There was silence for some time. The contestants seemed to have disappeared. Then, a few days later, the cameras started filming again.
Welcome back...or truly, turn around and leave now. You are not welcome here, like the contestants were not. Truly. And calling them contestants, when there was no prize to be won as of yet...they are victims, all but two...victims.
Somewhere the murderous souls hide. Perhaps soon enough you will come to know of them, of who they are. Everyone has returned, after all.
Ramona awoke to silence. The silence filled with her cries, her cries to her sister, to the friends she had no clue of their whereabouts, to...to her family back home, who may now see this very image, of a disturbed girl in clothes she does not remember changing into...
Ramona: Robyn...Robyn...someone...
Ramona: Hello...someone...I...I don't know why I'm here, I don't remember coming here...I...I wanna go back to the circus tent...
???: No one can hear you, Ramona.
Ramona: Who's there?
???: You've been asleep for a few days. How bizarre...
Ramona: No...it can't be...Robyn? Robyn?
Ramona: I miss my sister.
The door creaks open. You may expect, in any horror movie, that perhaps this is the crazed psycho come to kill her off, the blonde girl...
Robyn: Ramona...
With a sigh, Ramona glances upward, towards the sound - the voice.
Robyn: Mona, it's me...it's Robyn...
Ramona: Robyn...thank god.
Sisters wrap each other in a warm embrace, for it to them may seem like forever. It is a hug that neither wanted to end.
Ramona: I...I missed you.
She coughs, then sighs, to herself.
Ramona: You...you have your shoes...
Robyn: I...I found them in my...my room.
Ramona: I...I want my shoes...maybe they're in here too -
Robyn: Mona...we don't have time, our friends are somewhere...we need to find them, we need to -
Ramona: I don't know where we are...
Robyn: I don't either...
Ramona: I think...ah..
Robyn: Ramona?
Ramona: I don't know...what if we're in the sicko's lair?
.
.
Nan woke up an hour prior. He sat for a while, saying nothing, doing nothing, but thinking, I would suppose. Nan thought, and then, he rose to his feet and screamed. The letting loose of tension.
Nan: There's gotta be a way out of this place. Maybe the door is loose, or I can...damn, I have no use for bobby pins, else I'd have one on me...hmm.
He was staring ahead, at nothing. At least for a few minutes more.
Nan: I've got to go find Connor.
??: Good, you're awake.
CeCe stirs, noticeably, noticeable enough for the other person in the room. It is unknown if any of the contestants awoke during the shut-off, but perhaps, perhaps...perhaps some did.
??: CeCe? Hey...
CeCe: Oh...hi.
??: Sorry if I startled you there. I tried my best to be quiet and respectful, you know. It's just good to know you're okay.
CeCe: I don't know if I'd say okay but...I'm surviving.
??: That's at least something.
He pauses, taking a deep breath.
??: I don't know where we are, unfortunately.
CeCe: That's okay...we'll figure it out.
Jason: I suppose so. It's just you and I here, but no doubt the others are somewhere else, outside, or above, or...god I hope not dead.
CeCe: ...we can't be the last two alive.
Jason: I doubt it.
CeCe: Thank you for looking out for me...I, uh...don't know if I would've felt the best waking up alone, so it...it, uh, helps that you were here.
Jason: Well...it wasn't like I was going to turn my back on you, CeCe.
CeCe: Yeah...I'm glad.
Jason: We're left with one big question - what the hell happened?
CeCe: I wish I could answer that.
Jason: We feel underground, if anything. Something about how...how the air tastes. But, uh...that's all I've got.
CeCe: I don't want to end up like Cam.
Jason: What was that, CeCe?
CeCe: I didn't...I...I said I don't want to end up like Cameron...dead.
Jason: Oh.
Jason: I...I hope to promise that I will do my best to protect you, and to protect everyone...I will. Don't worry.
CeCe: And that is reassuring, it is, but...I don't know, it feels like the world is ending, or it's spinning too fast...I don't know.
