by GR Griffin
Holding on for their life, the cart rocketed across the tracks, moving so fast that it threatened to roll straight off. Fleck ducked and dodged under, over, and through the mining equipment. The supports groaned and wobbled under their weight. At tight turns, the inside wheels lifted off the tracks.
Their surroundings zoomed past before Fleck could catch a chance to focus on them. Cranes tied to slabs of rock, pickaxes scattered beside pockmarked walls; work seemingly left unfinished like everyone stopped what they were doing all of a sudden.
The moaning of the unstable supports began to be broken up by the snaps of weak timbers. Nails cracking out of place. The tracks wobbled, but were able to not topple.
The cart hit a small summit at top speed, hoping off the track momentarily. The jolt of the landing threw the lone passenger down, face-first into the recess of soot at the bottommost recesses. The stuff latched on to their face, getting into their eyes and zipping up their mouth. Fleck immediately started coughing. Their eyelids slammed shut.
They clambered upright, struggling as the car continued to jiggle against them. They hacked away while rubbing at their eyes, only making them sorer.
Through pain and tears, they managed to force their eyelids to open. And just in time.
The end of the line. Dead ahead.
The metal buffer stop – a metal rectangle on six legs – was so rusty that did not look strong enough to halt a passing thought, let alone a speeding cart. And two metres beyond that stood a wall of jagged spikes, all aimed in their direction. The lamp in front highlighted the sharpness in those edges and the gems that consisted them.
It was like a death trap straight out of a cartoon.
Fleck only had seconds to react. There was no thinking, just action. At the last moment, they swung their arms into the air, stretching them as high as they could.
The cart crashed through the stopper, turning it into dust particles. The force of the impact flipped it off the tracks and into the spikes. Seven of the razor sharp tips pierced the steel with ear-splitting slicing, shredding it into scrap metal in the blink of an eye.
No-one could survive a crash like that.
Which was a good thing Fleck was not on it.
A few feet back from where the stopper once stood, Fleck dangled above the ground, swinging forward and back, holding on to a dull hook of one of the many cranes that made up the stretch of cave. They witnessed the crash, not wanting to think of the outcome had they still been on it.
Letting go of the hook, Fleck dropped to the ground, making sure to bend their knees on landing.
They rubbed away at their face some more, attempting to shift the soot off. As they rubbed with their gloves and arms, it made it spread around. No matter how much they rubbed, more of the black ash multiplied. After minutes, they had managed to clear enough off their eyes to stop them from watering.
They searched around for another route, finding nothing at first. Climbing up a nearby ladder revealed another tunnel to take.
There was no telling where they were or how far through the tunnels they were at this point. Without a map, without directions, they were walking in the dark.
They treaded down this new stretch of cave, waiting to come across another elaborate trap, waiting for Vail to mock them with his smug, superior, perfect face again.
Minutes later, they heard the unmistakable sound of dripping water.
Drip… drip… drip… drip…
Another trick of the mind?
Eventually, they located the source. In a worn crevice, a small puddle formed. A crack above leaked a continuous drop of water every two seconds.
Fleck approached with caution, remembering what happened the last time they drank water in this place. The human accidentally rubbed their eye, returning that horrible, raw ache into it.
They knelt down, removed their gloves, and dipped their hands into the water. It was as cold as ice. They splashed it into their face and rubbed, dripped black water down their chin. The feeling of cold water was both a blessing and a curse rolled into one. The liberation of clear water cleaning their eyes out felt fantastic, but also bitingly painful. The air attacked the wet skin with the sharpness of knives. They quickly dried them with their scarf.
The next step: was it safe to drink?
There was no way for the child to know until they had tested it.
Braving the sub-zero waters with their numb hands, Fleck cupped a reserved amount. They brought it to their mouth and took a tiny sip. This puddle of water may have stood still for longer than they had been alive, yet it was clean and chilled.
