XXI: Only Escape
Jacelyn
I watch Lola finally fading away, not with happiness, but pure misery. I lour at the Jaymie, Drea, and Ramen. "They're all dead," I go, "I'm the last one alive," I spoke not with pride, just emptiness and hate. Why should I feel glee for winning a deadly game and losing all my friends?
Drea crudely laughs. "The rules state no outside help. You had it," she informs me slyly.
I know who they were referring to, but I shouldn't jump to conclusions. My eyes move to my side as I reply, "Marina has been a contestant–"
"You know who, Jace," Jaymie warns. Translation: Don't dodge the answer, and don't lie.
"The blue spirit," I correct.
Ramen adds, "Outside help is forbidden in the Bully Trials, which is highly punishable–"
I argue, "You three knew the blue spirit had been helping me for a few rounds and didn't punish me then. You only waited to fuck me over. I never asked for help! Besides, she was not even alive–"
Jaymie cuts me off, "We didn't state that it has to be alive." She plays with her claws.
"Why are you calling an it, Jaymie," I ask, almost seething, "that spirit could be your friend–"
"My friend is dead, thanks to you."
"Not her spirit!" I gesture to Ramen. "I know your friend can mess with corpses but not souls." I grimace back to her. "You know that's not the real Ash; otherwise, you would've hugged Ash's corpse like she came back to life as an intelligent zombie."
"There's also a chance that the blue spirit is not her," Jaymie smirks.
Tremors rumble throughout the cave but cannot be felt. Drea tries to outdo Jaymie's evil grin with her own, saying, "You better hope the spirit comes to save you."
Like a tolling bell, they transform on the beat. Half of Ramen's face turns green and corpse-like. His bones are sticking out. He raises his hands, and a mass of corpses, including Ash's body, rises from the ground, creating an arena for just the three of us. Drea returns to the same form I saw from her round, along with Jaymie. The dead bodies croak, groan, and root for the leaders.
My nerves shoot up. I don't have Marina, my friends, or any other weapon to give me some confidence. I only have physical skills from cheerleading, so I can only dance. If I were an acrobatic like Lola, I'd do backflips and turn this place into a circus. I take a step back. The pain from the stab wound on the side sharpens. I flinch but then look down, debating whether to rip out the icy shard in my side or leave it in there so I don't bleed out. I need to think quickly and clearly.
Better than no weapon. Besides, I don't care anymore if I die anyway. I yank the icy shard. I vocally exhale. Blood begins oozing from my side. Jaymie stares at me hungrily. She wants my blood—all of it. I try to ignore the pain and ready my weapon. I don't care about dying, but I'm not going to die without a fight.
The leaders of the Bully Trials roar as they hurdle at me at blazing speeds. The dead crowd erupts. The blue mist stands in front of me, not saying a word. It's like she popped into view. "Ash?" I ask, wondering what she is doing.
When they get close to her, a massive volume of blue flames explode. All three of them scream in pain and blast back. Black smoke emits from them like cooked-to-fuck pork. The blue mist gradually turns into a person into a bluish-gray cloak. The dead behind me start screaming, ravaging, and booing.
"This is what you get for creating nightmares in the dreamland," the cloaked girl spoke lowly.
"A-Ash?" I ask, stammering.
She turns around and faces me. The hood covers her eyes and hair. She stares at me briefly before rushing and touching my neck. Her hand glows fiery blue. "Ash, what are you doing?" I ask. She swiftly moves her other hand to my side, and her fire collides with a wound. My nerves lock up again as I scream in burning pain. She is doing what Laura did to Maddie– cauterizing the wound.
Ash moves her hand and places it on the ice dagger digging into my uterine area. The flames roar back to life. I bite my lips, suppressing my screams as her hand melts away the dagger and closes the wound with fire.
"That's only a temporary fix," she informs before looking back at the leaders. They are getting back up, more aggravated. She glances back at me. "By the way," a weapon materializes from Ash's hand. I look at it in shock, seeing it's Marina's axe from the last round, "you dropped this in the fire." She hands it to me.
"Gurrl, I saw that disappeared," I tell her.
