Project Chaos: Disneyland

Chapter Eight

"You are literally the worst tail I've ever had the misfortune to meet," Teddy's roommate grumbled. "You do know what happened to the curious cat, right? Because at this point, I'm about to put it out of its misery myself."

"How did you do that?" Teddy asked, eyes narrowed. "You just walked through a metal gate and then disappeared and reappeared from thin air."

Hayato gave him a deadpan stare for the longest minute before throwing his hands up.

"Honestly, what did I do? What god decided I should be stuck with you?" Turning, he walked away a few feet, and then stalked back. "It's part of living in the mansion, of being a Spook. People develop abilities. Like ghosts. Walking through walls, vanishing, telekinesis, things like that. Which is the least this place could offer after what it did to us."

Hayato was seething, and he stormed past Teddy a ways to stand in the middle of the path, staring at the rest of Adventureland with his fists clenched.

"Disneyland used to be the happiest place on earth," he muttered as Teddy came over to join him. "It was a stupid slogan, but it was true. I can't even tell you exactly why. It was home to all these characters we grew up with. All these rides had great atmosphere, even when we waited in ridiculous lines. Music everywhere, lands with themes that never got old, and everyone who came here was just happy."

Hayato shot Teddy a look from the corner of his eye.

"You honesty don't remember anything?"

Teddy silently met his roommate's stare, his stoic expression answer enough. Hayato shook his head.

"It wasn't just for little kids either," he continued after a minute. He wasn't seeing the park as it was now. His dark grey eyes were far away, seeing something from long ago.

"Everybody who found themselves labeled as adults way before we were ready loved it here too. Disneyland was this physical reminder of what it was like to believe in happy endings, in a world where the hero always wins and true love actually exists. When we were kids, Disneyland was a promise of a world we could live and thrive in."

Hayato jammed his fists into the pockets of his pants.

"Instead, we grew up and got tossed into a world full of crap, a world where nothing worked out and everything was stacked against us. And so we loved coming back here, where real life didn't matter for the day." With a ghost of a smirk, he added, "Out of student loans and treehouse homes, we all would take the latter."

Teddy's roommate blew out a breath, blinking as he came back to the present.

"When Disney released magic, nobody believed it at first. They called it Project Charm. And then there were all these 'miracle stories' popping up - 'Guy Becomes Billionaire Overnight,' 'Accountant Cures Cancer,' 'Young Girl Discovered to be Lost Princess.' Stuff like that. And then the world just lost its shit.

"'Prince and Princess Have Fantasy Wedding' became 'World Leaders Vanish Overnight' and 'Village Warlord Becomes Worldwide Threat' like the fucking Holocaust. Except nothing could stop all the Hitlers and too many people were too obsessed with making their own dreams come true to care about the massacre next door."

Hayato hissed out a stream of curses, head dropping back to look at the night sky. Teddy absorbed all of this, hunching his shoulders against the feeling of hopelessness that chilled him. To live in a world so corrupt and obviously doomed would leave anyone broken.

Teddy was struck with a sudden understanding of Hayato's attitude.

"I think most of us came back to Disneyland for the same reason we always did before," Hayato said, almost whispering. "To find our escape, our safe haven. To forget the reality that was just, like, 1000% more messed up than usual. Thing is, the park shut down not long after magic was released. Nobody knows why. But when we got here, the place was almost abandoned. And the worst part?"