The survivors climbed up the birch spiral staircase that seemed to melt into the sand spiraling around them.
Silence, slight, ever so slight silence.
"Will you get the others back soon?" Whispered Crystal, her eyes foggy and misted over, tired.
"Soon, hopefully. My respawn ingredients are really hard to come by, so it might be a little while before you're friends come back."
"Well I don't care! I'm alive!!" Papisuu yelled out, going over and wrapping her arms over Crystal and Fangirl.
Fangirl sighed wearily.
"I'm just happy to not be dead," She stated, her limbs still sore, and she yawned sleepily.
Soon, the group broke into soft scattered conversations; Lizzie, Stacy, and Stampy in an endless group hug, crying, Crystal and Fangirl sharing stories.
Liv, Phoenix, and Dawson hung back, aching and tired. Dawson stretched and thought out loud what time it was.
"As soon, as I'm home, I'm going into a coma," Fangirl said simply, almost a slight skip in her step at the thought of going home.
"We're all fond of sleep right now," Papisuu mumbled, rubbing a fading tan burn mark on her elbow.
She grimaced.
"I'm gonna be sore for weeks..."
Crystal and Liv laughed.
Soon, all of them stepped up the oak planks towards a small trapdoor, light pink swirling light fading in.
It was almost warm, lighting up the small holes within. Fangirl stretched sheepishly and looking longingly.
"You know," Cassie commented, almost wistfully.
"If I hadn't fallen through the floor of that sand trap, Investigator would've been crushed before I-"
She stopped.
She noticed the others staring at her.
Looking down, Cassie saw her pale hands clutching her enchanted axe, and her face flushed over with coral splashes.
"Oh...heh, sorry."
Sheepishly making her way to the front of the sandy entrance, Cassie pushes open the trapdoor.
Cassie stretched massively, along with everyone else; they were in the living room, with windows shining in coral light.
The coral, a little bit of lavender, and spotted dotted cream wisped across the sky, a spark of yellow on the horizon.
They could hear birds chirping.
"We're back."
"It's so quiet now," Lizzie mumbled.
Stacy smiled.
"I like it."
"I guess that's it...we're free," Stampy mumbled under his breath, every bone in his body sore and tired.
"We are," Stacy replied in disbelief.
Cassie shook her head.
"Not yet. When the sky turns lighter we'll do out. It's still too early now," She commented under her breath.
"Well, I guess we could all...nap," Fangirl suggested.
~~~
Cassie and Papisuu ended up taking out the crossed out portraits and putting back the normal ones.
Seafoam seemed to bubble up and foam in everyone's brains; they were all sleepy and sheepish.
Papisuu had taken refuge on one of the couches, upside down, her teal hair touching the floor as she slept.
Cassie lay down on the carpets that surrounded the living room, feeling the soft cyan and teal carpets beneath her hands and neck.
Winslow laid by her side, sleeping peacefully.
Lizzie went into the kitchen to make more hot cocoas, while Stampy came along to help.
The two now sat with Stacy, and they all huddled into a few blankets they had found on the ground, sipping their hot cocoa.
Dawson, unsure of exactly where to go, ended up curled up near a window, and had nodded off.
Fangirl ended up sitting next to her, looking out of the foggy lavender coral window, sipping her hot cocoa.
Liv and Phoenix sat on the floor.
"Okay, ready, rock paper, sci- no, Liv, I keep telling you, you go after scissors, not on scissors."
"Well that's how I play it."
Boredom ended up snoring next to the backpacks after changing into pjs, which were stuffed into one of the backpacks.
Cassie looked around with a sense of home.
She had made the place look nicer' she had expanded the entrance and/or living room, and replaced the gravel and stone with wood, and the floor was now covered in cyan carpets.
She had made a long staircase leading up to the second floor, and then the almost non-existent third floor.
She had pushed back the dining room to another corner, surrounded by dark oak blocks.
Another area next to them had the foggy window which sat Fangirl and Dawson, still cyan carpeted.
Overall, the place seemed bigger, sure, but since it was now holding more people, Cassie didn't feel so...alone.
But she still wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. After all, she was still Cassie.
"It's still pretty early," Fangirl commented. By now Dawson had stirred, yawning lightly.
"I know...I can't believe it."
Fangirl smiled, almost sadly.
"You guys really have to tell me what happened after I died. Seriously, I have only 20% clue what's going on."
Dawson laughed sleepily.
"We will."
On the other side of the room, Stacy got up and went over to Cassie, nudging her shoulder with her foot.
Cassie stood awkwardly.
"Yeah?"
"I just..." Stacy looked down.
"Thank you."
Cassie was so taken aback she nearly fainted. No way. This wasn't coming out of Stacy's mouth.
But it was.
Stacy saw the confused and abashed look on Cassie's face, and so she continued on.
"For bringing her back."
Stacy pointed over to Lizzie, who was huddled in a thin pastel blanket, and her and Stampy were laughing.
"They'll all I've got, and it means a lot that you brought her back..." Stacy trailed away.
Cassie's face turned a light coral, and she adjusted her glasses, sweating a little bit.
No one barely ever complimented her.
