Two Page Shorts by Nick Venom (story read aloud TXT) 📖

Hellish was a larger ghost town than the town itself. The small pizzeria, a part of a countrywide chain, had fading black paint and disintegrating walls. In contrast to the buildings nearby, this one resembled a graveyard, even attached with souls. 

The murder of five children along with the disappearance of two nightguards terrified the community, scaring off potential buyers and customers. 

With this incident plaguing the location, Fred Strange’s Pizza Hut was forced to close down, only two weeks after opening. The Fred Strange Debacle, as many called it, brought shame to the company and its locations. 

The prosperity of sister locations brought the parent company, Fred Strange Inc, to be on the same level as Facebook and Google. However, with this debacle, the stock prices and worth of the company plummeted. The cases of five children murdered and two nightguards disappearing was highly publicized, forcing the police department of Hellish to respond quickly. 

The police, in an interview with the town’s only news station, KTC news, announced a statement regarding the incident. 

“The disappearance of night guards, Zeke Hankins and Tom Graves, is still being looked into by the police force. The disappearance of the children is also being investigated, and results should be coming out soon.” The police chief stated. He wore a blue police uniform with his name embedded into his uniform, F. Alton. 

Alton glanced down at the audience watching with worried and frightened eyes; the parents, especially. They carried heavy eyes, torn at the loss of their children. “The animatronics that was found in the pizzeria is being investigated as well.” He added.

A man from the crowd looked up and shouted. “What about our kids?”

Another woman from the crowd followed behind him. “Forget about the animatronics! Bring our children back!”

Alton nodded and motioned for the cameras to cut their live feeds. The cameramen nodded, pointing their cameras towards the ground. Alton thanked the crowd for their patience and walked away to the sound of angry parents screaming and hollering at him.

“What can I do?” He muttered to himself.

 

 

Twenty-four hours ago… 

 

The two night guards watching over the pizzeria, Zeke Hankins and Tom Graves remained in their office, watching the different cameras. It was their last night in the dreaded place and neither guard would return for another week. 

A very vocal Zeke cursed Fred Strange Inc. out for its nightmarish nights. Zeke watched as the seemingly motionless robots moved slightly more and more as the nights drew on. Night one saw a steady and calm night while night two saw more movements from the animatronics. The animatronics---Lindsay Ladybug, Sally Snake, and Fred Strange---moved more as the week went by. 

Day three saw the animatronics peering into the office through the door windows. Day four saw the animatronics trying to claw their way into the office and nearly succeeded at it. 

The final day of the week began as the previous days had; calm and peaceful. However, it soon grew hellish and dangerous.

Unfortunately, Zeke Hankins, a father of five and in a large amount of debt, needed money desperately, even forcing himself to attend the job to earn enough money to pay off his debts. 

On the other hand, Tom, who didn’t talk much, never explained his reason for staying. Zeke chalked it up to needing money for some kind of debt, something that he had plenty of, or him being a risk-taker. Either way, they were both trapped in the place for their own reasons. 

Day five’s peaceful and relaxed atmosphere turned deadly after Tom noticed that Fred Strange wasn't appearing on any of their ten cameras. He turned towards Zeke, glancing at the window behind Zeke’s head. He opened his mouth to speak, but a face peeking out at him from the other side of the door stopped him. He pointed at the door and shouted, “get away” furiously.

Zeke turned towards the door and noticed that the Lindsay Ladybug animatronic was staring at him from the other side of the door. He jerked his body away from the door, reaching under the desk that he shared with Tom. 

The desk held the camera screens, a microphone, and a phone. Under the desk was an ax and a fire extinguisher; corporate didn’t allow them to carry loaded guns.

He grabbed the ax, holding it with both hands, and glared at the animatronic. He held the top of the handle---before reaching the head of the ax---in his left hand while he gripped the wooden handle with the right. 

Tom watched as Zeke armed himself, turning around to search for a weapon. He shrieked, falling to the ground. He pointed at the door’s small window. The Sally Snake animatronic was waiting for them outside the door, staring through the larger window. 

Zeke glanced over his shoulder at the animatronic, before approaching the door that Sally was hiding behind. 

Zeke,” Tom whispered. Zeke turned towards Tom, who pointed at the vents that were placed behind them. In the vents was Fred Strange, his body twisted to fit in the small vent, glaring at the nightguards. Zeke glanced over his shoulder at the clock, keeping an eye on the animatronic. The clock read 5:58 A.M.

For some reason at 6, they deactivate, he thought.

“Tom, help me! I need you to-” He swung the ax at Fred, making contact with the animatronic’s hard outer shell. The ax landed in Fred’s neck, but the animatronics didn’t make a single noise. It, simply, stared at Tom, taunting him.

“Zeke!” Tom shouted. Fred Strange emerged from the vents and stood at a towering height of seven feet. Zeke turned around and noticed the time reaching 5:59. They had only a minute before the animatronics shut down. 

