The Halloween Party
by demented20
Super teen Jan Caufield and her super powered friends throw a Halloween party like only super heroes can.

The moon peered from behind the clouds and mist bathing the world below a pale flickering light. In ancient times the people would have been still and silent to hear a word or a whisper from the world beyond, but modern times have erased the silence. It's been replaced with hustle, commerce, and laughing. Children run and trick or treat from door to door in search of sugary snacks. They have no worries except for filling their bags with enough candy to choke a hog. They have forgotten what the ancients knew. The ancients knew that on one night each year the dead were allow to cross the wide chasm, pass through the gates and enter the world of the living. Those who lived good lives return to comfort and safeguard their families, but those who died evil return as well. They have no missions of mercy, or comforting, or of healing. They want souls. They want all souls, young souls and old souls, good souls and evil souls, willing souls and those of people who want to live. But most of all they want strong souls. They want the souls from those who in life possess great power. With that power they could resist the pull of the underworld and remain in the land of the living where they can spread their darkness to all mankind. If they were to gather the souls of those with great power and add that power to their own, the world as it has existed will fade away, and a new one, a dark, horrible, evil world will emerge.

This year, they have found a gathering of people with the great powers they seek. These people have come together to celebrate the beginning of the dark half of the year, and there will be much darkness before the sun rises. In their foolishness and ignorance they have gathered above an ancient place of evil. In ancient times a lush grove of trees had covered this spot, but the people who lived here knew never to enter this grove. Those trees hid one of the gates to the underworld.

There are 24 gates to the underworld, and 18 of them are guarded by the Watchers. Twelve of the gates are for the good, six gates are for the evil, and the other six gates are sealed and lost. But one of the lost gates sits under a warehouse building in Atlanta, Georgia. No one ever knew that it was there. No one ever thought to ask why the basement of this building had a deep well, a well that had never contained water. It was a well that lead to a lost gate, and to the underworld beyond. The lost gate was still sealed, but the evil ones could sense the great power above it. They could sense the power that they craved so desperately, and would do anything to get. For the first time, the evil ones banded together and used their own power against the weakened seal of this lost gate. The heavy sacred stone that covered it began to tremble with their evil might. The mice and roaches in the dank basement of the warehouse tried to scurry from the oncoming evil. The first ones to leave were spared, but suddenly the massive gate stone moved, and the evil ones escaped into the land of the living. A gathering blackness hovered over the gate unsure of what to do after being gone so long from the living realm.

The well stank from their evil and from death as the rats and bugs rolled over and died. The bacteria in the air died, and all warmth evaporated. The dark mass of evil rose from the bottom of the well slowly. They could feel the power near them, and they would have it. The evil expanded as it rose. More and more evil added to the black mass. It filled the basement like a moldy black fog killing every animal and creature as it approached. It fed off of their life, but their power was still not great enough to kill a human, especially not one of these special humans. They would have to get stronger. Once every animal in the basement was dead, the evil mass gathered again and moved further away from the gate and towards the living. Puddles of water froze solid as the evil approached, but was bubbling hot as it passed. Concrete cracked and stained as the evil rose higher in the building. The evil was getting stronger. The people on the main floor of the warehouse were oblivious.

Music blared through the speakers and Jan Caufield played with one of her braided pig tails as she walked towards the punch table. She was dressed like Elly May Clampett. Her cut off plaid shirt was tied just below her chest showing off her athletic mid section, and her skin tight daisy-dukes were low on her hips, tight on her shapely thighs, and contoured around her perfect behind. Jan saw her reflection in one of the regular mirrors set up around the warehouse floor. She had gone all out for this costume and even dyed her normally brown hair blond. Jan's naturally blond friend Sara had gotten a kick out of that. Jan stood there and admired the costume for a moment before getting a cup and filling it with ice.

"This is a great party", Lisa Sanchez said as she too came up to get some of the rum spiked punch.

Jan turned. "I'm glad you like it. Alisha's been working really really hard on this. Oh and you look stunning by the way."

Lisa Sanchez was dressed as a skimpy squaw. The tannish bikini top barely contained her very nice breasts and the short semitransparent tie on skirt barely covered anything. The costume had come with a headband and a wig. Lisa was wearing the headband, but she didn't need the wig. She already had a gorgeous mane of flowing dark hair that she had braided. She more than had the body to pull that costume off and to make it so alluring that it was almost criminal.

She looked up at Jan and smiled. "Glad you like it. This was Zo's idea."

Jan laughed, reached down and lifted the back of Lisa's tie on skirt. Lisa jumped and pushed her hand away. Jan laughed even harder. "Yeah, this had to be his idea!"

Lisa smoothed down the skirt covering the thong bottom beneath it, and then she grinned over her shoulder at her boyfriend Alonzo Reyes, who was dressed as a brave complete with a tomahawk. It was probably racially insensitive, but it was cute on him.

Jan turned back towards the party and the dance floor. She saw Sara coming closer. Earlier that day, Jan had seen Sara trying on her costume and had been floored. Jan's normally reserved friend was wearing a two piece black leather stewardess get up that showed off her tight trained body. Her naturally curly blond hair fell past her shoulders from beneath her little cap, and the outfit hugged her every curve as she walked. Sara had a great shape now. Everything flowed and was just perfect. She walked towards Jan with her boyfriend Chris in tow. Chris was dressed up as a Roman gladiator. His chest was bare as were his legs. He had brought a trident, but he had left it somewhere. Jan just smiled as they came closer. They looked great together. Chris broke away to get some punch/rum.

"Have you seen Alisha?", Sara asked.

"Last time I saw her, she had some men drooling at her cleavage."

Sara chuckled and looked around the room. "If I had cleavage like hers, I'd get men to drool over mine too."

Jan shook her head. "Yours is pretty good. Nothing to be ashamed about. Besides, could you image her chest on you?"

Sara put her hands under her top and lifted her breasts. Her already nice cleavage deepened and expanded even more. She let it go and laughed loudly. "No, I don't think I can."

"What's so funny?", Alisha asked, coming up to them. She was dressed as a 18th century noble woman complete with a white powdered wig, but it was her dress that got all the attention. It had a train in the back, but it barely had a front. It covered just the essential areas and nothing more, and it didn't cover those very well. Her very large breasts had the top of the dress under constant strain. Her twin globes looked like caged lions ready to escape at any moment, not that any of the men in the room would have objected.

"We're just talking about costumes. Oh and this party turned out great by the way. If I get too drunk to tell you that later on."

"Thank you!", Alisha squealed in delight. "You just wait. Its going to get so much better later on. I'll talk to you guys later. I have to talk to the dj."

Jan's younger brother Thomas came over with a girl on his arm. Jan had debated whether or not to let the sixteen year old come to what was supposed to be an adult party, but Alisha and Jan's own mother had convinced her to let him come. She had to admit that he looked pretty sharp in his zuit suit outfit. The girl with him, Simone, was from his high school. She was a 'nice catch' as Jack Caufield would say.

"So, Jan", Thomas began. "This is how grown-ups party. You know its not so different than high school parties. Get drunk and chase girls."

"Hey!", Simone protested and hit him in the arm.

