📚Distortion holic

Chantal is tasked with putting together a Halloween party while the mayor is sick, and receives help from an unexpected person.

For Coelune October prompt; Costume party

Characters: Abzu, Chantal, Mildred

Warnings: Spooky vibes, characters are under the false impression they are being stalked by a monster, and Abzu has a flashback triggered, causing them to freeze up.

Wordcount: 3,022

Vibe: ouhhhh spooky

AN:

yahoo this isnt rlly revised but its too late to do that anyways

i dont really have a funny author’s note for this one, its the halloween special! despite it not being 2am im very sleepy

---

– i don’t think we can go forwards with the Halloween party >__< i just woke up and i feel awful, it’s probably a nasty cold :c

— I can organize it for you!

– are you sure?? it’s a lot of work…

— I can find someone to help! Besides, I used to minor in outside world studies, so I know a lot about traditions from there like Halloween!

– alright… don’t stress yourself too much though…

Chantal put her phone to the side and sighed.

Isabelle had already done so much of the planning for Waterfall’s first public Halloween event at the town center, that Chantal felt bad letting it go to waste.

But… it was a lot of work. And though Chantal had said she’d find someone, she had no idea where to start looking.

Halloween wasn’t a thing here, after all. In bigger cities and more populous areas, sure – but in a sleepy town filled with older people and criminals? Chantal felt she’d be lucky if anyone even knew what it was.

But the last public service holiday celebration Isabelle proposed went very well, so for her sake, Chantal didn’t want to give up.

She printed out some fliers requesting help, and spent the rest of the day putting them up around the city center.

Days passed, and Chantal didn’t get any phone calls or in-person visitors. The clock to the event was winding down, and even though Chantal was trying her best to fill in the cracks, she had a sinking feeling that it wasn’t enough.

With no assistance to speak of, the day of the event came – and Chantal hadn’t gotten any sleep. Still, she tried to perk herself up by getting into her costume early – she’d chosen to dress as the protagonist of a horror webseries she liked. And even though she was tired, just getting into costume was nice – it was a semblance that things had finally gotten back to normal, after everything.

Despite working on her lonesome, Chantal had managed to decorate a good portion of the event space, as well as the town hall in general. But there was still plenty missing, and Chantal had been so preoccupied on aesthetics that she’d completely neglected the promotion aspect – something that was gnawing at the back of her mind.

After all, what would a party be if nobody showed up?

She simply sighed, and got to doing the finishing touches she could.

Though, soon after Chantal’s work in the entrance area of town hall began, she was interrupted by a visitor.

“Ay, do you work here?”

Chantal jumped, not expecting a visitor. She turned around, to find it was the bouncer of the popular local pub – who Chantal had met once before, but never got the name of.

She knew they were a close friend of Dina’s, and that they acted a bit strange around Laura… but that was about it.

They also were wearing an almost obnoxiously yellow jumpsuit with black stripes, that looked a bit like the outfit of the protagonist of a series of movies from the outside world… but Chantal wasn’t sure.

“…Yes? The mayor is out sick, if you need any civil service assistance, I can take her place.” Chantal replied, worried that they were here for something that would eat up more of her time.

“Oh, no, no! I’m here because of the, uh, fliers! I guess it’s sort of late, but I was dealing with a bit of a flareup earlier and couldn’t get out of bed.” they said, before squinting a bit at Chantal.

“Hey… wait a second! You’re Dina’s girl! I know you!”

Though the thought of being seen as a daughter figure to Dina by someone else was a bit embarrassing, Chantal perked up hearing that they were here presumably to help.

“I, uh, yeah! My name’s Chantal, I live here now!” she replied, turning her attention fully off of the decorations she was putting up.

“I don’t think I ever got your name though, even though we’ve met before.”

“Oh! Geez, where’s my manners, huh? I’m Abzu!” they said, scratching the back of their head a bit.

“Though you might have heard about me before, probably not by name. I’m not quite sure what Dina calls me when trying to keep me anonymous, because she’s not vulgar enough for ‘dumbass’, hah!”

Chantal wasn’t sure if Abzu was trying to make a joke or not – if they were, it didn’t really land.

“Well, uh… it’s nice to formally meet you, anyways! If you’re here to help, I’d really appreciate it…!”

“Yeah, figured I got nothin’ better to do! I even came in costume! Which I hope is alright, because I think the event is supposed to be at the end of the day, anyways.”

“Oh, wonderful, thank you!” Chantal said with a relieved smile, even if her help came so late.

“I’m in costume too, so I appreciate your dedication to the holiday spirit, Abzu!”

Chantal did a bit of a pose to show off her outfit, and Abzu just gave a confused look.

“You… are?”

“Y… yeah-! The character is from, uh, a horror webseries, it’s got a lot of secrets and is pretty well done for having no budget, and-” Chantal started, but Abzu interrupted her before she could ramble further.

“Ah, I’m not super ‘hip’ with online stuff. How about you tell me about it… once we get decorations up?”

Flustered by the realization that she was about to start trailing on, Chantal just nodded, and Abzu approached the box full of decorations.

