Johnny and Tetsuya

Gabriel grumbled as he washed his hands, and Father Alvarez watched him intensely. Gabriel planned his escape and hoped that he wouldn't accidentally burn Father Alvarez.

"Sorry," Gabriel whispered.

   His right hand glowed, and a bright light shone in the room. Father Alvarez groaned and covered his eyes as Gabriel climbed out the bathroom window and the side of the chapel.

   He fell into some bushes and groaned as he made his way out. All the dead were staring at the front of the entrance, patiently waiting for Gabriel to come outside. He snuck past them, and once he was far enough he thought was manageable he got their attention.

  He shot out hot beams of energy from his hands and mowed them all down. They screamed as their flesh was cooked by the burning light and they died for a final time. The smell was atrocious. Their dead bodies were already decomposing, but the heat added to it simply exacerbated the smell of decay and blood.

  Candice came running from the back, screaming, and Gabriel bolted. He ran down the hill and towards the festival. The closer he got the more screams could be heard. Gabriel shot balls of hot energy at her as he turned back to look, but he wasn’t very good at aiming while he ran and continued to miss.

Gabriel kept running until he was deep into the panicking crowd, screaming and helpless. People pushed each other down, sacrificing strangers and friends as corpses tore into the living, and the smarter ones seemed to be laughing, spitting out hot black fluid and tearing off specific parts. They threw them into different piles, and Gabriel kept running, his fingers tingling as he passed a trail of sentient fingers, crawling across the ground, wriggling and burrowing into the dirt like worms.

He left a sanctuary for something far worse and hoped his gamble would pay off, losing her in the crowd.

He quickly ran into the main building, the shouts of laughter replaced with screams. The ground shook, he stumbled, and he kept running, refusing to look back, or else whatever caused the tremor would get him next.

Gabriel flung open the green cafeteria doors and inside were more people hiding, and he hid in the men's restroom. The lights were off and he sat on the toilet seat, hugging his legs up to his body, praying that he would be spared.

Candice followed him into the cafeteria and looked around at the traumatized crowd.

She turned on her charm to the first person she saw.

“Hello,” she grinned. “Have you seen someone? He has dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.”

  The young man looked at her like she had lost her mind. Candice was completely composed. She was wearing a sexy witch costume that left little to the imagination. The young man noticed there were faint streaks of blood around her mouth, and this only heightened his suspicions.

Something seems wrong with her.

Why is she smiling when everyone is dying?

He decided to lie.

  “No,” he said. “I’m sorry. Maybe he’s still outside.” Candice looked at him for a long time. She didn't blink and stopped breathing. She didn't need to. She did it fit in, a habit she cultivated over many years. They noticed when she stopped breathing.

  The young man was very uncomfortable and looked at the ground, his predator thinking of how she would cook him once she found her prize. After making him afraid and nervous, Candice smiled, loving the small ways she could instill fear in others.

“That’s okay,” she sneered. “If he’s outside he won’t make it anyway.” She left, and the young man was trembling, shaken by her words. He made the right choice, saving many lives.

  Light from the few street lights that were still on filtered through the glass doors of the cafeteria that led to the parking lot. People hid behind the cafeteria counter and tables with their costumed children and faint sobs could be heard as people tried to console themselves with bags of candy and assuring each other that someone had to come, anyone, any minute now.

  The young man was sitting at one of the gaudy green and brown cafeteria tables and looked at his friend.

“Johnny, we need to do something,” he said. “Most of these people don’t have abilities, and even those that do aren’t trained like us.”

  Johnny nodded, grim, his brow furrowed. “We should go somewhere else Tetsuya,” he suggested.

"We can't take everyone with us," Tetsuya sighed. "Let's just block the doors and wish for the best.

" Tetsuya grumbled as he quickly took off his clothes, hoping that nobody looked at his crotch.

   He grimaced as his black hair turned into fur and sprouted all over his body. He grew and grew, his eyes changed shape and turned from dark brown to yellow. He sprouted a long tail and small furry ears.

He was a black puma, and the children were delighted once they saw him, yelling out kitty, and I want one for Christmas.

  He didn't have enough control over his body to make himself bigger, but he was big enough to easily push the Cafeteria tables against the entrances while they still had a chance until more corpses walked in.

  He pushed the chairs and tables against the doors with ease and the onlookers became relieved knowing that they might be okay. Johnny stood to watch at the other entrance in case something happened, and once Tetsuya was done with one entrance he finished the other.

  Tetsuya tried to be quiet as he got smaller but it was very painful. It was easier to change than it was to return, and he was worried if he changed too many times he would look less human and more animal. Everyone with transformational abilities used them rarely, out of fear of no longer being able to change back.

  The children who saw let out an audible eww and he quickly got dressed, happy that he remembered to take off his clothes before he changed or else he would be naked for the rest of the night, and then he wondered, why didn't he just change back in the bathroom.

