Whispers in the Dark

Shattered Sight

"What's going on?" Dolos groaned as he and Eve walked beside a beach. She had asked to go there to prevent him from seeing anything her friends might do. He was beginning to feel woozy, which shouldn't be possible.

"What's going on?" Eve asked, faking concern as well as she could. "Are you alright?"

Los clutched his head, which was pounding with the pain of ten migraines. "What's happening? What is this?"

Eve saw the ocean twitch out of existence for a moment, and couldn't help but grin. Kol and Luke were succeeding.

"Must be because we're alive," she made up on the spot, putting a hand on Los' back. "Must've made your powers haywire."

Dolos nodded. "Y-Yeah, that must be it. Oh, man, this hurts a lot."

Good, Eve thought. "Do you wanna rest or..?"

"Y-Yeah. I think that'd be for the best."

Eve groaned loudly. "Mood killer."

Los stared up at her, surprised. "What?"

The girl crossed her arms, then rolled her eyes. "I knew you were full of it. First you take me to that damn restaurant, and when we finally get to do something fun, you get sick? Lame!"

He looked as though his chest had just been crushed by an alligator's jaw. "I'm not lame!"

Eve rolled her eyes again, trying to be as bratty as possible. "Of course you are! We're not doing anything fun! Look at this place." She waved her arm across the empty beach. "Barren! Boring!"

Dolos' worried look turned to a stubborn one. "I can make it less boring then."

His fingers began to snap away. With each snap, a food stand appeared. He created ice-cream shops, fast food joints, a volleyball court, a basketball court, a zoo and a shooting range. Eve did not point out how ridiculous all of that was. By the time he was done, Los was out of breath, and his head was hurting again.

Eve couldn't let him go back. "You gonna wuss out on me?"

Fighting through the pain, the god- or spirit - or whatever he was - smirked at her. "'Course not. You ever see a tiger and lion fight?"

Eve did not like the sound of that, and felt her heart drop when she heard the suggestion. Still, she smiled, then offered her hand. "Lead the way."

It was the bloodiest, nastiest thing she had ever seen before in her life. Seeing Natasha die was less scarring, and that was worse than most things most people ever see.

As they left the zoo, Los had a massive smile on his face. "What'd I tell ya? Wasn't it awesome?"

Eve looked to the side. "Yeah. Totally."

"Wait til you see what I can do with sharks. Let me just call the captain-"

He abruptly stopped, and Eve paled.

"The captain's gone?"

She could physically feel him getting angrier.

"The whole crew is gone, too." Dolos turned toward her, his eyes now a disturbing black color, with two white irises in each one. "What did you do?"

His power crashed into her like a freight train, and Eve was pushed to the ground. It was over. The jig was up, and she was about to die. Her friends were done. No matter how weakened he was, they were no match for this thing.

"They're all gone," Los said, his voice sounding like a billion flies buzzing at once. "He's freed everyone. Centuries of collecting down the drain." His hands began to form into something insect-like. Eve thought about what to do, but this thing before her only seemed to have one exploitable weakness left.

"We never broke the rules!" she said, and Dolos froze. "You never said we couldn't free them; You just said we had to play your stupid games. Well, that's exactly what we did! I played one. Kol played one, and I'm sure the others have played a few! Are you really gonna go back on your word? What kind of god are you!?"

His insectoid claw grabbed her by the neck, and he effortlessly lifted her into the air. "I'm not so weakened that I cannot read your mind. You think trying to distract me with something like this will work?"

The beach, and all the attractions on it, disappeared, and Los took them back to the amusement park, where Kol, Luke, Martin and Nikita waited. A group of five kids was there, too. Dolos threw her toward Luke, who went down as he caught her.

Three of the kids looked terrified. One was impassive, and the last one was smirking.

"Played for a fool," Los said. "You have two keys; There are three of them left. The only souls left to run this place are my game masters, so the only rides still working are the ones with keys on them. Just one rule change." He spread his arms, and the sun in the sky went to sleep, the glowing clock near it spinning furiously. It stopped at exactly 11 PM. On the different side of this carnival of horrors, the moon lit up. It had a face just like the sun, and was grinning madly. "One hour for three keys. Get them or you're mine."

"No," Kol spoke up as Luke and Eve got back up, and the girl couldn't help but notice he was in perfect shape, eye and all.

"No?" echoed Dolos. "You don't get to tell me no."

"But I am. We're done with your games. If you wanna take us, go ahead and do it."

The alleged god didn't move.

"You can't, can you?" Kol was so calm, one might be confused into thinking he was speaking to a child instead of a deity. "If you could, you would've done it the moment you realized everyone has moved on. You don't have enough power to keep us here. Look around."

The group did, and realized the Half-Dead Wonderland was now practically full-dead. There were short circuits everywhere. The food stands and some attractions were starting to fizzle away. The place was dying.

Los grunted, and the clock in the sky disappeared. "I may not have the power to keep you here forever, but you don't have the power to leave, either. The game is still on, only without a countdown. If you die here, you are mine. Each time one of you dies, I'll get stronger. You've passed one game, and won the other because my game master betrayed me." He looked at the blond boy, who didn't even flinch. "Still, that leaves me with three more, and the best one of them all. You'll need their keys to get out of here, so good luck with that, and try not to die."

He disappeared just as he had before.

One of the kids, who was a brown-haired girl, was trembling in fear. The blond boy took her hand, then lead her to Kol. "She was the master of the Mirror Maze. If Los becomes strong again, he'll rip her apart for failing."

Kol nodded, then turned to Luke. "He said we had two keys?"

Nikita held out the second one, then pointed to Patrick. "I thought we won it ourselves, but I guess your friend went easy."

Kol smiled at the boy. "You didn't mention your punishment."

"I can take it. Julie's only five."

"You're not much older."

"I'm as old as you." The boy gestured toward the three left; Two boys and a girl.

The dark-haired, dark-skinned boy among them was shaking as much as Julie. "P-Please don't. I can't get punished again. Please!"

The Asian girl next to him rolled her eyes. "Then don't fail." She pointed at Nikita, then at Eve. "How about a girls' night out?"

The two looked at each other, then nodded, and began to follow the girl.

Martin walked up to the scared kid, figuring his would be the easiest, and admitting to himself that, given his emotional state, he was the weakest link.

That left Luke and Kol with the smirking white-haired boy. The kid looked just like all the creepy children in horror movies, and Luke dreaded the thought of facing something like a mummy again.

"I guess we're taking you on," Kol told him.

The boy giggled. "I guess you are."