Chapter 1: The Orientation

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” A youthful man with pale skin, high cheek bones, deep brown eyes, guyliner done just right, and messy, wavy black hair framing his face to his shoulders sighed. It was like his world was always dull and raining, and the way he never smiled. He wore black boots, black jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a black waistcoat over it. The cuffs of his sleeves covered his knuckles and his nails were painted black. He stood at the front of a waiting room filled with excited and anxious prospective temporary interns. They looked immaculate in their smart slacks and skirts, suits, and jackets, with their hair gelled or sprayed and their makeup looking pristine. They all wore guest lanyards, yellow ones, unlike him. He was full-time staff so his lanyard was red and had ‘Staff-Sylas’ printed in large, spooky black letters. “Good afternoon, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else in between.” Sylas cleared his throat and held up his clipboard to read from a script. “As you are all here, you have been short-listed to work for one season at Madam Vaculik’s House of Horrors, on a creator internship. You have passed our extensive screening process and have been deemed as suitable candidates for the programme.” 

Several hands clasped each other and giddy whispers stopped with a dark stare from Sylas. “You will begin your orientation by getting out of character. Your costumes will be removed, and your makeup will come off. Then you will practice your act every second you can before our first opening night. We run for 7 nights leading up to October 31st.” Sylas rolled his eyes at the stench of excitement in the air. “You will use the name you are given from the moment you arrive on-site to the moment you leave. When observing a suitable candidate, it will not be obvious. You are not to draw attention to our business. Once you believe you have found who you’re looking for, you are to discreetly excuse yourself from your station and alert me at the tech desk to whom you have selected. They will be given a VIP pass by you, again discretely, or by myself, to return on the grand finale night of the 31st. This will give me time to vet them in advance and make you aware of their profiles.” Sylas lowered the clipboard and spoke to them directly around the room. “I warn you now. Do not go for the super loud, super pretty, and super happy ones. If they are surrounded by adoring family and friends, that’s a red flag and an automatic no from me.” He held up one polished finger. “You’re looking for broken, timid, and lonely ones. If they are bullied or neglected, that’s even better.” There were a lot of eager nods around the room, which reassured Sylas that they understood the idea of the programme perfectly. “No one who will be missed.”

“But how will we know that just by looking at them?” A woman with thick, curly red hair put her hand up like a student, even though she looked to be in her late 30s. Sylas flicked his wrist to point his raised finger at the woman. 

“By using all the senses at your disposal to make a short list by preference and suspicion of their suitability. I will then do all the leg work, so you don’t have to stalk anyone.” Sylas took his cell phone out of his jeans pocket and waved it at the redhead. “The marvel of the digital age. Any mortal over the age of 15 tends to have social media and most don’t use security to protect their information. The ones that do? I just hack.” He shrugged with a dark grin. “I’ve been doing this job a long time, and I’ve not come across an account I can’t get into one way or another. Without leaving a trace, of course.” He chuckled at his own excellence, and he looked very different when smiling. Handsome, rather than broody. Sylas’s expression fell back into his usual stoic mask as he cleared his throat and returned to the clipboard. “As I was saying, right.” He tapped where he was up to on the script. “Once you are given the green light from me, you will declare your intentions to Madam Vaculik. Sign all the relevant custody paperwork, and then on the night of the 31st, we will facilitate the candidate’s transfer into your care. If you will require any special arrangements for this, please make sure to let me know with at least 24 hours’ notice. On the stroke of midnight on the 31st of October, we will leave, and you will all return to your prospective homes as brand new creators.”

He looked up and exhaled with boredom as the rest of the room erupted with cheers and high-fives.

“That will be all, Sylas; thank you.” He flinched and held his chest in shock at her presence. Madam Vaculik was the only one able to startle him like that. Understandable really.

Being that, she’s a brood mother.

