CHAPTER ZERO ⨾  The Invitation.

JOEY HAD THOUGHT HE DEFEATED THE EVIL FOR GOOD.

He thought he'd be going home. He was terribly wrong. He had died, murdered, and his soul had went to the world between worlds.

Joey found himself surrounded by fog and a church upfront. After walking towards it, he had found an Asian man and a blonde woman.

"We have a way to get you back," the woman first spoke. "But your friends need to die." She took out a knife from a pocket, handing it to Joey who cut his hand as a promise.

The woman showed him a contract as they walked inside the church.

"This contract binds you to Everlock. Save the town and you will return to the living. Fail, and be lost among the dead forever." The woman instructed. Joey, with the cut hand, sealed the paper with his blood.

That was the last he had seen the two people.

Joey left the church with a newfound mission: save Everlock to regain life. The only cost: practical murder.

જ⁀➴

"AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS HOW I LEARNED TO MAKE THIS DRESS!"

Vivienne Fontaine did a voiceover while editing her most recent video: a video in which she tried to learn how to make a dress; one she planned to wear on a girl day with Rosanna Pansino tomorrow. After, Vivienne received a small notification ding from her phone, she opened it and began to get distracted from her editing. It was a text message from a group chat with her best friend Rosanna Pansino, and her recent crush, Matthew Patrick.

Rosanna: Hi guys! How are we doing?

Vivienne: Hey Rosie :) I'm editing a
video right now, I finished the voice over.

Rosanna: Omg that's great! When
will you post it? I just posted mine.

Vivienne: I actually don't even know haha,
I will probably post it when I finish editing, I'm almost finished! So woohoo! I'll watch yours once I finish.

Matpat: Hi Anne! Hey Ro! Yeah currently editing a new theory video as well lol.

Vivienne: Omg hey Mat! It's so rare
to see you text, is everything okay?

Rosanna: yeah is everything okay!!

Matpat: Yes I'm okay, why don't we call?

The three agreed to call and went over daily stuff going on in their life. Vivienne couldn't stop herself from staring at Matpat every time he talked. During the call, Vivienne received a knock on her door.

"Hold on, guys, someone knocked on my door," said Vivienne to her FaceTime group. She was growing curious on who it was, and hoped it wasn't any stalker or someone harmful.

"We'll be right here," replied Matpat, "Take your time."

"Okay, be right back." Vivienne stood up from her couch and straightened out her clothes—a simple t-shirt with a dog on it and sweats.

Vivienne opened her door with a deep breath. It was just the postman, but why couldn't he put it in her mailbox? "Letter for Vivienne Fontaine?" The man at her door held out an envelope.

"Right here, thanks." Vivienne smiled, receiving one back, then closed her front door.

"Good day." The man smiled as he began to walk away from her house.

Vivienne closed the door knowing he was gone, and began to glance at the envelope as she went back to the couch. "From Joey Graceffa? Holy shit, I haven't kept up with him in a while." Vivienne muttered to herself, eager to read it. Because if it was a letter to catch up, he could've just done it on the phone with a simple text. This was definitely overdoing it!

Vivienne went back to her laptop and saw her two friends still conversing. "Hi Vivi!" Rosanna smiled seeing the brunette back.

"Hi Rosie," Vivienne greeted. "And I just received a letter from Joey by the door. Anyone else?" Vivienne asked, showing the envelope in her hands.

"Oh my gosh, yes, I just got one of those! I was gonna talk about that. I was gonna ask if we could all read it together?"Rosanna offered.

"I got it too, but I haven't read it yet either." MatPat responded.

"Yes! We should read it all right now." Vivienne nodded.

The three opened the letter out of the envelope and began to read the text. Whilst reading it, a group of other content creators also received a letter. As much as they'd like to, the three agreed to save their comments and additional judgment after reading it.

"My friends, I am going on an extraordinary adventure and I am in need of your help; are hundreds of others. This is not an invitation to a ball, or to a dinner party, this is a mission to embark on a dangerous mission. It may sound impossible, but there's a town trapped in the 1970's and very soon everyone in it will be dead unless we do something about it.

"There's a dark seance that will take us back in time, but before it to work, you must follow the assigned personality on the back of the card reminiscent of that era and dress like it. Remember nothing from the modern world can come with you. The people of Everlock will know their role and their place, but you will be operating without knowledge or understanding of what's to come. This Friday the 13th, the door of Everlock will be open and we will only have that one night...to complete our mission. Joey."

"What the hell?" Matpat questioned, "Is this even real? How do we know this is Joey writing it? There's so many reasons not to trust this letter!" He was immediately opposing to this letter, deeming it identity fraud. "We shouldn't go, apparently Joey said it was dangerous."

"What if it is actually Joey? We should go." Rosanna suggested. "And even though it's dangerous, there's a town we could potentially save! Maybe that's why Joey couldn't text us or call," she reasoned.

