Book Five, Chapter 63: The Flea Market

Book Five, Chapter 63: The Flea Market

"Nothing has walked in the bowling alley in the last forty minutes," Michael said. "Are we even sure that this stuff happens when players aren't around? Maybe if we went in there—"

"It happens whether players are there or not," Andrew said. "You know that. I know you want to find that omen as much as I do, but you have to be patient. This is a large undertaking."

We waited at the corner of the street across from the bowling alley, in a place where there was very little activity of any kind, whether it be NPCs or omens. I sat under a tree and scanned around, looking for danger. Kimberly had brought the baby doll along, but it hadn't screamed even once.

Antoine came over and sat next to me.

"So, you got any ideas?" he asked. "People are getting a little antsy."

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure, and if I was being honest, I was starting to believe that the omen we were looking for might not be in the bowling alley.

"When we talked to Sal, he said that Stray Dawn was set at a mansion in southern Carousel and that the town footage would be southeast Carousel," I said. Like eastern Carousel, there were other sections of Carousel that acted as separate towns in storylines.

"Right," Antoine said. "You think we need to go look over there? In southern Carousel?"

I shook my head. "No," I said. "I like our theory. The bowlers played basically every storyline within their level range that existed in this area."

"So, do we need to fan out?" he asked. "Figure out where the omen is? Maybe they left the bowling alley in search of new storylines?"

"Yes, but it's more than that," I said. "If the story is mostly set in south and southeast Carousel, I imagine it doesn’t start here because this is basically central, west-central Carousel."

"Yeah, nowhere near where the movie is set," he said. "So what does that mean?"

"Well, if the omen is found here as we theorized, but the story is not triggered here, it could be like those in the library, where as soon as you trigger it, a bunch of NPCs start pushing you toward wherever the setting is, one way or another, through bits of dialogue or some sort of narrative device. Or..."

I paused to think.

"Or?" Antoine asked.

"Or... you could just purchase the omen over here and run it somewhere else," I said.

He nodded enthusiastically.

"A purchasable omen," he repeated. "So we need to look for a shop."

"That's what I'm thinking," I said. "But again, it could just be an omen that is placed in a silly area. Places like the library or even the hospital sometimes had a bunch of omens that weren't set in those places, but that was kind of their gimmick. That was not the norm necessarily."

Antoine stood up and quickly raised his voice. "Everybody, gather up. We’ve got a plan."

Everyone was eager to do something other than wait and watch a bowling alley, so they came from where they had been waiting.

"Riley thinks that the omen might be a purchasable omen, so we need to find stores nearby where the bowlers might have found the omen we're looking for."

We didn’t even have to look.

"What about the For Your Life Flea Market?" Kimberly said. "A block over, there's a whole lot with a bunch of different booths selling clothes and furniture. We could get some more chairs."

Of course, Kimberly knew where the nearest shopping venue was.

"We’ll start there," Antoine said. "But we’re not buying chairs from a flea market. We’re going to steal them from storylines like proper players."

Interior decorating was a high-risk, low-reward pastime in Carousel.

It didn't take long to find the flea market that Kimberly was talking about.

I barely even remembered it being there because the last time we had seen it was when we were loaded into a bus, running away from the black snow, and all the omens were deactivating like bubble wrap popping in a microwave.

"Alright, stay with me," I said, and I must have said it with some intensity because they all got really close to me. When I moved, they moved.

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"I'm looking for something pastoral, almost. You know, a painting of nature," she said.

"I think I have a couple that you might be interested in. Just give me one moment," the woman said.

"Look," the Miscreant said, trying to get Kimberly's attention. "This is the painting you want, I can tell. You almost look like the lady in the picture."

In fact, I had not even spotted that, but Kimberly did kind of look like the woman in the picture. But the painting was an oil painting, and it wasn't exactly fine on the details of anything but the necklace. It could have been any blonde woman, but after he said it looked like Kimberly, I couldn't help but notice it.

"Then I guess all I really need is a mirror, then, huh?" Kimberly said.

"Don't be like that," the Miscreant said. "I'll tell you what, just give me what you got on you. Come on, look at it—it's a beautiful painting, one-of-a-kind."

Only then did Kimberly glance at the painting and look it over.

"30," she said, "and that's just because I like the frame."

"We're not going all the way down to 30. What were we at, 65?"

"I thought you said 60," Kimberly said.

"I said 65," the Miscreant said.

"And I said 30," Kimberly said.

"60," the man said.

Kimberly shook her head. "30."

"55."

"30."

"No, you have to go up. That’s how this works," the man said.

"35," Kimberly said.

"I'm staying at 55," the man said.

Kimberly turned back to the woman selling all the other paintings and said, "Do you have any frames like that one?" Then she pointed at the frame with the painting of the omen.

"I'm sure I could find something similar," the woman said.

"Oh, bull," the Miscreant said. "50, then."

"Hmmm... I only have 40 dollars," Kimberly said.

The man growled in frustration and looked up at the air. "Oh, all right. But know that you are really hurting my bottom line for no reason. You don't know what I risked to get this thing."

The man reluctantly handed over the painting, and Kimberly handed over a stack of coins in large denominations.

"Nice doing business with you," she said.

"Nice doing business with you... ripping out my guts," the man growled as he walked away.

And just like that, we had finally accomplished what we had set out to do, what we had walked all over Carousel for.

We had the omen for Stray Dawn.

It was time for the planning to really begin.