Chapter Text
“Hey! I wanted that slice!”
“Finders keepers losers weepers!”
pr3typriincess and bluudud were at each other’s throats seconds later, fighting over the last slice of pizza as c00lkidd sneakily took it from between them and started eating it. The other two children didn’t notice until it was much too late, heads turning slowly towards him in disbelief.
“Did you just eat it?!” pr3ty cried, punching c00lkidd.
“Ow-! You were fighting too much so I took it!” c00lkidd defended, arms shielding his face as pr3ty began to smack him over and over. bluudud just sat and watched, grinning as pr3ty continued her assault on the pizza thief. “bluddud- help!”
“Nah, this is too funny.” bluudud replied, snickering as c00lkidd yelped. However, at the approaching sound of familiar footsteps, bluudud clambered over to pull pr3typriincess off of c00lkidd. “Oh my god- Stop, Mr. Sonnelino’s coming!”
pr3typriincess froze, giving c00lkidd rough punches one second and sitting back in her spot on the picnic blanket the next. She took one of her teacups and sipped from it delicately, trying to pretend she hadn’t just been hitting c00lkidd not even mere moments earlier.
“Everythin’ alright over here?” The stern voice of Mafioso, or as the kids knew him, Don Sonnelino spoke from above their picnic.
“Yes Mr. Sonnelino!” bluudud spoke, laughing nervously. Mafioso narrowed his eyes.
“We’re having a picnic!” pr3typriincess deflected, gesturing to the now empty pizza boxes and tea set in front of her. “Everything’s fine.”
Mafioso sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked to c00lkidd from the corner of his eye, the child in question sweating metaphorical bullets. bluudud and pr3typriincess both gave him glares, daring him to snitch.
“She hit me!” c00lkidd blurted, pointing to pr3typriincesss who gasped in offense.
“I did not! You’re a liar!” She shouted, setting her teacup down harshly, wincing as it made a louder ‘clink’ noise than usual. “Mr. Sonnelino, he’s lying!”
“I am not lying! You hit me here and here and here, and here too! And here also-”
“Shut up!” bluudud hissed.
“Kids.” Mafioso began, voice scolding. “I’ve told you three not to fight, have I not?”
Dejected looks appeared on both pr3typriincess and bluudud’s face. “Yeah..”
“But he stole the last slice of pizza!” bluudud retorted, pointing an accusatory finger in c00lkidd’s direction. “I was gonna have it!”
“No, it was mine!” pr3typriincess yelled, throwing a box at him. “Mine mine mine!”
Mafioso had to yank pr3typriincess out of the way before bluudud lunged at her, pr3typriincess screeching as she tried to worm her way out of Mafioso’s grasp so she could ‘hit him real hard!’ as she put it.
“KIDS!” Mafioso yelled, all three of them freezing at his tone. “No fighting! I don’t know who did what, but the next person who hits someone else is going straight to Elliot!”
pr3typriincess immediately stopped trying to claw her way out of Mafioso’s hold. She blanched, only slightly. bluudud relaxed his posture, groaning in annoyance. Neither of them wanted to go to Mr. Elliot’s.
bluudud scowled. He looked at pr3typriincess, scrunching his nose. “Stupid head.”
pr3typriincess screamed. “I AM NOT A STUPID HEAD! YOU’RE A STUPID HEAD! A STUPID DUMB LOSER HEAD!”
Mafioso clicked his tongue, picking bluudud up as he adjusted them to sit under his armpit, holding them like they were flour sacks. “Off we go.”
“Wait- Mr. Sonnelino I didn’t mean it!” pr3typriincess cried, kicking her legs. “I promise!”
bluudud on his other side just folded his arms, rolling his eyes. “This is all your fault!”
“Is not!”
“Is too!”
“Is not!”
“Next person to speak I’ll make sure is on mopping duty.”
They both shut up, humphing as they looked away from each other.
c00lkidd trailed behind them, not wanting to be left alone. He smiled, bright and cheery as he caught up to Mafioso, legs working double time.
“Mr. Sonnelino! I didn’t know you were here today!”
“Neither did I.”
“I’m happy that you are here though-Oh! You were it last time! Did you tag everyone?”
