I really enjoyed writing this chapter ^^

It's basically about youtube and death

I really wanted to write more

But I didn't want it to be too long
Ah

~~~

Phoenix was freaking out.

Rushing down the halls seemed like a pretty daunting task, especially when a wrong turn could have her face-to-face with this said, 'white pumpkin.'

Not that it would matter.

She would knock him down the millisecond she saw him, throw his white mutated mask off and show everyone who he was.

Or...something like that.

The dim flickering light of the dying torches really freaked her out. After what happened to Lizzie, she didn't want them suddenly burning out.

The crisp flick of the ashes tumbling in front of her face gave her an idea. Swiping at once of the torches with her leather jacket, it came loose.

The hallway dimmed, the light going lower, a wave of unease washing over the brunette. Phoenix shivered.

Picking up the torch and drawing her iron sword shakily, she wandered the mansion's halls, looking at the dim light of the paintings.

Some were pictures of Cassie and Winslow, Cassie smaller, her glasses broken, but smiling widely, holding the calico feebly.

Others were paintings, done probably by Cassie herself, of a small burgundy haired figure, sitting above an oak tree at the pastel splashed sky.

Some were abstract, like a black shadowy hand reaching through a sea of burgundy towards a shining slate axe, or a figure standing alone at the bottom of a spotlight, hugging its knees.

Blue spikes were painted onto that one, in shades of slate and stone, baby blue and pastel, cute coral roses breaking off from them and surrounding the figure in a sea of willowy roses.

Small white figures stood over the one in the spotlight, while the figure clutched its head, one leg kicked to the side violently.

Phoenix's eyebrows arched in sympathy, then turned her head towards a newer one, by the way the paint was smeared.

Phoenix's mouth fell open ever so slightly.

It was of DanTDM and CaptainSparklez.

It was a pretty large painting, but it captured them so beautifully in the dim flickering of the crisp torches.

So awestruck, Phoenix stumbled backwards in shock, taking in the picture as rain drummed slowly and softly on the windows.

The two were smiling.

Both of their hair, waving and flowing out like a sea until it stopped at their necks, a calm slate blue for Dan, flecked with pastel baby blue, and a dark sleek black for Sparklez, short and stopping near his neck.

They were both smiling, bits of gold rimmed around the edges, and their outfits in shades of auburn, slate, stone, black, burgundy, and blue.

It was incredible; the two smiling like nothing was wrong, not too close but rather sitting in the dining room, beaming.

Dan was positioned in the back, his feet up onto the table, giving a thumbs up to an invisible camera.

Sparklez was opposite Dan, in the same position, awkwardly adjusting his glasses. A small creamy white cake was in the middle of the table.

The dining room was an exact likeness in its cyans, wooden, its crisp crackling fire, even a small calico in the background.

And Phoenix could see, in the corner of the painting, was an edged out message scribbled in cyan.

I'm sorry.

Ouch.

Phoenix backed away from the painting, and the Youtubers story of the White Pumpkin from a couple weeks ago resurfaced.

Well then.

This got depressing.

An abrupt sudden scream sent ice shooting down Phoenix's spine, and she stumbled backwards, looking out into the dimly lit hallway.

"KENDALL! RUSH!"

What the heck?

She could tell the small but strong voice instantly.

"Silver?" She whispered, walking forwards slowly, her sword drawn, peeking around the corner.

Why is she yelling their names?

Instantly, a force wrapped around Phoenix's chest, and the girl screamed as she tumbled down towards the ground.

Phoenix was up in an instant, throwing off her sword towards the ground, where it struck the pieces of chipped wood and stuck.

She wrapped her arm around the figure, though her vision was now blurry and her head now throbbing, seeping with pain.

The minute she pinned the figure's arm to its back, it squeaked, to which the caramel colored girl reeled.

"Aranna!?"

The burgundy red haired girl, short and slightly shaved on one side, her glasses now bent at the tape, grumbled softly.

"I will sue you," She said coolly.

Phoenix then realized that her leg was standing near Aranna's hip, and she yelled out, stumbling backwards.

"I am so sorry!" She apologized, helping her remaining friend to her feet. Aranna stumbled slightly, adjusting her moon glasses.

She sighed, dusting herself off.

"You know any good lawyers?" She asked offhandedly. Phoenix just laughed while Aranna punched her in the shoulder lightly.

Aranna noticed that the two had abandoned their costumes hours ago, Phoenix no longer to her ocelot hoodie.

Well, okay, okay, that was a lie.

Phoenix still had the sand-tan colored ears donned onto her head, and Aranna was still wearing the navy blue vest, cream puffy sleeved shirt, and the green zombie villager nose.

The two walked the halls placidly while rain drummed softly outside, and, maybe it was just her imagination...

...but Aranna swore she could see a small strip of pastel blue, just on the horizon, hope splashed against the darkness.

"You know..." Phoenix mumbled while the two walked, brushing off the dust on her loose leather jacket awkwardly.

"We could always try to find Rush. I've just been looking for a good hiding spot, it would be nice to see her agai -"

Instantly, two arms came down onto the girl's necks, and the two saw a rush of pastel blue, dark slate blue, and black.

The two regained their sense of control, and turned to see, ever so slightly, a pale face, a black hoodie on her torso, black cat ears on her head.

It was a rush of...well...

...Rush.

"RUSH!"

The girl's blue hair bobbed slightly as she stumbled backwards, and she looked around in alarm, her fake tail breaking off.

"No joke, this place is huge!" She exclaimed in exasperation, shivering, ice covering her neck and shooting down her spine.

The other two laughed.

'The remaining squad members, I like what I see," Aranna said approvingly, nodding at the other two, smiling.

The remaining squad members.

Right...Comet was gone...

It seemed to melt into everyone like saltwater or sand, and a foggy saddened look crossed Rush's face.

"We should have saved her..." She said, an air of injustice splashed into her milky sad soft voice. Her fists balled up lightly.

"We could have saved her..."

Aranna sighed.

"Well, we couldn't. Even if we had gone back to help her, even if we didn't just stand there, she would have despawned anyways..."

Rush grumbled under her breath.

Silence...cold awkward silence...

A sudden beep made them all scream.

It was followed by a male voice yelling out, "BLAZE RODS!"

Phoenix turned and fished her small black phone out of her pocket, instantly sighing deeply. She laughed awkwardly.

"Sorry, that's my phone."

"What kinda hecka phone says, 'bla - '?"

Phoenix shushed her, and Aranna and Rush shared a confused look, shrugging their shoulders.

Phoenix coughed, clearing her broken throat that was hiding hidden tears, which hurt like slate spikes shooting through her voice.

She answered a call.

"Hello?" She asked, the tears stinging and prickling near the backs of her penny colored eyes. Her voice broke quite a bit.

No answer. Then a loud blip.

Phoenix yelled out, holding the phone away from her, her sword falling from her grasp, yet again onto the floor.

Once she realized it was only her phone rebooting, she sighed in relief, and her fears of the noise melting like salty seawater.

Her phone came back on, and the girl's eyes lit up. Aranna shared a grim look with Rush, who returned it with confusion.

"Okay, it's official, she's gone insane. We're going to die now. Bury me with my tuxedo and top hat," Aranna begged.

Rush just laughed tiredly.

"No, no, no, no, it's not that..." The other girl stated, holding out her hand to stop them, starting to pace around, much like Lizzie had done.

She stopped pacing, showing them her phone, where a small icon blipped and blinked at the top corner of her screen.

Phoenix inhaled.

"We can live stream."

