It's Just a Ride

9

"We all died young," Chloe finally spoke again. "in an unexpected accident. But to say we all died needlessly would be unfair to all the years and experiences we had. We all had hopes and dreams."

She smiled bittersweetly. "I would gladly take my sixteen years of life with me to the afterlife over nothing. Which is why I vote for the boy who can't remember who he is." She looked to her left, at John Doe.

John looked back at her, tilting his head slightly as he kept his doll close to him. "We got to remember our lives." Chloe continued before pointing at John. "He didn't." She turned back to SQUIP and sighed. "That's my vote."

Everyone was silent. Then, Christine slowly walked over to stand next to Chloe. 

Jeremy watched and turned to John. "I'm going to miss you." He said, hobbling on his crutches over to Christine and Chloe.

John took a few steps to follow Jeremy, holding out his hand to try and grab onto his shoulder or something before remembering what was about to happen. 

Rich and Michael quickly followed, Rich giving John a quick pat on the back before standing next to Chloe and the others.

"As you wish." SQUIP replied as John started walking to the white portal. "His name is Evan Hansen." He announced as John, or Evan now, headed through the portal.

As this happened, the portal became larger and started showing flashes of John— Evan's— life. 

Evan as a baby, as a child, making different friends, his parents getting divorced... there even seemed to be a memory of the day of the cyclone ride. Only the memories continued even after that one.

Christine kind of wanted to point that out. How did the cyclone ride day still happen if Evan was alive? She tried to not think about it.

Evan didn't have the same light blonde hair that he did when he was John; his hair was more of a darker blonde. His eyes, of course, weren't the pick black everyone had known it to be. They were blue.

"Evan with the bluest eyes.." Jeremy smiled softly as he recalled he and Evan's conversation about the birthday. 

It ended showing Evan in old age, with a child (who was probably his grandchild or something?) on his lap as he told a story. The white portal stayed as everyone looked back to SQUIP.

"You're probably wondering what happens next. That I couldn't possibly tell you, but I do know this much. After reading thousands of people's fortunes, I can safely tell you that—"

Except SQUIP wasn't able to finish. He started to malfunction or short-circuit, and made a bunch of weird noises. Everyone watched in shock and held onto each other as SQUIP said his final words in a glitchy voice. 

The very words that started this whole ordeal. "Your lucky number is seven. You will soar to great heights. Be sure to ride the cyclone."

A flash.

And all of a sudden daylight. Everyone let go of each other as they looked around. 

"The amusement park again? Why are we..." Christine looked confused before her eyes widened. "Wait, in John— I mean Evan's— memories.. the cyclone incident still happened which means—"

"We all still die." Michael nodded and looked around. "I don't see him, but he can't be on the ride. If he had we wouldn't be alive—"

"Hey, you guys." A voice came as the all jumped and turned around to see Evan. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Anyways," he smiled a bit. "I kind of wanted to go try and that creepy looking doll we walked past. I know you all wanted to go on that rollercoaster but I can just on on the next turn if that's fi—"

"Of course it is." Chloe interrupted quickly, nodding and returning the smile. "Just.. be safe and all."

Evan raised an eyebrow and laughed a bit. "Um, okay?" He walked away from everyone as he headed over to creepy doll game. "See you guys in a bit."

Once Evan was out of range, Chloe turned back to everyone. "Are you ready to do this again?"

Jeremy nodded and Rich grinned. "Yeah, we've done this before, we can do this a second time."

"Yeah, it's just a ride." Christine replied and high fived Michael as they all made their way to the cyclone once again.