Like a cartoon chandelier of fools, they hung from the ceiling. Oriz’s fist stuck into the hole that should have bled burning grains of sand, but now held her in place with a sucking grip of molten glass. She struggled and strained until dark veins ridged her pale grey skin, but the walls were stronger than any force she could muster.

Below her hung Zoe. Arms gripped around her master’s waist to haul the alien woman from the burning hole above. This only proved futile. What’s worse, the marinade, the oil, and the spices all over her hands and arms made gripping all the harder.

From Zoe’s waist, hung Anton. He gripped the bunched clothes around her waist with one hand while his other reached down to clasp Bella.

From Bella’s shoe, hung Jack.

Jack, the newest member of their motley group of anti-apocalypse rascals. Jack, who had been an enemy. Jack, who probably had a crush on Zoe.

Jack, whose grip on Bella’s shoe was slipping as that same shoe slipped down Bella’s pale ankle.

Zoe heard the Gambler’s narration inside her mind as she took in the scene. His mocking tone. Derision dripped from every word as the space between them yawned like the pitch black beneath.

“How are you handling the weight, Oriz?” Zoe asked.

“I’m fine,” Oriz said. “Just wishing you never fell into purgatory.”

“This was your idea!” Bella shouted from where she dangled far below.

Zoe grimaced at her friend’s tone.

“Everyone hold tight for a moment,” she said.

Her chain slid out from around her shoulder and gripped Oriz enough that she could reach down and grasp Anton. She hauled him up further, and he pulled Bella. Bella brought Jack, who grabbed Zoe’s outstretched hand before Bella lost her shoe to the void.

The four humans all gripped onto Zoe’s chain as it wrapped around Oriz’s belly like a belt. If they didn’t have their advanced strength, then this might have been a brief point of hope before the inevitable fall. As it was, they had time to think, and perhaps, to plan.

If only they could see what would —

“Shut up!” Zoe shouted. “If you’re going to speak, then speak! But don’t do it inside my head!”

“How rude.”

Oriz rotated herself so they could all face the direction of the voice. The doorway remained open. A clear-cut rectangle of bright light framed a singular silhouette.

The Gambler.

“You must think yourselves exceptionally clever to have stumped my challenge. Why don’t you give yourselves a round of applause?”

Nobody moved, and the Gambler sighed.

“No takers? Well, let me remind you that you look incredibly stupid.”

“You didn’t even lock the door!” Bella shouted. “What kind of challenge is that!”

“Team one solved the problem in ten seconds.”

Zoe’s cheeks flushed. She was so wrapped up in the Gambler being full of tricks she hadn’t considered that some of them might be benign.

“What happens now?” she asked. “Do we just hang here until exhaustion sets in and we fall to our deaths?”

“Who said you would die if you fell?”

“It’s a bottomless pit though,” Bella retorted.

“Then I imagine you would be quite safe since there is no bottom to hit. After all, it is not the fall that kills you. But no, that would be dreadfully boring. What happens now is one of my favorite parts of the show…”

Zoe hated to bite on his leading statement, but she had no choice.

“What?”

“Audience participation!”

Anton broke the dread silence that followed.

“It’s moments like this I regret joining up with you.”

“It’s not my fault,” said Zoe and Bella together.

“What’s audience participation?” Jack asked.

In answer, the doorway of blinding light widened. The cut rectangle spread silently as it devoured the blood-red walls. Where before only one silhouette had stood, there were now dozens. The light hid their features, but the overwhelming presence told Zoe that each of these figures was a high level. If they weren’t as powerful as Rue, they were close.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen!” The Gambler boomed out. “You’ve waited and you’ve hoped and now you’re favorite part of the show has arrived!”

He waited for the audience’s cheers to die down. It took a disturbingly long time. Zoe was feeling the pressure of hanging there. Her muscles were fine, but the psychological toll made her slip. She wanted this moment over, even if that meant releasing herself into the darkness below.

No.

She refused and tightened her grip.

“Is everyone alright?” she asked. “I have a plan.”

“We’re good,” Bella responded. “What are you thinking?”

“The objective was to get through the doorway, right? If we can swing ourselves over, we might make it. Except, Oriz, can you…?”

“Forget me, Zoe. My hubris got us into this position.”

As Oriz spoke, she swung back and forth, dragging the humans with her.

The audience's cheers died down.

“Well, well, well!” cried the Gambler. “It looks like our intrepid team three has a plan! And what makes a plan better?”

“Audience participation!” shouted the lined-up silhouettes of the audience.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Exactly! So, at your feet, you will find a bucket of barbeque accouterments. These are all local delicacies taken from earth. They are entirely edible so sample amongst yourselves, but first… start throwing!”

Handfuls of barbeque sauce, coleslaw, potato salad, bread rolls, and ketchup flew toward the hanging humans. They flew like snowballs, and the power and control behind the throws meant they cracked into Zoe and her friends with devastating force.

“Hold on!” Zoe shouted as a piece of egg salad slammed into the back of her throat.

She lengthened her chain, and they all slipped down. With it still circling Oriz’s waist, they swung. Back and forth as salad and sauce rained down on them. They built momentum. Each swing brought them higher, all of them working in concert until Zoe released her hold.

They sailed through the air, a clump of humans grasping each other tight, toward the wide glowing doorway.

A squirt of hot sauce caught Bella in the eye and she cried out. She scrabbled. Slipped, and fell. Zoe reached down for her with her chain, but she was moving away.

There was no time.