"Just joking. I'm not chasing you", he said and looked down at her with brown eyes so deep that Simone swore she could swim in them. He watched her gaze melt as several other girls' gazes had done. He smiled at her and looked at Jan. "I've already caught her. I'll try to chase some of the others later on!"

"Orrrgh!" Simone hit him in the arm again.

"You're going to talk yourself into an early grave", Jan said and walked off. There were several more friends there at the party.

Jenny Hood was at the party with another of Jan's friends named Brian Pronger. They weren't really a couple, but they had come here together. Jenny was a teammate of Sara's on the track team and one of the best field athletes in the country. She was nearly as tall as Jan with blond hair that went past her shoulders and a strong athletic build.

"Are you enjoying the party?", Jan asked.

"Loving it!", Jenny replied. She was dressed like a naughty cop while Brian wore old fashioned prison stripes. "You guys did a great job."

"Alisha did most of the work, but thanks anyway."

"I'll see you later", Jenny said. She took Brian by the hand and lead him towards the double doors at one end of the room. There were some offices at the end of the hall not too near the main party area. She had always liked Brian in a distant sort of way, and tonight she was going to let Brian know just how much she liked him. She lead him first by the hand and then by the collar. Jenny was a strong athletic girl herself and taller than the average man. She was used to being obeyed. Brian learned that first hand when she slammed him down in an office chair. She stood in front of him showing off her body in the dim light from the desk lamp. She ran her hands down the curve of her hips and ran a finger up her bare midriff before tracing it between her breasts and to the tip of her waiting tongue. Brian was panting. She pulled off her police woman hat and tossed her head letting her long blond hair whip across Brian's face. He grinned like it was his first time as she put one of her long legs over his and straddled his body. She sat her body down on his lap and leaned forward. Her barely covered breasts were within Brian's reach. He leaned forward puckered his lips and kissed. He felt her body shiver and she pulled away from him only to lean down and planted a kiss on his lips. He pulled her head to his before he let go of her head to allow his hands to wander. He rubbed down her body. She leaned back and looked down at him with unabashed lust in her eyes. She reached behind her neck and pulled the top over her head while Brian was busy with his zipper.

The evil ones were busy as well. They were like a thick braided black rope of gasses as they climbed the stairwells towards the main floor of the building. Everything below the main floor was already dead. That had strengthened them. They could feel the power in the main room, but they could feel life elsewhere. They could feel the young souls just ahead of them. The gathering evil fog could feel their lust for each other and that fed them too. The fog gathered around the office door. Even in the dark hall, the mass of evil looked darker still. It swarmed and was turbulent, but it was always as black as the worst nightmare. It entered the office through the keyhole, around the jambs, under the door, and above it.

Jenny and Brian were locked in each other's embrace as the darkness approached. The darkness moved as one mass of evil getting closer. The fibers of the old carpet turned yellow and brittle beneath it, and not even the dust flew in the air as the blackness approached the two young lovers. It was Jenny who felt it first. A shiver went down her spine and she pulled off of Brian. She looked up and her eyes saw nothing. There was not enough light to see back towards the doorway. Brian felt the change in her and the change in the room. Little white puffs marked their breaths as they exhaled and looked around the room.

"Who's there?", Jenny asked with more than a little quiver to her normally strong and confident New Yorker tone. There was no reply. The darkness just continued to come close to her.

Brian sat up and turned towards the door. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't even see the door even though he knew that it was barely fifteen feet away. "Whoever that is, this isn't funny."

Jenny pulled back on her top and looked around. The darkness was around them at the edges of the rays of light from the weak lamp, but soon that light wasn't enough to scare off the evil. It closed in Brian and Jenny. The lamp was doing what could to shine, but the rays of light themselves seemed to get lost in this darkness. It swallowed the light. Jenny and Brian were all alone when the end came. There was no screaming as the darkness sucked the very air from around them. They clawed at their throats and tried to escape, but once they were surrounded there was no escape. The evil ones took their time leaching the life from their young souls. These two didn't have special powers, but their souls were sweet all the same. Their lives fed the evil, but it still could not kill them. They clung to life as the darkness rose away from them and gathered.

Jenny and Brian were little more than shells holding on to life as the darkness gathered at the edge of the room far from the only light. The room was without sound until there came a hiss from the darkness. It was the sound of cold water hitting red hot metal. The hiss and sizzle became louder until the entire room was filled with a sulfurous stench. Brian and Jenny were barely able to move as a shape emerged from the blackness. The shape was about four feet tall and moved upon the ground. It had limbs, but it looked like no animal they had ever seen. The beast walked clumsily towards Brian and Jenny. Brian managed to turn over onto his stomach and push himself up. Jenny too was sitting up. The misshapen creature cackled as it came into the light. The dim bulb revealed the grotesque face of the beast. It had a long sharp snout filled with rows and rows of yellow rounded teeth. It had three small black eyes that looked at the room independently of each other. It had long bone thin arms, short stubby fingers, and in the place of nails the creature had sharp claws.

It stretched out its long thin arm towards Brian and ran a nail over his face. He had never felt the face of a living creature before. It felt strange to him. Even half dead and drained of energy Brian felt so alive to that creature. But that creature hated life and all it meant. It sliced a deep gash down Brian's face and hissed.

Brian yelled and fell onto his back covering his face with both hands. Blood ran from the deep wound. The creature lumbered towards him. Brian saw the creature coming at him and he kicked it. It flew back a few feet then started at him again. Brian kicked again, but the creature caught Brian's ankle in one of its hands. Its grip was like a pincer. The creature lifted Brian from the floor with one arm. It reached out its other hand and stabbed Brian in the back of the leg with a long claw. Brian wanted to yell, but he no longer had the strength. Jenny at first backed away from the beast, but she knew that she had to help. She grabbed the lamp off the desk, and with all the strength still in her body slammed it against the creature. The blow did nothing at all to the creature, but it screamed an awful bestial sound when the still electrified contacts inside the broken bulb touched its cracked leathery skin. It reached out with its other hand and took Jenny by the throat. Its sharp beak of a snout sneered at her as it close its hand around her throat. Their deaths after that were quick and bloody. The evil closed in and fed off of their freshly dead souls. With two fresh young souls to feed on, the evil grew stronger. It moved towards the main room with its creature. The evil ones were still not strong enough to kill a human, but their creature was. It was about to be let loose in the party.

Alisha looked a little distracted as she stood in a group with Dr. Peng and Miss Clara who had also come to the party. Dr. Evan Peng, a professor at Morehouse College had come dressed as a Ming dynasty warrior, and Miss Clara, his friend, had come dressed as a voodoo queen.

"Will you excuse me", Alisha said after a few minutes of silence. She walked out of the party through the same door Jenny and Brian had walked out of several minutes earlier. Just like with them, there would be no sound and no indication, she just never walked back inside.

The darkness was just outside of the room. It could feel the power and the life. It cherished one and hated the other. The imp licked the fresh blood from its claws and waited to be turned loose inside the room. The darkness spread around the room and enveloped it.

"You feel that?", Miss Clara asked. She was a woman specially tuned to feel things and notice things that regular people didn't even know existed.

"I don't feel anything except for that third cup of punch I just drank", Dr. Peng answered with a short chuckle.

