WRITER'S BLOCK! YOU'RE GONE! 8D *GLEE*
Yup, I'm American. xD; Thankies for the... erm... 'I hope you passed', though. xD; I failed the first time, had to drive 4 hours, then passed with a perfect! I'm very proud of myself, sorry. .-.;; But, sorry about the stupid driving laws stuff where you live. Dx; Driving at 18? SUCKY. *huggle* It'll be fun when you do start driving, though. ^^
New chappie time! And, erm, I should mention that RenigmaSTER is such a FREAK here. xD; He's not freaky enough yet, but he's getting close. Really really close... Anywho, no chappie in anything is going to be up next week, cause I'm going out of town, and the next chappie will probably be more informative than action-packed. So, yush. D: *flail* ENJOY! 8D;
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Chapter 004: An Enigmatic Carnival; Pt II - Your Worst Fear Is?
"Dammit!"
I wanted to punch her. I really wanted to punch her. She's too damn stubborn for her own good, and she didn't even listen to me!
With a grumble, I slid out of Kris' house as if I wasn't even there in the first place; thankfully, her mom hadn't noticed me or there would've been lots of cursing... I ran into the streets outside of her block, running as quickly and quietly as I could. I could see her! Kris had taken off, running as quickly as I was, and was heading straight for... the school? Why there? She loathes that place!
Then, it clicked. I actually figured out why: those 'red clouds' that she kept on talking about, muttering stuff about how she had to go save them and the like; which was why she jumped out the window in the first place.
Kris had come to a stop and seemed to be bickering with someone, most likely, anyways. I quickly slid off into the shadow of a nearby alley, waiting until their voices quit. But, one thing bugged me: I have never heard that guy's voice before, and, telling by her tone, Kris hadn't either.
Then, she started screaming, just like last time.
"KRIS!"
I defensively ran out into the open, gliding across the sidewalk at a haste-filled pace. Yet, by the time I met up with her, she was gone! I stared at the ground, my teal eyes wide while I stared at the spot. Kris disappeared? Just like that?
"Lookie, lookie. Someone else to play with..."
I felt a hand tightly latch onto the back of my head, their fingernails seeming to dig into my skull. Then, everything swirled together before dumping into nothing.
----
"CHASE!!"
It didn't matter how much she screamed. It didn't matter how much she banged her fist on the glass. It didn't matter how much she was even crying. No matter what she did, Chase never heard or saw her. He just laid there, tied to a giant dart board with an arsenal of large darts pointed straight at him. He didn't even know that he was on that board in the first place! Was he even asleep? Or was he unconscious instead? After all, he hadn't noticed the dark purple aura that had surrounded his feet and was crawling up his legs.
"YOU IDIOT! YOU DAMN IDIOT!!"
Kris continued to bang on the glass aimlessly, seeming to hope that it would eventually shatter into millions of pieces and let the tomboy rush through to her friend. She wondered if he had followed her when she ran off to go save all those spirits inside the 'red clouds', which would explain why he ended up here. No wonder she was screaming that he was an idiot...
"Will you SHUT UP!?" a familiar voice cursed loudly, a hand quickly and tightly grasping Kris' shoulder.
With hands no longer on the glass, the teen found herself spun around and obtained the wonderful present of getting punched in the face.
The force of the fist slamming against her face was nothing compared to how much worry and dread filled up inside Kris at that moment. RenigmaSTER simply wanted her to shut up, but she wasn't going to do so until Chase was save and alright.
"What'd you do to him!?" Kris roared, spinning around to throw a punch at RengimaSTER's face as payback, "WHAT'D YOU DO TO CHASE!?"
Suddenly, there was nothing; no glass, no white, no tall and insane 'ringmaster' glaring down at her. There was just a cloud filled background and the wind rushing past the tomboy. Kris was falling.
She didn't panic or anything of the sort: she just stared down at the world below and waited for some random floor to pop up and catch her. Yet, that floor never came. A few minutes felt like hours, even days or weeks. Then, finally, she hit something.
"I caught one!" the voice of an ecstatic boy bounced into Kris' ears, the sound of repeated springing seeming to follow.
