Lost - An II AU

Chapter Two

Fan's POV

I sat on my bed, leaning against the wall and clutching my phone in my hands. I scrolled through some recommended videos on YouTube with my thumb before deciding to move to a different app instead. Suddenly, I got a notification.

"Hm?" I mumbled, reading what it said. Oh, it was just that little reminder Test Tube put on my phone so I wouldn't 'sit around looking at a screen all day'. I think that's ridiculous though, I walk around without my phone! Sometimes. I just sighed, setting my phone down on my bed and looking around the room, my gaze pausing at the clock on the wall.

The clock said it was 2:52, and the movie theater was about a 20 minute drive from the hotel. At least, I think it was, I don't remember it all too well. I could ask Lightbulb since I should probably go get her so we can head to the movie.

Then I remembered she said she'd invited somebody else. "I wonder who it was." I muttered to myself, slowly getting up from my bed and shuffling to the door and opening it, stepping into the hall.

In that moment, somebody was rushing through the hallway in my direction, and completely ran into me, making me stumble sideways and try to grab the wall to stop myself from falling over.

"Fan, Fan! It's 2:50, we gotta go! I also invited Balloon to the movies, so let's go tell him it's time to leave and we can get going! I REALLY wanna see that movie!" The object chattered, who I instantly recognized as Lightbulb.

"Wait, you invited Balloon...?" I asked. "Yep!" I was somewhat confused on why she would ask Balloon of all people to come along, but decided against asking any further, since we had no time for silly things like that. I heard Balloon was trying on a redemption arc though, so maybe that's got something to do with it? Ah, whatever.

I haven't been keeping up with the Inanimate Insanity episodes lately, I should do that... "Hello??? Fan??" Oh, right, Lightbulb. "Let's go get Balloon, and let's do it fast." I finally piped up after a while of standing there.

"Okay!" Lightbulb abruptly lurched forwards, taking hold of my arm and pulling me along as she sped through the hallway. I just let her drag me along until we got to the staircase, since we didn't have the time to be picky about stuff like that, else we'd run late for the movie.

We went down a couple more staircases and through a lot more hallways before finally hearing Balloon's voice from around the corner of this one hallway we were in. I also heard Suitcase, so I guessed they were just having a normal conversation. They like to have conversations farther away from the lobby, probably for privacy.  Don't ask how I know this.

As we got closer, I could make out their conversation. "I can't BELIEVE he DID that!" Suitcase's muffled voice exclaimed. "Yeah, Nickel's being such a JERK today!" Balloon replied. Then, we finally turned the corner and their chatting faded as they looked at Lightbulb, and then me, who was basically being dragged along the whole time and who looked honestly just done with life.

"Lightbulb, I think you gave me rug burns." I grumbled, pulling my arm away from her. Lightbulb didn't appear to hear me though, since she was talking with Balloon about the movie. I just sat down on the floor and laid there pathetically until they were done chatting.

"Okay Fan, get up, we're going to the movies!" Lightbulb exclaimed, grabbing my arms and pulling me to my feet. "Owowow- Okay okay, let's go." I responded, since being pulled by my arms wasn't very pleasant.

So, the three of us walked through more hallways and down more staircases until we reached the lobby. Balloon and I were panting heavily by the time we got there, and I toppled over and fell face first into the carpet. Lightbulb looked unaffected. "Why didn't we... use the... ELEVATOR?" Balloon asked, clearly exhausted.

"Dunno."

"Uuuugghhh..." I grumbled into the rug before Lightbulb grabbed my arm and dragged me to the front door. Balloon just stumbled along, not wanting to be pulled across the floor like I was.

Lightbulb grabbed me and forced me to a standing position again. I pushed her hands away once I was on my feet again, looking at the parking spots by the hotel OJ had installed recently while absentmindedly rubbing a rug burn on my arm.

"Well, who's going to drive us there?" Balloon inquired abruptly, snapping me out of my little trance while breaking the awkward silence surrounding the three of us. "Oh, uh, I'll drive. I have a car and everything, so... yeah." I volunteered. And so, I guided the two to my car and hopped in the driver's seat. My rug burns still hurt a lot, but I didn't trust Lightbulb to drive and Balloon could pop really easily. Plus, his legs were probably too short to reach the pedals anyways.

Taking hold of the steering wheel, I could see Lightbulb and Balloon climb into the back of the car using the rearview mirror. Lightbulb offered Balloon some help with finding where to buckle his seatbelt, who quickly accepted. I started up the car as Lightbulb buckled her own seatbelt and Balloon adjusted his appropriately so if he lurched forwards he would have less of a chance of popping from it.

And with that, I carefully pulled out of the parking spot and onto the dirt road, before slowly beginning the drive to the movie theater. I could hear Lightbulb and Balloon quietly chatting as I drove. Something about lemons with ketchup, but I couldn't hear much else. Who eats that anyway?

While I was driving, I noticed it had started to sprinkle, before the rain eventually turned into, well, your average rain. It wasn't pouring, but it wasn't a very light rain either. Then, Lightbulb spoke up. "Hey, Fan?" I took a moment to process what she said while also trying to keep focused on driving before responding. "What is it, Lightbulb?" I replied, not bothering to look at her so I could keep my eyes on the road.

I heard some shuffling in the back of my car. "Can you turn on some music?" Lightbulb finally spoke after an awkwardly long silence. "Oh, sure." I replied, slowing down a bit so I could turn on one of the channels. They'd have some music on there. I then turned my full attention back to the road, accelerating a bit.

I began to speed up the car more since I didn't want to be late to the movies, and the time wasn't going to wait for anybody, including us. Then I noticed a sharp turn in the road, and quickly noticed I would need to slow down to make the turn properly.

I eased my foot onto the brakes and pushed down on the pedal a tad so we'd slow down steadily, but... it didn't? I began to panic a bit, and pushed down on the brakes again, harder this time, but still, nothing. Honestly, I think it might've sped up instead.

Lightbulb noticed we were speeding up and, noting how panicked I was, asked me if something was wrong. "Brace yourselves!" I just yelled back, preparing myself mentally and hopefully physically for a crash.

Then, my car went straight off the road, crashing into the railing at the turn and completely knocking it over as it drove straight into the forest and down a hill, accelerating as it did so. I frantically reached forwards and clutched the wheel, trying to direct the car so we didn't hit any trees and hopefully slowed down.

Lightbulb was screaming bloody murder, obviously terrified. I was screaming too, just not quite as loud since I was trying to save us all with the wondrous steering wheel. Balloon was yelling something, but I couldn't make out the words due to the screaming. Probably some curse words or a prayer.

I stared through the windshield for a moment, bracing myself for an impact again. It was pure luck we hadn't hit something by now, despite my directing of the car, but I was 99.99% sure it'd happen.

And you know what? My rushed and probably not accurate calculations predicted it, and it did indeed happen.

A large bang rung throughout my ears, and all I could see for a moment was...

Red.