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pacifymebby · 9 months

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Love In a Haunted House

I wrote this for @zablife 's 2k celebration. Congratulations again lovely and thank you for coming up with this cool and creative spooky little idea for a celebration!!! This was lots of fun to write, I am so sorry it's so so long, I guess I got a little carried away!!! I also hope that I've done this right and its at least somewhere in the realms of what you were hoping for!!!!

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The Shelby Manor was everything she'd been warned it would be but it was also so much worse...

It had begun that very first night, the night of the welcome home party being held in your honour. The newly weds happily returned home from their honeymoon. Tommy and his beautiful - almost too beautiful - bride.

You had stood hand in hand whilst Arthur had made his somewhat awkward celebratory speech, wishing prosperity, wishing happiness and many, many babies, a speech which could have been written for anyone. A speech which sounded as though it had already been spoken once, for someone else, one of those other women had loved before he'd loved you.

You'd stood there at the center of the ballroom trying to ignore the clawing sensation of suspicious eyes trailing you, studying and scrutinising you. Every mumur which drifted to you over the music disturbed you, tugged at your own suspicions. The suspicion that you just didn't quite match up to the woman who had once stood where you stood now. Who had once been held by the hands which held you now, one on your waist, one on your cheek. The eyes which looked into yours, perhaps they searched yours for the echo of someone else.

Tommy had done his best to reassure you, he'd told you that his family were always suspicious of outsiders.

"We have to be careful angel, they know that, it takes them a long time to put their trust in strangers but don't worry..."

"What if I am worried Tommy?"

"If you are then you shouldn't be, they won't let you stay a stranger very long..."

At first you hadn't been certain what he meant by that, the glow of warmth in his eyes doing little to quell your nerves. However when finally you began to meet them you started joining the dots.

They were curious. That is to say they asked a lot of questions and even when they weren't asking a question their eyes shimmered and shadowed with them. Unspoken remarks, things they knew they didn't need to say. Even the little compliments they did give felt backhanded or riddled with hidden meaning.

From Aberama and the infamous Aunt Pol, whom Tommy had always talked so fond and so proud of, to Arthur, Ada, John and Finn... some of Tommy's treasured siblings, the ice had felt thick. They were all so much colder than Tommy had told you they would be. All of them icy behind their grey and blue eyes. Ada hadn't a thing to say to you that wasn't accompanied by a smirk. John had looked at you with the removed serenity of a ghost. That is to say he didn't look serene at all.

Michael, the cousin, had been reserved but his friend Isaiah had been charming, the warmest person in the room and the only person who offered you any kind of real welcome. But it was Isaiah that had started the trouble. Or at least it was the girl his laughter and summoned.

"There you are Fen, where's you sister?" Tommy had smiled at the youngest Shelby sibling as she wrapped her arms around Isaiah's shoulders and stood on tiptoe to rest her chin in the crook of his neck. Her eyes fixed on you, flickered over you and then glared cold and stubborn into your eyes.

You could only watch, struck with a shyness that Sylvia Gray was no stranger to. It happened all the time, especially when she was dressed as she was now - as if she'd just dropped in from a night at the ballet, her white tights shimmering, her silk skirt draped from her hips like wilting petals about to fall.

She had a grey, clouded gaze and when she let her eyes rest on you you felt a cold creep up your spine. Icy fingers on the back of your neck.

"Ask Bonnie..." she shrugged refusing to look at her brother. Her eyes unblinking, fixed on you. You tried to hold her gaze, tried to smile but that only seemed to make her worse because when you smiled her lips remained set, a thin line, her cheeks somehow hollowed, her expression stark. Quiet and uncanny.

You wanted to look away but you couldn't. It felt like watching two cars collide in slow motion. It felt like watching a man with a gun held to his head.

"Fen," Tommy coughed, "this is y/n," he said fixing his sister with a cold stare of his own. One which might have scared her once.

"Oh," she blinked, her expression changed in a heartbeat, her smile wide, her eyes shimmering as she clasped your hands in hers, "it's so good to finally meet you! You know Tommy didn't do you any justice at all, you're much prettier than he described..." it would have left you smiling had Isaiah not narrowed his eyes, it would have been a welcome warmth had Tommy not sighed and wrapped his arm around you as though to protect you from a chill.

"Don't worry angel, the twins are only visiting, they aren't staying long..."

"Oh," you said softly, saddened because Sylvie had so far, said the kindest words you'd heard all evening and the thought that the only sweet Shelby might be leaving in a couple of days filled you with disappointment. "That's a shame."

Tommy didn't correct you, only gave your hand a squeeze. He was beginning to wonder if all of this was a mistake.

"The twins are very defensive," he said, "they lost their mother when they were very.."

"Not spilling all our secrets I hope Tommy..."

Her voice was cold and sweet, like frost on the windows on the first winter morning. Her complexion was just as cold. She'd come out of nowhere but now she stood before you both like a waif. Her eyes cloudy and daydreamy, hauntingly distant as she gazed up at you and not at her brother.

You recognised the young man who caught her hand and tugged her back a step, his eyes looking between the two of you with what was becoming a familiar concern.

"Y/N's family now Fen, don't keep secrets in this family do we..."

"Only fools tell the truth in this family," she said her voice drifting in as though from far away. It was hard to imagine her as anything but the ghost of the dying swan you knew she was famed for playing.

"They hate me don't they?" You whispered to Tommy later. The two of you were slow dancing, your guests dancing just as slow and swaying as you. They surrounded you, moving in time with the music and yet their bodies were not enough to shield you from that clawing, unforgiving gaze.

The twins were watching you from across the room. Their eyes dark, gloomy and frosted over. They were holding hands, perfectly still. Their dresses wilting from their ghostly bodies. Their eyes followed you around the room, shimmering, haunted, threatening you quietly.

You couldn't understand how those two boys could stand so close. How they could hold their hands without catching a chill.

Yes, there was something haunted about the twins. Something which haunted you for the rest of the evening and for many evenings to come.

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The haunting began that night. Tommy had taken you to bed the way a good husband should. He'd helped you undress, delicate fingers undoing all the little ribbons and ties which had held you together all evening. He'd dropped to his knees as he'd slipped the fabric of your silk dress down your waist, bunched it up in his fists at your hips and then dragged it down over your thighs letting it fall in a crumpled heap at your feet.

He'd kissed you a thousand times, every inch of you touched, caressed and sighed upon, made love to you and made you feel loved. And then he'd held you, he'd fallen asleep holding you in his arms, his hand resting on your back as you used his body as your bed. Your hair splayed across his chest.

But where he had fallen asleep quickly, where he'd found home comfort and rest you had found yourself restless. Worried, taunted by memories of the evening. All of those suspicious glances, all of those feigned welcomes. The short smiles. The cold eyes. The stiff way his family had spoken to you.

John who had drifted around like a ghost. Ada who had distanced herself from you. Who hadn't let Karl near you even when he'd asked to dance with the "pretty lady in the red dress."

The twins who had gazed at you the way one might gaze at a doomed creature about to stumble in the dark of an unforgiving wood.

You had thought you might have finally been about to sleep, your eyes were heavy, the room was dark but for the pale glow of an orange harvest moon.

And that's when you heard it. The whispering.

You couldn't make out the words but you were certain that that's what they were. That someone was talking to you, a voice just behind you. Coming from the walls.

"Holy Mother of God,"

"Pray for us."

"Holy Virgin of virgins,"

"Pray for us."

"St. Michael"

"Pray for us."

"At Gabriel..."

You recognised the names of the saints listed one by one, the whispers overlapping and weaving in and out of one another so that you couldn't be sure how many voices there were. How many ghosts were watching over you then.

You reached for Tommy, tried to whisper his name but something silenced you, fear caught in your throat.

You tried to strain your eyes through the dark but there was nothing. You tried to reason with yourself but you couldn't deny what you heard. The litany of the saints being whispered through the walls, soft scratching voices in the dark, dancing all around the bed. All you could do was lie there, listening, gazing up at the ceiling, saying a little prayer of your own. One for silence. For peace.

You awoke the next morning with dry stinging eyes. Your head hurt. You couldn't remember falling asleep, you could only remember lying there, stiff and still, Tommy's warm body beneath yours unable to offer even a shred of comfort to you as your heart raced, thudding in your ears but never loud enough to drown those whispers out...

"You look tired love," Tommy frowned when you pushed yourself up and away from him, his hands caught your lower back and tried to hold you still and close to him. "Come love, settle down, we've nowhere to be, stay with me eh, make the most of this privacy whilst we've still got it..."

But all you could think about were those voices. Those relentless whispers which had taunted you all through the night so you frowned and shook your head and left your husband feeling cold.

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Three nights later you lay awake. Listening.

"All holy angels and archangels,"

"Pray for us,"

You lay on your back starring up at the ceiling through the dark, eyes burning and dry, stinging with exhaustion. Your husband sleeping peacefully beneath you, blissful and unaware of your torment. Of this nightly trial you were forcing yourself to endure alone.

"All holy orders of blessed spirits,"

"Pray for us."

Shimmering ethereal voices, ghostly, fae like. They wouldn't leave you alone. Always whispering to you through the walls.

It was an old house and you weren't stupid. You'd checked the wall for cavities, done your best to examine the bedroom in the daylight searching for any tricks which could be being played on you. But you'd found nothing.

"St. John the Baptist,"

"Pray for us,"

"St. Joseph,"

"Pray for us,"

You'd taken a Bible from the library and you'd scoured it for the words you could remember from each long uneasy night but your research was fruitless and every night since moving into Arrow House you'd found yourself haunted, lying awake unable to tune out of the sound of your racing heart and those frantic weaving whispers which tangled around your bed like a cloud of cursed mist.

"All holy patriarchs and prophets,"

"Pray for us..."

The morning after the second night at Arrow House you'd been lingering around the archives in the library, fingers skimming over the spines of books which documented the history of the local area.

"Taking a history lesson love?" Asked Polly who had been resting on a chaise longe not so far away. You'd turned to her, feeling shy, feeling silly. Trying to hold back the question on your lips.

"This house Polly... is it haunted?"

But the woman had only smirked, her eyes full of shadows, all these things she knew that you didn't. Things which perhaps Tommy's previous wife had known. Ghosts which perhaps she hadn't been afraid of.

"Aren't they all?"

You'd felt like a fool, welled up with shame for having asked. Welled up with shame for having been frightened now by Polly too. She'd looked at you and her smirk had remained, hadn't faded,hadn't broken to a reassuring smile.

She'd looked at you as though she'd already made up her mind about you. It took guts to be a Shelby. Guts which perhaps you just didn't have.

You'd stewed and sulked all the day long. Loathing yourself for scaring so easily. Loathing yourself for behaving like a frightened little girl.

Tonight, you had decided would be different.