Mafioso grinned. “Nah. But I almost did. Last guy managed to get a good hit on me.”
c00lkidd frowned. “Aww man, I hate it when they hit you! I’m it, not them..but I know you can get everyone next time!”
Mafioso chuckled.
His sleek black car came into view, his men standing around it as they conversed to each other softly. Soldier saw him as he approached, straightening his posture as he waved to his boss. “Hey! It’s the boss!”
“Afternoon, boys. We’re off to Builder Brother’s today.” He ordered, hopping into the back with the two troublemakers under his arms, c00lkidd climbing in after as his men fought over who would get the front seat. Eventually they settled on Caporegime driving, Soldier in the front seat as Contractee and Consigliere sat in the cramped space at the back.
As the car took off, pr3typriincess turned to Mafioso, eyes shining with tears as her bottom lip wobbled. “D-do we have to go? I really am sorry..”
Mafioso looked at her, studying her face before scoffing in amusement. “Sure do. Punishments’ a punishment, and you know not to call people names, and I’ve told you no fighting each other.”
pr3typriincess sighed, tears disappearing as she made a noise of frustration. Mafioso gently patted her head. “Actin’s gettin’ good. Almost thought those were real tears.”
The praise seemed to cheer her up, even if only a little bit as she smiled. “Jin gave me some dessert yesterday after I cried for ages! I’m getting better!”
bluudud scoffed, looking out the window in annoyance. pr3typriincess shot him a dirty look.
Soon the car pulled up to the entrance of the pizzeria, the light draining from both bluudud and pr3typriincess’ eyes as Mafioso dragged them out of the car no matter how much they tried to cling to the car doors.
“Please! I don’t want Mr. Elliot to be mad at me!” bluudud pleaded, words falling on Mafioso’s ignorant ears.
“He’s scary when he’s mad!” pr3typriincess added, whining as Mafioso pushed open the door.
Elliot perked up from behind the counter, putting his cleaning rag away as he smiled. “Hey! Nice to see you Don.”
Mafioso grinned. “Likewise.”
“Can I get you anything today?” Elliot offered, always the saint as he walked over to the register.
“I’ve actually got something for you .” Mafioso said, amusement infecting his tone as the two children in his grasp paled. “These lovely kids said they really wanted to help you clean the pizzeria today, because you’re always so kind and give them free pizza every time they come here. They just wanted to show their gratitude and help you out. Don’t they? ”
He nudged them forward.
Elliot sighed, a look of mock disappointment clouding his face. “Fighting, again? I thought you two knew better..”
“Mr. Elliot I didn’t mean it! I really didn’t! Don’t be mad at us!” pr3typriincess cried, clutching the hem of her dress.
Elliot shook his head. “I’m not mad..just..dissapointed.”
The kids fell to the ground, groaning. “Nooooo, Mr. Elliot…”
They both looked up in tandem, eyes shining as they chorused an apology. “We’re sorry! We won’t fight again!”
“You promise?”
“Yes! I promise!” pr3typriincess cried, bluudud nodding frantically beside her in agreement.
“Alright. Come on, the tables need cleaning.” He said, handing bluudud the spraybottle and a spare rag as he gave pr3typriincess the broom. “And the floors need sweeping.”
They groaned, getting to work after Mafioso sent them a warning glare. Elliot chuckled. “Reminds me of me and my sister when we were younger.” He said, looking at the kids fondly.
“Woah, you have a sister Mr. Elliot?” c00lkidd said, eyes beaming. Elliot smiled.
“Sure do! Wanna see a photo of us?” He said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it. c00lkidd cheered, dashing to the other side of the counter as Elliot navigated to the photos app, pausing as his finger hovered on the screen. “Huh. Where’s all my photos?”
Elliot blinked. The world seemed to shiver slightly, Elliot scrunching his eyes tightly as a wave of pain overcame him. c00lkidd gave him a look of worry, Mafioso looking at him with a frown.
“You alrig-”
Elliot blacked out, conscious fading as something raked its claws over his brain, searching for..for..
‘Ah, there she is.’
Then he opened his eyes and he was handing the spraybottle, rag and broom to pr3typriincess and bluudud again. He blinked. “What?”
He looked at Mafioso and c00lkidd. The memory of the last few minutes came flooding back.