CeCe: I need to step outside and take a breather, but then...I can't goddamn leave this place, and the air outside at the Circus is dusty, so...so I wish I was home again. With my daughter. I...I want to be with her...
Jason: I know, CeCe -
CeCe: Do you have children of your own?
Jason: I do...
CeCe: Then you know the trials of missing your children, and your family...
Jason: I do...
CeCe: We go through hurdles to be with them. I'm facing all this now, wishing I could be back with her. And I know I must forge on.
Jason: We must forge on.
CeCe: Help me try to open the door.
Jason: Let's try, if we can.
.
.
Nan: I wish he could hear my voice.
I wish I knew if he were alive.
I wish...more than life...more than the moon.
I wish to see Connor alive.
Nan heaves himself against the door, pushing, shoving, slamming into it, and...and nothing. Nothing.
Nan: FUCK! OPEN!
Screams flooded from his mouth. The screams did nothing but tire his voice, tire him out, break him down. He screamed again, and again.
Connor: Nan...where are you?
Nan...
Kirk: I don't understand how -
Villy: Non...vut is going on, vut this means, none of this...none of this makes sense, and zat is vut they want...
Kirk: And...and what about him...is he?
Villy: Is he dead? I zink so. Seems it.
Kirk: Holy hell, I … I want answers.
Villy: Settle down, me boy...answers are vut we need, yas, but...we must sadly be vatient and chart a course.
Kai blinks awake. He lies silent, for a few minutes at least, but does he then speak? Does he then scream?
No, he sighs, and then falls silent again.
Kallistra: Oh marvellouso! Kallistra is alone again, you sick freaks! This is not mon Hunger Games, and this will not stand! You give me a chance to knock your head off, and then we fight, fight it out dirty!
Kallistra felt her head, happy to stroke the strands of her wig, happy no one had stolen that again too. Her freedom was gone. She inched towards the door, her footsteps light, and then she knocked, at first only once.
Kallistra: Hello! This is Kallistra Forrester! Hello?
Kallistra: Hello in there?
She knocks once again, and then again, and again. No answer.
Kallistra: Well this is just plain rude.
My oh my, I say. My, oh, my.
Alicia: I was never quite a fan of being in the dark. Not merely literally, but figuratively...oh, look at me talking to myself!
Why don't they set up a diary room chair for me, I have some things to talk into a camera about...things like this dark room, which smells...it smells off.
Alicia sighed to herself. The darkness seemed to eat at her more than any of the others, it seemed to come alive at her touch, sparking off her past...no doubt. No doubt at all. The darkness was clinging to her, and so she stepped forward in it, and she held her head high, and then she grumbled to herself, avoiding the darkness.
Alicia: There has to be an escape. From everything.
And would there be?
An escape without pushing Alicia over the edge?
.
.
Ramona: Wait...
Robyn: What's up, sis?
Ramona: How...how did you get out of your room, and then find mine, and then get into mine...?
Robyn: You forget how strong I am, and how much I fight for you...I found a way. The doors are weak.
Ramona: Did you find anyone else?
Robyn: I...I only walked to the door closest to mine, which was yours. I can show you my...my room...if you'd like, if you don't believe me...
Ramona: No, I believe you! Of course I believe you, Robyn.
Ramona: So...let's go find everyone else then.
Robyn: Let's go then.
Robyn opens the door for her sister, and the pair follow out into the hallway. It's dark, still, but more lit than that of the room Ramona woke up in. More lit than the room Robyn woke up, too, I would imagine.
Robyn: This way, sis -
Ramona: I'm just checking that there's no one waiting around this hallway to kill us...I don't trust this place one bit.
Robyn: Oh okay...that's a smart idea.
Robyn: See anything around there?
Ramona: It's...it's really dark, so...so not really, I don't know, I...I can't quite tell. I...I don't see anything moving, at least.
Robyn: That's the best sign. Come on, Mona.
The light from the hall cascaded upon her, and upon a small portion of the darkened dead-end, enough for Ramona to make out...nothing much in particular. It was a dead end...to her, it meant Robyn came from someplace else, another hallway up ahead. That made sense.
