The forty-eight hours after Stolas, Furfur, and Marzy's deaths are quiet. I know I'm an introvert and all, but there is such a thing as too quiet. It's the quiet that lingers in the air when bad things have happened and everyone is constantly thinking about them. Honestly, I'm looking for any excuse to break the silence at this point. I think I'm gonna go crazy if I have to keep playing the same three songs in my head on loop in order to have something noisy in my life. Yikes.

I find Evangeline at Jabberwock Park on the central island. She has a small pitcher of water that she's using to hydrate the flowers decorating the park. She's so lost in her craft that I just stand there for a minute, not wanting to interrupt. She has a peaceful smile on her lips, as if nothing has happened and everything's okay. I decide to not bother her and turn to leave when I hear her say:

"Sophie! I didn't see you there. I'm sorry, I was just so busy with the flowers!"

I look over my shoulder to see her scrambling to her feet and dusting off her skirt before gently plucking her pitcher of water from the ground and hurrying over to my side.

"I didn't mean to bother you," I apologize. "I was just passing by and saw you here, that's all."

"No, no, it's quite alright," she laughs. "It is quite a lonesome task, so I'm grateful for an excuse to take a break."

"Anywhere you'd like to go?" I offer.

Evangeline shakes her head. "No, but thank you for asking. How about you?"

"Nah, no preference. Hey, maybe we can go look for-" I freeze in my tracks.

She reads my expression and frowns. "You were going to say Furfur, weren't you?"

"Yeah," I admit. "It's already been a few days; I'm not sure why I still keep messing that up."

In reality, I do know. I miss Furfur a lot. She was such a fun, bad*ss person, and sexy as hell- I mean what... Anyways, I really miss her. It's hard to believe that she's gone.

"I know," Evangeline says suddenly.

I look over at her, "Wait, what?"

She gives a friendly smile as she adds, "You made that face. You miss her, I can tell."

I sigh. "Yeah. You're right. I do."

I shake it off quickly and ask, "Are the ruins all clear?"

"Indeed. There were not many cases of harmful plants there, but there was some poison ivy that needed to be discarded."

"That's nice to know."

We stand there in silence for a moment.

"Uhuhu, you all don't look very busy! May I interest you in... a fourth island? Please, go enjoy yourselves! Take your minds off of everything that's been happening!"

Ace's words linger in the air for another second after the loudspeaker cuts out.

"Fourth island?" Evangeline repeats.

I look over towards where the fourth bridge is, un fact no longer blocked off. In the distance is...

"Oh my goodness!" Evangeline exclaims, her eyes wide. "Am I seeing things?"

"Nope," I tell her. There is, in fact, what looks like a miniature Disneyland in the distance.

"Holy cow!" someone yells from behind us. I glance behind me to see Dana and Caim hurrying over.

"That looks so cool!" Caim exclaims, pointing at the island.

"What's going on over here?" Will asks as he and Zeben approach.

Once he sees what everyone's staring at, he fumbles for his camera. "I gotta make sure I'm not trippin' balls right now."

"No, I'm seeing it too," Zeben tells him.

"What are you all standin' around for? You kids really forgot how sometimes there's good in life, didn'tcha? Go on, it's a hundred percent real!" Monokumace assures us via the loudspeakers.

We all hesitate for another moment before finally starting to cross the bridge. And Monokumace seems to have been telling the truth, because there is, in fact, a large castle, a rollercoaster, a haunted house... A whole theme park, for just...

...nine people. Right. There's nine of us left.

I shake off the realization and remind myself that I'm going to have fun with my friends.

"Let's check out the rollercoaster!" Caim insists, and we all make a beeline for the massive rollercoaster.

"I can't stand big drops," Dana grimaces. "If I vomit, I'm blaming y'all."

She gets sent to the back of the rollercoaster car. Will says goodbye to his precious camera bag and beanie (yes, he has several spares, he's not re-wearing the one I used as a tissue) before grabbing his camera stick and smaller video camera to film us. Zeben and I slide into the second row, and Evangeline joins Dana in the back to keep her company.

As soon as we all push our handlebars down to ensure we won't fall off or anything, Monokumace themself appears behind the operator booth off to the side.

"Welcome to the Monocoaster!" they declare. "A few rules! Keep your arms and legs inside of the coaster at all times, no food or drink, no loose clothing, and... you need to be over four foot nine inches to ride!"

"I'm four foot nine and a half," Caim says proudly.

I look at him in surprise. I mean, I knew that he was short, but him putting a number on it just makes him seem even shorter.

"How old are you?" I ask him.

"I'm almost eighteen."

Damn.

"Anywho~!" Monokumace continues. "Should an accident happen, a trial will be held immediately. But I doubt that would happen. So sit back, relax, and scream!"

As soon as they finish, they smack their tiny hand against a large red button, and the car jolts forward, starting slow as it begins to ascend a large slope.

"Oh god," Dana gasps. "Already?"

"YEAH!" Will exclaims, moving his camera to get a shot the rest of us in the back.

I know that I'm not scared of heights or anything, but it's always the first incline that gets my heart racing. Once we hit the top and sit there for a moment, I look down. We're so high up that I can see the ruins on the second island, the hospital and music venue on the third, and the airport all the way at the first... I can see everything. It makes me really understand how far we've come from our first day. I look to the left and see another island. I don't have nearly enough time to start giving it a proper look, however, before the car suddenly jolts forward and plummets down the tracks.

Several people begin screaming, and hands are thrown up in the air. Will is laughing and getting good shots of everyone's expressions. Out of the corner of my eye, I can glimpse Dana clinging onto Evangeline for dear life.