Tonight you were too tired to go on, so exhausted that you couldn't bare to lie still and tortured any longer. So exhausted that you hardly even noticed your feet slip from the bed to the cool floor, your legs carrying you against your will to the window. It was as though you were possessed. Your ears burnt with the fear you'd carried in your soul all week, your cheeks burnt with it too. You were aware of your pulse rushing through you, could feel its relentless beat in your wrists and your neck. You could hear it in your ears.

"St. Peter,"

"Pray for us,"

"St. Paul,"

"Pray for us."

As you moved quietly across the bedroom floor you felt their voices lick at your bare arms. Cold fingers crawling up your neck. Spider silk touches tangling all around you.

You needed air. You needed to open the bedroom window. You needed to look out at the still night and remind yourself how the dark can play tricks on you. How the human brain can be oh so vulnerable to suggestion.

This could all just be a terrible dream.

"St. Andrew,"

"Pray for us,"

"St James,"

"Pray for us."

Your fingers curled around the window ledge as you struggled to push the panel up over your head. It was stiff, as if it hadn't been opened for years, and when finally it came loose the scrape of wood against wood made your skin bristle. A gado escaping you. You stood frozen, holding your breath. Trying to hear Tommy's soft snores. Trying to reassure yourself that you were still alright, that you were far more brave than you thought.

But when you tried to tune into Tommy's soft snores all you could hear was the whispering...

"St. John,"

"Pray for us,"

"St. Thomas,"

"Pray for us,"

And that's when you saw her. White glow beneath the moon, dress shimmering, moving gently with the midnight breeze.

A waif of a girl strung up on a wooden cross in the middle of the lawn. Her head hanging limp, her fingers thin and lifeless. A ghost scintillating casting a shadow on the lawn.

The sound of your scream seemed to come to you from far away, from somewhere outside of yourself as you let go of the windowsill and stumbled backwards knocking into the bed, your hands clasped over your mouth.

You hit your head on the bed post, a pain shooting through your lower back as you tumbled and someone's arms wrapped around you. A voice trying to hush you... a voice you could hardly hear above that relentless whispering.

"St. Matthias,"

"Pray for us "

"St. Barnabas,"

"Pray for us."

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"St. Luke,"

"Pray for us,"

"St. Mark,"

"Pray for us."

When you awoke you could hear them still. Your head ached and a sharp pain shot through you when you tried to use yourself up but you were determined not to appear weak and you could sense eyes on you.

They were holding hands. The twins sitting just across from you, gazing down at you where you lay on your back, head resting against the pillows.

"Oh," smiled Sonya, or was it Sylvie, today you couldn't tell, their eyes were glazed and cloudy grey identical. The cold way they watched you didn't match their smiles.

"You're awake, one of us should tell Tommy,"

"He's been worrying about you,"

You couldn't help but wonder why then they didn't move. Why Tommy wasn't there. Why both girls were just sitting there, holding hands, gazing at you as if you were a rabbit caught in a trap.

You did your best to hold their gaze but there was something so detached about them, their cloudy eyes, their sweet smiles, the way they moved in perfect harmony. It disturbed you, left you struggling to hide the tremble of your fingers as their wispy brown hair caught int he draft and moved delicately on a breeze. Reminded you of the girl you'd see on the lawn last night.

Finally Sonya stood. She dropped her sisters hand and drifted out of the room. You could hear her talking to someone in the hallway and hoped it was Tommy. You didn't want to be left alone with Sylvie for too long. Not when you were sure she'd not blinked since you had opened your eyes. Not when she was watching you now the way a spider stalks its pray. When she spoke you couldn't hide your start.

"We were praying for you, could you hear us?"

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After the incident in the bedroom things settled, not quite comfortably quiet but just enough that for a day or two you began to relax.

Tommy had hardly left your side because you'd bruised your back on the bedpost quite badly when you'd fallen and the doctor had instructed you to get a lot of rest. You'd hit your head badly too and so Tommy had gotten himself all wound up and worried about you. The doctor had said a lot of rest but Tommy had overruled and so for several days you were confined to your bed. Head propped up on pillows, the maids in attendance constantly checking that the new Mrs Shelby was comfortable. That you had enough to drink, to eat, that you weren't going to take another turn.

Tommy spent as much of his day with you as he could. He was sorry you'd had such an unfortunate welcome into the family. That your first week at the house had taken such a sour turn. But what concerned him most of all is that so far you'd not said a word to him about what had given you such a fright in the first place. He knew you, you were a smart, brave girl. You might have been younger than his last wife, you might have had less worldly experience but you certainly weren't frail, naive or stupid. And yet something had happened, something had scared you enough that you'd screamed and fallen with such a shock as to hit your head, as to spend a day unconscious but for strange, frantic mumbling as you slept. He'd asked you several times what it was that had given you such a fright, determined to understand what had really happened, but you were so conscious of sounding like a silly little girl that you daren't tell him what you'd seen. You didn't want him to think you were the kind of immature girl who believed in ghosts.

So you'd kept quiet and you'd tried to reason with yourself. Tried to convince yourself that you hadn't really seen anything at all. That you'd simply been tired, that you'd simply been tired to the point of exhaustion. Your mind had been playing tricks on you. You'd let your imagination get the better of you. Perhaps Polly was right, perhaps every house is haunted, but you'd never seen a ghost before and it would be silly to imagine you had suddenly developed The Sight now.

Aside from Tommy the rest of the family didn't pay you many visits. Ada was busy with Karl but Tommy always told you she'd asked after you at breakfast. Polly, he said, didn't come to this wing of the house anymore. You'd tried not to dwell on the shadow in his eyes when he'd said that. The men were all busy of course. But to your surprise and guilted dismay, the twins came to see you several times. Usually when Tommy was busy with work. They offered to sit with you so that you wouldn't be alone.

"You never know, she might tell us what happened..."

"Girls talk to one another don't they Tom."

It was on your sixth morning in Arrow House that you decided to ask them a question which had been niggling at you for a little while. You feared their answer but not as much as you feared their silence. The way they watched you wordlessly, the way they sat there silently, holding hands, starring at you. No, it was better to try and engage the strange girls in conversation that it was to endure their skin crawling silence. So you asked.

"Tommy said something the other day..." you started, "about your aunt Pol,"

"You look scared," said Sylvie.

"Does Pol scare you?" smirked Sonya. They were laughing at you, they weren't giggling out loud but you could see the amusement in their eyes. You'd heard twins often shared telepathy, you wondered if they were laughing together. If they were talking about you now.

"Tommy said she doesn't come to this wing of the house anymore..." you said, "he made it sound like there was... I don't know? Some kind of reason for that? Did she used to?"

"Oh," they breathed, their voices sighing in harmony, sending a shiver down your spine. Cold fingers on the back of your neck.

"She used to live in this wing..." started Sonya, her fingers laced with Sylvia's, locking and unlocking slowly.

"These used to be her quarters actually but then..." Sylvie trailed off, her voice blending with Sonya's, the two of them talking to you so seamlessly that their voices seemed to weave in and out and mist in the air around you. The effect was dizzying and you blinked back at them, spellbound.

"She... well, its a family matter really..."

"She's a private woman, likes to keep her secrets..."

"Tommy says we don't have secrets in this family..." You said quietly, your eyes flickering between them trying to keep track of which voice belonged to which girl.

"Only fools tell the truth in this family," they said together, their eyes going dead, their lips set in a thin line. Their fingers locked together.

"Something happened to Polly a few years ago..."

"A brush with death..."

"She hasn't been the same since... she..."

"Started hearing things... started saying she could speak with..."

"The dead... dark stuff you know, she stopped eating, stopped sleeping..."

"Said they were driving her mad because they never stopped,"

"From dusk till dawn always the same... all these poor souls..."

"Always praying..."

"What?" you tried to hide the way you shook but you voice wavered, your eyes a little wide. For a second you felt your heart beating in your throat. Had to struggle to swallow it down. "Did... did she ever see anything?" you asked but before you could finish the sentence they were smirking. Their eyes glistening with another laugh. You felt stupid before they were giggling. You felt worse the longer their laughter dragged out.

"Its shit y/n," Sylvie cracked a grin, her laugh sharp as she started giggling, her sister dissolving into giggles beside her.

"Total shit, Polly just wanted the newer wing, its prettier, warmer in the winter..."

"Like we said, only fools tell the truth in this family..."

But there'd been something about their story you couldn't ignore. Something in the way their voices had woven in and out of one another. How they knew the story so well that they'd been able to tell it side by side, finishing each others sentences. Lies are never told so seamlessly.

They left you then, told you you really ought to get some sleep.

"You look like shit y/n,"

"You look worse than Sonny on opening night!"

And you did, get a little that is.

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You must have drifted off sometime before lunch because the first time you awoke you found a tray with toast and eggs gone cold. The silverware had steamed and condensed and when you lifted the lid little droplets of water dampened the stale dish, left dew drops on the china plate. You felt a tinge of sadness then knowing that Tommy hadn't bothered to visit you at lunch the way he usually did. Knowing that even the servants must have decided to turn on you since they'd not even bothered to wake you. Just left the tray to go cold.

You fell back against your pillows and sighed. Your eyes returning to the window where the sun shone through the misty afternoon and flocked the curtains with little rainbows. It was when you closed your eyes that you heard it begin again.

At first you weren't sure. You'd never heard those desperate murmurs in the daylight, only ever in the loneliest hours of the night. But when you opened your eyes and let them flicker around the room, as your ears strained to hear the words, you grew certain. It was that nightmarish congregation again. Praying. Just as Polly had heard.

"All holy martyrs,"

"Pray for us."

You felt a wave of desperation, of hopelessness wash over you then. Realising that though you'd hoped your torment could be explained away with exhaustion and anxiety, you were realising that perhaps this haunting was in fact real.

That these voices were the reason Polly didn't venture to this side of the house. That perhaps all houses were haunted, just as she'd said.

"St. Sylvester,"

"Pray for us."

You closed your eyes, held your hands over your ears trying to block out the voices but you couldn't. You knew the litany by heart yourself, and no matter how hard you tried the whispering penetrated into your mind and weaved its menacing enchantment through you.

You were nervous now, yes, trembling. Your eyes squeezed shut.

"St. Gregory,"

"Pray for us."

When you realised your lips were mumbling along you clenched your jaw, bit down until you could taste blood.

"St. Ambrose,"

"Pray for us."

You couldn't tell if you were asleep or awake, head swirling with a heavy cloud, a fearful cloud. The litany weaving and lacing through from dream to reality.

When you opened your eyes it was daylight. The sun through the mist, rainbows refracted on the curtains.

Two girls holding hands at the foot of your bed. their heads hanging limp. They're white nightgowns moving just as ghostly as their whispy blonde hair, caught gentle sway on the draught from the open window.

"St. Dominic,"

"Pray for us."

"St. Francis,"

"Pray for us."

