Death’s Approach

When they pulled up to the stop that night, Frankie was surprised to see it was about as close to being in the middle of nowhere as you could get in a world where every square inch of land was spent on some kind of amusement business. She wished she’d slept more on the way there, but she was at least feeling better now than she had been directly following her panicked escape from Venge City. 

There were a few other cars parked nearby, but the mansion didn’t have an outside line, and was accompanied only by stretches of forest almost fully separating it from the surrounding towns. It looked a little like a “normal” building, back when that kind of thing even existed. Unlike most architectural designs these days, where even the very apartment they lived in was styled to fit the park’s vibe, this mansion looked more like something in an ancient photograph. Frankie was sure that some time, very long ago, it was supposed to look like a real building.

They got out of the car and stood around before approaching it. Even Katie was now growing a tad unsettled.

“Isn’t there… like, someone to take tickets…? I don’t see anyone by the door.”

“It’s reserve-online. I don’t think they’ll know or care if you go in though. Looks like not many people are here…”

Frankie eyed the man suspiciously. Indeed, this was all starting to sound a little bit strange.

“Okay…” Katie thought it out, realizing she’d broken the rules plenty of times already for her own dreams and necessities. “I mean, I’m still down. You ready, Frankie?”

Frankie wasn’t normally scared of rides. Even now, it was really just the driver that was creeping her out. She didn’t know what to do.

“I won’t be long.” Conrad suddenly offered. “If you wanna stay outside, you can just use the car.” He showed his keys to the girls, honestly offering them to the two complete strangers.

Frankie looked at the foggy sky, and then at her sister.

She looked like she wanted to go in so bad.

“Alright.” She breathed. “Nah, we’ll go in with you. Maybe… it’ll be fun. Just a little.”

“Sure… okay. I wonder who else is there right now on a day like this.”

The three tourists casually walked up to the tall mansion door…