Chapter Text
Kevin couldn’t help but groan as two familiar kids walked into the shop humming to themselves. He and Rick just finished dealing with a rude and demanding woman and he really didn’t need this. He quickly got out from behind the counter and started pushing them back towards the door.
“Ohhh no! Oh no no no! No no no no no no no no! No!”
Pump protested and turned around to face him “Uh we just want our free candy cans-“
“Not today! You bring me SO much trouble!”
“When have we done that?” Skid having the nerve to look confused.
“I got nightmares about you. You gave me ‘sugar,’ got me attacked by your doll and not long ago got blood all over the place that I had to clean up all day!”
Kevin could feel the irritation in him rising. He didn’t really hate these kids per say, but dammit, their innate ability to attract trouble and bring it down on everyone’s heads while avoiding all consequences themselves pissed him off.
“Kevin it was fake blood” Pump stated matter of factly as if it made it any better.
“Fake blood or not, you always bting me trouble.”
“…can we still have our free candy cans?”
Kevin growled in frustration before grabbing a box of overstock candy that his boss told them to get rid of.
“Here!”
“Really?” The two looked at him, eyes sparkling.
Kevin simply pointed at the door and the two left.
“Come on Pump, lets go to that haunted house we saw!”
“Yeah! Sounds spooky!”
“Did you just give them a whole box?”
Kevin turned to Rick. “It was that overstock from the boss fucking up that order. He said get rid of it, didn't say how.”
Rick stared at him before shrugging. “Okay.”
Kevin glanced at the clock on the wall. It was an hour till closing.
“Look I’ll start cleaning up in here, how about you take care of those boxes of expired candy in the back? You may have to use the dumpster the next alley over though. The trash collector never emptied our’s last week.”
Rick simply shrugged again “Okay.”
Kevin wondered if the guy ever emoted in his life as he walked out the back door.
Kevin went through the usual closing spiel, making the shelves look neat, stocking, sweeping, storing the overstock in the back when the door bell rang.
Kevin suppressed a groan. It wasn’t uncommon for last minute stragglers to come in during the last half hour, especially on Halloween. He just hoped they wouldn’t take too long.
“Welcome to Candy Club” Kevin turned around “how may I help youuu??”
Kevin trailed off but he couldn’t help it. Before him stood a very large man, dressed as a devil with black pants and a red turtleneck. His face was painted red with some kind of matching bald cap with horns. But what really set him on edge was the dude’s creepy ass smile.
“Did you know that consuming human flesh releases large amounts of dopamine, comparable to when someone ingests cocaine?”
A chill ran down Kevin’s spine. “What?”
———————————————————————
Bob followed the two children from a distance. Enjoying the chase as it were before he went in for the kill. But right now there were too many people around. He watched from around the corner as they entered a candy store. They were talking with an obviously irritated store employee.
His stomach groaned at him, reminding him how long it had been since he enjoyed some real food. The clerk dropped a large box of candy in front of the boys who took it out of the store with glee.
“Come on Pump, lets go to that haunted house we saw!”
“Yeah! Sounds spooky!”
Bob grinned wider, so now he knew where they were headed. His stomach growled again.
‘It wouldn’t hurt to grab a bit of a snack.’
Bob continued to watch until the second employee left the store, waiting to make sure he wasn’t coming back. He only had moments to get his treat, so he better act now. He walked into the store, locking it once it shut behind him. The man clearly was too distracted to notice it.
He turned around to face him, a fake smile on his face.
“Welcome to Candy Club, how may I help youuu??”
The man trailed off and stared at him. Bob ginned wider.
“Did you know that consuming human flesh releases large amounts of dopamine, comparable to when someone ingests cocaine?”
“What?”
Bob stepped forward and the man stepped back, as if the pitiful counter he was behind would protect him. He launched himself forward and grabbed the man’s shirt before he could dance away. He let out a yelp and tried pushing his hand off.
Bob grabbed the man’s head with his other hand and slammed into the counter with a resounding crack. He cried out in pain as blood splattered on the counter, before Bob shoved him to the wall. He slid down to the floor, the gash in his forehead bleeding down his face.
