The Rainbow Friends: Chapter 1

Chapter 5: Lights Out

I gradually awaken in the familiar bunk bed room, listening to Noah and Jingu engaged in a conversation or an argument.

Then, to my disbelief, a voice reaches my ears- a voice I hadn’t heard since he died.

"Noah, why has Sam been asleep longer than usual? Is he alright?" Dan's voice, tinged with concern, pierces through the room.

As Dan starts to walk away, my curiosity overrides any thoughts about how he could possibly be alive. I open my eyes, confirming that my ears were not deceiving me. I sit up and call out to him.

He meets my gaze, and for a few seconds, our eyes lock. Then he approaches me, and I rush into his arms, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

I cling to him desperately, unwilling to let go, as if afraid that he might vanish again.

"Please, Dan, don't go and die again," I implore, my voice trembling, tears welling up.

"I'll do my best," Dan chuckles, his tone filled with warmth. Suddenly, the lights start flickering, and the speakers crackle to life, the voice coming through intermittently.

"Wait... This shouldn't be happening!" The person's voice rings out, filled with worry and concern for the malfunctioning machine we had just activated.

Suddenly, me, Dan, Noah and Jingu stand alone in complete darkness. I felt kind of nervous since if the room we were in had power issues then surely all of the other rooms would as well.

“What?! Is my machine okay?! Its to dark to see it!” Our kidnapper says sounding extremely frustrated and annoyed.

“So there’s three of us left right?” Dan asks our group. We look back at the TV and out of the 15 that we had at the very start of our journey, only 4 of us were left.

“Okay. Just us and one complete noob who doesn’t know what he’s doing in the slightest,” Dan says speaking directly towards Jingu, “Jingu. You’re the who has been standing inside of the same locker. We might be doomed.”

“Can you find a way to put the power back on for me? Find my nine batteries to power up the backup generator in the Theatre,” the man asks us, “who knows? Maybe I’ll let you leave right afterwards.”

“The wall door and the door in your room is open already and also, at the right is a little shop with three torches since I could not find the last one. One of you will have to pair up,” the man lastly says.

The man concludes by mentioning that the wall door and the door in our room are already open, and there's a small shop to the right with three torches, although he couldn't find the fourth one. One of us would need to pair up to retrieve them.

With cautious determination, I navigate my way to the checkered floored room, guided by a faint green glow emanating from the shop. I pat my hand along the shop's countertop until I find two torches—one for myself and one for Dan. Flicking mine on, I quickly hand it to Dan, feeling safer with him holding it.

We set out to explore our prison, leaving Noah and a seemingly oblivious Jingu behind. As we progress through the darkened facility, a sense of nervousness lingers, aware that the power issues may extend to all the other rooms.

"He's not here, Dan. Let's keep moving," I inform him after peeking around a corner, unable to spot our pursuers; Blue, Green and potentially Purple.

We run through the factory like place when the Orange feed alarm goes off suddenly. We hop inside of a box and wait for Orange to stop running around the whole entire factory.

“Where’s the other two do you think? Let me guess. My boy Jingu is definitely inside of the same locker somewhere,” Dan laughs at Jingu.

Orange was done running around and the loud annoying alarm turns off. We find another battery and we deposit inside of the generator.

“Should we go off and find Jingu and Noah?” I ask Dan.

“Why not. Noah’s probably doing his job and Jingu is well… let’s just see”

We run off into the depths of the factory and we find Jingu… inside of the same locker as he is always inside of!

“Yeah yeah. We thought you would be here. What’s wrong with you?” Dan laughs while asking Jingu in a nice but honest way.

Me and Dan try to find Noah but we couldn’t find him. We find a few more batteries and we were about to go deposit them inside of the machine when the alarm goes off for Orange. We quickly hide in a nearby locker.

“Sam. We have found 4 and now we have 5, 6 so we need 3 more batteries,” Dan speaks to me as the alarm goes off.

Me and Dan quickly exit the locker and there was absolutely no sound to hear around.
Suddenly, from behind our backs we hear something. It sounded like an angry monster screeching and roaring. Dan looks behind his back and scaredly screams, “What? Oh Blue! Oh god no. No no no no no.”

Me and Dan run away from Blue. My legs grow weary and start to ache as I run up the ramp leading to the sub level which was where we were.

Suddenly, I trip over my untied shoelaces and my whole body starts falling down to the ground in complete darkness. I smash my knee into the ground and the pain was painful. I watch as my best friend runs off and I hear him say, “I found another battery.”

I bring out my phone and turn on the torch. I instantly put it to the brightest setting. I crawl my way back to Dan when Blue catches up to me. He glances over my painful body with a creepy, big smile still on his face. I tried to cry out for help, but my voice did not utter anything. I squeeze my eyes shut, I waited for the moment where Blue would rip me into pieces, and I die.

At the worst time, my arm starts to feel the pain again. The surge of intense pain shoots through my right arm. It's an agonizing sensation, unlike anything I've ever experienced. Waves of pain pulse through my arm, causing tears to well up in my eyes as I struggle to contain the anguish.

Tears begin to trickle down my face, each drop carrying physical and emotional pain I have. I clench my eyes together, trying to suppress the tears from escaping.

I wait for my time to end with my eyes closed. I decided to slightly open one eye and I see my best friend smashing Blue’s head with his pillow.