~~~

The other remaining members of the squad headed to a bedroom, Rush closing the door behind them.

The room had nice denim colored cyan walls, a bit more bluish-grey, the wood oak, the bed a nice apple red, the bed sheets fluffed and warm.

Soft cream wisps of curtains flowed down towards the ground near the balcony, where they could see the ink of the night.

No joke.

It was nothing but the black shadow colour, and the dimly lit crisp marigold pumpkins, fog surrounding the mansion.

The three sat on the floor.

"This place is fancy, it's so nice how Cassie had all of this fancy warm stuff set up for us, you know, until we started dying."

Rush punched her in the arm.

Phoenix leaned against the bed, feeling the soft cool covers on her back, loading up the live stream.

Rush hugged her knees and stared into the abyss, her eyes going foggy and misted over, and Aranna hummed impatiently, counting her toes through her boot over and over again.

Finally, after what seemed like a couple of moments, Phoenix's phone blipped softly.

"Okay, it's loaded up...this'll be better than calling the police, because then more people will be able to connect with us and then call for help," She explained.

"Ah,"
  Both Rush and Aranna exclaimed.

The three sat on their legs on the cool wooden flooring, and their faces stared back at them from the screen.

The torches behind them flickered dimly, giving the room a spooky atmosphere. The girl's faces glitches out in white static violently.

"Hello, this is a message for help," Aranna started, her navy blue vest glitching to the side before going back to normal.

"We've been invited to the mansion of Cassie Rose, and we're trapped. There's someone in the house trying to kill us," Rush stated.

The slate blue haired girl's words repeated several times, jumping ahead of itself on the small black screen, causing Rush to shiver calmly.

