Arc II, Chapter 56: The Die Cast

Arc II, Chapter 56: The Die Cast

Are you sure there are no Omens here? Kimberly said for the third time.

Im sure, I said. Ill keep an eye out.New novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

She was nervous, but how could I blame her? The last time we had gone to the library, the vets had acted like we were walking into a lions den while covered in lambs blood. The library, which had once been so thick with Omens that turning my head too fast would make me nauseous from the flashes of storyline posters on the red wallpaper, was just a normal library. Almost.

It was under construction.

We had four days left and we had resorted to checking and rechecking every place in town that might have a missing clue of what we should do next. What we knew for sure was that we didnt want to wait until the default Omen for the third story arrived. That Omen would not lead us to the real version of the storyline. We wanted the true ending, just as we had gotten the true ending for the second storyline.

The library shelves were covered in sheets. The hallways were blocked off. The entire place was being renovated. Even the jobs board outside was under renovation. It would be until after the Centennial. Haha.

Youre back, Constance Barlow said as she saw us walking up to her desk. I am sorry to say that the library is still being renovated.

I understood why Paragons had to pretend to be NPCs most of the time. Having them be meta all the time would make things too easy. After all, they did appear to be trying to beat the Throughline, too, in their own way. If they could help, they would.

Constance was the Researcher Paragon and even when she had been acting as a player, she couldnt tell us as much as she would like. Carousel limited her script because she knew too much. Her most potent memories were literally locked away from her. She had memories from before Carousel had a death game attached to it. It made sense Carousel would make those off-limits.

Those werent the memories we were after, though. We wanted help figuring out the last piece of the puzzle for the Tutorial.

Alright, Constance, Antoine said. Im sorry to do this, but were back to try again.

Perseverance is key, Constance said. Im sure youll keep digging up the past until something turns up. May I suggest this book on Bartholomew Geist? He was known to be a very effective negotiator.

Thats not what I remember, Isaac said. He watched her as she stamped library books. You know, Ms. Barlow, if this library has been under renovation for the last thirty years, it would be weird for you to always be stamping returned library books still.

He was at it again.

She was mildly entertained but still professional. Thirty years is a long time for anything to happen. If you check the calendar by the door, youll see we only started the renovations last week. Patrons who checked out books before then would still be returning them, so it makes sense that I am checking them back in.

Isaac looked over at the calendar. Ill get you one of these days.

Isaac had really taken a fascination with calling out places where the continuity loop was broken, as he put it.

It was interesting when we thought about it. An entire town being reset to the eve of a holiday celebration that would never come. The logistics were mind-boggling. How could you live your life if every day was New Year's Eve?

Look, I said. We want the good ending to the third storyline. That means we have to trigger the storyline before the two-week break is up, right?

She continued to stamp books and stack them on a cart next to her desk.

A good ending? Constance asked. Arent you a little old for choose your own adventure books?

Youd think so, I said. I was feeling brave, ready to go out on a limb. We know the story involves Lillian Geist.

We didnt know that. I was guessing.

Constance didnt speak for a moment.

Lillian Geist, she said. Poor woman. I guess that would make your story non-fiction then, wouldnt it?

Would it? Was the story of the Geists real or fabricated? The more I learned about them, the more I started to think it was somehow both.

Is there a way you might let us take a peek in the non-fiction section? Kimberly asked.

Im afraid not, Constance said. The books in the section you are after had to be sent out for repair. They got extensive smoke damage. I couldnt say how.

She looked over to the Carousel History nonfiction section, right above the childrens section. She was making a joke. The vets used to start a fire in that section to artificially remove a mobile Omen from the library when they needed to come here.

We just need to find the true ending, I said.

I didnt read her as annoyed. She did seem frustrated, though. I couldnt blame her. Given what we knew about the Throughline, the answer we were looking for was probably going to be simple even if concealed by layers of distraction.

The original Tutorial was simple enough. If you figured the story out as you went along, you got the true ending. If you didnt, you got a basic version of the next story Our answer was somewhere, but it was possible we wouldnt think of it until after the Tutorial.

Difficulty is high, I said. We activate it by getting in the car when asked.

