Chapter Twenty-Five: A Pattern Emerges

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Pattern Emerges

”What do you mean that Ruck killed her?” Anna asked.

None of us had been prepared for that curveball.

“She was killed in a hit and run sometime yesterday evening before the party. Witness statements said that it was an orange pickup truck. The description sounded just like the one that Ruck was driving. They had paint chips from the scene.” Camden said.

"Oh..."

"In real life, it would be a coincidence, but... I doubt it is here," Camden said.

“OK, but what does this have to do with him getting murdered?” Kimberly asked.

None of us knew.

Was it possible that someone from the party knew this girl? If so, how would they have known that Ruck was responsible?

“He did almost hit the house when he pulled into the driveway,” Anna said. “He had been drinking.”

“But who would have known so quickly?” I asked. “It doesn't make sense.”

The murder victim in a whodunnit having a dark secret is not unusual. However, this was really late in the movie to find out about it. I couldn't figure out how this fit into the larger puzzle.

“In any case," I said. “We have to look into Evan. Only one person could have known that I was at the house at the time of the murder, and that's the killer. Either he is Ranger Danger or Ranger Danger told him that I was there.”

Evan was the best suspect so far, even if we didn’t know the motive.

“I'm not going to be able to do that,” Antoine said. “The game is today so unless this story ends before then I'm probably going to get forced into playing.”

It hit me.

“You will be forced into playing,” I said. “Think of it. We're being hunted by someone dressed as a football team's mascot. I'll bet anything that he's there.”

“He'll blend right in,” Anna said.

“Exactly.”

With Second Blood approaching, these were our stats and abilities:

Player Stats and Tropes

Riley

Antoine

Anna

Kimberly

Camden

Archetype

Film Buff

Athlete

Final Girl

Eye Candy

Scholar

Plot Armor

13 / 2

14 + 2

16

12

13

Mettle

1

4 + 1

4

1

2

Moxie

4

1

3

4

2

Hustle

2

4 + 1

2

3

2

Savvy

5

1

2

1

6

Grit

1

4

5

3

1

TROPE MASTER

Type: Insight

Stat: Savvy

Effect: Sees enemy tropes. Lose half of PA

IT’S PART OF THE UNIFORM

Type: Buff

Stat: N/A

Effect: Higher Mettle when attacking with sports equipment

LAST ONE ALIVE

Type: Rule

Stat: N/A

Effect: Cannot die until the party is killed

CONVENIENT BACKSTORY

Type: Buff

Stat: Moxie

Effect: Can change backstory to assist with the current task.

We were being separated again, just like we had been at the frat party. I tried to keep an eye on Camden. I saw him and Evan moving closer toward the mouth of the tunnel as the emerging players caused a surge in the crowd. After a few players had passed, I couldn't see Camden anymore.

Did they go in the tunnel? Was this scripted?

The needle on the plot cycle was nearly to Second Blood. If that wasn’t enough, the Everyone is a Suspect trope only activated when a murder was about to take place.

Now, I know what you’re going to say: “Don’t go into the tunnel with a killer around.”

But I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t know if I would be able to find Camden or if the same trope that separated us would keep us apart. However, I knew there were limits to the trope’s power. After all, the trope didn’t stop me from witnessing a murder.

Would it stop me from preventing one?

I pushed forward into the tunnel, fighting against the stragglers who were running out. By the time I got through, I didn't see Camden or Evan. I wondered how long it would be before I could find either one of them.

I raced through the labyrinthine tunnels. That place was massive and confusing. There was no sign of either of them. There was no sign of anyone at all. There were so many doors and paths under there that I could have passed right by them without even knowing it.

Those same doors could also have concealed a killer.

I quickly raised my hood over my head and put on my sunglasses. They made traveling through the dimly lit tunnels under the stadium difficult, but they also bolstered my Oblivious Bystander trope.