She emerged from the shadows with coffee and cream skin, mottled with a dark brown exoskeleton over her crown, chest, arms, and legs. The rest of her was soft and pale. Her breasts and waist spoke to her reproductive prowess, and the segmented dark brown spider legs spoke to her deadliness. She had two legs arching out of either side of her back, which suspended her body like she was flying as she sauntered into the waiting room. Vaculik had two big black eyes where you’d expect them to be, she also had three smaller eyes framing each of her larger eyes. Her long black tendril-like hair hung down her back and her black lips parted to show she had fangs that distended to drip venom.

Vaculik raised her humanoid arms as she lowered herself to stand on her humanoid feet. Her spider legs recoiled into her back. She rolled her head and her skin turned peachy and soft all over; her hair turned to silky black waves; and the six smaller eyes shrank into her temples. The woman who stood before them in a red dress with long sleeves and a high collar looked elegant and beautiful. Her hands went to her hips and she smirked at the stunned room. “I’ll take it from here.” She spoke with authority and her head was raised high. Sylas bowed and backed out of the waiting room to leave his boss to take the lead. “I am Madam Vaculik. Welcome to my House of Horrors.” She dramatically raised her hands and chuckled. “Together, we shall terrify mortals of all ages and take their money and their unwanted children. They will be bestowed with the great honour of becoming one of us. A creature of darkness and power.” She sauntered around the room and saw the adoration and hope in their eyes. “This, which you will do here, to create a new generation, is a sacred duty. Whether you are here to sire a child or a mate to breed with later, together we will find the right mortal for you. Now you must remember?” 

She turned on her heels and minced towards the door. Her right hand pointed upward as she came to a stop and smirked over her shoulder at them. “No eating any of them. You will not harm my business with your hunger. You will not reveal that you are not an actor but a real monster.” She chuckled and wagged her finger. “You will not pounce until all the correct due diligence and paperwork has been completed. On the 31st of October, we will snatch away your new little ones, and then you can raise them in safety. Away from the influences of mortals.” She giggled and stretched her arms up over her head, her back popping eerily as she did so. “Oh?” Madam Vaculik turned and her eyes bled to black. Her mouth opened impossibly wide and two black fangs distended from her upper jaw. “Break any of my rules or endanger any of my permanent staff? And you will wish I would just kill you. Instead of the slow, agonising, burning death, I will deny you over and over again. Captured forever in my web.” She giggled at how pale and deathly quiet the new interns all became. She shrugged her shoulders and returned to her misleadingly normal appearance. “Not that that’s out of the way. Welcome to my House of Horrors. Let’s get you out of costume and let your prettier side out.” She pushed the door open and waved her hand for the new interns to follow her. They did so without hesitation.

Through the door, the new interns walked down a corridor after Madam Vaculik, turned left, and entered a massive changing room. “Precious working family? Say hello to this season’s temporary interns.”

Eyes of every colour, fang, claw, wing, horn, scale, and fur all moved to regard the newest additions to the workforce. Hissing, snarling, barking, cawing, and roaring erupted in a monstrous welcome that literally shook the roof. “Nora? Where are you? I have new interns that need the stink of human washing off them. Glamours that need dispelling. Where is that girl, ah? There you are.”

“I’m hardly a girl, madam. I’m 93.” A beautiful African American leaned out from behind a clothes rack on wheels. “Ah yes. We have one week until our first show. And so many interns, Madam! I’m going to have my work cut out for me, getting so many ready in time.”

“Oh, stop complaining and get it done.” She power-walked past Nora and played with one of her two dragon braids on her head. The sides of her head were shaved close to her scalp and her beautiful ebony skin had branching white tattoos across her whole body. Elegance and power whispered up from those hard-won markings. Magic was literally etched like a story into her dark skin. “Ah, a new one?” Madam Vaculik waved a finger over a petal she hadn’t seen before on Nora’s shoulder. The witch beamed with pride and nodded. “Well done, dear. Does that mean you’re ready to take an apprentice now?” Nora’s smile brightened and she nodded with elation. Her amber eyes sparked with electricity as she basked in her excitement. “Oh, it’s about time. Make sure to tell Sylas.”

