We Must Get Out of Purgatory

Chapter 3: Imposter!

Greed corrupts... You start caring about material more than you do the people you love. You'll do anything for money. Your life will be taken over by the greed in your soul. It's almost irreversible once it has a grasp on you. The only way to reverse your greed is when all the material things go away, but that won't matter. All the people who used to love you and would have done anything for you, would have cut you off already. They don't want your greedy energy with them.

Back in Purgatory...

The second layer was different from the first. The first looked like they were in the regular world. The second had a dark-yellow sky. The clouds were shaped like perfect spheres. There was a statue of A Frog. It was made of a yellow, solid, metallic material. Ava took the first artifact from Jobe, and slid it into the backpack she was carrying, everyone then split up into groups and searched for things. They went in the same groups as last time. Jobe found a box with what appeared to be a diary, or journal of some sort. There was a name engraved in it. Alex. "Guys come here!" Jobe yelled. Nene, Evan, and Sophia walked to him. "I found a journal, it was inside this box..." Jobe said. "Is there anything else in the box?" Evan asked. He took the box from Jobe's grasp, sticking his hand in it. He pulled out a piece of paper. "What does it say?" Sophia asked. "Nothing, it just has some letters." "What are the letters?" Nene asked. "A, and G." "A is the first letter in the alphabet, G is the... seventh." Jobe said. "So... what does that mean? Sophia asked. "Those two numbers together are 17, and there's page numbers on the pages in the journal. And if we flip to page 17..." He flipped to page 17. "There might be something here." "Look, there's a little diagram of where we're at on the corner of the page. There's a red dot on something too." "We probably need to go there." Nene said. "Okay, there's the Frog statue..." They walked to the Frog statue. "Now we know where we start."
There was another group. This group was composed of Ariel, Jessie, Arron, Michael, Lily, and Brodie. They were in the big stone building behind the Frog statue. The inside looked abandoned, like no one had lived inside of it for centuries. Of course, no one had ever lived in it because it was in a spiritual dimension, or at least they thought that no one had ever lived in it... maybe someone, or even something lived there right at that moment. Brodie was upstairs, praying that the floorboards below her didn't break. Lily was with her. "So how much longer were you alive when you killed me in the death challenge?" Lily asked. "Look, Lily... I'm sorry. I know that we should have worked something out..." Brodie replied. "Thanks, I forgive you!" Lily said sarcastically. "It wasn't even a quick death, It was a slow... painful death. I was alive, just suffering for like 20 minutes! It was the worst pain I ever felt." She said again. "I'm sorry... and I know that I'm a sucky friend for thinking of myself before you. You don't have to forgive me if you don't want to..." Brodie said. Lily looked at Brodie... deep into her eyes. Brodie was right behind the railing. As she stared into Lily's eyes, she noticed her iris changing into a diamond shape. The normally brown color of her eye was now a velvet red color. The white part of her eye shifted to a vanta black color. Her eyes were as dark as the place they were stuck for the past year. "Lily... uh, can you move..." Brodie said. Lily whispered into Brodie's ear, "Your friend isn't in Purgatory... her soul is with me... and now, yours will be too." She pushed her, Brodie fell down the high balcony, onto the ground of the first floor. She was gone. The black blood pooled around Brodie's body. Lily raised her hands, the spectral glowing mass of Brodie's whole soul floated out of her body. It went into Lily's hands. Lily shifted from a pretty 22 year old girl to a monster with grey-scales, it looked like a serpent. It's face was ugly. It had sharp teeth, and pointy ears, and bony arms, with sharp nails. It had a cloth on. It was a Goblin. From the TV shows, and games that you see them in... you probably think they are harmless, and dumb. You are the one who is dumb if you think that. They are holders of greed. They are some of the worst things you will come across. They are greedy, they can shapeshift, and can steal people's souls. This goblin is being deceived by Mortemo. It thinks that it can have all their souls to itself. Mortemo is going to take them from it. Ariel, Jessie, and Micheal walked to the bottom of the stairs after hearing the sound of Brodie falling from the stairs. They saw Lily at the top of the stairs. Arron walked out of a room upstairs. "Why would you do that Arron! What's wrong with you!" Lily said. "What? What happened?" Arron asked. "He threw Brodie off of the stairs! He killed her!" Lily said again. "Lily, what are you talking about?" He looked over the balcony of the top floor, seeing Brodie... lying in a pool of black blood. "I didn't do this Lily, what the hell are you talking about!" Arron said. "I'm getting down from here!" Lily said. "I think he's working with Mortemo." She said again. "We have to go!" Lily said. "I didn't do anything, she's lying!" Matt yelled. Everyone ran out of the building. Yelling out, "Matt killed Brodie!"
