The Funhouse (ON HOLD)

Part 5: The Body In the Lego

       Ten whole stages after Alexa's death, and the memory was still fresh in their minds. They have managed to get past ten more rooms without anyone dying. That didn't mean they didn't get hurt, though. Gabriel's cheek got cut back at round four, Sarra twisted her arm at round seven, and Damien became temporarily blind just recently thanks to the blinding lights of round nine. "Remind me not to play with flashlights." Damien said, letting out a shaky breath. "EVER again."

Dennis managed a smile. "Sure thing, dude."

Steve swung the brown door open. "On your guard, guys."

---

        "CARLA!" Yanna called out. No answer. She tried again. "Carla!! It's not funny anymore!" Her voice was getting hoarse, and her throat burned along with her lungs. Curse round forty for being so dark! Where was Carla? "Car--"

        "Stop it, Yanna." Stefan said. He placed a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder.

Yanna sniffed. "B-but, Carla is--"

        "Ssh, I know, I know.." He pulled her into a hug. Yanna cried, wetting Stefan's polo shirt. He patted her head affectionately. "Your brother Martin is looking for her, don't worry.. Everything's.." He didn't finish his sentence. He felt the cameras focused on them. He stiffened. "Yanna... don't look now." The kid in the screen was laughing in the background.

---

        The room was even more bizarre than the previous ones. It wasn't because it was really dangerous-looking, but because it looked so friendly. Very suspicious. The walls and the floors, or everything, rather, had the pattern of a puzzle. The flat screen TV was above the polka-dotted door, the one that would lead them to round thirteen. The kid wasn't present, which was a relief. There were Lego buildings around the room, but they weren't occupying much of the space. The map was inside a transparent, purple piece at the floor, folded, while the remote was inside... a lego chandelier.

        "Oh, REAL creative!" Rex said. "Now we're in Lego Land!"

        "You've been in there?" Alan asked, not quite catching the sarcasm in Rex's voice.

"He-- Wait, have
you been there?"

Alan grinned. "Twice a year... of course, before I was kidnapped."

Gabriel cleared his throat. "Guys, let's be serious."

Steve muttered, "..Black?" They all laughed.

Sarra hugged her twin with one arm. "Now now, Steve, I know you miss reading Harry Potter, but now's not the time."

        "I know." Steve replied coldly. Ever since Alexa's death, he became more.. distant. And a bit of a rebel. It's like he was a different person. "Let's just get this over with." The male twin walked over to the map and crouched. He examined the purple piece in case of any traps. 'None'  He removed the piece carefully. Placing it down with one hand, he picked up the map with the other. He stood back up. Steve unfolded the map, and the instructions were there, but not the map itself. The maps were removed ever since they left round two, and if there were maps, the image would just be repeated again and again. He made a choking noise and covered his mouth.

        "What's wrong?" Sarra asked, running toward her brother.

"Don't come any closer!" Sarra stopped in her tracks. The others were stunned at Steve's reaction. He quickly folded the map and shoved it back inside, covering it with the piece again.

Dennis dared to come near him. "Why? What was it?" Steve grunted, annoyed.

His face was a little green from what he saw. "It's nothing." He reassured him, looking at Dennis, then to Sarra. "Sorry about that, sis.." Sarra nodded a message of 'okay' towards Steve. Steve's smile quickly faded. "I memorized the instructions. You're not going to like what we're going to do." He didn't tell them about the dry blood used as ink for the map. 

---

        "A body, you shall find. Beware, you would lose your mind." Steve recited. They were seated on the floor, since their legs were so tired they couldn't stand.

Rex growled. "Lose our minds, huh? I think we've already lost them!"

"Good one, Rex!" Damien said, turning his head to Alan.

"Uh... Dames?"

"Yes?"

        "I'm... over here." Rex snickered as Alan moved Damien's head to his direction.

Damien frowned. "Oh..."

"Can I continue now?" Steve said.

"Go on, just ignore them." Gabriel insisted. He absently caressed the scar on his cheek. 'That damned kid...'  He was going to pay for what he's done. Child or not, Gabriel didn't care. He was having too much fun with this 'game' of his.

Steve cleared his throat. "Befriend it, you'll survive. Defend it, it'll cost your lives..."

They fell silent for a moment, until Alan said, "Okay," he sighed. "I don't know what the heck he means by that. It's a whole new instruction." Sarra tightened her hold around the hilt of her survival knife, but then it was her thigh. She forgot that she left it when the incident at round two happened.

The image of Alexa's struggling form, being trapped in the machine, and when Sarra had stabbed her came rushing back to her mind. Sarra shook the memory off. It wasn't her fault.

"I think I got it." Dennis said.

"What is it, Dennis?" Dennis cracked his knuckles. For a second, they thought his eyes flashed crimson. "Somewhere under these puzzle pieces," He glanced around at the Lego buildings. "A corpse is inside." 

---
        She was still alive. That, they were sure about. They just didn't know where to look for her. "I knew we never should've took the short cut.." Stefan muttered to himself. Martin came back and regrouped with Stefan and Yanna, catching his breath. Running around in the dark took out more energy than jogging for half a day, he believed.

"I couldn't.." He sucked in an enormous amount oxygen, then exhaled. "I couldn't find her.."

        "But you have to!" Yanna's voice was weaker now. Stefan restrained her from breaking down by hugging her from behind.

"Ssh.. ssh.." He cooed, calming the cute 14-year-old down. "It's okay, we'll find her soon.."

Yanna sobbed. "When will this nightmare end..? First we lost Kristina, now Carla..?"

         "Pssh.." Martin said. "Nobody liked Kristina anyway."

        "I AGREE!" A high-pitched voice chirped from behind them.

Martin and Stefan shot a glare at the flat screen TV. "Darn it, kid!" Martin yelled. "Would you just STOP?"  

        "Why should I?" The kid pouted, but Yanna could tell a fake pout when she saw one.

"You're SO not cute!" Yanna screeched, and threw her shoe at the screen. It shattered, and the kid was gone. 

---        

         Finding the corpse didn't take long at all-- because Damien stumbled when he got up, and accidentally broke a Lego building when he landed. Alan helped him up to his feet while Rex , Dennis and Steve tried to rebuild it. They just had to, because Alan was such a jerk. "Just because you have OCD," Sarra said. "Doesn't give you the right to tell us what to do!"

        "But that was a perfectly good building! Besides, it's not like you're helping!" Steve was the first one that found the corpse. Dennis and Rex felt it, too. Being the son of an archeologist had its benefits for Steve.

"An arm." He said. "We found the corpse." They destroyed the building again, much to Alan's dismay, but it was all worth it in the end. It wasn't a corpse. It was never a 'corpse.' It was a girl, skinny from hunger.