How Many Posters (Grocers) Does One County Need? ||| GenLoss AU

and I feel my blood pounding like the beat of a drum

(These chapters really are just getting longer and longer)

Luck
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chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen.

...

Charlie felt pretty lucky, if he was going to be honest. I mean, he still had that dreadful feeling, that one that was pulling his stomach into knots over and over - which made it pretty hard to go to sleep - but at least him and Ranboo made it out,

Right?

That's a silly question, Of course they made it out. They had the scrapes and cuts to prove it, so... why didn't he feel safe now? They were lucky just to get out of the mall, but now that Charlie had thought about it, they were going to hope their luck hadn't already run out or else they weren't going to be making it out of this forest alive.

Those were the thoughts circling Charlie's head as he desperately tried to get some rest. Him and Ranboo had been running all day, and thinking back on it, he couldn't even piece everything together. The events were all jumbled up in his mind, and it felt like he was jumping from one memory to another - one scene to another.

First thing he remembered today - waking up to the sound of a rubber glove, almost as if he were on stage for a play and it was his cue. Then after that whole... event, after Ranboo got the key, after Ranboo left the room - he couldn't remember anything. Well, he did remember it, but the cameras weren't on him, so he immediately became obsolete. He remembered lying there, a lingering, gut wrenching pain where his abdomen should be, but he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't scream, he couldn't yell, he couldn't call out for help.

But that wasn't entirely true, because at some point he was actually able to move his mouth. He wanted to cry and scream bloody murder, but when he was finally able to make a noise, to reach out for someone, just for someone to please help him, his pleas were only met with more cameras, more publicity.

He remembers that at some point during his silence, figures moved into the room. He couldn't meet their eyes nor see their faces, as they were covered with Showfall Media masks. The two of them quickly entered the room and began to dig into his exposed stomach. He was forced into a dormant state, staring at the ceiling and lights while the two Employees hastily implanted various hats inside of his chest cavity, like some sick version of Operation.

What even is Operation?

Charlie was quickly pulled out of his thoughts, his head resting on the back of his hands. What is, or, was Operation? He thought about this, but only for a few mere moments before he took in his surroundings. He wasn't laying on a soft, pillow-y object anymore, he was laying on cold, hard, flooring. Fearing the worst, he quickly sat up, and found that he was wearing different clothing, his hair felt shorter, and from the small view of his glasses frames that he could see, they were a different color too. He also hadn't noticed before, but his left glasses lens was cracked before - now it was only a bit smudged. From what he could see, he was wearing the pulse pattern shirt that he'd found earlier in the storage unit, but last he checked he was just there.

Where the fuck is he?

He took in his surroundings, to his left was a large door with small windows on each side and to his right was the longer side of the hallway he was in, and there was a door on that side too. Sort of to his right aswell, both infront and behind him, were open door frames that led into dark rooms. He looked back at the closest door to him, and noticed there was a lock on it. He quickly got up and ran toward it, but once he reached the door and shook the lock, it slowly opened.