But Miss Clara wasn't laughing. She rubbed her arms against the cold, and she looked around the room. She could see the light in the room growing dimmer. And her spirit could feel the evil. "There's something wrong", she said and started searching frantically through the crowd of people. She finally bumped into Sara.

"Hey, Miss Clara", Sara said with cheer, but then she looked at Miss Clara's face. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, Sara. Something feels wrong. I've just got this feeling that there's something evil out there."

Sara smiled. "Well, Miss Clara, it is Halloween."

"I don't mean ghosts and spooks. I mean evil, Sara. There is something very strange going on." Miss Clara's breath came in sharp short gasps and her chest rose and fell quickly. The woman look completely frightened.

"Let me find Jan and Alisha and we'll go out and look around."

Sara didn't get a chance to find Jan before the imp was turned loose inside the room. The dark creature burst into the room and was almost overwhelmed by the amount of life inside. The life sickened the creature and it lashed out at the first living thing it saw. A girl named Lauren was standing next to the door when the imp charged in with its sharp claws out and its three eyes set on her. She didn't even have time to scream before she was impaled on all six of its claws. Her pierced body fell to the ground leaking blood from many wounds, but the evil focused on her soul. The creature went to the next closest. It bounded like a monkey and jumped high into the air. Its sharp beak-like snout sneered at its next victim as it drew back its skinny arm before slicing forward. A classmate of Alisha's named Cody barely had time to inhale a breath before the blade that was the creature's nail severed his head at the neck. His head fell with a loud thud to the table before rolling onto the floor at the feet of Simone. She felt it bump against her foot. She looked down and in the sheer panic screamed at the top of her lungs before jumping away from it. She would have fallen if Thomas had not been there to catch her. He looked down at her before he looked up and his eyes went wide in his head. The creature was the ugliest, most hideous thing he had ever seen, and it was staring right at him. Its claws rubbed against each other, and its long black tongue came out in anticipation of the kill. It jumped from the table and flew threw the air.

Thomas held Simone in with his left arm, but he extended his right hand towards the creature. The air crackled as Thomas gathered in power. He sucked the electricity from every outlet and fixture and from the very air itself before he unleashed it in a hot twisting rope of blue energy. The creature tried to avoid it, but it hit the creature in the shoulder. It shrieked as if from terrible pain and fell on the ground. Thomas pulled Simone back further and hit the creature again. This time it writhed on the ground. Thomas let Simone go and brought his other hand up. He unleashed twin streams of electricity into the creature. Its shrieks became so loud people had to cover their ears. No one knew what was going on. Most of them were frozen as this teen aged boy shot bolts of electricity from his hands at a creature that no one could identify. At first the imp had tried to get up, but Thomas just hit it harder. Finally it stopped moving and the shrieking stopped. Thomas still sent thousands and thousands of volts into the creature. After a few seconds, it burst into flames filling the area with an acidic odor. It ended up as black ashes on the floor.

"Oh my God what the hell was that?", Simone yelled.

"I don't know", Thomas stammered.

"I'm getting out of here!", people yelled. The music was still playing and the disco ball was still turning when the panic started in the crowd. Costumed guests tripped over one another and many ditched their own dates to get to the door.

"No! Don't Go!", Miss Clara yelled, but many of them didn't listen. Fear ruled them as they ran towards the double doors leading from the room, and they died.

Several people ran out the double doors into the evil blackness. Their screams fill everybody's ears, as the evil reached into their very souls and drained the life from them slowly. The evil savored the taste of life. The screams soon faded as people lost the strength to scream. They were still alive for the moment, but with so much fresh energy the blackness once again reached into the underworld and called forth a creature to do its bidding. With all the new power it had, it could call more and stronger creatures. It was this new fiendish underworld drone that finished off the people who had run out into the hall. The people still inside the room could hear flesh being torn from bone and limb being torn from limb. They backed away from the door towards the other side of the room. The blackness at the door pulsed like a beating heart as they backed away. Blood ran in thin red lines down the open double doors pooling at the bottom. It made the door seem to be crying. The blood continued to run as they backed as far away as they could.

"What is going on here!", someone demanded. "What happened to them!", another cried out. Others called out the names of the people who had run out. "Jim", one woman yelled. "Tisha!", another man called out in grief.

Sara and Jan looked at each other. They were as scared and unsure as everyone else. The room was cold now. Jan could feel the goose bumps on her arms as she ran her hands over herself. All the eyes in the room were looking out that door, but Jan was only interested in hearing what one man saw. She didn't even have to turn around as she backed away from the door. She felt his fingers lace in between hers. Avi had been sitting at a table eating, waiting for Jan to return with all of this had started. He pulled Jan close to him as they backed away from the door.

"What do you see?", Jan asked him. The people were pressing against each other. The fear in the room was palpable.

"Nothing", Avi uttered weakly.

Jan turned to face him and looked into his grey-green eyes. "What do you mean nothing?"

Avi met her gaze and took Jan by her shapely shoulders. "I mean nothing", he said in his Israeli accented English. "When I look out that door, I don't see anything on any spectrum. That's not blackness you're all seeing when you look out the door. What you're seeing is a void. Whatever that is doesn't allow anything to pass through it. Its like nothing I've ever experienced before."

Jan's mind was working quickly. Thoughts and counters to those thoughts ran through her mind. "Can you see where the blackness starts and ends?"

Avi squinted and looked through the walls and all around the room. His sigh said it all to her. "Its all around us, Jan. We're surrounded by that blackness."

Others in the group heard them. Some began to cry, and weep, while others began to pray. Evil filled the room, completely taking away hope from many. Miss Clara had fallen against the wall in total shock. As sensitive as she was, this was harming her in ways the others in the room could never imagine.

People crossed their arms and rubbed them against the cold. Many of the people in the room where wearing revealing costumes and the cold was getting worse. Their bottom lips quivered from the chill and from fright as they huddled together staring at the black doorway listening to bodies being dismembered by creatures they had never seen. Looking at the door was like looking into death itself. A place where once something entered completely, it never got out again. They all felt their approaching doom. There is no knowledge like the knowledge of the time and place of your own death. The people in the room faced that knowledge. Because as they looked out at the utter and complete blackness every one of them knew that their time to die approached.

Then there was a howl. Not like a wolf or a coyote, this was an otherworldly howl of delight as the evil ones released their new minion. This creature was different from the imp. This new creature entered the room slowly, walking almost like a man. It had a long torso, long arms, short legs, was nearly as tall as a human, but it had no face. Only a jumble of rotting tissue hung from its rotting bones where the face should have been. Its entire body was covered in the same loose rotting flesh. The smell was horrid. It moved very slowly and deliberately. It went from side to side as it stumbled and moved forward like a dog on a trail sniffing for its prey. This fiendish creature could smell life. The people were pressed against the back wall of the room. There was nowhere to go. This fiendish creature was getting closer. People yelled and cursed. Some looked for a way out while others looked for something to arm themselves.

"What do we do?", some yelled. "What do we do!", the man wailed. No one had an answer. They all looked at each other.

"We have to do something", Sara whispered into Chris' ear. "Thomas' powers worked on the first thing. Maybe our powers will too."

"Maybe", Chris allowed. "There's only one way to find out though. You sure you want to do this?"

