At the center of a crater in the middle of a decimated city laid a boy around the age of eighteen. His hair was a blood red side swept fringe and his eyes aside from being bloodshot were blue. He was covered in burn marks, barefoot and his shirt was in black tatters. Everything hurt including his lids. He exhaled a pain filled cloud of smoke. He looked up at the blood red sky and saw birds flying in the air.

“What...happened?”, thought the boy. He stood up with difficulty and looked down at the crater. “Earthquake?” he wondered.

He suddenly clutched his face in pain. “Ahhh! It feels like my skull is gonna come out of my face!”, he wailed. 

Some birds in the sky noticed the boy and started to fly towards him. He looked up at them confused. His eyes began to adjust and take notice of their humanoid physiques. They had long black hair, pale white skin, snake-like eyes, black wings and talons.

“Shit!” yelled the boy as he attempted to break into a run with his damaged body.

The boy dived into a nearby sewer grate and the harpies all stuck their heads in the entrance. They kept snapping at him, but were unable to squeeze through. The boy looked up at them in disbelief while trying to catch his breath. “What kind of screwed up nightmare is this?!”

He smacked himself across the face. “Wake up!”, he demanded. He suddenly noticed movement in the water and looked annoyed. “What now?!”, he wailed.

A large alligator humanoid creature standing on two legs climbed out of the water. It snarled at the boy. He took a nervous step back and fell on his bottom. The Alligator continued snarling as it walked towards him. The boy froze up as it smelled him.

“D-Don’t kill me”, he pleaded.  The alligator picked him up with it’s teeth, careful not to tear his flesh, and dove deep into the water. A black portal opened at the bottom and the two of them got transported. They ended up inside a large pitch dark room on the ceiling. 

The Alligator plopped down onto the floor and entered a large hallway filled with torches that had purple flaming skulls on top of them. After walking for several minutes they entered a large room that looked like a shop. 

The walls were a dark shade of blue covered in dark red bloodstains, and a chandelier that had candles around it instead of lights dangled from the center of the ceiling. There were shelves lined with jars holding eyeballs, skulls, teeth, masks, glowing slime labeled “Ectoplasm”, a brain, a frog, and bat wings. There was an odd creature standing behind a sales desk. 

Her body was made out of brown rags, hair looked like a giant light brown starfish with long limbs, skin along with the face was like a rag doll, and the eyes were a series of black strings sewn to form circles. She spoke with a jamaican accent.

“Kurt?! What’cha brought this time, hon?”, she questioned enthusiastically. Kurt responded by dropping the boy on top of the desk. The creature patted Kurt on the head while complimenting him like a dog. The creature turned her attention to the boy and smelled him.

 “You reek of death!”, she gasped. “And you look like a puppet reject”, countered the boy. “Careful child, she warned. “Aunt Marionette might just haunt you”. Those words made the boy feel a little uneasy. Aunt Marionette broke into laughter. “I’m just messing with you child!”

A knock on a nearby door interrupted them. “Ah, a customer!”, she said with a hint of excitement. She turned her attention to Kurt. “Drag the boy to death, I doubt he’ll follow you of his own accord”. 

“Wait…!” pleaded the boy. “I’ll go with you…”. Aunt Marionette clapped twice and a curtain suddenly appeared on a nearby wall. She smiled then instructed him to follow Kurt through it.

They walked down a long hallway with skeletons lined up on each side and more flaming skull torches between them. The flames would ignite as the boy got near them and the skeletons kneeled as a sign of respect. “So instead of getting killed I end up getting treated like royalty?” the boy wondered out loud. Kurt responded with an approving grunt.

There were a few times where the boy was having trouble keeping up with Kurt due to his injured state. The alligator would stop a few times and attempt to pick him up with his mouth, but that just made the boy try to run a few steps faster.

 A large wall of purple fire emerged at the end of the path and transformed into a door covered in bones. “This is the weirdest dream I’ve ever had” the boy mumbled to himself. There was a skeleton head dangling from two bony arms in the center. Kurt grabbed the head and banged it against the door several times. The door slowly opened with a loud echoing creak. A gust of cold air blasted out of the room.

 “It’s freakin’ freezing!” the boy yelped. Kurt pointed forward and nudged him inside with a little bit of resistance. The door quickly shut behind him. “No, you can’t leave me here! I’ll freeze to death!” he pleaded.

The boy turned his attention to the room after realizing the door wasn’t going to open. He saw chandeliers, suits of armor, and giant statues of skeletons all made out of ice with a purple flame in the center of them.

