Horror in Redwake [July Writing Prompt]

A chest laid in an alleyway, seemingly thrown away as if it was some sort of trash to be littered on the ground. A young boy then approached the wooden chest to see it shake violently every few seconds. Instead of instilling fear, the boy grew more curious as to what was in the chest. He slowly unbuckled the latches of the chest and gradually opened the lid…


Apolo awoke with stacks upon stacks of bottles of booze on top of him, as if he was one with the bottles, unable to be seen until closely inspected at. As he got up, he began to stumble as a massive headache rummaged through his brain.

“Ow, my head hurts. I haven’t felt a pain like this ever since my wife divorced me.” Apolo then heard a bunch of ruckus in front of the bar that he was in the night before. He went around the building to see some of his crew mates arguing with handsome men in pink suits.

“You listen here, buddy, we have no idea what you are talking about!”

“Yeah, get outta’ here!”

In front of the group of attractive men in pink suits was a guy with blonde hair, red sunglasses, and a pink fluffy cape. Assumably, this was the leader of the group.

“Sirs, please. May we please come to an agreemento? I know this is a lot to hando but you must cooperato.”

Apollo’s captain, Captain Captin, was arguing with the men. Apolo rushed over to see what all the commotion was about.

“Hey guys. What seems to be the problem?”

The leader of the deviously good-looking men began to introduce himself. “Hello, my name is Doflarango, but just call me D for short. We are the KGB, and our job is to handle any anomalies from the Dark Sea. We have received complaintoes from this island about a mysterious creature running around and causing havaco. Simply, this is a no no. We were just wondering if any of you had any involvement in this caso?” Apollo’s crew mates were quick to fight back against the KGB.

“We have no idea what you guys are talking about!”

“Yeah, get outta’ here!”

Apolo watched as the bickering between the two groups became louder and more annoying. Citizens of Redwake began to gather around the group as they haven’t been entertained like this in years. Annoyed, Apolo went back inside the bar to take a breather.

Apolo began to remember about the chest they had found while adventuring in the Dark Sea. While looking around the piles of sleeping drunk men, the pirate could not find a trace of the chest. He rushed back outside to inform his captain about the disappearance. Just as he went back outside, the KGB were already gone.

“Captain Captin, I looked for the chest that we had the day before, but it appears that we put our hands up, playing our song while the butterflies were flying away too hard and now our chest is missing!”

“Oh no, this is definitely bad. Everyone that’s awake, gather around!” Apollo’s fellow crew mates started a formation around the captain of the group. Most looked like they didn’t care, while other did actually not care at all. Whatever it was, most were annoyed and just wanted to go back to sleep. “Listen up, gang. I’ve just been informed that our chest has gone missing. We’ve worked too hard for that chest and we deserve every right to have it back. We might not know what’s inside it, but whatever it is must be worth a lot of cash.”

“But, sir. What will we do to get it back?!”

“We’ll do what we do best. We’ll sleep, then drink some more, and then we’ll find it… after we sleep some more!” A depressing, non-exiting uproar was made by the crew. They all went back into the bar as Apolo’s hand covered his face in disappointment.

“Guess I just have to find it myself.” Just out the corner of his eye, and for plot convenience, Apolo saw a young boy staring at him. “Hey, you!” The boy became startled and ran away from him. As the right thing to do, Apolo, a total stranger, decided to run after the boy in a dark alleyway.

The boy came to a complete stop as there was no where else to go for him. Apolo finally caught up, but he was quite tired and felt like throwing up rainbows.

“Listen, kid. Why were you staring at my crew there earlier?” The boy was silent and decided to not speak. “I see how it is. You children are just so introverted these days. I know just the thing that will help!” Apolo rummaged through his pocket and brought out a knife.

“No, please don’t kill me!” The boy cried out. Apolo laughed at the boy’s accusation.

“Kill you? Why would you ever think that?” The boy began to sigh in relief. “I was going to torture you. Jeez, kids these days, always jumping to non-sensical conclusions.”

“I’ll give you the monster, I’ll give you the monster!” Apolo was then confused.

“What monster?”

“You didn’t know. There was a monster in the chest that you guys had earlier.”