For a moment, she did a double take. A short, young, and happy boy with spiked blonde hair, wearing a green t-shirt and khaki shorts, bounced up and down on a trampoline that appeared to be hovering over nothing. He would flip, bounce, twirl, and just smile as the adolescent hopped around on the large springing canvas.
"...Chase?" Kris questioned aloud, staring at the boy as he pounced around.
"Chase?" he questioned, a grin still planted on his peach-toned face, "I'm not Chase!"
Kris blinked and tilted her head to the side as she realized that this boy wasn't Chase at all, no matter how much he looked like her best friend as a child: the only real difference between them was some colour added to the hair, much like another person.
The boy grinned, still bouncing around, "I'm Izak!"
"Izak?"
"Yeah! What's your name?"
"My name's Kris..."
"Cool! I'll have to remember that when I put you in your tank!"
"My... tank...?"
Abruptly, Kris somewhat realized what he meant when he said 'tank': she was tangled up in a large, black net that was hanging over nothing while a boy jumped around, singing 'I caught one! I caught one!' as he pranced around the horizontal, black canvas. This boy had managed to catch a teenaged tomboy, who wanted nothing more than out of this net; he seemed rather happy about it, though.
Then, the net became submerged completely into cold water. Finally, she realized what Izak meant: it was a fish bowl full of water, complete with pebbles lined up along the bottom! Still tangled up in the net, Kris watched as the boy, who now made her seem 'miniature-sized' compared to his enormous size and height, dumped some flakes of fish food into the top of the bowl. As they slowed sunk down into the clear, cool water, they appeared to be nothing like thin flakes: they were actually leeches, floating aimlessly to the bottom before they latched onto the large strings of the net.
Kris attempted to escape from both the net and the fish bowl. She watched helplessly as the blonde haired boy skipped off into another room of the house that laid outside of the bowl, quiet and calm unlike the madness that was occurring inside the sphere full of water.
They were pulling themselves through the large cracks in the black, string net. Yet, Kris couldn't even imagine getting out of this prison; all she could do was reach her arm out through one of the holes, as if going to grasp something.
Finally, it disappeared with a snap. Everything changed. No longer was it just a fish bowl full of water with a quirky room outside the walls of glass. Now, it was water, just plain water.
No longer encased in a black net, Kris swam as far as she could to get away from the strange leeches that were swimming along behind her. Recklessly, the tomboy swam through the salty, deep blue world, her lungs slowly beginning to gasp for air that didn't seem to exist. At this point, the important thing was to get to the surface. Yet, why did everything seem to stay the same when she swam up higher and higher?
The leeches were catching up to their prey. As Kris' arm strokes and kicking legs begun to slow down, the round, black creatures took their chance and strode forwards. Every single one of them caught up and every single one of them latched onto her arms, their teeth digging into her skin while the girl tempted to pry them off. You couldn't tell if they were sucking out blood or injecting something into the teen's pale skin. She gave a shudder, still kicking her feet and moving her arms to swim towards the surface that didn't even seem to exist at this point.
Finally, they flew off. Kris was choking now, coughing and gasping for breath as she finally found the surface. Yet, there was nothing to break: it was a thick layer of something colder than ice, so freezing at the touch that it could freeze your fingers in a second.
Then, at that one moment, everything faded softly into black.
----
She choked, jolting up and coughing up water that was too red to even be water. Blood rolled down to her chin while her electric blue eyes stared down at the puddle of red on the large, black floor, as if she was in a trance. Then, she fell backwards, gasping for breath.
'What was THAT?' Kris questioned silently in her thoughts, tightly closing her eyes while her lungs gasped for air.
Her eyelids crawled off of her electric blue eyes and the tomboy stared up into the ceiling above. She could feel something wet on her back as she laid there; she couldn't tell if it was water or something like blood. Yet, it was what was on her arms that seemed far more important than if she were lying in her own blood or not.
Kris lifted one arm into the air and found that it blended into the ceiling. Yet, along the way, various cuts and scraps covered the blackness. No matter how much it felt like a dream, it wasn't anything of the sort. One question begun to linger in her mind, though: did more 'blackness' get injected into her arms?
