Haunted Doll-Part 5

Luna takes a moment to reorient herself; the shock of a random person being able to see her momentarily confuses her brain. Though she did meet a group of humans who could see her just fine, the truth was that they were rare. She could normally leave the house and float around, and not a single person would be able to see her. 

"Right, ahem, what exactly is this flower festival?" Luna asks the woman. Floating lightly down to the ground, she wasn't floating that high, but it would be noticeable if she continued. 

"It's a festival celebrating the Flower God; they provide us with everything we need in the village, so we perform a ritual once a year to appease them." The woman explains. 

"I see, and what is this ritual?" Luna inquires. 

"Well, the whole village gets together and we perform for our God, giving them flowers and food. As long as nothing bad happens during the ritual, everything is fine for the next year." The woman smiles. 

"Do outsiders usually come to view this festival?" If the woman is tired of Luna asking questions, she doesn't reveal it outwardly. 

"Sometimes, it has become quite famous in the last couple of years." She patiently explains. 

"Alright, I was just stopping by for a trip when I saw the festivities and got curious," Luna tells the woman. A small lie, just so she doesn't seem too suspicious. 

"Well, you're more than welcome to join the festivities so long as you don't mess up the ritual." The woman states, before trudging off toward a small stage set up in the center of the town. Luna has a bad feeling about the ritual, she should probably get a move on and find the chalice before it starts. The only problem is…the village is too damn big! Luna moves grumpily from place to place, not being able to float as the people here can apparently see her, and she doesn't want to freak them out. 

She looks around all the outside areas, and even peeks in a few houses, but it's nowhere to be found, and it's now getting dark. With a huff, she moves toward the stage where a bunch of people are gathering. She takes a place at the edge of the crowd and watches as the woman from before stands before the crowd in a pretty dress with flower designs all over it and a flower crown. 

"We stand here today to celebrate another good year for our village and show support for our God!" Her voice booms, and the crowd cheers. 

"We shall first perform the ceremonial flower dance, and then we will present our offerings, begin!" She throws out her arms, and a few villagers dressed in fancy flower outfits rush onto stage, linking arms and starting a dance. Luna watches with fascination. It's a very pretty dance, and she finds herself thinking it would be nice to do that with someone. Maybe she can ask Leslie when she gets…no, nope, she will keep that thought to herself. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment at the direction her thoughts went. 

When the dance is finished, Luna glances up as the villagers start placing their offerings on the stage, and that's when she spots it. The chalice, someone has offered it as a gift to their God. 

"Are you kidding me?" She whispers under her breath. Panic is setting in. If she wants to get out of here, she needs to take that chalice, but if she does that, it would piss off whatever God they worship. Her mind reels with indecision. Maybe she can just wait till later? After the God is appeased? 

That thought is immediately cast aside as one by one the offerings start to disappear. Luna really begins to panic now. If she can't get the chalice in time, would she have to wait a year for it to appear again? Luckily, before she can make a decision, there's some cursing in the crowd, and two people run up on stage and grab an item off the pile.

"What are you doing?!" A villager demands. 

"You didn't tell us these items were being sacrificed! This is my mom's watch, she gave it to me before she died!" One of the two argues. 

"You have to put it back, our God won't be happy if you take back an item." The villager threatens. During the chaos, Luna subtly uses her wind to start bringing the chalice closer to her, but it's knocked down when the stage suddenly rumbles. 

"No, no! It's too late!" Someone screams. The villagers start panicking, and the two men on stage look around in confusion. That's when a giant hand grabs the man with the watch out of nowhere, squeezing. The man erupts in a spray of blood as a wet crunching sound echoes through the village. 

"Shit." Luna curses as she watches a hulking figure appear out of nowhere. At least, nowhere to most people, she can clearly see the figure step through from the ghost dimension. The God these people have been worshipping has been a ghost this entire time. A decidedly huge ghost, with large clawed hands and a bone mask with antlers growing out of the top. It doesn't even look human. 

The giant ghost glances around and spots the man's friend, extending its other hand to try and grab him. Luna realizes what's about to happen and sends a strong wind toward the hand, changing its direction at the last second. 

"Run!" She shouts at the man. He only takes a second to decide, running off into the woods behind the village. The giant ghost is now glaring at Luna. 

"What? Are you mad someone touched your toys?" She taunts, her eyes frantically scanning the ground for the chalice she dropped. She spots it, rolled underneath a table, but before she can go grab it, the giant ghost starts moving toward her with a startling speed, its hand reaching out to slap her. 

She quickly dodges, floating up in the air, but the giant ghost doesn't want to stop there. It continues to attack her as she desperately uses her wind to avoid its attacks. All she needs is the chalice in order to get out of here, but the giant ghost frustratingly won't let up for just two seconds. Luna can feel herself getting frustrated.