“Sort it out!” Dan shouts at Blue. Blue didn’t look angrier, but he certainly was. Dan holds my arm and drags me to the Theatre, Blue in very close pursuit. My back starts dragging along the floor and it causes me lots of pain. I could feel cuts and grazes forming on my back.

“Dan. Stop dragging me!” I tell him.

“Alright,” Dan instantly replies letting me go.
I stand up and run. We eventually reach the Theatre and quickly put our boxes on. I watch as Blue then mindlessly sways his arms and body as he walks away from us.

Dan quickly gets up and deposits all of the batteries he was carrying.

“You and me are the champions. We found 7… wait we’ve found basically all of them,” Dan points out to me, “what are Noah and Jingu doing?”

Me and Dan decided to split off from each other to cover more ground when the speakers turned on. As the man speaks, he sounds distorted but I could make out what he was saying.

“One of the… batteries are in the… computer room and the… other in the mine cart room. Go and find them,” the person ends.

“Okay. I guess he felt sorry for us… wait what was that?” I ask myself. I see 4 long claws at the end of some feet. Joining the feet was a purple pole sized leg that is curved. The mystery monster I see walks off and I follow in pursuit. I chase after the mystery monster but as I run around the corner it had vanished into nothingness.

I race to the Theatre that was only a few metres away from where I was. I meet up with Dan and hug him tightly.

“Dan. I saw a monster that has feet and legs. It has claws instead of toes. It disappeared on me,” I tell Dan my story after we split up.

“Wait what? That sounds insane! Let’s hope that’s not the final Rainbow Friend we have to meet,” Dan says nervously. After Dan said that, he reaches into his pocket and brings out black and gold cylinder batteries. He puts one inside of my cold hand and I grasp it tightly, not letting it go.

“Let’s put them in together Sam. For everyone who has died today… let there be light!” Dan shouts comedically. We shove in the last two batteries inside of the generator and I listen closely to the machine. I hear sparks fizzing, cogs turning at a rapid speed and multiple wires turning lights on.

Out from the darkness of pitch black, comes the light that illuminates the whole entire Theatre and the factory.

“We found all 9 batteries. All of them. Your welcome mysterious person, your absolutely welcome,” Dan says optimistically.

“Thanks for turning the Rainbow Friends’ place back into the light. As a reward, I’m going to let you guys go free but firstly, I want to throw you all a goodbye party,” the person says, disappearing.

Me and Dan head back to the room where we can rest and sleep for the night.

As me and Dan walked back to the room, we ran into Noah and Jingu. Dan stopped to chat with them while I continued on my way, my mind already drifting to thoughts of our upcoming departure. I couldn't wait to leave this place and start a new life, but at the same time, I couldn't help feeling a twinge of sadness at the thought of leaving everything behind.

I settled down at my bed, pulling out my journal and a pen. As I began to write, my excitement for the future began to bubble up inside of me. I couldn't wait to see all the outside world and the adventures we would have. But even as I thought about all the exciting things that lay ahead, I couldn't shake the feeling of nostalgia for everything we were leaving behind.

I let out a sigh and leaned back on the bed, closing my eyes for a moment. Leaving was always hard, but this time it felt like it would be especially difficult. I had grown so attached to this place and the people in it, it was going to be tough to say goodbye. But I knew it was time to move on and embrace the future, no matter how bittersweet it may be.

Then, I remember everyone who was with us. The people who were killed by the Rainbow Friends; Nat, that one girl, Josh and more.

“After this goodbye party, I’ll let all of you go. I promise all of you,” the person returns back to us, “get ready for some of my delicious goodbye chocolate cake. Once everyone gets a slice of my nice cake, I’ll open the door to the exit and you can all ‘go home.’”

“This is kind of suspicious. Why is he just letting us leave after all of this?” Noah asks us, confused on what just happened.

“I don’t know,” I reply.

“Jingu is going to get out of there for doing absolutely nothing,” Dan complains.

I see Dan look around and he notices something different about the room.
There was a purple table in the corner near the door. On top of the table, I could see golden tickets that looked similar to the ones from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory but with Blue’s face printed onto the front.

Next to the table, was a blue ticket collector in the shape of Blue’s round spherical head.

I reached into the collector and I brung out a bright white party hat with a picture of the mascot Blue on it. Placing it on my head, Dan, Noah and Jingu used the machine as well but for Dan it wasn’t working as well.

“Can I have my hat? Can I have the hat please. Is this the last night? I hope we’re done and can go home,” Dan complains.

Dan stands in front of the ticket collector, his eyes were glued to the prize dispenser. I could tell he really wanted it since he started gently kicking the machine and the kicking the machine so much it falls over.

“Can I have it now?” Dan asks the machine.

Dan tried to get his party hat. He tried picking up the machine and smashing it to the ground. Me and him notice that the prize holding compartment was loose. Me and Dan tug at it, trying to open it up, but it wasn’t opening at all.
The door of the prize holding compartment was closing again so we try and pull the door away from closing up. Luckily, it worked and Dan got his hat as well as Noah and Jingu.

“Get ready for some of my delicious goodbye cake,” the mysterious person says to all of us.

“Why did you say it like that? Is it like made out of our friends we had or something?” Dan questions himself and the person.

“Once everyone gets a slice, I’ll open the exit door and you can all leave this place and go back home,” the person lastly says.

“Okay so Jingu is going to do nothing,” Dan says beginning to hate Jingu. Let’s have fun in there,” Dan says before we leave...