"This is a one-of-a-kind game that I created... especially for you." Chatterbox and Ray made their way downstairs to the brightly lit yard. "A gift, from the Clown King to his Queen." 

Ray Mond glanced at Yuno who was barely conscious with his head lowered and eyes struggling to stay open. Vinny was put on his knees, the side of his head was bleeding, and his hands tied behind his back. The rest of the clowns seemed to be happy, their bloodied masks grinning at her when she was asked to approach the seating arrangement in the middle of the yard. 

There were two old, worn out and dirty chairs. She remembered them from the Paleto House and how she mentioned that there were two chairs for the two of them. Chatterbox had already taken his place on one of the chairs. He pointed at the empty chair that lay across from him, with a wooden stool and a pistol in between. 

Ray Mond was cold. She was stripped to her mini-skirt and her sports bra, the clown burnt her jacket to shreds. She made her way to the arena, but Twinkles stopped her by pointing his gun at her. 

"Remove your shoes." Twinkles pointed the gun at her shoes and then back at her. 

"Are you serious?" Ray was baffled at the demand. That was the only thing that kept her feet from frostbite. Now they wanted her to strip them off. What was next, her clothes? "Chatterbox has already searched me through and through!"

"Shoes." Twinkles couldn't care less. "Or Twinkles shoots Hostage." He put the gun on Yuno's head. 

Ray held back on her curse and the urge to whack the clown with her wrench. But she was at a major disadvantage here, with her twin being held at gunpoint and her life at stake on a couple of dice. Ray Mond stripped off her shoes and her socks and stepped on the wet grass, each step making her regret her choices and decisions. 

She sat from across Chatterbox, their chairs aligned and facing each other. On the wooden table lay her bunny mask, a pistol and three dice. Chatterbox pointed at them and Ray put the mask on her face, while Ratchet stepped in front to narrate the rules. 

"Alright, Clowns and Chang Bangers..." Ratchet cleared his throat, balancing himself on the unicycle. "We are here to witness a daring game of Russian Roulette between the Clown King and his motherfucking Queen..." He raised his hands for applause but got none. "Tough audience, eh..."

The game was... twisted. There rules were a bit haywire. Ray Mond a minute to understand all of it. Especially with Ratchet's crooked way of speaking. 

A player spins the cylinder of a revolver with a single bullet and places the muzzle against their head or body, pulling the trigger - that was how Russian Roulette was played.

But this game was a bit twisted. There were three dices to play with. Each player had to throw the dice to get a sum of the number higher than the previous throw. If Player A threw the dice to get a sum total of 5 on their dice, Player B had to get a sum higher than 5. If Player B got a number that was more than 5, Player A will shoot himself with the single bullet Pistol. If Player B got a sum total of less than five, let's say 4, then Player B will have to shoot himself with the single bullet pistol. 

"But, since you are my Queen, I have twisted the rules just a tad bit. It's a game for my Queen, after all." Chatterbox crisscrossed his fingers and his legs, smirking at Ray Mond. "If you get a sum total less than mine, or I get a sum more than yours, I don't shoot you. Instead, I take a shot at someone you love more than me." He eyed Yuno and Vinny when he tilted his head to the right. Ray Mond's heartbeats accelerated at the thought of losing and eyed the dice on the table. "Added twist, to make it fair. I will shoot you if you all three numbers on the dice are same. So, if you roll a triple digit, you can taste the metal of my old gun." 

Being with the clowns, Ray had seen games worse than this. Games she played, games she invented, games she had fun fooling around. She never thought she'd be playing any of these with the most dangerous player himself. Chatterbox had impeccable plot armor when it came to luck and if this day was anything like that, Ray Mond will have to kiss her life goodbye.

"Five blanks, one shot." Chatterbox laughed manically, leaning closer to the terrified Ray Mond. "I call it Queen's Ace. You know... because of the five blanks... and that you are my Queen." He cackled at his own pun. 

Ray Mond took the old pistol in her hand and examined the cylinder and verifying that there was in fact just a single bullet in the cylinder. She spun it and kept it back on the wooden table. 

