Dr. Morbid's Castle of Blood (Masks)

by Hayden Thorne

  We all stepped back and looked around. The castle walls all around seemed to have come alive. One by one, skeletons broke out of their prisons and moved toward us. It was like being attacked by an army of the undead—though kind of boring-looking. I’d have settled for ghosts.

  And just like that, my stomach growled, and it sounded like it talked and said, “Christ’s ass, this sucks!”

  Chapter 10

  “Watch out!” Ridley yelled, and he stood in front of Dario, raising both hands in front of him. Then here and there, skeletons vanished inside force fields, though a number managed to avoid getting bubbled and came at us, waving their weapons. Whatever spooky silence we had earlier was now filled with groans, hisses, and bones clacking.

  “Keep zapping them, Ridley!” I cried out, my voice barely heard above the noise of CGI monsters and the archer’s arrows flying through the air.

  “I’m trying!” Ridley started running back and forth, “shooting” at oncoming skeletons.

  There were so many of them. I didn’t think that we’d make it. We were literally being ambushed by dozens and dozens of those things. I guess it made sense, seeing as how a castle was massive, and if its walls were covered with thorns and trapped bodies, being attacked by a big horde wasn’t unrealistic. The logic of the situation didn’t make it suck any less, though.

  Those monsters were harder to pin down. Ridley was red-faced and panting as he tried to zap as many as he could while punching at whatever came close enough for him to kill. Dario fought hard, though I noticed that he had to keep drinking health potions more often than before. He was up against skeletons with massive life point differences from his avatar, so it looked like he’d stop to refuel halfway through each kill. Trini’s archer did what she could, also running back and forth, shooting her arrows non-stop, though sometimes she was hacked at by an oncoming skeleton, and she had to run away to drink some health potion.

  For my part, I desperately tried to channel Legolas and reminded myself how elves fought with weapons, according to those DVD extras for The Lord of the Rings. I should’ve paid more attention to them, goddamnit. Okay, so I was being a total geek who was in over his head in this game, and there was no way I was going to do battle with an army of insane, demon-possessed skeletons and look like a graceful and kickass elf.

  “Oh, what the hell ever!” I snarled, running up to a skeleton. As it stopped and started slicing away at me, I fought as well as I thought I could with two big knives, alternately waving them and aiming for different parts of the skeleton, even managing a few martial arts turns for the hell of it. I mean, come on—I was on fire once I started, and throwing in a few cool moves added to my adrenaline levels.

  I also learned how to kick an enemy to force it back in order to rest for a couple of seconds or so, which turned out to be surprisingly helpful. It also moved the monster in the line of the archer’s fire, and it took a few hits, staggering toward me with some arrows stuck through its ribs. Pretty cool, actually. I just wished I knew how many life points were being sucked out of it with every arrow finding its way into its fleshless body.

  The skeleton I was fighting eventually died, exploding in a gazillion pieces of shattered bone—again very, very cool—and leaving a health potion bottle where it stood. I kicked it in the direction of Trini’s archer because she was the closest avatar to me. Then I looked around and found Dario’s knight getting pummeled by three skeletons at a time.

  The avatars were more vulnerable in the game compared to me and Ridley, so I ran toward the knight and planted myself in front of her while she jumped back in order to fish out her health potion and drink. The skeletons she was fighting with turned to me and hacked away.

  Man, I wished I weren’t so tired and hungry. But I fought as much as I could, given my advantage as a non-killable entity in the game, cutting away at each skeleton that I distracted from Dario’s knight. Using those knives worked well since I was able to move quickly and give myself time and momentum to kick a skeleton away, so I could focus on its buddies.

  I wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline, starvation, or fatigue—or a combination of all three—that made something click, but I suddenly remembered how elves would fight, and I started moving my hands in certain S-shaped and circular patterns. The crazy thing was that once I started doing it, I couldn’t stop, and for most of the time I fought that way, my face was frozen in an expression of shock and embarrassment.

