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Icarus was in the passenger seat because his car had enough mistreatment from the fatigued person. Soul was turning on the radio. He flicked through each station, rather quickly and judgementally.
“75% deal on our pizza! Get it now while it’s fresh. It’s even created with people like you! Hop down to Friendly’s Pizza” A spokesperson announced.
“Wow, that’s actually like an affordable price.” Icarus had a genuine tone in his voice.
“Yeah, but that’s kind of suspicious… It sounds way,” He drawed out the word way, “too good to be true.”
“Everything is suspicious to you Soul.” The flammable one said.
Soul was taken aback; he felt as if every concern he’s ever had wasn’t respected. Was he even rational for his worries? God I need sleep. He thought to himself.
“But- but this time is actu-.” He got cut off.
“We’re going anyway. You can’t make every decision Soul.” Icarus harshly said, while glaring at Soul.
Soul noticed how differently Icarus was acting than they usually do. Usually Icarus was laid back and okay with anything; he kept his mouth zipped. Despite staying silent about it, it stayed in the back of his mind. He knew this would lead him to noticing any differences in Icarus, but refused to let himself think of that, and when he did he would replace the thought with something entirely unrelated; he felt as though he’d be a bad friend if he noticed ‘insignificant’ differences.
He silently laughed to himself with droplets forming in the corner of his eyes.
Icarus remained oblivious to the stress his friend was experiencing right now. They were too excited about being able to get such a good deal on pizza.
Soon the two arrived. The entrance seemed friendly enough. There was an open sign that had a neon glow around it, although not every letter was lit. The windows were glazed over with icy crystals and condensation. The door was round, and appeared to be welcoming. Above the door, a sign that said Friendly’s Pizza, Soul noticed how only the letters E, N, D, and Z were lit up on the sign. The bricks had deep cracks that revealed a void filled with bugs, dust, and spiderwebs in the bricks.
There was a weird smell emitting from inside, but Soul couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, despite the familiarity of the smell. Something was clearly wrong, it was as if painfully obvious foreshadowing was in a story. It was definitely a coincidence though. If a red flag glowed that much it’d be too obvious and nobody would ever go. Right? He was overthinking.
“Okay Soul, just walk in there is nothing wrong with this place. It’s just a couple coincidences because they don’t make much money. They can’t afford to repair their stuff.” The asymmetric-bound man muttered to himself.
He stepped foot, noticing the weirdly dusty wood planks. They had a bizarre lack of any sign of life. They even appeared to be rotting, and were most likely an OSHA violation. Some planks even had green fuzzy unidentifiable stuff taking root in the crevices.
There was a surprising abundance of people here. However, they seemed dead-eyed and only spoke generic monosyllabic words.
They also had almost all the same outfits, hair, and faces. They were incredibly uncanny. They almost seemed to be puppets?
Each one of them had glazed over eyes, and robotic movements. He even heard several phrases uttered by separate people at least 5 times. There was also a clear lack of any children or elders.
Only 2 chairs were available. It was almost like someone had been planning for their arrival? He wondered why someone would plan specifically for them.
The 2 chairs that were available were also much more high quality than the previous ones. They were made of what Soul assumed to be spruce, and were polished. The other chairs had the same green stuff that was on the floor.
The difference in Soul’s and Icarus’s reactions were unmatched. Icarus was going to order that pizza whether Soul wants him to or not; while on the other hand Soul was visibly trembling, even if it was only if you’re looking for it. The difference was like homemade fries and frozen pizza.
Soul regretted coming here, but knew Icarus would be upset if he departed early. His heart thumped inside his chest.
“Hello. We can seat you.” A glazed eyed waitress said to the pair. She grabbed their hands and sat them in the only 2 empty seats available.
“I’ll be back. To take your orders.” She informed them. Her manner of speaking was unnatural.
Soul observed the room more, he noticed a poster on the wall with some sort of fuzzy creature. The creature was portrayed with 16 legs, a singular eye, and some color Soul had never seen before. The poster stated on it, “Welcome to Friendly’s Pizza! We are glad to be your bestest friend!”
Icarus and Soul stared at each other for a few moments. “Icarus. I really don’t think this place is safe.” The red one whispered in the wax one’s ear. Icarus didn’t even reply.
As the two sat with tension, the waitress returned. “So what would you wonderful humans like?” She said, with a little bit too much cheer.