“You know, they remind me of my sister and me, when we were younger.”
c00lkidd gasped. “You have a sister? I wanna see!”
Elliot smiled, taking out his phone as he opened the photos app. There, he had photos of Mia at her twelfth birthday party, a photo of them at the beach, a family portrait of his father and sister and Elliot. He grinned.
“Woah..she looks so cool!” c00lkidd gasped. “Does she live here? I wanna meet her now!”
Elliot shook his head. “She doesn’t live here. She’s..” Elliot thought for a moment, brain failing to remember where she was. As if something was blocking that part of his brain off, only giving him what was necessary to spin a shallow story together. “..not here. I think. I don’t know..”
He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“That’s okay. My dad doesn’t live here, but I still see him all the time. Maybe you can see your sister again! Even if she doesn’t live here!”
Elliot laughed. “That’d be nice. Maybe I could visit her, too. If I can remember where she is!’
Mafioso huffed, a glint of judgement in his eye as though he had found another piece to a puzzle he didn’t know the look of. He opened his mouth, starting to speak before-
Suddenly, his men burst through the door. “Oi, boss! Can we get some pizza? We’re starved!”
Mafioso turned to face them, grunting. “Whaddya want.” He said, gesturing to the menu above Elliot’s head.
They clambered over each other to shout their order, Mafioso muttering under his breath about professionality and not making a fool of themselves, just once-
Elliot chuckled, putting in their orders like second nature.
He can’t shake off the feeling that there was something he was forgetting.
=================
Mafioso chewed on a slice of a sausage pizza, thinking deep as Caporegime drove.
He’d seen Elliot just..zone out, completely. As if he had completely forgotten what he was doing in that moment before he snapped back and acted as if nothing happened. It had confused Mafioso at first, before something clicked into place. He had aimed to ask Elliot something to try and get some information out of him, work out why he didn’t know where his sister was, or why he had paused when giving the kids their cleaning items. It wasn’t usually like the man.
They drove to the city, his men tensing as buildings began to envelop them. Contractee shivered a little, Soldier swallowing thickly as he looked up at the office buildings.
There was something wrong with the city. Sure, it looked like their usual territory but they all couldn’t deny that it wasn’t theirs. The feeling was all wrong, the people too stiff and robotic and the city life flowing much too fluently for it to be normal. And not to mention, the city was a disjointed mix of buildings you would find in an old black and white film that contrasted with the futuristic skyscrapers that loomed high in the sky. It was uncanny, everywhere you turned looking as if it was made from memory; details missing here and there, stuff that didn’t look right intruding on otherwise lovely places.
Truth be told, he had no idea in hell why he was here. Presumably this was a sort of dream world reserved for pr3typriincess, bluudud and c00lkidd to go to after rounds, to keep them in the illusion that they were just playing games of tag or a VR game or whatever it was they believed they were doing. To Mafioso, it was obvious something was keeping them here.
He had a lot of jobs to do before he was sent here, debt to collect and shady deals to ‘clean up’ but it was useless from this realm. He already knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to clean up whatever had happened in his absence, but that was a future Mafioso problem. For now, he had to figure out what the hell was wrong with this place; find whoever was running this whole thing and act accordingly.
Their office building approached up ahead. Centre of the city, indicitive of Mafioso’s influence and control. Of the power he had before here.
He finished off the pizza slice, putting his gloves back on as he looked to Caporegime. “Turn left here.”
Caporegime complied, checking his blind spot as he merged into the left lane. Contractee looked at Mafioso curiously.
“What’s wrong, boss?”
Mafioso didn’t reply, keeping quiet save for giving Caporegime directions every now and then. He told the man to park the car just on the outskirts of the western side of the city, getting out and walking to where the road ended. He stuck out a hand experimentally, feeling a solid surface after reaching out just a few inches.
Bingo.
“Boys, come have a look.” He called, the four of them coming over as they looked at where Mafioso’s hand had stopped.
“You doin’ a mime act boss?” Consigliere dared to say, wincing as Soldier smacked him lightly.
“There’s an invisible wall here.” He said, turning to his men. “This isn’t real.”
They all blinked. “I mean, the buildings look odd, but what do you mean not real?” Contractee asked, coming up to test the hidden wall himself. “This is so weird..”
