Young Writers Society

"I like the way you think," I said to Violet with a smirk. I walked over to the clubs and grabbed one. It was a fairly light one, but it still felt like it could do some damage when I gave it an experimental swing a little ways off from the others.

As I gave it a swing, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a mirror put up on one of the store's pillars. It was weird seeing my eyes peering out from behind a skull mask, and even weirder when I remembered I still didn't know why that was there. We'd have to figure that out after we got our hands on something to protect ourselves with.

Sophie was one of the first to enter the shop and immediately tried her hand at anything that wasn't exactly nailed down. She was looking for the pitching machine and maybe some other weapons, like baseball bats or helmets. She went to a more distant section of the sports shop and found a pitching machine dragging along with her, as well as a huge bag of balls. With that, she was satisfied and could now face the wolf with renewed courage.

Vankous

Vankous shrugged. He would never swing something as ridiculously weighted as golf club, but then to each their own. Nofsky with his gigantic mace did alright. Vankous instead grabbed a pack of ping pong balls as they passed them by, a few harmless projectiles to yeet around, now that he could get behind, and use effectively.

Susan

Susan watched the ping pong balls and that pitching machine with caution. Some of those were definitely going to end up going through her at some point and it was probably not going to be pretty. As far as weapons for her went, she decided to grab a tennis racket. It was the only thing offensive she could think of that she was properly trained. She supposed that the entire tennis racket dueling class they'd had to attend hadn't completely been an April fool's joke after all.

The golf club was a start, but I wanted something more. I hadn't had much experience in stores like this one. Back when I lived on Earth, I had gone wherever Lucy had, and she had only gone to a store like this once for a job. My other experiences on Earth with Nikko also hadn't involved any regular trips to sporting goods places. I didn't even know what kind of sports had things sold here, or what those things would be.

I eventually ended up near where Sophie was. There was a metal basket of baseball bats there. Now that was the kind of thing I was looking for. I dropped my golf club in the basket and took one of the baseball bats out. That would do more damage than the club. I gave it an experimental swing.

Satisfied with how it felt, I turned my attention to the other aisles of the store. I couldn't go off of the aisle names hanging above said aisles, but I could go off of the items in them. There was a hunting section not far from where I was. If I was lucky, I'd find something more familiar like a knife there.

Violet raised an eyebrow at Sophie's choice of a weapon, but if it took down anything that might attack them, hey, it was good enough for her. Vankous and Susan also chose some decent weapons.

She picked up one of the golf clubs and turned it over in her hands. It was a driver and probably the best suited to gain maximum damage. But, it wasn't really balanced evenly. Disappointed, Violet put the driver back.

Skull had picked up a baseball bat and swung it around. There was a better option. He turned away to explore more aisles. Violet skipped over to the metal basket and picked up one of the bats.

This was perfect.

Susan smiled at the baseball bats. At the very least they were smaller and less likely to cause collateral damage to the people around them when inevitably swung around with no care in the world.

I walked towards the hunting aisle. Even without being able to read the words near it, I could tell what it was from the camouflaged mannequin proudly displayed in front of it. It had its hands on its hips and stared out at the world from atop a short platform. It was close enough that my hand's fingers could brush against its legs when I entered the aisle.

There was movement down the aisle.

I looked.

There was a robot standing there, which reminded me all too much of the time I had become one myself. I raised my bat with the intention to swing, but quickly realized that the bat wouldn't do anything. This robot looked like it was made of strong metal. If I was lucky, the most my bat would do was leave a dent.

The air temperature plummeted.

I took several steps back. There was nothing else I could use as a weapon around me. All the other good ones were down the aisle by the robot. I couldn't rely on anyone else, either, since they were all in different aisles.

Not that I would have in the first place.

As the robot moved closer, I took another step back. My fingers brushed up against the mannequin's cargo pants again, and suddenly the world spun. One moment I was on the ground, the next I was on the platform. What little balance I had was lost.

I went falling to the ground with a crash.

I let out a very gender neutral groan, laying my mannequin head down on the ground. My actual body, now completely passed out without its formerly ghostly occupant in it, laid sprawled in the aisle on the other side of the platform.

In front of one of the tall mirrors she found, Violet turned left and right, admiring the black, leather jacket she had acquired in a clothing rack. Then, she swung the bat she affectionately nick-named "StoneCracker" and swung it by her side. Everything matched her fiery red mask.

Violet grinned and sauntered away, resting StoneCracker over her shoulders and eager to see what everybody else had found. Reaching the end of the aisle, she was about to turn the corner and hunt down one of her companions when she heard a crash two rows over.

