Chapter 65:

Bowling for Punch

“That was incredible! What did you say your name was?” Someone with healing powers like that was definitely someone I wanted in my list of allies.

“I didn’t.”

I waited for him to go ahead and supply me with his name anyway but he refused to make any second of conversation easy.

“My name is Da–RaeDarz.” Best to stick to my username. “What’s yours?”

“Oh. I’m Rottney.”

“Rodney?”

“ROTTney.”

I heard him the first time but I just wanted to make sure I was hearing him right and not just filling in a weird skeleton name for him.

“Rottney. Nice to meet you, thanks for healing me.” I flashed him a big grin.

“N-no problem.” Oooh, what was that? Embarrassment perhaps? The skeleton man wasn’t so devoid of emotions after all.

A scream came from the open door, further off down the hall.

“Oh. I must be going now.” Rottney pushed off and rolled his chair madly toward the door.

Before he could make it all the way I leapt off the bed and grabbed his arm.

“Is that the swordsman? The guy who got his side cut up?” I asked.

Rottney seemed to be staring at my hand gripping his sleeve but he made no moves to push me away.

“I am not at liberty to speak about other patients.”

“Bullshit,” I said, squeezing his arm tighter. “Promise me you’ll fix him. He risked his life to save me. Don’t let him die.”

Still with zero emotion, Rottney said, “I won’t.”

I let go of his arm and he continued his roll, stepping off of it in the doorway with a cool grace. Before setting off toward the scream he turned back to me one more time and said, “You are free to continue to the party.”

“Wait, I don’t want to go to a stupid–”

But he was gone, leaving me alone in the little dungeon office. I immediately went into my menu and hammered on the home button again.

[ You can STILL not do that. Try again MUCH later. ]

“Fucking stupid piece of–”

The shadow weirdos bounded from the darkness of the room and hoisted my bed up.

“Not again you fucks!” I flew across the room and into the arms of another group of them.

And we were off, running back up the long corridor.

“Look, listen,” I said, trying to find any of them with a face or eyes I could look at. I wasn’t having much luck. “I’m begging you, I don’t do parties. Can’t I just go home now?”

“Yooou are the victoooor,” all of the mass of shadows said in unison.

“Well the victor would like to go home. Can that be my prize?”

“But you will miss oooout ooon a feast!”

A feast. My mind locked onto a slim chance, a moment of hope.

“What’s the chef’s specialty?” I asked.

“Pizza,” a dozen little voices said.

I grinned. “Now, a pizza party I can handle.”

Sam N. Fillet, here I come!

#

I couldn’t believe my luck. Well, maybe luck wasn’t the right word. I’d been through almost literal hell for this but somehow it looked like it was all going to work out. Sam was just up ahead. Zero doubts in my mind. What other chef would have a speciality in pizza?

It made every crazy thing I’d just been through in this horrible place worth it. I could accomplish my goal–TONIGHT! Sam was coming home with me, no matter what.

It didn’t dawn on me until we were approaching the party, music and lights traveling down the tunnel, that I should still be wary and afraid. Nothing about these people were normal so I truly doubted that their idea of a good time was going to be pleasant to deal with.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

With that fun thought in my mind, I rode the rest of the way down the tunnel riddled with anxiety. And the thumping of the music that shook the walls of the tunnel didn’t help matters at all.

“Here we are!” The shadows said as they sped up to a breakneck speed, the end of the tunnel approaching rapidly. “Yooou have fun!”

“Wait, why aren’t we stopping? You’re gonna stop, right? Hey!” They refused to stop, somehow still gaining speed.

At the very end of the tunnel, where the light and noise was at its apex, they slammed on the breaks, stopping instantly, as they let go of me.

“You freaks!” I yelled as I sailed into the party and crashed down in a bowl of liquid. My head submerged into its murky red surface. I sat up and spat, assuming I’d just been dunked in a pool of blood but, no, it was fruit punch. Not blood, not wine, fruit punch. Somehow that was weirder than it being blood.

I turned back to the tunnel I’d rudely been thrown from and shook my middle finger at the shadowy people. They giggled and slammed the door shut, leaving me stuck with the party goers. And there was a LOT. We seemed to be in a massive castle, filled to the brim with dancing people.

I slid off the table and tried to fix everything around the bowl that I knocked over, mostly a bunch of cups. I expected people to have crowded around me and laughed at my weird entrance, but no one paid me any mind. Too busy dancing.

But as I was straightening the cups, a girl did walk up to me, mid twenties, her whole body covered in glowing lights. She just stared at me, a far off look in her eyes.

“Uh…” I said. “Do you want something to drink?”

She nodded and held her hands out.

Strange girl, I thought, but I poured her a cup and handed it to her. She took it, in one hand, and the other stayed held out to me.

