The Heretics from Up Above [🄿🄾🄿🄿🅈 🄿🄻🄰🅈🅃🄸🄼🄴]

Chapter 12: Statues

"Hey, Charlotte! Virginia!!"

Looking up, we were overly excited to see that the four Huggies and Bunzo were still alive. But they were roughed up a bit, which was... okay. "Once we finish, we'll come back and free you guys," Charlotte said.

"But we can't do that in the game," I replied.

Charlotte frowned and jabbed me in the side with her elbow. Ouch. "Did the Huggies get you two?" Bunzo asked, arching an eyebrow.

We shook our heads as the Huggie said that we did great during their game. I told them both of us were nearsighted, and had we not been wearing our glasses, Charlotte and I would've lost the game countless times. "Atta kiddos! Now, go beat the last game and then come back so you can free us!" the bunny called, giving us a thumbs up from his web.

A smile spread across our faces as we gave them one in return, turning to the Statues door. But, it wasn't open all the way. "It looks stuck," the yellow Huggy said.

Charlotte pursed her lips and used her GrabPack to open the door. After like 30 seconds of pulling, the door opened, and we were set to go. With one final wave to the five in their webs, we walked down the stairs and saw the walls had designs of PJ Pug-a-Pillar. He's a soft-looking guy, but at first glance, he's creepy. Wait– no. Cassie Cutie-pillar was creepier in the official Chapter 2 trailer. "Sis. The door's blocked," I said.

"Here's the door," Charlotte added, pointing to her right.

I turned to my left, following Charlotte into a room with pipes and dim lights. After a bit of running around, I saw a poster with PJ on it that said "Hungry to Learn." "Not me. My IM3 class sucks," I muttered.

"Stop complaining about it," Charlotte retorted.

"I'm not! Blame the teacher and her awful methods of teaching! No wonder her passing rate is at 49%!!" I argued.

The two of us groaned and kept walking (my feet hurt) until we saw a cardboard cutout. I instantly ran to it, pressing the button. He barked. I did it again. "Do you wanna play with PJ?"

Bro, I love his Scooby-Doo-ass voice. I hugged the cardboard cutout before turning to face what we had to do. Now, let me be real. Again, I can't stress how hard some of these puzzles are. So do you all mind if I skip that? Just know it took us about 8-9 minutes to solve it. We walked into the game area, being met with gently flickering lights. The TV then turned on to explain the game for the last time. "Welcome to Statues. This advanced obstacle course is designed to test your physical endurance and strength. The rules are simple; the lights will turn off. You can move through the obstacle course at this time. However, when the lights turn on, you can look around but cannot move. You may move again once the lights turn back off. The lovable PJ Pug-a-Pillar will follow you. If PJ reaches you, your test is over. That's all. Good luck."

The TV turned off, which should cue Mommy's entrance via window silhouette. But as we turned to see her, we got a better look at PJ. "I forgot he's so creepy..." I muttered.

"It was always so sad to see the kids go. They called me Mommy because I was the closest thing they ever had to one. But they'd come for games and never come back. They left Mommy to die alone. Mommy didn't deserve that. But you... You girls worked here... So if anyone deserves to die alone... it's you two..."

First off, no. Second, NO. Her light went off. The metal gate in front of us opened. And the lights went off entirely as some music played. Charlotte and I were quick to get running, going in some zig-zag pattern. That's when the lights came on. We stopped, looking back to see PJ on his way. Slowly.

Creepily.

I gulped as the lights turned back off. "Go," Charlotte said.

We ran again, leaving the little zig-zag area under the cover of darkness. But then the lights flickered on after about 5 seconds. We stopped and turned, seeing no sign of PJ. But he might have been slowly making his way to us. Talk about "making my way downtown." Lights off. Charlotte pointed up and we could see glowing hoops. "We have to swing??" I breathed.