Bob quickly stepped around the counter and was on him in a minute. The guy actually screamed this time, though his attempts to fight were weaker from having his head smashed. He looked over his meal, deciding what part to eat. He needed to go after those two boys after all.
“Let’s see. Arms are too skinny. I don’t really have the time to remove any organs. And a bit too hungry for just eyes.”
The guy below him shook. “Wh-what the fuck are you-“
His eyes widened. “Y-y-you’re-“
“A connoisseur”
His eyes trailed down to the man’s legs. He smiled, drooling dripping from his face onto the guy below him.
“I’ve always enjoyed the drumsticks”
He reached into his belt and pulled out his knife. He’d need a little bit of help cutting through to the bone. The guy screamed again.
“N-NO! DON’T! SOMEONE HELP!”
There it was the part he almost enjoyed as much as the eating. Though he needed to not squirm so much. A clean cut was needed. So he had to make him hold still.
Bob quickly stabbed the knife into the man’s stomach, blood splattering Bob’s face when the man coughed. He let out a low, guttural groan of pain, as he spasmed. He eventually stopped moving as much, and focused on breathing through the pain.
Perfect.
Bob raised the knife above the man’s right leg, right above the knee, before stabbing it in, wrenching it around to begin sawing through the flesh.
“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
The man’s screams were wonderful to hear, his own music to enjoy while he worked. He continued to cut around all sides of the legs while the man screamed. He had thrashed only for a moment, before his stomach bled making him stop with a gag. After his knife continuously hit hard bone instead of soft flesh, he put his knife back in the holster on his belt.
Digging his fingers into the fresh cut, he wrapped his hand around the joint between the femur and the lower part of his leg. And then he pulled, he twisted and he pulled the man’s screams almost drowning out the cracking noises from his bone before his treat finally came loose.
The man sobbed and gagged as Bob stood up, stripping his treat of its wrapper.
“This should tide me over till I can get those kids. I wonder if you taste sweet like candy?”
Bob sank his teeth into ankle, savoring the flavor as he walked out the back door. If he walked fast enough he could catch up to them at the haunted house. He flicked the lights off on his way out, so no one would stop and look inside.
———————————————————————-
Kevin wheezed and sobbed from his position on the floor. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears. That was Velseb, the escaped cannibal. Fuck he said he was following those kids. Who said they were going to the haunted house.
Fuck, Streber.
Ethan, Leon, Skid, Pump, everyone there was in danger!
Kevin knew he needed to call 911, an ambulance, anything, but his body barely twitched.
Something about “shock” rang through his mind as he coughed up more blood. Everything was getting fuzzy and he knew he was going to pass out from blood loss soon. Kevin fought to get his body to cooperate before he finally managed to get one of arms to grab his phone in his pocket.
His arm trembled and he struggled to lift it up to his face so he could call the police. The numbers blurred together as he tried to type in 911. By some miracle he managed to do it as a monotone voice drifted from his phone.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
Kevin opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was an almost soundless wheeze.
“Hello?”
Kevin managed a choking sound this time, but still couldn’t form words.
“I swear if this is a prank again! We have more important things to do than deal with prank calls.”
Kevin began to panic, if he couldn’t get so much as a ‘help’ out she would probably hang up. But before he could try again the phone was yanked out of his hand.
————————————————————————-
Rick had just finished throwing out the expired candy in the dumpster that definitely didn’t belong to their store, and probably wasn’t legal. But Rick didn’t really care. As long as it was done and he could go home he was fine with it.
As he trudged back to the back door of the shop, as Kevin had likely locked the front door now, he noticed someone walking out. It was a large man, dressed like a devil. He didn't know why but he hid around a corner out of sight.
He had something large and weird shaped in his hand as he took a bite out of it. A loud, squelching and crunching sound reached his ears. The man chewed on what he ripped off before walking back out to the streets. He dropped a piece of what he was eating on the ground on his way out.
He waited a moment to ensure the man was gone before walking towards the back door. Once he got up to the back door light, he could slightly see what the man dropped. Something white gleamed at him, and he realized it looked like the foot of a plastic skeleton.
