All Hallow's Eve

[adstringendummod]

"Be perfect, make it otherwise"
For the past week it's felt like there was something lurking just outside your line of vision, that the shadows cast by the cheerfully colored trees were darker than they should be, and the creaking and groaning of old buildings louder and more ominous than they ever were before. But it’s all just your imagination, isn’t it? Or maybe the Animus messing with your mind, like they have so many times before. Just a week, then it will be over and you can relax instead of jumping at every sound or flicker of movement.

After all, the Animus haven’t been so bad this month. Rainbow trees and overgrown pumpkins aren’t the most terrifying things, so it makes sense for them to make things a little… uneasy. Besides, the worst of them is gone, or at least, still away licking her wounds, right?

"Yesterday is torn in shreds"
Wrong. So. Very. Wrong.

"Lightning’s thousand sulfur eyes"
Halloween starts out like everything’s alright (for most people), but daylight seems to be disappearing just a bit faster than normal, even with winter arriving. And that feeling you’ve had for the past week or so? It’s a bit stronger, you’re just a little jumpier and everything seems a tad different. More… sinister, so to speak. It’s a trick, simply figments of your imagination, the Animus taunting you, or simply the calm of this past month making you paranoid.

But you just can’t shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen.

"Rip apart the breathing beds"
Then night falls across the city, and the lights that you usually use in the evenings just don’t seem bright enough tonight. It’s okay though, because the darkness makes the moons stand out more, and my, are they beautiful! Only… the white one’s beams drifting down towards you through the clouds makes it feel like you’re in some horror movie, and you’ve only just noticed how incredibly eerie a green moon is.

Especially when it’s shining down on the sight of those zombies from earlier in the month and skeleton dinosaurs clawing their way out of the graves in the cemetery. Or when you’ve got creepy, child-like giggling coming from the abandoned amusement park that appeared after the earthquake in January. You could have sworn that there were more stuffed animals on those dusty shelves earlier in the year…

"Hear bones crack and pulverize"
Not that you have much time to worry about that, because those trees and overgrown pumpkins are no longer as harmless as you thought they were. It’s what happens when they all come to life on All Hallow’s Eve! Creepy faces (some of which look like clowns to better match their rainbow foliage) and sharp, branch fingers don’t make for pleasant company, and you’d really best hope that the wind doesn’t blow too strongly when you’re within their reach… those leaves have become rather razor-like overnight. As for the pumpkins… Well, some still look rather normal (except for those crawling, strangling vines that creep along the ground and up the walls…), but the rest have become rather malicious looking jack o’ lanterns out for blood and seeking revenge for their brethren that have been made into pumpkin pie. Don’t be surprised if you come upon local wildlife with oversized gourds for heads, acting as if they've become possessed.

After all, it’s only fair for the humans to know what it’s like to have others wanting to carve them open, scoop out their insides and make pies out of them!

"Doom creeps in on rubber treads"
The coming of a new day brings no relief, not when the sun’s weak rays shine on the results of last night’s horror contrasted against the innocence of now faceless trees and pumpkins that certainly weren’t there the day before. Nighttime comes even earlier than the day before, until there is no longer a sunrise by the time the weekend ends. It’s complete and utter darkness that’s only broken up by the light of grinning pumpkins. Any light you manage to create ends up getting suffocated by the darkness surrounding you, your circle of safety slowly shrinking and shrinking as things prowl and hunt on the edges of it. It’s torturous, because though you might not be able to see them, your sense of hearing and smell has most definitely been heightened.

Putrid, rotting flesh and vegetation… Panicked shrieks and blood-curdling screams followed by sudden silence… In a city that is a mix of many, many worlds and times, who knows what horrors have been unleashed on the city?

"Minds unraveling like threads"

☠ Welcome to your ~*~PARTY~*~ citizens of Adstringendum! ☠

Note #1: Poem © Dorothea Tanning
Note #2: The Animus will not be providing any 'clean-up service' after this event
Note #3: If you have questions, please feel free to ask them at the calendar post