Already? Antoine asked. What was the thing we needed to figure out?

I started shifting my tropes around. I used Location Scout to find out where in Carousel it was set.

Its set all over Carousel, I said. Its listing off hundreds of places. I dont I dont know what it means.

Location Scout usually only listed a few dozen interconnected locations at most.

I took a moment to consider how to answer Antoine. What had been the thought in my head to trigger the Omen? I had been laughing before, but one glance at that movie poster had killed my laughter in my throat. The poster showed a large, muscular man carrying some kind of weapon. I couldnt see what it was. The man was a silhouette. He was staring at a large window where people danced.

The language of this poster was familiar to me. It reminded me of the poster for Friday the Thirteenth.

I could only hope I was wrong. I decided to start telling my friends what I had discovered.

What connected all of the disasters we have learned about? I asked. It was so simple. We just had to change some facts. Connect the dots.

What connected them? Kimberly asked. The Geists, right?

We know someone was killing off Geists starting after Bartholomew died, but it really ramped up in 1984. Most of them were wiped out in a matter of months. The factory fire killed no one. It seemed unrelated, but Constance just told us that two of the Geists, Carlyle and his son Bensen, were there and only survived because some mystery woman intervened. But then Carlyle dies in a mysterious film set disaster. Then everyone left dies in the manor fire. Then, Jed is killed by Lillian. Somehow, the Centennial is involved even though it happens eight years later. Why eight years? These disasters must be related because Carousel is putting them in front of us, but how?

Wait, Bobby said. He didnt say anything after that. He must not have figured it out yet.

Is it a coincidence that the oldest living Geist at any given time becomes the target of these disasters? I said. Thats the pattern. Carlyle at the factory, but he survives. Carlyle, at the film set, dies. Steven GeistLillians dad and the middle child of Bartholomew Geistdies at the manor fire along with almost every other Geist. Then nothing. Nothing for eight years. Jed is the oldest Geist during that period. Whatever this is, it cant kill Jed; Silas deal protected him. It doesnt kill Lillian for some reason, even though she was secretly alive the whole time. Maybe it only kills men; maybe Carousel just wanted to torture Lillian. I dont know. On the night before the Centennial, Lillian kills Jed, and then she becomes the oldest living Geist right on time for the Centennial disaster, I said.

They were quiet.

But that doesnt make sense, Antoine said. Lillian didnt die in the Centennial. She died three years later because you reminded her of her trauma.

I didnt say it was perfect, I said.

If it killed every Geist it went after, Kimberly said, Why didnt it keep going after her?

I dont know, I said. I came up with the idea, and then the Omen showed up, so I must be on to something.

The point is, Dina said, speaking up for the first time in a while, We need to know that something is targeting the oldest living Geist, right? Thats the part that matters.

Exactly, I said. We can figure out how Lillian survived later. We found the Omen. We're as ready as we are going to get. Lets go try not to die.

They didnt seem too excited over what I had come up with. We were missing pieces, but I was excited to have progress of any kind.

We started to prepare our tropes. It was impossible to get a perfect setup. We figured out our strategy. We had been working on this for some time. We were as ready as we were going to be.

We approached the car, which had been idling for the length of the time we had been talking.

A voice rang out, Are you coming? We need to get there soon, Antoine.

Antoine was in the front of the pack as usual. He opened the car door. I leaned down to get a glimpse of the driver before I got in the backseat.

He was well-dressed, almost dapper. He might have been in his mid-twenties. I recognized him, though he looked different than I remembered. Much younger.

Roderick Gray. Plot Armor 3. There was no Mayor next to his name.

And then, in a blink, I wasnt there anymore.

There was no brown sedan. There was no young Roderick Gray.

What I saw before me was a large rooma living room. It was peculiar because the walls were fake. I could see them being held up by two-by-fours. There was camera equipment behind me. I was in a large warehouse of some kind. It was dark.

Do you plan on doing anything today? A voice rang out behind me. I recognized it. I had heard it on my way to the Tutorial. I turned to see Carlyle Geist.

You know, Mr. Lawrence, he said while puffing on a pipe, You really are wasting time. Now get over here. We have to rework our next scene, or the only people well be scaring are the investors.