You watched them in horror, paralysed with fear where you lay. You wanted to scream but there was something in your throat, your breath caught there, a lump your voice couldn't push past. So you watched in silence, willing yourself to faint. Willing them to disappear.

"All holy priests and levites,"

"Pray for us."

You couldn't see their faces, couldn't see their lips moving but you knew it was them. You knew it was their prayer which had been haunting you now for days.

"All holy monks and hermits,"

"Pray for us."

Could they be praying for their sister? The girl in the garden strung up on the cross?

Your eyes grew heavy, your body dragged down into the mattress by some inhuman weight. As sleep dragged you returning to, or perhaps just leaving your dream you felt a doomed shadow grip you. A melancholy, a hysteria you couldn't hold onto.

The next time you awoke it was evening. The sun was a wash of milky orange on the curtains which had been drawn over the window. Someone had left it open and when the drapes billowed, moving like candle flame in the breeze, you shivered to remember what you weren't sure you'd really seen.

Those two girls at the foot of your bed. Ghostly. It was the only way to describe them. Spectre like with their shadowy translucence. Their haunted prayer which drifted back to you know. The Litany going on and on and on. A hushed whisper guiding you from your restless sleep to the real world. A hushed whisper luring you now too, even now when you were sitting up, certain that you were awake. Certain that this moment now was real, not a dream.

"Be merciful,"

"Spare us, 0 Lord."

A hushed whisper guiding your eyes from your trembling fingers to the foot of the bed where instead of two girls standing over you rested a heart shaped box.

"Be merciful,"

You frowned, curious, your gaze resting on the pretty pink box. It looked like a box of chocolates. A gift perhaps left by Tommy?

"Graciously hear us, 0 Lord."

You reached for it, leaning forward, a twist of discomfort in your stomach as you picked it up, felt the weight of it in your hands. You shook it but it didn't rattle.

A gift from Tommy, you weren't so sure, nervous to hope. Nervous to hold onto the glimmer of hope it could be a comfort from him.

You fingers took the note tag and spun it round. As you closed your eyes you couldn't help but join in with those whispered prayers...

"Be merciful,"

#peaky blinders imagines #tommy shelby x reader #peaky blinders x oc #Shelby sister

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shelbydelrey · 9 months

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An Evening At Arrow House Playlist

The air grew thicker with eeriness and each step was given with excruciating caution. Mrs. Shelby had barely survived the past room, how would she beat the next?

This mini playlist was curated for @zablife 2K Celebration 🤗 Enjoy yourselves with this songs while feasting on the spooky scenarios that the fandom is concoting ☺:

#zablife 2k celebration #mydarklee #peaky blinders

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chaosinkest1996 · 8 months

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Jealous Man

TW: Violence, Bad Language, Sex

The Characters of Scarlet and Heaven belong to @zablife and @call-sign-shark. @zablife's 2K spooky celebration has inspired me to do my own spooky collection of writing based on the seven deadly sins. This is my take on Envy. Sorry for the repost, it needed some editing.

Summary: Jack Nelson doesn't like the way Billy Grade has been looking at his wife.

“Do you consider yourself to be a jealous man, Mister Grade?” Jack asks softly. His voice is low and hypnotic, reverberating through Billy as he stares up at the man standing over him with a garrotte around his balls. “Not possessive? Not prone to bouts of passion?” Jack presses him as he maintains control of the sharp wire digging into Billy’s genitals. Billy, desperate and whimpering from the pain but unable to find words shook his head in the negative, praying to some higher power that the American would cease his torturous ministrations. Jack sighed at Billy’s response. “Then you’ve never been in love.” He stated reverently as he thought of Lilith. That took Billy by surprise. “You’ve been pining for someone, haven’t you Mister Grade?” Jack’s eyes bore coldly into Billy’s “Someone who isn’t yours.” Jack’s accent dripped with green possessiveness, the very prospect of Billy looking at Lilith, sending him into a fit of rage. Billy, victim to the dark expression on Jack’s features shook his head desperately, thinking only of making the pain stop.

“No. No. I don’t kno-.”

“Don’t fuckin’ lie to me!” Jack snarled, twisting Billy’s wrist and relishing in the crunching sound as it snapped. “You know exactly who we’re discussing. How could ya not?”

“Lili-”

“Get her name out of your filthy fuckin’ mouth.” Jack scowled. He hated it. He fucking hated it. When he’d seen the traitor staring at Lilith all the damned way through that pointless black tie event his pathetic brother in law had conned him into attending, he’d made up his mind to end Mister Grade’s life for good.

“She’s Mister Shelby’s sister. I would never.”

“But you want her…. I saw the way you watched her.” Not that he could blame the man in front of him. His wife was stunning; she’d looked like a goddess in that form fitting black velvet gown she’d worn. And then she’d charmed all those stuck up aristocrats with that delectable dark humour and intelligence of hers. He’d been so fucking proud that she was his wife. He shouldn’t have been jealous of Grade looking at his wife. but he couldn’t help it. He was. The green rage clawed at his chest and ate away at his insides at the prospect of Grade somehow catching Lilith’s eye. The terror that Lilith would take her love away from him and lavish it on someone else made him inconsolable. And the only thing that could fix his mood was this.

“I swear I won’t look at her ever again.” Billy pleaded, the whininess of his voice grated on Jack’s ears. What did Grade have to complain about? He’d brought this on himself. Did he actually think that Jack wanted to be here, doing this? Perhaps Mister Grade shoulda thought about that before he’d desired someone he shouldn’t have. “Just please,” Billy begged pathetically. “Please make it stop.” He foolishly places his good hand on Jack’s shoulder and Jack recoiled, pushing Billy away so he stumbled to the floor. Jack had been so consumed with his jealous outburst that he hadn’t heard the clicking of heels grow louder on the tiles as she approached. He didn’t smell her intoxicating scent of pomegranate and dark amber until she stood behind him. Billy’s eyes widened as he sighted Lilith before looking at the floor in fear for his life. He made quite the picture, naked and bloody and marinating in shame. Lilith didn’t even look at him. She was too busy looking at Jack. Perhaps she should have been surprised. But she wasn't. On the contrary, Scarlet had warned her this would happen. Her beloved sister had confided that she'd noticed her brother-in-law's behavior and sudden absences during and after social occasions....and Heaven had gleefully pointed out that there was always a gentleman, or two, who either went missing or never returned to the party....only to be found in unrecognizable chunks the following day. Lilith should have been appalled. But she was a Shelby....instead, Jack's psychotic protectiveness caused her heart to grow three sizes. He spun to see her and he didn’t need to ask how long she’d been there to know from her expression that she’d observed the better half of Billy’s inquisition. She thought it was adorable how she could make Jack look like a deer in headlights.

“There’s no need for jealousy, Mister Nelson.” She reached for him and he came to her, snaking his arms around her cinched waist. She looked up at him. “Jealousy implies that you’ve not already claimed me.” She cupped his cheek. “Am I not now known as Mrs Nelson?” He closed his eyes at her question and smiled.

“Damn straight you are, pussycat.” He gazed into her onyx eyes, hypnotised. She was like magic. Powerful and wicked and everything he could have dreamed of. Lilith caressed her thumb over the scar on his lip. Jack leaned into her touch, kissing the palm of her hand.

“There’s no one but you, Jack.” She whispered to him and he melted against her. He pressed his forehead to hers, nudging his nose against hers in an affectionate Eskimo kiss. His gloved hand ran along her curves as he held her to him. “But,” She paused, licking her lips. “If this,” She gestured to Billy, still victim to the wire wrapped around his genitals. She felt herself growing wet at the thought that Jack, her Jack - the most dangerous man in the world - had done this for her. She rubbed her thighs together and leaned closer to her husband. “is what you need to do in order to reassure yourself.” She pecked his lips with her own. “Then have at it, my love.” She stepped away, leaving his embrace and taking with her the warmth he had been basking in. She looked at Billy, who stared up at her pleadingly as though she was some kind of angel of mercy.

Besides, coveting me is the least of your sins, little spy.

Billy’s eyes widened in terror as if he’d heard her thought and his whimpers of panic rose to an annoying volume once again. Lilith rolled her eyes and stepped away, moving along to sit further down on one of the benches until she’d found her perfect view. This was probably the best death Billy could wish for. Jack would only torture him out of his needless jealousy. He looked so beautiful, she thought, towering over the traitor and unleashing that monster he’d so often held back as of later. Tommy would torture Billy for his treachery…as well as for coveting Lilith. Really, this was the lesser of two evils. Billy howled in agony, the sound was bloodcurdling as his genitals were completely severed from him.

“Thou shalt not covet another man’s wife,” Jack growled. “Look at her!” He commanded, grabbing Billy’s face and forcefully angling the traitor to look at Lilith. She stared at Jack, her breath quickening when his eyes locked with her in a predatory manner. The room was suddenly stifling as his lustful expression burned through her. “You can’t have her, Grade. You could never love her…. Not like I can.” Jack released Billy’s head and he fell to the floor, shaking and crying, his head impacting with the tiles beneath them. It seemed as if it would go on forever, Billy Grade’s pained noises grew numb in her ears after a while, and Jack’s knuckles grew bloody.

“That’s enough now, my darling.” She spoke so softly. So delicately that if she had been anyone else Jack wouldn’t have heard her. But it was Lilith, and her voice tore through him like a hurricane.

Lilith watched with doe eyes as Jack finished Billy Grade off, the man’s cries of agony finally halting, his body twitched before ceasing to move and his eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. Jack unwrapped the garrotte and wiped it on Billy’s towel before pocketing it. He stood, calm and predatory as he relished in the aftermath. A stone cold predator.

I adore you.

Jack looked up at her, his eyes carnivorous….and Lilith relished that these were the only moments she would ever allow herself to be the prey. He stalked towards her and her heart stuttered. She allowed him to push her against the wall, his hand wrapping around her throat in a way that made her knees weak. His lips claimed hers in a frenzy and she mewled into him. Lilith snaked her hands up his arms to push Jack’s coat from his shoulders. He released her for a moment, allowing the heavy fabric to fall to the floor. His lips attacked her neck, littering them with electric love bites, purple, red and blue. She cupped the back of his neck, her fingers delving into his beautiful soft hair and tugging it back ever so slightly. The noise he made was divine, the deep reverberation of the sound settling pleasantly between her thighs. He reached up and took her wrists in one of his hands, pinning them to the wall above her head as his fingers hiked up her skirt and delved beneath the fabric. Lilith smirked up at him when she felt him tear the fabric of her underwear, his long thick fingers delving into her without a second thought.

“Look at me, keep your fucking eyes on me.” He commanded, calm and controlled as ever when she closed her eyes at the delight she was experiencing. Her onyx eyes snapped open and collided with his. The only show of the effect she had on him was the sharp intake of his breath and the tent in his trousers as he continued to play her like a violin. Her own breath hitched when he released her wrists and she watched him slowly sink to his knees, lifting her leg over his shoulder. Jack buried his face between Lilith’s thighs and she threw her head back, hand cupping his head as he made her see stars. Billy’s corpse witnessed Jack make love to his wife over and over and over again.