Mafioso grinned. “Something’s built this place from our memories. But it’s faulty, and flawed. They’ve done a shit job.” He retracted his hand, pulling out a cigar and lighting it. The brand was still mispelled. “We’ve got a new mission. I want you four to comb through the city and record anything that’s different from what you remember. Talk to everyone. Inspect every corner. I want out of this place, and I want to get out fast.”
“How will doing that help at all?” Soldier said curiously, no hint of malice in his voice.
“We can try and exploit those faulty places. One of them’s bound to break script, we’ve just got to keep prodding.” He puffed out some smoke, putting a hand in his coat pocket. He thought back to Elliot, and huffed. He had to know something. “I’ll take care of Elliot. We’ll get out of here soon boys. Don’t give up. We’ll do some work in round as well. Its influence ain’t restricted to this place alone, alright? Let’s figure this thing out, boys.”
They returned to his office, his men soon setting out to work as Mafioso looked out of his window, surveying the fake city.
He scrunched his nose, before putting out his cigar and throwing it in the bin.
Time to get to work.
=================
The grass crunched beneath his feet, eyes darting to every corner in paranoia as 007n7 made his way to the last generator. He breathed in, hands shaking slightly as he got to work.
Everyone had been on edge recently, whether it be lingering at Builderman’s dispensers a tad longer than necessary, or double checking generators as though a killer would race around the corner any second. 007n7 had tried to ignore it; the way no one spoke as much after rounds, and the stiff interactions during.
His head flared for a moment, hands coming up to clutch at it as he groaned. Shit, he was the last one left.
He shut the generator panel hurriedly, looking around as the red aura of the killer faded. He took in a shaky breath, pulling up his panel and booting it up so he could teleport. Unfortunately, it took too long.
“Hi Dad!” c00lkidd grinned, flaming sword in hand as he waved. His eyes drifted to his gui, only halfway through teleporting. “Aww, do you have to go? I want you to stay!”
A claw came to slash at the panel, making contact as it dissipated into red and black pixels. 007n7’s hope drained, fast. “H-hey kidd..”
c00lkidd beamed. He put away his sword, hugging his father as he giggled. “I have something I really want to ask you!”
007n7 tensed. c00lkidd was oddly friendly right now, he better take this opportunity while he could. “Uh, yeah? What is it?”
“Where do you live? I see you all the time here, but I never see you anywhere else!” He complained.
007n7 blinked. That was not what he was expecting. “W-well, after this is over me and everyone else go back to a cabin, where we sleep until the next round.”
“Yeah, but where is it?”
“I don’t know, kidd.” He shuffled his feet a little. “Why do you ask?”
c00lkidd smiled, teeth showing. “I wanna find Mr. Elliot’s sister! He said he hasn’t seen her in a long time, but he doesn’t know where she lives! So I thought, I see you all the time here, so she has to be here somewhere too! Have you seen her?”
007n7 stared, arms slack. “..Elliot.. said? What do you mean?”
c00lkidd stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “Mr. Elliot. He gives me pizza all the time, and hangs out with me and bluudud and pr3typriincess!”
“Elliot’s-!” 007n7 paused, calming himself. “He’s..gone missing. How..how are you seeing him ‘all the time’?”
“He works at the pizza place, dad! You’re being silly! Don’t you remember?”
This was literally impossible. Elliot had..died. By The Spectre’s hands. The rest of the survivors had been living in a near state of paranoia since. Two Time had been the worst. 007n7 can’t remember the last time he’d seen them outside of a round.
“What?”
c00lkidd looked at his dad curiously. “After tag is over, I go back home and he’s just there. I don’t know. Why don’t you get it? It’s not like he’s dead or anything.”
The grandfather clock chimed, the familiar wooden floorboards finding their way underneath 007n7’s feet once again. He blinked. His hands trembled. He found it hard to breathe.
“Eyyy, Seven! Nicely done!” Shedletsky said, patting him on the back. He’d been trying to keep team morale high ever since the incident, but as the days went on his efforts had struggled to even reach a majority of the survivors. Hope was dwindling.
“Seven?” He prompted, noticing the hacker’s blank expression. “You good?”
“c00lkidd..said he saw Elliot.” The man whispered, turning to look Shedletsky in the eye. “Said he spoke to him.”
