'The acrobat rolled the dice and it landed on...'

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Valentina's POV:

The dice stopped rolling.

Oh, God, please no.

It was an 8 and a diamond.

It wasn't me, thank God...

But they all started pointing their knives and guns at Zach.

"No, no, no, NO!" Megan screamed, her voice breaking, and you could notice she was sobbing without even seeing her.

"Don't you DARE lay a finger on him, you fucking bitches!"

"Sorry, wimp, acrobats' law. Get used to it unless you want to die as well." I overheard one acrobat say.

Wow, what a bastard.

Veronica: 'This is terrifying look at and listen to right now; Meghan's husband is about to get gutted and not only that, but these freaks just happen to be doing the killing. I regret even knowing Joey now.'

"Now, any last words, handsome?"

Zach just stood in place, saying nothing.

They were about to kill him when I heard a motorbike approaching.

"Wait, a sec...." Gear said, squinting his eyes.

"Guys, look! It's Heidi! She's here to help us!"

And he was right.

Heidi zoomed in on the bike and shot all the acrobats so she and Victor could untie us.

Oli: 'Suddenly, Heidi zooms in on a motorbike, shoots all the acrobats, and unties us. And I'm just thinking, 'Yes, thank you, Jesus!' ' 

"Well, thanks for the help, guys." I assured, nodding to Victor and Heidi whilst rubbing my wrists.

"And thank God none of us died. You OK, Megan?" Lana acknowledged, going over to comfort Megan.

"Y... yeah," she blubbered, wiping her eyes, still shaken up by the fact her husband nearly got murdered. "S... shaken up, that's all. I.. I'll be fine in a second."

"We should get moving before the acrobats recover," Lia suggested, picking up the dice.

"Maybe we could hide out in the arcade; maybe see if we can find anything else without nearly dying."

"OK, now that's rational thinking," I stated as I stepped off of the merry-go-round and followed everybody into the arcade, where we looked around for more clues.

We had no luck until Vanessa realised something was off about the table.

"Guys, why is there paper underneath the table? It looks stable to me. You only put paper under a desk when you need an even surface." She questioned, looking around for more paper under the table.

"Wait, that's a note!" Joey decided, grabbing and unfolding it, and before reading it aloud to the group.

'To open the bookshelf and see what's behind, the password is what the dice would say if they wanted you all to be spared.'

Valentina: 'I notice there's a gap of two squares in it next to the bookshelf, which is big enough to fit the dice in. The problem is, dice don't speak.'

"Wait, but it says what the dice would say. Dice don't speak, guys." Megan stated, making herself look silly.

"Meghan, it meant what the dice would look like. The acrobat said that if she rolled snake eyes, AKA a one, and a club, she would let us all go free from the merry-go-round we just happened to a few minutes ago." Oli explained, making himself look a lot smarter than he appeared.

"Oli, I never knew you had so much gambling knowledge!" Veronica expressed, obviously extremely impressed.

"Veronica, I'm a Highroller; what did you expect?" Oli responded.

Lia gave me the dice, and I put them in with the one and the club facing inwards. Then, the bookshelf popped open.

"OH!" we all yelped, obviously in shock that the bookshelf was actually a door. Lana peeked her head inside and opened it.

The bookshelf was the door to a lounge!

(Photo is down below for reference:)

Gear: 'This place looks great! I mean, we have our own lounge hidden behind an arcade bookcase and this looks pretty retro and it's just incredible!'

Lizzie: 'As nice as this place is, I convince everybody thay we need to find something useful to help us out here. And Valentina finds this map on the wall.'

"Guys, there's a map of this town on the wall!" I said, removing the map off the wall and putting it face down on the table in the lounge.

"OK, why the hell is there a giant monologue on the back of here? This looks like... Latin, almost." Zach said, looking at the monologue like it was utter rubbish.

After an awkward silence, Lana read it:

'We were too late.

Even with all of our knowledge of this legend, we could never understand the Delamont Mistress' twisted plan. To save Delamont, we pushed it so far back in time, it got lost in it, so we could have a chance at defeating her. But we were no match for her wicked magic. Realising we could lose it all, I used the last of my spirit to seal her away in a diamond prison.

But the spell I cast has reached its end.

At sunrise, the Delamont Mistress will break free of her prison and devour all of Delamont's life.

