The Journal of Larkin Claydon

April 17th

In the centre of the hungry garden was a ring of lit fire torches, illuminating a crowd gathering around a large, demonic looking shadow in the gloom. Uncle Morbid smiled at us as we entered, we must have looked a sight in tattered clothes covered in mud and slime. He waited a little longer until satisfied all surviving players had made their way to the circle; from the initial field of fifty or so players around eighteen remained, comprising of a few individuals and duos like our own.

Elbert and Annie were there, of course they were. They were the cleanest looking amongst those assembled, having carefully avoided hazard and exertion throughout. I wondered how they would play this stage.

Uncle Morbid began his speech:

"Congratulations on surviving the Hungry Garden, I hope you have collected a good number of eggs to be counted later. Now is your chance to collect one more worth five of those you have already, but as you will be gambling with your lives you may choose not to play if you are happy with your score so far.

"Behind me is a replica of the Man Eating Tree of Madagascar, or Sacrifice Tree. It was first described in a journal entry published in the 19th century by a traveller who witnessed a tribe feed one of their young women to the tree, hence the name."

The tree behind him was wide and squat like a giant pineapple, opening into a large bowl at the top. Slowly moving vines snaked down the sides, from which grew long tongue like leaves that trailed on the ground, little spikes and thorns visible all along them.

"The top of the tree contains a sweet nectar," said Uncle Morbid. "In the original tales, this had hallucinogenic properties. The condemned victim was made to climb the side of the tree and drink from the nectar, which would leave them in a stupor. They then had to climb back down and get away without disturbing the plant's tendrils, otherwise they would be pulled in and devoured.

"Now, we don't expect you to drink the juices from our plant, but you will need to climb up to the bowl at the top to find the golden eggs. Because you've already dealt with our other plant monsters to get here you know how sensitive they are. This tree combines elements from all the munchers, trappers and vampire vines you have encountered on your way here. So, who would like to be the first to tackle the Sacrifice Tree?"

Adelia and I looked at Elbert and Annie, then at each other.

"We will," said Adelia.

Adelia Claydon:

We approached the tree cautiously, paying particular attention to the snaking tendrils searching for prey to drag into the waiting leaves. There weren't as many of them as there had been in the sprawling mass of the vampire vines, but they needed to be watched carefully lest a stray one might find us. To reach the trunk of the tree it was necessary to tread carefully upon the large hanging leaves, which I had no doubt would fold up and trap us if provoked.

I agreed to climb the tree, while my sister supported me from the ground and kept watch for snaking vines. It wasn't a difficult climb, with plenty of hand and footholds supplied. As I crested the top I found a wide pool of sweet smelling orange liquid, lightly glowing in the moonlight. The golden eggs were nestled in a cluster in the centre of the bowl, under the liquid. Lacking any other options to reach them, I swung myself up and over into the liquid bath, crawled to the middle and took an egg from the cache. I returned to the edge and tossed the egg down to Larkin, who placed it in the satchel on her hip.

All that remained now was to climb back down and make good our escape. Larkin assisted me from below once more, I was halfway down when I noticed one of the tendrils swing worryingly close to her, almost brushing her petticoat. It moved away before swinging back to narrowly miss her again, surely it would find her on the next attack. I shouted a warning then opted for action, leaping down from the tree into the arms of my sister. We both fell and rolled clear of the tree just as the probing tendril moved into the exact spot Larkin had occupied, to be joined by several more. Had we waited another moment she would surely have been captured.

There was a round of applause from the surrounding crowd, then Elbert looked at Annie, took her hand and brought her forward.

"Very well," he said. "I believe it is our turn now."

Larkin Claydon:

The two of them carefully approached the tree as we had done. Elbert appeared to be the one who would be climbing the tree, but then paused and turned to face his companion.

"Hurry up," said Annie impatiently. "You go get the egg, I'll watch out for you here."

Elbert nodded as if considering the instruction.

"Actually, I have a better idea," he said. "I'm awfully sorry about this, my dear, but you did kill George."

He put his hands on Annie's shoulders and pushed her gently back towards the tree. One of the questing vines found her right ankle, another her left arm and both immediately coiled around, pulling her back towards the hanging leaves. She struggled in vain as Elbert spoke from a safe distance.

"Annie, my dear, you must really think me stupid. After all the pain and stress you put my Master through in your first attempt to rob him, he became withdrawn, suspicious and not the man I cared for for years. His family had already spurned him. I knew he had feelings for me just as I did for him, but for whatever reason he never felt fully able to express them. You exploited that confusion, only for him to send you packing as soon as he realised your motives. But then instead of letting me console him he so badly wanted to reconnect with the only part of his family with which he still held affection, his two nieces over there. Adelia this, Larkin that, oh what wonderful girls they were, the very mention of their names was like needles on my skin."

He turned around to face us.

"I confess, I now understand what he saw in you, but you still represent a family I despise and upon which I will have my vengeance. If it is any comfort, my hatred for you isn't actually personal."

