Despair's Insanity - an II x DR fic

TTM - FTE 6

Character Selected: ???

The first thing I noticed in the lobby when I got downstairs, was that the front door was open. Just... open. My immediate thought was "this had to be a trap," and yet I went through it anyway, just to see how far I could go.

About fifteen feet forward, I smacked into an invisible forcefield, that actually turned a neon around me once I'd hit it. I got up, dusted myself off, and felt the surface. My hand was now glowing. Fan must've set this up today- or maybe we weren't allowed to go outside until now? Either way, I took that opportunity to explore the perimeter.

The hotel looked weirdly cozy and corporate at the same time the more I looked at the outside of the entire thing. There was the greenhouse in the very back, an open dumpster on the side, and beyond the field I could see thick woods behind the entire hotel. A complete wall made up of trees and a few bushes... and one of them seemed to move.

I called out on pure instinct. "Hello?! Who's in there?! C- LISTEN! You have to help us- we're stuck in a-"

"That's Lifering!" The voice interrupted me, and I took a second to try and recognize it... I couldn't come up with much, until his head popped out of the bush. "C'mon- we gotta go-"

"NICKEL!" I slammed my fists against the forcefield, and Nickel ran to me, feeling the field instead of smacking into it like I did. He looked... horrible. His mint green flannel was faded and ripped up, there was a gaping, burnt up hole through his shoulder, his usually well kept gray hair was all over the place, greasy as ever, and he looked exhausted... "Nickel- what the hell is going on?! How are you out here?!"

"What do you mean?! You guys have been stuck in the hotel, safe, ALL this time?! Do you have any idea how close everybody's gotten to being shot lately?! Or starving?! We had to live in Test Tube's tiny ass lab and-"

"Wait- wait... what's going on outside??"

Nickel paused at my question, somewhat unsure of what to say. "What's going on in there?"

"For the past week- Fan's been forcing us to play this game where we kill each other. I've been trying to keep everything stable, but I'm losing it!"

"A week?"

"Yes."

"You guys have been missing for over six months..."

"...what...?" I could feel my heart race at the thought, and I looked up to see a few weirdly-shaped drones flying around. Nickel looked up as well, the anxiety seeming to overtake him as he began to shake while he tried to explain it.

"The hotel- a bunch of people were privately messaged by some weird thing to get out of the hotel, so everyone who got the message evacuated. I don't know what happened in here- but we ran to Test Tube's lab because these freaky drones were shooting at us! It- it got me, but I still organized a group to go outside and look for you guys! And- we saw some decoy hotel... everyone gave up- but I realized it wasn't real once I'd touched it, and I still went looking. But- I finally found you! I've been so worried!"

He needed to be worried, given the fact we were still stuck and forced to murder people. We had no way out as of yet- this was the closest I was going to get to outside contact in a long time, probably.

"Nickel, we can't keep doing this forever."

"I know- I've been trying everything to get this damn thing to break! I even killed a drone with some luck- but its lasers won't do anything! It's- STUPID!" He kicked the field with full force, hissing in pain as he probably stubbed all of his toes at once. I looked behind me, just to make sure Fan wasn't around... and he wasn't for once.

I shook my head. "Nickel- you have to find a way to get us out. We don't have much time! We get these motives, and then we have to kill somebody to get out of it. And then the killer goes to trial- and they just get executed anyway!"

"If they're killing each other..." Nickel's eyes widened. "Where are my friends? Where's Balloon- or Baseball?! Are they ok?!" I could feel my heart sink into my stomach as he mentioned Balloon's name, and that made him get even more worried, hitting the field. "Lifering- answer me! Are they ok?!"

I had known that the Nickel we saw wasn't the real one, but to see him asking for Balloon, as I still held the visual of him stabbing the guy to death, I couldn't find the words. I tried to not think about him at all.

"B-Baseball," I stammered, "he's upstairs. I can bring him down to see you!"

"You can?! Oh my god- Lifering you have no idea how happy I would be to see him again! Please!- Please go get him! I'll stay in the bushes, you just call out to me when you got him, ok?"

"Right! Of course!"

"You're a lifesaver, Lifering! I guess that's kinda in the name though, isn't it?" We both laughed despite the tense feeling, and I turned around.

"I'll be right back- stay safe!"

"Ok- thank you! Thank you so much, Lifering!" As he waved and ran back to the woods, I got this sudden energy to sprint into the hotel, and all the way up the staircases to get to him. Baseball would be thrilled to see Nickel- I'm sure of it! They were best friends for YEARS- this would be something good I did! Finally!

As soon as I got up to the nurse's station, I saw Blueberry, Apple, and Bomb all in there, and Bomb nodded to me.

"He's in hhhhis room, now."

"Where's Pepper? Isn't she really sick?"

"Oh- she told m-me that she wanted to go t-t-to the bathroom. She'll be back in here." I said a quick thanks, but didn't waste any more time getting down to the second floor and frantically looking around.

Baseball's door was a few down from mine, and I saw the little baseball charm on the doorknob. I twisted the knob, realized it was unlocked, and I came in to see Baseball still lying there like usual.

"There you are!" I shouted. "We gotta get downstairs, I have a surprise for you!"

"Is it any good?" Baseball grunted as he tried to get up, and I nodded frantically. But just as I turned to leave, I heard a scream.

"LIFERING! BEHIND YOU!" It was Baseball, but I didn't get to turn around as I saw him try and run to me. With a loud clunking noise, everything went black.