  “Oh, my God,” I panted, turning around to fight the Elvish way, “I’m such a nerd!”

  What was even dorkier was the fact that moving my hands and arms as though I were dancing to Madonna’s “Vogue” actually saved me some energy. Okay, it might also be my geek side being totally inspired by the whole “channeling Legolas” thing, but in the end, I thought it was seriously cool. Embarrassing as all hell, but cool. So for the next several moments, I was like a make-believe elf prince kinda-sorta Voguing with a pair of knives, and I was rocking it.

  Maybe it was because of the style of fighting, but I was able to cut down those life points with less trouble than before. My weapons managed to find their targets without fail, not like when I was flailing away with that old sword I had, though maybe it was nothing more than Elf-magic at work. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised, seeing as how we were already all geeking out in a game, so how much geekier could it get, infusing some elf elements into the fight?

  Whatever. I could barely even understand how this worked out, but I sure as hell was starting to have some fun slaughtering. The only downside to my Ultra Nerd Moment ™ was that I didn’t know any Tolkien language, and all I had was “Ha!” or “There!” or “Suck this, asswipe!” instead of something more dignified-sounding from the old Elf-tongue even though I wouldn’t know what the hell I was saying.

  I was even able to kill one of the three skeletons before Dario’s knight returned to finish off the group. I kept looking around for the archer to see if she needed any help, but she looked like she was able to keep herself much safer compared to the knight.

  “Keep an eye out for health potions, everyone!” Trini called out.

  At this point, it was hard to break away and gather those things, which were popping up all over the place with every skeleton we killed. But at least Ridley and I worked together to give Trini and Dario enough time to claim what they needed and refuel before diving back into the fight.

  “Since you’re almost as vulnerable as the others, maybe we should switch places here and there,” I panted, running up to Ridley and helping him finish off a couple of skeletons with a few seriously stylized Elf moves. “Being up here in the front means taking most of the hits, so maybe I should stay here with Dario since I can’t be killed. You can back up Trini and zap away whenever you need to.”

  Ridley, who was now completely out of breath and beet-red from so much action, could only nod, slap my shoulder, and then run off to join Trini’s archer, huffing loudly. Poor guy. I hoped this stupid misadventure in the land of video games meant that he’d have something to show for it when the heroes got together for their usual search-and-rescue practice missions. I remembered Magnifiman nagging him before about his speed in defending people and also his confidence.

  I took my place near Dario’s knight and kept one eye on her and another on advancing skeletons. Most of them were still hiding inside Ridley’s force fields, which really sucked ass, because it meant we were nowhere near finished with those bastards. I hoped that Althea and the Sentries’ grand scheme would take effect, like, right now, so we could all catch a break.

  In between gulping air and coughing, I muttered all kinds of geeky stuff to keep myself going. “Okay—we’re up against Orcs. Those über ones, anyway. We’re protecting Helm’s Deep. Or whatever. No, the ring. Who the fuck’s got the ring in this sad group, anyway? Why can’t we just get him out of here, so we won’t be attacked left and right?”

  Here, there, and wherever, went the pair of Elvish knives (though I kind of wished that I h
ad special holsters or something to carry them in and whip them out when needed), and there I was, more and more sure that I looked like I was Voguing to whoever could see me at that moment. S-shaped move here, C-shaped slice there, a duck and a turn, and sometimes a kick thrown in for good measure. I mean—I could be my own hybrid Elvish and martial arts trainer. I guess the only thing missing was Madonna’s music, so I could at least use it as a guide for those “special” moves. This was, like, a gay boy’s RPG in its most extreme form.

  Note to self: beg and plead with the Sentries to use that memory device on everyone—and I mean everyone—when this was over because, God, I wouldn’t be able to live any of this nerd stuff down. Whatever I felt for Trini and Dario getting their brains zapped to protect the heroes’ identities was gone forever. If it meant requiring a lobotomy, so be it. Just—I did not want to be reminded of how I kicked monster ass in this Satan’s spawn of a game.

