Across

Chapter 1 - A Special Frame Job

A fine piece of golden and a pair of red orbs slowly approached from out of the darkness, threatening everything and everyone she held dear. A fang-filled smile soon grew upon the shadow's face before it spoke in an echoic and monotonous voice, "You can't protect them forever."

Madame Foster woke with a gasp, finally realizing that she was still safe in bed and that it was just a nightmare. And as the darkness and tranquility of the night surrounded the old woman, she looked down and shuddered.

"No…" Madame Foster quivered and quickly put on her glasses, jumping out of bed and grabbing a candle before running out of her room and down countless halls.

She eventually stopped at the once off limits door that contained the Scribbles, but it still held back a horrible secret. She thanked her lucky stars that Bloo didn't delve further into the supposed ordinary closet because a real hell would have befallen everyone innocent if he had.

Madame Foster closed her eyes and took a deep breath in while reaching for the doorknob, reluctantly turning it and opening the door—and then her worse fears were realized. Deep within the blackness, a bright white light was seeping through growing cracks on the wall, as an ominous and distant banging could be heard coming from the other side.

The old lady realized what was happening: He was escaping. So, she pulled out her cell phone, but it was no ordinary cell phone; it was a crystalline object in the shape of a flip phone, as it glowed and flashed many bright colors when she dialed the desired number.

The phone didn't even ring once, and the stranger on the other end of the line quickly answered, "You saw him, too?"

"Yes, and it's worse than we imagined—he's almost free."

Unbeknownst to our friends at Foster's, a tragic had occurred the day before; the beautiful equine imaginary friends all grazed and chatted peacefully out in the large paddock, and a newborn Pegasus filly was venturing out to the fence to explore.

And while she trotted happily by the wooden white fence, she failed to notice a short and stout figure lurking in the shadows of shady trees nearby. But she would take notice of the stranger sooner than later, especially when she suddenly felt her entire body freeze on a dime.

"Huh? What's going on?" she questioned in fear, and she saw the peculiar red glow engulfing her. The red force started lifting her off the ground, and pressed her against the fence, exposing her delicate little torso between the thick bars.

"That's right, just cry yer lungs out, little bitch," a voice chuckled darkly.

"W-What?! Who are you?!" the Pegasus cried while struggling against the red aura, but to no avail.

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Bloo." Finally, the owner of the voice made himself known, as a two foot tall blue blob with sunglasses stepped out from of the shadows, and he wore a maniacal grin.

"I don't know who you are, but what's happening?!"

"I'll put it simple for you: I need a victim for a special frame job I'm working on," Bloo explained with a hiss, his smile growing and revealing large fangs.

"B-But what's gonna happen to-AGH!" Just before the filly could finish her sentence, the redness around her left front hoof pulled sharply, effortlessly snapping the little bone.

Her cries finally reached some of the other imaginary friends in the paddock, especially her mother, "My baby! Somebody save her, please!"

Just when a group of brave stallions galloped forward, the red aura around the foal suddenly disappeared and she fell right into Bloo's arms bridal style. And even though the intense pain in her arm should have caused her to black out by now, she couldn't help but sob and stare into those eyes hidden behind the sunglasses.

"Sorry, Kid. It's nothin' personal. Just business."

A blood curdling scream could be heard echoing across the valley, as the filly's short-lived life was no more. The other equestrian imaginary friends froze and watched in horror, as Bloo sank his teeth into her neck and bit off a large chunk of flesh; he then grabbed onto her mane with one hand and yanked, ripping off her head and dropping her body.

The spinal chord still connected the head to the body, and Bloo grinned once more as he spit out the bloody piece of meat and held up the lifeless head like a trophy, "Just another day at Foster's Home."

Too paralyzed or disgusted to move, the other horses still remained frozen when Bloo finally dropped the head and disappeared into the shady foliage outside of the paddock. And the mother of the filly suddenly burst out of the crowd to cry over her daughter's motionless corpse.

"I'm so sorry…I'm sorry I couldn't save you!" she sobbed as her head hung low, her tears spilling like waterfalls and mixing in with the blood.

"We can't just let this go!" another imaginary friend spoke angrily.

"No, we can't!" called a masculine Unicorn, and reared up while his nostrils flared, "Let's go get that blue bastard!"

Meanwhile, Bloo and his closest friends were just now coming back from a fun day at the park, as the Foster's Bus pulled into the garage and everyone exited the vehicle; Mac and Bloo were still very energetic from all the play time, as well as Wilt from playing basketball on the local court, but Eduardo, Coco and Frankie were all rather beat from the trip.

