Zelda (2009)
34 - Thriller"Party without me?" the evil witch asked. "That's not nice." She stood in the doorway, taking in the scene. She seemed very relaxed, her hand with the wand loose at her side. "And that in an ambiance that I can appreciate..." Slowly she walked in. Everyone but the two other magical people seemed glued to the floor as Zelda moved forward. "So you found a way to crash our party," Hilda remarked, stepping in Zelda's way. "Of course. I am good with things like that, little witch," Zelda grinned. The two witches were almost nose to nose, and neither of them had the intention of yielding. "Now step aside before I make you." "'Cause this is thriller, thriller night, and no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike," the iPod announced. Zelda grinned. "Did you hear that? It knows me." She calmly raised her hand, the wand pulsating with power. There was a grin on her face. Until something swept her away, hard and sideways. After a moment or two, a timid cheer rose up from the witches' coven. They thought Hilda had done that. Hilda however was as flabbergasted about the sudden change in Zelda's situation as everyone else was. "Suck an elf," she said. Zelda got to her feet. "You wench," she fumed, "you are going to regret this in a way that you've never regretted anything before!" Then she stopped and stared at something. "'Cause this is thriller, thriller night, there ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl," the iPod assured everyone. William yelled something. The witches screamed. The devil worshippers performed various things, from yelling and screaming to diving under tables and fainting. Hilda turned around just in time to see a scary creature step out of one of the black mirrors. It was not your ordinary scary creature. It was huge and dark grey with black spots that seemed to travel over an awkward body. It had eight arms. And forty eyes. It also was severely unaffected by magic. Hilda's attempt to do something to the creature ended when it took a slight swing at her, making her fly several dozen feet before she landed on the ground. "Oh, I like that!" Zelda cried out. "Do that again, big boy!" The big boy did it again. Zelda screamed, waving her wand, as she also took to flight without a broom. "They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side. They will possess you unless you change that number on your dial," the floating iPod shared its wisdom as it started swinging to the music. Footsteps sounded, coming from every side. The humans in the container-room huddled together, hoping for cover from each other and trying to stay out of reach of the large strange creature that now stood still where it had lashed out at Zelda. Hilda was on her feet again. Through the bond with William she yelled out at him to follow her, and together they ran off into a dark corner of the hall. Vivian yelled after them: "Hilda! Don't leave us here!" Some of her witches started to develop the beginnings of a panic. Buster and some of his group tried to calm the women down, until Zelda appeared again. The evil witch cast spells around, to the group and to the still unimpressed creature. Then thuds and muffled sounds came from the dark, followed by two figures shooting up into the air. William and Hilda had stored their brooms inside, for emergencies. This situation qualified as one. The footsteps, meanwhile, were drawing closer and closer, as the iPod informed the people that the foulest stench was in the air, the funk of forty thousand years, and grizzly ghouls from every tomb were closing in to seal their doom... Several voices rang out over the sound that the tiny music-player made: "Damn you, Stephen, we told you not to build this place on an ancient burial ground! You and your ideas!" It was as if the video clip of Thriller was unfolding: monstrous creatures and half-decayed bodies were slowly moving in. It was impossible to see where they were coming from, but the supply of them was staggering. Stephen uttered what supposedly was a battle-cry. He charged forward and started hitting at the ghouls and ghosts. Most of them fell apart with the first contact. That was something that made most of the others take heart and they also attacked the morbid invaders. Zelda had magicked up her broom and was flying near the ceiling of the makeshift cathedral, engaged in a battle with Hilda and William. The three were also doing all they could to avoid the lashings out of the forty-eyed creature, who could just reach up to where they were flying around. William had already been knocked off course and into a wall a few times. Magical protection had saved him from breaking just about every bone in his body. "Hilda! Dive!" he screamed as he was approaching the creature again. Hilda did not ask or look; she dove down in a near death-defying slalom to avoid the grabbing hands of the grey monster. Where she had just been, two shapes appeared. They had leapt up from the ground, paws and claws stretch out and ready to strike. They were on a collision course with Zelda, who had enough problems of her own already with one of the monster's hands yanking