  The skeleton I was fighting with finally died, and I turned just as it exploded, catching sight of Dario’s knight stopping her fight and running off, most likely to drink another health potion. A couple of skeletons went after her, but I ran and planted myself in front of them, forcing them to fight me instead. Gummy bears. Man, I so needed them.

  “Althea!” I yelled after offing one skeleton and dropping one knife because my grip had loosened from fatigue and sweat. “Get your butt in here and help us out!”

  I dove to the ground and rolled—yep, another kickass move right there—and got the knife, stumbling and then falling back on my bony butt when my knees gave out, though I kept a death grip on my weapons. The skeleton I was fighting followed me, hissing and groaning, a couple of arrows in its rib cage, and raising a pretty nasty-looking sword that looked like it belonged to a pirate ship, not a castle. Maybe that’d be another stupid game planning error type of thing, but I didn’t have time to stop and think.

  From where I sat like a total loser, I gave up on pretending like I was an Elf-prince and starting swiping awkwardly at the skeleton’s kneecaps with my knives. Well, it sure as hell was better than nothing, as long as I was cutting down its life points. It stopped and loomed over me, hacking away at my skull and not showing much for its efforts, though I kept slicing at its knees and calves.

  “Man, I’m so tired,” I panted, pausing if only to let my arms rest for a moment because they were starting to lock up in their sockets. I dragged a sleeve across my forehead and looked around.

  The archer and Ridley were at a bit of a distance from me, and they were busy. The knight had taken her place again, and I saw her toss her sword aside, run, and claim one that appeared when a skeleton she was fighting died. Good for her—it could only mean that Dario had managed to earn enough life points to be able to use an advanced weapon, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the damage points were still at the basic level at this point of the game, considering we were still slightly advanced beginners fighting our way to the final stages, if that made any sense.

  I went back to slicing away at my enemy’s kneecaps till the stupid pile of bones finally exploded, and it was all I could do to drag myself across the ground, find some momentum that way, and force myself to get back up on my feet.

  “Sonofabitch,” I breathed, drooping, when I saw three skeletons being let out of their force field and coming straight for me. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

  Then just as those skeletons were about to swan dive and tackle me, the game froze. I mean, froze. Everything stopped moving—well, all of the monsters, anyway. I stood there, bracing myself, my knives at the ready even though I seriously didn’t have any strength left, and I was sure that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to kill them within our limited time.

  “What the..?” I panted, looking around and blinking away the sweat that continued to trickle into my eyes. Nearby, both the knight and the archer were also frozen in mid-battle.

  “What happened?” Ridley yelled, turning around where he stood and sweeping his gaze all over.

  “I don’t know! Everything just stopped!”

  He hesitated, looking around some more, and then ran over to me. He looked as crappy as I did. We were both drenched in sweat, barely able to move, and totally red-faced. “This is Althea, I’m sure,” he said after waiting for his breathing to slow down, and I nodded.

  “Hey, guys!”

  Ridley and I quickly whipped around and saw one of the skeletons that was about to come after me talking. Possessed by Spirit Wire, as usual, though in this case, because the game was frozen, it didn’t move at all save for its mouth. Or more like exposed teeth and jaws. It was fixed in place, its arm raised, its bony fingers wrapped around the handle of a wicked-looking ax. But its head had turned to face us probably because it was caught in that pose when the game froze.

  “Althea! What happened?” I asked, hurrying up to the skeleton. “No, wait—you can’t hear me. Damn.”

  “Actually, I can now. Listen, we can’t waste time here. The Sentries and I’ve managed to freeze the game and lock everything down for now, but we can only do it for no more than thirty minutes.”

  “That’s a long time, really,” Ridley said.

  “No, it isn’t. You have to go in the castle and look for the others. Have you ever been inside a castle, even if it’s only make-believe?”

  I frowned. “If it’s make-believe, that kind of makes the point moot, doesn’t it?”