“Yes Madam.” Nora bowed her head and then turned to clap her hands towards the anxious interns. “Now I know it’s against the way we’ve been raised to get our freak on in front of mortals, but.” She put her hands on her hips and looked over the new recruits. “Here it’s literally in the job description. Humans don’t come to a house of horrors to see other humans. They come to see monsters. Of course, they think monsters are fantasy and that you’re all actors wearing costumes.” Nora had to step back to let a wendigo stalk past her and wait patiently for him to pass. He stopped and swung his long neck and skeletal head to look at the interns. His red eyes glowed from inside the wolf’s skull eye sockets. His mighty stag horns stood like a crown on his head atop his 8-foot height and thick brown fur clung to his skeletal form.

“Oh, hi guys.” The wendigo waved one of his massive hands at the interns. “I’m Walter. Welcome to the family. As a hot tip, make sure to stay hydrated on your breaks. It’s thirsty work snarling on command.”

“Thank you, Walter.” Nora chuckled up at him.

“Yes, thank you, dear.” Madam Vaculik reached up to stroke the underside of his jaw and brought him closer to kiss the end of his nose. “Now why don’t you go and make sure your brother Lucas is ready and isn’t still fussing over his fur?”

“Yes Mother.” He nodded and headed along the many vanity stations to speak to a tall black werewolf. Madam Vaculik turned to see the interns looking curiously, and some with clear confusion, over that exchange.

“I am a brood mother.” She shrugged, like that was explanation enough. For some of the monsters, it was, and they nodded with realisation. For most of the interns, though? She might as well have said the number of pie for all the relevance that meant to them.

“A Brood Mother is a very rare kind of higher-order demon.” Nora supplied herself with a smile and glanced up at the madam to make sure she wasn’t overstepping. “Brood mothers can breed with any kind of creature and their sons are the same species as their father.”

“Moving on?” Vaculik prompted and waved her hand in a rushing motion. “I will leave the rest of the orientation to you, Nora. I will be in my office.”

“Yes, Madam.” Nora bowed her head, her long dragon braids swinging over her shoulders with the movement. Vaculik sauntered with her head high and her smirk oozing confidence as she walked through the changing room. She pushed open the first door on her right and shook her head at the staff canteen that faced her. She huffed, shut the door, waved her left hand over the arch of the door frame, and opened it again. She now faced her personal office and walked in to shut the door behind her with a flourish. She sighed, safe to drop her mighty persona now that she was in the privacy of her office. Hard wood floors clicked beneath her heels as she walked over to her mahogany crescent-shaped desk. She lowered elegantly into the plush brown leather chair and fired up her computer. As it logged in, she frowned at her reflection, staring back at her.

I have birthed so many children. I am blessed that some still live. I have not had a clutch for half a century. I could easily procure a breeding partner. Her frown didn’t lift from her beautiful face. I adore my sons. I do, but I don’t want more sons. I want a daughter. Her right hand subconsciously moved to her navel over her womb, and she dropped her chin onto her left hand with her elbow on the desk. A daughter to give me grandchildren. I would teach her how to weave and enchant her webs. How to secrete venom safely to prevent over-storage in her sacks How to seduce breeding partners and feed on the wicked. Her expression was wistful and she blinked when the computer screen loaded up. She lost herself only for a moment, answering emails, before her mind wandered back to her desire for a daughter. I cannot have a daughter. I have been looking for so long for the right kind of woman who could become my daughter. I fear she does not exist. Her eyes were drawn to the proposed floor plans for the intern rooms to be added to her house of horrors. What do we have this year? A fire demon? I’ve not had a fire demon work for me in a long time. A hell pit room would work well for her. Nora, of course, has her usual witch’s den. Lucas…oh. She sat up right and all eight black eyes blinked open in surprise. Lucas wishes to sire a mate. Well, this is a surprise. Why didn’t he tell me he’d applied to become a creator? He certainly didn’t tell Walter. If he had, he would have told me, I’m sure. Sylas must have assumed I knew when he vetted him. Well, good for him.