Whispers in the Dark

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Having finished their own "attraction", Eve and Olivia went over to Carter, who was standing off to the side all alone.

"Martin failed?" Eve asked, and the boy glumly nodded.

Nikita gasped, but Eve kept her emotions in check.

"Guess we gotta do that part next."

Carter nodded again, then started leading them to the toy store.

"I-I don't think I can do another one," confessed Nikita. "Mummies, and s-sharks and all the other shit - I don't think I can deal anymore."

Eve wanted to slap her. She normally would have. She would have cursed her out, too, then left her to fend for herself.

At the moment, however, she simply had no heart for it. Instead, she nodded.

"Ok. You stay outside. I'll handle it."

Nikita, still shaking, barely managed a nod, then slumped to the the ground and started crying.

Eve wanted to hit her, but even more than that, wanted to comfort her. She couldn't, though. Not only was she horrible at that, she also didn't have any time to waste. Kol and Luke might be in trouble, and she might have to help them. She was tired, though. She was tired and scared and in pain.

Forcing her legs to obey, she followed Carter, who looked gloomier by the moment.

They reached the toy store, and the boy walked inside without a word. Eve followed after him.

When she entered, he was nowhere to be seen.

"It's in one of the animals," he said. "Look inside of them carefully."

Nodding, Eve started walking along the shelves. Before touching anything, she wanted to make sure she knew where the dangerous of this particular test lied in. The forest did not reveal the hyenas or the bear right away. This might be similar.

As she walked, she happened to go by a plastic crocodile, a barbie doll stuffed in its maw.

Eve blinked a few times.

No.

That couldn't be it.

The key?

She went over to the crocodile, reached inside and took the key.

That was when its mouth closed. It would've gotten her arm, too, had it not been for the motionless barbie. Eve gasped, but managed to retrieve the key, after which the store faded away, and was standing beside Nikita once more.

"Please win," Carter pleaded, suddenly standing in front of her, pulling on her shirt. "If you win, we can all go home, right?"

"No." Crap. She really was bad at this. "I-I mean, you won't go back to the human world, but you do get to leave. Your soul will move on, and you'll go to a better place."

Carter's eyes widened, flooding with tears. "B-but ma is back on earth."

Eve couldn't tell him she wasn't. She had no idea how long the boy was here, and didn't want him to start thinking about that.

She crouched down next to him. "You're gonna be okay."

"Bu-But Ma-"

"Is gonna be okay, too." She held out her pinky. "I promise. You're both gonna be just fine."

The boy accepted the vague answer, for which she was grateful.

Then Dolos appeared in front of them, his eyes back to that nightmarish form. He was pissed. "You let them win." He began to stomp toward them, his arms changing to the insectoid ones. "You didn't reset the store. You let her win!" His clothes were being torn apart, and he was starting to lose hair. Cracks appeared on his face, which seemed to be made of porcelain-like substance. In an instant, he got bulkier, and his clothes ripped completely.

Eve took Carter's hand and began to drag him away. Nikita was just sitting and staring.

A pair of mandibles protruded out of Los' mouth as his jaw opened wider than was possible for a regular human. The lower part of his body turned into that of a spider, and he stayed like that. It was the most disturbing thing Eve, or anyone else, for that matter, had ever seen.

Only his torso remained fully human. He waved his arms around, and net-like web shot out of them, capturing the three.

They tried to fight it, but it was no use. The web wasn't normal. Eve could feel it sapping her strength. The trio was rendered unconscious in a few seconds.

Before they could do a thing, however, some invisible force rammed itself straight into Dolos.

Eve looked to the side, and saw the little girl who had taken her and Nikita to the boat, her hands stretched out before her. Two of the other kids were there, too. The only ones missing were the blond boy and the white-haired boy. When had Carter gotten there?

When Los noticed them, he slammed a claw on the ground, and a giant hole opened under the kids' feet, swallowing them all. Not one screamed as they went in, after which the hole close itself.

"That's what I get for sharing power with them," the insectoid monster said, voice buzzing through the air. "One game left. If they fail, they're mine. If they win, I'll just kill you to force them to play for your souls again." He started approaching them, but his web suddenly snapped, and Nikita was out of the net in an instant, holding a gun.

"Go mental!" she yelled.

"What are you on about?" Eve deadpanned. "And how did you get out there!?"

The girl shot at Dolos a bunch of times, but the bullets were little more than a mild annoyance. "It's all about mental power!" She shot again, but the monster disappeared, then reappeared right behind her. Before she could react, he hit her across the back and sent her flying. Nikita landed at an unnatural angle; Her arms, legs and neck were twisted in ways they shouldn't have been twisted in.

Eve almost barfed.

Instead, she took the girl's advice, and focused on the web in front of her. It started to break apart, but was doing so very, very slowly.

"Come on. If Barbie could do it, so can you," Eve whispered to herself, and the net cut loose. She got out of it, then took off running. Nikita and Martin were dead. Four of the game masters had turned on their captor. Luke and Kol were busy with the final kid, and she couldn't do anything to actually hurt Dolos.

Eve did the only thing she could; She ran around the carnival, forcing the half-spider to follow her.