Ramona: Okay, I'm coming.
Robyn: We'll pass my cell up ahead, and then...I don't know...we try everywhere, until we find someone.
Ramona: I think...I think it'll be best if we can find CeCe, hey?
Robyn: We'll look for CeCe, yeah.
The light above the door to Ramona's room began to flicker. It had burned bright for a while, since the tapes began once more, and then, in a spur, in a brisk flash, it blew out. That part of the hallway dimmed.
Many hallways dimmed. The light was dying out. Perhaps...perhaps the murderers wanted to play a game in the darkness?
Connor spoke little, after the outcry for Nan. He paced, back and forth, left to right, diagonal from this corner to that corner, but nothing seemed to quite settle him. Most of the time he seemed to be lost, even in such a small, dark, empty room. He longed for Nan, but at the same time, he longed to be free himself, just to no more be trapped in the room. A room of nothing.
Connor: God this sucks.
And no I don't call on you.
CeCe: We'll make it through this.
Jason: I agree. I wholeheartedly agree.
CeCe: The door is stuck, locked. But surely we can do something about that. Surely we can break it down. There's two of us.
Jason: Hmm...it's an idea, at least -
It became a common idea in the heads of those in cages, in the rooms, and it was a wise thought. But CeCe and Jason brushed it off, because no...though they had two, they thought, the door looked like it would budge not a bit...
CeCe: I...I just don't know.
Ramona: Up ahead, left or right?
Robyn: Hmm...right?
Ramona: Yeah, maybe. If not, we can just make our way back.
Robyn: Exactly! It's best we give an idea a shot.
Ramona: Robyn...
Robyn: Yeah, what's up?
Ramona: Do you...do you remember what happened, for us to end up here?
Robyn: I...I don't...I'm just as clueless as you.
Robyn: But I know I want answers, like you do.
Whoever did this will pay.
Ramona: What, you think you'll...hurt them?
Robyn: Whatever it takes.
Nan: I need to get out.
Yeah, big man up wherever, or whoever exists to watch my puny existence dwindle, I need to get out of here! Help me, dammit.
Nan jiggled the door handle, gave it a harder shove. It squeaked open.
Perhaps, after all, the murderers caged them as an illusion, and the magic now wore off...
Nan: Well, boy, that was easy.
Movement flickered in front of him, he noticed it.
Nan: What the fuck is that...no...it's a who...
Could it possibly be one of the murderers? The tapes for this time, for the contestants discovering themselves in the darkness, are not time-stamped. It could possibly be anyone who had escaped and let Nan free. It could be no one at all. Who was to say that Nan himself freed himself, and his accomplice fled from the scene as to trick the cameras?
Nan: Let's go find Connor, or chase down that person first.
Ramona: It's so annoyingly dark now...how are we gonna see doors anyway?
Robyn: We'll be able to, hopefully...you should be able to make out shapes, Mona...
Ramona: Okay...I'll look for what I think is a door...there has to be one around here somewhere.
Ramona: Come on, stupid doors, appear to me!
Robyn: I don't think that's doing anything -
Ramona: I know...it's just...in this situation, I lapse back to trying to be so overwhelmingly positive...I just want to find the others, and get the hell out of here.
Robyn: I know...I do too.
Ramona: You think the sick murderer is watching us right now? Watching us stumble around in the dark looking for everyone? I...I wonder if anyone else is out here, looking for us...
Robyn: I hope they are...I don't want anything to happen to them.
Ramona: Me neither...hey, wait up!
As Alicia stared around in the darkness, she saw nothing. Nothing that sparked an idea, a way out, only the door ahead of her. Her only possible way out, then. She stood here for a while, thinking, processing. Nothing.
It became far too common down here. The ideas of nothing.
Alicia: Alright, fuck this.
And she huffed, and she puffed, and she kicked the door down.
The doors, it seemed, were either unlocked or needed just the right forceful nudge to open them. It proved not too difficult for them to flee from the rooms they thought imprisoned them.