  “Okay, whatever. Just trust me when I say that that’s not enough time. You have to search the castle and get the others together, so the Sentries and I can lock on to you as a group and get you the hell out of there.”

  “But what about the game?” I asked. “I mean, I thought we were supposed to finish it in order to get out of it.”

  “Screw the game. We’ve already messed with it, and whatever that guy said about finishing the game doesn’t apply anymore, but time’s still a problem. Go past that, you’re stuck in there for good. At this point, we need to make sure that you’re all together, so we can pull you out of the game and then destroy it.”

  Ridley and I looked at each other. “There are only two of us, Althea,” I retorted. “Our allies back there are frozen along with the rest of the game. How’re we going to find the others without their help?”

  “Follow the game, then! Keep moving forward, using the main road or path that you’re supposed to take to begin with, and don’t stray from it. I can sense the others, and while I don’t know where they are exactly in the castle, I can tell that you don’t have to move off the main path to find them.”

  “So they’re all okay, then?” I asked.

  “I think so,” Althea stammered, which wasn’t a good sign. “I mean, I can feel them in the castle, but my readings are weird. I know they’re in there, but vital signs are—uh—weird.”

  I looked at Ridley, my freak out levels skyrocketing. “What the hell does that mean? Are they okay, or aren’t they?”

  “I don’t know! They’re not dead or injured if that’s what you’re wondering. Just look for them!”

  Easier said than done. How the hell were we going to find three superheroes whose vital signs were “weird”? I didn’t even know what Althea meant by that, and it sure took me everything I had to stop myself from marching up to the nearest skeleton and slapping the holy heck out of it till its skull broke off from its body and exploded.

  “Okay, so let me get this straight,” Ridley piped up. “We’ve got thirty minutes to find the others, who’re inside the castle and pretty much in our, you know, line of vision or whatever, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And are the monsters in the castle just as frozen as everything else out here?”

  “Yep, they are, but I can’t keep them frozen for too long, and here’s one more catch. The moment you find the last person you need to find, the program unfreezes, and you’ll be under attack left and right.”

  “Oh, great,” I muttered, grimacing. “This was how my recurr
ing childhood nightmares worked. Put a foot wrong, and all the ghosts and monsters wake up and come after me.”

  “Dude, the game has to unfreeze in order for me to get you out. There’s no other way to do it. So you’d better go. Once you’re all together, I’ll sense that, and I’ll communicate with you again to make sure that you don’t wander off, separate, and screw everything up while the game unfreezes. Now go!”

  Ridley and I didn’t need another push. Without a word exchanged between us, we tore past the army of frozen skeletons. The gates to the castle grounds were partly open at that point, which most likely happened when the skeletons came alive. The big-ass rose briars were also gone, leaving the walls bare. But there were so many skeletons scattered all over, over half of them still inside force field bubbles. My skin crawled at the thought of those things coming alive to swarm the castle if we didn’t make it.

  “Thirty minutes!” I cried as we ran through a massive open court thing that was also littered with frozen ghouls. “How’re we going to find them in thirty minutes?”

  “God, I don’t know!” Ridley said, sounding desperate. “I’m too tired to run fast enough!”

  I wanted to stop and look at the monsters surrounding us more closely, but no way in hell was I going to be caught in that place with swarms of undead creatures coming after me once our time ran out. Whatever glimpses I had as I followed Ridley along a path of stone that was clearly marked for us—the stones were colored a light gray compared to the dark and blood-spattered, grimy floors of the rest of the courtyard—showed things that were the stuff of nightmares. They were all corpses lying asleep, just as it was in the fairy tale (save for the corpse part), and I figured that being alive and warm-blooded would break the spell, and all of those horrible things would wake up. They’d be something like zombies, for sure, but they gave me the worst case of the willies compared to that other zombie attack we had. From what I managed to see, they looked way too realistic and horrifying as dead people in the same way that the undead in my nightmares were realistic.