"Oy." a loud voice seemed to punch into the air. Kris tilted her head to the side, not even bothering to even get to her feet or to sit up. The figure standing there, looking completely out of place as well, was none other than RenigmaSTER. Yet, he didn't look happy; not the least bit.
"You know what happens when you cheat in my game, kid?"
Kris blinked. RenigmaSTER pushed one foot forwards.
"They get their ass kicked, of course."
The heel of his foot slammed into the girl's stomach and she went crashing down through the floor. Now, she was falling once more, her stomach throbbing madly where the boot's heel smashed against her skin.
----
The roar of a crowd could be heard echoing throughout. Kris' deep blue eyes flickered open and gazed at the new world around her, actually finding something other than a white or black room this time: it was a stadium, with thousands of cheers echoing from the strange, mannequin-like crowd overhead; none of these figures seemed to move, actually. Thousands of bright lights pointed down below, as if glaring at you during your task to make you screw up.
"What the..."
A loud hiss echoed through the rocky ground and into the spotlights. Kris only froze up on the ground, not even daring to move except to curl up into a ball on the floor, and hope that was nothing more than a giant cat or a lion; a tiger would've sufficed, even!
It was none other than a snake: a giant snake that almost seemed like a basilisk of sorts, or just something that was incredibly deadly, and it was sniffing Kris. She tried not to let out a yelp, cringing as she awaited for the oversized reptile to back off as she felt air blow repeatedly against her pale skin.
Finally, she just had to run. Kris took a quick roll backwards and jumped to her feet. It, though, was one of the stupidest ideas she had had all day. The reptile looked as though it were smirking, and suddenly, it 'pounced'. Its fangs unsheathed, it struck downwards to stab right into its victim.
"AH!" Kris screamed with fright in her voice and terror in her eyes. She ran backwards as quickly as she could, hearing the snake behind her stabbing its fangs into the coarse rock-like ground. She didn't dare look back, though; after all, she didn't want to look back into the eyes of one of her greatest fears.
Then, she saw him, of all people to be there right at the moment, and he had a look on his face as if he was gloating. Perched up on top of a tall stand hovering over the stadium was none other than RenigmaSTER. When she saw that smug look on his face, she was tempted to crawl up there just to punch him. But, still, she was still going to crawl up there.
Her eyes filled with dread, though, as she saw the gigantic reptile flying across the ground, coming for its prey. She let out another classic yelp, and scrambled up the stand as best as she possibly could.
"H-Hey!" Kris screamed as she finally reached the top, hanging on for dear life on the very edge.
"Who? Me?" RenigmaSTER questioned, as if he were just another idiot. Kris let out a loud groan.
"YES, YOU, IDIOT!" she growled, pulling her arms up onto the horizontal surface while continuing to hang on, "How'd you know I hate snakes!?"
"Because, I read your mind! I think. Probably..."
"STOP BEING STUPID!!"
"Why do I have to listen to you? You're the one playing my game! I should just push you down onto the ground and watch you run around like an idiot like everyone else!"
"But, that wouldn't do you any good, now will it!? If you push me down, you're gonna lose your candidate for your next puppet!"
"Who's the stupid one now? If you go down there and get your ass kicked, how else are you going to become one? Now, just so down there and..."
"WAIT!" Kris protested, tightening her grip on the edge, "Just give me one little chance, okay? Give me something to beat this thing! Please!!"
"Why should I, brat?"
"'Cause I'll punch you, if you don't!"
"You suck at giving good reasons, brat."
"Just help me!! I'll probably end up losing anyways, with your stupid rules!"
"Point taken, then..." RenigmaSTER replied with a rolled of his eyes, giving a snap of his fingers before a weapon seemed to appear down below in the battle arena, "Now, go catch it, kiddo!"
Suddenly, the heel of his boot met her forehead, and Kris went tumbling down through the air to the ground below. Thankfully, that stupid snake wasn't there yet, but it was about two inches from where she was. Kris quickly slid off to the side before it could strike once again, and took off running towards the 'help' RenigmaSTER actually gave her.
