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STORYLINE: Above the abandoned streets of Neu Seoul, citizens hid in darkness, watching nervously from behind their windows. No radio. No television. No internet. No power. And every so often, a scream echoed through the urban labyrinth as another human fell into the jaws of a hungry monster.
Against the blood-red sky, a swarm of bats swept over the city, their echolocation pulsing through the dark.
But these were no ordinary bats.
Far beneath them, in a concrete bomb shelter that smelled of candle wax and buttered popcorn, the Horror Movie Club was having the best night of its life.
“Quiet! Quiet! I’m about to die,” Hana announced, flopping across a sagging beige sofa. She adjusted her collar to show the dark mark on her neck, which she had officially declared part of the costume. Lucy, post-bite. (It was technically from Tae.)
“Lucy doesn’t die until act three,” said Hyun, not looking up.
He was busy at the far end of the shelter, cranking his masterpiece. A candle trembled behind brass and glass, the spring flywheel whirred, and a ghostly castle jerked across the concrete wall. Silent Horror Movie Night. Not one of them had ever managed to stay silent.
The blackout was the best thing that had ever happened to the club. The rest of Neu Seoul was sitting in the dark with dead screens. The Horror Movie Club had candles, a great-grandfather’s cinematograph, and snacks.
Somewhere outside, someone screamed. Long and wet.
“Haunted house two streets over,” Tae said happily, passing the bowl. “They’re really committing.”
Three sharp knocks rang against the steel door.
Everyone froze.
“Password!” Hyun called, giggling.
A pause. Then a voice, flat as a tombstone: “The children of the night. What music they make.”
The Horror Movie Club lost its collective mind. Hyun yanked the deadbolt, and smoke rolled out to meet the tallest, palest man Hana had ever seen. Black armor. White hair. A silver medal dangling from his nose ring. In his fist, a gadget hummed like an angry beehive.
Nobody in the Horror Movie Club had ever seen a costume that good.
"DUDE! Check it out!" Hyun shouted, pointing at man's gear. "Is that part of your costume?"
From somewhere down the street, a wet, guttural shriek tore through the night.
The others scampered to the door and gawked at him as he winced at the thick haze of smoke, scent of buttered popcorn, and the sharp, chemical reek of illegal substances leaking out from their hangout.
“NAH, DUDE! It’s a LARP!” Tae yelled, scampering over to gawk. “Awesome!”
Hana pushed past them. She saw his gaze flick to the dark mark on her neck and linger there, like a doctor reading a chart. She decided to be flattered.
“Whoa...” She blinked up at him, her words slurring together. “Who invited the vampire hottie?”
She wrapped an arm around his tactical vest and tugged him inside. Before he could escape, she leaned close and pinned a badge to his sleeve.
“Now you’re an honorary member of the Horror Movie Club! So tell me,” she giggled, “what brings Mr. Dracula to our humble establishment?”
He peeled her arm away with cold, practiced restraint.
“I am not Dracula,” he said, perfectly serious. “I am Ashe.”
Tae brightened. “Ashe? Like Ash from Evil Dead?”
The man’s humorless face darkened. “No. Commander Ashe of the 101st Flying Bats, Night Troops. Second-in-command of the Vampire Nation.”
“DOPE!” the kids roared together.
“Take me to your energy source,” he said. “Now.”
The boys looked at each other and shrugged. “Uh, okay.” They led him to the club’s prized invention, a brass contraption clicking away at the far end of the shelter.
“What powers this?”
Hyun straightened, suddenly proud.
“Me. And one candle. Zero electronics, I’m kind of a purist.” He patted the brass like a prize horse. “It’s a magic lantern on the outside, but a cinematograph underneath. The spring flywheel keeps the film rolling after you crank it, and the reflector turns one candle into a searchlight. My great-grandfather had the original. I rebuilt it for Silent Horror Movie Night.”
Ashe studied the device as if memorizing every bolt. Then his eyes swept the shelter, measuring the exits.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
They watched him step outside and raise a comm with an oversized battery duct-taped crookedly to its side. Stamped on the battery was the word MONSTRUM above a serpent swallowing the sun.
“What's Monstrum?” Hana whispered.
“Dunno. Dude’s committed to the bit,” Tae whispered back.
The kids crowded the doorway, listening.
“President Spyder. Status report. No resistance in the skies. The streets, however, are crawling with Monstrum. Recommend remaining airborne.”
A deep voice answered through the static. “As expected. Any leads on the entropy barrier’s power source?”
Ashe raised a handheld meter, also duct-taped to a battery. It beeped slowly as he turned, scanning the dark street.
“Nothing yet. I did, however, confiscate a cache of their entropy batteries. I’ve commandeered their power to run my gear.”