*****

God he loved his little demon so fucking much. He stared, transfixed at her angelic beauty as she clenched around him, her face contorting in a way that tested the limit of his self-restraint. Sharing his life with her was joy, loving her was the most exquisite carnage. She was Paradise and killing for her was bliss. She cried out, digging her claws into him as she pulled him closer to her….as close as they could be and it still never felt close enough. She bit his earlobe teasingly, whispering to him just how good he made her feel, how much she loved him.

“Look at me, angel.” Jack tugged her hair, arching her head back just enough to take her lips with his own as she clenched around him one final time. Her onyx eyes pierced into his own hypnotic and wanton. “Fuck, angel. No one makes me feel like you do.” His hips stuttered as he found his own release. She pulled back, biting hard into his neck and his pleasure skyrocketed. Lilith embraced him, caressing his back as she felt him relax on top of her. She peppered his forehead with sweet kisses and hissed when he gently retreated from her. Jack looked at her adoringly and pulled her into his side as he settled beside her. Their clothes were strewn everywhere and Billy Grade’s still bleeding corpse was witness to them from the corner of the room. Lilith hummed, contented.

They lay in the aftermath, bodies painted in blood and entwined on the steam room floor. Her head lay against his broad chest and he caressed the skin of her back tenderly whilst placing kisses on her forehead. Lilith shifted, twisting her body into a more comfortable position so she could look at him. Her dark hair framed her face enticingly as she rested her chin on his chest, admiring him. Her dark eyes glimmered with excitement as her finger brushed over the bite mark she’d imprinted onto Jack’s neck. Her own brand. He groaned when she brushed her finger over it, flipping them over so he hovered above her, resting between her thighs once again. She’d bitten him so hard she’d broken the skin. There would be scarring, not that he minded of course. She smiled at him seductively, his blood staining the corners of her lips. He leaned in for more, thrusting inside of her once again.

“Jack….” She whined in delight, gazing up at him in a way that had his heart hammering against his ribs. The cosmic love swirling in her onyx eyes seemed to consume him and his control snapped, hammering into her. Jack would allow his demoness to do whatever the fuck she wanted to him, so long as she loved only him for the rest of their lives.

#peaky blinder fanfic #jack nelson #Lilith Rose Shelby #Heaven Shelby #Scarlet Shelby #Billy Grade #Jack Nelson x Lilith Rose Shelby #Jack Nelson x OC

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kmhappybunny240 · 8 months

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Mrs.Francesca Shelby

This is for @zablife 2k celebration. I based it off of the Hozier song Francesca. Hope you all enjoy. It's also great for spooky season. A little ghost haunting.

One shot. Thomas Shelby peaky blinders fandom

If someone asked me at the end

I'll tell them put me back in it Darling, I would do it again, ah, ah If I could hold you for a minute Darling, I'd go through it again, ah, ah I would still be surprised I could find you, darling In any life If I could hold you for a minute Darling, I would do it again, ah, ah

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Francesca Shelby stared down at Gina. The supernatural apparition took pleasure in Gina pain as she bled out on the stone walk way. Just below the balcony Gina fell from. She constantly felt the former Mrs Shelby eyes on her. That damned portrait . Telling her she didn't belong in this house. Didn't belong near her children. The evil bitch wouldn't leave her alone. She wouldn't even grant her a peaceful death.

Gina Nelson hated being married to Thomas Shelby. It was an arranged marriage by her uncle Jack. A bloody street war would have crippled her family and their hold in Boston. So she was offered up on a silver platter. Jack had a sister who would have been better suited but Gina had been going through a wild phase and was nearing thirty so it was decided for her. At first she was presented with Michael the cousin but his controlling mother pulled some magic trick with tea leaves and ran her out of Michael's home.

Then there was Finn. A foolish boy who was five years her junior. He was easy to manipulate. She fooled around with him a couple times and nearly got a proposal until some dumb girl named Billie showed up on his doorstep with a five month baby bump. Her uncle Jack nearly knocked Finns teeth out for the transgression that happened months before she stepped foot onto British soil. The next available Shelby male was Tommy oldest son Charlie but sadly he was too young. Only sixteen. The last man standing was Tommy. At least he was handsome and rich.

He charmed her some in the beginning of their short courtship. If you could call it that. Four dinners, two lunches, A tour of Birmingham, and a night at the opera . Where he proposed. She didn't understand what the story was. Something about lovers who were murdered by the woman husband and sent to a circle in hell. The lovers tried to find their way back to each other.

It was a tragic morbid story. Ripped away from your true love and suffering the ultimate punishment. Fighting your way through hell to be reunited. The emotions emitted from the stage got to Gina and Tommy she noticed. The small tear falling from the corner of his eye that she wanted to wipe away. A small ounce of hope bloomed strangely. She could reach him. As charming as he had been she didn't see his infamous steel mask fall once . Now there was a bit of emotion she could work with. She could get her way in the marriage.

As they were leaving the building he stopped her in the lobby. In front of hundreds of people. He gave her a great speech. She almost believed in his promise of devotion. The crowd whispered and few gasped were heard when he got down on bended knee. A gorgeous diamond was laid upon her finger. She said yes. Of course she it. She had rehearsed her reaction in the mirror several times. Coy shocked smile with a small hint of eye watering. Strangers of high society surrounding them, applauding.

Her wedding reception was a disaster. Gina would admit it was partially her fault. The majority was Tommy, his wretched Aunt Polly and those brats. All of their nasty behavior leading up to the wedding made her drink heavily at the reception. What sent her over the edge was that stupid Opera. It was his dead wife favorite. Polly made sure to dig that knife in her back soon as Tommy left Gina side. Polly told her of Tommy and his first wife getting married in London and sneaking into the Opera house when they were eighteen . The bastard tainted her proposal.

She doesn't remember much what happened after. She drank anything that was within sight. Sorted a few powdery substances and crashed into Charlie. Sent them both flying to the ground. Tommy had remained indifferent all day until his precious child was harm. Hell broke loose at that point. Tommy yelling in a different language, Uncle Jack berating her, that stupid kid staring at her through the door way. That was also her first encounter with the ghost of Arrow House. Mrs Francesca Shelby. Gina saw a woman with dark hair standing behind Charlie. Ada maybe? Her eye site was blurry and her head was starting to pound. A chill went down her spine, A whisper she heard.

"He's mine."

Then the woman was gone. She brushed it off because of her intoxication.

A month later she saw the ghost again. Giggling came from the forbidden bedroom. It was always locked. Only opened once a week to be cleaned by Mary the head maid. No one was to enter or they would face the wrath of Tommy Shelby. A few times late at night after visiting Tommy's bed she heard movement. Just her imagination is what Gina told herself. She didn't believe in all that magic and spirit crap the Shelby do.

"I wish papa could see you. He misses you so much."

Isabella, Tommy daughter, sat at her mother vanity brushing her doll hair. The little girl didn't talk much around Gina. An odd little thing. Now she seemed to be talking to thin air. Gina watched her through the door way hiding herself by the wall.

"I want to tell him but I might scare him. Aunt Polly would understand."

The girl looked up into the mirror and that's when Gina saw it. The dark haired woman. The one from the wedding and that god awful portrait. She was mimicking the girl movements with the doll. Gina was terrified. How was this possible. Ghosts aren't real.

"Leave my daughter alone."

Francesca locked on to Gina with palpable rage. Her eyes turned black then that Romani spilled from her lips. A curse it felt like. She was knocked into the wall and Mrs. Shelby was gone.

"I wanted to see mama. You know she lives in here."

Isabella cried in her father's arms. He scooped her up consoling his little girl. He handed her off the Mary . Gina hadn't realized the maid was next to her. She was too stunned.

"Don't you dare come near this room again. Understand?"

Tommy hot breathe fanned her face. Rage radiated off of him.

"Uh huh."

Was all Gina could get out. He pushed her out in the hall way and locked the door. Tommy jabbed his finger in her face.

"Never again."

He left her alone in the hall. What felt like hours was just a few moments of stand there is silence. A cough broke her out of the daze.

" My mother death broke him. He wasn't always so cold."

Charlie told her in sympathy, Having watched the small altercation. He never liked Gina. She was selfish, mean, and loved to spend money. She didn't make a big effort to get to know him and his siblings but in this moment he didn't believe she deserved that kind of treatment. His father was a very emotionally complicated man. His mom was the one who brought him out of his shell. She stopped the shovels and glued his heart back together. Tommy told Charlie once when he was younger. Francesca was the other half of Tommy soul.

After that night Gina became more paranoid. The noises got louder any time she passed the room. She could feel Francesca portrait eyes move and follow her as she climbed the grand stair case. Whispers in her ears when she was alone. Tommy wasn't helping her concerns when she voiced them.

"You should leave take a holiday. Visit your family back in America."

That's all he would say to her before leaving the house. She would see him sitting at the pond with a fire going. Small flashes of him hugging her. He was conjuring her up. That's why she was being tormented for months. This was his fault. She needed to put a stop to it. So she did or at least tried with gasoline.

Gina rummaged through the garage looking for the flammable chemical. Once she got her hands on the can she laughed. A mad laughter. Her sanity was being ripped apart at the seams. Angry whispers turned into screams as she got closer to the house. Her next stop was the kitchen. A sharp knife to pick a lock and matches. She pushed past several staff. Isabella crying in the background. Once she made it to the door she began to pick the lock. Violently, to the point of cutting her hand every time the blade slipped. Blood dripped to the floor but Gina didn't care.

The door popped open. Another unhinged laugh escaped her deranged smile. She stilled herself once she was in the middle of the bedroom. A beautiful bed with light golden silk sheets sat before her. She didn't get a full look the last time she was there. This should have been her room. Befitting of her status . Mrs Shelby. A large closet still filled with the finest clothing money could by. Multiple dressers with jewelry on top. French perfumes and makeup scattered across the vanity. The belongings barely touched.Jealousy coursed through her veins. This should be hers all hers. Not a shrine to the dead wife. As Gina set the matches and gas can down there was a noise in the bathroom.

Another room that made her angry. Luxurious claw foot tub ,marble sink , A built in shower.

"FUCK!"

A drinking glass fell on the ground shattering and scaring Gina. Cupboard doors flew open one by one. Laughter was in the air and it wasn't coming from her. She backed up to the sink when silence stilled the room.

"Why are you doing this? I haven't done anything to you."

Gina shouted. She felt a chilling breeze on her back. A slight cracking noise could be heard. When she turned around the blood drained from her face. The mirror was cracked and Francesca glared back. Her distorted face ready to kill Gina.

"This is my home. My family. GET OUT!!"

