I ran down the rows of chairs that felt like they’ve gotten longer. The toys begin to throw trash and food at me as some were screaming and howling at me. A stuffed snake stretched across the aisleway. It was too late I couldn’t stop in time, tripping over it, my knees hit the hard ground. I looked up at it as the snake opened its mouth wide, revealing sharp white fangs with a loud hiss I screamed. Getting to my feet, I start to run again.
“You can’t hide from us!” the girl laughs from behind me.
As I ran down the stone path, the trees on the sides had that blue smoke racing between them that was keeping up with me. There soon came the sound of breaking glass, looking behind me, everything looked like a broken mirror. Staring forward as shards of glass begins to fall from the sky. I felt the ground crack and break beneath me. I picked up the speed.
My lungs were on fire, my legs were getting sore, but I had to keep running! The sounds of breaking glass were getting louder. Soon the feeling of fear drowned out the pain and noise when I saw the stage coming into sight. Two bright lights shined and waved around in the broken night sky like a Hollywood movie premiere.
There was nowhere else to go…
As I stopped by the first set of seats, the destruction stopped as well. Looking behind me, it was nothing but darkness below. No birds, no trees, and no stone path. Just nothing…
Looking back at the stage. The curtains were up, but they were a jet-black color and were more ripped up. None of the stage lights were on.
I slowly make my way down the row. There were no toys in the chairs, but in their place were those white masks. All of them were frowning and had red paint running down the eyes. Getting to the front row, three masks were in the seats where the three narrators once were. They, too, were frowning and had the red paint running down the eyes.
I jumped out of my skin when a light turned on loudly, spinning around. A bright light shining is on an object that’s lying in the middle of the stage. My body was trembling, slowly and carefully I climb onto the stage, kneeling as the light flicker a little, the object was the book from Act three…
It was a sketchbook that’s ripped up. It had cartoon stickers on it. Some were peeling off or were halfway gone. There’s tape trying to hold some parts together. It has seen some better days. I open to the first page with a note written in glitter ink that’s in my handwriting.
“Property of XXXXX X. XXXXXX, if you’re not XXXXX put down now, or you will be cursed forever! These are characters and their details!”
The first picture that had the name at the top was Doctor Wheeze. He was wearing a fancy business suit. He looked exactly like the first narrator, besides not having that mask on… There were notes on the side.
– Not really nice and swears a lot!
– Only cares about money
– Sick all the time
– Likes to wear expensive things
Flipping the page again, the next picture was a pirate, and his name was Captain Cold Eye. He looked exactly like the second male narrator again without the mask. Again there were side notes.
– The king of the seven seas!
– Has one icy blue eye (hints the name)
– Has a first mate that likes to start fires
– Has a wife that’s also a pirate but was killed, she’s a ghost now and haunts him
I began to flip through the book. More drawings of characters or some pages had ‘RIP Forgotten Brother Or Sister’ in the middle of it…
I stopped when I noticed the female narrator, Lady Valentines. The puffy pink and white dress, the white, pink, red, and curly hair, with colorful long nails… And bright red lips, white eyeshadow and bright pink heart that’s over her right eye.
– She loves to love!
– She loves Valentine’s Day
– She loves to bake
– She loves the rainbow
As I got to the last page, my heart started to race. It was her. That girl that was responsible for this nightmare, but her name was a scribble of heavily blue ink.
– Tried to remember everyone that you forgot!
– Lost her sanity because of you!
– Hates the dark, the same darkness you left her in!
– But hates you more!
“You took your good time getting here,” someone spoke as more lights turned on and blinding me.
As my eyes adjust to the brightness, the girl stood in front of me. Behind her was a broken scene of black lines that looked like tree branches with colorful dots in the white spaces.
“I only want to know why? Why did you forget us? What did we do wrong?!” she yells as the floor begins to crack like glass.
“You threw us away like we all meant nothing! How could you do that to us so easily?!” she yelled again and started to sob, covering her mask with both hands. The floor around me began to crumble, revealing a bottomless pit. The stage and scene begin to break and crack the more she cried. “What did we do wrong…?”
“I’m sorry,” I spoke softly and stood up slowly on the unstable ground. I was making my way slowly towards her. The floor gave way a few times, but when I was close enough. I took her wrists and removed her hands from her mask.
“I. Grew up. Something all kids do. And sadly, we all forget things we have when we were younger. Be it toys, stuffed animals, coloring books, drawings, even imaginary friends… We all forget. Was it right that I threw away that sketchbook, well… No. But I’m still sorry. And I’m asking for forgiveness. Please, that’s all I want,” I beg.
As I hugged her, she wraps her arms around me and leans her head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, for everything,” I apologize and hold her tightly. The sound of breaking glass stopped, which made me smile.
“What’s my name then,” she asks coldly, sending chills down my spine, “if you’re sorry, you’ll remember my name?”
Pulling away, I saw those bright green eyes glaring back through those eyeholes. “W-what?” I stutter. She grabbed my throat as the world around us shattered into a million pieces, and we were left in nothing but pitch black.
“Welcome to the final Act of our lovely play, where we get to see our creator go mad until her beloved family has enough of her burden and pulls the plug!” There came the sounds of people clapping and cheering coming from nowhere.
“As I said, we will NEVER let you wake up from your coma!” The girl lets go of my throat, dropping me onto the hard ground, looking up at her as she stares down at me with that evil smile and cold eyes.
“The best part, you’ll get to watch everything going on in the waking world. You get to hear everything. You get to feel the madness slowly creeping in, and you’ll feel your sanity being eaten alive! You’ll experience EVERYTHING that I had to go through when I was locked away in here! And we get to watch!” she giggles before becoming that blue smoke then disappeared.
I stood up, reaching out to nothing. “No! Wait! Don’t leave me!” I scream.
“We saved you a seat, lass!” Captain Cold Eye shouts, waving his hand. The girl sat down between him and Lady Valentines.
“Oh, I couldn’t wait for this! I just love happy endings!” Lady Valentines cheers as she ate some popcorn.
“You love everyth-” Doctor Wheeze starts to cough and sneeze, “to hell with this blasted cold!”
The girl crossed her legs to watch her once best friend wander around in the endless darkness. She smiled under her mask and rested her hand on the side of her head. “May the darkness and the madness show her no mercy like it never did for me,” the girl hums.