There were only a few lights on in the
hallways, but other than that, the coast was clear. The adrenaline was pumping
in Vegas's body and, in a way, he felt awesome. Exhilarating! It probably
wasn't good that he got such a rush from being bad, but it was what it was. He
pulled a beer out of the pouch of his hoodie, cracked it open and started
chugging it. More awesome! He knew there had to be security cameras
mounted up all over the dormitory, especially the little lounge area with the
big screen TV. Magicians were known for stealing, right? As if half of magic
isn't about making expensive shit disappear. The guards were probably
half-asleep or jerking off to videos of the girls’ volleyball practice. Either
way, he prayed they'd be too preoccupied to care what he was up too. Once he
got outside, though, there would be other problems. The Tommy Walkers were
being placed around the school grounds. He remembered what Wesley had said
about them being created to
restrict unauthorized magic. Those Illuminati death machines were made just for
bad little monkeys like Vegas.
He felt the nice cool air blast his face as
soon as he opened the heavy double doors. The cold of this island was something
a California
boy like Vegas was not yet accustomed to. But, as he wandered around the back
end of the dormitories, he admitted that the Menzai nights were even more
beautiful than the California
nights. The sky was filled with stars and they seemed almost close enough to
reach for. He'd been on earth for sixteen years, but night and day was still an
amazing concept for him.
He wanted to break into Allen Allens’ lab,
but he had to make it halfway across campus to do so. The box carrying Vladimir was clutched to
his chest as he snuck around the back. He saw the guard station and ducked
behind a tree. Dwight was inside the booth fast asleep. Vegas wanted to conjure
up a spell to mess with him a little, maybe hex him a nice wet dream starring
Barney, one of the other guards. Shenanigans like that would have to wait
though. Vegas was on an important mission. He was gonna have to go stealth
ninja mode and creep his way across campus.
"So I creep…yeah-aah. Just keep it on da
down low…" Vegas sang the old T.L.C. song silently to himself, running and
ducking behind another tree. "Nobody is supposed to know...yeah-ah…"
He shot from that tree and dived behind
another. He went a little go hard and almost crushed Vladimir's box underneath him. Pushing twigs
and nature crap out of his way, Vegas heard a low grumbling as he started
crawling on the ground like a marine.
Yeah, we're effin' pumped! Absolution Academy
security probably didn't call for this much stealth warrior-ness, but the Corona he'd been sipping
was making Vegas action ready. Let's milk this adventure for all it's worth!
"Yeah, I CREEP…yeah-ah, so Dwight won't
know what I do..." Vegas continued as he moved through the darkened grass.
The grass felt moist, cool and amazing against his skin. He imagined that the
bright, white lights shining from poles around the campus were moving,
searching for him. They
weren't; nobody cared. But this was fun; he was a big kid using his
imagination, running around in the grassy night world like he was trying to
escape from prison.
A squirrel darted out at him, and Vegas let
out a surprised scream. The little furry jackass landed on his back, ran down
his ass between his legs and then shot straight ahead, flying up a tree at
sonic speed.
"Little fucker!" Vegas shouted at
it. Even the wild life in this place was psycho.
"Creeping through the grass, squirrelly
seems to like my ass..." Vegas rapped. "Squirrelly wants some nuts,
what a kick! It's late on a school night, he wants to get romantic!"
He laughed, wondering how much he'd get paid
to ghost write for Waka Flocka Flame, when something suddenly grabbed hold of
his leg.
What the Fuck?! He let out a fart from pure excitement
as another hand reached out of the ground and took hold of his neck.
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!" Vegas yelled,
struggling to pull himself up. Before he could break free, two more hands
grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back down to the grass and dirt.
"DWIGHT! DWIGHT!" Vegas yelled. The
hand around his throat squeezed tighter, but it couldn't get a strong enough
grip to stop Vegas from yelling. Not that it made much difference; Dwight was
in the security booth, napping away, as Vegas's nighttime assault continued on
the security cam in front of him.
Vegas pulled his neck away from the hand.
"DWIIIIGGHT!!!"
His attention turned to the spot in front of
him, his green eyes growing wide as saucers, when two hands, one male and one
with bright nail polish like a girls, sprouted from the ground like corn
stalks. He watched as the arms reached four feet tall and continued to grow.
Frozen in shock, Vegas's eyes rolled up to
gaze at the sprouting hands. Like sunflowers in a nightmarish inverse world,
they remained high above him, illuminated by the moonlight. The fingers spread
and easy, like flower petals.
Then, they bent at the elbow, palms slapping
the ground. Whatever this creature was, it was trying to pull itself out of the
dirt.
Please somebody, shoot me in the head! Gouge
out my eyes! I don't want to see this! He silently begged.
The horror flushed all thoughts of escape
away as the soil in front of him moved and pulled apart. A human head unearthed
itself, its black, hollow eye sockets turned to face Vegas. Mort immediately
came to Vegas's mind, except this cadaver was so much more terrible. There was
intelligence behind those eye sockets that couldn't be driven by anything but pure
evil.
The creature finally made it out of the soil
only to reveal its true form. It wasn't a rotting, smelly corpse after all---it
was several rotting, smelly corpses all sewn together to make a Zombie Spider!
The arms that sprouted out of the ground were
the creature’s long, spider legs. Its head was stitched onto the front of its
body, barely erect, but able to turn and move around. Its abdomen was made of
two human ones sewn together.
Vegas had never seen anything so disgusting
in his life, not even in his drunken wet dreams. It was more than he could
handle, and he began to feel a strange calm wash over him. By the time he
realized he was about to pass out, there was nothing he could do to sto-...
The zombie spider moved towards Vegas as the
unseen monster that had snared the boy began to pull him under. The earth
rumbled again as the soft soil spread apart like water. And Vegas, trapped in
the quiet dark of his unconsciousness, went down, down, down. As if being dragged to
hell.