Shedletsky frowned. Skeptical. He had reason to be, what with the more..unhealthy coping mechanisms that had reared their ugly heads. “Seven..”
“No, I’m not lying! I promise, he told me!”
Shedletsky looked to Dusekkar, who had been listening in. The admin floated over.
“You say he spoke of Elliot? No lies or deception?” The admin had dropped the rhyming shtick soon after the mood dropped, no longer willing to keep up the habit.
007n7 nodded, not trusting his voice.
Dusekkar looked to Shedletsky. Shedletsky looked back, taking a breath.
“Alright, Okay. O- kay . How do we approach this then?” Shedletsky asked, turning to 007n7. “Let’s assume it’s not some prank-” (“It’s not!” 007n7 protested) “okay, geez. Let’s assume then that c00lkidd can speak to Elliot..after rounds or something. That he like..lives in some other place where the killers go. That’s..plausible. Sure, yeah, let’s go with this. What’s next? What do we do?”
Dusekkar hummed. “Next would be to interrogate the source of information. We would have to wait for your son to be killer once again.”
“We can’t guarantee he’ll actually want to talk.” Shedletsky retorted, slightly annoyed. “Kid’s in a world of his own half the time.”
“Don’t talk that way about my son.” 007n7 defended. “I’ll talk to him. He’ll listen.”
“Sure he will.”
“Shedletsky.” Dusekkar warned.
“Sorry. Just been stressed lately. Feels like all anyone can think about these days is Elliot. It sounds mean, but I’m honestly getting tired of it. Just a little bit.”
“I understand your way of thinking, Shedletsky, but now is not the time for your frustration to show.”
“So, we’ll just wait for him to be killer again?” Shedletsky asked, looking at 007n7 expectantly.
“I guess so..”
“Great. Let’s do this!”
It was false optimism, the trio all sporting varying looks of doubt and worry. Would c00lkidd be willing to listen?
===============
Apparently not. Everyone had returned to the cabin after snapped necks and burning skin, looking more depressed than before. 007n7 sighed.
The next few rounds cycled through different killers, and while 007n7 had tried with them to get any answers, they either had no idea what he was talking about and killed him seconds later (1x1x1x1), or couldn’t speak and instead opted to just kill him (Jason and John Doe).
The other survivors were too caught up in their wallowing to notice what Shedletsky, Dusekkar and 007n7 were trying to do, and 007n7 couldn’t decide if that was for the better. It probably was, he would rather avoid having to deal with a desperate Two Time. They had been bad enough before they started to lock themselves in the spare cabins. It was a little annoying, if 007n7 was being honest. He rarely got a chance to sleep in the bed nowadays.
The next few rounds with c00lkidd all went relatively the same. It was as if he had completely forgotten about Elliot and his conversation he had apparently had with him, which made it rather difficult for 007n7 to even try to get him to tell him the man’s whereabouts, much less how to get there. It frustrated 007n7 to no end, getting closer and closer to ripping his hair out every time he woke up back in the cabin after another ‘hug’ (He says hug sarcastically, because the feeling of having your body squeezed so tightly your bones crack is anything but- he loves his son, truly he does, but every death broke his heart just that little bit more,) and the phantom feeling of being burnt from the inside out lingering in the centre of his chest.
Surprisingly, it was Mafioso of all people who was actually willing to talk. Most likely it was because he spent so much time negotiating with his targets about debt and payments and due dates before being trapped in these death games, but 007n7 didn’t know that so he chalked it up to the man just being formal.
007n7 peeked around a corner, ducking back as he caught sight of Mafioso’s henchmen inspecting a wall with suspicion. They hadn’t noticed, thank god, but 007n7 couldn’t stop the creeping curiosity as he moved his head to sneakily watch them as they conversed. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it seemed they were trying to test something in the wall. 007n7 narrowed his eyes, surveying the area to see if he could get closer.
“Psst, Seven. What are you doing?” Shedletsky hissed, laughing as 007n7 jumped. Taking a bite out of his chicken, despite the fact he was perfectly fine, he grinned. At 007n7’s judging look, he shrugged sheepishly. “What? I got hungry.”
“Look.” 007n7 pointed to the two minions, one of them grabbing a wooden floorboard and whacking the wall. It made a loud thunk noise.
