my eyes dart around the dark room we appear to be trapped in, there seemed to be spare carnival pieces in here. the carts from ferris wheels, arcade machines, hell there was even a knock off zoltar in the corner.
"where... are we?" constance slowly asks
"the twilight zone..." someone from behind us speaks up, i have never heard it before. it was a slightly shaky voice. we all turned around to realize that it was ricky who had spoken up. i gasped and took a step away from him in shock
"oh my god, ricky sweetie, you can speak!" ocean states, as if it wasn't obvious.
"it certainly appears that way," he replies. "badass..." he mumbles,
and yet another voice had filled the room,
"you have inserted t-t-t-t-two... loonies!" a mechanic voice echoes, bouncing off the walls of the warehouse
the 6 of us try to protect each other, constance and ocean hugging, noel and mischa also hugging, and i put a hand on ricky's shoulder, gripping it tight.
mischa pulls out of noel's grip looking at him up and down and turn away,
"greetings children, it's time to play." the zoltar machine says. holy shit it can talk,
ocean being the "leader" she is assumed the roll of talking to the ominous machine, constance tries to stop her from making terrible decisions but ends up just restraining herself and pulling her arm back.
i don't really pay attention to what they're saying, instead i talk to ricky.
"hey, ricky?" i ask him while tapping his should to gain his attention
"y/n! what's up?" he responds with a beaming smile. even though we're ultimately dead, it must be nice to finally be able to talk. i wonder if he'll also be able to walk in the after life.
"um so i saw you darting you head around when we first arrive here, did you also hear the screaming?" i question
"yeah i did, that's so weird who was that. do you think they're trying to kill us? wait no we're already dead," he answers his own question. i shake my head,
"did you forget about penny? i thought you were head over heels for her, how do you not recognise her voice?" i implore, there was no way he had forgotten about her, he couldn't have!
"penny? i don't know anyone named penny, who are you on about y/n?" he counters my question,
"you did not forgot! you were in love with her!" I whisper-yelled at him,
"y/n i do not know who you're talking about," he deadpans me and hops away with his crutches.
did everyone forgot about penny or was it just ricky? i'm need to test that theory,
"noel?" i tap his shoulder but i was interrupted with ocean yelling,
"democracy rocks!!"
she snaps out of her trance-like state and turns over to the machine,
"what the heck was that?" she asks
"your catchphrase, In the interest of the expedition of time, I've taken the liberty of choreographing a few of your moves in advance. Don't bore us; get to the chorus. let's play." he says simply, i decide to step in.
"look karnak, can i call you that? so-" i start
"meet y/n brine, catchphrase:"
i start to move and speak against my own will,
"before the choir, i never felt like i could be myself. i don't tell them, but i love them with my entire heart. i couldn't have asked for better people in my life."
i snap out of it and look at the choir.
"oh y/n is that true?" ocean places a hand on my shoulder to which i immediately swat away,
"it's a stupid machine of course it's not true, get the fuck away from me," i tell her, rather rudely
"okay, mr whatever? you said let's play earlier. what is this like a game?" she goes back up to the machine to ask yet another question.
i hear a ding, like someone had won a prize
"ocean has selected game mode!" karnak says
"guys really i didn't mean to!" she pleads
"ugh of course," i scoff walking towards constance and ricky.
"what game?" ocean perks up
"a game with fabulous prizes: like a stale pack of menthol kools! a succulent hello kitty cupcake!! this limited-edition iron maiden t-shirt still ripe with the pong of the carnie that wore it." karnak lists the "prizes" of this game
"look, where are we?" ocean asks
"perhaps you might be interested in the grand prize ocean!" he says
"one worthy contestant will be brought back to life, to live beyond the cyclone accident!"
my eyes widen at what he's promised, but why only one of us?
"SOMEWHERE, SUNRISE BEGINS ANOTHER DAY! BEGINS ANOTHER DAY~"
"the grand prize, to live, again." karnak dryly states
"that's way better than a hello kitty cupcake" constance mumbles, i gotta disagree though. a hello kitty cupcake sounds really good right about now.
"meet constance blackwood: catchphrase:"
"sorry!" she says while shrugging,
"why only one of us, why not all of us?" oceans questions
"yeah i'm actually wondering the same thing," i tell him
"sadly, i've only ever possessed the power to bring one back to life." he looks down at the crystal ball in front of him.
"what do we have to do to be brought back to life?" ocean inquires once more. this girl sure does have a lot of questions. i can't really blame her though, this situation is definitely unique
"'the one who wants to win it the most shall redeem the loser—in order to complete the whole.'"
"that doesn't make any sense!" ocean exclaims
"i trade mostly in prophecies that don't make any sense--until they actually do." karnak tells us
"i take it you're the judge?" ocean asks
a buzzer sound echoed throughout the walls of the room we're in.
"it seems ocean o'connell rosenberg has used up the groups three questions for this evening," he grunts
"even in death i can't escape her, she's followed me to the afterlife!" noel exclaims,
"well played satan, well played" he spits
"jesus christ ocean, you can't keep your mouth shut?!" mischa yells at her,
"meet noel gruber, aspiring poet laureate. catchphrase?"
