In the dark she led Ball and Rocky into a vent, which had a ladder inside. Ball of course couldn't climb, so Dora had to carry her on her shoulder. Rocky had placed himself back into Ball’s backpack for convenience.
“So you've been hanging out with the boys huh?” Dora asked. She was using both of her arms so her phone's flashlight was shut down in her pocket.
“Yeah,” Ball just couldn't stop thinking about death. She closed her eyes and opened them again. There was no difference to what she could see.
“Oscar's a good kid. He really is like a kid for his age. Freshman boys can be immature but he is the ultimate. It's not like he's dumb or annoying he just, he's just immature. Don't worry about him though, he has friends he can be immature with. At least outside of school. You know who doesn't have any friends? David,” Dora was still climbing.
“No friends?” Ball decided to get more involved in the conversation.
“No, just acquaintances. He used to be more friendly heh, in elementary. I watched it all, his whole arch of unpopularity. It was because of Agren. Am I boring you or with this history lesson or should I keep talking?”
“You can keep going,” Ball said calmly.
“Ok, so in elementary school David was the most popular kid ever. We would have these unofficial wrestling matches during recess. It was really simple rules. One on one. Whoever falls over first loses. Now at first it was just fun and games, using gravity from a hill to do speed attacks, rushing around playsets, speeding in between swing sets, just kid stuff. That was until Agren moved here.
When Agren heard about this game he became the wrestling master. He didn't even play for fun, he played to dominate and win against other kids. Now David was really good at the game, some people say he created the game. Anyway Agren was playing rough, but David was really good, so naturally they began to fight against each other.
They battled many times, but eventually they were equals. Since they were so powerful, they decided to join together in tag team, and double battles. But since they spent so much time together, Agren’s bad sportsmanship started to rub off on David. David's grades started to drop, and so did his patience. He was careless, disrespectful, and just a major recess bully. Nobody wanted to play with him anymore. He became insecure and he just decided to lean on Agren because he was his only friend.
Now this kid by the 5th grade had an attitude and a reputation for disrespect was bent in a way he felt, couldn't be fixed, but that was before the accident. His parents were on some sort of flight home when the entire plane just vanished. Nobody knows where it went. It's a mystery. All anybody could say was that it was safe to assume that the plane had crashed somewhere, and that they had died. That just broke David's bent lil heart,” Dora stopped climbing and leveled off to a vent platform. Neon glow in the dark writing spelled out ‘to the F wing’ with an arrow and a psychedelic drawing of a teacher. Dora just sat as she continued her tale.
“He just stopped talking, and for a long time he was quiet, and collected. He's opened up more since then, but now I think he feels he just needs to make up for the mistakes that he had made as a kid. The mistakes that probably ticked off his parents the most. Now he's ‘no more attitude to authority, no more late assignments, and no more friends’ even though most people are not Agren. He reads all day long. Sometimes it isn't even fiction. He's evolved so much as a person that the principle let him be a part of the Yoyel 3. That or his essay was just really stellar.
He can still be a prick because he has such high standards for himself and others, but that's just because he doesn't ever want to be seen as anything lower than a respectable human being. Which he is very used to being to being the opposite,” Dora breathed, “I really need to learn to talk slower,”
“I do not see much of a problem,” Ball said.
“Say don’t,” Dora said.
“Don't,” Ball said.
“You need to learn to talk faster. You almost never use contractions,” Dora said.
“My talking speed is just as good as it is!” Ball said.
“Heh it's nice to see that you are enjoying how you are, doesn't mean you shouldn't ever change though. Come on! Let's go over to where Oscar's first period is. He should be there by now I think,” light was up ahead in the floor of the vent. Dora looked down into it. Ball tried to look over as well, but couldn't get a good view. To fix this, Dora laid herself flat on the vent floor so Ball could walk over her back to the other side where she could see. Dora suddenly hit the side of the wall twice making an echoing sound. Two people in response knocked hard on their desks down below.
“What does that mean?” Ball looked up from the vent.
“Meow!” Rocky said.
“It means I have two club members down there that I can use to manipulate a situation. They have their phones open ready for command,” Dora explained.
“So they just blindly obey you? What trust!” Ball said.
“Well they try. Sometimes it's too embarrassing to follow a command, or they get their phone taken,” Dora said.
“Could I try to give a command?” Ball asked.
“Uh may- may- maybe… L-l-l ah,” There was something wrong. At first Dora stopped talking and covered her ears. She then spontaneously started to gasp for breath, and she wasn't the only one. Ball glanced downstairs to see that everyone was starting to panic, and have minor spasms.
