The Wilder family was in the middle of a bonding moment; a charming and quite expensive wedding anniversary.

Oliver and Kate were the lucky couples and their kids celebrated alongside them. The Wilders weren’t just the fortunate celebrants but also the only couple with both partners having no divorce history in the town.

This town held up to an odd standard that placed divorce as a means to suffice an ear-ached husband and nag machinery of a wife.
But Oliver and Kate managed to pull their relationship together for 30 years straight without a single scandal popping up on gossip charts.

It could be easily discerned that the Wilders didn’t lack a quantifiable dime judging by the looks of the glamorous event and the caliber of invited personalities flooding in. Various assorted drinks and neatly garnished meals lined the surface of tables and palms of waiters.

The children of the couple were occupied around their fellow wealthy peers, not slowing down when it came to flashing costly accessories and educated suave.

Mr. Wilder stood next to some commissioners at the eastern part of the large hall, discussing issues not far from developing the next money magnet.

Mrs. Wilder stood next to a punch stand having a swell time with her female co-workers. They all laughed cheerfully as they sipped the content of their cold glass.

“Nice party you got going, Kate” a lady draws close to Mrs. Wilder, wearing a smile on her face as she shakes the ice in her drink.

Kate Wilder looks up at the approaching guest with a smile and embraces her warmly, “Just filling the loopholes we can reach, then leaving the rest for the almighty,”

The women present before Kate were more than just co-workers, but they were like an extended branch or pillar to the family.

They held Kate close and stood by her through the rough patches that occurred in the family through the years. Countless unfortunate events happened in the past but nothing on the list hit them hard than hospitalizing their third son due to a motor neuron disease. The family visited every hospital in the state and beyond, but none of them could deliver an operation to save their son. They finally landed on the decision to hospitalize their son permanently after overhearing doctors say the word “impossible” to his condition.

“Well, don’t leave all the work to the lord now,” the lady speaks with a smile after they both disengage the hug.

“Speaking about loopholes” another lady in the small gathering speaks, lowering her voice down a bit to the hearing of her co-workers “How’s Matthew’s case coming. I heard the situation skyrocketed in the hospital yesterday- probably minor convulsions or seizures. I just hope he’s okay”

The small pack of women remained quiet. They turned their heads to Kate slowly to see her reaction to the news, because it shocked them too.

Kate wore a confused look on her face. She almost dropped her glass, lost in deep thought
“When did you hear this?” she said

“Dr. Melvin called me when he couldn’t reach your line. He spoke about something relating to burns and shit like that… nothing beyond the ordinary though” the informant replied.
She stuffs a grape in her mouth and watches curiously as Kate stared into thin air.

Kate was worried as hell right now. She wasn’t sure if it was the punch that made her palms sweaty or her skin pores just expanded abnormally. Fear engulfed her body like an invisible blanket- a thick and stuffy one. Nothing was audible to her but her thoughts ringing in her head.

Her palms moved towards the chaplet hidden in her dress. She squeezes it and says inaudible prayers, her lips clamping together as tears began to roll down her eyes. Her co-workers enveloped her, trying to form a soothing wall of comfort.

They give her a seat while they comfort her more. Kate looks up with misty eyes, trying to pick up the words they said, but her thoughts wouldn’t let her. Voices cried in her head and she was disturbed greatly.

She wasn’t afraid of the possible assumptions to her son’s death, no. She was afraid of something greater.

“Attention please!” a voice pleaded out for silence.
The DJ stopped the music, guests dismissed their chats and the waiters paused their services. Everyone currently looked up to the podium, staring attentively at Mr. Wilder.

Oliver looked among the crowd. His mustache arched upwards as he wears a board smile on his face.
“I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who put a hole in their schedule just to be here tonight,” he said, grasping the microphone firmly.

The crowd claps moderately for a few seconds before allowing Oliver to take back control.

“Well, as you all know, I and my family have been through a lot for the past of years; a couple of spending here and there just to keep the bolts tightened. We did our part for the community- as we promised! And you all did your part by believing and supporting- as you promised!”  Mr. Wilder pauses and looks amongst the crowd again “I respect that. I respect every one of you. And for the fact that you stood by my agenda despite losing the mayor mantle only breaks my heart to grateful bits”

The crowd applauds once more but this time louder than before. Cheers sprang out from some sections of the hall as well.