“Take every single cursed battery you find. Leave nothing. Starve those bastards.”
Tae leaned too far, and the door groaned.
Ashe snapped his comm shut and looked at them.
“Under the authority granted to me by the United Nations, I order you to snuff all candles. Light attracts them. You are fortunate to be noticed by me first. Do not draw further attention to yourselves. Remain inside. Be quiet. Lock the door. The streets are unsafe.”
The kids stared at him. “Unsafe?”
“Monsters,” he replied curtly. “Hungry ones that do not obey international laws. Are you not aware Neu Seoul is a battleground between two supernatural superpowers, The Night Troops of the United Nations fighting the Monstrum criminal syndicate?”
The kids blinked at him.
He sighed and rubbed his temples, then restored his tired professional poker face.
“Fortunately, this structure should provide adequate protection. Ration your supplies. Keep the doors secured until the city is liberated from Monstrum.”
He closed the door.
Reluctantly, the club pinched out their candles one by one. Everyone except Hyun, who cupped the lantern’s flame in both hands like a mother shielding a newborn.
They pressed their ears to the steel. Muffled, Ashe’s voice continued.
“Excuse that interruption, President Spyder. As I was saying, the barrier's power source is not at this location. However, I may have found something else useful. Mechanical systems remain operational inside the barrier. Spring-driven mechanisms, for instance. Recommend retrieving military hardware capable of operating independently of modern electronics. Search the archives for historical mechanical designs, including those attributed to Archimedes.”
“He said ARCHIMEDES,” Tae whispered, glowing.
“Interesting,” Maximilian Spyder replied. “Continue to your next target.”
“Understood. You did cancel the bombing at this location, correct?”
A pause crackled through the static.
“Too late.”
Hyun cracked the door. “Did you just say... bomb?” His eyes widened.
Overhead, a thin, rising whistle grew louder.
Ashe glanced upward with mild, ancient exhaustion.
“A badly aimed one.”
He scooped all three students under his arms at once and, faster than the eye could follow, carried them deep into the shelter.
BOOOOM!
The missile struck a nearby structure. The shockwave slammed into the shelter, rattling its reinforced walls and showering the room with dust. Popcorn and sodas flew through the air.
Ashe did not flinch. He had curled around the three of them like a human shield.
When the dust settled, the Horror Movie Club lay amid the debris, covered in butter and sheer dread. Only the lantern still burned, throwing a ghostly castle across the dusty wall. Ashe brushed a kernel of popcorn off his breastplate.
“Who the hell are you, really?” Hana gasped. The slur was gone from her voice.
Ashe glanced at the crooked little badge on his sleeve and, with great care, straightened it. Then he lifted his chin, and for the first time all night something like pride crossed his tired face. The tarnished Victoria Cross at his nose caught the lantern light.
“The one who earned this,” he said. “The one who found a dictator hiding from the Allies and brought his reign to a swift end.”
Nobody spoke. Hyun’s lantern was the only light left, still clicking, still throwing its small ghostly castle across the dusty wall. Ashe looked at it for a long moment. Then he looked at the three of them in their battered top hats and corpse-white paint.
Hana had the strangest feeling no one had told him he was cool in a very long time.
“Guard the flame,” he told Hyun quietly. “Old things have a way of returning the favor.”
Before they could answer, his form flickered, dissolving into a dense, rustling cloud of white bats.
One small bat lingered.
Hana crawled forward, holding out a finger bloodied by debris.
“Wait. I know what you are.”
The bat turned its head toward her. A bead of blood glistened on her skin.
For a moment, the little creature seemed to consider her offer. Then it looked at the two things left on the floor: the Horror Movie Club badge and an old World War II pistol, its black metalwork carved with grotesque ornamentation, the name d'Essecourt engraved along the barrel.
The terrified kids watched.
The bat regarded them with the same tired expression as Ashe, then swooped down, seized the badge in its tiny claws, and flew after the others.
The pistol remained on the floor.
With trembling hands, Hana picked it up and held it close to her heart. It was heavier than it looked, and warm, as if something of its former owner still lingered in the metal.
Against the blood-red sky, a swarm of bats swept over the city, their echolocation pulsing through the dark.
But these were no ordinary bats.
Far beneath them, in a concrete bomb shelter that smelled of candle wax and buttered popcorn, the Horror Movie Club was having the best night of its life.
“Quiet! Quiet! I’m about to die,” Hana announced, flopping across a sagging beige sofa. She adjusted her collar to show the dark mark on her neck, which she had officially declared part of the costume. Lucy, post-bite. (It was technically from Tae.)
“Lucy doesn’t die until act three,” said Hyun, not looking up.
