Hey readers! Welcome to my first ever fan fiction. The point of part one is to open up the story to the reader's imagination. Aside from praise and criticism, I would also like your opinion on something else, but that can wait till the end of this chapter. Warning: This is only a prologue and does not actually reference any copyrighted fictional work.
Part I: Trapped in a Prologue
Kevin has just returned to his hometown for winter break and was very excited to hang out with some of his friends again. Having just finished his first ever semester of college, he planned on spending the next three weeks chilling out with his friends and family. The first thing on his list was to see a movie with some of his guy friends whom he hasn't seen since summer vacation. He was chatting with his friend Zeke just inside the cinema while waiting for the others to arrive from downtown. Kevin was talking about how college has going, and both of them were sharing stories about the past few months. Not long after, his other three friends arrived from the city bus. The band of gaming geeks were finally together again.
Kevin stands as the shortest one of the group. He has short, light brown hair and sideburns to match. He sports a pair of glasses on his face and signature camouflage Velcro wrist band. He favors slightly skinny, dark blue jeans and t-shirts of any suitable style and color, and won't go anywhere during the colder months without wearing a sweatshirt. Kevin considers himself to be the smartest of the group, though he would never say it aloud because he is also the only one of the group to attend college so far, and he wouldn't want to offend his friends. He always has an eye on his surroundings, as he becomes suspicious of everything and takes pleasure in preparing himself for any possible outrageous situation. However, he doesn't know how he'd actually react if something outrageous happened. He likes to take charge and loves to think a little too critically.
The latter, Zeke, stands a few inches taller than Kevin. He has slightly longer and even darker brown hair than Kevin and is actually the youngest of the group. He seems to always wear the same sweatshirt and pair of steel-toed boots almost all year round. He wears baggier and brighter jeans and one color t-shirts. He always has this smug look on his face which is extremely difficult to remove. He's a nice guy, but if you argue with him about logic, video games, and the internet and you will surely lose and feel stupid at the same time. Though most of the time he is a very quiet.
Next is Nate, a man of simple needs and classy fashion. He's also just about as tall as Zeke. His slightly red highlighted hair sweeps low near his eyes. He typically wears black; black pants (skinny or otherwise), a black t-shirt covered by a black and white leather jacket, and a signature black fedora with a white stripe surrounding the headspace just above the rim. Nate is just as talkative as Kevin and will often engage in the main conversation. He is more of a follower, but he isn't a puppet. He'd fight alongside with you in battle, but he wouldn't bark the orders.
As we climb up the height ladder, we stop at Jake, the oldest of the five. He looks like your typical bum, but with a life. Jake stands at about 5'9", has short, shaved brown hair and dresses very simply. He normally wears baggy jeans, large t-shirt and an even larger sweat shirt; all of which is in some form of dark gray, faded blue, or fade green. Jake is the perfect target for trolling in any given conversation, but knows how to give it straight back, with all the fake rage to match. He's short-tempered, but is also easily amused. He doesn't do so well with awkward conversations or lying and he is a big eater (but he's not fat despite his own joking claims). He and Kevin tend to do most of the back and forth trolling when they talk to each other, but it's all in good fun.
Lastly, and certainly not least, is Terry. He stands out the most out of all of them. Terry stands as the tallest at about 6 feet. He has short red-orange hair with some cowlicks here and there. Upon his face is a small yet distinct red-orange beard. Terry tends to wear jeans or khakis and a polo shirt to match it. His two cents in a conversation consists small bits of knowledge or something completely random and off-topic. If he can act out for amusement he will do it. His mind is a little off, but he has a good heart and knows when to be serious. He makes a good actor considering how dramatic he speaks.
These five, amongst many more of Kevin's friends, were your average video gamers and casual couch potatoes. Kevin's part time job seemed to make him the least lazy of the five, but that wasn't very true. Today, they were all just a bunch of nerdy white guys doing what they do best: doing nothing but getting lost in a new fictional world in the form of a movie.
"Hey guys! How's it going," Kevin said excitedly. It was great to see everyone at once.
"Hey Kevin, hey Zeke," said Nate.
"How's it going Fluff?" Jake said next.
"Fluffy!" Terry exclaimed loudly. Kevin was indifferent about the nickname. It was one a few of his other friends gave him at lunch one day. They never meant to be mean by using it and it was now just a casual title he has grown used to hearing.
"So how's college been for ya?" Jake asked.
"It's been great. My newest roommate is crazy, but a very chill dude. My neighbors are crazy, especially on weekends, and I've made a few friends along the way. It's just been great to be on my own for a while ya know, but it's still nice to be home."
"Cool," Jake said.
"Sweet," Nate said.