“And here you all are again- celebrating alongside me and my family, joining us as we bond gloriously. For the fact that you all upheld my dreams for the city, you all are a branch to this family tree!”  Oliver Wilder said, his voice backed with pride and strength.

He gives a signal to his firstborn- Marshall, who walks up to the podium and hands him an envelope.

“Okay, listen up” Oliver silences the applauses that rang through the hall. He raises the envelope in his hand and waves it in the air, “This right here is a token of gratitude; 1000 dollars for every guest in the house. You'll get it once the event is over and you walk right through that door,”  
The guests cheer once more, this time a lot more loudly than the former rounds of applause. Glasses were raised in appreciation and praises were chanted.

“Now it’s not much compared to what I usually do, but you all know how life has been for our family. The bills for our poor boy’s health just keeps going up and we've got to keep him breathing,” silence sweeps through the crowd once Matthew Wilder’s case is mentioned.

Oliver pauses briefly and stares down at his wife who he just noticed was crying bitterly.

“The dishes around here also cost a lot of cash you know,” the guests break the silence, laughing at Oliver’s added remark that aimed at bringing back the joy.

“Well, let the show roll on!” Oliver concludes as he steps down the podium, greeting a few guests who came up to greet him.
The DJ plugs in again and the occasion is set back on its glamorous cruise.

Moments later into the now resumed event, loud noises like broken siren horns blared out from the streets. These sounds weren’t like anything a computer could manifest. It was a mix of irregular trebles and chalkboard scratches. Few guests scream out in pain as blood gushes through their eardrums, some fall into a seizure that places them on the ground like twisted cardboard, foaming gruesomely on the mouth.

The odd sound comes to an end with a loud explosion that rocked the mansion fiercely.

Guests rush to the window, straining their eyesight as they stared into the pitch-black cloud that hovered around the mansion. The streetlights were snapped out and every single object outside that radiated was swallowed by the darkness.

The building shook once more, followed by odd humming noises that droned outside. It felt like a choir of thousands stood outside, uttering words that made no literal sense.

The lights in the hall began to flicker, switching from blackout to dim radiance. The guests were trembling with fear now. Some were already on their knees praying for some kind of deliverance, others tried calling but the service was out in the entire area.

THUD! A loud noise was heard as something hit one of the window panes. The guest who looked through the very window withdrew herself instantly with a scream. She steps backward without looking and trips over a chair.

“What happened?” said the second eldest son- Greene, who goes over to give the lady a hand “What did you see out there?!”

The lady was already gripped with cold fear. She tried to speak but mucus kept running down her nose and her tongue fattened gradually, making it seem like a chunk of weasel flesh was forced into her mouth

“It… it didn’t look… human” she managed to stutter as her teeth pierced through her expanding tongue, popping it like a balloon as she drops down dead- blood splutters everywhere including Greene’s face.

Mrs. Wilder squeezes the chaplet on her palms. Her tears stop suddenly and something else like a cold shiver takes the freak wheel. She stares at her friends with wide eyes as she shivered in fear. The guests were already screaming the lord’s name at this point; they run around the hall finding an escape channel but it seemed every opening was blocked by some kind of force.

Those that tried too hard in making a way out got sliced by an unseen force.

Mr. Wilder was frozen on his feet. He had no idea what was going on. His eyes tried to make a reality of what he saw through the flickering light.

“Look, everyone let’s just calm down and find a reasonable solution to the commotion! We already know windows and doors aren’t helping so we need something else!”  Marshall tries to get the attention of the scampering guests but it seemed the majority of them were occupied with the race to survive.

Greene Wilder wipes the blood off his face, cursing to himself. Patches of purple light caught his attention through the window.

He goes over and peeks through the pane, setting his eyes on over hundreds of cloaked individuals with purple lit eyes standing amid the surrounding darkness. Greene throws his eyes to a window at the east and finds the same group of individuals on the other side of the building.

“Calm down?!” a guest who was stressed out either by the booze or horror stepped forward to question Marshall’s suggestion “Look around you pal; folks are being punctured and sliced like piñatas in here! I don’t trust you Wilder’s- I never did! And if you think you can fuel your tank of wealth by sucking the blood of innocents, y’all out of your damn minds!” the man pronounces his words with a threatening southern accent.

“I believe you gulped down your senses alongside the glass, Bart!” Mr. Wilder remarked, disgusted by the man’s theory.

