Chapter Thirty-Six: The Red Mist
“They disappear…” I repeated in a whisper. “He got them? All of them?”
“Not exactly all of them,” Arthur said. “A couple took the easy way out. Triggered storylines way out of their league. Wasn't such an uncommon thing back when there were rescue tropes. Not just Film Buffs either. Some people just get tired of dying over and over again. Figured they'd pick a short easy death and wait till the day we escaped to be rescued. But the rest disappeared without a trace. All I know that could have happened is the axe. No missing posters. No clues.”
I stared ahead for a moment. Was there something about Film Buffs that made us more likely to break the rules? Or was there something else going on? And would I be ready the day I figured out what it was?
“That's enough of the campfire stories for now. We still have a storyline to finish,” Arthur said.
I broke out of my mental fog upon hearing that.
“Wait how are we supposed to finish the storyline without Janette? Isn’t she a major character?”
“You always have to finish the storyline,” Roxie said. “Carousel’s not going to let some little thing like one of the actors getting murdered in the middle of the show change that.”
Arthur put his duffel on his shoulder and said, “Given where we are on the plot cycle, I think I need to go reshoot some of the scenes that I had. I'm going to go find Reggie and Valerie. I'm sure they've already figured out what happened, but we need to coordinate. I figure we won't have to redo anything that happened at the house. You probably don't need to do any of your scenes again because Janette wasn't in them.”
He left the room.
“So, what do we do?” I asked.
“We're going to have to wait until it gets dark again then reshoot the scene where we find Arthur after running from the gargoyle that transformed the frog. After that, Arthur is probably going to have to explain the whole lore behind the Grotesques again. Then I get to die just like we planned.”
I wondered how many times it took for them to figure this out. What did the other veterans do when this happened, the ones who didn't know about the axe murderer? Did they just go along with it?
Roxie gestured toward the door. We started exiting the church. For the first time, I actually looked around the building. The entire thing was under renovation. There were several larger statues covered in big white sheets spread around the sanctuary. I didn’t know what was under them. They might have been saints or angels, I couldn’t tell.
“We're going to have to fight those,” I said.
“I'm not.”
I guess that much was true. Maybe being first blood wasn't all bad.
Waiting around for our next scene was strange. Technically all the gargoyles that had been on the sides of the church were already gone so we didn't have to worry about them attacking us as the sun went down. Despite that, it was incredibly unnerving to just sit there and wait, knowing that as soon as darkness spread across the sky monsters were going to start waking up around me.
To look at Roxie you would have thought we were just waiting for our shift at work to start. She wasn't exactly happy to be there but at the same time, she wasn't distressed either.
“Did you know any of the Film Buffs?” I asked.
She nodded her head but didn't offer any more information.
“So did they all just break the rules or something?” I asked. If she knew something, why not tell me?
Roxie considered her answer. “The guy I knew, just started taking things too far. Thought he was seeing patterns everywhere. He thought Carousel was secretly talking to him, leaving him messages. That's what Arthur didn't want you to know. I'm not sure what happened in the end. I assume he got the axe.”
As she told me this, she watched my face like she was looking for a reaction. I didn't give her one. I wasn't sure why it was such a crazy thing to think that Carousel was communicating with us. Wasn't my very presence in this storyline a form of communication?
“We've got a minute and a half. Come on,” she said. It must have been incredibly convenient to know when you were about to be On-Screen.
We walked down the path toward the place we had been to when the gargoyle first approached us. It was dark again. It wasn't quite the First Blood yet so didn't have to worry about getting attacked. I didn't have a frog figurine in my pocket either.
As we stood there and waited for our cue to run, I rifled through the scraps of my hoodie that lay on the ground. My sunglasses were unsalvageable. It would have been expecting too much to hope that they had made it out unscathed.
Roxie held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.
Action.
We raced across the graveyard. In the distance, we saw two figures running toward us. One of them carried a flashlight, and the other figure lumbered behind far more slowly. It was Arthur and Reggie.
“Roxie!” Arthur screamed. “What happened?”
He wrapped Roxie in a hug.
“It was… a gargoyle,” I said. “It was alive!”
Arthur shook his head. “Not a gargoyle,” he said. He produced his leatherbound hunter’s journal. “It was a Grotesque. Come on.”