“Huh? Is this why the round’s been so quiet..?” Shedletsky said, chewing slower. “What are they even doing?”
“I don’t know.” 007n7 replied. “You think they’re..chill?”
Shedletsky shrugged. “I’m not stopping you if you wanna ask.”
007n7 looked at Shedletsky incredulously. “You think I’d risk my life just to ask a question?”
“I dunno man! I’m just saying!” Shedletsky defended, voice just a little too loud for trying to be stealthy. Unfortunately, it was what got them caught.
“What have we here..” Mafioso said, grinning as he lifted them both up by the back of their shirts, like how a mother cat would lift her kittens up by the scruff of their necks. Shedletsky chuckled nervously.
“Hey there big guy..” He said, smiling awkwardly. 007n7 looked at him with an expression of dread on his face.
Mafioso snorted, almost involuntarily. Soon, he had Shedletsky’s throat in his grasp, putting slight pressure on his windpipe as he tilted his head curiously. “Now, why would you two be snoopin’ around, I wonder?”
Shedletsky gasped, hands coming up to claw at the man’s wrist. “W-we weren’t gonna do anything, I swear! We were just confused since no one had died! Honest!”
Mafioso squeezed just a little harder. Shedletsky yelped. “Okay! Okay! Geez- We just wanna know what your guys are doin’ at the wall! I thought it was weird, so me and ‘Seven were watching them.”
Mafioso hummed, pleased at the answer. “We’re just workin’ out some bugs. Speakin’ of, I’ve got to check up on how they’re doin’.”
Mafioso didn’t drop them, much to 007n7 and Shedletsky’s horror. Instead, he held them each under one of his arms, walking over to his men as he huffed at Shedletsky’s offense at ‘being held like a toddler!’.
“Boys.”
“Hey boss!” They chorused, standing to attention as they turned to face the man. They didn’t blink at the sight of the two survivors under his arms. “We found something!”
Mafioso nodded, gesturing at them to demonstrate. The one in the white tophat looked to the other, who gripped his wooden board and gave the wall another big whack. It shivered faintly, edges glitching a little as it tried to stabilise itself. The men turned back to their boss, awaiting instructions.
“Good work. We’ll write it down when we get back.”
“Get back where?” 007n7 blurted, looking up at Mafioso.
The man looked back down at him, clicking his tongue. “To the office. What’s it to you?”
Shedletsky blinked. “Wait, office? Are you telling us you get sent back to the real world when this is over?!” He exclaimed, trying to wriggle his way out of Mafioso’s grasp.
“Nah.”
007n7 deflated. “ Fuck ..” he swore under his breath.
“What’s it to you?” Mafioso said, voice rough as he unceremoniously dumped the two on the ground. His hands found their way to his coat pockets, posture slack. His fedora hid his eyes from view.
Shedletsky and 007n7 looked at each other, debating what to say silently. Shedletsky’s eyes narrowed. ‘Do we tell him?’
007n7 bit his lip, brows turning upwards. ‘Might as well..’
Shedletsky opened his mouth to speak. “We’re trying to work out where Elliot could be. 007n7 here,” He said, nudging the ex hacker roughly as if to say ‘ you got us in this mess, you explain,’ “thinks he’s alive somewhere with c00lkidd.”
“Elliot?” The man’s eyes had narrowed, hidden by the brim of his fedora as he took a defensive stance. “The pizza guy?” he seemed to mutter to himself.
“Have you seen him? c00lkidd said something about him the other day.” 007n7 said, taking over from Shedletsky. “He said to me that he had spoken to Elliot the other day.”
“I’ve seen him.” He replied. Mafioso thought for a long moment. Debated whether to work with the enemy, or continue his investigations on his own. He decided on the former. “What do you wanna know?”
007n7 swore his legs turned to jelly. “Wait, he’s actually alive? ”
“He’s alive. The certainty of that I’m not sure of. He’s in this ‘in between’ as I’ve called it, where your son goes after rounds. It’s like this sorta dream world. Horrible mesh of memory towns.” Mafioso explained, waving a hand to his boys dismissively. “Go look for anythin’ else.” he ordered, his men nodding and walking off to another corner of the map.