There are eight corrupted artifacts where the Delamont Mistress gains her power. If you can gather them and purge them of their evil, she will grow weaker, and then we can slay her.

However, the artifacts have guardians.

When the artifact is touched, they will release their dark guardian. The irrevocable act to cleanse each artifact is to vote for two people to undertake a deadly challenge which will end in one of you dying.

By sunrise, if the artifacts have not been cleansed and the Delamont Mistress slain, everybody in town, including you, will be destroyed.

But even if you prevail, only four of you will leave alive.'

"OK, so let me get this straight; we came here for Joey's birthday and now we're saving a town through cleansing artifacts and murdering each other and only four of us are getting out of here?" Vanessa stated, looking confused and leaving everybody shocked or terrified.

"Looks that way. So, we gotta work together. Where do we start?" Gear asked, sitting up and looking intrigued.

I looked under the desk and found two brown envelopes. "Maybe by opening these, I'm guessing?" I said.

I gave the other envelope to Joey and opened and read mine first. It read:

'The baton requires a new ribbon so those on the right side of town can hold it. However, the acrobats have hidden it somewhere in their performance tent. You will need to beat the stuffing out of it to find it.'

Zach: 'Beat the stuffing out of it? Hell no, I'm not beating something up.'

Joey then opened his envelope and read it:

'The baton is also in need of a new jewel to allow the baton to be pure. However, the acrobats have also taken this jewel and are guarding it in their disco. You will need to trick the entourage to find it. To disguise yourself as an acrobat, a box of bow-ties is behind the yellow couch in the arcade. Since there are 11 of you, six of you will need to go to one place.'

We then decided on the groups: I would go with Gear, Lizzie, Lana, and Oli and Joey would go with Vanessa, Veronica, Zach, Megan, and Lia.

My group then took off for the performance tent.

***

We arrived at the Performance Tent, resorting to looking around.

Lizzie: 'So, me, Gear, Lana, Oli, and Valentina, who are bonding, head to the acrobat's performance tent to find the ribbon for this baton. And the clue said to beat the stuffing out of it. So, when I see pinatas and stuffed animals, I know we have to tear them apart and break them open!'

We all bust open the pinatas and rip open these stuffed animals and after we've destroyed all of them- with a lot of help from Gear throwing the pinatas across the room- we get four different coloured coins; a red one, a green one, a blue one, and a yellow one.

Each of them had a number on it that matched another coloured coin; the red coin had a yellow number on it, the green coin had a blue number on it, the blue coin had a green number on it and the yellow coin had a red number on it.

Oli: 'Whilst we try to figure out what to do with these coins, I find a number code lock with the different colors of the coins on it.'

"Guys, over here!" Oli called out, signaling us towards him. "This number code has the same colors as the coins we found. Maybe the code matches the coins?"

"Yeah, but I'm stumped. I gotta admit," I sighed. "The coins are different colors than the numbers."

After I said that, I saw Lana's face light up.

"Now I understand!" she yelled, trying not to attract attention.

"The numbers are different colors than the coins, right? So, the colors of the numbers are in the order they go in on the code. So, the yellow number is 3, the blue number is 5, the green number is 9 and the red number is 8. The code is 3598!"

Me and Gear work to put the code in.

The box popped open, and we celebrated.

"Lana, you're a goddamn genius and I love you for it!" Gear said, before pulling Lana into a tight hug and kissing her on the cheek.

"Hold up. You two are... dating?" I whispered, looking confused.

"Yeah, we are. That's not a problem, is it?" Lana asked, still hugging Gear.

"Yeah, it's fine; we still ship it!" Lizzie squeaked, trying very hard not to fangirl.

All I could do was just nod to Lizzie.

Honestly, I had to agree; at first, I couldn't see them dating, but now I know they are, it makes sense why they're always together.

"OK, not to kill the mood here, but we don't have long and we still have to find this ribbon." Oli urged, snapping us all back into reality.

We look inside the box and we see this... comic strip.

It's about this superhero called Dynamontia who seems to have lost her power to fly.

"Wait, it says here to call Dynamontia and then they say her name three times! I think she's in that box over there. Maybe she should try that?" Lizzie suggests.

Gear: 'We all agree on saying her name three times like what happened in the comic strip and we just do it.'

"Dynamontia, Dynamontia, Dynamontia!" we all say in unison and the box pops open.

We look inside it and we find a superhero dressed in pink and red and some empty balloons.