What was it? Kris' eyes narrowed, in hopes of being able to see the weapon better, but found nothing but a blurry image until she finally reached it. There, floating in mid-air, was none other than a generic sword, waiting patiently for its current 'wielder' to come and use it; it had a long, thin, sleek blade, while the hilt and handle seemed to be wider around the small blade, and it definitely didn't look like something RenigmaSTER would pull out of his hat.
Without hesitation, the tomboy snatched the sword into her grasp, and, once again, made a run for it, after seeing the snake charge towards her once more. Was it going to stop chasing her? Ever? If it wasn't, which was probably true, then this was just like a wild goose chase! But, what else could she do?
Stab it, maybe?
Kris let a deep gulp slide down her throat while her fingers twitched with hesitation as they curled around the sword. At this point, she was just standing there with the sword tightly gripped in both hands, pointing straight and centered at the large snake. It was coming on fast, and her heart's pounding in her throat quickened with every rumble that the large reptile created as it came closer.
Then, without notice or warning, it was right in front of her face, sniffing her nose. She stared in horror as this gigantic, deadly creature sniffed her as if it were a puppy dog. Truth be told, even if it made you think of a puppy, it was probably the most terrifying thing she had witnessed out of all of this madness. Then, its head rolled back up into the air.
Kris let out a huge sigh of relief, giving a small giggle as she did so. Still, she shouldn't even had giggled this soon.
The gigantic snake, its fangs now unsheathed once more, lunged straight down at the ground to sink its teeth into its victim. Kris let out a shriek of surprise, and, out of defense, pointed the sword straight upwards.
Both of them seemed to moan at the same time. Kris let out a small howl of pain, nothing loud enough for even RenigmaSTER to hear, while the snake looked like it was having a temper tantrum.
One fang had sunk into Kris' arm, while the sword she carried was now hanging around, stabbed through the roof of the creature's mouth. Finally, after waving its head around so much, it fell to the ground and seemed to disappear without a trace. But, at that same moment, everyone and everything else seemed to disappear from the 'stadium'.
No longer were bright lights, cheers and loud 'boos!' emitting from the motionless crowd. Instead, there was just a blank, white room that seemed to fade from view as Kris wobbled back and forth over the ground she stood on.
"Dizzy..." she said aloud in an almost drunken tone, while her half-opened eyes glanced motionlessly around the room. She didn't even bother to grab the giant fang impaled into her arm, that seemed to be injecting blackness into both of her arms which crawled up into her sleeves and disappeared.
Now, rather defeated, the tomboy fell over once more as the fang seemed to click and jump out onto the white floor.
'Not again...'
----
You didn't forget, did you?
'No, I definitely didn't. But, I...'
Then, what's more important?
'What? There's something more important?'
Of course there is! You did forget!
'But, how could I not when I got hit by all of these stupid games he threw at me!?'
Just come back, right now. I'll give you a way back, then we can forget about all of this mess...
'Not until I save Chase! I can't leave him here! Who knows what could happen to him... Besides, I think this is the last thing. Maybe, just maybe, he'll let us out of here...'
Just hurry up. The sooner you get back, the better.
'Whatever you say, weird voice...'
With a small groan and a spark, Kris seemed to start opening her eyes once more. Everything was blurry, yet everything was red, orange, and yellow. Was it 100 degress in here or something? She could feel the heat brush against her skin, and it made her feel very uneasy, especially when everything came into view.
Her electric blue eyes widened as she stared up at the scene before her: there was Chase, asleep with a purple aura now around most of him, chained to a giant dart board with a giant launcher in front of him; at that moment, there was nothing in the launcher, but still. The worst thing about this scene, though, was the tall ring of fire around the area, with small flames etched off from the ring and onto the giant dart board. Kris quickly leapt to her feet, and charged forwards.
"CHASE!!" she screamed with fright etched into her voice. He was going to get burned if she didn't hurry up! Her pace quickened, her eyes were set onto the blonde haired boy, yet there was already an obstacle: Kris was now at the very edge of a small building hovering over a city. She gulped and took several quick steps backwards, only to watch from the building she stood on top of. What was there to do now?
Well, she had to face her fears for two seconds; that was the only thing to do to get to the other side.
After taking several steps backwards once again, she ran straight towards the edge of the building once more, without stopping this time, and vaulted herself straight across the gap between them.