Sara turned and looked up at him. He saw the fear in her eyes. It was the most powerful fear, the fear of the unknown. He saw in that moment that Sara was facing her fear internally. It was a fear like none she had ever had to face. A single tear rolled down Sara's cheek, and she stretched up and kissed him tenderly. "Yes. I'm sure I want to do this."

Jan had already made up in her mind that no matter what this was, she refused to die like a lamb. Lambs didn't cry out or resist when they were being slaughtered. They willingly laid down their lives. Jan took a deep breath and pushed her way to the front next to her brother Thomas, because Jan Caufield was no lamb.

The creature seemed to have them now. It moved with more purpose in its own plodding way. Its legs seemed to be sturdy, but still its steps were unsure. The smell because nearly unbearable the closer it came, and with it, it brought evil. Wisps of the black fog floated in the room near the doorway as the fiend closed in on its selected prey. Sara had pushed her way next to Thomas and they waited. Thomas waited until the last moment before he thrust our his hands and released the power he had stored within himself. It shot out hotter and stronger than before. This creature howled in pain. The noise it made sliced to the people's very core. It was the sort of sound that made people lose their grip on reality. Some people fainted dead away. Thomas kept up the power, but this creature managed to free himself. It smoked and its flesh was burned, but it moved as if unaffected. It bounded at Thomas faster than any animal on earth could have. It bounded faster than almost any person could have reacted, but it was not faster than Sara. Her power was as quick as thought.

The beast hung in the air only inches from Thomas' face. Its stench and its evil shook the youngster. The teenager jumped back as the creature tried to reach out for him. Sara was very still as she held it. She had her power clamped around that beast as tightly as she had ever held anything, but still it moved. Its arms moved as if in slow motion, but they moved. Sara looked at the creature where its face should have been. A rumble of discontent came from its chest as it turned towards Sara. A bead of perspiration rolled down her forehead and the beast laughed. It was a sinister cackle that forced the hair on Sara's neck to stand on end. She had never been more scared in all her life. Everybody backed away from her as she attempted to hold the beast. Its laugh stopped and its intent filled the room. It clawed at its own flesh in an attempt to break her hold. By now Sara was laboring to breathe, and her body was covered in sweat. She took a small step back then closed her eyes.

Sara reached down within herself and found the calm and the control she needed. This beast was supernatural. It was strong and hard to hold, but it had other powers that Sara had never faced. Its evil was so complete and so powerful that it eroded a person's will. Sara released any block on her powers. Her body shook with the power and blood ran from her nose, but the creature stopped moving closer. It started going up into the air. It struggled against Sara's hold. She yelped in pain as it struggled, but she didn't let go. Every muscle in Sara's body was tense as she raised the beast higher into the air. The people around could hear the cracks and pops as Sara's immense power crushed in on the creature, but she knew she couldn't hold it and try to kill it at the same time. Once it was about ten feet off the ground, she stopped raising it and concentrated on holding it. "Thomas", she said in a horse voice. "Hit it now."

Thomas took a deep breath and drew in more power. The air around him shimmered like a roadway on a summer's day in the instant before he release all that power. All the power slammed into the beast. Its howl was even louder this time. People cried at the sound, but Thomas continued. The electricity burned through the loose flesh until finally it broke though to the creature's chest and its entire body began to burn. Sara felt the struggle ease, and finally the creature turned to ashes. She released her power and the ashes fell. She staggered back a couple of steps, but she was able to stay standing.

A huge cheer went up from some of the people in the room. They hugged Sara and Thomas and jumped around, but their celebration had been misguided. The evil ones didn't send the imp or that fiend into the room to kill everybody inside. The evil ones had sent them in to kill whoever they could kill, but more importantly to gauge the strength of their opponents.

As the people spread out over the room once again, four howls came from the hall as four of the creatures were released into the room. People died in the first second. All of the people with powers went into action, but it was Alonzo who reacted first. He held out his hand and three folding chairs flew to him. The chairs levitated before they began to be crushed out of shape. They were compacted smaller and smaller and then the three chairs merged into one compact ball of steel about the size of a small coconut. Alonzo concentrated and the one ball became several golf ball sized spheres. These spheres hovered in front of Alonzo until he saw a target. A beast was trying to kill a woman that Chris was trying to save. Zo extended his hand and the balls traveled across the room as if they had been fired from a cannon. They hit the creature knocking chunks off of it. Alonzo sent the balls back again and again knocking more pieces from the rotting corpse, but still it attacked.

Jan turned and saw Dr. Peng's body sliced nearly in two as one of these fiends burst into the room moving like nothing on earth could. She saw one of them go after a woman who ducked. This was her chance. She ran at the fiendish creature, her long strong legs propelling her very quickly. She slammed into the creature with tremendous force knocking it to the ground. They rolled over and over knocking down chairs and tables and people until they finally stopped with the creature on top. Its claws went straight for her throat, but Jan caught its writs in her large hands and pressed up with all her might.

Jan's powerful arms flexed and bulged as she strained. She face was contorted in with the effort. She squinted her azure eyes and pushed. She let loose the rage inside her and felt the strength flood her body. Her already hard muscles became inhumanly hard, and it was a good thing because these creatures were strong enough to rip off limbs. It leaned its faceless head towards Jan's face, and snatched its arms back and forth. Jan tried to hold on, but the rotting flesh covering the beast's bones was slick. It pulled its right arm free and immediately stabbed for her throat. Jan twisted and the claw sliced across her shoulder a little. She trapped its arm again. She turned her head from the stench, but she didn't know what to do.

Lisa had pinned one of the nasty creatures to the ground. It hissed at her and it had cut her a little, but she had it. It thrashed about and tried to get away. It was strong, but Lisa was stronger. Her copper skin glistened with sweat showing off the shape and the cuts of every one of her muscles. Her shoulders and her back were unreal as she pressed the creature to the floor. Then the creature began to howl again, but this time it was different. The evil had chosen to strengthen this creature. It started to struggle with new strength.

Lisa's face screwed up, and she really turned on the power. Lisa's mighty muscles flexed even harder. Her already shredded abs writhed and split and flexed to keep this creature down. It pressed up with all the new power it had. This underworld demon rose its arms off the floor despite Lisa's great strength. It howled and shrieked as it drew on powers that Lisa could not even begin to understand. She felt herself being stretched backwards. Her body shook with power, but the creature kept pressing. Her fingers had long since lost sensation as she pressed harder and harder. She turned her head and saw the people running from one of the other creatures, and then she heard their screams of agony and pain. She turned and looked back at this creature, and knew that she couldn't let it go. She just couldn't. She had to make herself stronger. She had to be strong enough to save those people. Lisa took a deep breath despite the air being heavy with odor, and as she exhaled her muscles throbbed and flexed and exploded with power. Her entire body grew within the space of a heartbeat. Veins popped to the surface of her skin and pulsed with her beating heart to feed her muscles. She let out a shout of her own, and her muscles flexed even harder. The beast went down, and it went back down hard. So hard, that it cracked the floor. It still tried to move her, but more strength was coursing through Lisa's body than ever in the past.

Alonzo fired his steel spheres at his target one more time. He had already taken off the head and part of the arms and even a couple of claws, but still it came. Finally he sent the balls through the center of the beast's chest. There was a loud bursting when one of the balls hit the creatures charred heart. When the ball hit the heart, the creature shrieked and then fell over before turning into ashes.

