Arc II, Chapter 41: Stairway Death Scene

Arc II, Chapter 41: Stairway Death Scene

Lillian Geist closed the distance across the office toward Halle in a matter of seconds. They had the same Plot Armor, but I had to imagine that hers was more geared toward melee than Halles.

You did this to me! she screamed. Tell me why!

She grabbed him and quickly threw him toward the water fountain in the corner of the room. As she had said, the treatment Halle gave her did not make her beautiful, but it did make her strong.

As the fight bore on, the chorus of frogs in the distance grew closer. They had found their way here from the emergency room area. It was very polite of them to wait until just after Lillians reveal and speech.

Weve got to get out of here! Willis screamed to us.

Mystery or no mystery, the Win Condition of this storyline was Escape the Fray, and we had only gone further into it.

Come on, Isaac, Cassie said. She was trying to sound gentle and encouraging, but the adrenaline made the words come out through tears. We just need to go a little further; get up.

Isaac wasnt going to get up. He wasnt dead, but his Dead indicator on the red wallpaper was blinking faster and faster.

He tried to speak. He couldnt.

Lillian continued to beat on Dr. Halle, who had taken the scalpel from his pocketthe same one he had used to cut the ribbon earlierand was wielding it at her in vain.

Are you going to mess my face up? Lillian said with a laugh.

She backhanded him. He dropped the scalpel.

Then, she reached over to the fountain and pressed the switch to open the secret staircase.

Please, Halle said softly.

He wasnt going to survive. I had gotten a glimpse of what this scene was titled on the script before it had been taken away. It was his staircase death.

What I didnt know was that this scene had one last twist to throw.

As Kimberly and I tried to help Isaac get up before the frogs arrived, I heard a scream from the entrance of the room.

It was one of the Malformed Hybrids. Then another and another until a half dozen or so arrived. The woman with the feathers, the various amphibian hybrids, and a man who looked like a warthog all came with their eyes fixed on us and Lillian. Their Plot Armor was higher than I was expecting, almost as high as mine.

Halle had a trope that summoned protectors when the players or an ally attacked him.

This meant that Carousel counted Lillian as our ally. His trope had been triggered.

The warthog rammed Willis before he could respond.

If I were to guess, this fellow might have been the guy who carried Isaac off through the tunnels when he was attacked on Bobbys orders. He was certainly big enough, with huge muscles and tusks protruding from his mouth.

The warthog turned and started to run after me. I got ready to dodge. My high Hustle would help me there.

But it didnt even get to that.

Antoine fired two shots at him. The warthog didnt seem to feel it but did decide to target Antoine instead of me. Antoine then jumped up and over Halles couch to evade him. When the warthog charged again, Willis had regained his composure and fired one shot into the beasts leg, dropping him to the floor and another in his skull for good measure.

The woman covered in feathers was down on the ground asleep before I even saw what happened to her. Kimberly had injected her with a heavy dose of Halles sedative as she attacked.

While the hybrids were technically targeting me because of my low PA, they didnt seem shy about aiming at the others. After all, it would look weird if they didnt.

A man with a snakeskin pattern on his face and a long neck bit at Cassie, who fell to the ground as she tried to back away. Then, the snake turned to me and bounded for me, only to fall as Cassie grabbed its ankle.

Bobby was protecting his fake NPC wife. He barked at the hybrids, who strangely seemed to understand him and would respond in their animal tongues.

As they moved through the room, they got closer to me, but they also got close to Lillian, who grabbed Halles head and bashed it into the fountain.

They must have been restricted from helping him until that point because as soon as she picked him up by the hair, two of the hybrids tackled her. Halle dropped to the ground.

The whole thing was chaotic. The camera would have actually been on Lillian and Halle. Everything else was background.

Lillian threw the hybrids aside with a few brutal swings and a banshee scream.

She went back to Halle, who was trying to crawl away and picked him back up by the hair.

No more promises from you, she said. She threw him down the steep stairway into the tunnels.