As the liquid passed down into their stomach, they sat back and waited, wondering how this stuff will affect them.
They waited, expecting their head to go light and their vision to go blurry. They thought they felt their stomach churn or their head feel strange, but it never escalated further than that. It must have been figments of their imagination. Their body expected to feel bad so it decided to mimic the initial feelings of discomfort.
After more minutes wasted, nothing had happened. Did that mean that the water was safe to consume? Maybe.
Fleck slipped their rucksack off their shoulders and retrieved the empty flask. They unscrewed the top and submerged the nozzle, making sure to not get any on their hands for a third time. The last of the air bubbles diminished after a few seconds. The flask now weighed heavy; the water inside to the brim. Fleck took another sip and still did not feel any effects.
Then, from out the corner of their eye, Fleck realised that someone else was there. At first, they thought that it was the guy who had been tailing them since the beginning, until they realised that it was someone else entirely. They snapped their head around, finding a second monster beside the first. Both monsters gazed at the human with vacant eyes.
The one on the right had a metal, blue vice for a head, over a doll-like body with a pink skirt. Two googly eyes hovered above the vice, which acted as their mouth. A pink ribbon was tied to the rotating handle on top.
The monster on the left was literally a rainbow between two floating clouds. They had two beady, black eyes and a mouth in the centre of the multi-coloured arch.
Fleck stood there quietly for a moment, then greeted the two with a simple 'Hi.'
"What a funny looking critter," the rainbow said to the other, ignoring the human's sparse introduction. Without tearing his gaze away, he asked, "What do you suppose it is, Versa?"
The monster at Rainbow's side – Versa the vice – tilted her top-heavy head; it looked like it was going to disconnect with her body, yet seemed to bend the rules of physics being atop her stuffed body. "I honestly have no idea, Roy," she replied, "but they look friendly to me. Do you think they want to be our friend?"
There was no mystery behind it. These two were clearly in the land where dreams come true. Fleck wondered what the two were seeing right now, trapped in their fantasy land, their perfect world. Perhaps endless green fields full of bunnies, which the pair will have named in various rabbit-related names: Sir Hoppington the First; Mister fuzzy-Tail: Carrot Extraordinaire; Sir Hoppington the Second: Return of the Hop; Benny Bunny; Harry Hopper; Sir Hoppington the Fourth: A New Hop; and Roger.
The rainbow monster, Roy G. Biv – middle name Giovani –, nodded what would pass as his head. "Yes, yes, everyone wants to be our friend. They want our friendship to be just as swell as ours are."
"Oh, Roy, you're such a good friend," Versa said, smiling her crushing lips.
"Not as good a friend as you are."
Fleck remained in place, neither moving nor talking in the slightest. They were unsure whether their attempts at making peace were genuine or a front to some sinister ulterior motive. Vail did warn them that their so-called friends would break them until there was nothing left to break.
Speak of the devil. From the shadows between the two bestest of pals, the komodo dragon returned.
"Do you understand what it means to be alone? To be truly alone?" Vai
l asked, addressing Fleck. "Chances are you already do – from the way you smashed my mirror, in all." He sensed that he had strayed from the topic's direction. "But that's beside the point. These monsters have never once known what it was like to have a friend – someone they can lean on. As the saying goes: Birds of a feather flock together, and now these friendless monsters now have each other." He gestured to the two hypnotised friends. "I made these guys happy. I offered to make you happy as well, and you spat in my face. So now, I'll return the favour."
Vail clapped his hands together twice. His loud clapping was made louder in the empty caves. He address those to his sides. "Roy! Versa! It's so great to see you again," he spoke like an overly friendly actor on a children's show.
Versa and Roy span and grinned to their widest upon spotting Vail – an odd way to react to the one keeping them captive.
"Mister Vail," Roy cried.
"You came back," Versa said.
"Of course I came back," Vail responded with a tap on his snout. "I never forget my pals."
