It started as a constant thumping, it was quiet at first and didn't wake me as it simply blended into my dream of symphonies, joining with the sound of drums. Then it grew a little louder, becoming more similar to the sound of someone knocking wood, I remained asleep but my dream was slowly fading.
The knocking grew louder and louder until it was a constant banging of wood. My eyes shot open, my breathing heavy, as I propped myself up to look over the back of the couch towards the door...the banging had stopped. I slowly dragged myself off the couch and trotted to the door, opened it, and stuck my head out to look both ways. Empty... I turned and headed back into my apartment, closing the door behind me when one more thump struck out in the silent room.
"What was that?" I muttered silently to myself as I stopped moving, hoping the sound would come again so I could get a better guess of its location.
I waited for a few moments...Nothing. I was about to give up and go back to sleep when one last thump came from down my bedroom hallway. As I looked over to find the hall empty I began to wander towards the origin of the sound, trying to think of what could cause the sound and that's when the answer became clear.
Vinyl.
She was the only one in the apartment that could be making the noise, I realize that my answer was a bit rash as just a while earlier she could barely hold herself up. In the end I decided to trot over to the couch and attempt to get back to sleep. That's when I heard a low moan come from the same hallway as the thumping.
I got up, once more, and headed back towards the bedroom door. When I finally reached the door I twisted the knob to find something rather strange...It was locked. I hadn't locked the door, I hadn't even known you could lock the door, I gave another firm twist to be sure it was in fact locked when another thump came from the room in front of me. Now I knew it was Miss Scratch causing the thumping and moaning. I leaned in towards the door and put my ear up against the wood to see if she was doing anything inside the room such as looking for a way out.
...
...
...
"Octavia..."
I jerked my head away from the door and let out a little yelp as a fell back onto my rump. Her voice was quite and almost...desperate sounding? I didn't understand what was happening but it scared me, I quickly got onto my hoofs and paced quickly, and quietly, back to the couch.
I could have sworn I heard her say "Don't go...please..." as I trotted away from the door.
I paused for a brief moment when I heard it, but quickly decided to get away. My mind summoned up images of what she looked like inside the door, and they weren't exactly...pleasant in the least, some of them even made me feel slightly sad.
Another thing that popped up into my mind was, 'How is that door even locked?' and 'Who locked it?', but I was more worried about Miss Scratch than as to why the door was locked.
Then I remembered what that unicorn told me, 'If you ever need anything, call Shakes.', I walked over to the door, prepared to leave, and I looked back in the direction of the hallway where Miss Scratch was.
I hope she's okay.
I turned and walked over to the elevator, ready to find Shakes.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
It was still dark when I exited the door of my apartment building, I tried thinking of where Shakes might be at this hour. The only place I could think to try was The Cozy Colt which was quite a ways away, in the dark of night, with nopony around to hear you scream. I shook the thoughts from my head and headed towards the theater I went to before I found the Cozy Colt.
Believe it or not, Canterlot is just about the most scariest place in Equestria at night, stone sidewalks so you hoofs echo with every step, the occasional alleyway which is covered in blackness, not to mention the dull lamps overhead that will flicker occasionally. Lucky for me, Luna's moon was big and bright tonight so It provided me with enough light to navigate the abandoned streets. I crossed an intersection and then took a left, the theater is about 10 minutes away from here.
While walking down the long straight street I took some time to think about what had happened in just tonight alone.
I went to my first bar, where I met a very friendly mare, and then was nearly sucked to nothingness by vamponies, which I now was a full believer in, rescued by a white mare, who could scare off four grown stallion vamponies with just her voice, received the first physical touch in years from said mare, then took said mare into my own apartment, and listened to her whimper and moan, only to leave her in search of a barmare, whose location I had no clue of where to start, boy what a host I was.
All in all it was pretty eventful night for me. I looked up to see I was passing the theater and turned my head up the street to see the bar, and Shakes walking out of it.
"Shakes!" I yelled at her. She turned to see me, face full of surprise, and then put on a rather worried look, probably from my rather disheveled look.
"Octavia, are you all right? You look kinda...on edge..." Her tone was of concern and almost sympathy.
"Yes, I'm fine, but I don't think Miss Scratch is doing all that well." Her face turned from worry to full blown panic for a fraction of a second and then back to an intense look of worry.