"He's too good for us," Zeke said smugly. Kevin smirking back at him while staring at Zeke's smug face. He wasn't about to start a pointless argument.
"Yeah, whatever," Kevin said, "So, what movie are we seeing again?"
"The one with that actor who does that thing were gonna pay to watch. Did you already forget?" Terry exclaimed with a small smile.
"Of course not, come on let's get in line."
While walking up to the ticket counter, the face of the employee working there seemed to light up a little with a small toothy grin and a slightly amused evil stare. The man seemed to be in his early 20s. He was kind of pale and he had long black emo-styled hair going down his head and it swooped to the left so you could see both of his eyes, or at least one and a half of them. He looked like just another employee in a theatre uniform. He studied Kevin and his friends, listening to their conversation as they walked towards him. This was the kind of group he was waiting for. "Hello gentlemen," he put his professional employee voice and cheerful face on, "How can I help you today?"
"Hey what's up," Kevin began, "I'd like five tickets to see that new movie."
"You meant the one with that actor…"
"Who does that thing? Yeah, that's the one."
"Sure thing," the man printed out the tickets and handed them to Kevin, who looked puzzled.
"Uh, so it's $7.50 each right?" Kevin asked.
The man's face turned back into that slightly suspicious grin and stare, but with a little more excitement this time. "That won't be necessary," he began quietly as if it were a secret, "because you guys make up customers 99,997-100,001 served this year. One of you would've been customer #100,000 so the entire group gets a free private screening of the movie with a free dinner and dessert of your choice."
"No way!" Jake exclaimed along.
"Holy crap!" Kevin shouted.
"Nice," Nate said happily. Zeke and Terry didn't say anything, but they looked just as excited as the others.
The man thought to himself, "Perfect, this is a good group indeed." He then spoke up, "If you guys want to follow me to the theatre, we can get things started!" The man's excitement and cheap, colorful employee uniform made him look like the ring leader at a circus, minus the top hat of course.
"Sure, let's go guys," Kevin said casually.
They followed the man to the very last theatre towards the back of the cinema. Aside from the couches and armchairs that now replaced the first couple rows of seats, the rest of the theatre looked just the same. After picking out their seats, the man told us that the movie would begin in ten minutes, and then proceeded to take our orders. Kevin, Zeke and Terry decided to use the restroom. Despite the fact that most of the theatres were playing movies, the hallway seemed a little too vacated. The three seemed to notice this, but dismissed the idea immediately. Thinking perhaps it was just a slow day. They returned just in time for their meal to arrive and for the movie to begin. They ate through all the previews, exchanging glances and opinions over the ones they wanted to see in future and which ones looked dumb. By the time they got to dessert there was one more preview, but something was off, and the five friends nearly choked on their dessert at what they saw; Kevin's milkshake practically spewing out his nose in shock. Jake and Zeke couldn't help but laugh slightly at the sight, but their attention was immediately brought back to the screen. The movie was showing footage of their hometown while quoting some very familiar people; them. It was showing footage of all five of them playing video games, watching TV and movies, and reading. Kevin and the others could only stare as the screen displayed their lives as a movie preview.
(In order of introduction from earlier) "THE COLLEGE KID…THE SMUG ONE…THE SNAZZY MEEK…THE LOUDMOUTH BUM…THE DRAMATIC GINGER; FIVE FRIENDS, FIVE GAMERS; MUST TRAVEL THROUGH THE UNIVERSES OF EARTH'S FAVORITE FICTIONAL WORLDS"
They all stared in shock and disbelief. Everyone's jaw hung open. They were scared. Finally, all at once, they yelled, "What the hell is this shit?" and other forms of swear-contained questions. The preview continued.
"IT WILL TEST THEIR KNOWLEDGE. IT WILL TEST THEIR SANITY. IT WILL TEST THEIR TRUST IN EACH OTHER" Kevin and the others quickly glanced at each other at the last statement. Finally the preview finished up with the title: "TRAPPED IN FAN FICTION" Then the preview ended with the maniacal laughter of a very shadowy figure on screen. The camera closed in on the figure's face so quickly it made the five guys jump in their seats. It then exclaimed, "Your misadventures begin… NOW!" and just like that the wall behind the screen began to collapse as well as the rest of theatre.
"Holy shit guys! RUUUUUUUUN!" they all seemed to yell at once. They were all cursing profusely as they scrambled out of the theatre. While they were running out, Nate and Terry had glanced up at the projector room in time to see a shadowy figure run the hell out of there. They both thought that it was a cinema employee, and hoped that he or she was able to escape unharmed. They practically fell on top of each other as they barreled through the swinging doors and diving for the floor; rubble from the building piled up to the top of the now busted doorway. They could hear the theatre behind them go silent. The collapse must have ended. They lay there, catching their breath for about a minute or two.