It then started to hit Ball and Rocky too.
“Bleh!” Rocky threw up as a response.
The feeling was foreign and frightening, like a tingling and crushing sensation. When Ball started to feel it overtake her, she tried to run away from it, but there was nowhere to go.
“Help! Help! Please!” She cried, and she wasn't the only one sheiking. To a slight delay, or at the exact same time, everyone was saying it. These words were not Ball's, but rather some other force.
“I'm trapped! Please! Please I'm up here! I'm up here! please save me please! I'm up here! I can't, I can't get out! They are hurting me, they're, they're, AH I'm I'm here I'm…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Everyone stuttered at different times trying to resist the message being forcefully shoved through their throats. Even their thoughts were intruded upon with one final silent message.
I'm sorry If I'm unable to get that key for a while but I p r o m i s e…
“Craeggs!” Ball recognized the last voice intruding in her thoughts. It was Craeggs, and different than the first screaming one. The Craeggs’ message was important to her, but then she recalled the deafening howl of pain right before it.
Dora was still trembling, and so was everyone in Yoyleland.
Cars had crashed, cooks burned themselves grabbing ovens, movie goers were interrupted by everyone, artists drew meek ugly lines across their works, and everybody was calling 911. The 24-7 news was right on it with a special broadcast.
“Craeggs!?” Dora responded to Ball's last statement, “That was Craeggs voice wasn't it!? We need to go find Josie,” Dora began to turn around.
“No!” Ball shouted.
“Why not. She knows stuff about him that we don't,” Dora said.
“She wants to harm Craeggs. Craeggs is innocent. If we go talk to Josie then she will only try to hurt us,” Ball said.
“Us?” Dora wanted to hear what she meant.
“She thinks I am in cahoots with Craeggs,” Ball said. Dora looked Ball over.
“Are you?”
“I do not know much about him, but he did ask me to do a favor for him,” Ball said.
“What was the favor?” Dora asked.
“...Can I really tell you? You just suggested to talk to Josie. If you tell her she will use the knowledge to find reasons to kill me! You must promise not to tell anyone if I tell you!” Ball said.
“Not even my club? We can protect you,”
“Not even your club. If their phones are taken or they are too embarrassed they will not listen to you! I am afraid if people start to make connections between me and Craeggs than they will start to blame me for this incident, and possibly other things that Craeggs has not told me,”
“Ok, I promise not to tell. But can I tell David? You said you don't have any secrets with him,”
“You can tell David, BUT NO ONE ELSE! Not even Oscar! He has not been included in this discussion and should not have to be a part of it,” Ball said.
“Aw are you protecting him?” Dora asked.
“From what?”
“From knowing the horrible truth,”
“I guess you could say that. Hmm, OK! I trust you. Do not make me begin to have a reason to distrust you beyond this instance -PLEASE!”
“Just say it already,” Dora rolled her eyes happily.
“Craeggs asked me to get him a keycard that some aliens left in the building that I dwell. I planned of giving to him today but-”
“Woah woah woah, aliens really do exist?!” Dora waved her arms around.
“I would not be here if they did not. The stuff that is in your gummies was given to my dad to create me. The aliens gave it to him for experimental use,” Ball explained.
“What do they look like?” Dora asked.
“That is not important! The important thing is, is that Craeggs asked me to get him a keycard to free his friend!”
“But Craeggs isn't here today,” Dora said, “Ooh,”
“I theorize that whoever has Craeggs’ friend, possibly has him now too. We have to find a way to liberate them!” Ball said.
“Uh, we can't do that. We don't even know where they are. And you don't even know what you're doing. For all we know Craeggs could be some sort of evil mega trickster alien that is captured, and imprisoned under space law. It's not like we can really do anything about it anyway. We aren't some army, or the CIA. We're just a teen, a rock, and a ball,” Dora said. Ball sighed.
“Well what are we supposed to do?” She asked.
“I donno. We can just wait for something to happen. It's really out of our hands,” Dora said.
“No it is not,” Ball said.
“Uh, why?”
“Because, I have no hands! I will succeed in making fair judgement and acting accordingly! But for now I will focus on this mysterious cry for help!” Ball said in triumph.
“You’re seriously going to try to do something about this?” Dora doubted that Ball would get very far. She was a foot and 10 inch sphere with no arms. She doubted Ball could even open a door, which Ball still had trouble with even though she had many ways of opening lever doors.
“I have to try,” Ball said.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Kinda, and you're not gonna like it,”