Roy was unable to contain his excitement. "We missed you a whole bunch."
"And I have missed you both as well. It's great to see you again."
"Are you here to take us on another adventure?" Versa started asking. "To meet new friends and – oh wait!" Without looking, she pointed back at Fleck. "We've met a new friend just now."
Vail turned to Fleck and frown, wrinkling his face at them. "Are you sure about that, guys?" he said with suspicion. "Be careful, this one doesn't look friendly."
Simultaneously, Roy and Versa looked at the human.
Roy's eyes, which looked upon the stranger with hopeful adoration a minute ago, suddenly widened with horror. "What… what happened to them? V-Vail, what's wrong with them?"
Versa's look bore an equal amount of terror.
"I don't know," Vail responded, feigning fear. There was clear satisfaction behind the mask of emotion he wore. "Were its eyes always glowing red like that? Did it always have such black, inky skin? And what's with that creepy smile?"
Fleck was taken aback by how much their attitudes shifted under Vail's venomous words.
Versa glanced and pointed down. "What's that in its hand, Mister Vail?"
Fleck followed her gaze, finding the flask they held. It glistened with both its metallic body and slick coat of water.
All of a sudden, Vail started shouting. "A knife! It has a knife! It means to hurt you!"
The two monster erupted into full-blown panic, screaming and slowing backing away from the demonic figure before them, ready to bring pain and suffering to their happy, perfect lives.
Vail yelled, "Kill it! Kill it before it kills you and all your friends!" And he turned and made his exit, walking into the shadows.
With him gone, the fears of the monsters manifested into anger, which they were going to train on Fleck. Fleck held their hands out and attempted to calm the two monsters down; however, this had the reverse effect, making them more frightened, angrier.
Roy's shot forward, acting first. "Eat this, evil creature!" From his clouds, a spectrum of light shot toward Fleck.
Fleck dove to the left before they could taste a rainbow. The missed beam struck a wall several feet behind them, blasting a small crater the size of a watermelon.
They glanced back at their bag, which had not moved from its spot beside the rippling puddle one metre away. The glint of the ice-picks caught their eye. Anything to defend themself against their attack.
As Fleck turned to reach for them, Versa saw their intent – or a much darker version of what that intent entailed. "Not so fast!" She raised her arm high above her head and brought it down.
Fleck's cold-bitten hands extended for the bag when they heard a rumbling sound from above. They caught a rectangle of ceiling as it plunged down on them. Fleck pushed away from the bag just in time to avoid getting crushed into a messy pancake. The rectangle hit the ground, rock smashing against rock like teeth biting, forming a brand new support beam within the cave. It separated the child from their rucksack.
The lips on Versa's face formed a grin. "Don't look so crushed, you cockroach!"
She stretched her hands apart and brought them together with a muffled tap. A two-by-two-foot sections of wall to the left and right of Fleck closed in. Like a vice. Fleck leapt forward, feeling the mighty slam vibrate up the backs of their heels.
Another shot of splintered light from Versa's colourful friend broke a new hole in the new, horizontal pillar after Fleck rolled to the right, out of its path.
Unarmed and defenceless, Fleck had only the full water bottle as their means of fighting back. It was dead weight unless they figured out a way to use it to their advantage. Perhaps these monsters were thirsty? They could ask if Versa and Roy wanted a drink, then make a sneaky exit as the two shared the bottle. Pour it on the ground and ask the pair to be patient for two hours while it turned to ice, then ask if they would be so kind as to slip on it? If all else failed, the least the flask could do was give one of them a mighty headache.
Fleck attempted to plead with the pair, to no avail. Roy and Versa were too deep in their panicked attacked to listen. They had no idea how they were going to get out of this one.
"Keep your distance," Roy said, charging up another assault. "Don't let it get close!"
He launched more rainbows. Before Fleck jumped to the left, Versa pointed at where they would land and the ceiling above with her mitten hands. The moment Fleck landed, Versa threw her hands together like simulating the jaws of an alligator.