He turned back to face Annie, who now was irrevocably pinned against the side of the plant by numerous vines, each beginning to ooze sinister brown fluid.

"But you, my dear, Amethyst Annie Winterburn, with you it is very personal indeed. When my old Master fell ill, you turned up like a bad penny. At that time I was expecting to inherit the bulk of his estate, so you came back thinking you could win me around with feminine wiles and take it all for yourself. How dare you! How dare you have the temerity to think I would forgive and forget everything you did to the man I loved, quite apart from the fact that you really don't seem to understand how homosexuality works. I suppose you imagined that you'd cure me, or make me question myself? You, Madam, may go to Hell.

"I did however see an opportunity to double up my revenge. I knew that George meant to change his will in favour of Larkin and Adelia and much as I despised you I saw in your ruthless deceit a potentially useful ally. It is said that one must keep friends close and enemies closer, so I allowed you to think we had a contract, knowing that once you had helped me to dispose of the girls I could take my revenge on you. I never imagined that you would actually finish off the old boy, but that just made me realise how important it was to keep you on my side, until the opportunity arose to make my move."

By this point the long leaf Annie was pinned against had begun to fold inwards, rolling up her legs like a fiendish banana peel. A vine was coiled around her mouth, preventing her from speaking.

"I must give my old Master credit. Who could have known that in moving to foil my schemes he would present me with the perfect means to give you your comeuppance? I hope you are in excruciating pain right now, Amethyst Annie. I hope that plant is sucking the blood from your veins and replacing it with acid. I hope the thorns are piercing your flesh, making you long for death. And I hope the last thing you see is my face, for the pain you are in right now is but a pittance of all that you have dealt in your sad, miserable life."

The leaf rolled further up Annie's body, leaving only her terrified face still visible.

"Goodbye, Annie," said Elbert Makabra, relishing every syllable as the plant rolled up over the face of his former partner, devouring her completely. He turned back towards the two of us, as we sought to process what we had just witnessed. Before we realised what was happening, he darted forward, snatched the satchel from my stunned hands and began running out of the circle, snatching a torch from the holder as he passed.

"You want your eggs back, come and get them," he called back.

We looked over at Uncle Morbid, who was holding in a laugh.

"I think you ought to go after him," he said.

Adelia Claydon

We pursued Elbert back through the Hungry Garden towards the lake. We had no hope of catching him; we were tired and tangled up in wet and torn petticoats while he had expended minimal energy thus far and wore attire far better suited to a foot race. But we could see the glow from the flaming torch he carried in his hand as he ran around the lake and ducked into the woodland. He wasn't trying to lose us anyway; wherever he was leading us to, he had something in mind.

We rounded the lake to the point where he had entered the woodland, it turned out to be a flat marshy area. A dim glow through the trees at the edge of the marsh revealed the location of our tormentor.

We passed through the trees to find a wide open space with a stream running down one side. Elbert Makabra was sat on a raised bank on the far side, torch in hand, watching us approach. Before him was an open patch of ground, in the centre of which lay the egg satchel.

"Hello, ladies," said Elbert. "Well, you've found me. As you can see, your precious eggs are right there. Why don't you go and fetch them together?"

Larkin and I looked at each other. This was obviously a trap, but what kind?

We carefully set out across the open space. As we were almost upon the satchel, we realised the ground around us was moving like a stretched out sheet, rising, falling and undulating in soft waves. So this was his plan, to lure us into mire. But we had not come this far to turn back now, if we trod carefully and supported each other we could yet retrieve the eggs and foil his dastardly scheme.

The ground collapsed beneath us just as we reached the satchel. Suddenly we were both waist deep in thick liquid sludge with no feeling of solid floor beneath our feet. I could feel the mire pulling us down as Elbert Makabra mocked us from the far bank.

"You poor, foolish creatures," he gloated. "George thought so highly of you, you must have reminded him of the dream world he so longed to escape into. He brought me to the Mortal Masquerade many times as his companion, I think it disappointed him that I had no interest in playing these ridiculous death games with him. I did the odd one for him, once he had us both dress as women to die together in some romantic fantasy he had imagined, but he knew I wasn't comfortable with it and never asked me again. Maybe that's why we drifted apart."

The mire was sucking us down, we were now chest deep in the mud.

"The tragedy with your Uncle George," continued Elbert, "is that he was weak and confused as well as maligned. He could never stand up to the people that spurned him for who he was. I could have done that for him, but he wouldn't let me. He wanted me to join him in his dreaming, while I wanted a real life together. Neither of us could have what we wanted."

"That doesn't excuse murder!" cried Larkin. "Look, we're sorry our family mistreated Uncle George, if you're not aware we don't exactly fit in with them ourselves."

"Yes, that is true," said Elbert. "But blood is thicker than water, and yours is the blood on offer to me right now. Maybe I'll find a way to gain proper vengeance on your Father once the fortune is mine."

We were shoulder deep in the mire when I noticed something in the darkness behind him. Two dim red lights softly appeared. Were we to be rescued by ghosts?

"So how did it feel to see Uncle George taking part in mock executions?" I asked. "He died before your eyes over and over."

"Yes, he did, and it was deeply unnerving," said Elbert. "But I knew it wasn't real and the pantomime brought him joy, so I aided him as he requested. I'll admit to quite enjoying watching you die, though. And what happened to Annie was a matter of justice being done."

"It sounds like you just hate women," said Larkin. Elbert shrugged.

"Funnily enough I don't actually hate you any more. But you are in my way. An obstacle, a distraction, something that must be done away with."

The red lights behind him were growing in intensity. I wondered if he had any idea.

"So this was your plan all along, to kill Annie and lure us into peril?" I asked.

"'Fraid so, my dear," he mocked. "To be honest, you seem to enjoy it."

"But was getting eaten yourself part of the plan?"

Suddenly a wet slurping sound drifted across the night air, as Elbert turned his torch illuminated a wide, slimy face with red, glowing eyes. He recoiled in shock at the apparition, which advanced closer towards him, the torchlight glistening against the creature's wet skin and the terrified perspiration of Elbert's face. Before he could turn and run the mouth opened into a huge, gaping maw filled with tiny teeth and surged forward to seize its prey. The torch fell to the ground, lighting the awful spectacle of the giant salamander devouring the wretched Elbert Makabra, his feet sticking out from its closed lips. The animal reared up, causing its meal to slide down into its belly. This done, it fell back down with a splat, coming to rest with a wide, satisfied grin.

"That was unexpected," said Larkin. "So, does that mean we've won?"

The salamander's intervention had relieved us of our tormentor, but not our predicament. We were still up to our necks in the mire and sinking, with no obvious means of escape. Even if we were the last survivors of our quartet, it meant little if we couldn't find a way out.

Larkin and I held on to each other as the ooze crept up over our faces, until we sank completely beneath the surface.

After all we had faced, could this be the end of poor Larkin and Adelia?

—

That was the final journal entry Maise and I sent off to Debs and Rafe, who agreed that every good adventure yarn needs a good cliffhanger. I will confirm that two women did escape safely from that sucking mire, but no-one could agree on whether they were Larkin and Adelia, or Lexie and Maise. I like to imagine the Claydon sisters survived somehow, I'd grown quite fond of our pair of vintage alter-egos.

After we ducked beneath the surface in each others' arms, the thick viscous quicksand undulated about our bodies in a way that made us feel like part of the earth itself. We could have just stayed there, submitted to the deathplay and waited to be pulled back out. But even though we couldn't talk under the surface, somehow a shared message passed between the two of us. A two word message:

Choose life.

As one person we raised up our arms and began pulling ourselves back into the air. There was a natural buoyancy in the mud that made it surprisingly easy to pull ourselves up and out, as our faces broke the surface I heard voices coming from the bank. We wiped the mud from our faces and opened our eyes to see Chris and Wilco peering down at us. Ted, Lillian and Darryl from the Wonder Emporium were sat on the bank watching us all. A few electric lanterns illuminated the area, revealing the salamander that had eaten Elbert Makabra lying on the ground like a landed fish. I could see the poles they'd used to work the giant puppet and knew Rafe was encased inside, but no-one seemed to be in any hurry to get him out.

Chris and Wilco helped us climb up out of the bog, trailing mud as we went. The trio from the Wonder Emporium gave us a round of applause, which we acknowledged with curtseys.

Instead of going to Limbo, we went and showered off in Wilco's workshop, where I had clean, dry clothes for us both to change into. Wilco showed us the camera feeds from around the Hungry Garden, where the egg hunt was winding down.

It looked like the Sacrifice Tree had claimed a few more victims after Annie had met her fate, with more of its leaves folded up around the trunk and a much smaller group of survivors assembled in the ring of torches, who finally set off back to the central square to complete the contest. The ultimate winner turned out to be a couple dressed in matching jumpsuits and masks. I couldn't tell who they were, nor did I know what their prize would be, but imagined it would be some kind of swansong request for us to put together.

Uncle Morbid had asked us all to stay behind and meet in the main square after the Masquerade was over and the regular spirits had left. Chris and Wilco had to go and help the angels clear up and release everyone from the various plant traps. We offered to help, but as we'd come as spirits under avatars we had to stay out of sight until the end. Ted, Lillian and Darryl went with them, having watched the egg hunt unfold with Chris and Wilco in the video room, this was their chance to see the place up close.

Maise and I watched the clean up through the camera feeds over a warm cup of tea. We even got to see Jim being helped up and out of the pitcher plant, what a lovely man he'd turned out to be. I wondered if that had been his avatar name or if he'd told us his real one, I imagined we'd be seeing him again around the Masquerade in future. I didn't even know if our encounter with him had been genuinely random, or yet another stage managed event from the creative minds of Rafe, Debs and Uncle Morbid. It was a nice touch if so.

We watched the crowd gradually disperse, then when the coast was clear we went off to the main square to join the after party.