He hit the stairs, bones audibly crunching the whole way down. For a moment, we went Off-Screen for what was likely a close-up of Halles broken body at the bottom of the stairs.

That gave me an idea for how I might use my Cutaway Death trope. A fall into darkness was an ideal setup.

Soon after, the energy in the room changed.

The hybrids PA dropped down five or more points a piece. Halle must have been dead. His protective buff had vanished.

I pulled Isaac away from the frog. I didnt want to go too fast, so I baited it to make sure it didnt go for Cassie.

I inched closer to the entrance to the secret staircase.

With Isaac lying on the ground, painting the tiles with his blood, it was difficult for the frog to get at him.

If the frog managed to get its tongue on Isaac, he was doomed. Selfishly, I knew that might not be the worst outcome. The frog would be distracted long enough for me to escape. Besides, it was possible Isaac wasnt going to live long enough to see The End anyway.

But I couldnt just feed him up to the beast, not when there was another way. I couldnt help him live for long, but I didnt need to see him eaten either.

I pulled Isaac down into the secret staircase, leaving him balanced on some of the steps below.

He mumbled something, but I couldnt understand it.

I quickly reached up and grasped the switch on the fountain and triggered it so the secret opening would close.

I had to time things right.

The frog jumped. At first, I thought it wouldnt get through. The entrance was closing fast, and the frog was large, but as it extended out for the jump, its body stretched thin enough to get through the hole. I had hoped it would just get close enough that I could feign being knocked down the stairs to my "death".

It hit me like a freight train.

I screamed. I had to.

The frog and I were tumbling backward down the staircase. I couldnt tell if we hit Isaac as we went down.

It wasnt perfect, but I succeeded at my main goal technically.

As I fell down the stairs, I noticed I was officially Written Off on the red wallpaper.

Cutaway Death sent us all Off-Screen.

My death had been implied by being attacked by the frog. I hadnt expected the full-on tackle. I had hoped it might try to wrap me in its tongue, which would then get caught by the closing secret door, but that was too much to hope for.

I landed hard on the ground. I was already mutilated because of my hand surgery, but even if I hadnt been, I would be now.

One of my arms was bent the wrong way. Pain surged through my body. Breathing hurt. My head hurt. I was bleeding.

I looked around. I could hear the frog somewhere. Would it be too much to ask that it be injured, too?

If it was, I couldnt tell. It was dark at the foot of the stairs.

I thought quickly and crawled my way to the edge of the walkway where the ravine of rushing water waited bellow.

I couldnt see very well, so I just listened.

I hoped the frog wouldnt go back upstairs to look for the dying Isaac. Cutaway Death implied some fight was meant to occur after it triggered, a fight with me.

I tried to let my eyes adjust. I stood tall. I took off my hoodie quickly and draped it over my front.

Sure enough, the frogs tongue shot at me, stuck to my hoodie, and ripped it away.

I heard an odd coughing as it tried to swallow it.

Then, I heard a sound I couldnt placea slap.

Next was a shuffle as the frog leaped at me. I waited until the last second and dodged out of the way.

The creature sailed past me and fell into the raging stream. I didnt know how strong frogs were at swimming, but this frog had human toes, so I had assumed it wouldnt be too good at it. It also had human eyes, which is why I surmised it couldnt see in the dark.

The only thing it lacked was a human brain, so it fell for the oldest trick in the book.

I collapsed to the ground. The cool, damp concrete was oddly comfortable because I was so exhausted.

I had to check on Isaac. I crawled over, letting my bad arm rest.

I looked up the stairs. In the dim light, I couldnt see him, but I could detect him on the red wallpaper.

He was Written Off, but he wasnt dead. Not yet. Luckily, he was Unconscious. I would need to check on how being Written Off affected death.

All I had to do was wait for my friends to get away, and I would be fine. We all would be.

A light appeared against the wall next to the stairway. It was from a lighter.

Illuminated in an orange flicker was the bloodied face of Dr. Howard Halle.

Mr. Lawrence, he said. His words sounded labored, his breathing shallow. How do you know my son? What do you know about Simon Halle?