"Yeah, I'm with Ro on this one, sorry Mat." Vivienne spoke. "I'm honestly intrigued on this whole thing, but we have to see our roles on the back if we want to follow through."

The three flip over the card to see the bold text.

"I have the Jet-Setter." Rosanna replied.

"The detective." Matthew said, "Actually fitting, maybe this is Joey after all."

"I got the designer," responded Vivienne. "Are we really going to go to this? Last chance, I'm up for either option of go or not to."

"Fuck it." MatPat suddenly said. "Let's just go and see what happens. Is this really Joey, is Everlock even real? I have so many questions."

"Of course you do, Mat. Maybe if you finish dressing up you could start theorizing." Rosanna joked, making Vivienne snicker. "Anyway, I'm in on this! I wanna save Joey, and the town of Everlock."

"I can drive us there too, if you'd all like." MatPat offered, his car did look reminiscent to the 70's, it'd be extra fitting!

"Duh!" Rosanna accepted.

"Obviously, Mat." Vivienne jokingly rolled her eyes. MatPat was always the designated driver if the three hung out anywhere.

"Of course, that was dumb of me to ask that..." Mat muttered. "Be ready at like 5:30-ish?"

"It's only 2, so yes. I think that's enough time for us to get dolled up, right Vivi?" Rosanna asked.

Vivienne nodded. "Okay, well I need all the time I can get. I'll see you guys later!"

The two friends waved goodbye before the call ended. Vivienne dismissed her editing time and began to take a shower first before doing any outfit planning. She continuously thought about what she could wear that radiated 70's energy. Luckily, as MatPat said, the roles were accurate for each person. She was a designer of many things no doubt.

Once Vivienne was all dried up and into her same t-shirt and sweats, she began to scavenge in her closet.

Most of her clothes were pants, sweaters, and the rare occasion of dresses. But Vivienne had managed to find a striped black multi-colored sweater and red flared pants. "I'd need a jacket, won't I?" Vivienne asked herself, knowing the night would be heavily cold. She solved that problem by quickly finding a dark red cardigan matching the color of her pants.

She enjoyed the look in the mirror, hopefully it was 70's enough with the black sneakers she'd plan to match it with.

"Cant even bring technology or a book with me." Vivienne frowned, as she'd likely get bored on the supposed mission.

She decided to make the best of it, and decided to finish her editing as she had an hour to spare while eating a quick snack.

As Vivienne pressed the post button for the video, she heard a car honk. "That's my ride." Vivienne grinned, excited to see her friends and their outfits. Vivienne turned off her house lights, closed her windows, locked her doors, and ran outside to see MatPat's familiar car.

"Hey Mat! Ro!" Vivienne greeted her friends, sitting in the passengers.

"Hi Viv! You look great!" Rosanna sat in the backseat willingly, as she claimed there was much more space there.

"Yeah, Anne, how do you pull it? Any simple outfit you wear you look beautiful." Matpat added, always complimenting her.

Vivienne blushed at the boy's comment, wether it'd be platonic or not. Thought it wasn't platonic to Mat at all, Matthew knew she was beautiful and admired that fact everyday.

"Oh so for you Mat, you look so good in that detective costume!" Vivienne complimented, really liking the outfit he had pulled together. Vivienne liked all the colors on him.

Unbeknownst to her, Rosanna and Mat had called because Mat had no idea on what to wear—Ro did most of it because he knew she wanted to impress Vivienne. And to her judgement as of now, she thought it worked. It has, Vivienne found Mat extra cuter seeing him.

"And Ro you look so cute, I love the little hat on you, and that jacket looks so comfy!" Vivienne complimented.

"Thank you, I love the red theme," complimented Rosanna back.

The trio talked again, they also gossiped a little about their friends and pop culture drama until they arrived at Everlock. Now they could know who else got the invite as Mat parked the car. He saw a group of people nearby chattering.

Teala Dunn, played the role as The Super Spy.

Colleen Ballinger, played the role as The Disco Dancer.

Manny Mua, played the role as The Record Producer.

JC Caylen, played the role as The Hippie.

Roi Fabito, played the role as The Daredevil.

Nikita Dragun, played the role as The Troublemaker.

Matthew Patrick, played the role as The Detective.

Vivienne Fontaine, played the role as The Deisigner.

Rosanna Pansino, played the role as The Jetsetter.

Lastly, Safiya Nygaard, played the role as The Investigative Reporter.

Everyone had met and caught up. It was a very social few hours still waiting for an absent Josh. As the night grew dark, the group gathered near a lit fire place, still waiting for Joey.

"Where's Joey?!" Matthew questioned, staying right beside you as everyone was still impatiently waiting.

"I haven't seen him in a while, like a couple months." Rosanna added in.

"Exactly, this is so weird." Vivienne nodded.

Manny: So we're like in the middle of nowhere and it's dark and we're literally out near a fire. We are waiting for like five hours here, and I'm like, "Honey, like that's just bad hosting."

