The Mysterious Gameshow

Episode 4: Recovery

A ringing.

A bright light.

Feeling.

The sense of touch.

Awareness.

Physical being.

They were alive again.

SD Card rubbed his eyes as he sat up away from the brightly shining sun. 

The land was clean. There was no blood, or guts, or corpses. It was beautiful. Lovely green-blue grass, blossoming flowers. The gentle breeze felt wonderful. Having feelings and a physical body felt wonderful. Especially to those who'd been dead much longer than other contestants.

Candle wandered over to his team, only to be met by disappointment as only one out of four of them were there. "Where's Masquerade Mask? Where's Potted Plant?" He asked, a little anxiously. 

"You... You killed Potted Plant..." EN said. 

"I didn't..." Candle responded.

"You did... You killed a lot of people... You also killed Orange." Embroidery Needle informed him.

"I don't remember..." Candle said, sadly.

"I know. It's okay. They forgive you." Embroidery Needle assured him.

"Did I kill Masquerade too?" He asked. 

"No... Our team lost the challenge. She eliminated herself... She told Mystery Jar that she didn't want to play anymore. She begged that I voted her, I saw how sad she was... I had to." EN explained. 

"What challenge?" Candle asked.

"...MJ turned the dead contestants into zombies, which every team suffered the most deaths lost the challenge." She explained.

"That's... That's..." Candle's tone went from sad to pure anger and hatred.

"THAT'S FUCKED UP! DEATH ISN'T A GAME! WHERE IS SHE!? I'M GONNA KILL HER. LET HER PLAY HER OWN FUCKING GAME, SHE-"

"She's gone." EN interrupted.

"What...?" Candle asked.

"She's been gone for a few months now." She explained.

"...I hate her..." He mumbled quietly as tears built in his eyes.

------

Other teams didn't have quite as strong emotions about the whole ordeal as Candle did.

Except one person, who refused to talk to her team.

"Toastyyy, please talk to us. Tell us what you meant!" Lego Brick begged.

"I MEANT WHAT I SAID! THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING!" Toaty yelled angrily.

"That doesn't help up understand!" Strawberry said. 

"They weren't them. Mystery did something to them. That wasn't them! I WAS TALKING TO THEM!" Toasty shouted.

Rain Drop repeatedly tried signing stuff to help LB and Strawberry understand, but they didn't know sign language. 

"At least tell us what Rain Drop is saying..." Lego Brick asked. 

"Ugh... When I fainted, I was actually... Dead. Basically. Kind of. I don't really know how it works yet. But I can talk with ghosts, but I have to be in the ghost world to do it! I was talking to SD Card, but then you attacked him! He was almost calm. He was getting calm!" Toasty cried. 

------

"So sorry everyone. I had some business I needed to take care of. But after that long delay, all of our friends are back and we can continue the show!" Mysterious Jar announced.

Everyone cheered.

They hoped continuing the game would help them forgive her. 

"The next challenge is to... To..." Mystery thought for a moment.

And then she thought more. 

And the more she thought the more distressed she appeared. 

To the point it worried contestants.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" MJ screamed.

Everyone stared silently.

"I'm sorry... I just- It's- The next challenge is an art challenge. Go." Mystery said. 

She walked in circles from team to team, examining their art each time.

But as the drawings progressed, she seemed to get more and more upset. 

She looked at the drawing of a galaxy from one team.

She let out a whimper.

She walked backwards away from them, tripping over another team. 

"I'm sorry, I-" She saw the drawing of herself and went the other way. 

It seemed that every drawing at this point was just really upsetting to her. 

She sat away from the teams, clutching her head, whining, nearly screaming.

"You helped me... You were helping me... You did it for a reason..." Mysterious reminded herself repeatedly. 

Droplet went over her to her, along with Cakepop. 

Her problems felt all too familiar to Droplet. 

"Mystery, are you okay...?" She asked cautiously. 

It sounded distorted in her head. 

It sounded like...

Her.

"No, no get away from me!" Mysterious blasted a laser at her. 

"GAH!" Droplet screamed as she leapt out of the way.

"We want to help you, MJ." Cakepop said.

"SHE WANTED TO HELP ME! SHE DID HELP ME! SHE DID. THAT'S ALL IT WAS. HELP. HELP. HELP. HELP ME!" Mystery started sobbing. She clawed at her own face. 

Droplet pulled her arms down. 

"We're gone help! Stop it!" She pulled her arms down again.

"Mystery, you don't have any... Traumatic experiences... Do you...?" Droplet asked, knowing exactly how MJ was feeling right now. 

"Traumatic... Experiences... No. No... It wasn't traumatic. Nothing was traumatic. She helped me." Mystery Jar said.

"What happened?" Cakepop asked.

"Nothing. I'm fine. Go back to your teams. I'm fine. I'm fine." Mysterious repeated over and over. 

"No you're not." Droplet insisted. 

"I am! GO AWAY!" Mysterious picked her up and threw her at her team. 

Droplet screamed until she landed face first into the dirt, stuck by her horns. 

Cakepop went back to her team so she wouldn't suffer the same fate. 

------

Lantern helped Droplet out of the dirt. 

Droplet seemed expressionless for a moment, before giving a chuckle, with a look of sadness and tears filling her eyes. "It's okay, I've been thrown around like that before. A lot." Droplet said to her.

Lantern gave her a quick hug before they all went back to the challenge. 

------

"Alright, time's up. Team Confusing., is up for elimination." Mystery announced unenthusiastically. 

"Voting will take place next episode. Just. Do whatever you want. I don't care."

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Woah

short chapter