Maybe I was pushing my luck, hoping to survive another run-in with Ranger Danger using only Oblivious Bystander as a shield, but I had no choice.

The only sounds that could be heard were the faint whispers of the wind and the distant roar of the crowds above, echoing down through the concrete corridors. I could feel the vibration of thousands of feet stomping along to a fight song.

There were dim yellow lights placed along the tunnels along with some shafts of light from the stands above, where bolt holes and seams in the metal had not been covered, allowing the stadium lights to shine through.

Footsteps.

I heard them behind me. They made a distinct soft echo. They were quiet enough that I would not have noticed them if I had not been listening for them. I was being followed.

I couldn't turn to look and see who it was, but given the circumstances, I had one guess, and he was wearing a flat-brimmed cowboy hat.

Did I just keep walking deeper into the tunnels or did I try to find a way to turn around and get back out toward the entrance?

Going forward was easier than turning around if I wanted to keep Oblivious Bystander active.

I moved forward at an even pace trying to act like I was supposed to be there. The footsteps followed.

I noticed that my Chase Scene status had turned on. That was all the confirmation I needed. Ranger Danger was ten feet behind me.

After a long hallway, I started to doubt that Camden would have gone this far. Unlike me, he wouldn't have had any way of protecting himself. Of course, he may not have had a choice.

Heck, for all, I knew he could have been hiding out behind one of the doors I had passed.

As I moved forward, I noticed that the hallway had begun to turn left. I must have been approaching the turn in the horseshoe shape of the stadium.

When I got there, I was going to bend over to tie my shoe in hopes that I could get a peek at the person behind me while doing it. If I angled it right, I could kneel down facing the corner and Ranger Danger would stand directly behind me. I could then find a way to stand back up turning back the way I came instead of further down the tunnel.

Then, I would lead him back out to the entrance of the tunnel and make my escape while leading him away from anywhere Camden might be.

My Hustle stat increased by one point.

I almost forgot.

I had been awarded the Escape Artist trope for completing the Astralist storyline. I got the trope as a reward for coming up with a clever way of escaping my restraints. It gives me a boost to Hustle whenever I have a plausible escape plan, but the trope didn't just work when I was captured it also worked when I was being pursued.

Not only did that boost my ability to get away, but by awarding me a point for having a good plan, it also confirmed for me that the plan could theoretically work, which was arguably a more useful perk.

Now it was all down to execution.

Maybe that's a poor choice of words.

As I walked up to the corner where the two abandoned tunnels met, I casually bent down and pivoted my body to be pointed directly at the corner. With my sunglasses and hoodie, I thought it was completely believable that I wouldn't be able to see whoever it was behind me.

Have you ever tried to tie your shoes while a knife-wielding murderer walked behind you? I was so nervous that I nearly forgot how.

Ranger Danger stood behind me and paused. I didn't get a chance to look at him, but I was confident that it was the same masked figure I had seen before.

And then he kept walking.

At first, a wave of relief poured over me but then confusion set in. To my understanding, he shouldn't have been walking away from me. If I was his target, he should continue to pursue me until I eventually saw him and he could strike. That's how it worked with the Astralist. When I talked to Adeline about my plan she confirmed it. My low plot armor should force the bad guy to continue to pursue me.

Why was he walking away then?

Instead of turning left and going back in the direction I came from, I waited for a moment and turned right. I was going to follow him.

It was him alright. He paid me no mind.

I had spent hours mentally preparing myself to use the Oblivious Bystander trope to avoid enemies, but I had not yet considered whether I might be able to use it to follow them. I wasn't prepared. But I needed to see where he was going.

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.

I waited until he cleared around the next corner before I followed him. At this point, the tunnels stopped being straight and started being curved with multiple directions that you could take at any given time. I imagine that these smaller tunnels were for vendors, as this was the location in the stadium where all of the food kiosks were set up.