"Clowns and traitors..." Ratchet threw confetti around while spinning in circles. "Hold on to your heart and your hatchets... and give it up for the Royal Highness, the King and his Queen..." 

"The first round is safe." Chatterbox kissed the tip of his knife, his tongue playing around the rusted metal like it once did with hers. "Roll any number, but not too high my love." 

Ray Mond took the dice in her hand. She shivered in the cold and shuddered at the thought of the consequences of the game they were playing. This could quite literally finish her and her loved ones. All because she fucked with a clown. 

She rolled the first set of dice that totaled up to a sum of 10 (3/1/6) and watched Chatterbox's eyes darken with delight. He quickly played his hand, the dice rolling to a total of 7 (3/3/1). Ray couldn't hear her own thoughts because of her anxious heartbeats and the clown music playing in the background. 

Safe.

"Rules are rules." Chatterbox shrugged, taking the pistol in his hand and placing the muzzle on his temple. The rest of the clowns watching with their same nonchalant expression. Chatterbox's eyes were simply focused on Ray who seemed restless with the way she sat. "And shoot." 

It was a blank. 

The clowns cheered. Ray couldn't help but sigh in distress when her chances of survival reduced gradually. Kirk opened up a bottle of cheap liquor and passed around. They poured the drink on Yuno's head until he was soaked in the cheap smell and then threw the bottle on Vinny, trying to burst his head open. 

Ray rolled the dice. She had to beat the sum of 7, which was better than the sum of 10. She threw the dice on the wooden table and held her breath when she saw the numbers. 

4 2 2

"Oooh, safe again!" Chatterbox clicked his tongue, quickly taking the pistol to his head and clicking it without any ease. The way his gaze locked with Ray's was terrorizing to say the least. His eyes were lost of light and fear of death. The blank gunshot simply made him mad. Like he wanted to die. "The plot thickens." 

Chatterbox rolled the dice and to Ray's relief, the dice landed to the exact total of 8. 

"A draw..." Chatterbox touched his chin and hummed. "Ratchet, what do we do when it's a draw?" 

"Both parties are safe in that case." 

"Hmm... That's no fun." 

"You can just shoot anyway. You are the King after all." 

Chatterbox nodded in agreement, his eyes sparkling in delight. "I am the motherfucking King!"

He grabbed the pistol and aimed it at Ratchet, shooting it immediately. There was a deafening silence in the yard when the pistol shot a blank and Ray couldn't believe how unhinged Chatterbox was. He was ready to die, ready to kill his own... ready to kill her. 

"Ratchet, you sly bastard. You are safe." 

That was three blanks out of six. That meant she now had a 1/3rd chance of dying from the remaining shots. 

Ray Mond grabbed the dice, wanting to finish this insanity. She watched the numbers roll and hoped to see something good. Her breath hitched when she counted the sum of the numbers.

3 1 1  

"FINALLY! IT'S SHOWTIME!" Chatterbox howled at the dice roll. He quickly took another pistol out and kept juggling his aim between Yuno and Vinny. "Which yuckbag should I take out? Who does my Queen love the most?"

"Vinny!" Kirk yelled out, hitting Vinny with his elbow watching the man collapse slowly. "What's nicer than your father-in-law, mate!"

"No! Shoot her brother." Mini added to the misery of Ray Mond who was on the edge of her seat. "Watch her go down on her knees when you do that. Wouldn't that be a sight to beh-"

A gunshot was heard and Ray Mond gasped, her hand to her mouth. Chatterbox had shot the anti-NCO clown in his leg, until he was on the ground whimpering like a little kid. 

"You MOTHERFUCKER!" Mini yelled, applying pressure to the wound lest he bled like a peach. 

"Don't disrespect the Queen." The change in Chatterbox's demeanor got the rest of the clowns to sit up and for Ray to clasp to the armrest. "Apologise." 

Mini held out his middle finger to Chatterbox in response to his orders. But before Chatterbox could shoot again, Kirk and Ratchet took over. They calmed their crazy King and muttered some incoherent words to the bleeding clown. It ended with Mini having to mutter a sorry to Ray Mond with his wound tied by a cloth. He rested against wood of the Funhouse, while the rest of the game unfolded. 

