Hello Maplers!
This is the winning entry from our Discord Halloween Story Contest written by Spirea.
Please enjoy
Within maple world, deep within Malaysia, is a fantasy theme park, secluded within the land. Despite its obscurity, it is extremely popular within the world of Reboot. One attraction in particular, a ride, is packed with people every day. The place is a magical area, where it is eternally day, filled with smiling marionettes shaped into clowns. They run around, smiling, frolicking, with their balloons and hats. But the main attraction is not what it seemed, hordes of people enter the ride, and destroy these dolls, each one showering the ground with coins upon their crumbling bodies. I was one such person, days, weeks, months, I enter and dismantle these dolls, their balloons flying off into the eternal daylight, and within their broken bodies were the valuable coins.
It should be noted, among the masses of visitors, a majority seemed almost lifeless, their bodies were flesh, but they all wore a crimson glass mask, soulless zombies whose sole purpose is for those coins; I tended to ignore them of course. On the Eve of Halloween, I did what I did every day, there was a Starforce event soon, I needed more coins. The first thing I noticed were these masked zombies hoarding the entrance, much more than normal. I could not get in, I tried another entrance, and another, each brimming with people. I eventually squeezed through the crowd and entered the ride.
Upon entering, the first thing I notice was the eternal day was now night. I opened my bags but noticed there was no sound, I tried to speak, but no voice came out. The entire area was utterly silent and dark, save for the dim light from the entrance. I then see the silhouettes of those same dolls, their faces twisted in agony, some in sadness, others emotionless; they all gave a piercing stare, with a dim glow in their otherwise empty eyes. As I moved, the eyes all followed, but their bodies stood still. I crept up to one, attempting to destroy them like usual, but it felt different, they still crumbled like dolls, but they felt.... fleshy? Nothing dropped, I attacked another, same feeling, same result. I soon felt my body begin to slow, the darkness felt suffocating. I walked toward the exit, not wanting to appear afraid, but it just seemed to get farther and farther. The entrance became dimmer and dimmer, and soon it was gone. The only light now from the myriad of eyes around me, still silent, still twisted. Soon it was hard to breathe, and even the eyes dimmed.
I woke up right outside the entrance, I wearily entered the ride, and saw the dolls once again happy, running around. The hordes of 'zombies' also seemed to taper down dramatically. Everything felt back to normal, though it is strange, small shards of red glass kept dropping from the broken dolls. That day was my Longest Ride on ByeBye station, and even now, the ride still continues.
