Chapter Three

203 3 15
                                    

Taco yawned when she woke up, doing her regular morning routine. Gathering firewood and starting a campfire, making tea, etc.
It also decided she should investigate the scream from yesterday. While everything was telling her not to do so, she had grown ever so curious.

It would probably be calmed down by now. Of course, that's what she thought before she heard talking and footsteps. A lot of both. What the hell, was the entire show cast here?

...

No, not all of them, of course, but a lot.. maybe 7? Fuck, why were they in the forest? Taco went into a bush quietly, but her curiousity overwhelmed her.
She walked towards where the noises came from, spotting 6 objects. Nice guess.

It was Balloon, Suitcase, Paper, Knife, Microphone and him. Ugh..
Taco remained in the bush, looking out. Though, she spotted Knife and Microphone looking around for someone.
... probably her.

Taco mentally scoffed, rolling her eyes. It followed the group, though pretty far behind.
She noticed they had stopped, and a couple of objects gasped or shrieked. She wasn't sure what it was until she caught a whiff of a horrible stench. "Bloody hel-" She blurted out, not thinking, though she silenced quickly.

Microphone turned, and her eyes immediately darted around. Nearly everyone doing the same. "Was that it!?" He yelled out. Taco let out a scowl, debating whether to stay where she was or run away. She decided on running away, she'd already had a close encounter with an injury when she'd seen Knife.

... oh, but what about that pungent smell? She still didn't know what it was. She sat in the bush, still unknowing of what to do. That was until Microphone looked in it. Taco just stared up at the tall object, hoping Microphone wouldn't rat it out.

To be fair, she had all the right to do so. Taco had gaslit Microphone. But Microphone just mouthed something. What was it... 
'Meet here soon'. "Theres nothing over here, OJ." Taco stayed ducked in the bush. It was probably too late to run away.

The group hadn't found anything, other than when Microphone found Taco and looked at.. what they were looking at, she had no idea. Taco looked too, but more hesitantly.

...

Pickle.

It was Pickle. Dead. Taco stared in disbelief. She went back to sitting in the bush, the same look of disbelief frozen on her face. It sounded as if all of the objects were trying to pick up the corpse of Pickle, and it seemed they succeeded once Taco heard footsteps and the stench growing heavier as they passed it.

--------

Multiple hours had passed, and Taco was being unproductive while sipping tea. She didn't have all that much to do, and if Microphone was getting here, she may as well wait. It's not like she has anything to do.

She had nearly fallen asleep when she heard footsteps. It rubbed its eyes, looking around rapidly to make sure it was Microphone and to see where she was.

"Taco? Are you here?" Microphone said, sounding slightly exasperated. Taco walked out from behind a bush. "Yes. Yes, I am." It brushed itself off and looked at Microphone. "Why exactly did you want to see me?" Just clarifying, Taco was not in a good mood. She just acted as she usually did to set an illusion that she was doing fine.

"Do you know the reason why we came in the forest earlier?." Microphone asked hesitantly.
Taco thought to herself. "Not quite. I did smell something disgusting, though. Was it that? Or did they find out I hid in the forest?" Taco was, of course, lying, but she could find out if Microphone would be honest with her if it lied. Microphone heaved a sigh. "Why did I have to be the one to say this?.." She muttered. "Pickle is.. dead." She sounded hesitant while saying it.

"Wh.. what?-.." Taco said with fake shock. Ah, for fucks sake, why did it have to be Pickle of all contestants. It could've been Trophy, or perhaps OJ. That would've been GREAT! Not even sarcastically. "I- Taco, be honest with me here. Did you do it?" Microphone sounded unsure of herself. "Of course not! I'd never murder outside of the contest.. Especially with Pickle.. I never even got the chance to apologize in person!" Tacos fury at being asked this was not faked, though it was somewhat masked just to not seem like it'd completely lash out any second. Microphone sighed, nodding.

"Alright. I'll believe you for now, Taco." Microphone crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the mexican food, still seeming suspicious of it. "That's all I have to say for now, so uhh.. g- scratch that, bye." Taco was annoyed by Microphones  attitude towards her.

She'd apologized through notes after Microphone left season two, because it was the only thing she could do considering she'd be torn to pieces if it was spotted at Hotel OJ by anyone but Pickle or Mic. Maybe some of the season two contestants,, but when Taco was spying, she heard a couple of season one contestants telling them about Tacos 'betrayal' to Pickle and 'mischevious strategy'.

Whatever, her thoughts were getting carried away.

------------

Knife sat on his bed that formerly was used as a guest bed at Hotel OJ, before season two had ended at least. He was still pondering what to think about the situation with Pickle and who could've done it. The obvious answer was her, but then again, she wanted to apologize to Pickle, and she tried to do so many times. So why would she?

Had she gotten fed up with Pickle ignoring her letters? Wouldn't she have apologized in person instead? Knife knew she would have the courage to do so. She wouldn't kill him instead of facing him. Agh, who was it? Knife wanted to scream to let his anger out, but he kept that scream in, continuing to think to himself. Who would do it? Trophy?

He was a jock. He would've said jerk, but Knife said it himself. Trophy wasn't a jerk was a jock. Knife was the jerk. He scoffed, moving away from these thoughts. No one in Hotel OJ hated Pickle particularly. He was a pretty chill guy with little to no enemies in the competition. Perhaps someone was jealous he was always on the TV?..

Knife's only idea for who could've gotten mad at that was Fan or Soap, but Soap was a close friend to Pickle and Knife, plus she would prefer to clean rather than play games. And Fan was pretty weak. Knife doubted the poor guy would even think about it, unless it was in one of those... books Fan wrote before he got into season two.

It. Was. So. Annoying. Knife let out a curse to try to suppress his anger, but it didn't do much. Knife sighed, walking out of the room and down to the first floor with a disgruntled face. He had yet another headache, so he would attempt to find Soap to give him some more of those headache pills. He was really glad she was willing to help out, well, she'd probably do it for anyone since she was one of the only people who helped out in the hotel.

Knife looked around for Soap quietly. Quite frankly, he felt like a lost child in a grocery store without his mother. Well, Knife had hidden it, but he had Autophobia, the fear of being alone, so he felt like that whenever he was alone. The nights were terrifying now, without Pickle to share a room with him. He looked around for a moment, spotting people chatting around the room, and then he spotted Soap. With a relieved sigh, he walked towards her. "Hey, Soap, I have another headache. Can you, uh, get me some more Tylenol or whatever it was?"

Soap let out a small chuckle. "It was Ibuprofen, Knife." Knife blinked, but nodded. "Still, I need some. Please." They didn't care what medicine it was. He just wanted this headache to go away.

___________

1352 words!!

Uhhhh sorry I kind of disappeared for a month aha? A lot happened and I just had no energy to get on Wattpad, lmao

The Parasitic (Inanimate Insanity)Where stories live. Discover now