"OH SH*T!" Zeben suddenly yells, and I look back just in time to see the double-loop we're about to get thrown into.

Now, a thing about me is that I have never ridden a rollercoaster that goes upside-down before. Mainly because of the paranoia that something will fall out of the car and I'll never get it back. So naturally, my heart jumps up to my throat at seeing this and I start screaming, gripping onto the handlebar for dear life.

The wind whips my hair into my face, cyan and brown strands alike, as we go upside down.  And like that, it's done.  Then it happens again.  It's so fast that it almost feels like it never happened.

As soon as we make it back to where we got on the rollercoaster and I step off once freed from beneath the handlebar, I realize that my legs are wobbly.  Dana catches me before I can trip.  My face flushes as I manage a small "thanks" as I manage to regain my balance.

"That... was pretty fast," I mumble to no one in particular.

"Where to next?" Will asks as he checks his mini camera for the footage he'd just filmed.

Zeben nods to a rather ominous-looking building. "How about the haunted house?"

"Uh, do we have to?" Caim squeaks nervously, pulling on his vest as he speaks.

"Come on, Caim!  If we're stuck on this island forever, you might as well check it out at some point," Will insists.

Caim sighs. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

I'll be totally honest, I'm not much of a horror person.  However, our resident videographer seems to be the exact opposite.

"I'm sorry, f*cking what?" Will exclaims after Evangeline makes a remark about her lack of horror knowledge. "Do I need to sit your *ss down and educate you?"

"You really don't-" Evangeline starts, but the beanie-wearing brunette immediately cuts her off.

"The first horror film was created in 1896, called Le Manoir de Diable, or The House of the Devil in English.  It was developed by George Méliès, a French magician, actor, and film director," he begins. "However, the first slasher film, which is what comes to a lot of people's minds when they think 'horror', is considered to be Psycho, which was released in 1960 and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Psycho is most widely known for..."

I completely tune out before I can here whatever he says next.  I look over at Dana, who gives me a mix of a bored and surprised look.  As if she had no idea that Will could actually say something smart.  I mean, surely he had to have become the Ultimate Videographer somehow.

"...and then you get into the bloody eighties, where you really get all your iconic slashers and whatnot," Will's saying as I finally decide to listen back in. "That's your Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, The Shining, Child's Play, Friday the 13th..."

"What about the Michael Meyers one?" Caim asks.

Will stops to give him a look. "You mean Halloween?  Nah, that's 1979.  But I guess it's close enough.  The point is, this is where you get all your iconic Halloween costumes from.  I'm guessing you're familiar with Michael Meyers, Chucky, Freddy Kruger, and Jason Voorhees?"

Evangeline thinks for a moment. "Not really.  Honestly, Will, I mainly watch plant documentaries.  I'm not into all that violent nonsense."

He gasps. "But that 'violent nonsense' is history!  A turning point for the horror genre!"

"So are we going into the haunted house or not?" Dana reminds everyone.

Right.  We're still standing right outside the building.

"Honestly, I'm kinda intrigued by Will's passionate speech about movies," Zeben shrugs.

Will's shoulder's slump with relief once he hears that there's someone who actually is appreciating his rant.  He then pulls the door to the haunted house open and holds it for us as we all enter one by one.

It's dark.  Very dark.  And there are sound effects everywhere.  Of rustling bushes, of bats squeaking, and of floorboards squealing.  My heartrate begins to double in speed the further in we get.  Suddenly, a hand latches onto me, and I let out a shriek of terror, only to look and see that Caim is clinging onto me for dear life.

"Sorry," he whispers. "I don't like this stuff."

"But you'd know how it's all engineered, right?" I point out in an attempt to make him feel better.

He shakes his head. "It doesn't make it any less scary when you can't see the engineering in the first place"

We slowly inch forward together, Dana somewhere next to us and everyone else following.  The only light comes from the visual effects and Will's camera, which he has out once again.  We slowly step into an area resembling an old, creepy house made of wooden planks.  Through the fake window, I swear I glimpse something for a split second, and my heart stops.  What the hell was that?  Am I hallucinating?

Caim and I carefully take another step, round the corner, and-

I let out a bloodcurdling scream, Caim quickly following, and sure enough there's a chorus of screams cutting through the air.  Because I nearly ran into a shadowy figure with gleaming red eyes and-

Oh.

"You tremble before me, mortals?" Flauros comments, crossing his arms. "As you should.  Need you a haunted house to remember your place in regards to mine?"

"Jesus Christ, Flauros, I almost dropped dead right here!" Zeben yelps.

The medium seems unfazed. "So you confess that I am a horror worth fearing?  An eldritch being who feeds on your lowly human terror?  It is about time you remembered who I am."

"What're you doing in here in the first place?" Dana asks, clearly annoyed that this alleged 'demon' scared her.

Flauros snorts. "It is not your business what my intentions are with this place, I-"

"Oh," Evangeline interrupts.

While I don't know what she's looking at, I have a feeling that I know when I see a pentagram drawn in chalk on the floor, decorated with candles.

"Are you doing a weird seance or something?" Will asks. "It's wicked cool."

"I... yes," Flauros admits. "That I am.  But if I am to be interrupted, then my work here is finished."

He bends down and begins to blow out and collect the candles.  As he passes by me to leave, I swear I hear him mumble:

"They miss you quite dearly."

***

(2142 words)

Fun fact: By the time I'm writing this, Stolas's execution is STILL NOT DONE ;0;