The Normal

     One of the former, a zombie, walked along a path with a girl. She was neither monster nor ghoul, so she had to be the latter, those who dealt with them. The zombie had the tattered wings of a Buzz, and she walked side by side with the girl. The girl for her part had a hoop earring pierced through one of her long Cybunny ears and a serious expression on her face.

     “It’s supposed to be the scariest house in all the Haunted Woods,” said the Zombie Buzz. “Or at least, one that shows you your fears.”

     “I’m a monster tamer, I can handle it,” replied the blue-grey Cybunny. “Besides, Alvideria, I want to know what exactly makes it so scary. The descriptions are vague and conflicting. If there is indeed a monster there, then maybe I can tame it.”

     “Well,” said the Buzz, Alvideria, “If anyone could do it, it’d be you, Saskori.”

     The girl made no reply, but a smile crept up Saskori’s face.

     And then they were at the house.

     It was old, modest, and abandoned. Cobwebs hung in the eaves of the porch, paint peeled off the siding, shutters hung crooked, and shingles were missing from the roof. It looked like any other house in the Haunted Woods.

     “Are you sure this is the place, Ally?” said Saskori.

     The zombie nodded. “Yeah, it has to be, see the number on the front door?”

     Indeed, the door had rusted numbers nailed to the door, 1627. It was odd to see any sort of address in the Haunted Woods. Neovia, perhaps, but not in the Woods proper. Perhaps it showed some promise after all.

     Saskori peered inside her patched and frayed satchel. Everything she owned for monster taming was there. Hopefully it would be everything she’d need as well. It was time to investigate. “I’m going in.”

     Alvideria nodded. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”

     Saskori patted her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks. But I should be fine.”

     And with that, the Cybunny strode confidently up to the entryway, opened the door, and crossed the threshold.

     ***

     Saskori’s first impression was cleanliness.

     Inside, the walls were nicely painted, the room was well lit, and no dust clung well-maintained furniture. Chairs and a sofa were arranged tastefully. Cloth flowers were placed in a vase on a coffee table. A piano sat along the back wall. It seemed a perfectly normal living room. Something about the whole thing was incredibly off.

     Saskori took a hesitant step forward. Nothing changed. No doors slammed, no lights flickered, no monsters jumped out to grab her.

     She looked at a window to the side. The sun shone through it, not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky. Saskori squinted; the brightness made her eyes hurt. She squinted because it was suspicious. Was she even in the Haunted Woods anymore? What kind of place was this?

     Turning her attention away from the window, she made her way carefully across the room. Each step testing, waiting for something to happen. The floorboards didn’t give way to the cellar, or even so much as a squeak. She reached a doorway and stepped inside another room.

     This room had mauve walls, a floral quilt over a tidy bed, a dresser. It showed no signs of being lived in, yet no signs of being abandoned either. It was a perfect little bedroom with a perfect little dollhouse in the corner. It resembled the outside of the house, but without the broken and shabby bits. It was as neat and tidy as the rest of the inside of the house.

     She noticed a doll sitting next to the wall. The plushie was made of blue-grey fabric, with a raggedy patched purple dress and blue hair. It had Cybunny ears as well, a hoop earring hanging off one of them. It was, in fact, a Saskori doll saccharinely smiling up at her with blue button eyes.

     The effect was unsettling to the real Saskori, who frowned in reply. Yet at least this was something that she could place as being something worth being unsettled about, whereas she couldn’t quite figure out what made the rest of the house so.

     “Hello Saskori,” came a voice from behind.

     Saskori jumped. She quickly turned around. There was both a Silver and a Cloud Cybunny standing in the living room. The girl wasn’t sure where they’d come from. The girl wasn’t sure which one had spoken. The girl wasn’t sure about them at all.

     “We’ve been waiting for you, Saskori,” said the Silver Cybunny. She had a female voice. The voice of someone much older than Saskori’s dozen years. She held a wrapped gift box with a pink bow on top.

     “We’ve missed you, Saskori,” said the Cloud one. He had a masculine voice and held a round cake with thirteen candles on top.

     “Happy birthday, Saskori,” they said. And they smiled at her. A warm, genuine smile.

     It wasn’t a haunted house at all. It was a surprise party for Saskori. Alvideria would be popping in any moment with a big grin on her face, saying how she got her. The Clarkes were surely in another room. Maybe even the Storyweaver would show up. The gift was probably the silver dagger she always wanted for monster taming. What a great surprise this was for her!

     Except it wasn’t Saskori’s birthday.

     There was something familiar, comforting of the pair of them, of the birthday cake and present, of the whole house, really. It was warm and safe and normal, so normal. And that, that was what made Saskori so very unsettled, she decided. Nothing, she knew, could be this good, could be this true. It was all just another illusion of the Haunted Woods, a twisted reality.

     She looked down at the doll of herself. This was the only thing in the house that was real, she decided. The only thing that made sense. It was scary and unusual and unexplainable, exactly as the Haunted Woods should be. She picked it up. Maybe she’d call it Little-Me.

     Refinding her confidence, Saskori looked at the pair of adult Cybunnies. “I came here because I heard this place would show you your worst fears, and I wondered why. And how.”

     “Saskori?” said the male Cybunny.

     “But now I see it’s just some cheap magic,” the girl pressed on. “And not even that scary, to be honest. I’m a monster-tamer, I was hoping for a monster, not a birthday party.”

     “Saskori…” said the Silver one.

     “Unless you’re both secretly monsters,” Saskori continued. “In which case, now would be an opportune time to transform into your true forms.”

     There was a pause. Then the pair of them burst out laughing. It wasn’t a cruel laugh, though, or an evil laugh. It was a laugh of mirth.

     “Oh, Saskori, always with your silly games,” said the lady Cybunny.

     “We’re not monsters, Saskori,” said the Cloud Cybunny.

     “We’re your parents.”

     Saskori froze.

     The other Cybunnies smiled.

     Saskori stared at them.

     The mother smiled.

     Saskori’s heart raced.

     The father smiled.

     Saskori took a step back.

     Her parents smiled lovingly at her.

     Saskori ran.

     ***

     Two figures walked in silence along a dark path of the Haunted Woods. A Ghostkerchief watched them pass then went back to haunting the tree it was in; it’d already seen these two not an hour ago. A zombie and a monster tamer made for a strange pair, but strangeness was what the Woods were known for.

     Finally, the zombie spoke. “What did you find in there anyway?” she said, peering into the monster tamer’s face.

     Saskori lifted her gaze to meet Ally’s, but it took a minute for her eyes to focus on the Buzz. Finally, she replied, “Spyders. Giant, six-foot tall Spyders.”

     “I didn’t know you were scared of Spyders,” said Alvideria, tilting her head.

     Saskori looked down at the little Saskori doll she still carried. “Neither did I.”

     The End.