"Well, it's no problem," She said in the same friendly and awkward tone that she had when Stacy first met her.
Then Stacy hugged her.
Cassie almost screamed and drew out her axe, but she was too tired to care anymore. She let Stacy hug her.
Soon, Stacy let go, and the space between them gave Cassie a breather. She almost pried Stacy away from her.
Stacy then, without a word, walked over back to her friends and threw a blanket over her back, smiling.
Cassie was so stunned she didn't know what to do. She just slowly sank back to the floor by Winslow.
I officially hate hugging as of now.
(hah, what have I even done?)
Papisuu snored suddenly.
"Should we..." Liv asked.
"Let's let her sleep," Lizzie commented from the fluffed out pastel pink, almost coral, blanket.
Phoenix got up and grabbed a cream pillow, and the caramel-haired girl threw it across the room at her friend.
Papisuu yelped and fell backwards onto her floor, hitting her head and awkwardly sliding off of the couch.
"Ow..." She mumbled.
Liv hit her friend in the arm, but couldn't suppress a smile.
Everyone continued to snooze or just relax, their aching bones seeming to melt more and relax.
Then they could all go home.
Once or twice, Fangirl got up and re-filled her cocoa mug, then went to sit by Dawson.
The small girl was telling her everything; from why Investigator tried to kill everyone, to what happened after she died.
"Ah, dang it, I missed that!"
Eventually, Fangirl sighed.
"I feel like we should still celebrate again...because we didn't really get to, with the whole, 'death, one-by-one,' thing."
She twirled her hand awkwardly.
Stacy nodded.
"That sounds like a good idea, let's just turn on the lights, and..." Cassie reached for a lever but the lights stayed off.
Everyone turned to Lizzie.
The brit laughed awkwardly.
"I uh, guess I knocked out the power when I saved Dawson from the sand pillar. I hit that lever pretty hard."
Lizzie laughed awkwardly once again before rubbing her sore elbow as a point.
Cassie's eyes suddenly lit up.
"You know...I could use some of my white pumpkins to light up the place...and we haven't finished dinner yet..."
Everyone sat up.
"You can DO THAT?" Crystal asked.
~~~
White pumpkins, glowing a light cyan blue, shone around the room in an almost spooky atmosphere.
Everyone sat around the dining room, now leaning back calmly in their oak wooden chairs, eating re-heated food.
Smoking salmon now lay swirling in shades of light red, its almost cream-colored meat accompanied by some rice.
Cookies lay in trays, along with vanilla muffins, fish and chips stashed about, with cold ice water for everyone.
Dawson almost ate everything.
Everyone was now once again in their cleaned costumes, which Cassie had gladly washed and dried for them, which now lay light and fluffy against their counterpart's skins.
They all sat there, eating, telling jokes, and listening to spooky Halloween music, which play lightly in the background.
Suddenly, Cassie looked up.
"Hey look, it's morning now."
"I think."
"Here, I'll go out and check," Fangirl offered, swiftly followed by Crystal and Liv, and the three sprinted.
The three threw open the doors, and everything was so...clean. Small lavender colored buds splashed across the ground.
The sky was streaked with coral and pale yellow, now much lighter and no longer a darker almost lilac shade.
Birds sung, and the three never forgot the way the wind sent fresh air into their systems.
The smell of rain seemed to be all around them, light drips of it coming off of the room and making puddles, leaving mud.
Moss sprung up, bundling the flowers together, and the puddles seemed to mesh well in a sort of sea-net.
Fresh air stained their clothes, and the three held open their mouths, cold but even warmth swirling around them.
It all smelled like dew.
"Wow..." came Dawson's voice. She felt the cold prickle her skin, but she smiled at the fresh air moving her low ponytail around.
Looking down from the birch balcony, past the fountain, Crystal saw zombies beginning to de-spawn.
"We can go home now."
"Well, but we can finish our celebration first though, right?" Liv asked, her eyes growing wide in concern.
Fangirl shrugged.
"Sure."
The three of them, tagged along by Dawson, now stood in the doorway, and all went back inside.
Not more than three minutes later, the doors to the dining room bursts open.
There stood three figures, enchanted weapons drawn.
One had darker skin and darker hair, swooping like a fishnet down to her back, and had shining silver and blue-grey armor on, an enchanted sword shimmering cyan.
Another had auburn hair and a dark navy blue outfit on, accompanied by thin strips of gold and a small dark blue and wheat-colored crown.
The third had a simple orange t-shirt and a black vest. Black goggles sat on his head, and he held a journal in his hands, sandy blonde hair flopping messily over his head.
Cassie winced and dove under the table.
"WHO'S IN DANGER!?" The first one seemed to scream, scanning faces in a speeding time.
"Um, what?" Lizzie asked.
Stacy stood up.
"Jesse!"
"Stacy?" Jesse asked, her brown cocoa eyes still filled with alarm, her dark brown hair strands foaming past her eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Stacy asked curiously, and all at once Jesse spluttered.
"We got a note from Stampy! Asking for..." Her panicked breathing slowed, and her sword lowered.
"...help."
