Same Pov
Suddenly, a ringmaster and his weird lady sidekick appear out of nowhere. The ringmaster is fairly well-dressed and the sidekick is dressed very, well let's say there's not much left to the imagination.
"Come on! There is no need to hide in the woods! Everyone is welcome at the show!" he shouts. His voice is like sandpaper.
The show?
"Welcome!" The lady sidekick extends her arms, as if she's inviting the whole world to whatever we're about to see. Everyone approaches the ringmaster. Even the Guardian—the bloodthirsty beast who's terrorized us for the past half hour—has suddenly turned into a pussy, slouching and walking towards the ringmaster with its head hanging low. Is it...ashamed? What's happening? And where are Matt and Tim?
"I made you into something that people would travel for miles to see...and you threw it all away." He sighs, composes himself, and glares at his beast.
"There will be punishment." he finishes. So, apparently, the Guardian was some sort of carnival attraction at the ringmaster's circus, and then it escaped just in time to make our lives hell. The ringmaster turns back to us, smiling once again.
"I think a celebration is in order." he announces.
"Yes, a celebration!" exclaims his sidekick.
"For the return of our beloved Sam..." tf? Sam? So the Guardian has a name now?
"My esteemed guests...I ask you to join me in an evening of the thrilling bizarre..." Tim frowns. Eva bites her lip. Lele's got an "are-you-serious" look on her face, Matt is still on the ground, Joey is gripping my arm, and everyone else just looks scared.
"The carnival!" The ringmaster cracks his whip once again.
"Yes! The curse! Follow me!" Joey says yelling. So now we're going to go see a circus. A cursed one, no less. And now we're all lined up at the front gate, ready to go see the creepiest show on earth.
Also, there's a bearded lady in the ticket booth. Because screw it, that's why.
"I need your tickets, please!"
"I have a ticket." Joey pulls the ADMIT ONE ticket out of his pocket and hands it to the bearded lady. She takes it, puffing her pitch-black lips, studying Joey through a faceful of mascara.
"Welcome to the circus," she purrs. "Now, go." her eyes go wide. We enter. There's weird posters, strings of tiny lights, a man juggling bright blue bowling pins...and, in the center, a red-and-blue tent, which is clearly the center.
"This is terrifying," says Matt, and for once, Lele murmurs in agreement with him. Joey points at the bearded lady, looking like he's trying to bring back a long-forgotten memory.
"I think I know her..." hmm, i think i do too. But before my mid can elaborate, a bird-man thing pops up out of nowhere and scares the shit out of all of us. We are about to enter that scary ass tent. The ringmaster won't stop grinning at us.
As soon as we set foot in the tent, Lele points.
"Is that the artifact?" I look, almost giving myself whiplash and i can confirm she's right. There's the artifact, on display, sticking out like a sore thumb.
"Oh shit!" One more. The last one. We're almost out of here.
"We need that," Eva gasps.
"That's the last artifact. We're here. We're going to get it." she continues.
But what are we going to have to do to get it?
"This is my greatest achievement," says the ringmaster, pointing to the artifact with a smile on his face.
"It took me half a life to get. But..." He pauses, letting the word "but" hang in the air like a noose.
"I will make you a deal." that catches my attention. Joey gulps. I can practically feel his heart drop, i place an arm on his shoulder, but as he looks back, he roughly shrugs my arm off. The ringmaster then surveys our group, he looks like he's trying to decide which one is going to be slaughtered.
"Find me two willing performers for tonight's show, and I will loan you the artifact."Of course. I should've known.
"I must warn you," the ringmaster continues, "this show can sometimes be quite...precarious." Precarious. Dangerous?
"This is a death," Joey gasps. For the fourth time in five hours, there will be a vote, and we'll have to dip our already-stained hands in someone else's blood. At least it's almost over. One more vote. One more death, and the remaining YouTubers will be free to go. As the girls form a huddle in the corner of the tent, i go to help out the guys as joey goes with the girls.
I know what the girls are thinking. A boy must die.
"I feel like Sierra's super calm," says Tim. Which is a lie, and everyone knows it, but i'm not in the mood to nitpick other people's suggestions.
"Maybe she'll be better at doing stuff like...y'know...walking the tightrope..." he trails off. I turn to Matt, my eyes filed with fire.
"We can't do Lele again." i say. Matt sighs.
"I know." he says looking at her but she's already glaring at him.
"You know, I can't wait to see you die." she whispers harshly, walking towards us, she walks around us, then goes back to the group still maintaining eye contact, i lean back a little creeped out.
