First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1120: (Special - ) All Courtney’s Eve
Chapter 1120: (Special Chapter) All Courtney’s Eve
– Fifteen years ago, October…
A small, six-year-old Courtney slowly sat up in her bed.
The girl rubbed her eyes gently and took a moment to get adjusted to the light streaming through her curtains.
Courtney’s room was utterly unchildlike. It was painted in somber, black and red colors and decorated with antique princess-like furniture.
Courtney’s room was also decorated with posters of the macabre.
She had ones from slasher flicks, from chilling heart-pounders, and even some more niche horror films.
Courtney had never been scared of frightful things like other kids her age. She thought they were cool instead.
No one could really figure out where her interest in these things had come from, but they were slowly giving up on figuring it out.
Courtney was still just as gentle a child as one could be. She just derived joy from a more mature form of entertainment than other kids her age.
Still rubbing her eyes, Courtney swung her legs off the bed and slipped down.
Her PJs were an assortment of little black skeletons intertwined with cute little bats.
“Good morning Ms. Ganny…”
Gandora yawned monstrously and lifted her head off the ground.
Kids wake up early for two things on the weekend- sugary breakfast and cartoons.
Courtney climbed on top of Gandora’s back and the large beast teleported her out of the room.
They appeared in the kitchen in the common area. No one else in the house would be awake at this time, but her.
Courtney slid down from Gandora’s back and went to the sofa. Her mount went to the kitchen as if she’d been trained.
Gandora stood up on her hind legs so that she could reach the cabinets.
She pulled a toaster pastry out of the pantry and an orange juice box from the refrigerator.
She brought both items over to Courtney, who was busy flipping through channels hoping to find something that would sate her young attention span.
In the midst of this, she opened the packaging on her pastry and immediately passed one to Gandora.
That was when she finally settled on something to watch.
A movie she had never seen before that depicted a singing skeleton with a somber yet beautiful voice.
She was entranced. She didn’t even feel herself swaying back and forth like a tree in the breeze.
The spell over her was broken when the movie suddenly went to a commercial.
*We’ll be right back with more 31 Days of Halloween!*
Courtney’s jaw slowly fell open with bits of Pop-Tarts still visible.
“Ganny, is it October already..?”
Gandora nodded, not understanding the significance.
Courtney slowly rose to her feet, her eyes beginning to twinkle like crushed gems under the moonlight.
All of her morning fatigue was shaken away instantly.
“To mommies and daddy’s room!”
Gandora honestly just wanted to continue lying down…
–
Courtney hopped off Gandora’s back and rushed to open her parents’ bedroom door.
It was still dark inside. Everyone was still in bed, asleep, unaware of the miniature rocket of energy that was headed for them.
Courtney climbed up her parents’ bed like it was an obstacle course.
The little girl proceeded to Swanson bomb the middle of her parents’ bed.
Before she made contact with any of them, a pair of hands shot up to catch her and hold her in the air.
“… ’Good morning’ is a perfectly acceptable greeting, you know?”
Courtney grinned at her father. “What are we doing for Halloween??”
Abaddon furrowed his brow.
“I suppose we could take you trick or treating on Earth if you want…”
Courtney shook her head. “I want to do something at home! Magical stuff!”
Abaddon sat up while slowly rubbing the grit out of his eyes.
“How do I say this… Tehom doesn’t exactly celebrate Halloween, sweetheart.”
“Eh?! Why not??”
Abaddon shrugged.
“There are a number of reasons. Halloween originated from a human tradition where they would leave food outside as an offering to dark spirits.
Dragons are prideful by nature; they don’t make offerings to just anyone. Let alone monsters weaker than they are. So the idea never took off.
Also, they don’t feel the need to play dress up since your mother has blessed entire generations with the power to shapeshift.”
Courtney looked like she might have understood every third word her father said.
“…But don’t they want candy?”
Abaddon’s lip twitched. “…I’m sure some might, but-”
“Then we have to show them how great it is! We’ll scare the piss out of everybody and feed them chocolate after!”
“C-Chocolate..?” Bekka lifted her head sleepily, strands of hair still clinging to her mouth.