Alicia took a moment to breathe. She reached to tie her hair back, but had nothing, so it hung upon her shoulders - she'd only thought about it now, it seemed. She moved from the room, into the darkened hall.
And off she went.
Alicia: Off to find out something, maybe find the murderers.
Then I'll get the hell out of dodge.
----
___ERROR____ERROR___
Nan
*singing, in the darkness, to himself*
Maybe this time...I'll be lucky...
Nan
Maybe this time, he'll stay...
Alicia
Maybe this time, for the first time...he won't hurry away...
He will hold me fast...
Ramona
I'll be home at last.
Not a loser anymore....like the last time
Robyn
And the time before...
Connor
Everybody loves a winner...
so nobody loves me
CeCe
Lady Peaceful, Lady Happy...
that's what I long to be...
Kallistra
All the odds are...they're in my favour!
Something's bound to begin!
Jason
It's got to happen...happen sometime...
Connor
Maybe this time, I'll win...
Nan
Cause...everybody loves a winner...
So nobody loves me.
Alicia
Lady Peaceful, Lady Happy...that's what I long to be.
All the odds are in my favour.
Robyn
Something's bound to begin...
It's got to happen sometime...
Ramona
Maybe this time...
Maybe this time, I'll win.
--------
It seemed unnatural to have three prisoners in one room, but perhaps, as holding cells often are, they simply had too little space for much more.
Kirk, Villy and Kai had become too preoccupied to check the door.
Kai had opened his mouth to speak.
Kirk: Slow down, Kai...and speak a little louder, we can't...we can't...can't really hear you, yeah. Kai?
Kai: Nobody is Kai here, silly.
Kirk: Don't slip back into a TV character...don't.
Kai: What...you don't think I'm real?
Villy: Vut is the boy on about? He is...he is confuddled.
Kirk: I think...I think we're all reacting to what happened differently...some of us remember, or claim to remember, I suppose, maybe I just created a story to make sense but...I guess he's panicking?
Villy: Non, I...I believe your story.
Kai: Masks come off then, I suppose.
Kirk: What did you say, just then? Kai?
Kai: We all wear them, masks. Some more than others.
Villy: Sveak up, boy!
Kirk: I can't...I can't hear him enough.
Kai tosses off his hat, and peels back the stick-on mask.
Kai: Masks come off.
Villy: My...why wear such a face when you can be yourself and look like yourself, not hide behind...behind TV personality?
Kai: It...it always helped ground me. Sort of a coping mechanism.
Robyn: Would you like to do the honours?
Ramona: I would like too. I hope friends are waiting behind those doors for us.
Kirk: A coping mechanism for what? Anxiety? Stage...stage fright?
Kai: …something like that.
Robyn: See, the doors are surprisingly easy, hey?
Ramona: Yeah...I don't really trust that.
Robyn: Can you really trust anything in this place?
Kirk: This...this is a safe place, Kai.
Feel free to talk to us about anything, when we certainly...we have the time.
Villy: What were you afraid of, kid?
Kai: I...I...I killed Dottie Stubbs.
Ramona: OH - OH GOD!
Her scream was high-pitched, the sound a wail, a wail and a cry for help, a cry to be rescued, a cry that almost burst my eardrums.
I forbid you from hearing it. For, if you heard the anguish, the pain, the misery in her scream, you would never close your eyes again. Worried you would be next to scream such a dreadful sound.
The bodies of the four deceased lay before Ramona, with Robyn following in behind her. The bodies of her fellow contestants - her fellow victims. They would have stunk, I imagine. They would have wafted not merely smell, but emotion, of dread, terror - misery. The end of lives that now erode here.
Kirk: You...you...you killed her?
Kai: I...I did. I needed her out of the picture, but...but not right away...
I...I didn't always want to...
Villy: So...vut does this mean? You are one of the murderers?
Ramona clung to herself, clung tight. Her sister moved to hug her, but she moved not from her place, as she stared at the dead before her.
Their lifeless bodies did not stare back.
____________________________________________
More is to come.
