“Willowdale Town?” she whispered; it rang a bell, but she couldn’t quite remember. Then, it hit her. That was the name of this stop.Corinne must be in this town somewhere, it’s just that she was stuck in the coop and in this game. She needed to get out.Claire began to snoop around and try to look for clues. After a little while of searching, she came across a folder and she began to pull out the papers inside. The first piece of paper was a newspaper cut-out that contained a missing person’s article.She brought out the second paper and it was the same, so was the third, and Claire’s mind began to wonder. When she was trying to bring out the fourth paper, she slipped on a round pen and fell off the table into what looked like a large sack from the inside. “Ouch!” she said as she landed on a hard object which happened to be a picture frame of a little boy when she looked at it. She looked around and she noticed that the sack was filled with personal items from different people, ke
The longer the travellers were stuck in the survival game, the more they lost themselves.It started with memories from when they were kids, then their high school times, their college times; those memories were slowly being devoured. Recent memories were foggy but could still be recalled if they concentrated.At least there was a silver lining.Claire took a deep breath. That’s right, all they had to do was get to the goal. Claire walked over to Noby, the chick with round glasses flinched.“It’s alright,” Claire softened her voice, “everything will be alright, okay? Look at your traveller’s profile and try to calm down, try to recall what happened before the game restarted.”Hearing Claire’s gentle voice, Noby sucked in a breath and his recent memories slowly came back to him. Both fear and relief overwhelmed him: fear because he really lost a lot of his memories, relief because he still had his human side.“...I’m okay now,” Noby said, turning to look at Claire, “thanks.”Claire res
Claire’s eyes landed on Danny as a thought slowly formed in her mind. Danny could feel her intense stare.Danny gulped, “Why are you looking at me like that?”A smile crept up Claire’s face and the next thing Danny felt was a force pulling him back. He looked over his shoulder and saw Claire tugging on his straw strap. The tugging turned into a full on pull and in a flash, his feet were off the ground.Before Danny could ask what was going on, Claire swung him in the air like a fan and propelled him towards the truck like a human slingshot, or chick slingshot in their present condition.Danny flapped his underdeveloped wings as he soared through the air, and in a few seconds, he dropped to the ground with a splat, still a distance away from the truck.Claire couldn’t believe it, was this expectation vs reality? She expected Danny would have flown into the truck when she threw him over like a slingshot, but reality showed her otherwise. She overestimated the strength in his chick body.
Ace and John walked through the streets to the mayor’s office. Unlike the previous night where it seemed like the inn was in a separate dimension of its own and the world outside was in complete darkness, they could walk outside now at the very least, even though the streets were still empty.As they neared the gate of the office, Ace sped up, ready to scale the fences when unexpectedly, the gate yawned open like an ancient mouth. Unnatural shadows swirled in the air as if waiting for them.Both Ace and John exchanged a glance before they moved towards the gate, embracing the mysterious darkness beyond.Ace jolted to a stop, raising his arm in a swift motion to halt John’s progress. “What’s wrong?” John exclaimed, shock written all over his face as his eyes locked onto the flickering red light emitting from Ace’s watch.Tension filled Ace’s features as he stared at the alert from his watch, warning him of the lurking dangers behind the gates.Without uttering a word, Ace gave John a
How would you feel if you got a free luxurious traveling package, but ended up in Hell?Corinne wasn’t even joking when she said Hell, it was literally printed on her train ticket—Hell Express.When she got the train ticket from the store associate at Wilmart, the train ticket felt thick and expensive, it was a cream-colored paper with a swirly gold font. It looked lush and fancy.But now, the ticket was transformed into something that looked like it came straight out of a horror movie. The paper turned black, and the curved font transformed into a creepy kind of text. Corinne wasn’t sure if she was just imagining it or if it was real but holding the piece of paper gave her chills.The thought of her being pranked popped into her mind and she started to wonder if there were hidden cameras around her just as the sound of radio static broke her train of thought.Bzzz“Welcome aboard Hell Express Six, fellow soon-to-be travellers! I’m your lovely conductor, Katie. I wonder how many of yo
“Don’t worry, I’ll call you guys when we reach there,” Corinne said, “plus, Claire is with me, if you’re not confident with me, there’s still Claire right?” The Lin family stood on the platform of the train station. Corinne had her brown locks tied in a loose bun with a daisy hair tie, a bright smile spread across her small round face and her eyes beamed with excitement. In comparison with the young brunette who was obviously in a good mood, her elderly grandparents were smiling as well, however their smiles seemed strained. Concern painted both her grandparents’ eyes, and Corinne felt odd about that. But she thought that they might just be worried about her. She was already a twenty-year-old young adult, but she had never left her grandparents’ side before. They were the ones who raised her, and she’d never known her parents. Grandpa George and Grandma Jane said that they died when she was just a baby. She spent her whole life learning Taoist magic from her grandpa and martial
When the door slammed shut, Corinne glanced up with a raised brow. What on earth? Is Claire mad at her because she asked her to get food while she was here laying around?Corinne did not hear anything from the other side of the door, nor did she hear the noise from the battle between Bellina and the ghost. It was plain silence.“Claire, are you mad?” Corinne went to the door, but when she turned the doorknob, it was locked.Corinne kept on rattling the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. She was stuck inside.“Claire, I’m locked in!”Corinne called out to her best friend while banging on the door.Claire could hear everything and all the noises that Corinne made, but it was like she was stuck in another dimension with all the sounds coming from all over the place.She couldn’t find her cabin and the hallway kept leading her back to the same spot. The lights that lined the hallway continued to flicker as she ran down the aisle and returned back to the same place once more.When Claire was
Drinnnnng Drinnnnng Corinne’s cellphone was vibrating and ringing on the bed. She went over and swiped to answer. “Corinne.” Eyes lit up upon hearing the familiar voice, Corinne smiled wide. “Claire! Where have you been? I’m locked in! I tried everything and the door won’t budge, can you get the train staff to do something?” “Corinne.” “What’s wrong? Did you hear what I just said?” “I’m here, open the door.” As soon as the sentence was finished, Corinne heard knocking on the door. Knock Knock Knock Knock When Corinne heard that, she didn’t move towards the door, instead she stepped closer to Claire’s voodoo doll army. “Corinne, what are you doing? I’m here, open the door for me…” Corinne wasn’t sure if she accidentally put her phone on speaker, but her screen showed that she was indeed on speaker. She glanced at the screen of her cellphone and that was when her eyes went wide. Her phone screen was plain red; realization hit her. Ever since she got on to the train, there