"Please contact the police, do not try to come here yourself, we're here with FayeofThunder..." Aranna commented, pointing to Rush.

The three moved to position themselves onto their stomachs, Phoenix extending the phone away from them, for more space.

Their faces were now slightly farther away, but still glitched out nonetheless, Rush's hair melting into the wall behind her, Phoenix's penny swept hair almost dissolving into the floor, and Aranna stuck out the most.

"....CommonEggEater, although I might be changing my name, I'll probably have a poll on it later..."

Both girls turned to face her, growling slightly in Rush's case, looking completely angry or abashed.

"What?" She asked.

"THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO SELF PROMOTE YOURSELF!" Phoenix yelled out angrily, hitting her on the shoulder, still bewildered.

The crisp torch lights flickered dangerously low, making both Aranna and Phoenix scream quite loudly.

Rush maintained her calm composure, although looking swirled and fogging over with anger flickering in her eyes.

Phoenix was just surprised at Aranna taking a moment to self promote at a time like this, when their lives were at stake.

"...Oops...sorry..." Aranna mumbled apologetically, flushed while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

Rush sighed, clearly irritated.

"Well, we're here with FayeofThunder, me, CommonEggEater, Aranna, PhoenixTheBlueberry, 1silverswirl1, Crystalsong11..."

All at once, the video feed of their live stream blipped out, violently glitching out their faces and hair, until the screen went dark.

Silence.

"....you gonna go check on it or am I gonna go and have too...." Aranna asked, confused. Rush shorted irritatingly.

Phoenix grumbled under her breath and reached forwards. The black screen was now replaced with their camera.

It was now black, with a red rounded square with a slanted slightly dotted face, meaning that there was no connection.

On the side were comments, a blank slate. Some were glitching but fairly readable.

'I'm getting the police.'

'omg, please don't die, we'll get help, just hang on a little longer, we'll call the police, stay strong.'

'no! not crystal! She still owes me 20 bucks!'

'nonono, not you guys. Don't die on us, we'll call the police and have help over as soon as possible.'

'...but wait! I need to know what happens in awu!'

Rush facepalmed at that one.

Phoenix rolled her eyes.

"That one's from Jasmine...any verdict Rush?" The girl was still staring into space, still annoyed, but calm and content.

She noticed that the sky was almost a light pastel blue, thin wispy clouds streaking along the mountains, even though it was an illusion of the earth.

Rush just sighed.

"She gets married to Logan and then dies," She said with no emotion in her voice, almost miserable.

"Well," Aranna offered, placing her hand placidly on Rush's back, "...at least someone's getting the police..."

Rush didn't respond.

Aranna and Phoenix shared a quick look, then, the phone blipped and made a weird screeching noise, making everyone grimace ever so slightly.

"TURN IT OFF!" Aranna screamed.

As if something shifted, all of the comments melted into the blank white background, vanishing at once. The noise stopped.

Instead, one single comment was at the very top, the icon being a blinded sharp diamond axe against a lavender pastel background.

I know what you're doing. Stop it.

Rush's reaction made both Aranna and Phoenix jump. Standing up, she smashed her foot into the chipping polished wood.

"Well, this is just FREAKING FANTASTIC!" She cried angrily, and both girls saw anger swimming in her foggy eyes, on the verge of spilling out.

"We're going to die. Phoenix's phone is out, no one's going to find this place in the middle of the dark in the fog, and we're all so SCREWED!"

Aranna stood up, abashed.

"Rush..."

Rush growled, holding her head and starting to pace, kicking up light dust, her eyes becoming calmer but still milkier.

Finally, she sat on the neatly fluffed bedspread, sighing huffily, and wiping at her foggy eyes with her black hoodie sleeve.

She mumbled quietly, but it was quiet and broken and full of swimming streaming sorrow, miserably trying to break through the fog in her eyes.

"Maybe it'd just be better to die..."

Aranna's mouth fell open.

The two other girls got up, the zombie villager and the ocelot, sitting next to the black cat on the bedspread.

Rush hugged her knees, eyes the two coldly, and slid down to the ground, her back against the bed.

The two copied.

"Rush, why would you say that?"

"Because it's true. Everyone else could be dead, because we didn't go and make sure they're okay...we kind of suck..."

Thunder rumbled outside, then subsided. Rain slowly began to plink plip plink on the windows softly.

"....I just..." Rush grumbled, then rolled up her black sleeve. Small burgundy scars lining her upper arm, just below her shoulder.

Aranna gasped.

"Your cat scratched you?" She asked. Rush glared at her, but her eyes got foggy again, and she buried her head into her knees.

