The Night of The Pumpkin Moon
Emily was an average young woman. She lived in a cul de sac and had a simple life. She lived by herself and had a stay-at-home job. October had just rolled around and it was any other ordinary Halloween day. People set up the last of their decorations and prepared for the onslaught of trick-or-treaters that were sure to arrive on their doorstep. Emily walks out into her driveway to admire all the decorations. She looks at all the other houses with their scarecrows and creepy trees. Then back to her house. A couple of zombies' hands reaching out of the ground and some cobwebs scattered around the front porch.
“Well it could be worse,” Someone behind her says.
Emily spins back around to see her neighbor, Zander. Zander wasn’t like everyone else. He moved into the house next door a couple of years ago but never seems to be home until the holidays.
“Oh hi, Zander!” Emily responds.
“Hey. I was just looking at your Hallows Eve decorations.”
That was another thing about Zander. He never could seem to get that it was called Halloween.
“Oh, yea! I didn’t feel like putting up too many decorations this year. I want to see everyone else’s houses once the Sun sets.”
“Yea… You never really decorated the last couple of years I’ve been here.”
“Just didn’t have the money really.”
“I see… Well, I hope you have a nice time!”
“I’m sure I will!”
“Yea… A nice time…”
Zander's eyes shift around nervously as he turns back towards his house.
“Welp I should get ready for tonight! Bye!”
“Bye…”
Zander speed walks back to his house and quickly closes the front door. Emily shrugs as she looks at the time. Six-o-clock. Only three hours until the trick-or-treaters show up. Emily walks back inside and prepares a big bowl of candy and a sign.
Four Hours Later.
The clock chimes. The time for trick-or-treating has arrived. Emily places her bowl of candy and a sign that says, “Take One Please” out in front of her door. Then she turns and walks out onto the street.
Everything was calm.
Almost too calm.
Emily looks around for anyone but finds everything abandoned.
“Hey! Where is everyone?” She shouts into the silence.
She walks to one of the houses and realizes that the scarecrows they had set up in front were gone.
“Why are kids like that? Stealing Halloween decorations.”
Emily shakes her head as she knocks on the door.
Nothing.
Suddenly Emily hears rustling in the bushes. She turns thinking it’s the neighbor’s cat, Molly.
“Oh, Molly! Thank goodness–”
Emily stops mid-sentence as this demonic black dog sprints out of the bush at her. Teeth bared snarling and going in for the attack. Emily dodges to her right as the dog rushes past her at unnatural speeds.
“What was that!” Emily gets out before it comes rushing back at her.
Emily takes off in a sprint to get away from the beast as it leaps and bounds. It quickly catches up to her. Emily bails off to the side once more as the creature sprints past. Emily finally catches a glimpse of the sky to see the moon looking demonically down at her. Its orange face grins wildly down at her.
“A Pumpkin Moon?” She asks, looking back to the beast speeding towards her.
She tries to get up but trips over her feet stumbling to the ground.
“Oh no!”
Emily squeezes her eyes tightly closed ready for her demise.
“Time to get up! I’m going to need some help this year,” A voice says.
Emily opens her eyes and sees a person standing in front of her dawned in armor, sword, and shield in hand.
“Who are you?”
The person chuckles, taking off their helmet to reveal Zander’s beaming face.
“Typically I can beat all fifteen waves before Halloween night but I got tangled up in other things this year.”
“Zander!? What do you mean fifteen waves?”
“I can’t explain now but maybe after. Here take these and defeat anything that tries to attack you.”
Zander drops an extra set of armor and sword and leaps towards an incoming Scarecrow.
“I’ve never used a sword before!? How do you expect me to defend myself?”
“You’ll learn quickly! Just trust me and I can explain after!”
Emily quickly dawns on the surprisingly light armor and sword and looks around for the enemies. She spots another dog sprinting toward Zander’s blind spot. She quickly jumps to intercept as she slashes across the dog's side. The dog yelps in pain as it adjusts its course to Emily. She tries to back up but is stopped by a tree creature. The creature wraps its branch-like hands around Emily’s shoulders as the dog leaps at her. Emily snaps off one of the hands and sidesteps as the dog flies into the tree creature. They both disappear leaving only some weird-looking wood behind.
“See you’re a natural!”
Emily looks over at Zander who is staring down at a massive tree. It was much bigger than the mere sapling she had taken down seconds earlier. Zander dodges as it brings one of its branches crashing down toward him. He quickly moves behind the creature and stabs his sword through its brittle wood. Then as soon as the beast appeared it disappeared.
“So is it over?” Emily asks as everything goes quiet.
“Not yet… We still have four more waves. So keep your guard up!”
Emily looks around as she hears an eerie voice echo in her head, “Wave Twelve…”
“Oh… I don’t like that.”
“Welcome to the club. I have to deal with that every holiday.”
Zander sighs.
The monsters rush at Emily and Zander once again. They slash and bash their way through progressing through waves thirteen and fourteen. Making it to the last wave.
“Alright! Here’s the hardest wave!” Zander says out of breath.
“I don’t know how much more I can stand!” Emily complains.
“We just need to slay enough enemies to complete the wave then it’ll be over and everything will go back to normal.”
Before Emily can reply, a massive Pumpkin Sorcerer attacks. Emily and Zander watch as more and more sorcerers and trees emerge as they slowly whittle down their numbers.
“I can’t take much more of this!” Emily shouts getting slapped by one of the trees.
“We need just a little more!”
Zander slays another tree and rushes over to help Emily. Emily uses the last of her might to stand up and slash the tree across the center as it disappears.
The voice echoes, “The spirit of Halloween penetrates the air…”
The moon slowly transforms back to its standard form as everything seems to revert to before the event started.
“Now… Now it is over,” Zander says, flopping onto his back.
Emily sits down and takes off the helmet.
“So… What was all that?”
“That was an event called The Pumpkin Moon. It comes from my homeland, but once I opened a gateway to this place, I guess it migrated since you guys have holidays that you put belief into, making the monsters so much harder to fight.”
“Woah… That’s weird.”
“You’re telling me. The world I come from is much blander. This world has so much more to do and to see.”
Emily looks around and sees everyone trick or treating and having a good time as if nothing happened.
“So why does everyone seem like they don’t notice?”
“That's because they didn’t notice. My world's events are invisible to those who haven’t talked to me, but you. You talked to me every time I came back.”
“I mean I don’t see you much and you are my neighbor.”
“Yea… That's why I was nervous about you looking around tonight. Like I said I can usually complete the event on my own before Hallow Eve’s night but I think I’m getting too old for this.”
“Well… Maybe if you teach me more I can take over when you retire. I’m still pretty young.”
Zander laughs.
“Do you really have what it takes to learn about my world?”
“Of course! I am very intelligent if you couldn’t tell.”
“Uh Huh… Well if that's what you believe then we can start right now.”
“Really!”
“Yea. First, you have to start with the name of my homeland.”
“What is it?”
“It’s called Terraria.”
The End
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