Boogieman Blues 6
No sooner had the vampire returned his glass to the table everything in the bar began to shake. A low rumble from beyond the establishment’s walls grew into a stampeding sound that vibrated the glassware and furniture all around them. The disturbance came to such a near deafening roar that the jukebox skipped a song and began blaring out Barracuda amidst the chaos, ushering a new patron into the welcoming confines of The Abyss. A monster who had made its way through the entrance, in a desperate fervor to escape the nightmare responsible for the commotion outside.
“Looks like someone barely escaped the Dreameaters,” the wolfman shouted over the noise when he noticed the strange looking creature enter the bar, out of breath, and holding the top of its head like it was trying to keep its brains from spilling out of its skull. “Who is that guy, anyway? I don’t think I have seen anything like him in here before.”
“That’s a kappa. Whether it is male or female, I do not know.” Dracula said after glancing at the turtle-like creature his friend had pointed out to them. He waited a few seconds for the tumult to die down before continuing to explain. “I met one of them in the earth realm during an excursion of mine some centuries ago.”
The wolfman continued to study the creature as it kept fussing with the top of its skull. “Why does it look like someone dropped a bowling ball on its head before filling the dent it made with water?”
Imhosen chuckled before Dracula replied. “That’s their life source. It is necessary for them to keep that indentation filled with water, otherwise they will dry up into a withered husk and perish for good. It is a cumbersome and hellish existence, if you ask me. By comparison, it makes me feel slightly less morose over my UV allergies.”
“Yeah, well, there is no EpiPen for sunlight or silver bullets,” the wolfman quipped while he kept his eyes on the kappa, after it had found a seat at an empty table. “He’s a freaky looking piece of work, either way. But, you know, if only we could take one of those dreameaters with us to the human world… Then we will see how ‘fair’ they would rate their ‘costumes’ with that level of horror in their faces.”
Dracula looked pensively at the kappa sitting by himself in the corner.
“I get what you’re saying.” The vampire drummed the tips of his fingers on the table. “But beyond them creating night terrors, the dreameaters are much too dangerous to unleash outside the Eventide. They would decimate the very fabric of reality, and then where would he have to haunt? No, there is no need to resort to anything so drastic, however…”
Imhosen gargled a wretchedly sounding noise at Dracula.
“No, not that either,” the vampire answered. “We already know how much humans fear the unknown, right? However, we are no longer a mystery to them. They know our strengths and weaknesses, which makes us less formidable. But the one thing they have going against them is their lack of understanding of the reality in which they reside. That their world is a much bigger place than what they can fathom within the safe confines of their immediate horizons. “
“Where are you going with this?” The wolfman cocked his head to one side.
“By ourselves, we are nothing. We need to unite all the creatures of the night; the revenants, the kappas, the Grootslangs, and Chickcharneys. We need to show humanity why they were once afraid of the night. Why their ancestors cowered in the face of their own ignorance: We need to make Halloween great again!”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about, hell yeah!” The wolfman raised his mug, and they all toasted to the prospect of the greatest season of All Hallows Eve that has ever graced the void.
“CHEERS!”
“Damnit, I spilled my drink!” The wolfman howled.