"What… the fuck… was that?" Jake yelled with a mix of fear, excitement, and anger.
"What the hell is going on here?" Kevin asked with an annoyed and frightened tone.
"Is this some sort of sick joke? We were nearly killed!" Nate yelled angrily. They all stood up and attempted to investigate the cause of the collapse. Within a second they had all looked down the hallway towards the cinema's main lobby. They were all disappointed to find that the hallway too had collapsed and was impassable.
"Well this sucks," Zeke stated. He still appeared indifferent to the situation, or at least that's how he sounded, but he was still just as confused as everyone else. They turned to look at the theatre they were just in.
"Wow," Kevin simply said.
"Damn," Terry stated. They all seemed to have calmed down now that they had taken the time to realize they were safe for now.
"Let's get out of here, we need to find an exit and find the police. Surely someone must be on their way.
"Yeah, it's pretty hard to miss a public building collapsing in on itself," Jake said sarcastically. Keith gave him a joking glare.
"There should be a back door to the theatre, or some sort of emergency exit," upon saying "emergency exit" Kevin face-palmed himself, "which there was one in the theatre." He seemed annoyed to have missed that. Terry spoke up.
"It doesn't matter anyway, that door was near the wall with the screen. I saw it collapse over the doorway. We wouldn't have made it to that door anyway." Terry then thought to himself for a second.
"Huh… never mind that then," Kevin said.
"Oh yeah!" Terry began, "I also saw someone in the projector room running away from the collapse as well."
Nate looked up, "Oh yeah I did too!"
Kevin blinked twice before saying, "Oh! Well I hope that person's okay." They fell silent for a moment. They all seemed to share the same confused look for what seemed like only a couple seconds before they stared at each other in realization.
"That bitch!" Kevin yelled, "I'll bet you a hundred bucks it was the person in that booth." They all seemed to nod in agreement except for Zeke who was still thinking to himself. Kevin and Jake however appeared to be the true meaning of pissed off.
"HA FUCKING HA!" Kevin yelled loudly, "Where the hell are you?"
"Show yourself you son of a bitch!" Jake yelled next.
"You think this is fucking joke! Come show yourself so we can beat the shit out of you!"
Zeke cut in. He seemed annoyed with losing his train of thought, "Guys! Calm down! We can't just assume it was this one person. It could have been anyone, he was at least able to accept that the collapse was no coincidence considering the shocking "preview" they all just watched. "Now… let's go find a way out of here." As he was saying this, Kevin, Jake, Nate and Terry's eyes grew wide in a mix of fear and anger.
"ZEKE BEHIND YOU!" Nate screamed, "DOWN THAT HALLWAY!"
"WHAT?" Zeke couldn't have swung his head around any faster to stare at the shadowy figure about fifty feet down the hallway. Now he seemed generally scared, but the figure just stood there; expressionless as his features were hidden in the shadows of the cinema's broken lights. Zeke seemed to calm down a bit, hoping maybe it was another movie goer or employee. "Hey are you alright? What happened?" he lightly shouted to the individual before them. The figure kept still and expressionless.
"Was this all of your doing?" Kevin yelled angrily, feeling brave to do so because they outnumbered this one mysterious figure. The shadowy figure seemed to react to his question. He lifted his head enough to glare at them and grinned evilly. He then began to take a few steps back. The group stared at him closely, even Zeke.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Jake yelled out. Upon asking this the figure 180'd and began to bolt around the corner.
"GET HIM!" they all yelled at once. And immediately took off after him. They turned the corner just in time to see the back door of the theatre close; the quick glimpse of sunlight was replaced by the darkness of the back of the theatre.
"Quick! We can't let him get away!" Kevin said hurriedly. They all ran towards the door at breakneck speeds and burst through the double doors the same way they did when they were escaping the theatre collapse. With a mix of excitement, adrenaline and anger they, again, knocked each other to the ground from going through the doors to fast and cursed in slight pain and frustration. After a few seconds of staring at the ground, Nate looked up first and he quickly scanned the area in front of him; hoping to see the person they were pursuing within sight. Seeing that the figure was nowhere to be seen, his brain immediately forced him to think about something else, "Where the hell are we?"
Without moving the rest of their bodies they looked up and their eyes grew wide and their jaws dropped. They weren't in their home town anymore.
To be continued…
Okay... so what do ya think? Too much? Too little? I welcome your feedback, and more importantly; where the hell did these guys end up? If I know the internet as well as I think I do then I know you guys will have some great suggestions. Happy Reading!