The ground under Fleck's feet reverberated before shooting up, carrying them with it. They dropped onto one knee, feeling all their inners stretch to their lowest regions. There was no time to look, but the sound of a second grinding noise above told them that they weren't safe. They kicked forward on one leg, throwing themself as far forward as they could. As the ends of the pillars met, Fleck was suddenly jerked back, smacking their head against rock.
Fleck dangled high. The coat pulled tight on their body; budging up to their chin; riding up their underarms. They squirmed and kicked to no avail, finding out that the back of their coat was caught in the clamp.
"I've got it! It's trapped!" Versa rapidly pointed at them while shooting quick glances at her friend. "Kill it quickly before it escapes!"
From the tense, stern look on Roy's friendly face, he was dead set on finishing this fight. Fleck struggled briefly; tried to wriggle either themself or their coat free; reach with their free hand for the zip buried beneath the folds; but there was no time. The charge in Roy's clouds reached their highest and out launched the rainbow that would put an end to what both he and Versa saw as an entity of pure evil.
Fleck did not think. They reacted purely with what was at hand – in their hand. Somehow, through everything, they had managed to keep a tight hold on the flask. The rainbow arched toward them, ready to turn them into black ash. They pulled their left hand back and let the flask fly, throwing it in the incoming trajectory.
The rainbow and the flask collided in mid-air. The shiny metal exploded like a grenade, all the contents escaped outwards in a watery detonation while the metal itself disintegrated into nothing.
Both Versa and Roy were struck with water, most of it in their faces. The two reeled back, blinking rapidly and looking disorientated and dazed as it dripped down them.
Fleck continued their struggle to escape their snagged coat, trying to make the most out of the time they bought with that stunt. After Versa and Roy regained their bearings, Fleck knew they would be back on the offensive.
Versa's stumbling stopped as she wiped life-giving H2O out from her eyes. "Where…? How…?" she muttered.
Fleck paused their struggling upon hearing her say that. Versa looked at her hands, then to her surroundings. There was something different in her stare. An alertness – what made a gaze look natural – had found its way into hers as she took in harsh, cold walls of her environment.
"What just
happened? Where am I?" she questioned. Her tone was similar to Kenny's in the time before he got frozen. "Where did everything go? And why am I all wet?"
Roy Giovani Biv looked over at his best friend as if she were a stranger. The encapsulated look in his beads for eyes were gone, as if he were awake from an absurdly long nap.
"Wait, do I know you?" he asked while pointing at her. "I feel like I've known you from somewhere, but I don't know if that was real or not."
"Wait, what were we doing before?" Versa continued her questions. "I remember seeing something scary, and…" Finally, her wandering gaze found its way to the human child dangling from one of the columns only she herself could create on a whim. She was no longer looking through them, but at them. "Oh, my gosh!"
She stretched her hands out and parted them, dismissing all the columns just as quickly as how she conjured them. The snare holding Fleck in place released the moment it opened, dropping them suddenly. They hit the ground on the balls of their feet and the palms of their hands. The pillars retreated into the walls, aligning perfectly with the formations as if they never existed.
Versa rushed up to Fleck. "Did I hurt you? I thought you were some terrifying abomination back there. I'm sorry."
Fleck rose and breathed a relaxing sigh. They ensured Versa that all was forgiven; they were still standing tall, uncrushed and non-fragmented.
Roy floated over. "Good to see that we haven't damaged your colourful disposition," he said. "Can you help refresh our memories? Where are we and how did we get here?"
Fleck explained that they were on Ice Island, in the mines under Black Ice Mountain. They included their run-ins with Vail and how he almost hypnotised them just as he did with these two.
Roy blinked several times; the human's story resurfaced memories. "Wait, I think I'm starting to remember. I went into the island – this island – on a dare. I ran into that monster – Vail. He said I was going to make a great friend."