[spookies] Beau’s Horror Story!

Placing logs down in the middle and propping them up, Arturo reached over for some fire fuel; drenching the logs until he was satisfied, then reaching over for the box of matches and lighting one up. Tossing it onto the fuel drenched logs, a fire quickly erupted, engulfing the logs quickly. Standing up, a small smile curved up his face as he turned around and walked over a tree stump where two of his kids were as well as a friend of theirs. 

“Well alrighty now, the fires all up ‘n ready for y’all. If the fire starts to die down, Beau and only Beau here will tend to it. And dont mess it up ya damn fool, I’ve taught ya how to do it.” Arturo stated as he ruffled Chayann’s hair, patting his youngest son's head before walking over to Quetzalli. 

“Yolotli, are you sure you want to stay out here for a while?” Quetzalli’s rough voice spoke out, looking down at his child who currently resided in his arms. 

Yolotli nodded quickly and kept wiggling in their fathers grasp, “Yes tahtzin! Let go!” Finally managing to break free from their dads grasp, Yolotli plopped down on the floor and ran over to sit next to Chayann. 

While Chayann began to share their candy with Yolotli, Quetzalli slouched slightly due to sadness that his child wanted to spend time on this year's Lunisolar event with friends instead of with him and their mother Tozi. 

Arturo gave a few heartfelt slaps on Quetzalli’s back and looked at the kids, “Cheer up birdman. Yolotli will be perfectly fine out here with my kids. Come on now, I’ll grab you few drinks or somethin’ that Shasta made off the other day and you can head on back to yer wife and spend some time with her.” 

Letting out a soft sigh, Quetzalli walked over to Yolotli real give and gave a kiss on her forehead, “I’ll be back in an hour Yolotli. I love you, have fun and be safe.” Quetzalli sent a quick look over in Beau’s direction, the latter too busy to notice as he was going through the candy bags that the kids had collected earlier from going house to house for candy. 

“I love you tahtzin!” Was all Yolotli said with a big smile before waving their father off, not realizing that poor Arturo had to basically drag the big symp away from the little bonfire. 

Wiping his hands against his jacket, Beau clapped his hands together and looked at his sibling and Yolotli, “I thought yer dad was never gon’ leave!” 

Mouth currently filled with sweets, Yolotli looked over at Beau with wide eyes, “Mmm mmm mhmmm hmmm hmph!” Was the only thing heard from the little crystal symp. 

Chayann let out a soft giggle and poked Yolotli’s cheek, “No one can understand you Yolotli.” 

As Yolotli tried to chew through the candy so she can talk, Beau stood up and walked on over to the tree stump that had the fuel and matches, grabbing them and placing them down on the ground so he could sit on the tree stump, “What Chay said. Anyway, while you two enjoy them treats, I have something to share with y’all this bloody scary night!” Giving out a toothy fanged filled grin, Beau proceeded to give his best “scary and ghoulish” sounding laugh he could muster. 

Grabbing a few extra logs that his dad had cut for the fire, Beau tossed them over to the bonfire and proceeded to reach over for the match and fuel. The fire grew larger after he prepped it, double checking real quick to make sure the fire wouldn’t escape from its area, before rubbing his hands together. 

“Big brother, why’d you make the fire bigger?” Chayann asked, tilting their head in confusion before grabbing the random candy that Yolotli had proceeded to place in front of their face. 

“For the story of course! Which by the way, a hundred percent true. No doubt ‘bout it!” Beau said, taking off his coat before handing it on over to the two bappies like a makeshift blanket. 

Eyes growing wide, Yolotli’s mouth dropped open a bit, a piece of candy accidentally falling out, “Ooooo, story time!” 

Sitting back down on the tree stump, Beau stared at the two youngsters, “Over on by the outskirts of Gen’ora, there’s a monster with eyes as black as night. Flames basically cover their entire body! No one ever sees them, yet at the same time they always know where you are!” At this point, Yolotli was shivering, the bag of candy having fallen to the ground as they were holding onto Chayann in a side hug as Beau continued on with the story.

“They follow random symps and aras around, keeping a close eye on them and basically blending in with the poor victims' shadows.” The wind began to pick up slightly, causing the tree branches around them to rustle against them, startling the young bappies as they let out a small shriek, thinking something was coming towards them. 

Trying to hide a snicker, Beau cleared his throat as he continued on, “Now how it goes is that, the flames that surround ‘em are the souls of young bappies and mielles who stray too far away and who don’t listen to their parents….and older siblings.” Beau did a quick side eye at his brother, unable to hold in a chuckle as he noticed Chayann also shaking with fear. 

“Ahem.  Anyway, those that wander off too far and don’t listen, the monster follows them to their home by traveling through the lil ones shadows. Then, when it strikes midnight, the monster eats the lil one’s soul and that soul becomes part of their fire!” The two bappies shrieked, tightly hugging each other as their cries echoed around them, the fire dying down slightly causing the area to darken some more. 