"What happened?"
After I told her the entire story of what I had done after the thumping woke me up her face was now back to full blown panic. She rushed back into the bar and started feverishly looking for something, then she came back with saddlebags, a silver drink shaker and a glass, the shaker smelled horrible and started to burn my nose.
"I forgot to give her the drink..." Her voice was of both panic and...fear?
"Where do you live?"
After I told her the address she tucked the drinking materials into her saddlebags and rushed off into the direction of my apartment, I decided, with my better judgment, to follow her...and maybe ask a few questions about Miss Scratch's odd behavior.
"Shakes..." She remained silent, still running at top speed.
"Shakes, What's wrong with Vinyl?" This time she answered me, however I didn't much like the answer she gave me.
"Nothing." I knew she just told me a lie, something was obviously wrong with the guest in my house and I wanted to know.
"Are you sure? She seemed to be acting quite strange back when we were at th-" She cut me short.
"Octavia, please, for now, no more questions." Her tone was almost pleading so I obliged to the request.
I wasn't soon after that that she took a sharp left turn, turning onto the wrong street. I spoke up and told her so, however she simply said.
"Were not going there just yet."
She pushed onward into the cold, dark night, traveling on a street I wasn't familiar with. After awhile the scenery had change slightly from the shady business district to a rather suburban area, she turned into the walk way of a large wooden house. She approached the door and gave a solid three knocks. The house wasn't that special, It had a few plants following the walkway up to the door, a stone porch with columns to match the wooden exterior. The door soon opened and out stepped the unicorn from earlier, she looked at Shakes and then at me with a look of shock and rising panic. Shakes nodded and gestured for her to come with us, she nodded back and soon we were running towards my apartment yet again. Soon we arrived at my apartment building and pushed into the lobby, ignoring the odd stare the desk mare gave us. After we all but fell into the elevator and punched the button we finally had a chance to breathe.
"Um, Shakes?" I was rather nervous about asking another question since our agreement.
"Yes?" Good I could ask now.
"What is going on?" Her face turned rather dark by her standards and she simply said.
"I hope you don't have to know that." I didn't quite understand the answer, nor the meaning, but decided not to press my luck with Shakes at a time like this. Soon the elevator door dinged and we all stepped out, trotting at much more comfortable pace. Once we got back to my door I unlocked it and we all piled in, Shakes looked at me with expectation and I understood why. I led them back to my bedroom and told them about the locked door. Shakes made no move to attempt to open it and instead said something that surprised me.
"Sister, if you would." The unicorn mare beside me charged her horn and gently tapped it on the door knob, causing it to spark and then glow. As the glow dissipated, the unicorn spoke up.
"All done, sis." So this unicorn mare was Shakes sister? Hm, I would have never guessed that, Shakes was an earthpony and the mare was a unicorn. It was always fairly odd for two different races of ponies to be related in such a way, that and their coloration was completely different, but then again, I didn't know what their parents looked like.
Shakes reached out to open the door, however, she hesitated a bit and I swore I heard her gulp. She slowly twisted the knob and pulled the door open so slow it creaked, causing her to stop abruptly. She began again, this time a bit quicker to avoid the creaks of the door.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the door was wide open and the inside was encased in darkness. The unicorn stepped forward and lit her horn with a pale green haze, lighting the room up so we could see the outlines of the furniture. We all scanned the room before all of our eyes landed on a crumpled white figure on the ground.
"M-miss Sc-scratch?" All eyes shifted landed on me, including Vinyl's which were still hidden behind her shades. I turned to see both mares beside me looking at me with three emotions. Anger, annoyance, and the most frightening of all...panic.
Vinyl slowly got up off her position on the floor and began to trudge over to all three of us. We quickly started towards the exit, Shakes leaving first with her sister right behind her. However, as her sister turned away, all of the light vanished, leaving me encased in darkness. Of course, being the lucky mare I am, I tripped over an unknown object and landed with a thud. The two sisters looked back at me through the door way and started to re-enter, fear obvious in both their faces, however, they were quickly cut off as the door slammed shut with a blue aura.
I slowly turned back to see Vinyl with a growing smile on her face, and for the second time that night...
I saw fangs...