Oneirophrenia

Chapter 2: Aerial Wordplay

"Indigo?" You hear Sunny's voice say from outside your door. "Hey um sorry to bother you but its been an hour and if you don't get out here I think that Eliza might kill you- so um yeah... "

If the goal of that power nap was to energize you then it did not work. 

You get out of bed feeling more exhausted than before but at least the piercing headache is gone. You get out of bed and push open your door. 

Clementine is sitting in the space in front of the stage staring up at the ceiling and Sunny is sitting on the ground solving a Rubix cube. They both look at you and Sunny goes to say something but he is interrupted by Clementine who says "Jeez, took you long enough, the fuck were you doing in there" 

"Nap." 

this was the only thing that you could say without going through an extreme amount of pain, even this one word felt like you were swallowing a cactus. "Ah, there you are!" Kaizo says as you turn to face the stage. Kaizo grins and holds a microphone to his pixelated smile 

"Is everyone ready for the first game!" "No," Clementine says "I still have no idea what the fuck we're doing," Eliza, who you haven't really noticed until now says "Sadly you don't get a choice," She says glaring at Clementine "That was a joke by the way, I was being sarcastic, I don't feel bad for you" 

Clementine's fists tighten and she stands up "I'm not that stupid, I can understand when someone's being sarcastic" Kaizo's eyes dart from Clementine to Eliza as he says "clear it up you two there is no need to be rude" Clementine rolls her eyes and crosses her arms "Can we just start the first game already" Kaizo's eyes light up and he says "Of course I thought that you would never ask! 

"Quick disclaimer the games that we offer here at Supernova aren't all normal gameshow games and some of them may put your life at risk... With that out of the way let's get things started" After saying this he launches his hand into the air and snaps, and everything goes dark. 

Your eyes open to see a floor made up of flashing colorful rainbow panels, and you also realize that there are no walls or ceilings. You are suspended up in what looks to be the sky. Just as you get your barring you see a huge blue, semi-transparent screen flash on in front of you with 13 underscores displayed on it "The rules are simple," Kaizo says "Guess letters and if any of them match up with the word that I have chosen the letter will appear in its place in the word but, if you get a letter wrong there with be a... penalty." 

you notice that as he says 'penalty' a weird pole thing emerges from the ground. It looks a bit like a street light in the way that it goes up the out to the side a bit and then down just a few inches. "So we just guess anything?" Sunny says inquisitively "Mhm, any letter in the whole English alphabet," Eliza says in a bit of an annoyed and condescending tone "Hey wait what do we get if we get the word correct," Clementine asks looking up a bit to the clouds above probably because Kaizo and Eliza aren't actively in the room with you and it seems more weird to just stare off into space and chat with them. "Depending on who gets the most letters correct and the least wrong that's how will determine how many points you get! and whoever gets the most at the end of the games will be the winner! unless all of you fail, then no one gets anything!" Kaizo says with a touch of flare in his voice ... 

"Clementine~" Eliza says calmly "You seem... how do I put this... unsatisfied?" Clementine looks up from the ground and says "No shit Sherlock this place sucks ass, you two are making us participate in weird and stupid games against our will, am I supposed to be happy?" Kaizo pauses for a moment and says "So! Why not someone guess a letter" Clementine rolls her eyes and says "Okay uhh A, B, C, D, E-" Sunny looks horrified, runs up to Clementine, and says "Ah! Stop what are you doing!" and cuts Clementine off.

_ _ E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A is displayed on the board and you see a grotesque and barely human face, body and a left leg appear, hanging from the pole that looks like a weird streetlight. The skin of the person who is hanging from the pole is leathery and seemingly rotting. Its face is lifeless and cold with a dark substance pouring out of its eyes, ears, and mouth. It's a stark difference from the rest of the aesthetic of Supernova. It catches you a bit off-guard to see something this... gross? Both Clementine and Sunny stop what they were doing to turn to the thing that is hanging from the pole. "That's not good-" Sunny says, weakly pointing to the hanging person. Everyone pauses for a moment in silence even though you don't really have much of a choice. Sunny laughs nervously and says "You know I've actually played a game really similar to this before and I've always been told that you should pick vowels seeing as all English words have vowels in them! How about... U?" 

A moment of pause before another leg is added to the figure hanging from the pole "Okay, well that didn't go as planned," you think for a moment before taping Sunny on the back and using your hand to make an "O" Sunny tilts his head confused and says "O?" The screen in front of you all updates

O _ E _ _ O _ _ _ E _ _ A. Clementine squints and says "What word is this-?" Clementine looks back up at the sky and says "Can we get a hint or something? This is boring..." 

After a moment you hear Eliza's voice say "If you three continue on the path you are on right now things will be very exciting very soon" Clementine slumps her shoulders and says "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" 

... No response 

"C" Clementine guesses confidently. An arm is added to the figure as if it grew from the body. Sunny puts his hand on his mouth and says "Okay guys let's think about this... what could this word be..." ... 'That's It!' You think to yourself you know what the word is! it's on the tip of your tongue but... you can't make it out... but, you know this word, you remember learning about it when you were being told about- about... 

"Indigo?!" Sunny says. "You looked like you completely zoned out, is everything okay." 'No' is what you would have said, you had almost figured out what the word was, heck you almost remembered something from your past but... it slipped away. You nodded yes your head and kept thinking of possibilities. "UGH, I'M SO SICK OF THIS" Clementine yells stomping her foot on the ground. "S!" she says staring at the screen. the screen turns to black and it says 'GAME OVER' in big red letters as another arm, the final one, is added to the hanging person. what happens next feels like a nightmare.

The figure hanging from the pole detaches and falls limp onto the floor after the figure drops you hear a sound like bones cracking. The peaceful clouds that have been floating around you during this game of "Hangman" turn grey and stormy. the figure stands up and gives a demented smile as it lunges toward the 3 of you with violent force.