"I am sorry, my love." Chatterbox smiled coyly at Ray Mond, the octaves shifting to a higher and brighter pitch. "So where were we? Oh yes!" He pointed the gun towards her twin, Ray shaking her head in fright. 

"Chatty... please...."

"Rules are rules." Chatterbox shrugged. He pointed at Yuno and then at Vinny and then back at Yuno. "Maybe I should take a jab at your father first." He pointed the gun at Vinny, "CG on top... wasn't that the bull-yuck you would chant?"

Ray Mond gulped. She pressed her long nails over her thighs and drew blood. The faint stinging of the wound didn't quite relieve her from the undeniable pain she was in at the moment. 

"Chang Gang... you chose them over me... over us... over our kingdom..." Chatterbox kept his gun positioned at the Vinny who was practically on the ground. "Do you know how much I hated that bastard! Him and your favourite Mr. K! Uegh." He gagged, cringing at the mention of his nemesis. "You danced according to the tunes he set for you, didn't you, love?" 

"I did what I was told..." She knew she wasn't making sense to the madman, but she had to stall him somehow. She had to do something before he shot the only two people she cared about. "Chatty... I did... I did what I was told... And I know if you, you would have done the same if you were in my place." 

Chatterbox lowered his gun. He looked sharply at Ray Mond who trembling in fear and because of the cold night. "I loved you Cups. I loved you so much that I would die for you." He shook his head, laughing aloud as he threw his head back. "And you chose your gang over me. Your two timing, miserable gang that wouldn't think twice before throwing you under the bus."

There was a sense of mockery in his words that caught up to Ray. She shook her head, "what do you mean?" 

Chatterbox tilted his head again, pouting at the agitated Ray Mond. "Aw. The CG princess doesn't know about her corrupt King and his pathetic kingdom?" He reached out to cup her face, caressing her cheek with his thumb. "Did you know that Vinny... your 'Papi'... your daddy dearest, adopted you simply to keep an eye on you? Making sure you didn't turn on your gang after being influenced by the clowns."

Ray Mond blinked, frozen for a second. She turned to face Vinny who had his head lowered and a sense of defeat reflecting on his bruised face. Her betrayal seemed amusing to the rest of the clowns who laughed at her naivety. 

"His words and I quote was 'I don't give a shit about Ray Mond. She may treat me like her father, but I would die than associate with a skank that slept with a clown."' 

Chatterbox didn't have to prove much when he played the tape of Vinny saying the exact words over the speakers. He had the recording from when the clowns had infiltrated the town and hacked into the systems. Ray felt teary eyed when the audio kept repeating on loop, her head lowered, and nails covered in her blood.  

"Or, you really didn't know?" Chatterbox watched a tear fall from Ray's eye and shushed the laughing clowns. "Poor Cups. Then I assume you wouldn't know about your CG gang either? How they wanted you for this mission because they rather you die, how they expected you to fail and most importantly, how they gave us the exact location of your twin so we could find you." 

Ray raised her eyes at Chatterbox. She was at a loss of words and at a loss of everything in the moment. Her eyes lit up in both anger and betrayal.

"Your beloved Mr. K handed your twin to me in safekeeping, my love. You went a little too MIA for the city's liking and they wanted to sacrifice you to keep the madman at bay. They practically sold you to me." 

Chatterbox handed the pistol to Ray Mond and pointed at Vinny with his face. "CG Mond vs Clown Cups, who are you going to be now?" 

The betrayal hit Ray Mond hard when she grabbed the pistol and aimed for Vinny's head. She knew it, she knew she was just a worthless piece of trash for the gang. She knew she wasn't wanted or needed, and she knew that it was just a plaything for them. Of course, she wanted to prove them wrong. Maybe try to show what she was made of! But, after all this time... 

Ray Mond held the pistol with her hands and kept her eyes open. She wanted to watch the terror. She wanted to witness the bloodshed. 

So, she pulled the trigger. And whispered a goodbye.

_