"I'd like it to stop...everything...maybe this is just about me. Maybe they invited us so it wouldn't be so bad...but I wouldn't mind being next."

A small squeak came to her throat, sending hot salty tears to her eyes, and one, like a small stream, slipped out, her throat broken.

Silence.

Finally, Aranna sighed.

"You've been doing well...I promise...this is not just about you, Rush. You deserve to live just as much as any of us."

"No I don't," Rush squeaked softly.

"Yes, you do," Aranna continued more confident and coolly. Sitting up straighter, she adjusted her moon shaped glasses.

"I'm weak," Rush growled, her head deeply huddled into her own, fighting between becoming angry or staying numb.

Phoenix simply wrapped her arms around Rush's neck from the side, hugging the tall girl towards her, nothing else to say.

Aranna sighed, then adjusted her glasses again.

"You're not weak...you've just been strong for too long."

The two others looked up at her, Rush's eyes swimming with streaming soft milky tears, which spilled over her eyelashes onto her arms.

Aranna had never been this serious in her life. It was like tumblr had spoken out of their friend, but in a comforting sympathetic way.

No one spoke.

But Aranna got up, grabbed Phoenix's phone from the ground, and went towards the curtains.

"I'm gonna go grab a better signal...I'm not gonna let you two die, okay?" with that, she stepped out of the balcony.

Rush messily dried her tears onto her sleeve, standing up and going over to the balcony.

Phoenix pulled her down.

"She'll be okay, she's gonna be back in what? Two minutes? It'll only take a few couple of seconds to get another signal."

Rush spent a few more moments looking at the illusion of a pastel sky, sighed, and sat with her friend on the bedspread.

Outside, Aranna was fumbling with the phone. A small blip made it clear that the phone was rebooting.

Holding it up to the two moons in the illusion of a milky light pastel sky, the small bars on the device blipped and glitched ever so slightly.

While waiting in the cool air that smelled like cinnamon, vanilla, and slightly rotting flesh in the petrichor air.

(...it means the smell of earth after rain ^^)

I wonder what would happen if the earth just started crumbling like that staircase...Aranna wondered awkwardly while waiting.

Someone should write a book about that...but it would have to include a lot of snazzy fish wearing tuxedos...that would be cool.

Aranna took in the dark shadow of the black sky, the orange-yellow pumpkins below, the outlines of denim colored trees.

The smooth edge of the balcony. The smell of vanilla. The calming song of soft rain, and the painting just on the walls, colored grey and slate.

Aranna fazed in and out of a small haze several times as the mist started to melt and disperse into the earth.

And then her stomach dropped.

She was falling, everything circling around her, the dotted stars barely visible, the snow-splashed mountains, the dirt, the mist...

She felt things, too.

Her stomach twisting.

Soft pastel rain scattering lightly onto her face.

Soft tan dirt hitting and spreading on her hands.

A pain seeping into her head.

An apple red wet thickness spreading on her arms.

The grey slate earth.

The orange marigold pumpkins glowing in her eyes.

She sighed, and all went dark.

~~~

They heard the yell of shock.

Rush stood up.

Then they heard the sickening crunch.

"W...what was that?" Rush asked in a surprisingly calm but squeaky mousie voice.

The two rushed to the edge of the balcony, where the illusion of the earth had melted, and the sky was once again black.

Nothing was visible except for the orange-yellow pumpkins below shining into the shadow of the mountains.

"Are...are you okay..." Phoenix started, bending over the cream colored balcony smoothly. She gasped.

Aranna lay sprawled out on the concrete of the mansion. Her limbs were torn and broken, crooked into different angles.

Burgundy blood was spreading, splashing across her pale face, her milky foggy eyes slightly open, staring without staring, a ghost.

She was like a broken airplane, unable to do anything but stare into a void of fog and darkness, the marigold pumpkins shining on her skin.

Her painted fern forest villager nose was torn, showing the inside of it, her slate vest torn, her cream puffy sleeves melting into the stone steps.

She was gone.

Rush gasped.

"..no, not Aranna too..." she barely whispered.

The other girl tugged on her sleeve, her eyes watery and her legs shaking over, adjusting her leather jacket messily.

"Someone pushed her. We have to get out of here before they find us, okay?" Rush sighed, but obeyed.

Just as they had left the balcony, the telltale sound echoed, popping in their minds, eerily soothing, but meant that Aranna had died.

Too late to help.

Throwing her phone onto the light fluffed bedspread, the two ran from the room, closing the oak door behind them.

But the two didn't take the time to notice through one of the paintings in the room had two small slits in the eyes of the skeleton...