I wish I had brought a book or a newspaper, something to hold in front of me to make it look like I might not have seen Ranger Danger. Instead, I was just going to have to keep my distance and hope that he wouldn't turn around to look at me.

The crowd overhead suddenly burst into cheers. Somebody must have got a touchdown.

Another scream joined in with them. It wasn't coming from the stands above; it was coming from a small tunnel offshoot of the large pathway. Ranger Danger had just entered there.

“Help!” Camden screamed.

Ranger Danger must have been chasing Camden when I finally made it back into the tunnels after fighting through the crowd. He wouldn't need a special trope to find him, a Chase Scene is resolved by a simple comparison of Hustle stats unless a trope contradicts it.

If the killer's Hustle is higher, they will catch you. It's that simple.

Camden only had two Hustle.

No wonder my Escape Artist trope activated successfully. I wasn't the real target. His chasing me was just him playing along with my Oblivious Bystander trope.

I took off my glasses and pulled back my hood as I ran to catch up with Ranger Danger. It didn't matter anymore if I was Oblivious.

I burst into a room that held an exit door with crates of sports equipment stacked in front of it. Camden was trying to squeeze behind the crates, hoping to keep away from Ranger Danger. No doubt Camden had come in here seeking a way out. There was no way out because his Hustle score was too low. The story would not let him get away.

“Stop!” I screamed.

Ranger Danger did stop. He turned and looked at me. He waited for a moment as if he was taking time to consider whether to attack me or not. He decided that he would.

He lunged. I turned to run. Hoping that my boost to Hustle would be enough to get away from him, to lead him away from Camden.

But it wasn't.

I wasn't ten steps away from the door before I felt the knife. He grabbed me from behind and brought the knife around and drove it into my stomach. The blade pierced right through my hoodie and sunk into my flesh.

The pain was unbearable. My status changed. Now, I was scathed and the incapacitated light began turning on for long stretches of time every time I took a breath. Whenever it did, the pain was so unbearable that I could barely move. I had seen how this status had affected Kimberly and now I understood.

I was on the ground without even feeling the fall. I expected the finishing blow to come any second.

But it didn't.

Ranger Danger was gone.

I was in shock, having trouble figuring out what was going on.

I heard Camden scream.

I resolved to get to him even if I had to crawl. That was all I could do while incapacitated. I forced myself to move across the floor. You never notice how often you flex your abs until someone stabs you there. Every movement shot pain throughout my body.

Eventually, I made it to the door.

Ranger Danger was standing over Camden.

Camden wasn't unconscious. He wasn't incapacitated. He was bloody. He was dead.

“Why?” I asked. It just came out.

Why had he only wounded me but killed Camden? I couldn't take my eyes off my childhood friend lying on the ground. I didn't know how many times he'd been stabbed but it had been more than enough. This wasn't like one of the NPCs, whose deaths were so easy to accept because they weren't real.

My unconscious status started to flicker on the red wallpaper.

This time I screamed, “Why?”

Tears streamed from my eyes.

Ranger Danger gave no answer. Instead, he pushed on the same crates that Camden had been trying to push, but he apparently had much higher Mettle, because he was able to move them just enough to squeeze through to the exit door. He left.

The room started to go dark. I could see Camden’s status as being dead but that wasn't enough. I crawled closer to him even as my own consciousness started to wane. Blood soaked my clothes and the floor underneath me.

I remembered us being kids and pretending to fight zombies. Most of what we did back then revolved around my strange interest in scary movies. His parents never let him watch them.

When we played as kids, our characters always lived no matter who we fought against, whether it was vampires or Lord Voldemort.

But against Ranger Danger, against Carousel itself, Camden had died.

Why had I been spared?

I had suspected what was going on from the moment Ranger Danger passed me in the hall instead of attacking me.

Pattern Killer

Before the finale, the villain will only kill victims chosen according to a pre-established motive.

He couldn't kill me.

We finally had our pattern for the killer’s motive.

And I wasn't a part of it.