The mirror exploded and blew back onto Gina. Shards embedded in her skin. She tripped trying to escape slipping on her own blood. Screaming for help. She tried to open the bedroom door but someone locked it. She banged and banged. No one seemed to hear her. A fierce tug on her hair sent to to the ground. The ghost was on top of her strangling her.

"Please st. Sto op. Plea." Gina tried to plead struggling to get her words out.

"Nothing will separate us. Not you. Not death. Not even the heavens or hell. Tommy will always be mine." Francesca screamed out in anguish. Gina fought scraping at the hands around her throat. Suddenly the pressure was gone and Gina could breathe. She was writhing on the floor as air filled her lungs. She felt pain all over body and she tried to rise to her knees. The balcony doors opened with a slam as Gina crawled to the exit.

Gina face hit the hardwood as her leg was grabbed. She kicked and kicked. The ghostly hands had a deadly grip, dragging Gina towards the balcony. She dug her fingers in the floor scratch marks following. Screaming her throat raw.

"Stop it Please. I beg you please."

Snot and tears covered her face. She felt the cold stone on her flesh. Stars filled the sky. It was oddly peaceful. She was picked up. Her hair entangled in Francesca fingers.

"You cursed yourself on your wedding day. I warned you. He is mine."

Gina floated in slow motion. A dream like feeling before excruciating pain entered her body. Blood filled her throat. Choking her. She couldn't move. She was frozen and losing consciousness. Shouts for help could be heard in the distance. The evil ghost looked down on her with a wicked smile. Another dark figure passed through her. Tommy. Francesca holding Tommy . Caressing in a lovers embrace.

"I still love you in death. Nothing can separate us."

As Gina bled to death , Tommy continued holding his wife. His other half. His true love. She should have know nothing good could come from a marriage to a man who was able to conjure up his dead wife.

"I will crawl my way out of hell for you. My beloved Francesca."

That was the last thing Gina heard before her eyes closed forever. Much to Tommy and Francesca pleasure.

#thomas shelby fanfiction #peaky blinders fanfic #haunting #Gina Nelson #original female character #hozier #francesca #death #zablife 2k celebration #Gina Shelby #supernatural #aunt polly #finn shelby #michael gray #charlie shelby #jack Nelson #Spotify #tommy shelby #tommy shelby one shot

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ask-the-kitty-crew · 7 months

Note

(We've been doing the Spookyverse RP for a while now that idk if we're still doing it or we're going back- Or I'm probably just dumb lol XD)

(Not in a hateful way, btw! 🙏)

- Wolf (@minusgangtime's mod)

Well,I plan to quickly travel to the original gang to celebrate Shelby’s birthday and when I’m done with what I want to do with the spookyverse (at least right now) we’ll travel yo another spooky universe >:3

#ask #mod speaks

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andrewmoocow · 2 years

Text

Little Homeworld Life chapter 12: Samhain Night (originally posted on October 31, 2022)

AN: Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange? Come with us and you will see, this our town of Samhain Night. Wait, that can't be right! Well, that's the point! Since according to the Crewniverse, holidays as we know them like Halloween and Christmas don't exist in Steven Universe, I might as well produce my own versions of them that are basically the same. Anyways, let's gather 'round, pull up a chair, share some candy and start exchanging some spooky parody stories in the vein of the earliest Treehouse of Horror specials from The Simpsons. Now please be warned that some of these can get pretty dark, so viewer discretion is advised. Okay? Okay. Now then, let the Samhain Night horror begin!

Synopsis: The Gems share spooky stories and candy on Samhain Night.

Cast:

Kimberly Brooks as Jasper

Lauren Ash as White Topaz

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl, Yellow Pearl, Blue Pearl, Volleyball

Shelby Rabara as Peridot, Squaridot

Jennifer Paz as Lapis, Laz, Zuli

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Della Saba as Aquamarine

Charlyne Yi as Eyeball, Navy

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

Aparna Nancherla as Nephrite

Gal Gadot as Desert Glass

Maddie Ziegler as Serpentine

Courtenary Taylor as Beryl

Willa Holland as Albite

Hayley Kiyoko as Morganite

Jinkx Monsoon as Emerald

Kari Wahlgren as Pyrope

Melissa Fahn as Demantoid

Reagan Gomez-Preston as Jenny, Kiki

Brian Posehn as Sour Cream

Lamar Abrams as Buck Dewey

Susan Egan as Rose Quartz

Jackie Buscarino as Vidalia

Featuring Sarah Jessica Parker as Dumortierite

Cavetown as Diaspore

Bruce Campbell as Lord Ashton

Sam Raimi as Henry the Crimson

With Jonathan Majors as Father Black

And Alex Brightman as Zapupu/Onion

"OMG, Jasper, I love your costume!" White Topaz squealed as she gawked at Jasper's purple bodysuit and white cape with shoulder pads, topped off with a matching turban that had a dark purple dome at the top. "I think it really fits you!"

"Thanks, Peridot helped me make it." Jasper replied as she looked at White Topaz's red bodysuit with crab-like claws and a large scorpion tail at the back. "How did you get the scorpion tail, honey?"

"Had to get a little help putting this together." White Topaz answered. "Look, I can even make it move!" She pulled on a string to make it pivot up and down.

Tonight was Samhain Night, the spookiest time of the year when people and Gems alike dress up in costumes and travel around to collect candy. The citizens of Little Homeworld were no different in getting into the Samhain spirit as they threw a big party to celebrate the occasion.

"So then I said, "OBJECTION!", and the guy just responded by taking a sip of coffee before giving his rebuttal!" Teal Zircon, who had her hair slicked back and a blue suit with a golden pin on her chest, said to Desert Glass, who was dressed as a chainsaw-wielding cheerleader with a plastic head hanging from her waist.

"How's my phone booth coming along?" Serpentine asked Nephrite and Albite. Serpentine was wearing a brown pinstripe suit and carried around a strange torch-like device in her hand. Nephrite was dressed in standard pilot gear with a duck bill over her lips, and Albite had on a straw hat, a red vest, jean shorts, and sandals. The two of them were constructing a navy-blue phone box for Serpentine to complete her costume with.

"Coming along quite nicely, Serpentine." Nephrite answered while putting the finishing touches. "It may not be bigger on the inside like you wanted, but I think we did our best regardless."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's take a picture!" Albite declared as she pulled out a camera to snap photos of Serpentine posing with the box.

"Check it out, Demantoid; we're matching!" Beryl cheered as she compared his colorful shooting star sweater to Demantoid's pine tree cap and puffy vest. "Isn't that cool?!"

"I fail to see how we match." Demantoid replied bluntly as Pyrope towered beside her in a red biker jacket, black leggings with white boots, orange gloves with a metal bracelet, and her hair in a much shorter style. Just then, the Warp Pad started humming, and the Crystal Gems disembarked with their own costumes.

"Good evening, everyone!" Pearl greeted her students while dressed as an Amazon warrior in red and blue armor. "Is everyone having fun on Samhain Night?"

"I don't get it!" Black Rutile, dressed in a green cape over a metal suit of armor, declared. "What's the point of all the pumpkin carving and candy anyways? And don't give me any garbage excuses about how it brings us all together or something!"

"From what I've heard, this is supposed to be the end of the harvest season." Holly Blue replied while carving a pumpkin in a drill sergeant's uniform. "Hey, anyone seen Cat anywhere?"

"Last I checked, she was on the prowl for something." Aquamarine, who was wearing a strapless white dress and a matching bolero over it while her hair was styled into an off-center ponytail, responded. Just then, Cat's Eye leaped to the ground while dressed in a skin-tight catsuit with a hood with tiny cat ears attached to it.

"Oh, did someone call for me?" Cat's Eye asked while reaching into the pockets of her suit and grabbing some chocolates to eat. "I was just hunting for some candy, no big."

"Hey, speaking of candy, we got tons of it to share with everyone!" Amethyst exclaimed as she dumped out a giant pile of candy from a bag she kept in her gem, tucked away beneath her red and blue spiderweb-patterned suit. "And in addition, who wants to start telling spooky stories?!"

"Ooh, me, me!" various Gems began cheering as they asked to share their own stories for the night.

"Okay, one at a time, everyone." The fortune teller-dressed Garnet laughed warmly. "Now then, who wants to go first?"

"Hey, I got a story I'm sure no one has ever heard before!" Amethyst proclaimed. "Anyone want to know how I first joined the Crystal Gems?"

"We all know that, Amethyst." Bismuth replied, dressed in a flashy red and yellow costume with an X belt and red boots. "Rose found you in a Kindergarten one day and took you in, easy as that."

"You're right, Bismuth, but I'm not sure if we know the whole story." Lapis, wearing a blue top, brown skirt, black leggings, and brown fur-lined boots with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, pointed out as they gathered around the pile of candy.

"Yes, please tell us!" Peridot agreed as she sat down in her ratty tan-colored robes and pointy eyes hanging off her hair.

Extraterrestrials

Many years ago, long after the Rebellion had ended and Homeworld abandoned Earth, the Crystal Gems were left to defend Earth's inhabitants with their former brethren now forced off the planet. However, there was still the problem of their fellow rebels being converted into mutated beasts by the Diamonds' last strike upon the Crystal Gems. Since then, they dedicated themselves to containing the corrupted Gems and hoping they could find a way to save their friends from their fate.

One day, Rose Quartz ventured into a Kindergarten in search of any corrupted Gems to subdue. With the Rebellion over, the canyon was deathly quiet, almost like a graveyard or something. "Okay, Rose, just gotta get in, find some corrupted Gems, and get out." She said to herself. "Easy as that, right?"

Unfortunately for Rose, her mission wouldn't be so easy. Something let out a feral snarl that made Rose flinch in surprise before she dashed towards a hole in the canyon's walls to hide in. Just then, a corrupted Gem with a strange skeletal, biomechanical body, a blade-tipped tail, and an elongated head stalked through the Kindergarten in search of someone to make its prey. The Gem was bronze-colored and had a diaspore embedded in its forehead, indicating to Rose who the monster once was.

"Wait, is that Diaspore?" Rose gasped quietly upon recognizing the corrupted Gem outside. "Oh, that poor thing. She must be so scared and confused." Before Rose could go out and confront her former subordinate, she felt something tugging on the bottom of her dress, and she looked down to discover a little purple Gem trying to keep her from leaving. "Oh, hello, little Amethyst. Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to save you!" Amethyst whispered. "That thing has been going around snatching up Gems that came out late like me and eating them! And I think I might be next, so don't give me away!"

"Came out late?" Rose asked. "Did you not emerge on time like all the other Amethysts made here?"

"Yeah, I think there might've been a war I missed out on, or something." Amethyst replied. "Ever since I came out, I've just been hanging out here by myself, playing with all the rocks I can find until that thing showed up."

