Rocks Fall

“You can’t own a human being!” Katie cried. “Let alone their dreams!”

“Use your words, poor girl. You sound so stupid regurgitating little parables that let you sleep at night.” Wolf’s cold tone was all that was left, throwing the nice one away. They all wished they could go back in time. Serah looked outright furious at Frankie, probably just imagining what this man might do to her, or her boys.

“You don’t have any power over us.” Frankie built herself back up off of her sister’s confidence. She even laughed, though it did come out sounding quite afraid. “We’ve ruined men greater than you. Shit, I hadn’t heard your name till we came across the pond… you’re small-time. We’ll bring down your whole empire, just you wait.

“The mouth on this chick.” Travis giggled.

“Oh, I’ve heard better.” Wolf himself only chuckled, suddenly seizing a pistol from out of a bag on the nearby work desk. “Ed, where was the ammo for this again?”

Everybody tied to the seats started screaming and panicking. Out of nowhere this had become something more than a kidnapping. Sitting in the execution grounds, they all screamed, cried, and begged for their lives-

Everyone except for Frankie.

It was hard, but she boiled it all into her eyes- her anger, her determination- and leered right into the back of Wolf’s head, testing her mettle.

It hadn’t been like this in awhile, and thinking about those previous brushes with the grim reaper weren’t actually what helped her through it. Her memories of Berrytown, of Bozo, of the Creaking Manor- those only gave her a reason to be scared. A precident. What she focused on was instead the feeling of discontent in her heart- the fact that right now, if she just didn’t quite let it sink in- none of this even felt real to begin with. The very man she was looking for, capturing her at the bottom of a fantasy dungeon? She stopped herself from understanding it and pretended she was dreaming. By doing this, she gained all the power and confidence in the world, the scared, shy little girl she once was becoming a distant memory as Frankie, the punk who brought down parks and lived through hell reemerged.

Struggling, Serah shook left and right in her chair, watching as Morgen slowly approached Frankie, holding the old-frame handgun gently as if it were a piece of art.

“…Gonna kill me?” She shot a look right in his eyes, an unwavering smirk on her face. Katie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was this really her sister? She couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly tempt death that foolishly.

“Not yet.” Morgen threateningly stated as he then pointed the dark machine at her right kneecap and racked the slide. His finger squeezed the trigger.

Just as he was about to shoot Serah came falling down in her chair, tears and snot soaking the floor. He turned to the ugly display and decide to give it some of his attention instead.

“You don’t look like you’re having fun.”

“Please- PLEASE just let me go… I’ll do anything, don’t lump me in with her….”

The sisters both shuddered. Serah might care for her friends from here in Everfair- but all they’d done was put those very friends at risk.

Wolf started to untie her.

“Anything? Alright, then, you want to go show Frankie some tough love? If you can remove… let’s say eight teeth from her, you can go home with your money and all of hers.”

Serah nodded expressionlessly with her wet face, slowly coming to her feet.

“Serah…” Frankie began to bargain with the theif as she seemingly approached her, cracking her knuckles. “Don’t do this, there- there’s another way, we can get out of here…”

Serah grinned.

“We’re rogues, remember? Of course there is.”

The trickster ran to the central console with a look of madness on her face and slammed as many of the buttons for Floor 4 as possible.

“What the-“ Travis ran for cover as the walls began to turn, the layout changing as everything around them began to contort. Morgen raised his pistol to stop the little runt but a giant barrier came right up in front of her just as he let out the first shot.

With more walls coming in to separate the console from her friends, she shut everything on Floors 1-3 down before leaving the controls behind to help everyone. She quickly assisted in freeing each of them, the parkgoers standing as they all collectively looked for an escape- not an easy thing to do when every blink revealed an entirely new surroundings.

Katie didn’t want to leave yet. She scurried around for their belongings- finding her and her sisters’ bag, but their weapons were someplace else- she looked all around, but the walls were closing in-

“We just gotta run!” Frankie took her hand, leading the bunch through a still-spinning square tunnel. Serah saw the group dashing away and hurried to catch up with them, and soon they were all on the run from the crushing motions of the devilish contraption.

Every step came with the risk of being pulped, but dashing forward was the only way to escape the maniacal halls. Percy’s adrenaline caught in his throat, never before having experienced such a true adventure before- one that was undeniably, unequivocally real.

“THERE!” Katie was happy as a kid seeing their favorite ride when the stairs appeared just up ahead. Running to the front of the group they all trailed behind her before the walls they stood between started closing in. 

“——!”

They all jumped, leaping forward towards the stairs in hopes they’d make it in time-

And crashed into the steps, grabbing hold of the safe, solid stairs.

“That was insane…” Greg longed for his confiscated, now likely crushed staff, but was nonetheless happy just to be alive.

“Let’s just get out of here already.” Serah marched up the steps, leading the way back up to the surface they so longed for.