Everyone immediately turned to Stampy, who coughed and his olive grey-green eyes went wide.
Stampy laughed nervously.
"Oh! Nonononono, sorry Jesse, um, hah, false alarm. I, um-sorry everyone,-I may have, I maybe have sent a note to Jesse asking for assistance when Fangirl, um, when Fangirl died."
The orange-hoodie 20-something year old youtuber gulped and smiled awkwardly at everyone.
The redhead behind Jesse swore under her breath, and Liv stood up, her eyes fogging over.
"You're her!"
The dusty auburn girl looked over to her, her eyes swirling with confusion.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Before Liv could scream, Phoenix stood and shoved her back down, Liv's eyes still shining.
"Who are these people?"
"Oh, it's a long story," Stampy answered her, then proceeding to lift up Cassie from the wrist.
"CASSIE!?"
Cassie elbowed Stampy, hard, in the gut, and the youtubers crumbled, wincing.
"Hi," She said, laughing awkwardly.
Jesse blinked.
"Wait...weren't you..."
All at once the lights went off, and everyone screamed. A menacing laugh, deep and electronic, lit up the room.
"YOU REALLY THINK I'D BE DEFEATED THIS EASILY? I'M JUST GETTING STARTED WITH MY SEARCH..."
From behind them, Cassie yelped.
"OKAY, WHAT IS GOING ON!?" Someone else screamed, unfamiliar to everyone else but the youtubers.
"Don't even bother, blonde guy," Stacy dead-panned.
The doors locked behind all of them, and Stampy was about to launch into another, 'panicpanicpanic,' but Stacy stopped him.
"I HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD. IT'LL BE NIGHT BEFORE YOU KNOW IT..."
The lights flickered on once again.
Turning on, the blinds opened to reveal the three figures shaking, their eyes widened.
The dusty sunlight streamed in from the windows, making them seem like statues.
"What that...you?" The red head asked Cassie. Cassie simply shook her head miserably.
In the meantime, Crystal went over and got a torch from the wall, smiling. She handed it to Papisuu.
"Okay, someone explain something!" Jesse begged, shaking herself off from the dust that surrounded her.
"Well, there's Papisuu, Crystal, Dawson, Boredom, Phoenix, Liv, Stacy, Stampy, me, and Cassie..." Lizzie explained.
"Hi," Cassie said awkwardly, waving.
"The one trying to murder us is Investigator," Stacy explained. Jesse looked mortified.
"Investigator?" The redhead repeated, baffled, as Lizzie nodded, almost solemnly.
"We need to trap her again."
Jesse looked thoughtful for a moment, the dull glow of the light turning now to a warm pale yellow.
"We'll help."
"JESSE!"
"Come on," Jesse said simply, spinning around to her two friends.
"Do you want to go looking for Ivor again?" Almost immediately, the two were at her side, speechless.
"That's what I thought."
Liv and Phoenix silently screamed from behind them all. Cassie turned around, the two stopping sheepishly.
"I say we go to the kitchen. We could go through one of the paintings and find her from there," Crystal suggested.
"Good idea," Papisuu encouraged, making her way towards the kitchen. Jesse shook her head.
Once again, clouds started to form against the pale sky, and it tormented, threatening to rain again.
Dark grey clouds that formed under the now peaceful pale yellow sky, and rain drizzled from the clouds.
The cozy feeling of the mansion came back.
"So...I'm confused...how did this all happen, anyway?" Jesse asked, shaking her head.
Everyone looked to each-other, and then at Crystal, who in turn looked at Papisuu.
"You want to tell them?" She asked.
The girl continuing to lead them to the kitchen looked at everyone standing beside her.
Papisuu smiled.
"Heck yeah! Ladies and gentlemen, if you just follow me through this kitchen..."
❤
E N D
O F
B O O K
O N E
(cries every time)
❤
(wow...it's done...holy crap. I just.....wow.)
(But who says I'm not gonna make a sequel? I was originally going to write it next Halloween, but I decided I'll start it off this summer.)
...that sounds like a movie trailer x)
But thanks to everyone who supported it. I can't even begin to describe how your comments made me feel.
And this book has kept me inspired and excited, and really helped me with so much crap. My dog, my grandpa, my anxiety, everything.
Thank you so much.
Hey, I'm trying. ^^
But I'm gonna miss this book ;-; but I promise that the second book is basically an overarching story.
It's going to be twice as intense, twice as twisting and mysterious, and twice as funny and heartwarming.
I mean, I hope so.
But here's the thing; I'm keeping the same characters. Yep; Crystal, Liv, Stacy, and everyone else are gonna be the main characters for ALL THREE BOOKS.
And I know the ending is simple, but who doesn't love a simple but lovable ending? And I will make the others book exciting, I promise.)
...oh, and also...remember how I said that Cassie can re-spawn others...? let's just say that some killed-off homies are coming back..
...okay, I lied, they're all coming back. ❤
...oh...and by the way, I'm really excited to hang out with you guys while writing the book in summer...let's just say...
...it'll be spoopy.
and this isn't the last chapter of this book...^^
Crystal: WOO
Crystal, how did you get ahold of this accou-
*camera blips out*