"The heart!", Alonzo yelled at the top of his lungs. "You must destroy its heart! That's what kills these things!"

Jan was still fighting one of the creatures when she heard Zo yell. She looked at the creature and saw past its rotting flesh to the inside of its chest cavity. She could see the heart, but it looked nothing like the heart of a living creature. This heart didn't beat. It looked like a black stone. Instead of pumping blood, it pumped pure evil. Jan had a choice to make, and she made it quickly. She let go of the creature's wrists and worked her fingers into the gaps of its ribs. With its claws free, the first thing it did was stab Jan directly in the throat. The pain was blinding and nearly made her pass out, but she didn't. She worked her long fingers into the creature's chest. She got a good grip and pulled her arms apart. Jan's muscles flexed out into sharp relief, and with awesome power, she ripped open the creature's ribs. Jan's arms and shoulders surged with power as its bones cracked and broke from her power. It shrieked its shrill sound and tried to slice her arms, but it was too late. Jan reached her hand into the thing's chest and took hold of its cold black heart. With another mighty display of power, she crushed it into dust by squeezing her large hand around it. The creature fell back to the ground and in a moment turned to ashes.

Lisa was still holding her creature when Alonzo sent two sphere's into the creature's chest. It turned to ashes. Thomas and Sara had killed the fourth one and now the room once again belonged to the living, but there were dead or wounded people littered around the large room. Jan was one of them, but she wasn't injured long. The more her body was injured, the more it healed and the rage made it heal all the faster. Blood dripped from the still open wound in her neck for less than a minute before it closed, and she was able to get to her feet.

As the people tried to get their heads back together, there came more howls from the hall. They could hear many more than before.

"We need to block that doorway somehow!", Lisa yelled. "We can't keep letting them in." She jumped at the sound of another howl just outside the door. Everyone's heart raced in their chests, but they had to do something.

"I have an idea!", Alonzo exclaimed and stepped forward. He held out his hands and several metal folding chairs slid near him. He raised them in the air where they began to loose shape as his power of magnetism crushed them. Soon what had been many chairs became one mass of steel. Alonzo took a deep breath then turned towards the double doors. The metal sped away from him towards the door. As it got there, it expanded and expanded. It became the exact size of the doorway. Alonzo shoved the steel into the doorway and with his power, wedged it in tight. Only a second later there was a chest thumping boom as the creatures hit the steel barrier. Dents appeared in the steel. One of them even pierced it, but Alonzo simply reshaped the metal, closing the hole.

Thomas snapped his finger and stood next to Alonzo. "Let me try something." He looked at the doorway and held out his hand and there was a flash of blue light as Thomas charged Alonzo's barrier with electricity. The banging stopped and everything was quiet. Then there came the most godless wail any of them had ever heard. It was the piercing wail of a thousand lost souls. The sound didn't just enter the ears, it entered the mind. People covered their ears and fell to their knees. The wail became louder and people cried. Men and woman both cried, but Miss Clara was the worst. She threw up her hands and begged for it to stop. She fell forward onto the floor and thrashed about. Sara went over to her, but the woman finally stopped and was very still. Dust fell from the ceiling and two of the smaller steel supporting beams fell from the ceiling and barely missed the people standing near where they fell. The powerful noise the steel made only added to the noise from the evil ones. There was one final wail. The evil was so close to its goal only to be stopped. Then it stopped and the room was quiet. This time, there were no cheers from the remaining people, just sighs of relief and possible respite, because no one thought that this was over.

The room was quiet and very still. People were afraid to move and afraid to hope. They could feel the evil all around them. It seemed pensive and plotting. There was no escape, but at least they were alive... for the moment. People looked around as their ears began to pop like they were taking off in an airplane. People put their fingers in their ears and others tried to yawn to equalize the pressure, but the pressure just kept increasing. It became unbearable, and then it too was gone. The people wondered how much more they could take.

Sara rubbed Miss Clara's head and looked down in the woman's face. She was sweating and her breathing was shallow. Suddenly she opened her eyes. Sara gasped and jumped back. Miss Clara's eyes looked like the blackness outside the room. The black swirled in her wide open eyes. It was like looking into the bowels of the underworld itself. People had been all around Miss Clara, but now they all backed away slowly.

The woman sat up and her head turned. She didn't look at any one person. She looked at them all. A grin appeared at the corners of her mouth. The most sinister and purely evil grin ever. Her movements were unsteady as she got to her feet. Then she laughed, but it was not the voice of one woman. It was the voice of every soul in the blackness speaking through her at once. The sound was powerful and intimidating to the point of making people drop to their knees from the sound alone.

"You can not defeat us", the voice said. The sound shook the floor with its deep resonance.

"Who are you?", someone demanded.

"We are many, and we are one. We have come for you all, and there is no escape."

"Why are you doing this? Why are you killing us? We don't want to die!"

Miss Clara's lips moved, but it was the evil that smiled. "We want your souls, and you must die so that we can have them. We can not be stopped." Then the beast laughed again. This time though the booming laugh of before sounded more distant like it was in another room. The sound got weaker. They saw Miss Clara's body shaking and her hands ball into fists. Her eyelids closed, covering the black swirling masses, and when they opened it was her eyes that were there. The woman smiled and fell back to the ground exhausted.

"What happened?", Sara asked as she pulled up her head.

"They took me!", she replied in a desperate and urgent voice. "They took me, but I tricked them. I know who they are. I know them all."

"Can we get out of here alive?"

"No, no. We can't leave until they are stopped. Once they get the power from your souls they can go out into the world and nothing can stop them. They must be sent back to the underworld. They must..." Miss Clara's strength was gone and she passed out.

"She said that they're evil souls kinda like from Hell I guess", Sara said as she looked up at Jan and Lisa who were kneeling just across from her. "Well you two are Catholic. How do we do an exorcism?"

Lisa and Jan both looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "Get an old priest and a young priest?"

Sara rolled her eyes, but look around when the room began to shake violently. The walls that had seemed so secure began to crack. Chunks of cement and plaster crashed to the floor and the building creaked and groaned, and then it once the room seemed to fall. Like a broken elevator the room fell. People screamed and reached out for anything they could, but the room just sped up until it was moving so fast that people started to rise from the floor. When it stopped people were too scared to move. They crawled along the floor and held on to each other for support. Then they heard a cracking sound. It sounded to everyone that the earth itself was being ripped asunder. More steel fell from the roof and pieces of the roof itself fell to the floor. The rain fell inside the building soaking the people to the bone, and the building still shook. Loud sounds came from the wall as the room cracked in two. Hot air rushed into the room, and a pungent smell. The ground started to shake as a lonesome moan came from outside the broken walls. Then they saw what was making the floor shake. A giant beast lumbered towards the room. It was the most monstrous of all the beasts they had yet seen. It was twenty-five feet tall and half as wide. It was covered in loose yellowish skin and had a massive girth that shook and jiggled as it moved. Its hands were larger than a person. The moans grew louder as the beast walked to the cracked wall. It put its long arms on either side of the crack and pushed against it. This new beast was pushing the entire thing in half. Once the hole was big enough, it started to come inside.

"We can't let it in!"

