Sweet revenge

Istorii giggled to himself as he put the finishing touches on a trap. He’d helped Lukpta set up a haunted maze with a haunted shed in the center...and he had set up many many boobytraps and scares in the ten hours since he arrived. After testing the trap one last time...he donned his costume. He winced as one of his old wing scars let itself be known..it was a relatively fresh one from Koranne’s recent garlic encounter. Admittedly, it did look pretty rad, but he was still mad at Istikal about this one. And Istikal was his target today.

He got into place, listening to the ambient sounds of...what even was that racket Luk had picked out? They could not choose music worth shiiiiit, could they? And he had to listen to this for the next five hours?

Not if Istorii had anything to say about it! It would be a while before he’d see anyone, so plenty of time to cut the speakers in his part of the maze. Ah...sweet silence. No more of...was that like...auto-tune polka metal? He wasn’t quite sure how to describe it. It was just...Bad.

Silence brought to his humble niche of terror, he began pacing and stalking the section of maze he staked as his own. His costume? He’d decided he’d go for a headless horseman meets mangey werewolf look. He’d spent hours perfecting it...and he was glad he was noseblind to his own stench. Anyone else? Well, he hoped their noses would be okay after the mix of fox musk, rafflesia nectar, and skunk spray he’d doused the clothes part of the costume in. He still couldn’t believe that anyone would sell those particular scents...and it was not cheap, he could tell you that!

A gagging sound alerted him to the fact someone had passed by his ‘lair’. Good, good...now to bide his time while he awaits the arrival of his first victim. He had big scares planned...and big scares were what he was going to do!

The sound of something whistling through the air was music to his ears. As were the screams of disgust that followed. Ah, the green jello traps were triggered. Good. And was that Kamil he heard? Perfect! That meant Istikal wasn’t far behind. After the jello was a section of fake webs and mostly fake spiders. He was pretty sure that a few actual spiders had joined the hoard. And judging by the terrified squealing, his hunch was correct.

He paused in his pacing to stretch. Gotta keep limber. Those two could be here in the next half hour. And then the sound of pie smacking someone in the face. “THAT’S NOT FUNNY, COLTON!” Ah, he got Sally. And the sound of someone choking a kookaburra was definitely colton himself.

A rapid rata tat tat alerted him to the series of (FAKE!)bear traps going off. “WHO THE FUCK SETS UP BEAR TRAPS IN A CORN MAZE?” He didn’t know that voice. Must be one of the new neighbors. Istorii couldn’t help but grin upon hearing that.

He puffed himself up, proud of the chaos he was causing. Sure, Istikal thought he was a stick in the mud and Kamil has called him about as humorless as a dried fig, but they’d not played witness to his arsenal of pranks and practical jokes. And now? Well, he went all-out.

Another scream, this time clearly Istikal’s. What did he discover? The pudding pitfalls? The ghost traps? A paint trap? Ooo! Maybe they met with the animatronic roaches he’d set up in one of the dead ends. Or a fake corpse! Oh, so many delicious set pieces they could have discovered.

Whispering broke his excited bouncing. He crouched down and decided he’d literally growl. Gotta spook whomever it was. He pulled a small packet from his pocket...and stuck it in his cheek. Oh, this was going to be good!

As if on cue, Istikal and Kamil emerged from an opening in the corn. And they looked about as spooked as he expected. He lunged at Istikal, biting down on the packet. Fake blood spurted everywhere. And he almost swallowed the packet as he pushed it into his cheek to spit up later. The look on Istikal’s face was of sheer horror as he screamed as if his life depended on it.

And Istorii stopped just inches from his face. And grinned. “Not so fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it?”