“Holy shit.” Shedletsky whispered. 007n7 almost sobbed.
Mafioso continued, rolling his shoulders. “It ain’t real, I’m at least sure of that. Everythin’ there’s built from memory. My cigars here look the real deal, but there’s a typo in the brand. Pissin’ me off, to be frank. Not to mention the only people that have any sorta personality are the kids and Elliot. Everyone else’s this just..terribly constructed facade of people I’ve seen before.”
“How is he?” 007n7 asked. He had to get it out of the way, just to give him some peace of mind that he wasn’t being brutally tortured for eternity. “Is he okay?”
Mafioso nodded. “Seems fine. Had a few hiccups here and there, but he’s workin’ at his pizza place like nothin’s wrong so I’m lettin’ him be for now. Just until I got a bit more stuff to work with. Speakin’ of, you two know anything about these places?”
“Not much. We…well, Elliot knew the most, I’d say. Apparently he was here for a long while. We’re just picking up whatever it was he left, which isn’t much. The Spectre erased pretty much everything after he ‘died’, which is annoying. We’ve gotta build up from scratch. Kind of.” 007n7 spoke, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. It was so weird talking to a killer so casually.
“Spectre?” Mafioso repeated, folding his arms.
“Elliot said it ran this whole thing. It’s like..what did he say? The pressure you get in your head before a round. Red sky, inky black clouds, eldritch body..eugh” Shedletsky clarified, shivering as he remembered what The Spectre had actually looked like. “He told us he made it pretty mad after it initially sent him here, so it..killed him... There was Tyler, too. But I don’t know what he knows. If you can get either of them, you’re probably set to work out everything in this place. Maybe.”
“I see. Don’t think I’ve met ‘Tyler’ yet, but I’ll try my luck with Elliot. This Spectre, you say it made this place?”
“Yeah. It probably wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to say it’s like this realm’s god or something.” 007n7 added, Shedletsky humming in agreement.
The clock began to tick. The survivors and killer tensed.
“Look. I’m willin’ to put a truce in place. I won’t kill you, and you don’t try to kill me. I’ll give you information if you keep that. I have a lot of shit to clean up once I’m out of here, and I’d rather not add to that pile. Deal?” Mafioso stuck his gloved hand out, no hint of malice in his voice.
“You’re not lying, right?” Shedletsky asked, hand on his hip. Mafioso shook his head.
“Nope. Trust me, I want to get out of here as much as you guys. Can’t say the same for the others, but I won’t kill you so long as we work together.”
007n7 looked at Shedletsky, who gave him a firm nod after a couple of seconds. He took Mafioso’s hand and shook it, the man’s grip tough as he grinned.
“Wonderful. We’ll keep in touch through the rounds. Oh, and I’ll tell Elliot you said hello.”
And then the two survivors found themselves back in the cabin, 007n7’s hand closing around empty space as it hovered mid-air.
===============
The Spectre observed from its higher realm. It frowned. Metaphorically, of course.
The rounds had become..bland. All of the survivors were just so depressed and in the dumps that they didn’t truly participate in the rounds anymore. Two Time, by far, was the worst. The Spectre regrets ever revealing that the Spawn was merely just a fabricated story; the cultist just curled into balls every round, letting the killers get a free kill out of them.
It turned to the other realm. The one made from the minds of the three children, and Mafioso. It was rather proud of the world it had constructed just from the mere memories of others, although it agreed that it could be better. But, the only people it had to fool was c00lkidd and Elliot, one for obvious reasons and the other just to spite.
It watched Elliot bumble about the pizzeria; it was rush hour, blank faced customers walking about and keeping Elliot busy. It was rather amusing, how this man who had given it so much trouble was so easily tamed by a quick mind reset and familiar scenery. Much like a bird in a gold cage.
Tyler too, was easy to tame. Surprisingly so. It seemed that all he had wanted was to live peacefully with his daughter; David had just been an added bonus. The Spectre had had to switch some things around in the man’s mind, make his surroundings seem a little brighter and more cheery than what was true so that Tyler would remain complacent. It was pathetic.
After all, if Elliot broke out of The Spectre’s influence…
The Spectre would rather not have to deal with the possible fallout.
Although, there was one outlier in this otherwise happy go lucky world.