"You poor thing!" Rose cried as she scooped Amethyst up in her fair-skinned arms and hugged her tightly. "You must've been so lonely all this time! Don't you worry, I have some friends who will welcome you when I bring you home."

"You really mean it?" Amethyst asked innocently.

"I most certainly do." Rose giggled as she tapped Amethyst's little nose before flinging the tiny purple Gem on her back. "Come on, let's get out of here before Diaspore finds us."

"Is that what it's called?" Amethyst asked as Rose began checking for the Gem she once knew as Diaspore to leave. "I've just been calling it the alien."

"That's a funny name." Rose chuckled at the nickname as Diaspore slowly crept away, giving the two Gems enough time to leave the hole and begin returning to the Warp Pad. "This is called a Warp Pad, Amethyst. Gems can use it to get anywhere in an instant."

"You mean anywhere, anywhere?" Amethyst asked as she admired the Warp Pad before her. "Even to the further corners of the universe?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot someday." Rose said when she looked up to discover the Gem monster looming over them. "Uh, Amethyst!"

"What, something on my face?" Amethyst asked before she looked up to discover Diaspore as well. "Aw farts, it got us." Diaspore then let out a feral roar as it snatched up Amethyst and prepared to rip out her gem with its claws. Rose wouldn't stand for an innocent Gem having her life end so soon, so she retaliated by tossing her shield at Diaspore, knocking it out, and making it drop Amethyst into her arms.

"This site isn't safe; we need to run!" Rose yelled as she ran off with Amethyst in her arms. "Are you okay?"

"Only mildly traumatized, if that's what you're asking." Amethyst replied casually, even though she was nearly Diaspore's dinner. "Where are we gonna go now?"

"Any place far away from that thing!" Rose yelled in fright as the corrupted Gem formerly known as Diaspore got back up and charged at her and Amethyst. "By the way, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Rose Quartz."

"Nice to meet you." Amethyst greeted Rose. "Anyways, keep running!" And run they did. Rose and Amethyst seemed to have covered the entire Kindergarten to try and escape from Diaspore, but unfortunately, the corrupted Gem seemed to follow them no matter what they did. All the while, the two were followed by this mysterious figure with stringy hair and a blue kimono that seemed to do nothing to stop either party.

"That thing is relentless." Rose panted as she and Amethyst found one last safe place to hide from Diaspore. "I don't think we can keep running for long. It seems we have no other choice but to fight it."

"I thought you'd never ask!" Amethyst said while raising her fists, eager to fight Diaspore before Rose put them down.

"No, Amethyst, it's too dangerous for you to go out there." Rose objected in a stern yet motherly fashion. "You already told me how it's hungry for defective Gems, and I'm not ready to let someone die so disgracefully!"

"But I can still help! Just let me out, and I'll give 'em what for!" Amethyst responded desperately, but Rose didn't answer before she marched out to face Diaspore. "Wait!"

"Diaspore, I know you're in there!" Rose called out to her former soldier. "It's me, Rose Quartz! I'm sorry that I couldn't save you, but I didn't have enough time to gather everyone up! If you'd please stand down and let me talk, I'm sure we can make amends."

"Roooose." Diaspore snarled hatefully at Rose. "ROOOOSE!" Filled with anger at being left behind by her fearless leader, Diaspore pounced on her and let out a feral shriek, revealing a pharyngeal jaw inside her mouth to threaten her with.

"Rose, look out!" Amethyst cried from afar as Diaspore prepared to tear Rose's gem from her belly and turn it into its snack. Though Rose ordered Amethyst to stay put out of concern for her safety, Amethyst refused to watch while this beast killed the Gem who had treated her like a daughter. Reaching for her own gem, Amethyst suddenly pulled out a whip and gazed in awe at her weapon before rushing into battle. "Hey!"

"Hm?" Diaspore muttered as she confusedly looked at Amethyst. Rose gasped in alarm as she discovered Amethyst deliberately disobeying her commands to save someone she barely knew.

"Get away from her, you bitch!" Amethyst screamed angrily as she tried to throw her whip at Diaspore's neck and strangle her with it.

"Amethyst, what are you doing?" Rose asked as she took the opportunity to escape from Diaspore's grasp by rolling away from her.

"Saving you, that's what!" Amethyst replied as she wrapped her whip even tighter around Diaspore's neck. "You did the same to me!" With a final shriek, Diaspore poofed in a cloud of smoke from being strangled by Amethyst, leaving only her gem to be collected by Rose. "You're welcome."

"Oh, Amethyst, I can't thank you enough for saving me from her." Rose sighed in relief before sending Diaspore's gem away. "I think Garnet and Pearl would love having you around. You still want me to take you away from here?"

"Sure, I'd like that." Amethyst blushed at the offer before Rose took her tiny, purple hand and walked her back to the Warp Pad. And the rest, as they would say, was history.

"And that was the story of how I met Rose!" Amethyst concluded her tale. "I felt like telling this story to show everyone that despite all the messed up and shady stuff she did, Rose still cared for others."

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" a bronze-colored Gem wearing glasses and dressed in a white lab coat with a light blue undershirt and brown pants asked as she walked over to join everyone gathered around the candy pile, much to everyone's surprise.

"Oh, hey Diaspore, I was just talking about how I first met Rose." Amethyst said. "No hard feelings about being choked out?"

"Water under the bridge!" Diaspore chuckled before she looked around at the Gems staring at her in surprise. "What?"

"Were you always there and we just never noticed you until now?" Laz asked. She was wearing a blue coat with white fur lining, a darker colored shawl, and a matching Cossack hat to top it off, making her contrast Zuli's costume of a soft purple tank top with a blue swirl on her chest, a khaki skirt and hiking boots, and purple legwarmers over the boots.

"Why did you choose now to show up?" Zuli added just as quizzically.

"Well, I found the story to be quite adorable." Pyrope stated.

"Am I the only one not impressed with that story?" Black Rutile complained with a lollipop in her mouth. "It just sounds like you ripped off a movie or something. And what about that girl with the long hair?"

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Emerald added, just as confused. She wore a blue bodysuit with yellow and white body armor over her torso.

"Strange, I don't think I remember that part." Amethyst pondered as she felt a sudden chill up her spine, followed by the figure from her story looming behind her. When Amethyst turned around, however, the figure had vanished. "Uh, why don't we have someone else share a story?"

"I'll go!" Pearl exclaimed. "Now, to set the scene, if I had to describe my tale in one word, it would be 'groovy'."

Pearl of Darkness

"I'm being serious here; you need these refrigerators!" Jasper yelled at a departing customer of S-Hop as they were leaving. "Ugh, another one lost." She groaned. "Pearl!"

"Yes, Miss Jasper?" S-Hop salesclerk Pearl Williams asked her superior before she was tossed the keys to the store.

"You're locking up tonight, Pearl." Jasper said while putting on a jacket and preparing to leave. "And one more thing, don't go near the books section. I hear it might be haunted. Some stock we got recently might be the cause of that."

"Oh, I'm sure it's all just superstitious nonsense, Jasper." Pearl laughed smugly. "In fact, I'll go check on my way out to prove you wrong!"

"Well, don't come crying to me if you suddenly disappear or become surrounded by monsters." Jasper responded. "Have a good night!"

Pearl Williams lived a simple life as a blue-collar employee of S-Hop devoted to doing her job perfectly. She did everything her bosses told her to the letter and always carried an air of stoic professionalism as well. However, it was this night when she decided to inspect the store's books section that would change everything.

"Hmph, haunted book, I'll show them." Pearl arrogantly scoffed to herself as she marched over to check out the mysterious stock haunting the store. But if she would have to contend with supernatural forces, Pearl armed herself with a twelve-gauge double-barreled shotgun from the weapons department. As she slowly inspected each of the books, Pearl thought she had seen a ghost of some kind with long, stringy hair lurking about. But it suddenly disappeared before she could get any answers about who the spirit was. "Oh, you're just seeing things, Pearl."

Finally, Pearl walked over to the horror section of the books and found exactly what was causing these rumors. Looking through each of the horror novels, she discovered one of them that stood out as one she recognized a little too much.

"No, the Necronomicon?!" she gasped as she began getting flashbacks. She remembered how the mysterious book of the dead once hijacked a trip she took with some friends to the mountains as a teenager, and how she had to chop off her hand with a chainsaw to keep herself from getting possessed by the demons the book unleashed. "I thought I destroyed this thing ages ago! How did it wind up here?"

"Why don't you read it and find out?" a strange voice whispered beckoningly to Pearl before the Necronomicon opened by itself and found an incantation for its holder to read.

"Uh, Tar-tra Kanda-Estra, Hudsucker Proxy – Kanda?" Pearl read the incantation confusedly. After a few seconds of dead silence convinced Pearl that this might be a trick, a rift suddenly opened in front of her and began sucking her in. "Okay, I was wrong; this place is haunted!" Pearl cried as she tried to save herself. "Someone save me!" Unfortunately for Pearl, no one could help her escape from wherever, or rather whenever, she would be flung to by the Necronomicon, which was sucked in with her.

Moments later, Pearl woke up to a blue sky and a bright sun above her, relieving her that she wasn't sent to the bowels of hell by her curiosity. But what really baffled her were the men on horseback surrounding her. "Um, hello there, sirs. Could you tell me where I am? The last thing I remember was reading from that scary book and landing here."

"Where are you, lass?" one of the men said as a priest confiscated Pearl's weapons. "Welcome to the 14th century! And you might be the hero prophesized to save us from the forces of darkness!"

"Hero? I think you got it all wrong. I'm just an average blue-collar working girl trapped in the past." Pearl said as she was carried away by the horse riders and got an explanation of what she had just heard.

"You see, milady, legend has it that an everyday hero shall fall from the heavens and use the most unorthodox weapons to fight back against the beasts known as the Skeletites and save our land from the evil armies of darkness." The lead horseman explained to Pearl as they got closer to a large castle in the distance. "Perhaps in exchange for your services, our lord Ashton shall lend his assistance in bringing you back to your realm."

"Oh, I would find that most divine, sir!" Pearl exclaimed in delight while she was let off the horse and shown to the castle, where a king with shaggy black hair and a missing hand not unlike Pearl's own awaited her. "Hello there, sir, my name is Pearl," Pearl introduced herself with a curtsy. "And I have been brought here from afar to help your kingdom stop the Skeletite threat."

"About time too!" Lord Ashton exclaimed in relief. "We were in the middle of a war with Henry the Crimson when these creatures suddenly appeared and killed almost everyone! Coincidentally, they appeared around the same time you might've shown up."

"Speaking of which, I was brought here by a book called the Necronomicon, and I think it came with me, but now I can't seem to find it." Pearl explained, causing the king to contemplate her statement for a bit.