"I thought this was just a collab. I thought this would just be a nice collab." Colleen spoke, receiving Oh's and agreements.

Colleen: I thought a mission in the 70's was just like a really cool YouTube video idea. I didn't realize it was like, full on mission in the 70's!

"Why does he meet us here? Like is this the town?" Vivienne questioned, confused.

"Anne, this is clearly not the town!" Matthew unconsciously wrapped an arm around Vivienne's waist, keeping them close. Vivienne snuggled closer, wanting the warmth.

Safiya: The letter from Joey said that there was a town stuck in the 1970's that we'd have to save. Now, I love the 1970's.

"I was just here to see, you know, like, can we actually time travel?" Safiya asked.

"My thought too." JC nodded.

"I think we've waited long enough..." Colleen said, wanting to leave.

"You guys came!" Joey Graceffa appeared.

Everyone yelled in happiness seeing their friend, their friend who'd invited them on a mission to ultimate death.

"Honestly, I didn't know if you guys were gonna come or not!" Joey said as he hugged Rosanna.

"We'd been really worried about you, Joey." Vivienne told.

"We were waiting here for hours." Colleen told amidst the loud chatter.

"Thank you," said Joey.

"So tell us about this town." Matthew spoke.

"Okay, so, I need your help, I really don't know much how we get there, but I was given this, and we need to save the town." Joey explained, holding a briefcase with a certain symbol.

Joey: So I have a mission, I need to save this town if I want to come back to life. If that requires my friends possibly putting themselves into danger, it's what I have to do.

"Apparently there's stuff in here that's gonna help us get into the town." Joey said, opening the case.

"Then open it," Safiya said.

"A scroll." MatPat saw what was in it, as Joey had opened the briefcase. "Not ominous at all," he sarcastically commented.

"Oh what is that?!" Teala asked what Joey was holding. "

"That is salt." Joey answered, it was a glass bottle.

"Salt?" Teala questioned.

"This smells expensive." Nikita sniffed.

"Ok this scroll is instructions. It says, those who desire to go back time and enter the town of Everlock must be inhabited by a spirit that once lived there." Safiya read.

Matpat: All this hoodoo voodoo witchcraft nonsense? Not up my alley.

Manny: I was like, you know, I've had a tape worm, I've had things live in me before it's not that bad.

"You guys this could be fun! Like, we could just get in it!" Nikita smiled.

Manny laughed, "It would, it would!"

"Okay you guys come on we don't have much time!" Joey complained.

"Okay sorry, sorry." Matpat said, curious on why Joey was so eager to start it. If he was, why would he be the last to arrive?.

Safiya: So basically it says that we have to make a circle of salt, and then put these five crystals at the head of the circle, hold hands, and chant something.

Everyone did hold hands, Vivienne held Matthew's on her left, and Teala on her right.

"From across the veil of death, I request your presence. So I might make wrong things right, enter into that, I might see the doorway to Everlock." Joey read.

Suddenly, as green magic of air flew out, and flew into everybody's eyes through their mouth and everyone screamed as it went in and then out.

Matpat: It wasn't bad, it was warm...and tingling.

Everyone was gasping for air.

"Guys..." Vivienne's eyes lingered to something far away. "Look, over there." She pointed.

Vivienne: So in the distance, I see this bridge lighting up and then an arch forming a sign. A sign that read Town of Everlock. I was like really questioning if I should've went. It is too late to turn back?

Everyone walked to the bridge steadily after realizing it was likely where they were supposed to go. Once they were close to the arch, a clown popped out of the curtains.

Some people screamed, out of fear and/or shock. "It's your lucky day! Because the carnival's in town!" The clown hysterically giggled.

Joey: I can deal with vampires, I can deal with werewolves, and all sorts of other things. But clowns? Why has it gotta be clowns?

Colleen: Are clowns anyone's thing? I mean, no one likes clowns.

Matpat: I find clowns delightful.

"We have a strong man, a snake woman, dolls with knives, it's like bloody Christmas everyday!" The clown laughed, Joey and other people nervously laugh along.

"We will be friends soon, I got a good feeling about that. Enjoy the ride!" The clown opens the red curtain revealing a festive carnival.

"Thank you." Joey said.

"Thanks queen." Vivienne nervously smiled.

"Anne, I don't have a good feeling about this. Keep close with me." Matthew spoke, keeping her close.

"We'll be fine. I hope." Vivienne replied. "Here, just hold my hand for now." Vivienne and Matthew held hands, both kinda nervous of each other's touch, and walked into the carnival.

"Also, did she say dolls with knives?" Matthew asked.

"She also said a snake woman." Vivienne laughed, not believing it at all.

Only if she knew it'd be her last time seeing her friends all with joy. Only if she knew the clown woman was right all along.

જ⁀➴

Hello, welcome to afterglow! I hope we all like the face claim of Vivi and her outfit on the top (if you can see it, let me know). This is currently my highest priority right now and I will work on this as much as I can throughout the week. :)