  Gabriel left the bathroom once he heard all the commotion and made his way into the dark cafeteria. He lifted his palm and a soft ball of light illuminated the room. Around the room he went, lighting it up and people smiled, thankful for the small gift.

Tetsuya ran over to him, happy that he was still alive.

“A short woman with long hair was looking for you,” he told Gabriel. “I told her you weren’t here…. She seems...off.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel mumbled. “You saved my life.”

Tetsuya smiled weakly and Gabriel shook his hand. “I’m Gabriel,” he mumbled. “I would stay but I can’t.”

“Why not,” Johnny asked. “This is much better than being out here.”

"I will just leave," Gabriel groaned. "Why isn't anyone trying to leave or calling the police?" Tetsuya and Johnny looked at him in disbelief.

"Where have you been all night," Johnny asked. "No one can leave. They trapped us in here with them."

Candice was telling the truth,

Gabriel realized.

We are all going to die here.

“None of our phones work,” Tetsuya explained. “That thing in the sky must have done something to the electronics. None of the lights work in most of the building as well.”

  Gabriel looked at the people whispering amongst themselves and thought of the parishioners hiding in the basement as well, fearing for their lives. “I can’t stay here,” Gabriel decided. “She’ll be back, and she’ll kill you if she knows you hid me here.”

  Tetsuya nodded, but he didn’t like his choice. “If you find out a way to leave, please come back,” Johnny pleaded. “Help us get them out of here.”

“I’ll think about it,” Gabriel admitted. “Just because I find a way out doesn’t mean I can take all of them, and even if I did, would all of them make it out alive?”

Johnny and Tetsuya looked at each other, somehow exchanging words without saying anything, and knew he was right. "Be careful then," Tetsuya sighed. "We have no idea when help is coming or if it is at all."

“At least take some things with you before you go,” Johnny offered.

A stranger gave Gabriel his backpack after he emptied his candy and Gabriel filled it with various objects he found in the back of the kitchen.

  He took out a knife and brought it with him, and broke off the end of a mop. He tied the knife to the end of the pole and he had created a horrible spear, but better a weapon than none.

He left through the entrance that led into the rest of the building, and they locked the doors behind him.

  "I think I should have gone with him," Johnny mumbled. His speech was muffled underneath his costume. He was lazy and searched online for popular Halloween costumes. He took a white sheet and cut out two circles. He drew a smile on the front and was possibly the worst ghost ever made.

  "Take that off already. I can't take you seriously," Tetsuya said.

  "I'm only wearing shorts and it's getting cold outside."

  "Whatever," Tetsuya sighed. "Just stay here with us. It's safer."

  Johnny took off his costume so Tetsuya would understand he was serious. He was wearing black shorts and green tennis shoes. He had blonde hair and brown eyes, and a hairy body. Even his eyebrows were thick, as was his short hair.

Tetsuya didn't wear anything. He didn't want to put effort into a costume and thought he was being edgy. His mop of black hair was only highlighted by his yellow eyes, a side effect of transforming too many times. In the back of his mind, he was worried that something else might change about him if he had to keep transforming throughout the night.

  Tetsuya wore a yellow polo and khakis, along with flip flops, a poor choice of shoes with all the chaos going on. He had a cut on his foot and kept wiggling his toes trying to ignore the pain. They both looked out of place in a sea of pirate costumes and zombie doctors.

Johnny hiked his shorts up, as they were slightly too big for him, and put on the bravest face he could manage to convince Tetsuya of his plan.

  "I should go out and help. I can get big! Then we can-"

  "You don't know how to stop! What if you hurt yourself? Or someone else!?"

  "What about them," Johnny pleaded. "How long until someone finds us in here? We have to get them out!"

  Tetsuya walked up close so no one could hear what he was about to say. "That guy from earlier had the right idea," Tetsuya whispered. "I've changed my mind."

"You can't just do that!"

"Why not! What if that crazy woman comes back!? We can survive longer on our own!"

  "Please don't leave us," a woman begged.

Their conversation was overheard and suddenly people started to scream and shout. No one wanted them to leave. None of them had powers except for Johnny and Tetsuya. Some of them became irrational threatening to kill them if they tried to leave.

"We're staying," Tetsuya screamed. "Just stop!"

  The mood was quite different from earlier before. Originally it was tense and sad. Now Johnny and Tetsuya felt the heat from many pairs of eyes on them, and they started to believe that maybe it was slightly better outside than in.

  The little orbs of light Gabriel left fizzled out, as he had walked too far from them, and now it was dark. People illuminated the room with their phones, the only use left for them now without a signal or internet.

Everyone was quiet, save for a few whispers, and both of them knew that they most likely weren't going to make it out of there alive unless something was done and soon.