Chapter Text
In the mansion that Caine threw them into, X was forced to follow by Jay funnily enough. She was tired with them being allowed to simply slack off on adventures while the rest of them were forced to go. "I really don't see how I'm suppose to like this." X grumbled to Kinger. He looked at them and just shrugged.
"Just find the fun parts X, you'll find it eventually."
Ribbit was fascinated by the effort Caine put into the spooky manor of mildenhall. Pomni was kind of shaking. "Hey, you alright new stuff?" Ribbit said, looking down at a diagonal. Pomni rubbed her hands together.
"Yeah. I am just not the best with horror... or jumpsc-"
"Boo!"
"AAAH!" Jay spooked her from behind as she walked up. Pomni jumped out of the way. Jay started bawling out laughing, holding her stomach as she held back the tears. Today, she dyed her shirt, and now skirt and socks, black and pink. She thinks she finally found a combination that fits her the best. White and pink just felt too child like, especially since her room is so childish in nature. "Oh my goodness, really? From that!"
"Don't do that again, Jay!" She said. She walked far and Ribbit stared at her from a distance. Jay noticed this and smiled, her eyes enlarging.
"Are you ever going to ask her out or something?"
"Well yeah... obviously at some point."
"Well hey, if you're not up for it-"
"I am, Jay." Ribbit bite back, losing the smile for the first time in a while and being actually annoyed at Jay. Jay's eyes shrank and she turned back, grabbing a vaccum on the way into the lobby of the mansion. A ghost appeared, making Pomni do a scare-take, and one thing lead to another. Kinger tried putting it back in with Ribbit trying to make sure he didn't accidentally hurt her even more. Ribbit tripped backwards and pulled the eye forward with her accidentally, she let go but the cartoon logic followed, throwing Pomni and Kinger at her and throwing them down the scary hall.
They hit the bottom and Ribbit got up first, she was rubbing her head from the fall before realizing how fricking terrifying it just got. Pomni too noticed and the two held hands as to not scream. Kinger hit the tape, Mildenhall did the monologue, and now they need to find a key.
After a hot minute, Pomni found one. The angel snuck up on them though and screamed at all three of them. Pomni ran to the shute. Kinger became amazed at the darkness in the angel's mouth. Ribbit froze in terror, going from leaning forward in the darkness to straight up, hands by the sides. The angel screamed again and Ribbit wobbled again before getting back on track and grabbing Kinger to help Pomni. The three got sent downwards and the three plummeted.
"Oh my goodness, can we stop going downwards, please..." Ribbit muttered. Pomni nodded in agreeance. Kinger was already standing with the tape as it played, Ribbit only caught a little bit of it, with Midenhall killing his wife and him dying down here in the celler.
"Hey, Pom-Pom, grab the gun for me. I have a bad feeling about this." Kinger asked, becoming stiffer and visibly more paranoid. Pomni grabbed it with only a brief haunting. "Two bullets... let's make 'em count." The head and body of the angel got down into the cellar at the same time so Kinger shot the shots at both of them, making the corspes hit the walls, then the floors. The tape then played more, leaving everybody confused. The tape said it needed a host for it's damned soul in hell. Hands came out of floor, leaving Ribbit paralyzed in fear from the hyper realistic feeling hands touching her skin as the three got sent down.
In hell, Ribbit was shaken. She looked towards Pomni who was just as shaken so she calmed herself down and put on a smile just for her. "Okay, well.... I guess we only need to go down this hallway." Ribbit said confidently. Kinger threw an eye to see ahead if there was a end, and there was. She allowed Pomni to go first and she did
"Just let me go fast".
Kinger tried putting a hand out and calling her name to stop her. Ribbit thought he was being cazy again until souls went into her mouth and corrupted her into a zombie like monster. The Possesed Pomni ran up to them, grabbing Kinger's gun and wacking him with it.
"How's you're wife, Kinger?"
Pomni turned her head behind herself before the body followed, targetting a freaked out Ribbit.
"You like putting shame on your family, Ribbit? "Listen here you 'lil fa-" hehaheh" Kinger wacked her in the head with the gun before beating the souls out of Pomni. Ribbit fell onto the ground, hand to chest. They thought they would never here those words again. She wasn't a devout mormon and that was fine, she thought. They are always at fault, she thought. Nobody else understood, she thought. The yelling was just her parents way of living, it was normal, she thought. She felt tears pulsing in her eyes before she crawled to the right wall. Pomni stood up and instantly started having a panic attack as well.
"Oh my- Are you two alright?"
"No...'
"No!"
Kinger's hands fell to his side as he looked out into the hall of souls. "I'm guessing the souls are attracted to living things. Just want a vessel to be able to leave with. Man... Seven years of computer science for this, huh? Heh."
