked like an armored caterpillar modified to fit into a horror film. Instead of wings, between every joint, humanlike arms with many elbows jutted out. It waddled forward with stubby legs that extended from every segment. Its head, meanwhile, looked human, just pitch black like its entire body and having needle-sharp teeth. Countless glowing red orbs were blinking at random, scattered on all the wrong places. Gobs of drool leaked out of its maw, as thick as vomit. It unhinged its jaw and gurgled.

A dreadful scream filled everyone’s mind. Holly pressed her hands on her ears, trying to ward it off.

And there, sitting on something large and invisible was the girl, the Laughing Dead Holly met the night before. She recognized it, the childlike body, the blonde hair, even the bloody eye socket. She addressed them with a mocking drawl, “Weeeelcooooooome… I’ll be your doorkeeper for todaaaaayyyy…” As she spoke, wisps of smoke escaped her mouth.

“She’s sitting on the gate!” Mimi yelled.

Evan made an almost unperceivable nod. “You handle the Laughing Dead!”

Evan was quick to make his sword materialize. Mimi followed, the guns reappearing in her hands.

The Laughing Dead only swung her feet playfully as Mimi fired shot after shot at her. The bullets were blocked by an invisible barrier. Just as it broke with a crash, the blonde launched herself at Mimi, cackling, her tattered cloak flapping. Mimi continued to shoot relentlessly. And just as the Laughing Dead reached her, extending a hand that became knife-like claws, Mimi reacted with a speedy kick. Audible crack of bones followed. But the blonde’s laugh did not falter.

Meanwhile, on Evan’s side, the Agony picked up speed fast, like a train. Evan used his sword like a pole vaulter, right as the monster ran into it face first. The blade exploded in a white flash, just as the monstrosity got sliced into roughly symmetrical halves, but the cut stopped somewhere in the middle, so the monster ended up being a grotesque letter ‘Y’. Despite that, one of the flailing arms caught Evan in its grip. He yelled in pain. It tried to crush him.