Alonzo used the fallen steel to block its path, but it ripped the steel faster than he could remold it. Thomas charged the steel with electricity. The beast backed away from the charge, but it wasn't enough to stop him. Once again he started entering the hole. Sara stepped up and took a deep breath and gathered her power around her. The people standing near her backed away as they felt Sara's awesome telepathic powers around her. At once, she unleashed all her power into the beast. It had been moving forward, but her power hit the beast with the force of a high explosive. The beast staggered back and disappeared into the darkness, but it came forward again. Sara was ready. Her eyes narrowed, and she poured everything into this hit. The beast's yell was eerie and loud. It stumbled and fell back to the ground. The people heard it coming again. Sara prepared herself. When it came into sight Sara sent her power at it a third time. The impact was far greater because the beast was running. Its loose skin flapping all over as it moved. Everybody was knocked to the ground from the force of the impact. A concussion wave spread out in all directions breaking the few panes of glass still in the windows. The beast once again fell, but Sara was down too.

Jan turned to see her friend lying on the ground. Drops of blood ran from her nose and her mouth as she lay in a fetal position on the floor. Jan ran over and lifted her up. Chris was there a moment later. "Wake up", he said to her. His voice was cracking under the emotion. "Wake up, baby. Wake up." He took Sara's head in his arms and rocked back and forth while tears streamed from his eyes.

The beast yelled in frustration as it bust into the room. It rushed in shaking the ground as it moved. Everyone was trying to get away. It reached down and grabbed two people in its hands. It crushed the life from them in only a few moments. People all moved away, but there was only so much room. The beast reached out and grabbed up two more people. They died quickly.

Lisa and Jan looked at each other and both charged this hellish creature. Jan went to its right side and Lisa to its left. Jan ran as fast as her long legs could carry her. She turned her shoulder and slammed into the beast's right leg. At the same time, Lisa ran up to it and slammed into its left leg and held on. She wrapped her arms around the thick leg of this beast and squeezed as hard as she could. The beast screamed and shook its leg. Lisa tried to hold on. The beast slammed its foot to the floor. The building shook and Lisa tore a large flap of the loose skin as she fell off. No blood came from this beast just rot. The beast reached down and took Jan into its grip. It squeezed her as it lifted her up. Lisa had started to attack again, but the beast caught her and lifted her as well.

The evil black cloud outside gained strength from the fresh deaths and it entered the room in anticipation of the deaths of two of the most powerful people in the room. The pressure in the room increased again as the evil seeped in. It entered like a rising fog, and as it entered, the steel barrier that Alonzo had put across the door began to rust. Everything in the room began to age and decay. The evil ones were strong enough now to kill the regular people. Their dying bodies looked weak, frail, and old as the evil took their souls. It could not kill the special ones yet, but it would be able to soon.

Most of the few people still alive were huddled into a corner of the broken room protected from the evil only by an electric shield maintained by Thomas, but he was running out of power. The electricity had long ago gone out and his reserve was running low. With Sara still unconscious, there would be no hope for anybody. Just as he was loosing the containment, a bright flash of lightning struck. Getting power from lightning was always tricky for Thomas since they came and went so quickly, but he'd been desperate. He'd taken all the power he could from that lightning bolt. Now he didn't just make a shield against the black cloud, he fought against it, pushing it back.

The massive creature still stood in the room holding Jan in its right hand and Lisa in its left. Two normal people would have been dead, but these were no normal people. Their muscles flexed and bulged with power keeping the beast from crushing them. Jan's eyes were screwed shut as she fought with everything she had. Her super hard muscles resisted the beast's grip. She started to win against the beast's grip. Lisa's body was already packed with super shredded muscle and super human power, but she willed even more. She was getting even stronger as the beast held her. Her muscles flexed bigger than ever in her life. The beast's hand began to open just from the expansion of her hard muscles. She kept going, flexing harder. She grit her teeth and willed more power from her body. Her muscles throbbed and expanded. More and more strength flooded through her body. The costume she was wearing was one size fits all, but was having trouble containing Lisa's hot pulsing muscles as they got bigger and bigger. Finally she figured that she had enough. She gathered her strength and then released it all once. She threw out her arms and her legs and straightened her body. The beast's hand exploded. Bones and rotting flesh went out in all directions as Lisa burst out. She fell to the ground.

Jan heard the beast yell and felt it go unsteady on its feet. She knew this was her chance. With all the power she could muster, she slowly extended her arms. Jan's powerful muscles burst and split and bulged with her rage filled power. The beast had lost one hand and now its other one was being forced open. Jan could see the outside. She curled her body up and brought her legs into it. With one final push, she was free. She fell to the ground. The beast bent down to get her again, but Lisa had seen Jan fall free. She ran under the massive creature and took it by the leg. Her legs grew in thickness as she raised up. The beast was loosing balance. It swung its mighty arms, and was about to right itself when Jan ran in and gave it an extra push. The beast fell, but Lisa wasn't finished. She worked her hands under its clammy loose flesh and found a grip. With a mighty roar and tremendous power, she lifted the huge creature over her head. She only held it up for a moment before the threw it down as hard as she could. The beast hit the floor, but the six inch thick reinforced concrete floor could not take it. The beast crashed through the floor and through the floors below. Lisa went to a knee and nearly fell over, but Jan caught her.

"Good job", Jan told her. Lisa just looked up with a weak grin. Thomas was doing well against the darkness itself and Sara had woken up too. She helped him and together they were pushing the evil back out of the room. Everyone felt the pressure in the room increase once again, and then the darkness disappeared. The only sounds in the room was of heavy breathing and of the rain falling through the torn roof. Everybody looked around and some even started to smile. They dared to hope that it was over. They dared to hope that they had won.

"Is it over?", Simone asked. "Did it leave?"

"Its not over", Miss Clara's horse voice answered her. "The evil can not be destroyed by living hands."

"Then what do we do? Give up and die?"

Miss Clara shook her head quickly. "We must send the evil back to the underworld." Just then the building shook again and the wail of the evil souls could be heard all around. "There is a special gate in the basement! It is the passage that leads to the underworld. They have broken the seal!" Miss Clara had to shout now to be heard over the sounds of the evil. It shouted and threatened her. Then she started sweating and shaking. She spoke faster. "You must open the gate! When the gate is fully open, the evil will be pulled back to where it belongs. Then you must close it and the seal will reassert itself! Only then... Only then-" Miss Clara's voice caught in her throat and she fell against the wall. She shook for a moment and then stopped. Several people cautiously drew close to her.

"Are you ok?", Simone asked and touched Miss Clara's shoulder.

Then her eyes opened, but the blackness was there again. "We warned her!", the thousand voices of the lost souls said through her mouth. Miss Clara shot forward and took Simone by the head. With strength the woman never had, she pulled Simone to her. Miss Clara's mouth opened wider than it normally could. It was filled with sharp bestial fangs. She turned her head and bit deeply into Simone's neck. The high school girl screamed and yelled, but her blood had already been spilled. Miss Clara rose from the ground and flew through the air at Avi. He backed away and kicked her in the chest, but she kept coming. He couldn't get away quickly enough. She was on him. She bit his hands and finally she chewed out the center of his throat.