  He stopped in front of a large icy structure that looked like a cross between a gravestone and a throne. The back support part was round like a gravestone, but the rest of the chair was normal. Purple fireballs danced around the inside of the throne and would occasionally leak out of the armrests as white fog. The 50 foot tall black skeleton sitting on this odd chair was clearly the owner. It had white ice covering all of the gaps on its body and purple fireballs dancing around in it. The skeleton spoke in a raspy voice.

“I imagine you have questions... Will you hear my words first?” he said with a somewhat polite tone.

The boy had seen enough and was now convinced that this whole thing was a dream. Since he was now aware of it, most likely he could control it now, like a lucid dream and do whatever he wanted, but he was a little curious about the skeleton. 

“Fine, but make it quick” he said with an impatient attitude. “I want to skip to the part of my dream when the hot girl shows up”.

 “Lamia was right about her”, the skeleton mumbled under his breath. The boy began to question what he said, but the skeleton waved the question aside which just irritated him. The skeleton let out a deep sigh before starting.

“The souls of the creatures that your people consider to be myths have escaped from the world that I sealed them away in. An immense power has devastated your world and led to the extinction of all life” he said with a disappointed tone. “Everyone’s dead?!” the boy interjected. 

“I have a theory of how the events may have transpired,” continued the skeleton, clearly giving no interest to his concerns. “But I require your cooperation.”

“So this is a superhero dream?” said the boy curiously. “Weird”. “Enough of your foolishness!” yelled the skeleton. Massive purple flames shot out of the armrests and the boy jumped back startled by the sudden display of rage.

 “Return to Aunt Marionette’s shop and bring me the witch that resides inside!” said the skeleton with a controlled tone. It was definitely losing its patience.

“Maybe she’s the hot girl”, thought the boy. He agreed and left the room.

***

A girl around the age of eighteen with a blond chin length bob cut with side bangs hair style, light brown skin, red eyes, white long sleeves with a short black sleeved shirt on top of it, white pants with black stripes, and a large witch hat was walking around the store while holding a crystal ball.

“Let’s see...a new wand…?” she asked out loud. The crystal ball glowed green. A broomstick…?” The crystal ball glowed red. Aunt Marionette pulled out a broomstick from behind her counter and gave it to the girl. The girl leaned it against her crystal ball and the crystal ball glowed purple. The broomstick got sucked into it. She smiled.  “I think that’s everything”.

“What is all dis for if ya don’t mind me asking, child?”, said Aunt Marionette curiously. “A mission from death himself” she said excitedly.

The boy entered the room and noticed the girl he had never seen before. Only one thought went through his head. “I would tap that”. 

“Are you a witch?” he asked her curiously. The girl turned her attention to him. She felt an uneasiness in his presence. “...Yes.....Can I help you?”, she said with hesitation.

“The giant skeleton guy said to bring you”, he said casually. “Lord Death wants to see me?”, she asked while knitting her brows. “Have I done something wrong?”

 “How the hell should I know?” complained the boy. The witch tapped the crystal ball once and made a pumpkin pop out. She placed it on the counter and turned her attention to Aunt Marionette. “This should cover all of my expenses”.

“Cool magic,” said the boy. The compliment surprised her. “Huh…? Oh...Uh......Thank you.” 

“Off with you both” said Aunt Marionette impatiently. “Death does not like to be kept waiting.”

***

The witch greeted the giant black skeleton while bowing. “I leave explanations in your hands” he responded impatiently. Now I shall begin.” 

Death made a scythe materialize in his hands. The scythe was black with purple flames swirling around it, a skull where the blade connects to the staff part, and the blade was made out of ice with purple flames dancing around in it. “Do not fail!”, warned Death.

He tossed the scythe in the air and it spun out  of control. Purple shockwaves fired out of it with the sound of a church bell chiming. The boy looked over at the girl and saw her white skeleton covered in a purple aura. He looked at his hands and saw a black skeleton covered in a white aura.

“Wait, I’m not...!”, she began, but was quickly cut off. The world around them including each other disintegrated away. 

The boy found himself lying down in a bed inside a small messy room dressed in a black hoodie and dark blue jeans. There was a black dresser with a long cabinet with double doors, a black desk in the corner covered in papers, and a single window. The boy looked around and saw his clock said 10:00am.

“Weirdest dream ever” he stated, clearly confused by the experience. The boy heard a knock from his cabinet. He gave the cabinet a nervous look. In Horror movies people usually die from things like this. He stepped out of the room and into a hallway. “There’s no way in hell I’m gonna get my ass killed over something that stupid”, he thought to himself.