The Broken Loop

Chapter 28: The Quest for Soup

I forgot how much it looks like a porta-poty.

Mircacle Stations look more like porta-poties.

Fair point. Wally says as he walks over to it.

"What is that?" Sammy asks.

"A bacon soup dispenser, no idea if it has any soup in it." Buddy replies.

"Those exist?" Norman asks, confused.

"Apparently." Sammy mutters, "It would have been nice knowing about them earlier."

"Well, we kind of forgot they existed." Buddy replies while Wally turns on the machine, it dispenses five cans.

"That's eleven cans now, right?" Sammy asks while Wally hands him the cans.

"I think so- where did the cans just go, Sammy?" Norman says, confused.

"His back pocket." Buddy replies as Wally grabs more cans, four to be exact.

"How! They are cans!?"

"Cartoon logic." Both Buddy and Sammy reply at the same time.

"That doesn't answer it."

"You know how in some cartoons, the characters pull massive hammers put of nowhere?" Sammy asks him.

"Yes?"

"Think that." Buddy says as Wally grabs the final can left in the machine.

Sixteen cans in total. Wally says.

"Would sixteen be enough? That was the final can in he dispenser." Buddy mentions as Wally turns back to the others.

"Well. . . uh. . . maybe?" Sammy replies hesitantly.

"Let's take what we have back to the others and rest?" Norman suggests.

The others could search for more while we rest?

You're not wrong.

"I'm fine with that." Buddy replies to Norman, "Same with Wally."

"Sure, besides if I disagreed I would have been out voted anyways." Sammy says.

Later

When they finally arrive back at the haunted house room and hour later, they see that Henry is awake, sitting next to Linda, his hands are on his head, Linda is hugging him.

"You shouldn't be here, you can't be here." They hear him mutter, all three of them glancing at each other.

"Over here." They hear Alice say, they look over to where she is, standing next to Tom and Allison, gesturing for them to go over.

Wally walks over, Sammy and Norman following.

They start putting the soup on a shelf next to the piano.

"Henry, look at me and listen." They hear Linda say, Wally resists the urge to look over and see what is happening over there, trying not to eaves drop on them.

We might be the only ones not trying to eaves drop on them.

Yeah.

"Before you start blaming yourself like you always do. I chose to come here myself, and you didn't know I was here, and if you did know, you wouldn't have played that reel."
"So stop blaming yourself on everything that has happened. And focus on trying to get out of here so you can save the children."

There is an uncomfortable silence, Wally glances at the others who are also glancing at each other.

". . . .Alright." Henry replies.

_____________
Pov: ??? ??? ????????????

Every action has consequences, whether it's good or bad ones.

The small, innocent things like opening a restaurant could have consequences so dire that it ends in death.

While big, violent actions like killing someone in self defense could have saved several lives.

Now, you must be wondering why I am telling you this.

To put it simply:

Several different actions of so many different people led to so much suffering, and attempts to fix it just led to even more pain.

Now, your next question might be: How do I know that?

The answer is this: I've sent so many different people to fix things, but it just ended horribly.

Now you must be wondering why I haven't done anything myself, and instead sent others to do it:

I'm not supposed to meddle with the lives or afterlives of mortals.

I have been pulling too many strings in my attempts to fix things, I have been trying to end things myself without meddling as much as I can, to the point I forgot something I shouldn't have forgotten.

Now, I assume you want to know what it was? And I'll tell you.

Everything has an end.
No matter how desperate the attempts are to prevent it.

Those who seek immortality forget that. They desperately try to stay alive, causing the most dire consequences of pain and suffering.

And why exactly am I telling you this?

Simple: you already knew.

But what you don't know is:

When a story writes itself to keep going, it's only delaying it's end.

The End will come, and it won't be rewound.