"NO!", Jan wailed and ran towards her. Miss Clara thrust out her hand and Jan went flying all the way across the room.

Thomas was holding Simone's dead body. He put it down gently and looked at Miss Clara with tears in his big brown eyes. Sparks flew from his fingers as he charged. He raised his hand and shot a hot thick bolt of electricity at the woman it hit her. At first it was the sound of the evil yelling, and then it was her voice. He stopped the stream. Miss Clara was alive, but barely.

Thomas turned back around to look at Simone, but her body wasn't there. He spun around again and she was behind him. Her lips were curled back into a snarl revealing fangs. Fast as a blink, she struck. Thomas was just able to get his hands up. They both fell down with her on top. She leaned forward to bite him, but Thomas sent a powerful surge of power through his hands and Simone flew off of him. She roared and jumped to her feet. She charged him quickly, more quickly than any animal could have. Thomas brought his hands up and the electricity flew. With tears in his eyes, he shocked Simone until she stopped moving. When she did, her body turned black as ash, and she faded away.

Avi too was back up. Blood still dripped from his wounds. He lashed out at Alonzo. Zo backed away and threw steel into Avi's path, but it was too late. He grabbed Zo's arm and dragged him down. He chewed his way up Alonzo's arm until he reached the side of his neck. Lisa was already running. She dove and knocked the undead Avi off of Zo. He snarled and tried to bite her, but Lisa took his head in both of her hands. She first thought of Jan and hesitated, but she knew it had to be done. "Don't!", Jan yelled as Lisa broke Avi's neck. "No!", Jan wailed in grief. She ran up drew her leg back and kicked Lisa as hard as she could. Jan's super powered muscles impacted Lisa and sent her flying through the air. She hit the floor hard and slid into the wall so hard that it cracked. Jan ran over to her ready to hit her again. "I had to", Lisa moaned from her back. "I had to."

Before Lisa could stomp Lisa, she heard a hiss from behind her. She turned and saw Alonzo. Jan quickly twirled out of the way. Alonozo's mouth was open and his fangs dripped saliva. He charged again, but she was ready. She caught him by the shoulders and spun until she was behind him. With a quick jerk, she broke his neck. She didn't realize what she had just done until Zo's body hit the floor. His broken neck was twisted so that his face looked up at her. It wasn't the face of the monster that she had just killed. It was the face of the Alonzo she knew. Lisa crawled over to Zo's body and held him against her chest. She rocked him in her arms. "Lisa, oh my God. I'm so sorry."

Lisa looked up at Jan and their eyes met. "So am I", she said and looked away as his body faded.

Sara ran over to them then. "We have to get to the basement!", she yelled. "Hurry before its too late!" Sara ran back towards the center of the room, but fell when the ground shook violently. Then there was a moan. It was a familiar moan. The massive yellow skinned creature had climbed from the hole. It put its mangled hand on the floor and pushed itself up. Its ugly head came up. Sara's eyes were wide as she backed away as fast as she could. She was too afraid to even turn around and run. She just pushed herself along the floor. She didn't go far enough. The creature reached out with its one good hand.

Chris saw all this, and knew he couldn't let it happen. He knew the only way to kill these beasts were to destroy their hearts. He knew what he had to do. The beast took Sara up in its grip as Chris hit full stride. Chris had always been a really good athlete, and that served him well because had he been any slower, his love would have died. Chris jumped in the air as he got close and then he phase shifted. He jumped into the massive body of this creature. As he went in, it bucked and shook. It dropped Sara. She scrambled to her feet and called out to Chris. The beast let out a moan and slumped forward onto the floor. Its body turned black and gray before it too turned to ashes. It wasn't until the ashes went away that Sara saw Chris lying on the floor on the other side of the hole. Sara ran and used her power to float over the hole. She took him in her arms.

His face was pale and dawn. His normally black hair had gone silver, and his body shivered like from a fever. At first he just shook and his eyes looked all around like he was blind, but then they fell upon Sara. "You made it", he whispered. Sara started to cry and say something. "Shh. You're alive. That's all that matters." Then he closed his eyes and died. Lisa, Jan, and Thomas were standing behind her as she cried. Finally Jan stepped forward and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. Sara looked up.

"Let's end this", Jan said simply.

Sara looked down at Chris's face, and reluctantly put him down. She stood up and nodded. "Let's go."

Thomas lighted their way as they ran down the broken dank hallways and down the stairs. The evil had changed everything in this building. The building itself was become infused with this evil. They could hear the screams and pleas of the people above them as they ran. They wanted to help, but they couldn't anymore. The evil was too strong for them to fight it now. With the power it had gotten from Avi, Alonzo, and Chris, the black cloud had started to change. It had taken on a form. It had taken the form of the leader of all the lost spirits. This man was the most powerful and charismatic of the evil ones. The form was of a tall man with long hair parted in the middle. His face was stern and yet not unhandsome. He wore a black silk doublet, black leather riding pants, and folded knee high riding boots. His form was not completely normal though. He walked as if in a perpetual shadow, and none of the water that fell into the room seemed to touch him. Once he had killed all the rest of the people in the room he walked over to Miss Clara. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she knew this was the end, and she refused to beg.

"My name is Baron von Tauber, and you were a powerful adversary", the man said in one voice, but with the power of all the others.

"Do what you will, but you can't break me", Miss Clara said defiantly.

The Baron laughed the laugh of the thousand and his stern face smiled a devilish grin. He knelt down and took Clara's chin in his gloved hand. "I do not have to break you. I must just kill you." Miss Clara screamed as he sucked out her life. The screaming stopped as she was immersed in the blackness.

Jan, Lisa, Sara, and Thomas reached the basement and looked down the deep well at the gate stone. It had been covered with years of dirt, but now it was in plane sight. "We have to get down there."

"Well, I can jump", Jan began. "Lisa, you probably can too. Sara, you bring Thomas down as you come down. Ok?"

"Got it", Sara replied.

Jan took a deep breath and stepped up onto the stone wall of the well before she dropped down. The drop had looked like thirty or so feet from above, but it ended up being more like 60. She hit the ground and rolled to her side. Lisa came down a moment later. She landed with a grunt and a thud. "Why did I listen to you?", she complained as she got to her feet.

The area down near the well was bigger than it looked from above. That was why it had only looked like a thirty foot drop. It was large enough down here for several people to stand around the massive gate stone. The stone had to weight many tons and it had ancient symbols caved into its face. Most of them they had never seen, but some of them they had. They recognized the aum, the menorah, the cross, and the crescent mixed in with hundreds of others. They walked to either side of the massive stone and waited for Thomas and Sara to come down, but one of them never would.

Sara took Thomas around his torso and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, as she prepared to lower them down. Thomas could feel Sara's power touching him all over his body. They both started to rise.

"Leaving?", the Baron's voice asked from a distance, but when they turned, the evil face was just behind them. He reached out for them, but they moved away. Thomas fell to one side of the well opening and Sara to the other. The evil swarmed all around the Baron. His body wasn't solid at all. A close look revealed the abyss that he was. He took a long stride towards Thomas, his boots scuffing against the hard floor. Thomas rolled over to his feet and fired a massive bolt of power into the form. The Baron paused and absorbed the power. He threw his head back and then leveled his gaze at Thomas.