"I know," she replies, turns around, and faces the leaders again. I do so too. "I don't trust them, so let's bring them down."
I grin. "Hell yeah," I hold the axe with my two hands. "Let's bring these fuckers down."
"I really wish I could disallow spirits here," Ramen growls while looking at the cloaked person.
Jaymie stares at the cloaked figure in disgrace. She's in her pre-berserk form. "You. Are. Helping. Her?" She asks in anger and shock. "Don't you realize what she has done?"
"Yes, I have, but you three are giving me worse vibes than all of her friends combined," Ash retorts. "It was a hard choice..."
Jaymie sneers, "I'll make sure you'll regret it!"
Jaymie is the first to charge, returning to a beast. Ash's hands glow. "Jacelyn, swing your axe," she orders.
"How about you handle her? She's your friend." I ask.
"Don't question it."
Cracks begin to form in the cave, glowing moonstone crevices. The tremors are now prominent, shaking the cave. Jaymie backs away, not knowing what Ash is doing. Ramen raises his hand and throws it to the ground with a growl. The stalagmites crackle from above before dropping.
Ash looks up, seeing what Ramen is doing. "Time to turn up the heat!" She goes before her fiery hands turn into a black flame. An eagle-like scream as she casts black fire onto the raining stalagmites. She breaks the ones going to hit us. The rest of them land on the dead and the leaders. A force field appears around them, shielding the leaders from dying.
Jaymie groans and starts to move toward us, but Ramen puts his hand in front of her, stopping her from charging us. "It's no use," he warns her.
"We won't die in this realm!" Jaymie snarls back at him. She points to me. "She killed my friend."
Ash moves her hands to her hood and pulls it down, staring at Jaymie. Ash seems very hurt. "You're not the friend I've known for years, Jaymie," she grimaces. "I hope you see before it's too late."
Jaymie's eyes widened, unable to process that her friend had been helping me the whole time.
Ash sighs. "You never recognized me once, and I don't recognize you. Is this what you want?" She asks.
Jaymie doesn't reply. Drea puts a hand on her back. "Come on, Jaymie, let's go." She looks back at us with acidic eyes. "We'll deal with them later, but this time, in reality. Jacelyn will realize soon enough."
About what?
All three of them vanish into thin air. Ash glances back at me. It's just us two. Me, the girl who shattered Ash's reputation by a sick lie, and Ash herself, the girl who was mostly alone, are now in a common room that is destructed by Ash's blue flames. The more I look at her, the more the regret grows, and I loathe myself. I don't feel any hatred towards her or the urge to insult her. My hands shake.
"How did you do that?" I ask, shakingly.
"Do what?" She replies.
I point to her fiery hands. "Your powers."
"Oh. This realm is connected to the astral, and I have sorcery in the astral, but it can't work in the real world."
"So kinda like Doctor Strange?"
She genuinely shrugs. "Yeah.
My legs grow weak. It feels weird to talk to Ash this well as if she has been human all along. I falter, dropping to my knees, begging, "Ash, I'm so sorry for what I've done. I should've thought before I acted."
Ash stares at me for a moment before saying. "I've heard everything from the trials on how you wanted attention. Years ago, before Jaymie and I became friends, I craved attention, saying things that'll get me into trouble." Her face hardens again as she says dryly, "I never said anything that would've screwed someone's life or done anything illegal."
I nod to her words. "How can I fix it for you? Is it my fault that Jaymie turned into this, along with Lola?"
She resists the urge to shrug her shoulders and remains firm: "Retract what you said once you return, and work on yourself. Regardless of how much hate you get, bite through it and get help. Maybe in time, I will forgive you. Where we are now isn't the true reality."
True reality? I am also in a lie too? More cracks appear in the cave. It's like the cave is about the pop like an egg.
"W-Will I ever see you again?" I ask her.
"Yes," she says with her head bopping down. "This isn't over, and I won't stop to get my friend back."
She holds out her hand. I shyly look at it. I hesitantly take it, and she helps me up. She looks around the cave. "You'll be out of here soon."
I smile. As much as I desired death earlier, I'm relieved that I'll be out of here. I will not count myself as a winner. I'll count myself as a survivor.