Fortunately, she made it, with a great sigh of relief. But, hanging onto the edge still wasn't the greatest thing. The tomboy lifted one foot and put it on top of the building, using that to push herself up and onto the top of the skyscraper.
There was Chase once again: he was still sleeping, still chained to the giant dart board that was being licked by the nearby flames, and that aura around him was still growing. With a nod, as if to herself, Kris took some quickened steps forwards before she literally climbed up onto the dart board and begun to quickly pick at the chains.
"C'mon, chains... get off already..." she growled out of frustration, "Don't worry. I'll get you out in a second, Chase!"
Yet, her eyes begun to widen with fright as she watched the chain seemed to 'uncoil' itself. No longer was it made of silver links that strung together. Now, it was a small, tiny snake that had its teeth sinking into Chase's wrist.
"NO! GET OFF!!" Kris screamed, grabbing the snake without hesitation and throwing it off to the ground. She could see something was wrong with Chase, though; it had to be something that that little snake did. His skin had gone completely pale while it stuck to his bones. What was happening to him?
Kris let out a small shriek, and latched her arms around the older boy. Now, she was more than worried or freaked out: she was terrified more than ever before. What was happening to her friend?
"I won't let anything happen to you, okay?" she said aloud to him, though she knew the teen couldn't hear her, "I'll get you out of this, no matter what..."
The flames were still licking the dart board, and now, one side of it was on fire. Chase's hand was soon surrounded by flames, still behind chained to the board, and Kris freaked. She swung to the other side of the board and begun to pick at the chain once more, hoping it would just turn into something other than a chain. She was cursing under her breath, now just pulling the chain. But, at that moment, she was screaming.
"Turn into something else already!!"
Something definitely listened, because the chain not only turned into a little snake, but the two other chains turned into snakes as well, with their teeth sinking into his skin. The girl instantly grabbed the snake around his wrist and threw it off, though it actually bit her for a moment this time before flying off into the air. But, that definitely wasn't the last of them, despite that there were two already around his feet now.
A sea of these deadly reptiles was swarming the platform, and more were pouring out of the empty launcher while others simply fell off. One curled itself around her leg, sinking its teeth into her skin before tempting to drag her down to the floor.
"Ah!" Kris yelped, hanging onto the edge of the targeted, vertical platform that Chase was now barely hanging onto, "Get off!" The flames seemed to lick her fingers, and, unfortunately, she let her grip escape before she fell to the floor.
Now, their target was right in front of them, helplessly trying to wade through the sea that she wanted out of right at that moment. She could feel so many fangs sink into her skin that she couldn't tell what was what after only moments. Her vision was turning darker, her skin was turning blacker, and now she had a giant reptile curled around her torso that was sinking its teeth into her shoulder, which had taken a moment for her to register its existence.
C'mon! Just give up already! You're about two seconds away from being tied to strings and turning into a lifeless tool!
"No!" she screamed into the air, cringing as the snake tightened its grip on its prey, "I'm so close to saving him! I'm not going to let you stop me!"
The snake continued to tighten and tighten around her, putting so much pressure that she thought she was going to lose all the air in her lungs. Yet, she took a step forwards, and continued walking towards the vertical platform, seeing now that the aura around Chase was starting to disappear ever so slowly.
Though her arms were pinned to her, she could still move her hands and she managed as best as she could. She was trying to grab the little snake around Chase's ankle, who only hissed at her before stabbing its fangs into her finger. She cringed and simply shook it, hoping it would fly off like the others; but, of course, it didn't, and the blackness that was now in her neck was crawling up into her face.
Then came the other one, which also hissed at her. But, now, she had the snake around her take its fangs out of her shoulder and simply hiss at her as it moved down to cover up her hands before it stabbed her arm once more. She gave a small cringe and a gasp, knowing that the blackness was up at the very bottom of her face now, but kept moving on. She could barely move her hands at this point, though, but it was already too late: the last and final obstacle was off of Chase's leg.
He slid down to the floor, the aura receding from sight, and his skin seemed to return to its peach-y tone colour while it was no longer clinging to his bones. All of the snakes disappeared with a snap, including the one around her, and the tomboy fell to the floor with many, many bite marks now in her skin. The fire was no longer burning and the dart board didn't seem to exist. Instead, it was just a white room, and the two teens were up against the wall.