Abaddon manifested a chocolate peanut butter cup and pushed it past her lips like a coin in a slot machine.
Bekka chewed slowly and lay her head back onto the pillow; her spirit thoroughly appeased.
“As I was trying to say… I can’t just start frightening our people for no reason. It wouldn’t be fair to treat them like that.”
“But you’ll give them chocolate after, so it will be all better!”
“Some people might not think so. Not everybody likes being scared, babydoll.”
Courtney pouted slightly.
“Okay… I get it.”
Abaddon hated to see Courtney sad. Or any of his children, really.
She asked for so little that he felt bad when he couldn’t follow through with her requests.
“…You know what? We may not be able to bring Halloween to Tehom, but I think we can do something else that’s just as special.”
“And scare the piss out of folks??”
“And scare the piss out of folks.”
Courtney rubbed her hands together maniacally. “Good.”
The worry that Abaddon may have been raising a potential tyrant surfaced for the very first time that day.
– 30 Days Later
Apophis and Tiamat emerged from their bedroom early in the morning.
They were quite lovey-dovey with each other, holding hands and whispering flirtatious remarks in each other’s ears.
As they stepped outside, the couple noticed an ominous fog rolling around on the floor.
That wasn’t all. It was unusually dark within the hallway. What little bit of illumination was available came from the flickering lights.
“Do you think Bash has been practicing weather magic again…? Leave him to short-circuit the hall’s electricity and not even clean up after himse-”
“Babe… what the hell is that?”
Tiamat pointed a trembling finger down the hallway.
There, a small figure could be seen with its back towards them.
“That you, sis?” Apophis called out.
He received no answer. Instead, the small figure hit a right down the hallway and sprinted away from them.
“…That girl is really something else.”
Apophis and Tiamat started to fly after the figure when the twins suddenly emerged from their room.
“What’s the deal with all of this mist?”
“And these lights… I feel like we’re in some kind of bad slasher film.”
“That’s probably why she’s acting like that.” Apophis sighed. “Probably just waiting to jump around the corner and scare us…”
The eldest son floated towards the area where Courtney had disappeared and followed in her tracks.
He expected to find her hiding around the corner, just as he had said.
However, he found her standing still, staring at a dead end with her back turned to him.
“Very scary, kid. Happy Halloween to you, too.”
Again, Courtney didn’t respond. Apophis rolled his eyes as he walked up to her.
“Come on, let’s stop playing now. Don’t you want some of my French toast cinnamon crunch waffles for breakfast?”
Apophis started to reach for his sister.
As soon as he held his hand out, the girl’s head snapped around a full 180 degrees. The child’s face wasn’t her face at all.
It was a burned, mangled thing with long, yellow teeth that were the same size as icicles.
“S-Shit!” Apophis stumbled back and summoned a flame into his hand without thinking.
The child demon flipped into the air, landing on the ceiling in a chilling spider crawl.
Finally, the girls caught up to Apophis and finally laid eyes on the creature invading their home. Their shrieks were so loud they could have woken everyone in the house up.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
“What is that!? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?!”
“Get back, I got this!” Tiamat brushed past the twins and summoned a spear of lightning.
However, as soon as she started to throw it, the energy dissipated.
Slowly, the entire hallway returned to normal, and the mist slowly sank back into the ground.
“Got you!” Courtney said gleefully from behind the group.
Her sudden appearance earned another yelp out of the group.
Audrina floated beside her with quite te proud smile, answering everyone’s questions without the need for a single exchange of words.
Courtney held out an orange bowl filled with candy, expecting the group to take it.
“Hurry up, guys! I have a whole house full of victi- I mean trick or treaters!” Courtney clarified.
For some reason, Apophis couldn’t help but think that she had said what she meant the first time.
This day marked the start of a fifteen-year legend in the Tathamaet house, and brought about a unanimous hate for Halloween shared by everyone who lived there.
As Courtney started to plan for her next victim, another door suddenly opened down the hallway, and Thrudd suddenly poked her head out the door.
“Oh, good, you guys are already here! Come help me put up Christmas decorations!”