"Well, if you need to find this Necronomicon, I suggest you go look for the graveyard in the haunted forest." Lord Ashton revealed. "Once you find the book, speak the phrase Klaatu Barada Nikto to open a way back to your time. Got it? Good." He snapped his fingers, allowing Pearl to regain her chainsaw and shotgun. "In the meantime, we should be expecting some Skeletites coming to raid our castle by sundown, so best be armed. And also, we already had someone prepare you something to replace your hand with."

A blacksmith entered the scene with a mechanical prosthetic hand for Pearl to equip, and she was pleased to have two working hands again. "Groovy."

For the remainder of Pearl's stay in the 14th century, she spent her days fighting off the malicious Skeletites and researching ways to find a way home to the 21st century. Eventually, she would learn where the graveyard where the Necronomicon, and thus her ticket out of Lord Ashton's kingdom, was located. It was in the far reaches of the land where no soul dared to tread, but Pearl took that as a challenge and set out for the graveyard.

As Pearl trudged through the graveyard, she once again felt like something was watching her. Perhaps the same stringy-haired girl that haunted her back in S-Hop. Once again, however, the girl disappeared once Pearl turned around.

"I swear, Pearl, you must be seeing things again." Pearl murmured to herself as she continued her quest. "Guess that's what happens when you're stuck in the past for what feels like ages now." Just then, she heard something rustling in the woods surrounding her. "Who's there? Come on out!" she yelled while raising her sawed-off shotgun. "This is my boomstick, and I know how to use it!"

As if accepting Pearl's challenge, a large Skeletite emerged from the trees and let out a nasty roar. True to their name, the Skeletites were large, skeletal-like creatures resembling the fossils of prehistoric animals, and the one Pearl faced wouldn't look out of place in a pack of woolly mammoths. The Skeletite would soon be joined by its brethren, one resembling a ground sloth and the other looking like a saber-toothed tiger, all of them ready to attack Pearl.

"I don't care what you throw at me, I'm getting that book!" Pearl yelled as she cut off the mammoth Skeletite's tusk with her chainsaw before running for shelter, even with the Skeletites continuing to pursue her. Thankfully, Pearl was able to hide away in an abandoned windmill, where she hoped the monsters would forget about her and move on.

"Oh, as if things can't get any more hectic!" Pearl sighed in exhaustion as she leaned against a mirror in the windmill. However, the mirror wasn't propped up against the wall and fell to the ground before breaking into pieces. Pearl yelped in pain as she fell on her back on the glass shards. "Ouch, ouchie, ow! That stings!" Pearl got up, and the pieces began sliding off her, while she picked up a larger piece to contemplate. "I wonder what will happen next?"

As Pearl walked away, she got her answer in the form of numerous smaller Pearls climbing out of the mirror pieces and gathering around her with devilish giggles. "Hey, big lady, over here!" one of the Mini Pearls yelled with a wicked grin. "Think fast!"

"Who said that?" Pearl asked when she looked down at all the Mini Pearls climbing up her body while continuing their mischievous laughter. "Okay, I think I've officially gone insane!"

"How's this for insane?" a Mini Pearl asked before she and her buddies picked up a large sledgehammer to slam Pearl in the knees with, causing her to fall over while yelling in pain. "TIMBER!"

"AAAAAAH!" Pearl screamed in both pain and terror as she nearly landed headfirst into the fireplace behind her. As the Mini Pearls began laughing at her expense and high-fiving each other, Pearl got back up and cracked her neck before frowning angrily at them. "Okay, you little miscreants, you want a fight? You got one!"

"What are you gonna do, stomp all over us?" one of the Mini Pearls dared with an evil grin, only to quickly eat her words before Pearl tried doing precisely that. As the Mini Pearl tried running for her life, the bigger Pearl started singing.

"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down!" Pearl tauntingly sang while pursuing the Mini Pearl. However, the Mini Pearl thought quickly on her feet and, just as she was about to get crushed by Pearl's boot, grabbed a nearby nail to replace herself with. "London Bridge is falling d-OW!"

"My fair lady, ha!" four Mini Pearls finished the nursery rhyme in a mocking tone. Pearl began wincing in pain as she tried to slowly remove the nail without hurting herself, but that was easier said than done with her obnoxious smaller duplicates running amok and causing more chaos.

"I think I've just about had enough of you brats." Pearl growled as she got up and tried reaching for her boomstick. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't there. "Oh dear, you didn't!" she cried. "Let me guess, you're right behind me, ready to shoot me with my gun, huh?"

"Actually, no." another Mini Pearl answered, to Pearl's relief. "We're right below you." Pearl then looked down and discovered that the Mini Pearls had taken control of her gun. And it was aimed straight at her privates. "Surprise!"

"Classy." Pearl grimaced in disgust before she dodged the first shot and immediately ran out of the windmill, her escape complicated by the limp gained from removing the nail from her foot. The Mini Pearls stampeded out of the windmill in hot pursuit, plotting to continue their reign of mischief, while Pearl refused to give up on the Necronomicon, even when the Skeletites soon joined the Mini Pearls.

"Come on, just a little closer!" Pearl muttered as she kept fighting off Skeletites and Mini Pearls with her chainsaw, limping ever so closer to the graveyard where the book of the dead was sure to be found. But to her surprise, there was not one, not two, but three Necronomicons awaiting her in the graveyard. "Three of them?! Are you kidding me?!"

As the Skeletites and the Mini Pearls reached the graveyard, the forces of Lord Ashton arrived in the nick of time to hold them off. In addition, the armies of Henry the Crimson were there as well, having sided with Lord Ashton to stop the Skeletite menace.

"We'll handle everything from here; just read the book!" Lord Ashton urged Pearl.

"But which one?!" Henry the Crimson added hurriedly. "There's three of them!"

"I'm trying my best, okay?" Pearl exclaimed while two of the Necronomicons suddenly came to life. One flew around and tried to suck her in, while the other wanted to bite her. However, the third did nothing, implying to Pearl that it was the real book she was looking for. "Bingo!" Once she finally picked up the book, Pearl began to recite the incantation she needed to get back home. "Okay, hope I get this right. Klaatu Barada N-"

Suddenly, Pearl heard a gunshot ring out and swiftly dodged it, interrupting the chant as she saw the Mini Pearls gather before her. "Not so fast, Big Pearl." One of the Mini Pearls snickered. "We still got one last trick up our sleeves!" The Pearls then all gathered together and stood on top of each other to match Pearl's exact height, and then they suddenly merged together to form a replica of her. Only instead, this one was shamelessly evil. "Hey there, Good Pearl, my name's Evil Pearl!"

"So you're basically me, but evil?" Pearl pointed out the obvious.

"Bingo, you little goody two shoes!" Evil Pearl grinned. "Little goody two shoes, little goody two shoes!" Before Evil Pearl could go any longer, the regular Pearl took back her boomstick and fired at her counterpart's face, and snatched the Necronomicon before she began fleeing. "After her!" she commanded the Skeletites fighting Lord Ashton and Henry the Crimson's men.

The monsters gave chase, but Pearl was a far quicker thinker than the beasts realized. With the Necronomicon tucked underneath her arm, Pearl fired her boomstick at the Skeletites and tore them all down with her chainsaw. "Anyone else wants a piece of me?!"

"Just who do you think you are?!" Evil Pearl snarled. "I will swallow your soul!"

"Pearl Williams, housewares." Pearl responded coolly. "Come and get some." With a final charge, the two Pearls swung their chainsaws at each other in their epic clash. While Pearl came out with quite a few scars, eventually, she emerged victorious over her doppelganger and had her buried by the windmill, while the Skeletites were destroyed once and for all. With Evil Pearl slain, now she could finally return home.

"Good work, miss." Lord Ashton thanked Pearl for her heroics. "For your show of heroism in the face of total peril, we hereby award you with this potion made using ingredients in the Necronomicon." The priest who confiscated Pearl's weapons earlier presented Pearl with an elixir to drink. "In just a few sips, you shall fall into a deep slumber and reawaken in your own time!"

"But what about the incantation?" Pearl asked, wondering if her quest was all for nothing as she took the bottle. "Eh, I'll think of it later. Now, bottoms up!" A few chugs of the elixir later, Pearl was out cold for quite possibly the next couple of centuries, though whether she'd wake up home at last is unknown.

"The end." Pearl proclaimed. "Hail to the queen, baby!"

"So then, what happened?" Morganite, who tied her hair up into a chonmage and wore a white robe for her costume, asked. "Did she wake up back in her own time or even longer than that?"

"News flash, I don't care." Eyeball rolled her eyes. She was dressed in a lime green hoodie and a blue hard hat with an M on it. "But still, where did that strange girl come from?"

"What strange girl?" Navy, wearing a red pinstripe suit and a balaclava over her head with a cigarette in her mouth, asked curiously.

"I think it might be the same one from Amethyst's story." Squaridot analyzed, unaware that the same ghost was hovering over her. She was wearing a pair of flight goggles, a baggy white shirt, and tight black shorts while carrying around a stuffed corgi.

"Well, if we're done plagiarizing, then I have my own story to tell!" Black Rutile proudly declared, only to be interrupted by Garnet.

"I don't think we should worry too much." Garnet tried calming everyone down as Pearl looked around for the ghost. "Now, let's move on to my story. It's a standard horror set-up, a bunch of rowdy teenagers fighting for their lives against a seemingly unstoppable monster. But there's a twist." She started flickering a flashlight below her face. "THE MONSTER IS ME!"

Nightmare on Diamond Pond

It was a warm summer's night at Camp Diamond Pond. A group of rowdy teenagers were camping there for the evening and decided to pass the time by telling each other scary stories by the campfire.

"I got one." Sour Cream said. "It's about this freaky witch lady who was trapped in a mirror as a way of escaping the Salem witch trials. One day, a boy finds the mirror in a pawn shop and accidentally sets the witch free because he thinks she needs a friend. But the witch was using him to escape and seek vengeance on Salem for persecuting her kind, so she stole all the water from the nearby lake and flooded the town!"

"Boo, not scary at all!" Jenny complained. "Anyone else got something scarier?"

"I got one, and it's based on real life." Buck Dewey proclaimed. "This is the story of the Elm Street Smasher. Legend has it that a psycho child killer haunts our dreams and plots to kill us all. It all started when someone didn't leave the door closed at an asylum, and thus the bloodthirsty Garnie Jason was born." He told his frightening tale. "She smashed in the faces of twenty kids in their nightmares before she was found out by the parents, who gave Garnie her just desserts. But even so, her spirit lives on after she struck a deal with some dream demons to become unstoppable. And who knows? Maybe she could be haunting us the moment we close our eyes."

"Wow, that was certainly better than anything I could come up with." Sour Cream declared as Buck finished his story. "Well, I'm turning in for the night. See you guys in the morning."

"Ooh, maybe we should stay up! What if Garnie comes for us?" Kiki jokingly suggested with a laugh, causing the other cool kids to laugh as well. "But in all seriousness, I'm a little worried about her."