“Well I say bullshit to your cash token,” the guest- Bart, reaches for the doorknob “I’m leaving without it!” he bends the handle but the woodwork wouldn’t budge or even creak a bit.

Thunderclaps send the mansion shaking to its very foundation. Plates fall off tables and the light goes off completely now. The chandeliers above rocked fiercely like wreaking balls.

The guests still ran around the place with heightened fright impulses. Some accidentally bumped into tables or bronze sculptures, hurting themselves badly.

The deranged guest- Bart, stands in the middle of the darkness, his red sunken eyes moving everywhere like an alert meth-head. He spots Marshall standing next to a table, trying to find his way around. With a sickening smile on his face, Bart pulls out a 45 caliber pistol and aims into the darkness, towards Marshall’s head.

“They’ll never know what hit em’” Bart teases darkly in his thoughts.

BANG!! A sound rang out through the hall once more. The guests stop their screaming and praying as they all froze in fear. The lights come back on and they all scream out again once they saw the terror that caught their eyes.

There Bart was, kneeling to the ground as a dropped chandelier pierces through his skull and bursts out from his belly. The gun on his hand falls after a long stretched aiming pose. The strange guest falls to the ground like a sawed log; gushing out blood from his body like leaking sap.

The lights cut out again, this time followed by inhuman howls that came from outside.

The doors swing open like a gale of wind forced its way through. Barks were heard inside the hall now but no creature was seen. The first victim of these invisible hounds was a woman who got her head chewed right off her shoulders. The others try running farther away from the kill-zone but the invisible hounds chased them right down and tore their flesh piece by piece, dragging meat-shredded people around like deserted ragdolls.
Folks who tried going through the now opened doors got burnt as purple light bursts through their skins causing them to incinerate to paste, followed by a foul smell.

The entire hall was cleared of guests. The only people left were the Wilders.

Oliver, Kate, their kids; Marshall, Greene, and little Jessica, all remained silent as they look through the pile of butchered bodies that lay around.

“You okay sweetheart?” Mr. Wilder draws his little girl close to his arms. Her eyes were heavy in tears and horror. Trauma raised each sweat pore on her skin.

Marshall and Greene stare at each other, trying to utter words but the shock they had left them speechless. Greene stares outside and still noticed the mysterious purple-eyed beings.

Mrs. Wilder sat by a table, fidgeting, holding her chaplet close-by as her legs moved recklessly like one in a seizure. Her friends were gone and that was going to leave a scar in her memory.

A loud explosion rocks the mansion once more and this time the windows burst to pieces, shattering to the air like sand. Doors flew open as their hinges and locks broke off. The main door swings open and both wooden frames fall to the ground. Dark fumes that covered the outside premises began to flow into the building.

The silhouette outline of an individual was seen walking into the hall, through the dark smoke and all. The being had glowing purple eyes. Eyes that were brighter than that of the cloaked people that followed on both sides.

The dark cloud that hovered around got cleared shortly and the silhouette figure was revealed. It was a lady. A lady dressed in the most expensive occult regalia you could think of. Her hair was a shade of black, brown, and amber; studded with heavy clay and ruby beads as it dropped down to her shoulder. Her face was tattooed with luminous inscriptions that ran from her purple eyes to her jaw. On her ears were gold piercings that matched the structure of various reptiles, each studded with diamonds. Her arms were tattooed by the same luminous ink as well, and she wore a gown studded with quartz stones.

Mrs. Wilder almost swallowed her heart at the moment. She almost foamed greatly on the mouth if the witch hadn't stopped the incident with a certain spell word.

“The Wilders- aren’t you glad to see me!” the witch throws her arms wide, wearing a frightening smile on her face as she stared at Jessica.

“Did you- did you do all this?” Mr. Wilder asks, stuttering in speech as he feared the outcome of his question.

“Oh, of course, darling!” the occult lady smiles again “We don’t want a full house while we discuss business, do we?”

“What business?” Greene silently said.

“Not so fast, dear. We need to make sure everyone’s here first,” the witch points each family member in a counting motion “That’s strange, only three kids?” the witch had a sarcastic tone to her voice. She was already aware of Matthew Wilder’s absence but toyed with the family nevertheless.

“Yes, my son-"

“-Is dead, yes I am very much aware” the witch cuts Oliver short, throwing an aggravated gaze at Kate.

The family remained silent. They didn’t know what to say. They had no idea what the woman wanted.