The cave finally gives away, bursting. Instead of a world of melting wax or ashes, it's a world of light. My ears ring. Ash is no longer there, leaving me all alone for now. I try walking around in this realm but can't move.
My legs buckle in, and everything comes crashing like a set gone wrong. Things snap back into reality. I feel and see myself on my bedroom floor, holding my phone. I stare at it. I hesitantly get back up, slowly looking around, scanning for anything wrong. Everything is fine. I'm fine... My room has been cleaned as if no dead Ash took me to the Bully Trials.
Nothing is out of place, the room is clean, and my phone is fixed.
I take a deep breath, wondering how I will go to school, and announce that what I said was a lie without my friends being there. They were all dead. I guess I will get what I deserve. I wanted attention for feeling lonely, and now I'll get desolation for a long time.
I hear Drea's voice snickering around my room, scaring me, but I immediately get angry.
"For fuck's sake, leave me alone! I'll figure out who you are, Drea and Ramen, and when I do, I'll find a way to fuck you up!" I shriek at the top of my lungs before slamming my fist against the wall, pretending it's Drea.
Silence. Distrustful silence. No peace. My loneliness would be filled by the monsters that killed my friends. They won't leave me alone until I'm dead. I massage my temples. If I can't banish them, I might as well get used to this awful life.
Two weeks have gone by since the Bully Trials. Everything was much shady than I had previously expected. My parents didn't come by and say hi to me at all. Even though I called out to them and hugged them, they snubbed me as if I wasn't their child.
The second thing was that the bus didn't stop for me. I never saw it approach my road, so I walked to school using the GPS on my phone. I could eat, change, sleep, and have my phone, but I could not interact with my family. While walking there, I went on my posts to delete what I said about Ash, but all my accounts were wiped clean. There were no hints of my posts still around, so I couldn't retract anything I said.
Once I reached school, I saw that Laura, Maddie, Lola, Heather, and Destiny were somehow alive. I was shocked– drop dead surprised. I ran and hugged my friends, only to recoil as if they didn't know I was there.
"Laura, Maddie, Heather, Destiny..?" I called out to them, very hurt.
They didn't reply to me, just talking amongst themselves.
It didn't help that I didn't see Ash's ghost to keep my company. Classes were lonely too. Teachers never talked to me or called my name. My friends only mentioned my name within a week of this event starting.
Laura asked, "Where's Jace?"
Maddie replied, "She's gone missing right after the museum."
Lola laughed. "She couldn't handle what my brother showed us."
Museum? What the fuck? I thought.
Heather said, "She could've pissed any cultists of the museum off. It looks like a damn cult in there. I do give them props for having some great storytelling even though the efforts are fucked."
Laura shivered. "It was so horrible. Let's not experience that again."
They remembered the Bully Trials as some fucked-up cult-like museum tale? It seems more of an escape room experience.
Laura asked, "Should we be concerned about Jacelyn's disappearance?"
Lola shook her head. "Nah. She could be just sicker than a dog."
"There has been a rise in night attacks in Pricksburgh," Destiny added. "She could've gotten stabbed."
Heather shrugged. "There was nothing on the news about an Eagle High student getting stabbed other than–"
"Honestly, fuck Jacelyn. She only cared about herself, even if it meant hurting others to be in the spotlight," Lola said with an eye roll.
I gripped my fists, ready to break the table they were having alfredo at. Half of me wanted to spit into Lola's plate to see if she would get sick, while the other half wanted to drag her across the room by her hair. Better yet, since no one knew I was here, I would pick up some toughest laxatives and spike Lola's chocolate milk to see how long she would last before shitting herself.
Laura defended, "Jacelyn mostly targeted Ash, not everyone els–"
Heather said, "She probably felt bad that Ash was fucking stabbed. She could've sent an assassination attempt on her or tried to take her own li–"
"Don't...make...assumptions," Laura said insecurely.
Lola shrugged. "If Jacelyn is alive, good, we'll see her soon. If she died, good, she's a bitch." She sipped her milk.