“Uuuh I’ll get a normal pizza” Icarus requested the waitress. He just got an awkward stare in response. Icarus didn’t even realize. He normally would’ve but today he was less self aware, more bossy, as well as way less serious. Soul couldn’t put his finger on what was causing his friend to be so different.
“Fuck you mean normal pizza?” Soul questioned. He was going to test Icarus’s responses to things.
“Like the one in the character selection screen? Man I'm running on 3 hours of sleep Give me a break I forgot what it’s called” Icarus had audible frustration at himself in his voice.
Soul felt like a lightbulb had just lit up in his brain. The lack of sleep explained why Icarus was so off. He was just sleep deprived! Nothing else. No reason to be concerned. But he didn’t believe it. He was beginning to grow frustrated with himself as well — he couldn’t figure out how he felt about Icarus’s behavior. It felt as if his brain was at war with him.
“Sir, do you mean cheese pizza perchance?” The waiter asked, attempting to be polite. Icarus had a slight smirk growing on his face.
“You can’t just say perchance.” Icarus said, much to the waiter’s confusion. Soul held back a laugh. The waiter clearly didn’t get the reference.
“Ignoring what you said, your food should be here shortly. If it has an odd taste, that means something is wrong with you.” The waiter impolitely stated.
Soul fidgeted at the table. His foot tapped the floor. As he waited, his eyes jumped around his surroundings; as previously mentioned several times Soul had a bad feeling about this place.
He noticed a smell emitting from the kitchen. It was the same smell from before he entered. Whatever was being cooked had an outstandingly peculiar smell.
He allowed himself to zone out. He needed a break from dealing with whatever this was. There was a tug at his eyelids urging him to close them and lay his head on the table. He shouldn’t have stayed up so late, he thought to himself. Two sleep deprived people would be weaker than well-rested people if there was a threat.
“Hello. Here’s your two’s meals.” The waiter said while placing a metal tray, with the steaming mixture of foods on the clothed table. Soul almost gagged at the smell of it, but he didn’t let it be visible because that'd be impolite.
“Icarus. Don’t eat this.” Soul pleaded. Icarus seemed to actually be listening now to Soul’s advice now that he smelled it himself.
“Yeah. There’s something fishy about this.” Icarus agreed. “You were right, it is very suspicious." Icarus paused for a moment. “I’m still going to try some though because fuck you is why.”
The pizza both tasted and looked off. Icarus’s face contorted into an expression Soul couldn’t even tell what was.
“WHAT THE FUCK.” Icarus shouted. The taste was nothing he’d ever had.
“So, do you agree now? Stubborn ass.” Soul teased. He could tell he had won.
“Yeah, but what even is that taste? It’s almost… like chicken-y but something is off. It’s like it was rotting before being cooked into the pizza. We need to come up with an idea to stop this.” Icarus said with a pressure in his voice.
“I have an idea to stop them,” Soul stated bluntly.
Icarus replied, “What is it?”
“It involves fire.” Soul stated, refusing to look at, no around Icarus at all.
“What?! No!? Are you crazy?” Icarus yelled, potentially drawing attention to themself.
“Yeah I am crazy so I’m doing it.” Soul said with an eye twitch. “Just trust me. I got this.”
“Fine I’ll hear you out just this one time. Shoot.” Icarus reluctantly said.
“So, we’ll go into the backroom-” Soul started before being interrupted
“Whoa whoa whoa, the back room‽” Icarus worriedly said. “Is that really a good idea?” His anxiety was through the roof.
Soul latched onto Icarus’s hand and they both headed to the backroom. Soul noticed Icarus was definitely panicking, and most likely coming up with worst case scenarios in his brain, but they’d both be completely fine and have no damage done to them at all. Soul heard Icarus muttering to himself about not wanting to be caught by any employees. He agreed, if any employees caught the two they’d be kicked out, or even worse arrested; he still needed to do this though to save people in case anyone was getting hurt.
The smell from the back room was even worse than the kitchen. It burned the duo’s nostrils as they forced themselves to step foot into the hazardous room. A large brown-tinted crimson red puddle, with some spots that were visibly harder. with a metallic, yet sickly sweet scent stood in front of them.
Soul felt a knot growing in his throat as he tried to swallow back his fear. Icarus hesitantly went behind Soul, effectively making Soul the leader for the rest of their mission.
