Casteliacone

~ Is This Ice Cream Cone Spoofed? ~ Link to the original could be found here.

Casteliacone
"Have you tried the Casteliacones? They're really good; you should check them out before we leave for Nimbasa!"

"I've heard they're good, but aren't they hard to get?"

"Nah, not if you've got friends." Vermillion gave her companion a wink.

It was their third and final day in Castelia City, and Claire still hadn't tried a Casteliacone. To be honest, she wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of traveling Unova with Vermillion; although they were friends, they weren't exactly birds of a feather. To have her friends at home see her with such a person... She shuddered inwardly at the thought.

"What do you mean by friends?"

"Let's just say you can get them in places other than those street side stands," she said, somewhat elusively.

I shrugged it off as some little-known restaurant she had found that sold the delicacy. They really had become a delicacy; they were so hard to get that the price had raised dramatically, and few people had actually tried one in their life.

"Where is this place?"

"I'll show you!" Vermillion giggled. "This way!" She ran off down a side street, and Claire, taken by surprise, hesitated and then darted after her friend. Vermillion was acting strange... Why was she so eager to go? They were going to go shopping, and that was Vermillion's favorite thing to do.

Claire quickly caught up to Vermillion, being in a simple but nice pair of jeans, while her friend was in a dress. She almost tripped in an attempt to avoid the red, flowing fabric twice; cursing quietly, she managed to stay behind her friend, although at a somewhat uncomfortable pace.

Grime-covered windows whizzed past them, and the tall skyscrapers gave way to tiny shops, with a narrow gap in between them that could hardly be called an alleyway. Rusty dumpsters flew in and out of sight, and Claire got a glimpse of eyes from within them every once in a while.

"How much further?"

Vermillion replied with what Claire saw as a somewhat demented grin. "Not long, not long," she sang in a sickly-sweet voice.

Vermillion suddenly screeched to a halt, and Claire almost slammed into her. An old screen door greeted them, which led into an old dilapidated building. "Is this the place?"

With a nod, Vermillion stepped in.

Inside was a bit fancier than the outside, although there were a few shady-looking characters within the building. It was surprisingly packed for such a small and out-of-the-way restaurant, with at least ten customers crowded into the small space. Vermillion slid over to the counter and greeted the man behind it.

"Ah, Vermillion! Long time no see!" he said. He wore that same grin that Vermillion wore, and Claire was starting to get creeped out. "And I see you brought a friend! What brings you here? The Casteliacones?" Something about the way he said 'Casteliacones' was extremely disturbing.

"Why yes, of course I did!"

"Well, why don't you let us give you two of them, on the house? For the sake of an old friendship," he said with a wink.

"N-no thanks, I need to step outside for a moment," stammered Claire.

"No, no, I insist! Here!" The man handed her an ice cream cone. Well... this might be her only chance. She reached out for it and took it, shivering as she realized the cone was made of ice.

"Go on, what are you waiting for?"

She slowly sunk her teeth into the soft treat, her eyes widening. It was amazing! But as she did so, she heard a high-pitched squeal, and looked at her Casteliacone; her beautiful, delicious -

The Casteliacone had a face.

With a scream, she dropped the Vanillite, and its fragile body shattered on the tile floor. Another squeal sounded, but this time it cut off abruptly. Claire didn't care. Was this why Vermillion was grinning so sadistically? How could her friend do such a thing?

She ran out the door in an attempt to escape the horror and shock she had just experienced, her boots thundering across the cracked pavement. She finally made it out of the alleyway, losing herself in the crowd of people. She didn't dare stop running until she had returned back to her hotel room, locked the door, and grabbed her phone. Thank Arceus she and Vermillion had rented separate rooms!

She punched in her parents' number, and pressed the phone to the side of her head. Closing her eyes and quietly pleading for them to answer, she hugged her knees to her chest.

They didn't answer.

Frantic, she tried again. Still, she was met with their voicemail.

The same thing happened with her brother, her closest friends, and even the police and the hotel itself. She figured she would have to do things herself, and ran to the door.

It was jammed.

In a frenzy, she began looking for something to help her open it. She dug around in the plain wooden desk for something to pry it open with.

When she turned around, she found herself staring into a pair or red-orange eyes, set in a face with a sadistic grin spread over it.

"Want another Casteliacone?" asked Vermillion.

The scream rang through the hotel.