Only missing several smaller bones and more, articulated, than plastic skeletons usually are. Rick felt dread settled in his stomach as hurriedly walked back inside.
“Hey Kevin?”
No response.
“You better not have left without me.”
As he walked to the door connecting the back room to the main area, he noticed the lights were off. And some kind of liquid was spilled on the floor.
“I know you didn’t leave me with a mess to clean up Kevin.”
And yet that pit wouldn’t leave his stomach as he walked to the door. He could vaguely make out a small, shaking light, like that of a cellphone. Rick froze as he stepped out into the store front. Kevin lay on the floor, struggling to hold his phone and trying to speak.
The lower half of his right leg was fucking gone, and he was surrounded by blood that had trailed all the way over to the back room door. Rick could hear an irritated voice on the other side of the phone accusing Kevin of trying to pull a prank when it was clear he couldn’t speak.
Rick quickly stepped forward and grabbed the phone with ease from Kevin.
“Hello, please-I-I need an ambulance! Now!”
“Calm down sir. I need to know the details.”
“THERE’S NO TIME FOR FUCKING DETAILS HE’S GOING TO BLEED OUT!”
“Where are you?”
“C-candy Club on 4-44th.”
“What are his injuries?”
Rick looked over Kevin’s barely responsive body. “H-head wound, st-st-stabbed in stomach.”
Rick swallowed down his nausea. “Most of his right leg is gone.”
“Help is on its way but you need to stem the bleeding.”
“H-how?”
“Tie some kind of cloth around the leg, tightly. Then hold thick cloth over the stab wound with pressure. Make sure he doesn’t move his head around.”
Rick looked around and found some aprons on the back wall that they used whenever they had to clean. It would have to do, he yanked them off and used the strings to tie around Kevin’s leg.
Nearby were some rags he was going to use for cleaning, but never got to. Grabbing then he pressed them into Kevin’s stomach to stop the bleeding as much as he could. He whined in pain, but Rick held him still so he wouldn’t get hurt further.
“O-okay.”
“I want you to stay in the line with me. Did you see who did this?”
“N-no I was taking out trash when it happened.”
“Did you see anyone at all?”
“S-some guy in a devil costume. He came out the back door and customers are never supposed to come out that way.”
“Vlsb”
Rick startled at Kevin’s voice.
“W-what?”
“Sir?”
“Vlsb, ve-vel-velseb”
“He’s say-saying Velseb.”
There was a long pause “are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Which direction did you see him go in?”
“Just back to the main street.”
“Ki-kiths. Ha-haund hows”
His words were starting to slur, making it hard to understand him.
“Haunted house?”
Kevin nodded slightly before Rick held his head still to make him stop.
“He says he was headed to the haunted house. It’s at that abandoned house they repurposed on Parkinson Avenue. The-there’s a lot of people there. A lot of kids will be going too.”
“I understand thank you.”
Flashing lights lit up the floor of the candy store as the EMTS banged on the front door. Rick set Kevin down gently before running to the door. He unlocked with shaky hands as they came in with a stretcher. They lowered it to Kevin and slid him on before lifting it back up.
The EMTS quickly went back out the door to the waiting ambulance. Rick’s hands shook, as the woman on the phone spoke again.
“Sir, is everything alright?”
“Am-ambulance is here. I-I need to follow them there, c-call other people.”
He hung up the phone before she could respond.
“You won’t be able to ride in the ambulance but you can follow behind in your car.”
Rick only nodded at the man as he climbed in the back and shut the door. Before he did he could see them hooking Kevin up to blood bags already, cementing how bad it really was. Rick walked to his car and climbed in, starting up the vehicle.
He doesn’t even remember leaving the lot, but somehow he found himself in the hospital’s parking lot. And then suddenly the lobby.
“Sir are you okay?”
Rick barely acknowledged a lobbyist was talking to him, he was suddenly really tired.
”I need you to sit down.”
Rick could feel himself being guided to a seat.
“Are you hurt? Is that your blood?”
Rick shook his head no, suddenly aware how red he was.
“Let me get you a rag to clean up.”
He could hear her walk away as he focused on breathing.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
He needed to call the others.
He should start with Streber.
But right now he just felt like crying.