With some simple instruction from Chantal, the two got to work. It quickly became evident that Abzu’s help was indispensable – just with them around, work was getting done faster than it had been in all the time Chantal spent on her own.

It definitely helped that Abzu was so tall, and Chantal didn’t mind doing the things that required more intricate coordination for Abzu when they needed help.

The two also chatted a bit while working, and while Chantal did continue on about her costume’s inspiration for a bit, the conversation shifted to the subject of retrospect.

“It’s kinda cute seeing you with that Laura girl.” Abzu said casually, hanging up a pattern with a vague bat shape on it.

“Huh… what?!” Chantal responded – the question catching her off guard.

“What do you even mean by that?!”

“When I was younger, I was in a shitty dead-end job doing deliveries to the woman who’s now my wife… she was unhappy with her life, I was unhappy with my life, so we said screw it! And ran off together for something better.” Abzu rambled.

“Ain’t too different from what you did, huh?”

“Mm… I guess, but… I don’t like to think about it much.” Chantal sighed.

“It’s better now, but… the whole ordeal stressed me out way too bad, I’m still trying to recover. I just want to get back to normal.”

“Nothing wrong with that. Stability is comforting, after all.” Abzu replied with a smile.

And just like that, the power in the building went out.

“Oh, are you KIDDING me?!” Chantal shouted out.

It was hard to see anything at all, but the faint glow illuminated by Abzu helped a little.

Abzu quickly moved over towards Chantal to help her down from her stepladder in the darkness.

“Does this happen a lot?” Abzu asked, looking around a bit.

“No, never. Ever since Dina did the infrastructure upgrades here, this is arguably the most stable and updated building in town…” Chantal said, her voice a bit worried.

“I can… try and reset the power in the room where the generator is.”

Because it was so dark, Chantal took out her phone and tried to unlock it to use its flashlight. But her phone wouldn’t turn on.

“What the hell?” she mumbled, pressing and holding the power button in hopes it just needed a hard refresh.

Chantals phone eventually did turn on, but the screen was completely glitched, distorted as if broken. With any action, it started to play some slow jazz music.

“Oh, that’s fuckin’ creepy, alright.” Abzu said, as Chantal dropped her phone to the ground in shock – causing it to turn off and cease the music.

“This is… what is this…?!” Chantal mumbled, her voice having gone from worried to panicked.

“Well, it’s going to be a pain in the ass to find the generator room without proper light.”

“If I focus a bit more, I can light things up a tad.” Abzu chimed in.

“Oh, that’d be helpful. The darkness here just seems so much more intense than usual… it’s off putting, to say the least.”

Abzu closed their eyes for a second, and slowly, the bulb on the end of their antennae began to glow more intensely – it still wasn’t strong though, but it was about the same level of light Chantal’s phone would’ve given off.

“I feel it too. A feeling of something looming… it’s something I haven’t felt in… a long time.” Abzu mumbled.

“That’s NOT helpful.” Chantal said, her voice a bit snappy with panic. She just sighed.

“You’ll need to stay close so I can see where I’m going.”

“No problem at all. You can hold onto my arm if you’d like.”

“…No thanks.”

So, Abzu and Chantal began their walk towards the generator room. Abzu initially tried to make conversation to lighten the mood, but quickly saw that Chantal seemed far too anxious to want to talk.

During the walk, the two would both notice odd occurrences that didn’t help the mood.

“Hold on, stop moving.” Chantal whispered.

“Did you hear that?”

A few footsteps could be heard on the tiled floor behind them, before they stopped just seconds after the two stopped walking.

“Creepy.” was all Abzu could say.

They didn’t admit it, but it was getting to them too.

The long, pitch black corridor, only illuminated by the blue glow they gave off.

The horrible feeling that something was watching.

That something was coming.

Abzu’s glow faltered and their breathing became a bit more panicked.

“Abzu? Are you alright?” Chantal asked, upon noticing Abzu’s glow reduce.

Abzu didn’t respond immediately, and only mumbled incomprehensibly – in between taking deep breaths.

Chantal figured she’d let them take their time, even if she didn’t want to admit she was panicked too.

Though, she was caught by surprise when her phone rang. 

While Chantal initially figured it could be Isabelle or Laura wondering what happened to the power, the caller ID was… completely jumbled, nonsense text. The number was also just a bunch of symbols.

Chantal was terrified, it felt like she was in the very piece of horror she was cosplaying from. Quickly, she declined the call – but her phone answered it anyway.

The speaker turned itself on, and in a crackling, distorted voice, the entity on the other side of the line spoke;

“WHERE ARE YOU RUNNING, PLEASE HOLD.”

The call abruptly ended, and the clicking of shoes on the floor became faster and louder.

“That’s it. We’re getting the fuck out of here.” Abzu gasped in between their attempts at deep breaths – their voice a tone that seemed so different from the calm and collected one Chantal was used to.

Before Chantal could respond, Abzu grabbed her arm and began running back through the hall towards the entrance area.