Valentina: 'As we look around to inflate these balloons, I see a helium tank in the corner; so I grab the balloons and inflate them. But the tank is SO loud!'

As I'm inflating the balloon, it pops and we all freak out.

We could have just attracted attention to ourselves.

"Shit! OK, hide somewhere, guys!" Gear whisper shouts, and we all dive behind some nearby boxes.

We don't hear any sound for about two minutes. I think nobody was close enough to hear it.

"OK, the coast is clear, guys," I whisper, and we all go back to inflating the balloons. At long last, we finally finish inflating them and tie them to Dynamontia.

Lizzie: 'I'm scared it didn't work, but it did, and then... a box on a nearby table opens up; we have the ribbon!'

We race back to the lounge, celebrating as we go.

"Oh my god, I cannot run in these shoes!" I gasp as we run, out of breath from running so fast.

We finally get into the lounge and see the other group waiting.

We explain everything and boy; we had it easy.

They had to knock somebody out, solve a math equation and distract a lot of people.

And they also brought back a note, which Oli volunteered to read.

It read:

'The artifact requires one more piece to be replaced in order for it to be fully restored; the bottom jewel. Because we could not kill your friend, three must be chosen by vote to undertake a horrifying challenge, but only one of you will die, so choose wisely. For this unique trial, the three selected must choose a partner to fight for them.'

"So, people are going to die?" Megan whimpered, her voice shaky.

"OK, I'm just going to be honest right now; the only good thing Megan did whilst we were in that disco was distracting those hoes by being a scared little bunny!" Lia fumed, standing up and pointing at Meghan, causing her to cry.

"Listen here, tired ass brat. You will not kill my wife. I will not allow it!" Zach roared, his face red.

"Oh my God, stop arguing! You guys are just being silly at this point. You guys just vote who you think should go in, no hard feelings. We'll let fate decide how the rest plays out. Anyway, that's my take on the situation." I said, somehow calming everybody down.

"It is time to vote," Heidi notified, a slight comforting smile on her face. "Tap the ticket with the face of the person you would like to enter the challenge. I will shuffle and then draw three."

I voted first. Then Gear, then Lia.

Then Vanessa, then Veronica, then Zach, then Meghan.

It was Lana, then Joey, and then Oli.

Lizzie voted last.

"I will now shuffle and draw three." Heidi said, shuffling the deck of cards.

The entire room went silent.

Nobody wanted to die, and we didn't want to kill anybody.

It was down to the cards now.

"The first person going into the challenge is...." Heidi grabbed the card, looked at it, and turned it around.

"The Lady Killer."

"WHAT!?" we all practically screamed.

You could see the fear in Lana's eyes as her boyfriend's card got pulled.

"Who voted for... what?!" Lia gasped, her hand on her heart.

Gear: 'I honestly thought everybody had my back. But obviously, at least one person voted me in. And I'm shocked by that.'

"The second person going into the challenge is..." Heidi grabbed the second card, looked at it, and turned it around.

"The Soft Girl."

Zach covered his mouth in shock; somebody had voted his wife to die.

Zach: 'I see Megan's card and my heart just sinks. Somebody wants my wife dead. And whoever that is, I'm going to kill them.'

"The third and final person going into the challenge is..." Heidi grabbed the third and final card, looked at it, and turned it around.

"The Highroller."

"Oh... my God." Vanessa sighed, her face dropping into her hands.

"I'm so shocked right now," Lizzie said, trying to stay strong.

"OK, who voted for Megan!?" Zach bellowed, visibly upset.

"Zach, we'll discuss this later. Now is not the time." Joey said, putting his arms in front of himself, worried that Zach was going to attack.

"Please select a partner to fight for you," Heidi began, bringing us all back to the situation at hand. "Starting with the person who was drawn first."

"So, that would be Gear, then. I think she's just calling everybody by their roles for some weird reason." Lizzie explained, clearing up some confused faces people had.

"OK, this is not based on our relationship or anything, but I'm going to have to go with Lana because she helped a lot when we were in the tent." Gear said, pointing to Lana.

It was now Megan's turn to pick.

"I'm going to go with Joey." She showed, seeming sure of herself. Everybody looked quite surprised. 

"Well, he put me in this mess and he's going to get me out of it."

Oli: 'I'm not sure if that reasoning is smart or just something a delusional person would think of.'