Arthur led us across the graveyard. At the boundary where the graveyard met the forest, was a small shack. It was the exact same shack that we had just been in. The gargoyles that had surrounded it were gone now. The damage they had done to it had also been reversed. I wasn't sure when that had happened.
Arthur led us into the small windowless building. It had nothing but stacks of crates and a dusty table in the middle.
Arthur went through his spiel about the lore of Grotesques. It was the same as the last time give or take a few choice words. Long story short: Grotesques were demonic hibernating statues that gargoyles were designed to protect against. Fire weakens them.
“Why is it we always end up just burning things to death?” Roxie asked.
“If it ain't broke…”
Arthur opened his duffel and produced the supplies to create Molotov cocktails, a lighter, and a flare gun.
“Want a swallow?” he asked Reggie, as he unscrewed the lid from a bottle of spirits.
Reggie shook his head. “I brought my own. I don't drink that cheap shit.”
He pulled one of the biggest flasks I have ever seen out of his pocket, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig.
His Moxie and Grit rose because of his Liquid Courage trope.
He held out the flask toward me.
I grabbed the flask and turned it up. I could use all the buffs I could get.
The taste surprised me so much that I almost choked.
“That'll put some hair on your chest,” Reggie said.
I wasn't surprised because it was hard liquor. I was expecting hard liquor.
I was surprised because it was peach tea.
Reggie’s flask was just another prop like Arthur’s hunter’s journal.
It worked though; I got the buff.
After that, we went Off-Screen.
“OK the plan this time,” Arthur said, “Everything's the same except you guys are taking Reggie with you. He can help get you Off-Screen. After you leave, I'm going to run over to the church so I can be around Valerie. That should be enough to set up the cartwheel.”
“Ten seconds,” Roxie said.
We all took our places and then….
On-Screen.
Thump.
Something hit the side of the building.
Thump.
It happened again.
Roxie moved to open the door just a crack.
Crash!
One of the creatures tackled the door slamming Roxie back against the table.
With the door open, three gargoyles were revealed in living flesh. Arthur took a shot at one of them.
It barely did anything.
I grabbed one of the Molotov cocktails and lit the wick. I handed it to Arthur.
Arthur threw it at the gargoyles, engulfing all of them in bright orange flames.
Bang. One of the gargoyles was decapitated as the slug from Arthur's shotgun made contact with its now stone face.
Bang. Another gargoyle was almost torn in half as one of its arms got blown off along with much of its torso. The remainder of its living flesh struggled to maintain some semblance of life, writhing, attempting to stand, before returning completely to stone.
Bang. The top of the remaining gargoyle’s head popped right off.
He got all three this time. Practice makes perfect.
Roxie closed the door and Reggie moved a stack of crates in front of it. Now, we waited.
The gargoyles started to tackle the shed from all around us. It wasn't any less scary the second time. Every time they threw their body against the building I thought they were going to come through. Reggie was poised to remove the crate so that we could leave through the door. Roxie and I stood behind him prepared to make our exit.
Arthur started to reload his shotgun.
Off-Screen
“Nice shootin’, Tex,” Reggie said.
Arthur nodded his head graciously.
On-Screen.
The Grotesques surrounding the shed were back at it. They were throwing their bodies against the walls, digging their claws into the wood. We could see little traces of them through the holes in the slats.
Crack.
One of the walls started to buckle. They would be through it in a matter of seconds.
I could hear the wood being torn apart.
Any second, they would be through.
Finally, a hole appeared in the side of the building. One demented claw of a gargoyle reached through and tore the wooden plank siding off the wall, widening a gap almost big enough for it to fit through.
Reggie pushed the crates out of the way and opened the door.
Roxie was the first out. Followed by me and Reggie. As we left the shed, gargoyles started to approach us from the other sides.
Roxie screamed loudly.
Off-Screen.
“Seventy-two seconds,” Roxie cried out.
Now that we were Off-Screen we easily outran the Grotesques. Arthur stayed behind but that didn't matter much because we had distracted them, they were chasing us. Whichever unlucky ones chose to remain probably didn't last long. I saw a flash of fire behind us and a few more shotgun blasts rang out.
We ran along a different path than we had before. I thought we were headed back to the church but along a more winding and twisted path. The audience wouldn't be able to tell.
“Ten seconds,” Roxie said. “Get ready, Reg.”
“I got you,” Reggie replied. For such a big guy he was putting up with running pretty well. That made sense in a way. In Carousel, Grit covers endurance and Reggie had plenty of Grit.