The clicking followed, and as Abzu and Chantal made it to the front doors of town hall, Abzu tried to pull the doors open in a panic – not realizing they were push doors due to the adrenaline rush.

“Not again, not again…” they mumbled, their hand movements becoming shakier and less coordinated.

Chantal turned around, and despite the darkness, she could see the outline of an extremely tall, looming figure, watching her and Abzu.

She screamed, the noise causing Abzu to crunch up on the ground and clasp their hands over their head.

Chantal felt backed into a corner, and with nothing on her but her phone, Chantal threw it at the entity as hard as she could.

And with it hitting the entity smack dab in the head, the lights flickered on for a second – and the entity, who actually appeared to be a tall, older seafolk-hybrid woman in torn clothes, let out a loud exclamation.

“FUCK!!” she yelped as the phone smacked her. Her voice was… familiar.

And just as soon the lights had come on, the power went out again.

But instead of terror, Chantal’s fear was replaced by… confusion.

Who was this? This isn’t a monster… this is just a normal person!

Is she affecting the power somehow?

And that voice… why does it sound so familiar… wait a second-!!

Taking a deep breath, Chantal stepped past a folded over Abzu, pushing the doors open. Though the streetlights were dim, the light they provided illuminated the inside of the dark city hall a bit.

“Come out.” Chantal said, stepping outside under one of the streetlights.

Just as Chantal requested, the woman stepped outside, bowing as to not hit her head on the door.

“You’re… your voice… you’ve got to be the local radio show host, haven’t you!” Chantal said in an accusatory tone.

“What on earth were you doing?! Were you responsible for the power and all the electronic distortion?!”

The woman sighed, and looked incredibly guilty.

“Alas, I believe I… became too ambitious.” she mumbled.

“I saw the fliers. I was worried about dear Belle, hearing she was so ill, I…”

“Belle? You mean the mayor?” Chantal asked, cocking her head a bit.

“The mayor to me… is long gone. It was similar, but I never got to say goodbye…” the woman said, her tone sad.

“I simply got so, so worried. I promised her I’d take care of Belle.”

“You’re not making any sense rambling like that.” Chantal huffed.
“I promise you it’s just a bad cold. Did you know the previous mayor?”

“She was dear to me. Belle is like a granddaughter to me, but… it appears the technology of this new day doesn’t get along with me.”

“So it WAS you who caused the outage!”

“Yes. I’m deeply sorry for causing such a panic…” the woman sighed, before turning towards the open doors of town hall, where she could see Abzu still covering their head on the ground.

“It’s for the best that I should… go.”

There was a moment of silence between the two.

“Wait.” Chantal cut in, as the woman began walking off.

“Can you do me a favor? For both myself and Isabelle?”

“Hm?”

“On your show… could you please do some advertisement for this party we had planned at town hall today? I know it’s short notice, but…”

The woman’s expression changed from that of solemn guilt to a warm smile.

“Of course! Nothing would make me happier than to support Belle.” she said with a nod.

Chantal let out a relieved sigh.

“Thank you.” she said, glad this was all a misunderstanding.

“Oh, wait – before you go! I never got your name… I don’t listen often, so I never hear when you introduce yourself at the start of the hour.”

“You may call me Mildred. As for you, I realize you must be Chantal, now. Belle has told me quite a bit about you.”

Chantal was a bit shocked by Mildred’s statement, but it felt nice knowing that Isabelle considered her enough of a friend to tell others.

She simply nodded, and waved Mildred off – before quickly running to try and help ground Abzu.

–

“It doesn’t happen a lot.” Abzu’s wife mentioned as Chantal was about to leave the pub, having helped Abzu home.

“They think they’re immune to it… they’re not. They still have a mortal mind just like you and me.”

Chantal nodded.

“You did all you could, and I appreciate that. Thank you.” she continued.

“I hope your party goes well.”

–

The party was all set up thanks to Abzu’s help, and Chantal didn’t even feel the need to make any finishing touches.

She was surprised to find a few people arrived early, saying how they heard about it on the radio – to which Chantal and overjoyed that Mildred kept her promise.

The party was a huge success, with the two facets of the town coming together. Even the most hardened of criminals who decided to humor the advertisement on the radio found fellowship with the older regulars to town hall events, bonding over legends and their costumes.

And to Chantal’s surprise, she was able to reunite with two expected, yet unexpected visitors.

“Hey.” a familiar voice said, approaching Chantal from behind.

It was Abzu, and though their voice sounded a lot more tired than earlier in the day, they looked a lot better.

Alongside them was Mildred – who’s fins were completely covered in tinfoil.

The three chatted for a bit – after grounding themselves, Abzu reached out to their ‘daughter-in-law’ to see if something could be done to allow Mildred to attend the party – which is how the tinfoil solution happened.

Abzu admitted they had a bit of a headache, so they didn’t want to stay for long. They simply wanted to come to thank Chantal, and laugh off the misunderstanding that had happened earlier.

And though on the outside she remained humble, Chantal was bursting with joy.

For after everything, she finally found the kind stability she’d sought..