"Ah, don't worry, it's just a story." Jenny assured her sister. "It's not like Garnie is real, right?" As the teens went to their tents for the night, a distinct silhouette of a woman with a square head and brass knuckles on her hand lurked about, ready to find someone to kill.

"Yeah, just a story." Garnie Jason smirked evilly as a stringy-haired girl appeared beside her. "Hey, do you mind? I'm going to kill some teenagers here." The girl nodded and abruptly disappeared, leaving Garnet to fade into smoke and enter one of the tents. What happened next would soon turn disastrous.

A few minutes later, Buck and Sour Cream heard Jenny scream from her and Kiki's tent, and they rushed to see what was up. To their horror, Kiki was lying dead on the ground with her face caved in and strange handprints on her neck, almost like someone had strangled her.

"Oh my gosh, Garnie might be real!" Sour Cream exclaimed. "Jenny, did anyone pop into your tent earlier?"

"No, I just heard Kiki choking to death!" Jenny replied. "We gotta call someone; call 911!"

"On it!" Buck said and tried to call for help on his phone. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to pick up. "Seems like we have a bad signal here. Or maybe…."

"Ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic word." Garnie Jason's voice taunted Buck as he realized what he was in for. "The number you have dialed cannot be reached. Please hang up and try again."

"She's onto us; we gotta run!" Buck remarked in terror as he tried to run for his life towards the camp's docks, but Garnie was in pursuit of him via rowboat. When she finally caught up with Buck, Garnie had an oar at the ready.

"Permission to come aboard?" Garnie smirked before she bludgeoned Buck to death with just one swing, sending him flying into the lake and leaving him to drown. "Hm, need to think of better puns."

Jenny and Sour Cream rushed down to the docks, where they found Garnie having already killed Buck, and thus they were the only ones left standing against this psychotic serial killer.

"Friends of yours?" Garnie asked the two surviving teens as she hopped out of the boat. "Apologies, they were trespassing on one of my favorite places to kill people. No hard feelings, right?"

"Oh, all the hard feelings, alright!" Sour Cream yelled defiantly and tried to fight Garnie with a fishing rod, while Jenny protested him not to be so reckless. "This one is for my friends!"

"I guess fishing season must be in." Garnie said coldly as she grabbed the fishing line with one hand and sent it flying back to Sour Cream, tying it around his neck and leaving him to hang on a lamppost, and then she turned to face Jenny. "Final girl, huh? How lucky you must be." She then began to slowly march towards Jenny, who immediately began making a run for it. What happened next was left unknown, but they both had vanished from the camp by the following day.

"The end." Garnet menacingly concluded, to the horror of the other Gems. "So, what did we all think?"

"Okay, I'll admit, that was pretty scary." Black Rutile confessed. "The way she ruthlessly murdered all those kids, ooh, it sends tingles down my spine! And what about that freaky ghost in there too?"

"I don't remember a ghost!" Garnet exclaimed as the ghost became clearer and frightened the Gems. However, there seemed to be something on her solar plexus that indicated there was more to her than meets the eye. "I can't believe it; the ghost was real!"

"I shoulda known there was something fishy about her appearing in all our stories!" Pearl added while drawing her sword. "Come and face us!" However, the ghost didn't seem to move, nor did it even acknowledge them as the sword Pearl threw phased right through her. "Hm, that's odd."

"What even is she?" Yellow Pearl muttered nervously while Blue Pearl and Volleyball hid behind her. Yellow Pearl was wearing a pink dress with a big red hairbow, while Blue was wearing a blue dress, and Volleyball was dressed in green.

"Maybe it's friendly." Blue Pearl tried reaching out to the girl, but the girl grabbed her wrist tightly, giving Blue Pearl a scare before Volleyball saved her.

"Is that all it's doing?" Volleyball wondered.

"It's just standing there! Menacingly!" Amethyst yelled. "What do we do?!"

"Well, if it's not going to do anything, then allow me to present my tale." Black Rutile proclaimed. "It is a totally original story that does not steal from any already existing movie. And I call it-"

The Black-xorcist

On a stormy night in Beach City, a tall, dark-skinned priest stood outside a house beneath a lamppost. He had been called in by a worried mother and traveled all the way from Dover to investigate her cry for help. After slowly walking towards the front door and starting to knock, the mother answered by opening the door. "Hello there, my name is Father Black. May I come in?

"Oh, thank you for coming on such short notice!" Vidalia sighed in relief. "It's about my little boy, Onion. He's been acting strangely lately since I bought that statue from the thrift shop."

"Now, hang on a second!" Amethyst cried out, interrupting the story and making Vidalia & Father Black look up at the sky. "You're choosing Onion? Wouldn't it make more sense if it were Steven since you hate him so much?"

"I may hate Steven, but Onion absolutely terrifies me!" Black Rutile answered. "I'm not even sure if he's human or not! Now let me finish." The story then resumed as usual.

"Children, am I right?" Father Black dryly remarked as Vidalia led him inside her house and up the stairs. "And you said it was the fault of a statue?"

"I'm not sure yet," Vidalia answered. "But if you want to know, just see for yourself." She opened the door to Onion's room. To her and the priest's surprise, he wasn't there. However, Father Black was completely undeterred as he stepped into the room. "Good luck, father."

"Hello, Onion?" Father Black called out for the strange boy. "My name is Father Black. Your mother summoned me here because she is greatly concerned for you."

"My mother?" a voice rang out across the room as Onion levitated into view, his mouth full of grimy fangs, a long, green tongue slithering out of his mouth, and bloodshot red eyes staring straight into his soul. "Well, yo mama really enjoyed my company, if you catch my drift!"

"You leave my dear mother out of this." Black stoically replied. "Now then, could you please tell me your name and how you came into possession of this little boy's body?"

"Oh, playin' the name game now, are we?" Onion cackled. "But since I'm such a nice guy, you can call me Zapupu. You may remember me for causing the following natural disasters, like the San Francisco earthquakes, the Yellow River Flood, Hurricane Katrina, or whatever gender reveal parties have nearly caused a societal collapse!"

"You fiend." Father Black cursed Zapupu. "How long have you been causing such death and destruction?"

"What do you mean death and destruction?!" Zapupu exclaimed angrily. "I was making dinner; it's what I've been doing since the dawn of time! Heck, you should've seen what I did to Pompeii!"

"Your chaos shall not go on for any longer!" Father Black declared as he picked up a statue of Zapupu that was resting next to a painting of the ghost girl. "Was this how you were able to possess him?!"

"Of course, after some schmuck bought that at the thrift shop!" Zapupu chuckled, making Vidalia hide away in shame. "So go ahead Blacky-Boy, hit me with your best shot!"

"With pleasure." Father Black smirked as he threw the statue at Onion, sending him crashing into the wall and breaking the statue.

"No, wait, I didn't mean it like that!" Zapupu cried out in surrender. "I'm a psychotic demon and proud of it, but this is a child I'm possessing here! You're a man of the cloth!" To save himself, Zapupu generated a pair of glasses to put on. "You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would you?" Father Black took the glasses off Onion's face and smacked him with them. "You hit a guy with glasses. Well played, big guy."

"May the power of Christ compel you!" Father Black boomed as he prepared to lay the hurt on Zapupu.

"And Father Black started beating the boy within an inch of his life to expel the demon!" Black Rutile ended her story in a surprisingly violent fashion, horrifying all her listeners and even the ghost girl as she went into excruciating detail on how badly Father Black beat Onion.

"Geez, man, calm down!" White Topaz yelled. "We get that you find Onion creepy, but do you seriously want to kill him?!"

"I don't know." Black Rutile answered. "I'm not even sure if he can be killed, to be honest."

"Well, that sure was gruesome." Pearl declared awkwardly. "Well, anyone else has a story to tell?"

"I got one." The ghost girl declared in a high-pitched voice. "My name is Dumortierite, though some of you may just know me as the Lighthouse Monster."

"Wait, I think Steven told us about you." Amethyst realized. "I kinda thought you were another Topaz. Plus, where were you this whole time?"

"That's the thing; I was an archivist." Dumortierite revealed as she presented her gem on her solar plexus. "I'm supposed to be in charge of gathering data, which is how I was able to enter all your wonderful stories." She then demonstrated her telekinetic and flight abilities by grabbing herself some candy to eat from the pile. "I was trapped in that lighthouse after being corrupted, where I was embittered by all the hatred and toxicity humans showed each other, even close friends."

"Yeah, that's bound to happen." Black Rutile proclaimed. "Now, go away so I won't have to listen to your generic sob story, Dummy."

"I said it was my turn!" Dumortierite yelled angrily, causing her eyes to turn red with fury and blood-red veins to appear on her body, but she immediately calmed down and continued. "When I was freed of my curse, I would be given a different curse—the curse of rejection. I felt alone and scared in this new world, so I hid myself away and tried going from town to town for a place to belong. But unfortunately, they all turned me away."

"Oh dear, poor thing." Pearl said as she gave Dumortierite a warm hug. "I can assure you; humans aren't all like that. They're just afraid of what they don't understand."

"Yeah, they're scared of what they can't control and all that!" Black Rutile commented sarcastically as she walked away. "Go ahead, Dummy, move in all you like, just don't get into any of my business."

"You're welcome to attend Dumortierite. Just keep an eye out on Black Rutile there." Garnet assured Dumortierite. "She's planning something big, and while we know she plans on accessing other dimensions, we have no idea what she'll do afterward."

Meanwhile, Black Rutile had returned home and pulled off her iron mask to reach for Rasputina's spellbook in her gem. "Now, let's see where I can find this Seer." She muttered as she continued to check its pages.

Later that night, everyone was standing around in a field presenting their costumes to each other, and Teal saw fit to comment on one of them. "Hey, Serpy, I really like your Inspector Spacetime get-up!" Teal complimented Serpentine's costume. "Which one are you supposed to be again? I always keep getting them mixed up."

"I'm the one who hates pears, FYI." Serpentine answered before turning to Desert Glass. "A cheerleader? How quaint."

"Not just any cheerleader, a zombie-killed sexy cheerleader!" Desert Glass proudly proclaimed. "What gave it away, the head?"

"What kind of cheerleader carries around a decapitated head?" Yellow Pearl asked. "Luckily, my costume is far less violent."

"And what are you supposed to be, Garnet?" Peridot asked about the fusion's costume. "Some kind of flying carpet racer?"

"Far from it." Garnet answered. "I'm actually a fortune teller with the power to generate fire, but I didn't have enough time to get a flame chicken."

"Well, I can see you all have wonderful costumes, everyone." Pearl declared. "Now then, anyone up for more candy?"

"Did you need to ask?" Amethyst replied with a smile.

This is probably the most ambitious chapter of any story I've written yet. Having to write four stories in one chapter certainly took longer than I thought, but I hope it was all worth it! Happy Halloween everyone, and stay tuned next week for the Christmas special to close out the season!

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