Clash Of The Words: A Story Unfolds

Chapter 10

The group runs over to the arcade. "They're sharp, oh, my God, they're sharp. He just literally brought the dead back to life!" Michael exclaimed. They head to the lounge. "We always got to start with the map, right?" "What is a tree stump going to help us with?" "Wait, wait, wait, on the back," Samantha said.  There's this whole big scene on the back of it that actually features the blonde woman and the Asian man that Joey saw while he was dead. 

"We were slaughtered by the Carnival Master because we didn't know his secret. He stole the Life Stones and placed his essence inside them. While they exist, he cannot be killed. You must find them, and with the power of the cleansed artifacts, destroy him. The first Life Stone lies at the heart of a tree long passed. Be careful of his undead minions. If you're captured, you'll be taken to the cemetery where you must be rescued by two of your friends who need to lay their hands on the mausoleum. If you have not been freed in five minutes, the undead will feast on your flesh." Zombies are filling the streets.

They find the stump. Michael pulls out the wand, and it's glowing. They place the magic wand there, and it lets down the first crystal. The second stone rests on the end of a hangman's noose. However, you'll need to wear his executioner's hood to see it. His raiments are high above, where you challenged the Serpent's Tower." The zombies suddenly get more aggressive. They head to Fat Man Slims, and the witches blast zombies with their wands. Matthew starts following this rope, and it's going all the way upstairs.

This rope is just tied, and all around, and crazy in this little box, and of course, there's a note. "The hangman's noose reeks of death, and makes one appear undead. The noose must be tied in the correct place to enact the hangman's power. The path of the noose can be seen from a higher point of view." And as they're looking around, they basically find this diagram, and they notice that the rope kind of has to be tied in a very specific configuration. It's pretty much a really crazy triangle. X marks the spot right between there.

Joey volunteers to take on the hangman's noose so he can walk out amongst the zombies. "Matt has some witchcraft going on, 'cause how the hell did he wrap up that rope so damn quick?" Joey stands in the center of the triangle, raises his hands, and a chest opens behind him. They slowly and surely make sure that Joey doesn't trip over his own hangman's noose. Joey makes it to the chest, and he realizes that in his hand is the second Life Stone.

"The Maiden of Madness contains the third Life Stone. It will only release the crystals once it has feasted upon the flesh of an undead mother. Caroline passed away two years ago from grief over her lost child, and they say she was buried with a token of her daughter."

In the cemetery, they start examining the graves, and of course, there's two Carolines buried there. "Caroline Weathers. The woman who longed for children." "So now the question is, whose grave do we rob?" This is a grief-stricken mother, Caroline Mathers. "Oh, I found it! It's a rattle." They head to Fatman slims, and push zombies away. 

Now it comes to the point where they need to figure out which one of these zombie girls is Caroline. Because it's not that obvious. So Joey takes the rattle, walks outside, starts making the sound, and lo and behold, one zombie separates from the pack. Joey makes it to the doll shop, and of course, the damn door is locked. "Okay, here, hold the rattle, hold the rattle, okay." Joey kicks down the door and leads Caroline into the Maiden Of Madness. "Yes, go see Colleen. Tell Colleen we said hey!" 

So they have all three Life Stones, they can finally end this and go home. But it says "the faces of your deceased friends have a message on their backs that will turn the tide in your fight against them." They pretty quickly realized that this is talking about the cards that they've been using to vote each other into these challenges. In the lounge, the group sees the box that Calliope has been storing all of the cards in, but there's no way to open it. They get it open. 

 All of a sudden, smoke starts to appear. The room starts going crazy, everything's going wild. Jael and Ryu appear. "I saw you when I died," Joey said. "Guys, it's the Society Against Evil." "You've done the impossible like we knew you could, Joey. Now grab the Life Stones. It's time to finish what we started." Joey, Michael, and Samantha grab them. 

"We have so many questions for you. Question one, do you have names?" "This is Nikita, I'm Matt." "And you guys know me." "I'm Jael, this is Ryu." So like the team of badasses that they are. the group make our hero walk over to the church. The Carnival Master seems happy as can be. "You give me those Life Stones...Before I rip you apart, limb for limb!" Nicholas yelled. Michael takes out his glitch Interupptor. 

Jael, Ryu, Michael, and the witches blast Nicholas with their powers, and kill him. Jael points out that this glowing stone in his chest, that's for Joey, somehow. "The spell has been broken. Your contract is complete. You're free. Everlock now has a future," Jael and Ryu said. "Oh, my God, we're getting out of here, and we're getting out of here alive." Everyone hugs each other. "We freaking did it! Let's get out of this stupid town!" Joey takes the crystal from Nicholas, and looks into it with his friends. 

"Joey, are you there? This is your chance to make things right. Please, we need you. Come save us," Ro told. "I have to save them..." Joey said. "Come on, let's go home." They make their way out of the church just as dawn is breaking. They walk through the town, and they get to take a moment to reflect. "We're glad we could come as well," The witches told.