"And finally, Oli. Who do you choose to fight for you?" Victor asked, motioning to Oli.

"I think I'm going to pick, Val. I mean, she's helped us a lot so far." He responded.

"Well, she released the acrobats in the first place!" Megan argued, just making herself look sillier.

"Oli, don't worry; I'm going to save you, you ain't dying tonight." I expressed confidently.

"Thanks, Val. We'd best go to the challenge now, right?" Oli asked, piping up a bit.

"I'll see you all when we get back. If Megan dies, it isn't my fault!" I called out as I walked away from the door to the acrobat's tent.

***

We all arrive at the circus tent, the acrobats staring at us and cackling. We saw the challenges and three targets on a stage; I think that's why this is a partner challenge.

"Here are the rules of the challenge," Victor said, handing us a note. 

Me, Lana, and Joey read it out loud whilst Oli, Gear, and Meghan were being tied to the targets. The note read:

'Complete the five unique challenges on the five different stations throughout the tent. For every station you complete, you will retrieve a bottle based on a previous place and period that was possessed by evil. For each station you complete, you will receive a bottle and you will need to use them all to complete the last challenge. 

The first two partners to do so will save their partner, whilst the losing partner will be the next target for the acrobat's throwing knives practice.'

Lana: 'So, whoever loses, the person on the target will be throwing knife practice? Hell no, my boyfriend will not die that brutally. Or at all, for that matter.'

"Ready? GO!" the head acrobat yelled, all of us racing to our stations.

Valentina: 'OK, for this first challenge, we need to plunge our hand into a vat of ice water to unscrew four shapes from inside of it and put them into the slots that match the shape. Once we have all the shapes, we can get the bottle and move onto the next station.'

Lana and I race through the station, although my hand is numb right now.

"Yes, Val! Come on, you're nearly there!" Oli encouraged, hoping I can get him out of this challenge alive.

I get all the shapes, grab the bottle and move on; the bottle I got is black and has a gargoyle on the front of it.

Lana is literally right behind me, Gear cheering her on. I don't mind, though; as long as we can save them and form an alliance with Lizzie afterwards, we'll be fine.

Lana: 'Me and Valentina are literally neck and neck the whole way through. We literally got through the golden goblet puzzle and got the crown bottle at the same time and now we're both literally about to get the next bottle.'

"Joey, come on! I swear to God, I am not dying tonight!" Megan cried, visibly frustrated.

Joey ended up stuck on the second station, me and Lana headed for the fourth one.

For the fourth challenge, we have to eat vegan dumplings.

They are so dry, so I'm literally throwing soy sauce down my throat so I don't throw up everywhere.

Lana finishes hers and inches ahead, Oli and Gear now cheering both of us on.

Megan: 'Lana and Valentina are both on the last puzzle, sorting the bottles in order of events, and Joey literally just started building the demon idol for the third challenge. I'm going to die! A little haste won't hurt, Joey!'

"Wait... I got it! Oli, you're going to survive this!" I call out, Oli celebrating and shouting.

Oli: 'Thank GOD I chose Val to get me out of this mess. She just finishes and Lana just did; I'm still alive, thank you, Jesus!'

"Babe, you did it!" Gear says as he finally gets untied and we race to get the bottom jewel for the baton.

Just as we did, the head acrobat speaks up again.

"WE HAVE OUR WINNERS!" she screeches, and all the other acrobats cheer, too.

"AND BETTER YET, OUR LOSER!"

Then, we watch as Megan gets multiple throwing knives thrown at her in rapid succession, screaming out in pain.

This goes on until Oli puts the bottom jewel on the baton, causing the acrobats to disappear in a puff of black smoke.

"Babe, you did it." Gear whispered to Lana as he hugged her again and gave her a kiss on the lips.

They are such a cute couple.

"NO!" Joey yelled, staring at Megan's dead body; he had failed her.

Joey: 'Megan's dead. I failed her and Zach's will probably kill us when we tell him.'

"We'd best go back to the lounge and break the news." I sigh, walking slowly back with everybody following.

Or, what I thought was everyone. A few minutes later, Joey and Oli ran back over to us, as though Oli had stayed behind at the tent.

"Oli, where were you? You were there for a while." I asked, looking over at me.

"Oh, it was nothing. I'm just trying to process what happened." Oli mumbled.

Soon, we arrived back at the arcade and the lounge.

And as we entered, we all held our breath....