However, Fred Strange was also interested in the clock, staring at it intensely. “Ki…” Fred remarked. A voice attempted to escape the animatronic’s voice, but Fred kept the voice down. 

Fred then charged towards Tom, who was hiding behind Zeke. Zeke panicked, darting to the left. He stretched out his hand, hitting the button to open the door to his life. Lindsay popped her head into the room, frightening Zeke more. He dropped the ax and sprinted out of the room, leaving Tom behind---trapped in the room. 

As Zeke ran out of the office and its hallways, he heard the screams of Tom echoing off the walls and inside his brain. Lindsay and Sally glared at Zeke before chasing him to the middle of the living room but stopped halfway. They watched him as he left the pizzeria, glancing over to a bloodied Fred Strange limping past them. Fred popped his head out of the pizzeria, glaring at Zeke as he ran off. 

Meanwhile, Zeke had brandished his phone, looking at the time. Thirty-five seconds remaining.

He glanced behind him, noticing Fred glaring at him, blood trickling down its robotic jaw. Horrified at the sight, he turned tail and ran as far as his stamina could take him. He glanced over his shoulder behind him, realizing that he wasn’t being chased. 

Using this to his advantage, he sat down on a nearby bench. He stared down at his phone, watching as the seconds ticked by. Five… four… three… two… one.

6 A.M. arrived as Zeke let out a sigh of relief. His muscles relaxed as his adrenaline disappeared as quickly as it appeared. His heartbeat slowed down. His eyes, which were heavy by the eight-hour shift, closed themselves after Zeke laid his head on one end of the bench. He was quick to fall asleep. 

Twenty minutes after passersby discovered the massacre in the pizzeria, Zeke woke up to the sounds of police sirens converging on the pizzeria. Zeke ducked out of sight, even though he was some distance away from the pizzeria, before noticing a newspaper box on the left side of the bench. 

He went over to the box and opened the lid, taking a newspaper out of the box and reading the headline. On the headline, it read, “Nightguard wanted! Fred’s Pizzeria.” 

Zeke glanced back at the pizzeria and watched as police cars lined up in front of the pizzeria. Zeke shook his head, walking away from the pizzeria. He quickly regretted his action of leaving Tom to his death, deciding to sign up for the night guard position to prevent another accident for a different pizzeria.

“One more chance, is all I need,” He mutters.

 

Hangman: VIP

“Where is it?” Jane shouted, kicking dust up as she ran down a school hallway, chased by a chain and a swirling tornado of darkness. 

By her side was her lover and fellow teacher, Belle. The two teachers were smoking in the facility lounge, after school hours, when the tornado entered the room and began chasing them down. The tornado was quickly revealed to have a sharp chain that whizzed past their heads, slicing the air. It then retracted into the swirling wind of darkness. Another chain extended, nicking Belles shirt and tearing a small hole, the size of a penny. She glanced over her shoulder as another chain extended into her left hand.

“Don’t stop!” Jane shouted while grabbing onto Belle. She dragged her forward. “We’re almost there!”

Belle wasn’t paying any attention to Jane or the situation as her mind filled with the images of her bleeding hand. The sound of her blood dripping onto the floor filled her mind. Drip, drip, drip. The blood was pitter-pattering onto the floor. 

However, she snapped out of her daze after tripping and crashing to the ground. She glanced around, detecting a corner in front of her. Behind her, Jane had collapsed to the floor as a chain poked its ugly head through her right leg. The tornado of darkness was down the hallway, closer to the opposite end of the hallway than from Jane and Belle, giving Belle enough time to double back and assist Jane. She crouched down as she tried taking the chain out of Jane’s leg, but to no avail. The chain was embedded into her leg.

“Belle! Go now, leave me!” Jane shouted, tears streaming down her face.

“No!” Belle shouted. She attempted to take the chain out again, but with no results. She looked up and noticed two eyes peeking at her from within the tornado. “What did we do wrong?” She asked the eyes, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Leave, don’t worry about that!” Jane shouted. Belle didn’t respond, simply, staring at the eyes which slowly hypnotized her. Jane punched Belle in her right arm, snapping her out of her frozen state. The tornado was nearing them, but, for some reason, it appeared to have slowed down.

“You were in the Brooks Adriminstation,” A rough voice muttered from within the darkness. It was then followed by a menacing laugh, piercing the teachers’ eardrums. 

Jane started screaming, the chain slowly retracting. “Jane!” Belle shouted as four chains appeared from within the darkness and pierced Jane. One hit her other leg, then her left arm, then her right arm, before her stomach. 

It retracted quickly and Jane was dragged into the tornado while letting out a high pitch scream. “Jane,” she whispered. The screams filled the air, but a sudden crack of a neck stopped them. The hallway was then filled with silence as Belle looked on in horror as a liquid started gushing out from within the tornado. The liquid looked colorless in the darkness, but a sudden lightning flash revealed its true