He was busy at the far end of the shelter, cranking his masterpiece. A candle trembled behind brass and glass, the spring flywheel whirred, and a ghostly castle jerked across the concrete wall. Silent Horror Movie Night. Not one of them had ever managed to stay silent.
The blackout was the best thing that had ever happened to the club. The rest of Neu Seoul was sitting in the dark with dead screens. The Horror Movie Club had candles, a great-grandfather’s cinematograph, and snacks.
Somewhere outside, someone screamed. Long and wet.
“Haunted house two streets over,” Tae said happily, passing the bowl. “They’re really committing.”
Three sharp knocks rang against the steel door.
Everyone froze.
“Password!” Hyun called, giggling.
A pause. Then a voice, flat as a tombstone: “The children of the night. What music they make.”
The Horror Movie Club lost its collective mind. Hyun yanked the deadbolt, and smoke rolled out to meet the tallest, palest man Hana had ever seen. Black armor. White hair. A silver medal dangling from his nose ring. In his fist, a gadget hummed like an angry beehive.
Nobody in the Horror Movie Club had ever seen a costume that good.
"DUDE! Check it out!" Hyun shouted, pointing at man's gear. "Is that part of your costume?"
From somewhere down the street, a wet, guttural shriek tore through the night.
The others scampered to the door and gawked at him as he winced at the thick haze of smoke, scent of buttered popcorn, and the sharp, chemical reek of illegal substances leaking out from their hangout.
“NAH, DUDE! It’s a LARP!” Tae yelled, scampering over to gawk. “Awesome!”
Hana pushed past them. She saw his gaze flick to the dark mark on her neck and linger there, like a doctor reading a chart. She decided to be flattered.
“Whoa...” She blinked up at him, her words slurring together. “Who invited the vampire hottie?”
She wrapped an arm around his tactical vest and tugged him inside. Before he could escape, she leaned close and pinned a badge to his sleeve.
“Now you’re an honorary member of the Horror Movie Club! So tell me,” she giggled, “what brings Mr. Dracula to our humble establishment?”
He peeled her arm away with cold, practiced restraint.
“I am not Dracula,” he said, perfectly serious. “I am Ashe.”
Tae brightened. “Ashe? Like Ash from Evil Dead?”
The man’s humorless face darkened. “No. Commander Ashe of the 101st Flying Bats, Night Troops. Second-in-command of the Vampire Nation.”
“DOPE!” the kids roared together.
“Take me to your energy source,” he said. “Now.”
The boys looked at each other and shrugged. “Uh, okay.” They led him to the club’s prized invention, a brass contraption clicking away at the far end of the shelter.
“What powers this?”
Hyun straightened, suddenly proud.
“Me. And one candle. Zero electronics, I’m kind of a purist.” He patted the brass like a prize horse. “It’s a magic lantern on the outside, but a cinematograph underneath. The spring flywheel keeps the film rolling after you crank it, and the reflector turns one candle into a searchlight. My great-grandfather had the original. I rebuilt it for Silent Horror Movie Night.”
Ashe studied the device as if memorizing every bolt. Then his eyes swept the shelter, measuring the exits.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
They watched him step outside and raise a comm with an oversized battery duct-taped crookedly to its side. Stamped on the battery was the word MONSTRUM above a serpent swallowing the sun.
“What's Monstrum?” Hana whispered.
“Dunno. Dude’s committed to the bit,” Tae whispered back.
The kids crowded the doorway, listening.
“President Spyder. Status report. No resistance in the skies. The streets, however, are crawling with Monstrum. Recommend remaining airborne.”
A deep voice answered through the static. “As expected. Any leads on the entropy barrier’s power source?”
Ashe raised a handheld meter, also duct-taped to a battery. It beeped slowly as he turned, scanning the dark street.
“Nothing yet. I did, however, confiscate a cache of their entropy batteries. I’ve commandeered their power to run my gear.”
“Take every single cursed battery you find. Leave nothing. Starve those bastards.”
Tae leaned too far, and the door groaned.
Ashe snapped his comm shut and looked at them.
“Under the authority granted to me by the United Nations, I order you to snuff all candles. Light attracts them. You are fortunate to be noticed by me first. Do not draw further attention to yourselves. Remain inside. Be quiet. Lock the door. The streets are unsafe.”
The kids stared at him. “Unsafe?”
“Monsters,” he replied curtly. “Hungry ones that do not obey international laws. Are you not aware Neu Seoul is a battleground between two supernatural superpowers, The Night Troops of the United Nations fighting the Monstrum criminal syndicate?”
The kids blinked at him.
He sighed and rubbed his temples, then restored his tired professional poker face.