"You are indeed powerful. Your power will add to our own, once you are ours."

Sara was back on her feet and she had gathered her power around her. She built it as strong as she could and sent it out like a scythe into the form of the Baron. It hit him from behind and hard. The form burst apart once again into a fog. It seemed to dissipate, but it coalesced, and once again took on the shape of the Baron. He looked at Sara's tired and dirty face. "You are also extremely powerful. We should have killed you first and saved us all the trouble." He laughed. His laugh shook the building and made Sara sink down to her knees in despair.

Thomas leaned over the well. "Hurry!", he yelled. "Hurry and open the gate. We can't come down!"

"Oh but you can my dear boy. You can." The evil looked at Thomas and the boy's feet went into the air and he started to fall head first down the well. He saw the ground coming up to meet him. He put out his hands, but he was never going to make it. Even if Jan or Lisa caught him, the impact would kill him. Then he felt Sara's power again. It was rougher and tighter, but he felt her slow him.

"You have interrupted my fun for the last time.!", the evil Baron roared and took a long step to Sara who was looking over the side of the well. He reached out and lifted her by the throat. Her feet dangled. "I shall have your soul and all of your considerable power." He drew her close to him and then Sara entered the darkness.

Thomas fell the last three feet to the hard dirt covered ground, but he was unhurt. He stood to the side and looked up as Lisa and Jan started trying to move the stone. It was even more massive than they had imagined. It stuck up perhaps three feet above the dirt floor, but they didn't know that they were only seeing the top of the stone. It really stretched several feet under the floor, but they couldn't worry about that. Both super powered women strained their muscles to the utmost to lift the gate stone. The massive and supernatural stone moved a little as they lifted. Lisa's muscles bulged and flexed under her flawless copper toned skin. Jan's body was equally as impressive. Her perfect body flexed harder and harder and she strained with all she had. She just hoped that it was enough.

Her costume frayed and nearly tore as she pressed up. Her long strong legs were thick with muscle and her shorts tore at the seams as her thighs swelled with power. Her normally beautiful face was twisted in effort. Her teeth were set on edge and she pushed. Lisa's body was still packed with hard muscle and soon the stone began to move. Slowly at first, but at the first signs of success, the two muscle queens redoubled their efforts and pressed even harder.

The Baron looked down at his fresh kill and felt Sara's vast power add to the power of the evil lost souls. They reveled in it, but the evil one felt the pull of the underworld. The pull was weak, but it became stronger as the gate was opened further. "We will not go back! We shall rule!" The voice of the evil shook the very ground. The shape broke up into a fog and sank down the well.

"You've almost got it!", Thomas yelled at Jan and Lisa, but then he looked up. "Oh no!" He held up his arms and sent a wide net of electricity up. It slowed the fog, but not much. The evil was too strong for any one person, no matter how strong, to stop it. Thomas felt the cold grip of the evil around his throat as the evil fog reached him. The fog changed form back to the Baron.

"Do you think you can beat me? You aren't even strong enough to open the gate. When I was weak, this pull would have compelled me to enter, but not now. When I add his power to ours, we will be unstoppable. Even the power of the gate cannot force us to enter." He threw his head back and laughed. Thomas was too scared to even cry. He hung from the evil swirling black hand waiting either to be saved, or to die.

Jan turned towards Lisa. Her blue eyes met Lisa's light brown ones, and they readied themselves. They both took a deep breath and both of them yelled as they put their strength to the test. The stone rose quickly and fell to one side. The pull of the underworld was like a tornado.

"Never! Never!", the evil roared, but the Baron was loosing shape as it held Thomas in the air. Parts of the Baron's shape was being pulled down and into the gate. Thomas started going too, but Lisa reached out and grabbed his leg. The wails of the dead made their teeth clatter, and it seemed like their very souls were being pulled as the evil went down and down. Then everything was quiet as if after a summer rain. The evil was gone. Lisa and Jan had their backs against the wall. Both of them were beyond tired and trying to catch their breath.

"You better put the top back on", Thomas warned.

Lisa and Jan were too tired to move, but they got to their feet and with mighty effort they pushed the stone upright. The large stone dwarfed both women, but they were more than strong enough to move it. They moved it rather slowly, thinking that the worst was over. Thomas had been down in the well when Jan and Lisa had moved the stone the first time, but he hadn't seen it. This time he couldn't take his eyes off. Lisa and Jan were both gorgeous to a fault and they both were strong. He had seen both of them use their strength before, but this was even more impressive. He watched as their muscles swelled with fresh power. It should have taken a crane to move that massive stone, but instead muscle power moved it. They raised it high over their head so they could line it up. Lisa's triceps looked like razors laid end to end and Jan's already powerful arms were packed with swollen sharp muscles. Her face was red and veins stood out all over her body as they started to lower the gate stone.

Thomas was looking at the display of pure female muscle power and didn't notice the blackness creeping towards him until it had him. He yelled and grabbed out for anything. His fingers only found dirt. "Help!", he yelled as loudly as he could. Jan and Lisa looked at each other and they both dropped the gate stone. It fell the final few feet and landed with an enormous boom. Then there was a flash of golden light as the seal reformed. It was over. Thomas, Jan, and Lisa looked at each other and laughed. They'd made it. Off in the distance they heard the sound of clapping. At first it was just one person, but then many. They turned towards the sound and slowly got to their feet.

"Good job", Alisha congratulated them as the entire world around them shimmered and faded away. The well, the gate and even the basement was all gone. Most of the dirt left their skin as well. It also brightened up. Jan, Lisa, and Thomas looked around and saw all the party guest standing behind Alisha clapping. Thomas jumped high in the air and pumped his fist. Simone ran over to him.

Jan was the first to walk over to her friend. "Alisha, that was the best haunted house ever." Alisha beamed. Jan looked past her to the group. "Was that not the best haunted house ever?!?", she yelled.

The guests all clapped and whistled loudly. "Thank you, thank you", Alisha said demurely and curtsied. She was still in her costume and her very proper curtsy looked funny with so much flesh showing in the front. Jan looked over and could tell that Jenny and Brian had finished what they had started before they had 'died'. She saw Avi and Alonzo having a good laugh with Dr. Peng. She saw Sara sitting at a table eating the fried chicken that Alisha's accomplice Miss Clara had cooked for everybody.

"We better get out of this building though. You guys thoroughly wrecked it with all the lightning and super strength and stuff. There's no way to save the building from all you super powered people", Alisha said as they walked outside. It was a lovely early morning. The sun was just starting to peak over the trees. The ground was perfectly dry. The rain had been an illusion too. Once they were outside, they looked at the old warehouse and saw the damage that their powers had done to it. It was scheduled for demolition anyway. Alisha had done a great job of making sure that nobody had been hurt.

"We should do this next year", Sara exclaimed as she joined the group.

"Oh no we shouldn't!", Alisha said after a yawn. "I'm dead fucking tired. Its going to take me at least a year to recover. Do you know how hard it was to maintain this illusion for all of these people?"

Sara grinned and hugged Alisha around the shoulders. "I can only imagine."

 Happy Halloween!

I hope everybody enjoyed this little Halloween special.   This story isn't part of any of my normal story lines, just a little something I thought might be fun.

comments encouraged: dem2@hotmail.com