Mafioso. Don Sonnelino. Head of the Sonnelino house and owner of a rather popular and influential casino back in his home town. The Spectre had tried to replicate that as best as it could, but it seemed the man had caught on rather quickly. He was starting to poke his nose where it didn’t belong, looking too carefully into things that The Spectre had done.
He would have to have an eye be kept on him as much as possible. Keep him in line.
Now, back to the survivors.
It observed them as they all went to their respective areas in the downtime. Two Time beelining for the outside cabins. Noob sitting in front of the fireplace along with Taph, Guest, and Chance in silence. Builderman went back to the dining area, where his blueprints for a ‘better’ dispenser and sentry lay. Dusekkar, 007n7 and Shedletsky went outside to talk.
The Spectre narrowed its eyes. An odd trio, for sure.
. . .
It annoyed The Spectre that it couldn’t hear what they were saying; a flaw it had yet to work out.
It disregarded the trio, instead turning to its latest project. Something it hoped would at least give some life back to the survivors. Make the rounds just a little more appetising.
Elliot. A clone, not the real one. Constructed of memories collected from both the pizza man’s mind and the perception others had of him. The unwavering determination and stubborn persistence seen by Guest and Builderman. Bravery seen by Noob. Kindhearted, seen by Taph. Selfless and level headed seen by Dusekkar. Charismatic and optimistic, seen by Chance and Shedletsky. Compassionate and forgiving, seen by 007n7.
A tragedy; a play doomed to repeat itself. Helpless. Defenseless. Weak. Vulnerable. Unprotected. Dead. Perceived and believed by Two Time, the memory of their dagger gliding through their lover’s chest over and over and over and over again. The memory of its tendril stabbing through Elliot’s chest like a broken record that couldn’t be stopped.
The clone, composed of all these qualities that the survivors believed Elliot had, was ready. The Spectre just had to make sure it functioned the way it wanted the clone to.
It turned its head to Builder Brother’s pizza. The fake one, conjured up from Elliot’s memory.
Perfect.
===============
Elliot stared at the letter from his manager. He blinked.
Elliot. Mandatory week off. Don’t come to work, stay home and rest for a bit. Your break starts now.
- Manager
“That’s pretty blunt..” He joked, crumpling up the paper and throwing it in his workbag carelessly. “Guess I’ve got a week off now. What to do..”
He packed up his work stuff, taking off his visor and putting it in his bag as he shrugged his jacket on. He slung his workbag over his shoulder, grabbing out his phone as he checked through his messages on his way out. Suddenly, he bumped into someone else, Elliot apologising as he took a couple steps back. Looking up, he brightened at the familiar face.
“Don!” he grinned, putting his phone in his pocket. “How’s it going?”
“Good.” The man hummed, ever so stoic as he looked around for any bystanders. “You free for a moment?”
Elliot laughed. “I actually just got told to have the week off, funnily enough. I’m free whenever!”
Mafioso nodded, more to himself than to Elliot. “Mind coming with me to my office? It’s not far, and I won’t keep you long. I just have some things to talk about.” He began to walk in the direction of his car, keys in hand. He had driven today, trusting his men to get more work done while he was gone.
Elliot tilted his head. “Sure. I don’t think I’ve been to your city before. What’s it like?” He asked, following the man to his car and hopping in. Mafioso distantly thought how easily Elliot would get killed in his town. He kept it to himself.
“It ain’t much too special. There’s a couple nice theatres you might enjoy. Got movies from all walks of life.” Mafioso commented, driving off as Elliot looked out the window. “My office is in the middle. There’s a couple shops here and there, but the food doesn’t quite taste the same. I tend to avoid it when I can.”
“I’m sure it’s fine!” Elliot reassured, assuming that Mafioso was down-playing his city. “Beats having pizza everyday!”
Mafioso didn’t laugh. Elliot chuckled nervously. The car ride was pretty quiet after that, Elliot’s leg bouncing as he readjusted the strap of his workbag. The car hummed as Mafioso turned towards a long road, skyscrapers looming in the distance. The sky seemed to darken, not with the promise of rain, but more so with the promise of trouble, the kind that happened in a city with high crime rates and gang activity. Elliot tried to breathe in deep to calm himself.
He wondered what Mafioso wanted to talk to him about.