"Why?" Kinger's eyes dart to Pomni with Ribbit starting to go down into a stress spiral as well. It's not everyday you cause, one, fail to really help a person in therapy, two, a person to become depressed over a dead friend because you never told anyone and now the therapy person is just as distraught as Reganam, three, cause two people to go down a horror map, and four, make one of them become possessed. Never the less, also being reminded of something they understood so well yet fear in their adrenaline filled heart is something they didn't want to witness again. The yelling, the physical touching and pulling, that whole mess.
"Every day I spend here is one nightmare after the next! I KNEW IT WOULD END UP LIKE THIS! He- He just wants me to suffer. I really am in Hell..." Pomni says while falling onto the ground up against another wall, curling her body with her face into her knees.
"I can't do anything right! I can't help no one- I HURT EVERYBODY ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. Everybody I've deemed as friends, have all suffered 'cept Jay but she doesn't stay around much anymore either! I- I'm such a idiot!"
Kinger put his hand to his non-existing mouth as he tries to think about doing this whole scenario in the best possible manner as he pratically has two kids with him and he's the eldest.
"Hey, both of you, don't say those things.... I- um- hmm... Let's just relax while nothing is chasing us." He really had no good argument to help noth simulatenously. From all the stress and horrors, Pomni started quietly sobbing into her knees with Ribbit trying to hold in the tears unsuccessfully for dear life.
"It's my fault we even got sent down here!" She said, flailing one of her arms as she spread out her legs and held her head up with two hands." Kinger walked over and sat in the middle of the two of them.
"Hey... Ribbit.." He said. Ribbit's head lifting up from her hands. "You're not an idiot alright... Everybody makes mistakes. You've done so much good ever since you got in here from day 1, I can tell you that." Ribbit smiled a little bit but turned her head away. "Look, everybody takes mistakes really differently... I knew someone who was mere seconds from throwing a computer in anger every time he tried to code on it! Don't put yourself down over it... you're such a good person, and you've even taught me how to be a better one and about so much other fun things." Kinger put a hand on their shoulder. Ribbit listened into the entire conversation and she looked back at him. She wiped away a tear that formed in her eyes.
"Y-You've been really different down here? Haven't you." Pomni said, after getting out all of her feelings in the crying.
"Oh yeah.... My memory has never been the best, but darkness always takes me back to a certain time... When my wife abstracted, I don't remember a lot but we ended up in a fort together... the darkness smoothed out her edges and calmed her down enough for me to hug her one last time.."
"Wait-Wait- You had a wife!" Ribbit said shocked.
"Yeah... she was a brilliant mind, funny, creative- really into entomology. I used to hate bugs, but... she somehow got me to like them.: He shrugged, chuckling slightly "Not a fun memory but it's still a good one... the last thing you want to do, is make someone feel like they're not wanted or loved." He took a breathe before continuing. "But I know, guaging that sort of things is hard, people take things differently. You shouldn't wait around if you think someone is feeling those ways because before you know it, it'll become apparent. And fast. I know that all too well."
Kinger picked himself and the other two up. Appearantly the way you had to get to the other side was by holding your breathe. Kinger glowed and Pomni turned into rainbow colours, Apparently Ribbit's is by turning into a kaleidoscope of poison dart frog patterns, transitioning into new ones and faster over time.
At the exit where the rest already got to. Jay was seperate from the rest of the gang. Reganam pulled herself together, took a breathe, and walked over to her. "Hey, what's with you lately?" Jay's eyes immediately enlarged. The stare Regan got sent shivers down her ribbion even if she had the happy mask on.
"Pfft- Nothing!"
"Jay, back at the enterance, you were literally glaring at Ribbit. What's wrong."
"Oh here we go.... look pipsqueak, nothing is wrong. Nothing is here nor there. Stop looking at things you shouldn't be alright."
"Y'know, it's very weird how you don't like people judging from a distance, but also when they confront you?"
"I can have opinions too! It's circumstancle! Anybody should be able to tell! Alright... It's not like I have malice, jealously, or anything else going on with the frog or jester alright!"
"I never mentioned Pomni."
Jay started sputtering like a lawnmower before pushing Reganam to the floor in pure rage. Ribbion's happy mask cracked a little bit. Jay went down to the floor, pulling her away from the cast and out of view before X could run after them. She started holding her neck, and very tight. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! Why do you act like her! Shut up, shut it, just stay silent!" Jay muttered under her breathe. Regan's mask spinning smashed her mask. Jay stood up, turning around.
Turns out the others just exited.... really should've checked if that was an exit door.