Soul remained frozen… until he heard it. Snap. Squish. Crunch. The sound of eating, yet something was very off.
In his panicked state Soul grabbed Icarus’s hand and rushed into the nearest door in sight.
A darkness surrounded them. Going in the back closet was a horrendous idea. They heard a click on the door. Soul almost felt his entire lungs leaving him with how much he was hyperventilating.
“What in biggest fuck in the world did you just do‽ You’ve just trapped us, and whoever created the blood puddle might be after us. Is that really what you want? For us to fucking die? I bet it is because you’re just a suicidal asshole who doesn’t care for anyone but himself. I’m surprised you’ve even still alive with all the stuff you’ve tried. I wish one of them would’ve killed you!” Icarus monologued with Soul having the most disappointed face known to humanity.
“I didn’t lock it.” Soul bluntly stated after waiting for Icarus to finish his presidential speech.
“Yes you did. Who else would’ve. You’re just being egotistical as always.” Icarus spat.
“What the hell Icarus? I’ve had enough of you acting so mean today.” Soul screamed out.
“What do you mean? If I’ve seemed weird to you today you could’ve told me?” He didn’t sound genuine.
“Come on. We just need to find a way out of here so I can get away from your manipulative ass.” Soul tiredly said.
He began feeling around the walls. His fingers traced a smooth, dented object. A key! Jackpot! Soul silently internally celebrated as he inserted the key into a keyhole which took a few extra minutes to feel around for.
Oh shit. Wrong way. He quickened as he put the key in again, and once it clicked in he turned it.
As he pushed open the door a loud creaking came from it.
Soul's eyes slowly drifted towards the end of the red puddle. In it laid an arm, pieces of bone were exposed. Tendons were visible. Some decayed veins sat in the puddle. and this is when he discovered the source of the smell; and ingredients of the pizza. He had eaten a human. This would be awful for his reputation; but not even just his reputation but all the non-human humanoids. The news would end up finding out, and then there’d be a case on it and he’d be arrested.
As he continued going down his mental spiral, a burly (yet lacking hair) man wielding a highly dulled axe.
It was him.
The owner of the pizza place. The scammer himself. No, the monster himself.
“Icarus. Abort mission.” Soul pleaded.
“No. We came this far, it would not be fair to his victims.” Icarus snapped back.
“Just. This. Once.” Soul let the 3 words spill out his mouth.
“You’ve already said that earlier today so no.” Icarus snarkily said.
“Wait guys, can you pause your argument? I need to have exposition for my sad backstory?” The butcher asked.
When Fletcher, who is now a “chef” was a young child he always wanted to be a pizza shop owner but, his peers always told him his cooking would be terrible, and might as well be human flesh with how dumb he is. Because of this, he decided to try to prove them wrong, but the price of cheese was too high so he resorted to murder.
“You were bullied as a kid so you resorted to murder‽” Icarus had increasing force in his voice. “You. Are. AWFUL.”
“Okay yeah, well fuck you. It’s my freedom of choice.” The shop owner replied.
“Murdering people is not an expression of freedom of choice.” Soul interjected.
“It is now,” the cannibalistic one declared.
“Nuh. fucking. uh.” Soul shook his head.
“Anyways. let’s turn up the heat, because this food is undercooked.” Soul had a plan of desparation.
Soul flicked a matchstick, with a spiteful twinkle in his eyes. Icarus stared in horror.
“And you said I was being mean today” The candle pointed out.
But it was too late. The smoke from the fire filled his lungs with panic. The duo sprinted out, forgetting about the stop, drop, and roll rule.
This had consequences.
Icarus’s wings had melted yet again; Soul’s line separating the two halves of his face glew from the heat; and both had many burn scars lacing their bodies. The scars were grossly infected, and in such a short time. Their fear sat in the infection of the scars. Icarus gasped for air, and Soul let out a pained cough.
Despite their horrifying situation they had to persist. They couldn’t let all the deaths from the butcher be in vein.
The flame continued to chase after them, along with the sick butcher. The pair almost tumbled several times during the chase. The room seemed to be endless as they were pursued. Soul wondered how they were STILL in the office room.
The air around the tridential man seemed to pause to a halt. He darted his eyes around, and spotted; the butcher was completely still; a statue unchanging, unable to cause any harm; on the other hand, Icarus with a horrified expression on his face also had the same level of stillness.