Jobe and his group followed the map to find themselves at a locked door. They found that the other group was already there. There were 3 groups. This was the third one. This group is made of all the people who weren't in the 2 other groups. "Shh..." Lilah whispered. "What's going on?" Jobe asked. "Arron killed Brodie!" Leila said. "Are you serious?" Sophia said. "Yes, we're hiding!" Bella said. "We found this key, and were gonna open the door, but when they yelled that Matt killed Brodie we ran her and hid." Max said. "Unlock the door, we can hide inside there." Nene said. They opened the door, all of them going inside of the room that lay behind it. They stood in the darkness of the room until Bella found a light switch. Jobe was leaning on something. As Bella turned the light on, Jobe realized that the thing he was leaning on was a body bag. There were body bags all over the place. Hanging from the walls. They screamed, and ran out of the room. They saw Arron in front of them. They started to run back into the room. "Please! I didn't kill Brodie! Please believe me!" Arron yelled. Lily came up from behind him. Her eyes were red and black, and the iris was different like it was earlier. She had sharp nails. Sharp as a knife. She smiled from behind Arron, her teeth looking sharp, but rotten. She picked up her right arm, grabbing Arron's neck with it. She picked up her other arm, dragging her sharp nails across the middle of his neck. He fell to the ground, thick black blood pooling below him. Then Lily transformed back into its true form. The Goblin. He reached out his arm, the mass of spectral essence that was Arron's soul floated from his lifeless body, and into the Goblins hand. Then it transformed into Jobe. It looked exactly like him. It formed a knife in its hands. Jobe turned back to Arron's body. A long, sharp knife being held in his hands. He dipped the knife in the black blood pooled around Arron. Then he went to the other group. He knew were they were but that group didn't know that. He wanted them to see him. He smiled and touched the blood on the knife. As the other group saw this, they now thought that Jobe was working with Mortemo. Jobe had fooled them all. "What the hell is going on?" Michael said. "I knew something was wrong! Jobe and Ava probably set all of this up!" Ariel said. "I knew they were psychos!" Jessie said. "The real question is... who's blood is it?" Micheal said.
Everyone met with each other back at the frog statue. "Guys, guys, guys! We saw Jobe with a bloody knife! He's working with Mortemo!" Jessie said. "That's what we came here to tell you!" Hailey said. "The monster for this layer can shapeshift, it shapeshifted into Jobe. "Brodie is dead! Matt is dead! And Lily might be dead too!" Evan yelled. "It killed them! It's trying to kill you guys too!" Ava said. "But we also have something to tell you guys..." Sophia said. "We found this card, and it said that we need to go into the secret room. That's where the death challenge will happen." Ava said. "Soterio, can you help us vote like you did last time?" Mia asked. "Yes, everybody close your eyes." He said. He tallied up all of the votes. "The 2 people going into the death challenge are... Max and Meredith." Soterio announced. "Who voted for me!" Max exclaimed. "I was one of the people who voted for you, sorry... but I barely even knew your name. You've done nothing to help this whole time." Bella said. "Why did you guys vote for me! I've helped a little bit?" Meredith questioned. "Have you?" Gavin said. The two went to the secret room to partake in the death challenge. As they walked in. Max picked up a piece of paper from the ground. He read it, "The real Lily is trapped in this room. Whoever finds her first will survive, and remember... The tricks of the Goblin are deceiving." "Okay, we need to find her..." He said again. "Who's we? I'm doing this on my own. I'm not going to Hell." Meredith added. She walked off to search for Lily. Max found a key. After searching around the room for a while, he found a locked door. He was trying to be very quiet so that Meredith wouldn't find Lily first. He unlocked the door, and then twisted its knob to open it. He walked in, and saw Lily squirming on a chair, tied up with a gag in her mouth. "Lily!" Max exclaimed. He untied her, Meredith hearing them, and walking into the room. Her heart sank, basically falling out of her body. She stood there watching Max untie Lily . Then she saw Lily's hands shift from regular hands to grey, scale-y hand's with claws sharp as knives. Then as Max turned around, she saw Lily grab Max's neck from the back, and pull him to the ground. She wanted to help him so badly, but then she realized that she might have a chance to live again. Lily was sat on top of Max. Her claws suddenly got sharper, and longer. Then she swiped her claws along his neck. He was gone, but Meredith wasn't.