Seeing my hand slapping her milk box and the box getting catapulted across the lunch room was satisfying. Everyone in that group stared at the milk in disbelief. "A poltergeist must've followed me home from the museum," Lola teased before hurrying to pick up the milk. "Damn you, Gabriel!"
I wished she had gotten in trouble.
The next week, they didn't mention me at all. They finally accepted that I wasn't returning. I was replaced by two new school girls, Brona and Natalie. Natalie had some bronze skin and slightly orange hair, and Natalie had that Greek goddess appearance– platinum blonde hair and green eyes. They were having a good time with them.
I just walked the hallways without a hall pass. No teacher seemed to care, not even the hall monitor. Sitting on the dirty floor against a cream-colored locker, I listened to sad tunes. I never glanced up until I saw Jaymie walking into my corridor. She glanced at me with her normal brown eyes.
"What have you done," I demanded. "You can see me."
"I haven't done anything to you," she replied.
"Bullshit!" I yelled, slamming my fist into the locker. "Why wouldn't people acknowledge me?"
"It's not me who has done this to you."
"Who is it then?!" I screamed louder. "Ramen? Drea?"
"Not them, but we would never give you peace."
"I'll find a way to kill you!" I spat.
"Good luck with that," she replied before entering the bathroom.
I slammed my fist again, curled my lips, and began crying. I was about to break something. It didn't last long until I saw Aaron entering the corridor with his binders. Hope filled me again. "Aaron!" I called out, getting down on my knees and waving to him. "Aaron, dear, I'm right here!"
He didn't respond to me, but I heard Lola's voice excitedly call out, "Hey, Aaron!" She walked into my view before running and hugging Aaron.
"How are you?" Aaron said before they loosened their hug.
"Pretty well," she replied sweetly before kissing her.
"I'll see you tonight, dear," he said before they waved goodbye.
I couldn't move from my place, leaving Jaymie stalking me in my peripheral vision. She crept back to me and whispered, "I saw her doing this before the Bully Trials. We wanted you guys to say the truth. It was real all along, but Ramen tossed those who were not needed, Jacelyn. Perhaps, if you killed yourself in the Bully Trials, you would've been moving along like it was a bad trip."
I didn't say anything. My mouth was left open. I let her walk away.
I stopped going to school, hanging in my room, unable to care for myself. It's like I'm dead. The Bully Trials were real, but those who died lived in a delusion. My friends don't miss me. My parents don't miss me. I can't sleep without seeing the trials repeatedly playing in my head. It's not a lucid dream. It all winds up the same.
I bang the back of my head against the wall while I hug my knees on the bed. My room's light is off, trying to replicate my mental state. I don't bother to check my phone. Why did I didn't make it? Why was I dead? I survived.
My head traces back to Jaymie's statement: "We wanted you guys to tell the truth. It was real all along, but Ramen tossed those who were not needed, Jacelyn. Perhaps, if you killed yourself in the Bully Trials, you would've been moving along like it was a bad trip–"
My eyes widen. What does she mean by 'not needed'? Ramen got rid of the dead ones. My mouth drops. Does Jaymie know what Ramen wants?
Drea laughs in my head. "It's not he wants, you pathetic, nasty child! It's what they want!" She mocks.
I press my hand against my head. Go awwaaayyyy.
"'If you killed yourself in the Bully Trials, you would've been moving along like it was a bad trip'" Jaymie's words made something click in my head. My heart thumps in a thick, heavy beat, but it stops. My breathing and my hands start to shake.
I'm right. There was something bigger behind the Bully Trials. Those who died will not be involved in a significant part of the plan, which Drea and Ramen are pushing. Being punished was just a cover-up. Jaymie might not know this. Freak, she might know. The fake realm is like a metaphor to my mind right now. I can't trust what I think or see. My world spins, and everything goes hot. I feel like throwing up. Those who died carried on like nothing ever happened. They're not needed in this.
I'm needed—more torment and sorrow. At least my friends would be safe, but not me. I guess this is the only good thing, right?
Death is their only escape.
The theme song of the first book is "Bad Intentions" by Digital Daggers. A Christmas special is in the works. Please thank Ace for proofreading three chapters on the same night. I told her we were going to book it, and she delivered. It will be a while until the second book is out, so hang tight.