"Jeez, those were the highest swings I've ever seen!" Mac exclaimed in awe.

"I know, and I thought I was dead when I went upside down! I feel so alive!" Bloo shouted in agreement, a crazed look in his eyes.

"MASTER BLOOREGARD!"

"Oh, great." Bloo scowled and face-palmed at the annoyingly familiar angry tone of Mr. Herriman, and the said old rabbit came hopping into the garage.

"Whatever it is, ya can't blame it on me this time, Mr. H. I was at the park all day," Bloo grimly protested.

"He's actually telling the truth this time," Mac added jokingly, earning a glare from Bloo.

"If that is in fact true, then how do you explain what the witnesses saw?" Mr. Herriman argued with a growl.

"Witnesses? What witnesses? And what'd they see?" Bloo questioned.

"You know what we saw, you little liar!" boomed the stallion leading the charge, and they stampeded into the garage to surround Bloo.

"Uh, no, I don't! What the heck are you talking about?!" But Bloo's protested were pointless when the horse imaginary friends all reared and stomped their hooves repeatedly, nearly crushing Bloo if he hadn't squeezed through their legs.

"Get back here! You're a murderer!" cried a mare.

"He may not have the best morale, but he'd never killed anyone! I swear!" Mac shouted and stood in front of his petrified friend to protect him.

"Then why don't you ask this poor mother what she saw," a random equine imaginary hissed, and they all made a path for the very same mother of the dead filly to step forward. Her expression was nowhere near as threatening as the rest of the herd, and instead her face was plastered with utter sorrow and guilt.

"I don't care what you say…my daughter is dead because of you!" the mother sobbed and pointed an accusing hoof at Bloo, "She was only a few hours old, and she was playing by the fence…I-I turned my back for a minute, and she was gone…her leg broken and…"

Everyone's eyes widened in curiosity when the mare paused to catch her breath, but her voice was now meek and hoarse, "And her head…was ripped clean off her body…and I clearly remember seeing a little blue blob tearing her apart…right in front of me…"

Before she could go on, the mare burst into tears again and galloped away. And after her story was finished, everyone was speechless, but no one was as shocked as Bloo; he knew he didn't do any of this and his friends could vouch for that…but he still couldn't explain why the imposter looked exactly like him.

"You're a murderer and a monster, Blooregard. And you're gonna pay," a stallion growled threateningly.

"For the last time, I haven't done anything!" Bloo screeched.

"Whether or not you're telling the truth, you're going to your room this instant! And no supper!" Mr. Herriman snapped and pointed a firm finger upward, making Bloo flinch.

The said blue blob peered at his friends in disbelief, hoping they would help him…but none of them said a thing. Knowing he was truly defeated, Bloo exhaled and shook his head while reluctantly heading inside.

That night, Bloo was lying awake in bed and waited for his friends to come up for bed; bored, he sat up and checked the clock on his nightstand.

9:55PM

"Any minute now," Bloo told himself before flopping back down into his pillow to try and get some sleep. But just as his eyes grew droopy, he snapped them back open when he heard a thud.

Bloo quickly sat back up and looked around, but he saw nothing. Until he finally smelled something funny, he leaned over the edge of his bed and saw a large black object in a sparkling pool of…something on the floor.

Bloo cocked a brow while reaching for the lamp to shed some light, but he instantly regretted it when he saw what the object really was. It was the rotting head of the same Pegasus filly that was murdered earlier that day, as her eyes were milky, her jaw hung open, and the pool of blood slowly expanded outward.

Bloo could no longer hide his fear and let out a blood-curdling scream, and it echoed throughout the house. And it traveled farther than he expected, as his three roommates quickly came running into the room, their faces struck with worry.

"What's wrong?! Why'd you scream?!" Wilt exclaimed with great concern. And just as he finished his sentence, he and the others finally noticed the disembodied filly head on the floor. Wilt and Coco, too, screamed in terror while Eduardo fainted at the sight of gore.

"Co co co…" Coco clucked slowly.

"Bloo, you…you really did do it," Wilt meekly accused.

"What?! How could you say that?!" Bloo shouted in utter shock and scowled up at his friend.

"How else can you explain this?!"

"But I was at the park with you guys all day! There's no way I had anything ta do with it, so what've you got ta say now?!"

"That maybe you really are a monster." Bloo's glare faltered at that statement, but Wilt's stern look remained. For imaginary friends, it's never good when their friendships look bleak.

If you're into mystery, violence and (somewhat)whole new characters, then you're in for a treat!

Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!