On-Screen.
We ran for a few moments before Roxie stopped and looked behind her.
“I think we lost them,” she said.
Reggie started to wheeze and double over. “I need a break. Just a minute.”
Roxie nodded.
“Over here,” she said, taking us to a secluded area between two mausoleums.
Off-Screen.
Reggie stood back up straight. He took out his flask and got another drink of Peach tea. I think that one was actually just to quench his thirst.
“Two and a half minutes,” Roxie said.
I was starting to understand the strategy. I wondered why they were so insistent on going Off-Screen all the time. Characters can die Off-Screen, after all. But they can't die without context, not a main character at least. Roxie was a main character.
The camera couldn't just cut to Roxie being killed. There had to be a setup; a cinematic kill sequence.
We were interrupting it.
In the distance, I could hear the Grotesques closing in. Still, we waited.
“Twenty seconds,” Roxie said. “It’s out of our hands now.”
She waved us forward. We continued to run along the path she had chosen.
On-Screen.
The gargoyles started to pour out from all around us. It was like they'd been hiding behind the gravestones waiting for the moment to emerge and kill Roxie.
One got close to her.
I reached for the gun in my pocket that Arthur had given me, but as my fingers touched the fabric of my jeans, I realized it wasn't there.
We had forgotten it.
I didn't have a trope that would allow me to bring a gun into a storyline. I had to get one from Arthur. We had forgotten to reestablish that he had handed it to me when we reshot the shack scene, so now I didn't have it.
Shit.
The gargoyle closest to her tried to wrap up her legs. She easily dodged it. She moved through a sea of gargoyles that lunged and jumped at her with the grace of a ballerina. None of the gargoyles could get her because this was her kill sequence. They couldn't simply hurt her. They had to kill her all in one hit because of her Red Mist trope. These creatures were so inelegant and stupid that they were having a difficult time finding a way to trap her without injuring her.
Reggie and I piled behind her as she ran. Reggie was strong enough that he could throw the gargoyles. He picked one up in front of me and swung it down on another that was about to tackle Roxie. They collided with a thud, and both tumbled across the ground.
I didn't know how long we could do this. We couldn't dodge them all day. We needed to go Off-Screen but I got the sense that none of the techniques they had used so far could be repeated, not so soon, not within the same sequence.
But then, suddenly, we were Off-Screen again.
Valerie.
Valerie had the ability to force herself On-Screen by having a character moment. I didn't know what that would be, but it had succeeded.
We continued to run. The Grotesques still chased us, but you could tell that they weren't going for the kill. A proper kill sequence had not been set up yet.
“Three minutes,” Roxie said.
Whatever character moment Valerie was having it must have been pretty heavy for that kind of screen time.
We continued to run. After a minute or two we were finally able to make some distance between us and the Grotesques.
“This will be it,” Roxie said. “I think this is as far as it'll take us. Should be almost 13 minutes between everything. I was really hoping to get the full 15.”
“You can still make it,” I said. “Those things can't kill you in one hit. You should be able to survive the rest of the movie.”
Roxie laughed. “I thought you were supposed to be an expert,” she said. “Nothing good is free.”
I didn't know what she meant.
“Look at the stars,” she said.
I looked up. I couldn't see anything at first. Then I noticed that a dark shape was flying around above us. It had wings so big that it blocked out the starlight everywhere it flew.
I guess you don't get anything good for free.
We still ran.
“Fifteen seconds,” she said. “I think Rebirth is at the church. But the arming sequence needs to take place at the fairgrounds. There were artisanal spirits and all kinds of hand tools there. I'm sure you remember the spotlights.”
Roxie was a lot more observant than me. While I was distracted by the statues and the NPCs and the festivities, and the pretty girl, Roxie had been scoping out weapons.
“Five seconds,” she said.
I wasn’t ready.
On-Screen.
The thing in the sky scooped down above us. We slowed down and ducked so that it couldn't hurt us. It was a gargoyle. A big one, nearly twice the size of the others. Its wingspan was as long as a bus.
“Run,” I screamed.
We were running. It didn't matter.
The creature swooped by us again. If we didn't go Off-Screen soon...
It was too late. This was a kill sequence.
The flying creature was clearly after Roxie. It swooped by her and let out a claw that almost grazed her head.
“Tell Arthur I—"
The creature landed on top of her. Her status flicked to Dead in an instant.
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