Suspicion and fear clouded her mind. She immediately tensed, gripping the bat in a combative manner. Did the wolf follow them here?

No, that's ridiculous. There's no way it followed them all the way to a store without being noticed. So, there's something else. The thing made a low sound.

"Guys," she hissed, as loudly as she dared. "Guys, where are you?!" But, she was alone in that section. She'd have to do this herself. Hopefully, the noise alerted the others.

Violet steeled herself and crept over, keeping close to the shelves to minimize her own noises. When she was behind the aisle where the crash came from, Violet tightened her grip on StoneCracker and leaped out.

"Hah-Skull!" she cried. The man was passed out on the floor next to a mannequin and a robot? That was weird. Violet scanned the aisle, but there was no immediate threat. She suspiciously eyed the robot, then crouched down beside Skull. "Psst, Skull. Wake up." She poked his face.

Violet glanced at the robot again. Did it suddenly get closer? The distance wasn't super noticeable, but something seemed wrong. "Uh, guys, can you get over here?" she called, raising her voice, despite the risk. "We're in the hunting aisle."

She poked Skull's eyelid this time. Then, someone groaned beside her. Violet's breath hitched as she slowly looked at the mannequin. Violet yelped, jumping up. She raised the bat above her head.

Sophie was now fully equipped with everything she needed to resist any opposition. Her defence was probably the best there was, but because of that, she was very slow and could barely move. Running was impossible.

She pulled several devices behind her and several more baseball bats, but the longer she pulled on them, the weaker she became.

"Can someone help me? I can't carry all this."

But there was no answer from anyone. It didn't feel strange or dangerous, but more like some kind of nightmare. Everything was quiet and Sophie was quivering inside.

"Hello?"

She looked around, searching for a place to hide, or maybe a spot where it was a little brighter.

"Hello?!"

She was a little louder now, and knew that if she started singing, there would be no trouble. Noise scares away any monster, so Sophie started to sing, which (being in a building and therefore not so bad) turned into a rainstorm.

"Lalalalalala..."

She kept moving slowly, banging her bat forward when she wasn't sure what was happening, and then finally she could hear someone. Or something...

"Hell...o?"

Sophie wasn't sure if she should go in the direction where the groaning was coming from.

"Does anyone need help?" she shouted, hoping that only she would answer, "Me!"

Without wasting another second, she ran, keeping only her baseball bats. She didn't notice how she tripped over someone and fell on the ground. Skull was lying there.

"What happened?"

Sophie didn't respond to anything else until she noticed Violet, who didn't look very happy.

Seeing Violet raise her bat at me, I scrambled to my feet.

"That happened," I said, pointing at the robot that had been steadily inching towards us since Sophie and Violet popped over. Of course, in retrospect, not mentioning I could possess things and people wasn't my best call. They had no explanation for why a mannequin had just stood up on its own and pointed over the unconscious body of their acquaintance at the nearby robot.

Vankous

Vankous's ping pong balls swirled in his hand like a mini tornado. "Oh this is fun. A slow meandering robot. This is almost like vacation." He did a little twirl. Skull was clearly unconscious on the floor too. This was going very well. One less thing to annoy him. Of course if Skull was dead that'd be awkward, but he was positive that wasn't the case. Then the stupid mannequin stood up and Vankous groaned before he realized the opportunity it presented. He launched a ball at the mannequin.

"Attack the mannequin."

Susan

Susan rolled her eyes. She was pretty sure Skull was possessing that mannequin and also that Vankous knew that, but she wasn't quite sure, and Vankous did have good instincts. She stayed put, tennis racket at the ready, if the mannequin was bad she'd have to smack, if not she'd have to smack Vankous.

Violet looked between the mannequin and Vankous, even more confused than before. She didn't lower StoneCracker.

"What the heck is going on?" she asked.

Sophie looked at Violet and Skull.

"Shall we attack this thing? I don't like it. But I don't want to get too close either."

Sophie was a little scared of the mannequin, probably because these horror figures were related to dolls. And dolls are evil...

Sophie screamed, hoping to scare the mannequin away. She tried again, but nothing happened.

The ball hit me right in the face.

"Ow!" I said, covering the spot the ball had hit with the hand I had been pointing at the robot with. The ball bounced as it hit the ground and rolled to the robot's feet. The robot, movements still slow, knocked the ball off to the side of the aisle. "That hurt."

I eyed my body. I could have tried making a move for it, but Violet was probably going to hit me with her bat if I did.

"Stop screaming," I said to Sophie, and then said to Vankous, "and don't you dare attack me again. It's me. Skull."

Sophie immediately stopped screaming and looked at Skull.

"I keep screaming in my head! Because I don't know what to do! Protect me please!"