That's when RenigmaSTER showed up, with a sword he pointed straight at Kris' throat.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT!" he screamed, his eyes seeming to burn with so much anger, "No one, and I mean no one, gets past my games!! I should just stab you right now; it'll get rid of the fact that you cheated!"
"So, I won...? That's how I cheated...?" Kris questioned in a drowsy voice as she sat next to Chase.
"Of course! How else could you have won? You faced your stupid, pointless fears, and that's how you cheated! You can't face your fears!"
"But, I just did..."
The sword's point was just now at her throat, and she was dangling up in the air with her back still against the wall.
"Say something smart-ass again. I dare you."
Kris gulped and gave a shudder. She didn't dare say a word; she knew if she did, she would be paying for it.
"Good to see you can actually keep your mouth shut, brat. You know it's stupid to defy me," his voice slithered through her ears, a smirk plastered on his peach-toned face, "You're going to make a great toy to play with..."
"Your name is Izak, isn't it?" Kris questioned in that drowsy tone, her eyes half opened.
RenigmaSTER looked shocked, horrified even, under the shadow of his hat. He let out a loud growl, and moved in closer, his sword now sideways against Kris' neck as they were both at eye level.
"Where'd you get that idea?"
"I saw it. After you punched me and told me to shut up, I was falling into a net and there was a boy bouncing around. I thought he was Chase, but he said his name is Izak. But, you kinda do look like that Izak kid... and Chase...""
He growled once again, "Don't you dare call me that name. It's a stupid name from a stupid life that I ran off from... I'm not a child anymore. I'm the bad guy, and you're the child who should be squirming..."
Without warning, his invisible grip on Kris dropped and she landed right on the floor next to Chase once again. His sword was now pointed at Chase, who was still asleep against the wall.
"I should just get rid of this clone, then. You know we look the same, we could even be the same! He could turn into the same person I am, and you know I don't want that."
He smirked and lifted the sword into the air, as if he was going to swing it down on Chase's head. Yet, out of defensive, Kris pulled Chase into a tight hug, one that would keep RenigmaSTER from hurting one of them without hurting the other.
"Leave us alone," Kris demanded, her eyes now glaring up at the ringmaster.
"What gives you that idea?" RenigmaSTER replied, throwing his sword off into some random corner of the room, "You're the one I'm after; not blondie over there. What makes you think I'm going to leave you be?"
Kris gulped and lowered her gaze, but she only found a finger under her chin and her eyes staring up at a sadistic ringmaster.
"If you're going to remember one thing from this place that isn't a nightmare, remember this: I will hunt you down, no matter where you are. You won't be able to sleep without me watching you. You won't be able to breathe without me choking you. You're going to be my puppet, and that's that. There's no escape from what's already deep in your skin."
"Shut up," Kris simply replied, jerking herself away before putting her head against the wall.
"And, you're going to have to do something about that nasty attitude of your's. I'll make sure that it doesn't talk back..."
Suddenly, his palm was pressed against Chase's forehead as a purple swirl appeared behind the two. The palm pushed Chase backwards through the wall, which Kris let out a little 'hey!' when Chase disappeared, and RenigmaSTER's palm soon was against Kris' own forehead. She threw him a glare, and soon found the white world disappearing from sight.
"See ya, kiddo!"
----
"Ack!" Kris spat aloud as she landing face-first into the sidewalk. She lifted her head, and glanced next to her, where she saw Chase sound asleep still as he laid there. Droplets of rain were already etched onto the concrete, and they were now dripping onto their once-dry clothes.
Kris lifted up one hand and placed it on Chase's shoulder, giving a small smile as she laid her head on the wet ground.
"Hey. Wake up. We're out of there... We're home..."
He wouldn't budge. He just laid there and begun to give small shudders, as if he was starting to wake up.
"Chase? You okay...?" Kris questioned with worry as her sight begun to get blurry again. Then, everything disappeared from view.
'At least we're out of that nightmare now...'
! That was quite the lovely chapter. <333 ... but seriously, RenigmaSTER has SO got to die.