Zoe, Anton, and Jack struck the extended doorway. The high-level guests stepped aside with grace to prevent themselves from being bowled over. Zoe hurried back, but the doorway was gone. Only a red wall met her.

Bella and Oriz were gone.

The Gambler hinged at the hip to deliver his golden smile into Zoe’s face with clockwork precision.

"Congratulations team three! You have successfully — if unorthodoxly — completed the challenge of round 1! Let's give them a round of applause.”

Thunderous applause shook Zoe to her core. She gritted her teeth against the onslaught — and reveled in the sensation that let her resist the feeling of hopeless loss. She pushed herself to her feet as the applause died.

“What happened to my friends?” she asked.

“Exactly the question we’d expect from the driven leader of team 3!”

Zoe grabbed the Gambler’s golden lapels and shook him.

“Answer me!”

The room hushed. Utter silence. Her breathing was deafening. She stood alone in an endless void. Footsteps behind her. She turned, but all was darkness.

Footsteps behind her, and a hand settled on her shoulder.

“It is not the violence I despise,” the Gambler whispered into her ear. “It is the disrespect.”

His fingers punched through her jumpsuit and dug into her flesh. Blood welled, and Zoe sobbed. The floor dropped out beneath her. She fell, but his grip held her in place with no struggle. His fingers gripped her bone.

She cried out with pain like an animal.

Surrounded by darkness, the Gambler behind her, she wished she was anywhere else.

“Even forgotten about your friends, haven’t you? Now that you’re all alone and you’re hurting? How much do they even matter?”

“Please…”

“No!”

The Gambler tossed her aside. She sailed through the dark void for what felt like miles before she slammed into a hard surface. Her ribs cracked. Leg shattered. Her body crumpled and slid to a stop.

Her mind returned to her flesh slowly.

Breathing was a challenge. One eye wouldn’t open. Dazed. Red-hot needles of pain leaked into her with each heartbeat.

A silhouette resolved as the Gambler bent down over her.

“You always beg. Your kind. The small ones. You snatch as much power as you can from me, you plot to kill me, and then you beg my forgiveness. It disgusts me. It makes me wonder why we even incorporate new worlds.”

Zoe stared up at him.

“You’re a bastard.”

“I expected something more original from you.”

[Fools Rush In]

Darkness erupted into flames. The burning light stripped away the shadows. Zoe gasped. She lay in no void.

This was hell.

As far as the eye could see she saw cages. Stacked on top of each other. Staircases winding between them. Beings shackled and whipped and impaled on spikes. Flames rolled along them and they screamed in the ecstasy of one last release.

She turned to the Gambler, one last accusation in her eyes.

He burned.

The whole universe blazed and he the source. He bent down, a grin of suns, and offered his hand to help her up.

“I should have expected this,” his voice crackled and popped. “But at least it’s interesting. See you on the next go around.”

Zoe took his hand as the universe burned itself to nothing.

###

The thunderous applause died down. Zoe stared at the Gambler, who gave her a knowing smirk. Realizing her opportunity, she reached inside herself and…

The time loop refused to activate.

“I’m sorry,” the Gambler said as he wagged a finger. “Once a round is played, it is played. If we did do-overs, then what would be the point?” He tapped his chin. “Is that really why I’m not letting you use that power? No, actually, I think it’s because you already used it once, so using it twice would be droll. Or maybe, it’s because a pretty little someone said I should burn in hell without really knowing what that means. Perhaps she’ll be less inclined to damn innocents in the future. Who knows? All I know is, it is time for you to go!”

Zoe blinked.

“Go? No! You haven’t told me what happened to my friends!”

“You never asked,” his smirk grew like a stack of gold coins. “Not in this timeline.”

Zoe’s eyes widened.

“Where are they? Please, are they dead? Can we —”

“Thanks for playing team 3! See you in twenty-four hours!”

“No! What about —”

The bright lights of the stage folded up around Zoe like a paper plane and cast her off into the void between worlds.

###

Zoe rolled over in the cave. Snow blew in from the gaping mouth. The wind whistled against the crags. Two muffled thumps told her that Anton and Jack had arrived. She waited for two more. Waited for a joke. For a touch from her missing friends.

Nothing.

[Congratulations! Due to your success in Round 1, you have received double experience for the next 24 hours. Any attributes gained through incorporation will likewise be doubled.

She sat up. No tears, just blank as she looked out the cave mouth at the snow-swept slope. Mantis crawled about between the sparse snowcapped trees. In the distance, its visage torn to shreds by falling snow, lay the town.

In the town was the polyp — her objective — but it all felt hollow.

Anton stood and stretched.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked her. “Or do you need another minute?”

She couldn’t even muster up the hate to glare at him.

“How can you ask me that?”

Remorse crossed his face for a split second. Jack walked to the edge of the cave and stood there to give them some space.

“Look, it sucks they’re gone, but I don’t think they’re dead.”

“What makes you say that?”

“If he can hold something over us, he will.”

“So you think they’re alive just so the Gambler can twist the knife after he stabbed us?”

“Pretty much.”

Zoe let out a deep sigh.

“I hate this.”

“It’s not great, but I want to take advantage of the reward. If we don’t, it was all for nothing.”

“You’re right.”

Zoe stood and walked over to the cave mouth where Jack stood. Anton joined them and placed a hand on Zoe’s shoulder.

“You want to kill some bugs, boss?”

“I want to do a lot of things.”

And she leaped out from the safety of the cave toward the mantis, and the town, as her chain wrapped around her fist.