It took me a second, but I understood. “Oh, you want another one?”

She nodded, once, firm.

I poured another cup full and handed it to her. She snatched it and trotted off without so much as a thanks or even an acknowledgement of me at all.

The fuck? I started to go after her but that’s when the door behind me burst open again and two more people came flying toward me. I grabbed the punch bowl and sidestepped away, letting them both crash onto the table, the cups I’d just organized going flying for the second time.

It was a guy and a girl, looking both the same height and builds as two of the three people who helped me fend off the ghost. They were still wearing their skull masks so I decided to do the same. No reason to give strangers any more information than what they were giving me, you know?

By the time they slid off the table and back on their feet, I was masked up. I went to put the punch down but the guy slammed his fist on the table, sending more cups flying. I moved the bowl out of his reach.

“The fuck! I HATE those shadow bastards!” He whipped around but they were already gone, the door had slammed shut in the middle of the guy and girl’s free fall.

“I don’t know,” the girl said, throwing aside some crushed cups that had stuck to her clothes somehow. “I think they’re kind of cute.”

“Cute!?” He rounded on her. “They are disturbing little fucks. Their bodies don’t make sense.”

“I’m sure your big scary muscles scare them just as much,” she said, looking over the guy’s shoulder and winking at me, the mask moving with her real eye.

Okay, she was awesome.

I went to put the bowl down again but the guy huffed toward the girl and jostled the table AGAIN with his aforementioned big muscles.

“Are you calling me ugly?” He pointed at the girl, inches away from touching her.

I decided to stick up for her. “She didn’t mean anything bad by it. Just, for some little shadow guys that probably only see skeletons all day, your body could be overwhelming.”

He rounded on me and I had to lift the punch over my head to avoid him spilling it.

“Are YOU calling me FAT!?” The skull mask’s eyes burned with blue fire. Neat, I didn’t know it reacted like that with the wearers emotions. I didn’t remember the ones the lumberjack wore in the battle royale being able to do that.

There was probably more to be thought about there, but unfortunately I had a mid sized ape of a dude in my face, asking if I insulted his waistline.

And I wasn’t totally sure that I hadn’t done just that.

But the girl returned my favor and came to my rescue.

“We just mean, dear, that to creatures so small, someone as… powerful as you could be alarming.” She touched his arm and from the combo of her perfectly chosen words and at her touch, she disarmed him completely.

Like she’d cast a spell.

He blushed. “You’re right. I get you. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. I’m, uh, just easy to anger sometimes. I’m actually in therapy for it.”

“You don’t say? That’s very progressive of you. I’m impressed. How about we all get some punch and find somewhere to talk?”

In one smooth movement she went around the dude, took the punch bowl from my hands, and finally returned it to its rightful place on the table. She poured three drinks and passed one to me and the guy.

He took a sip from it and walked off, the girl leading the way.

I stood in shock. She’d completely defused the situation and led it to a totally different outcome. How did she do that?

She stopped a ways off and looked back at me over her shoulder. “You coming?”

It was either that or go dancing so you all know damn well which option I went with. I followed the charming girl and the muscled man to a spot out of the way of all the dancing. It was a little alcove, cut into the wall and it could perfectly seat three people. Well, probably four normal sized ones, but the dude’s bulky arms made it a tighter squeeze.

The girl got there first and plopped down in the middle, gesturing for us to sit on either side of her. I took the spot to the left. The guy sat in the only remaining spot and even then it was a tight squeeze, his head was bent a little forward and his arms were pressed uncomfortably in his lap.

But I was comfortable. And curious to just who these people were. So I started first.

“Uh, so… who are you guys? Why did you want to join this group?”

“Well, it wasn’t to kill ghosts, that’s for sure!” The girl said and we both laughed. The dude did a second later, like it took a moment for the joke to travel through his thick skull.

“Yeah, what the hell was all that about?” He asked. “I thought we would be stealing shit and beating people up.”

The girl’s mask took on a look of mild disappointment. “You just joined to hurt people?”

“Yeah.” He thought about it again. “No. Well, sort of. I’ve been a hired goon for a long time and, all my contacts have been sort of hush hush whenever the Blue Skulls came up. They seemed scared. I want to know what they’re scared about.”

“I think we’ve already seen why,” I said and the other two nodded. Likely replaying that ghost battle in their heads, same as I was.

“Why did you want to join them?” The girl asked me, breaking the silence.

“Uh…” Shit, how to explain? “My… friend. He joined. And after that, I don’t know what happened to him. I know he’s alive, so he must have made it through the ghost stage–but after that… he vanished. I want to find out what happened to him.”

“Liar,” the girl said, and the whole place seemed to get quiet and dark, as her masked face bore into my soul.