"You guys pick," he mutters, slumping against the nearest bench. I just pat his head, ruffling his hair.
"I don't want to be the bad guy again." he mutters. Then Arthur bangs on the table.
"We will now begin voting," announces Arthur. "Who's ready?" Not me, mutters my mind. I'm thinking of who i can vote, but what's the point of surviving if everyone's going to die? Lele goes first.
"Matt!" she shouts, punctuating his name with an extra stab of the pencil. And just like that, Matt's face goes stone cod, survival instinct returns with a vengeance.
"I'm coming back," he broadcasts, his hands clenched into fists, anger and determination showing on his face.
"For sure. You can put me in at any time. I'm coming back."
As Lele returns to her seat and Tim takes her place at the hat, Matt turns around to face the girl who's tormented him for so long.
"I'm going to be the bigger man, and guess whose name I'm not going to write?"
"Mine?" chirps Lele in a singsong voice.
"Lele's."
"Well, you're going to heaven," she says sarcastically.
Matt shrugs. Come one Matt, Don't let it get to you.
"Or you're going to hell."
Oli sighs, glancing around the tent with a world-weary look on his face.
"I can't believe we're doing this again." I just nod in agreement. I then get up and vote for Oli, he's nice and incredibly intelligent, but he hasn't gone into any challenges. Everyone's done voting, so now Arthur's doing the whole "shake up the hat" thing again.
"And now," he says, "I will draw two names to face the circus." Fuck.
Arthur picks a name.
"Timothy."
"Oh." Tim blinks, absorbing his name like a washcloth absorbing kerosene.
"Well, damn."
Arthur picks again.
"Oli." Several people gasp. Eva shouts Oli's name, genuine concern in her voice.
"You guys voted for me?" he asked,hurt lacing his voice. The room erupts into a choir of I-didn't-vote-for-yous, each denial more insistent than the one before. The girls, especially, are tripping over themselves to deny their involvement in Oli's downfall. I hold a worried face, thank god for my performing skills.
Someone has fully stabbed him in the back, and it's me.
------
"Let the show begin!" I can't.
I go outside, not being able to watch someone die on my vote. I hear screaming and cheering and Lele screaming, i close my eyes. I take a deep breathe and walk back inside, hearing the screaming die down, and hoping no one noticed my absence. As i walk in i see the ringmaster.
"All right." The ringmaster strokes his chin, squinting at the audience through beady eyes.
"Let's consider this. I think..." Oli glances downward. The water looks murky. Was that a fin? Oh no, oh no, oh hell... Calm. Stay calm. Maybe he'll make it. But no, that would be just as bad, because then Tim dies and Tim's a bit of an idiot but he doesn't deserve to go out like this. Why the hell does it have to be this way? I look at Eva. Is she crying? Are those tears in her eyes? That can't be. She's Eva. Eva doesn't—
"Both shall go down!" The ringmaster says.
What? No!
They both resurface. They're both alive.
How?
The ringmaster laughs, a crooked smile on his face, shrugging his shoulders at the rest of the group. "I forgot to put the flesh-eating fish in the tank today."
"You're sick!" Eva shouts.
The crowd boos. The old man in the front row is loudly demanding his money back, complaining about how he "didn't pay to see people not die."
"You did bring me my greatest act ever," says the ringmaster, pointing at the still-silent Guardian.
"It is a fair trade. Vita!"
"Yes?" chirps the assistant.
"Let them go." Vita; it's an odd name, but it suits her—wraps a thick blue blanket around each boy's shoulders, then nudges them both towards their still-openmouthed friends. Oli collapses into the nearest open seat. He's shivering, and he's got a case of wet-head. But the best part? It's over. No one else is going to die. We're going to get the artifact, and then we can go home.
After everything that's happened, the ringmaster's voice still hasn't lost its cheery tone.
"Thank you very much, and have a good night!"Oh, no, you don't. "Wait!" shouts Matt, unwilling to let their host escape his promise.
"What about the artifact?" I finish for him.
"Yeah!" someone agrees.
"What about the artifact?" Lele yells.
"If you don't—" Tim begins.
Once everyone's done shouting, the ringmaster shrugs.
"We did make a deal, didn't we?"
"We did," Matt reminds him.
"All right." The ringmaster turns to his assistant, who's doing some sort of weird dance in the corner.
"Vita!"
"Yes?"
"Give them the artifact."
Five minutes later, we've got the artifact, Tim and Oli are back in their regular clothes, and the surviving YouTubers are leaving the cursed carnival for good.
A/N- Well fuck this took waaaaaaaaaay to long, anyway, this part is done.