“WAAAAAAAAAAA TAHTZIN!!!!!” Yolotli cried out as tears dropped down their face.

Beau pointed at Yolotli, “Yolo! You didn’t listen to your dad and you tried to, nay-you did!, you wanted to get away from him! The monster might be leaving Gen’ora right now to get you!” At some point, Beau had grabbed the fire fuel when the young ones weren’t looking, eyes closed due to them being scared of the story, and quickly poured more fuel into the lightly dying fire. Quickly striking a new match and flinging it into the bonfire, the fire quickly erupted, the sudden rush of heat flying out and freaking the bappies out some more. 

“Stop it big brother, you're scaring us!!” Chayann cried out, grabbing Beau’s jacket and trying to use it to cover them and Yolotli, a small attempt to try and “hide” from the monster.

“But it’s true Chay! The monster is gonna come and get Yolotli for straying away from their dad! Yolotli is gonna turn into fire for the monster now!” Beau shouted, trying to stay serious before breaking out in laughter. 

While Beau continued to laugh, and Yolotli and Chayann kept crying, they didn’t realize there was more rustling coming from behind them. As Beau started to clutch onto his stomach from laughing too much, he failed to sense a presence coming from behind him. After a few more seconds, Beau finally felt something standing right behind him. 

Body going cold quickly, Beau was about to turn around to see what creeped up on them before a fist hit the top of his head, sending him down off the tree stump, “ACCK!!!!” 

After hearing Beau scream out, that caused Chayann and Yolotli to shriek out more, more tears coming out as they accidentally bonked their heads together as they had scrambled underneath Beau’s jacket to try and run away. 

“Now what in the hell are you doin’ to these damn kids?!?!” A raspy voice shouted from behind Beau, reaching down to pick the older kid up by the scruff of his neck. 

Upon hearing their fathers voice, Chayann scrambled to take the jacket off and they quickly ran to hug their fathers leg, “Beau said a monster is going to come and take Yolotli and eat their soul so Yolotli can become part of their fire body!” They had cried out, tears running faster down their face at the thought of their friend being eaten alive. 

“I WANT TAHTZIN!!!! WAAAAAAAAAA I DONT WANT TO BE FIRE TAHTZIN!!!” Yolotli continued to cry out, Beau’s jacket basically damp now due to the amount of tears it had collected from both Yolotli and Chayann. They had stood up from where they were and ran to Arturo to also hug his leg. 

Eye twitching, Arturo looked over at Beau before looking over at the two younger kids, “Boy, just you damn wait. Put out that damn fire! Why can’t you ever just be a nice kid, huh!” Arturo growled out, bending down to pick up Yolotli and Chayann. 

“What damn monster were you even tellin’ em about!?” Arturo shouted at Beau again, trying to calm the two crying kids down. 

Rubbing his head, Beau glared at his dad, “About that dang monster over on by Gen’ora! The one with the fire like wisps on their body!” 

Arturo’s body flinched, quickly knowing exactly who it was that Beau was talking about, his eyes quickly narrowing, “Don’t you ever talk about that damn thing ever again, d’ya hear me boy!?”

“What, why? It’s just a dang freak monster!” 

Arturo scowled and bent down to get close to Beau’s face, “Listen to what I say boy. Never mention that thing around here ever again; ‘specially to yer damn brother! Put out the dang fire like I said, and go to yer room after that!” Arturo let out a sigh, looking at Yolotli and then up at the sky, “Yer dad’s gonna kill me and Beau once he finds out you cried. Come on now, I’ll make you some hot cocoa to try’n calm ya down. How’s that sound?”

Sniffling, Yolotli’s lip quivered as they stared at Arturo, giving a small nod, “Y-yes please.” Sniffling some more, they rubbed their eyes, “I want tahtzin…” 

As Beau scowled at their dad, Arturo walked back over to the house to try and calm the kids down and to get them distracted with anything that would make them think happier and fun thoughts. 

Over in Gen’ora, Jahi was up to their tenth sneeze within the past hour. Grabbing the crystal ball that laid in the middle of the table, Jahi tossed it and shattered it against the wall of their shop. 

Pushing the curtain to the doorway to the sides, Cerberus glanced down at the broken glass before looking up at Jahi, “Ummm….did you… see something you didn’t like or?” 

“Someone’s talking about me! This is the tenth time I’ve sneezed within the past thirty minutes basically!”

Cerberus scratched the back of his neck, before reaching over for a bucket and walked over to the shattered glass, “Maybe it’s time for you to head on up to bed Jahi. Maybe it’ll stop.”

Scowling, Jahi looked over at the table behind them, “Nyx! Grab me my deck of cards, I wanna know who’s talking about me!” 

The little Aramelle saluted Jahi, running over to a cabinet that was filled with Jahi’s custom tarot cards, “Roger that captain!” 

Cerberus merely shook his head as he proceeded to clean up the mess, Jahi grabbing the deck of cards that Nyx brought over to them and sitting down to find out who was talking about them.