“So where does that leave us?” Marshall speaks up at last.

The witch turns around, staring at the firstborn with keen eyes “It leaves you with exhausting options. I look around here and all I see is emptiness; worthless souls cowering behind flesh,”
“You dare not speak of my family such a way!” Mr. Wilder flares up, taking Jessica to his behind.

The witch throws a smile on her face, perceiving an insult in the man’s tone. She looks at Kate once again. Judging by the glances exchanged by both women, you could assume they had an early connection once.

The witch sighs in utter disappointment “Well, vessels must be broken at some point,”

She raises a finger and wags it in the air. Little Jessica drops to the ground suddenly and begins to twist as a rubber band dropped in a fire. Her bones crush, bursting through her flesh like internal needles. She screams out in pain, calling out to her father and mother but then her entire tongue dropped to the ground like a rolled out carpet. Organs poured through her mouth and other body holes like loose stool.

She was dead in seconds; Left as nothing but decayed paste and soft bones. 

“Jesus, no!” Oliver Wilder screams, dropping to his knees as his fingers ran through the remains of his daughter. His eyes felt like jumping out of their sockets. He unintentionally throws up on the dead body multiple times- blood and food substances gushed out from his bowel.

The boys were screamed like ladies, almost destroying their voice box while at it. Greene collapses on a chair while he fondles his hair savagely. He didn’t even know the words to say at the moment, only saliva poured through his lips as tears rolled out his eyes.

Marshall grabs a table knife with great bitterness. He stutters some inaudible words before having his final line.

“Bitch, I'm gonna make you pay… I'm gonna make you pay by every drop of blood in your goddamn body!” Marshall tossed the blade at her, but the knife comes swinging back like a boomerang, driving right through his head like a bullet.

Greene screams out and collapses on his back, seeing the blood of his brother spray on him.

Marshall drops to the ground like his soul was pulled right out of his body. Eyes gliding up into his skull, he was gone!

Kate sat still as she saw the horror unfold in her midst. She looked a bit calm but it was all pandemonium up in her brain. You could say she was far beyond traumatized now.

The witch smiles in amusement, watching on as Mr. Wilder packed his daughter’s liquefied body together like a madman.

“You know, you guys aren’t so worthless after all. You all put up a good comedy act together,” she laughs savagely, staring at Greene who tried to shake his brother back to life.

“Why?” Mr. Wilder whispered in cold fear, tears in between his pronunciations “Why us?”

“My goals are very much beyond your understanding” the witch replied with a serious tone. Her smile returns as soon as it leaves. She looks behind at her cloaked followers and clapped briefly.

“Now for the final act!” she screams.

Greene stops crying suddenly, his belly grumbles out loud in hunger. His eyes widen like that of a bloodhound searching for a meal. He gets up and stares at his mother, growling disgustfully at her like a dog. He stares at his father who knelt next to Jessica’s remains.

His stomach grumbles in excitement.

Oliver Wilder feels a sharp pain in his neck. He withdraws himself suddenly but ends up losing a chunk of neck meat to his son’s mouth.

“Son, what are you doing? Control yourself, boy. We’ve lost far too much!” Mr. Wilder speaks, holding on to his bleeding neck.

Greene seemed to only understand his belly at this moment. He pounces on his father and buries his teeth into him, tearing and swallowing every piece of flesh he could contain. Mr. Wilder could only moan in agony till his last breath.
Greene was done with his meal.

He returns to sanity shortly afterward, seeing his bite marks and chewing works all over his father’s body. His stomach grumbled, but this time not of hunger.

He collapses to the ground, vomiting every part of flesh he ate from his dad. Every single fluid in his body come racing through his mouth till he is left dehydrated and dead. 

Kate looks across the hall, staring quietly at her dead family and guests. She didn’t move an inch from where she sat.

“That was quite an entertaining session, don’t you think?” the occult lady stares at Kate with a wide grin.

Kate said nothing.

The witch wasn’t okay with her silence, but she ignores it nevertheless. She silently turns around and heads towards the door, her followers following suit.

She suddenly stops and turns around slightly “You didn’t expect to get out of this alive, did you?”

Kate still said nothing.

“Oh, well” the witch waves her hand in the air and walks through the door. Growls of certain creatures were heard around the place suddenly. They were the invisible hell hounds.

Morning drew close and the last thing heard from the dark hall was a feminine scream that sank amid savage growls and barks.