"being the only gay man in a small rural high school is kind of like having a laptop in the stone age. i mean sure you can have one, but there's nowhere to plug it in." he whines
i stand there with my mouth agape, that his catchphrase? jesus,
he gasps in disgust and runs off to who knows where.
"but that's not fair you didn't tell me there were only three questions!" ocean continues to argue with the cursed machine
"i believe i did, after the fact." he says
"well this couldn't possibly get any weirder," ocean mumbles to herself. something tells me it's about to get weirder
"i am under the firm belief that it always can." he exclaims
i see smoke emerge from a doorway and make it's way to our feet. the "mystery contestant' seemed to be a girl with short blonde hair and black beady eye, almost like a dolls. no other girl died with us on the roller coaster except for penny.
oh my god that's penny.
"JANE DOE IS WHAT THE CORONER SAID." her voice was softer and echoey, i could hear her words bounce off the walls.
"THEY FOUND MY BODY NOT MY HEAD" oh that poor girl, she was decapitated. no wonder she was a jane doe, her parents were abusive and neglective. they didn't care that their oldest child was dead
"NO PARENTS CAME AND SO THEY NEVER LEARNED MY NAME, OR WHO I USED TO BE."
"MY LIFE AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY,"
"FROM ASHES I WAS MADE,"
"AND ASHES I RETURN."
"AND SO I WALK ALONE AND WONDER WHY?" she tilts her head slowly, i feel so bad for her. she told me all about her terrible life and how she had to raise herself and just as she was making some good memories she can't remember any of it.
"WHY?"
"WHY?"
"WHY?" all eyes were on penny as they watched her with wonder, confusion or curiosity.
"did anyone just pee themselves a little?" what.
i look at constance in confusion, was she trying to make light of a terrible situation?
"me neither!" never mind.
penny or rather jane walks over to constance and holds out her headless doll
"would you like to brush my dollies hair?" she asks, constance flinches.
"i'm really freaked out right now!" she whisper-shouts
wait if jane's doll is headless, and her head looks like a doll... aw she just wants someone to brush her hair.
"do you want to know what really freaks me out?" she asks oncemore
"not really ever at all really, sorry." constance slips away
i think my death is catching up with me. i feel a sudden wave of tiredness wash over me. as soon as i know it mischa has his arm around my waist andmy head laying on his shoulder.
"meet jane doe, catchphrase;" i'm too tired to correct karnaks mistake so i let it slide.
"when a lioness has children, she stops making love to the lion. the lion gets jealous, sometimes so jealous that he eats the children. you think this would upset the lioness, far from it. they make love again like the children never existed. i find that idea terrifying,"
never mind i'm not tired
"that girl is freaky!" mischa whispers to me. i nod, not wanting to stir up anything.
"i'm going to stand a little further away from you okay?" constance tells jane,
while she's walking away with jane going after her, i take my chance to ask her what's happened. i grab jane's shoulder and turn her around. she blinks and tilts her head like lost a puppy.
"oh penny darling, what did they do to you?!" i exclaim, my eye filled with compassion and sadness. i hold her face with both my hands. her head looked like it was sewn on. it probably was,
"who's penny?" she asks me in an airy voice.
"yeah y/n, who's penny?" ocean follows up,
they probably wouldn't believe me if i told them, i'll just lay it off for now. i release jane from my grip and sigh,
"never mind..." i walk away from her and back to mischa.
"hey it's okay love, you can tell me. whatever it is i'll believe you!" mischa tells me, his facial expression makes it seem like he's begging me to tell him.
"later, once all this 'game' bullshit is out of the way, yeah?"
he nods
"ocean rosenberg, you are first!" karnak announces
"why?" she asks, her voice slightly trembling.
"alas if only you hadn't burned off those three questions right at the top..." he says flatly.
"it's just..." she pauses, "when you tie the room together, i think constance will seem like the obvious choice!" she goes to her best friend bringing her up to karnak
"you want me to go first?" constance asks, it was definitely a first.
ocean gasps, "if you insist! mister whatever, constance and i are gonna tradsies!" she pushes constance up to the podium-esq place in the spotlight coming from heaven or something. (probably heaven)
"no tradsies" karnak tells them both bluntly.
constance seems relieved at this and points to karnak as to tell ocean, 'he said it, not me!'
"well I'm happy about that actually. sure, I'll go first. I just want to say two things..."
oh god
"first, I don't know how it is in your culture, but in ours, playing games where peoples' lives are on the table? super illegal." she tells him while shaking her head, constance nods, ricky giggles. i guess it's true.
"second, i love you turban. it really brings out your eyes!" she says with awe. LIKE HIS EYES AREN'T GLOWING.
once a people pleaser, always a people pleaser i guess..
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(A/N: SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO GET OUT I'VE BEEN BOMBARDED WITH ASSIGMENTS AND TESTS AND STUFF I'LL TRY TO GET THE NEXT CHAPTER OUT SUPER SOOn. also vinndeisel if ur reading this hit me up bbg 😘)