"Tyler! Wake up!" A shout. It sounded distant.
"J-josh?" His voice was weak and strained.
"Ty! You're awake! You're alive!" The familiar voice cried. Josh leaped into Tyler's lap and pulled him into a passionate kiss. It wasn't sexual at all. Just slow and loving and sweet. A honey kiss.
They pulled away. "A-are we h-home?" Tyler stuttered carefully, vision slowly clearing.
Josh froze.
Tyler new the answer. They weren't home. It wasn't a dream.
"Hey Ty. I'm here too." A soft voice spoke from behind him.
"MEL? Is that you??" Tyler sprung up and spun around. His head throbbed and he felt his eyes fog up again.
"Hey hey, take it slow. Yes it's me, baby. Josh told me what happened. I'm glad you're okay. We'll talk about it later." Melanie was at his side, arms reaching around him, hands caressing his neck.
The memories flooded back to Tyler's head.
Her eyelids, sewn together with thin black twin. Her blood-incrusted lips. Her arms, severed to form stumps. Her legs, torn off in the midsection. The ball-pit was probably filled with cadavers just like her. A corpse pit. With a plastic lid of spheres. Swimming through corpses. The bottomless depths of bodies. Probably? Definitely. Tyler knew it wasn't what it looked like.
His stomach churned.
"How did Melanie find us?" Tyler blurted in attempt do unoccupy his mind of the body.
"Well I freaked out and got this adrenaline boost and I fucking lifted you with one hand and swam across the entire ball pit. Then I sprinted up stairs and screamed at the top of my lungs. And Melanie came leaping through one of the doors screaming also. And then we sat down by the front door and tried to wake you up. Pretty epic huh?" Josh responded with enthusiasm, trying to lighten the mood and forget the situation.
"Did you find anyone?" Tyler looked to Melanie.
"No. And we should've stuck together because now Brendon is gone too. I'm sure Bren found them and now they're all hiding under a bed ready to jump out at us, passing the time with dick jokes." Melanie smiled.
Tyler's temperature rose. "No. nO. NO! You don't get it! They're not playing! There was a FUCKING DEAD BODY IN THE BASEMENT! This is NOT a fucking GAME! Don't you see it? We're stuck! The exit is locked. Our friends are lost and quite possibly DEAD LIKE THE GIRL DOWNSTAIRS! STOP LYING TO YOURSELVES!" Tyler screamed in enragement. He ignored his stomach ache and severe (A/N I-I-I've got a) migraine that was developing "There is ACTUALLY a dead person in the basement! Is that a little game? Is that a cute little prank were all gonna laugh at in a few years? Look at the situation! Is this not weird to you guys?? Like, we just walked in this big house near Brendon's neighborhood and oh! Looky here! We're trapped and there's murder victims in a ball pit! Maybe we can go slide down the fun tubes and try not to get blood on our clothes, or we can play tag with a psychopath in a bouncy house! Yay! Sounds normal to me!" A tear streamed down Tyler's face and he burrows his head in Melanie's lap.
"We're sorry Tyler. We understand. Let's go find our friends and get the hell out okay? Just try to forget what happened. I know it's hard and scary but the best way to get out alive is to get that off your mind, alright?" Josh stood up. The other two got to their feet as well.
"This time we're staying together."
•••
"RYAANNN! ASHLEYYY! BRENDONN!" Those three names were echoing back and forth, across each wall of the mansion.
"Holy shit. GUYS! TYLER! JOSH! COME HERE!" Melanie yelled as she peered into one of the hundreds of rooms.
The walls were a colorful assortment of rainbow stripes and polkadots. The floor was carpeted with a lime green layer of shag-rug. Confetti was strewn across the floor and balloons crowded the ceiling. In the center of the room was a wooden chair. And in that chair, was Ryan. His mouth was gagged and he was blindfolded. His wrists were bound to the armrests and his ankles were tied around the chair legs.
"RYAN!!" Tyler screamed and bolted to his side, working fast at unknotting his ropes. Josh quickly came and helped. Melanie took the gag and blindfold off.
"Speak to us! How did you get tied up? Who did it? Are you ok? Ryan!" Melanie grabbed his face in her hands and forced him to look at her.
Ryan blankly stared ahead, barely breathing.
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god." Melanie shook him vigorously.
Tyler and Josh finished the last knots and lifted him up, stablizing him on their shoulders.
They took him back to the front door and layed him down.
"th-thr-" Ryan forced a sound. "What are you saying? Ryan!" Josh incouraged him to continue. "Thr-three... A...M."
"3 AM?" Tyler questioned, snapping his head to the neon sign on the wall. "What do you mean?"
Ryan slowly shook his head, refusing so say another word.
•••
Josh watched his phone. Everyone else's battery was drained. It was 2:47 AM. None of them knew what was supposed to happen in 13 minutes, but it seemed like a good idea to stay awake and alert. "I only have 4%." Josh warned. "Shh it's almost time. Just wait and be quiet." Melanie whispered. They were all huddled in the front corridor. Their eyes skimmed each door in expectation.
"One minute left."
Boom.
That was the sound it made.
A puff of black smoke swirled up from the spot under the neon sign. When the cloud faded, there stood a man. He looked about 55. He wore a vibrant, hot pink suit and he had a sleek bald head.
"It's h-him." Ryan murmured in Tyler's ear.
"HELLO cHiLdReN! i'M tHrEe A.M."
