Escape the Night Oneshots!

Chocolate and Monsters

requested by @theoristleah!

"The coin!" Matthew shouted, through the strongman's grip. "Look for the Lazarus coin!"

Rosanna ran away, following the group, but she looked back once, and she saw the strongman raise his arm and crush Matthew's skull.

And he was gone.

Bursting through the doors, everybody collapsed into a chair or a couch, exhausted.

Manny cleansed the artifact, and people started talking, but Ro couldn't really hear any of it. She could still hear Matt screaming as the strongman threw him on the ground, louder and louder, drowning everything out.

After he'd changed into that ridiculous gym getup, Matthew had handed Ro his badge. "Why didn't you hold on to this until I come back?" he'd said, grinning with feigned confidence, his smile an attempt to conceal the feelings of terror brewing inside of his chest.

Absentmindedly, Ro's fingers ran over the grooves in the metal.

She snapped back into reality when Joey tapped her shoulder. "We're heading to Fat Man Slims," he said. "People are saying they want a drink."

Ro nodded, and put the badge in her pocket. She didn't feel like talking. She didn't feel anything, really, just numb.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten that they were being hunted. They just walked into the restaurant casually and started grabbing drinks from behind the bar.

Joey handed Ro a beer, and she took it gingerly, cold condensation sweating against her fingers.

She sat in a booth alone, cupping her hands around the bottle.

Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw Matthew's terrified face before the strongman had killed him. So she took a sip of her beer, hoping it would dull her mind, wincing at the bitter taste.

Safiya was sitting with the rest of the group, packed together in a big booth. She saw that Rosanna and Colleen were separated from the rest of them.

Colleen was flirting with Mortimer, obviously avoiding Joey, but Ro was just alone, staring down at her drink.

Safiya knew it probably had something to do with Matt's death. He had been Ro's closest friend here. Before he'd headed into the death challenge, he had taken Safiya aside.

"Look," he'd said. "I don't have a good chance of getting out of this."

She had opened her mouth to protest, but he motioned for her to be quiet.

"I know Manny's stronger than I am. I'm going to give it my all, but the odds aren't great. So can you do something for me?"

Safiya nodded reluctantly, still concerned for Matt.

"I need you to protect Ro if I die. I couldn't live with myself if I knew that I was leaving her alone here. Just... make sure she's doing okay."

She had agreed, of course. You couldn't deny somebody's last request. But when he had died, she'd seen the light in Ro's eyes go out like a candle.

And now, Ro was sitting in a booth, holding a beer, alone.

Safiya was going to get up and go over to her, but Colleen started arguing with Joey out of the blue.

"I'm over this!" she said. "All of my friends are dying! Matt was one of our last hopes, and now he's dead because of Joey, thank you so much."

Joey raised his eyebrows, looking offended. "If anyone, blame Manny! He's the one who went up against-"