“Ah ha, so it was you. You little brat, my crew has gotten in a lot of trouble because of you snooping around into other people’s chests.”

“Well, to be fair, if it was that important it wouldn’t be in the middle of an alleyway.” Apolo simply took a glance at the knife he was still holding, then looked back at the boy. “Fine, fine, I’ll show you where she is. I’ve been taking care of her since yesterday. By the way, my name is Ivar, not nice to meet you!”

“Well kid, it’s not nice to meet you too. The name’s Apolo, take me to this creature.”

Ivar and Apolo then arrived at another dark alleyway where a small, pink octopus creature stood quietly in the shadows. “So, this is the puny creature everyone has been worrying about? Alright, back in the box.”

“Her name is Pinky! Treat her with some respect! You should at least say her proper name before demanding outrageous orders!”

“Alright… Pinky. Back in the box.” Apolo and Ivar then heard footsteps from behind them.

“Well, well, wello. Looko what we have hereo. I knew it was the smart choice following you while you were chasing after a mere small child. This isn’t tag, this is real life, and in real life we… um, I can’t think of a comeback at the momento. Anywho, we’re going to need that octopus, Pinky is comingo with us for trading.”

“Hey, I thought you guys were just dazzling men in pink suits who wanted to handle the threat, not sell it?!”

“We’re opportunists, not saviors of the world. You, sir, are simply too optimistico.” Pinky then started to slither across the floor to get to D. “Aww, look. It loves me already.” In a short instant, Pinky jumped on D’s face and gobbled most of his face up. When Pinky was done, it went on to slither on further away.

“No, Pinky is getting away!” Ivar and Apolo then rushed after the creature. Surprisingly, Pinky was quite fast and pursued on into the middle of Redwake. Citizens began to scream as Pinky fed off of the wooden flooring on the island.

“Pinky sure is hungry! Okay, Ivar, listen up. I have the chest, and you have the personality. You’ll go near Pinky and steer her in my direction to get into the chest. Then, we’ll seal the chest up and Redwake is saved!”

“Good plan-” A shot was heard around Redwake as Pinky was shot with a gun. Ivar looked as blood splattered all over Pinky’s body in slow motion.

“PINKY!!!” Ivar went to hold Pinky in his arms. Pinky looked up at Ivar and began to speak.

“Ivar, thank you for taking care of me when nobody else wouldn’t. You saved me. Even when brought to another world, I had someone with me that reminded me of home. I will always remember you. Grow up, have a family, adventure the world, drink alcohol, get divorced, die, have the full experience every human should have.”

“Am I the only one who’s questioning this right now?” Apolo looked around to see citizens of Redwake crying as if their hometown was not destroyed at all.

“Ivar, good luck in life, or not. What matters most is that I’ll always be right here…” Pinky then raised one of it’s tentacles to Ivar’s head while it also glowed. Her body then became limp as she died in Ivar’s arms.

“PIINNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! WWWHHHHHYYYYYYYYY???”

Apolo looked back at the bar to see his captain with a smoking shotgun in his hands. “Captain Captin, that was the thing that was in our chest! You killed it!”

“Oh… guess we have an appetizer before dinner tonight.” The captain simply walked back into the bar as Apolo stood there shocked at what had just occurred. Ivar then stood by Apolo’s side.

“I’ll never forget her, I’ll never will.” Ivar began to wipe away his tears. Slightly annoyed, Apolo brought Ivar closer to him to give him a hug.

“It’ll be okay, kid. Now go home, I’m sure your family is worried sick about you.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Bye Apolo!”

Apolo looked back onto Pinky’s dead body, admiring all of the adventures he had. Though lasting only a few minutes, it would be a few minutes that he would question himself for the rest of his life. Some of his crew mates went out of the bar just to admire the strange creature’s body.

“It’s good that the monster is dead. We had no idea what that thing was on about.”

“Yeah, it’s outta’ here!”

Apolo couldn’t help but admire his crew mates. As he opened the bar doors, most of his crew was asleep or drunk, but those were his asleep and drunk crew. Today, Apolo learned a non-valuable life lesson, and to also know what a Dark Sea talking octopus may taste like. He then looked at the sky, just because, not that it was important, but just because.

3 Likes