at her legs. As the evil witch fired off a lightning bolt at the arm that held her down, the two cats were about to seal her fate. On the floor, there was a fierce battle going on as well. A few tables and chairs had been hastily smashed up to supply the people with weaponry against the spooky army that kept coming. The coven-members were using legs of tables to defend themselves, while the devil worshippers were making efforts to reduce the numbers of the oncoming masses. Buster was having a ball with that, until a few skeletons were all over him, poking boney fingers in his ears, nose and mouth, making him stumble. Moving around became harder and harder, as there were bits and pieces of bodies scattered on the floor, and the layers of those were increasing. "Night creatures calling, the dead start to walk in their masquerade; there's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time," the iPod encouraged the fighting people, blurting out seemingly random bits of the song. The two cats reached their target. One hit Zelda square in the round chest, the other one clawed at the broom and wrenched it from under the witch, who fell down, into two of the hands of the grey creature. It was as if it had been waiting for her. The witch hung upside down, held up by the creature. One of its arms hung down uselessly, the arm that Zelda had fired at. "Let go of me!" she screamed. She swung her arms around, trying to get a clear aim at the creature with her wand. The creature swung out with one of its arms. Hilda and William looked at what was happening all around them for a few seconds. The two cats had disappeared from view, back into the darkness from where they had come. "I'll try to help Zelda," Hilda said. "You try and weed out those dead folks down there." William nodded and dove down, spraying waves of pressurised air through the ranks of dead people that were pressing closer to the humans. He did a great job. For a few seconds. Then a large hand, attached to a long arm, slammed him into a wall again. He crashed into it and fell down. He managed to protect himself for the impact with the ground as the broken broom fell from under him. "Holy Bejee-oompf." Hilda shot fire and lightning at the arms and chest of the creature. "Damned dragon balls," she cursed, "what are you made of!" All her spells bounced off, creating impressive but also dangerous fireworks in the confines of the container dome. "Do something, stupid witch!" Zelda screamed at Hilda. "It's going to tear me apart!" It was as if she had given the creature an idea. One of its hands reached out and closed around the hand she held her wand in. The wand snapped. The iPod hovered near her, mockingly. "So let me hold you tight and share a killer thriller!" On the ground, a very strange thing was taking place. The skeletons, ghouls and all other scary creatures were forming an impenetrable ring around the big creature. All the humans were pushed outward, their backs against the metal walls. All the candles that had been lit were hovering overhead, held up by some mysterious, unseen force. William, also pressed against a wall, tried to take aim with his wand, but there simply was no room to move and do something worthwhile. Every time he crushed a few dozen invading spooks, the open space was filled up in a matter of seconds. He knew it was a lost battle but kept fighting. Hilda was not facing better options: everything she tried was in vain. The creature managed to keep its back towards her more and more as the legion of dead people at its feet grew thicker. "And though you fight to stay alive... Your body starts to shiver..." The grey creature started walking, holding Zelda almost carefully in its big hands. The witch was screaming her lungs out, casting spells as fast as she could, threatening doom and destruction onto everyone. Hilda and William fought off the spells that bounced off the creature, catching and neutralising them before they would hurt any of the humans that had unwillingly become part of this extreme and unfair battle. The creature crushed bodies beneath its feet as it moved forward. It was only ten feet away from the black mirror it had come out of when it looked back for a moment. Its eyes caught Hilda, who was still on her broomstick. "You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, girl!" the iPod declared. Then it slowly fell down onto a carcass. The wire of the earbuds got caught in the ribcage; the player itself gently swung back and forth inside it. Everything stood still in the container-building for neverending seconds. There was no sound, no movement. All living creatures held their breath. Even Zelda had fallen silent. Then the creature turned to the mirror and jumped. The scream that came from Zelda echoed through the hall and ended abruptly as the creature took her away, into the mirror. At that same moment all the soldiers in the army of grave-dwellers collapsed and all the black mirrors shattered. Hilda and William cast protective shields in every direction, to prevent people from getting cut up by the flying glass.
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