Illusional

The Intermission

I figured that we were safe... for now... so I decided to take this time to discuss with Stella about some things...

"Stella, can we talk in the bedroom for a second?" I asked.

"We're a little too young for that, Mason..." Stella said, jokingly. "Just kidding, we can chat for a bit... about what, exactly?"

"I want to save that for the bedroom. I don't want anyone finding out what..." I replied hesitantly, looking from side to side.

"Alright." Stella said.

We went into the bedroom and shut the door behind us, after which we sat on the bed together. It was quiet for a second and the temperature seemingly raised...

"First off..." I started, "...what do you think of this whole situation?"

"Oh... uhh... pretty bad. This is not what I was expecting for a cozy winter cabin trip... fortunately, I have reason to believe that it's nothing we can't handle, together." Stella said with a subtle yet obvious smile. "Why do you ask?"

    "I feel like my dad is behind all of this..."

    "...oh. But, why, though? He was one of the victims of these... anomalies."

    "Yes, but what if it's some sort of... signal, or something? What if he did this to himself on purpose to make it seem like you're a bad girlfriend?"

    Stella thought for a moment, then replied, "That is a good point... but that doesn't explain all the kids attacking us and the multiple 'evil' Johns."

    "Well, Bill is a robotics expert. He took only the best robotics electives and college courses. I just think that he could've made it seem like the robots were the children or the Johns. Did you notice how rough the kids were attacking us, and how hard the murderous John was banging on that door? I can still hear him trying to break in!"

"I don't think he would try to make robots that would harm any of us..." Stella defended.

"Probably not. He was only attacking John. I'm just saying he might have made it look evil to fool us. He may have been programmed to attack John without actually trying to kill him."

"B-but..." Stella tried to say before I interrupted her.

"Plus, even if he did have the intent of murdering us all, there would be little to no evidence that he would be the cause of all our deaths... other than the fact that he would be the only survivor... probably."

"...okay. Well, do you think we should tell Mr. Yemmingham about this?" Stella asked, looking like she knew the answer to that.

"Absolutely not!" I whispered loudly. "Then he's going to make our lives even more miserable, especially considering he hates you!"

"Okay, okay, calm down..." Stella said in a calm manner. "...let's not get too worked up yet."

"You're right." I concluded. "Right now, we still can't escape, although I'm quite convinced we can."

    "We probably can't..." Stella reconfirmed. "Jenny said that the snow around us was 30 yards in diameter.

    "Wow, 30 whole yards?!" I said in absolute shock. I had no clue why I was surprised, though, considering I read about that earlier when Marleigh borrowed my journal.

    "Yes, I'm not even lying!" Stella said loudly. I quickly shushed her from making too much noise.

    "Okay, okay..." Stella said in a whispering voice. "...what do you think we should do?"