“Fortunately, this structure should provide adequate protection. Ration your supplies. Keep the doors secured until the city is liberated from Monstrum.”
He closed the door.
Reluctantly, the club pinched out their candles one by one. Everyone except Hyun, who cupped the lantern’s flame in both hands like a mother shielding a newborn.
They pressed their ears to the steel. Muffled, Ashe’s voice continued.
“Excuse that interruption, President Spyder. As I was saying, the barrier's power source is not at this location. However, I may have found something else useful. Mechanical systems remain operational inside the barrier. Spring-driven mechanisms, for instance. Recommend retrieving military hardware capable of operating independently of modern electronics. Search the archives for historical mechanical designs, including those attributed to Archimedes.”
“He said ARCHIMEDES,” Tae whispered, glowing.
“Interesting,” Maximilian Spyder replied. “Continue to your next target.”
“Understood. You did cancel the bombing at this location, correct?”
A pause crackled through the static.
“Too late.”
Hyun cracked the door. “Did you just say... bomb?” His eyes widened.
Overhead, a thin, rising whistle grew louder.
Ashe glanced upward with mild, ancient exhaustion.
“A badly aimed one.”
He scooped all three students under his arms at once and, faster than the eye could follow, carried them deep into the shelter.
BOOOOM!
The missile struck a nearby structure. The shockwave slammed into the shelter, rattling its reinforced walls and showering the room with dust. Popcorn and sodas flew through the air.
Ashe did not flinch. He had curled around the three of them like a human shield.
When the dust settled, the Horror Movie Club lay amid the debris, covered in butter and sheer dread. Only the lantern still burned, throwing a ghostly castle across the dusty wall. Ashe brushed a kernel of popcorn off his breastplate.
“Who the hell are you, really?” Hana gasped. The slur was gone from her voice.
Ashe glanced at the crooked little badge on his sleeve and, with great care, straightened it. Then he lifted his chin, and for the first time all night something like pride crossed his tired face. The tarnished Victoria Cross at his nose caught the lantern light.
“The one who earned this,” he said. “The one who found a dictator hiding from the Allies and brought his reign to a swift end.”
Nobody spoke. Hyun’s lantern was the only light left, still clicking, still throwing its small ghostly castle across the dusty wall. Ashe looked at it for a long moment. Then he looked at the three of them in their battered top hats and corpse-white paint.
Hana had the strangest feeling no one had told him he was cool in a very long time.
“Guard the flame,” he told Hyun quietly. “Old things have a way of returning the favor.”
Before they could answer, his form flickered, dissolving into a dense, rustling cloud of white bats.
One small bat lingered.
Hana crawled forward, holding out a finger bloodied by debris.
“Wait. I know what you are.”
The bat turned its head toward her. A bead of blood glistened on her skin.
For a moment, the little creature seemed to consider her offer. Then it looked at the two things left on the floor: the Horror Movie Club badge and an old World War II pistol, its black metalwork carved with grotesque ornamentation, the name d'Essecourt engraved along the barrel.
The terrified kids watched.
The bat regarded them with the same tired expression as Ashe, then swooped down, seized the badge in its tiny claws, and flew after the others.
The pistol remained on the floor.
With trembling hands, Hana picked it up and held it close to her heart. It was heavier than it looked, and warm, as if something of its former owner still lingered in the metal.
Happy Halloween!
On Him, Commander Ashe:
Meter: Static - Spectre-O-Meter EMF Detector [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(325L)
Glove: FOE - WFTS - Gauntlet [mesh]
Setting:
Skybox: LORE - Abandoned Hideout [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(375L)
Chains: LORE - Ceiling Chains [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(350L)
Frames: LORE - Horror Frames [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(300L)
Tall Mirror: LORE - Sights To Show You Mirror [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(225L)
Coffin suitcase: PSYCHO:Byts - Without Rest in peace - Coffin [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(250L)
Mirror, Candle: Candle & Cauldron - C&C Oracle [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(149L)
3 Skulls: Cica's - 3 skull sticks [Animesh](Camp Syndicate)(350L)
Furniture: Eclectica - Charming Bureau, Charming Shelf [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(300L)
Board Game: Web Dew - Foggy interactive game [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(725L)
Wall mirror: Fetch - Webbed Mirror - Red PBR [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(199L)
Ticket Rolls, stand: HAUNT - Ticket Rolls [mesh](Camp Syndicate)(249L)
Sofa, decor: KraftWork - Horror Movie Night set [mesh]
Popcorn machine: Merak - Vintage Popcorn Machine - Red [mesh]
Popcorn: Apple Fall - Buttery Popcorn [mesh]
Movie Projector: Linden Labs - SL23B - Movie Projector [mesh]
BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, midday sky, default camera:
