Into the Shadows
Chapter 4: Splitting Up
Anders could see Felix staring oddly at him from beyond the gate and walked farther away from the entrance before the strange ticket collector tried to speak to him. Felix made Anders feel uncomfortable. It was probably those pitch black eyes, Anders figured.
He found a bench and sprawled out across it, holding his book right before his eyes. His cigarettes and lighter were now safely tucked away in the front pocket of his shirt so his next smoke break would be shorter. He worried about Emily when she was around Viktor for too long.
He had hardly read a word before he heard her voice. "Anders!" He sat up and waved at his friends, quickly noticing that one was missing.
"Where's Stella?"
"She went off by herself. I'm pretty sure she was heading toward The Snare," Drew informed Anders.
Viktor shrugged. "Crazy bitch just walked off. It's not our problem."
"We have to find her," Anders sighed. "This place is freaky." No one made a comment, and Anders was appalled at their lack of concern for their friend. "It's not like you people don't deserve her hostility sometimes. We all have to go look for her. I don't want anyone getting lost."
Reluctantly, everyone agreed. Anders had a certain authority over them, and while they didn't always agree with his policies, everything always worked out in the end, so they tended to trust him.
When they drew near to The Snare, Drew made an observation. "Where's the operator?" No one was working the controls for the ride, and no one was on it either. A sign on the entrance gate bared the words "out of order". Astonished, Drew said, "I could swear this was where she was going..." and no one doubted him. Drew was very observant of details. Whether or not he really paid attention to what Stella was up to, he was bound to notice a thing like the precise direction she stalked off in. Now that The Snare was out of the question, they had nothing to go by except that Stella was somewhere inside Shadow's Play—probably.
After much searching, Stella came across a vending machine near the restrooms at the back of the park. "Thank fucking Buddha," she said, feeding the machine a dollar bill. She punched a button, heard a clunking sound, and pulled her energy drink from the bottom of the machine. Seconds later, she threw the crunched can at a trash bin three or four yards away and missed. The can bounced off the side of the bin onto the grass. She bought a second drink, which she consumed more slowly this time, wondering how long it would be before the others realized the ride she was on was out of order. Swallowing a mouthful of Red Bull, Stella smirked. She had chosen The Snare on purpose. She'd say she didn't know the ride was down; it was her excuse for not being where she was expected to be.
Stella was a natural born liar, and she did it with style. Everyone was afraid of her, even her own friends, but Stella had her demons too. She was addicted to energy drinks. If she didn't have an adequate dosage of sugar, caffeine, taurine, ginseng, and who-knows-what-else in her system, she wouldn't be able to keep up her bad ass facade, and she would finally be treated like the coward she was. Luckily, Stella was a master at keeping secrets. The less they saw her drink, the less addicted she looked. It was only a matter of hiding it.
She crushed her second can and tossed it right into the basket. Already starting to feel the soothing effects of the beverage, she decided it was time to meet up with her friends again.
Looking at the map Felix had given her, Emily asked, "Which ride would have been her second choice?"
"Dark Claws looks really scary," Cleo said. "But so does Snap and Break. And they're on opposite sides of the park."
"We'll split up," Viktor said.
Anders sighed, not wanting to separate anymore, but nodded. If they looked at the wrong ride, Stella would be off the other one well before they got there.
"You guys!" Drew whispered suspiciously and focused their attention on him. "Those girls at the darts game." He looked out of the corner of his eye at two girls, a blond and a brunette, standing shoulder to shoulder tossing darts at balloons to pop them. "I saw them before. They were on the roller coaster."
"Should we ask them if they've seen Stella?" Cleo asked loudly. Drew shushed her, but the girls hadn't seemed to hear. He shook his head, but Cleo ignored him and pranced over to the darts game. Emily, Viktor, Anders, and Drew all followed hesitantly.
"Would you like to buy some darts?" the carny asked Cleo as she approached the game. "Five darts, only two dollars."
"No, thank you." Like Felix, this man was attired in all black, with his hair slicked back and a thin black mustache on his pale face. The whole game was black and white as well, even the balloons. Cleo thought she hadn't seen any color in this whole place aside from her friends and these two girls in front of her.
One of the darts hit a white balloon head on, reducing it to smithereens. The blond girl cried out in joy, and the carny handed her a stuffed white owl.
"Excuse me," Cleo said, tapping the brunette on the shoulder. Both girls turned from their game to face Cleo. She swallowed. "Have you seen anyone with blue hair around here?" The smiles were gradually fading from their faces as they looked at each other, puzzled. "A girl, about this tall,"—Cleo reached as high into the sky as she could, to account for Stella's hair—"dressed in black leather, a lot of piercings..."
"Oh, yeah," the blond said. "Yeah, I think I did see her. She was heading east." She pointed in the direction of Dark Claws.
"No, west," the brunette spoke up, pointing in the opposite direction. "She was going west."
The two girls exchanged glances, then smiled at Cleo. "We'll help you find her," the blond offered.
Anders muttered to himself sarcastically, "Yes, because you've been so helpful..."
"Thanks!" Cleo accepted, without considering the opinions of the rest of her friends on these mysterious girls. "I'm Cleo, what are your names?"
"Kelly," the blond said.
"Chelsea," said her friend.
The others introduced themselves, and Anders said, "We have to hurry. She could be anywhere by now. Okay, Emily, and the rest of you girls take Snap and Break, and us guys will-"
"No," Viktor said. "You can't send a group of girls. I'll go with them."
"For what?" Anders asked angrily.
"Someone might need to kick some ass," Viktor joked, and Emily laughed at the thought of him in a fight.
"Yeah, I'll say," Anders growled, his hands clenching into fists.
"Anders," Emily said, grabbing his arm gently. "We need to hurry, remember?" Anders calmed down, and Emily started giving orders. "I'll take Chelsea, Kelly, and Viktor." She winked at Anders when she said Viktor's name, as if to let him know Viktor was harmless, but Anders was not at ease. Emily had chosen the three people he trusted the least. "You, Drew, and Cleo check out Dark Claws. We'll call if we see her, and we'll all meet at the entrance when we're done looking."
Emily hugged Anders briefly and said, "I'll see you later." Then they walked off to look for Stella on Snap and Break.
Without a sound, Anders turned and started walking. He heard no footsteps behind him, and when he turned, the paper he had found in the car was on the ground in front of Drew.
"Did this fall out of your pocket?" Drew asked, reaching down to pick it up.
"Yeah." Anders nodded. "I found it in the car. I meant to ask you what it was."
"I'm not really sure..." Drew said, analyzing the codes on the paper.
"You mean it's not yours?" Anders walked back to stand where he could see the paper, even though he couldn't understand it.
"No, but I think I can read it..." he answered, adjusting his glasses and squinting at the text on the page. "It's a letter. See, on top it says, 'Dear'... something... This word is in here a few times, sometimes with an extra character on the end, an 's'. I think it's... 'human'? What kind of letter is this?" He read more, muttering only to himself, and, moments later, he exclaimed, "Eureka! I've cracked the code." He cleared his throat and began reading.
"Dear Halogenith,
You are ready for your first assignment. It will be challenging, but if you succeed, you will be greatly rewarded, with riches unfathomable to any human. Here is your mission: Lure five humans into our trap at Shadow's Play by midnight, the seventeenth of July. That's today," Drew added, then went on reading. "The humans are of your choice, as is the method you use to lure them here. There is but one rule; do not reveal your true identity to anyone. Your alias will be your human name, ..."
Drew flipped over the paper to read the rest. The back side was blank.
He found a bench and sprawled out across it, holding his book right before his eyes. His cigarettes and lighter were now safely tucked away in the front pocket of his shirt so his next smoke break would be shorter. He worried about Emily when she was around Viktor for too long.
He had hardly read a word before he heard her voice. "Anders!" He sat up and waved at his friends, quickly noticing that one was missing.
"Where's Stella?"
"She went off by herself. I'm pretty sure she was heading toward The Snare," Drew informed Anders.
Viktor shrugged. "Crazy bitch just walked off. It's not our problem."
"We have to find her," Anders sighed. "This place is freaky." No one made a comment, and Anders was appalled at their lack of concern for their friend. "It's not like you people don't deserve her hostility sometimes. We all have to go look for her. I don't want anyone getting lost."
Reluctantly, everyone agreed. Anders had a certain authority over them, and while they didn't always agree with his policies, everything always worked out in the end, so they tended to trust him.
When they drew near to The Snare, Drew made an observation. "Where's the operator?" No one was working the controls for the ride, and no one was on it either. A sign on the entrance gate bared the words "out of order". Astonished, Drew said, "I could swear this was where she was going..." and no one doubted him. Drew was very observant of details. Whether or not he really paid attention to what Stella was up to, he was bound to notice a thing like the precise direction she stalked off in. Now that The Snare was out of the question, they had nothing to go by except that Stella was somewhere inside Shadow's Play—probably.
After much searching, Stella came across a vending machine near the restrooms at the back of the park. "Thank fucking Buddha," she said, feeding the machine a dollar bill. She punched a button, heard a clunking sound, and pulled her energy drink from the bottom of the machine. Seconds later, she threw the crunched can at a trash bin three or four yards away and missed. The can bounced off the side of the bin onto the grass. She bought a second drink, which she consumed more slowly this time, wondering how long it would be before the others realized the ride she was on was out of order. Swallowing a mouthful of Red Bull, Stella smirked. She had chosen The Snare on purpose. She'd say she didn't know the ride was down; it was her excuse for not being where she was expected to be.
Stella was a natural born liar, and she did it with style. Everyone was afraid of her, even her own friends, but Stella had her demons too. She was addicted to energy drinks. If she didn't have an adequate dosage of sugar, caffeine, taurine, ginseng, and who-knows-what-else in her system, she wouldn't be able to keep up her bad ass facade, and she would finally be treated like the coward she was. Luckily, Stella was a master at keeping secrets. The less they saw her drink, the less addicted she looked. It was only a matter of hiding it.
She crushed her second can and tossed it right into the basket. Already starting to feel the soothing effects of the beverage, she decided it was time to meet up with her friends again.
Looking at the map Felix had given her, Emily asked, "Which ride would have been her second choice?"
"Dark Claws looks really scary," Cleo said. "But so does Snap and Break. And they're on opposite sides of the park."
"We'll split up," Viktor said.
Anders sighed, not wanting to separate anymore, but nodded. If they looked at the wrong ride, Stella would be off the other one well before they got there.
"You guys!" Drew whispered suspiciously and focused their attention on him. "Those girls at the darts game." He looked out of the corner of his eye at two girls, a blond and a brunette, standing shoulder to shoulder tossing darts at balloons to pop them. "I saw them before. They were on the roller coaster."
"Should we ask them if they've seen Stella?" Cleo asked loudly. Drew shushed her, but the girls hadn't seemed to hear. He shook his head, but Cleo ignored him and pranced over to the darts game. Emily, Viktor, Anders, and Drew all followed hesitantly.
"Would you like to buy some darts?" the carny asked Cleo as she approached the game. "Five darts, only two dollars."
"No, thank you." Like Felix, this man was attired in all black, with his hair slicked back and a thin black mustache on his pale face. The whole game was black and white as well, even the balloons. Cleo thought she hadn't seen any color in this whole place aside from her friends and these two girls in front of her.
One of the darts hit a white balloon head on, reducing it to smithereens. The blond girl cried out in joy, and the carny handed her a stuffed white owl.
"Excuse me," Cleo said, tapping the brunette on the shoulder. Both girls turned from their game to face Cleo. She swallowed. "Have you seen anyone with blue hair around here?" The smiles were gradually fading from their faces as they looked at each other, puzzled. "A girl, about this tall,"—Cleo reached as high into the sky as she could, to account for Stella's hair—"dressed in black leather, a lot of piercings..."
"Oh, yeah," the blond said. "Yeah, I think I did see her. She was heading east." She pointed in the direction of Dark Claws.
"No, west," the brunette spoke up, pointing in the opposite direction. "She was going west."
The two girls exchanged glances, then smiled at Cleo. "We'll help you find her," the blond offered.
Anders muttered to himself sarcastically, "Yes, because you've been so helpful..."
"Thanks!" Cleo accepted, without considering the opinions of the rest of her friends on these mysterious girls. "I'm Cleo, what are your names?"
"Kelly," the blond said.
"Chelsea," said her friend.
The others introduced themselves, and Anders said, "We have to hurry. She could be anywhere by now. Okay, Emily, and the rest of you girls take Snap and Break, and us guys will-"
"No," Viktor said. "You can't send a group of girls. I'll go with them."
"For what?" Anders asked angrily.
"Someone might need to kick some ass," Viktor joked, and Emily laughed at the thought of him in a fight.
"Yeah, I'll say," Anders growled, his hands clenching into fists.
"Anders," Emily said, grabbing his arm gently. "We need to hurry, remember?" Anders calmed down, and Emily started giving orders. "I'll take Chelsea, Kelly, and Viktor." She winked at Anders when she said Viktor's name, as if to let him know Viktor was harmless, but Anders was not at ease. Emily had chosen the three people he trusted the least. "You, Drew, and Cleo check out Dark Claws. We'll call if we see her, and we'll all meet at the entrance when we're done looking."
Emily hugged Anders briefly and said, "I'll see you later." Then they walked off to look for Stella on Snap and Break.
Without a sound, Anders turned and started walking. He heard no footsteps behind him, and when he turned, the paper he had found in the car was on the ground in front of Drew.
"Did this fall out of your pocket?" Drew asked, reaching down to pick it up.
"Yeah." Anders nodded. "I found it in the car. I meant to ask you what it was."
"I'm not really sure..." Drew said, analyzing the codes on the paper.
"You mean it's not yours?" Anders walked back to stand where he could see the paper, even though he couldn't understand it.
"No, but I think I can read it..." he answered, adjusting his glasses and squinting at the text on the page. "It's a letter. See, on top it says, 'Dear'... something... This word is in here a few times, sometimes with an extra character on the end, an 's'. I think it's... 'human'? What kind of letter is this?" He read more, muttering only to himself, and, moments later, he exclaimed, "Eureka! I've cracked the code." He cleared his throat and began reading.
"Dear Halogenith,
You are ready for your first assignment. It will be challenging, but if you succeed, you will be greatly rewarded, with riches unfathomable to any human. Here is your mission: Lure five humans into our trap at Shadow's Play by midnight, the seventeenth of July. That's today," Drew added, then went on reading. "The humans are of your choice, as is the method you use to lure them here. There is but one rule; do not reveal your true identity to anyone. Your alias will be your human name, ..."
Drew flipped over the paper to read the rest. The back side was blank.
♠ ♠ ♠
I feel like I'm contradicting myself without being consciously aware of it.