Disclaimer : I don't own anything from Jumanji.
JohnHammond: Sadly, the curse of the not guessing right is above you again... I'm kidding :). But, Bethany really ran away in fear. The lack of trust was just the trigger.
Here some angst and action. Enjoy.
The third pedestal
Bethany was following the glowing net on the ground with a blind resolution. Suddenly the cloud above agitated. She stopped at once and observed. She knew that somewhere the shadows were oozing from the sky, but she had no way to know where exactly. She just hoped it wasn't near her friends. For a second, she felt a flash of guilt as she had let them behind, exposed, but she quickly repressed that feeling and tried to focus on her environment. She couldn't let herself being distracted for too long. The shadows were sneaky.
As the cloud regained its former stillness, she continued to progress in the dark forest. She had just one goal: to find the pedestal. If she could activate the last one, Jumanji would be hopefully restored, and they could all get out of this creepy game.
Soon, her surrounding became more and more sinister. The cloud was so thick she couldn't distinguish its shape anymore. If not because of the soft light radiating from the roots and some of the trees she couldn't see a thing. She had never been in a place as corrupted as this before. She slowed down and began to take shallow breathes as she tried to mute every sound she could produce.
Gradually, the forest thin out. There was more and more space between the trees and the ground was almost covered of glowing roots. She tried to look at the soil underneath the net. There was nothing but darkness. She had the strange impression that she was walking on nothingness. She had to repress a terrible feeling of dread.
Everything seemed so different, so artificial. She didn't remember clearly the first pedestal because – she knew now – it wasn't totally her own memories, but in the dreamy figments of what she reminded the place was much more alive. The jungle was still there. Every part of the land she had scouted was not as corrupted as this place. It was like the cloud had totally converted this part of Jumanji. The sky above her seemed not to exist anymore and, as the ground seemed to have disappeared too, it was like the place in its whole could engulf her at any moment. She needed something concrete to focus on, so briefly she kneeled down and touched the ground. It was strangely soft and cold, like polish steel. It was unexpected, but it reassured her a little bit.
− "Ok. You can do it." She murmured to herself.
She stood up, resolute, and moved forward. Even if there was no direction to follow anymore, she knew where to go instinctively. It was one of odd side effect of being in Oberon's body. Even if Jumanji didn't look quite the same, after days of scouting, she had a perfect mental image of the land. She could almost blindly walk in there.
She continued to progress in this strange bubble of darkness where the light emerged from the ground, and then, she saw it. She smiled. The pedestal was there, sitting in its nest of light. She approached silently and stopped a foot from it. The strange symbols were sliding slowing on its surface, like a blue lava lamp.
Suddenly, Bethany felt dizzy. Her head was spinning a little bit but most of all she felt really disoriented. Nervously, she looked around. Why was her mental image of Jumanji vanishing?
- "You should have listened to your nosy friend. The darker the place is, the stronger I am." replied a sinister voice to her inner interrogations.
She turned round as the voice seemed to come from behind, but she was alone. She frowned.
- "What the ..."
- "You're not looking at the right place." Cut the voice, mockingly.
Bethany broke in a cold sweat when she realised it was inside of her head. That was the evil persona to which her friends had talked to. She couldn't let that thing take control. She tried to move forward but she soon discovered she was petrified.
- "I can hear your thoughts, you sneaky girl. You cannot outsmart me." The tone was full of resentment.
- "What do you want?" She thought, as no vocal communication was necessary.
- "Freedom." The voice growled.
- "But the pedestal is freedom, why don't you let me touch it?" She asked mentally, looking at the dark block. It was so close and frustratingly out of reach at the same time.
- "You're not attentive enough, human child. Jumanji talks to you and you don't listen. But even if you had understood earlier, there is no-way you could stop me." replied the thing inside her.
Confused and trying to understand the meaning of what it just told her, Bethany was absently looking at the lightened glyphs that were slowly moving on the pedestal surface. Suddenly, she saw it. Her eyes opened wide as she realised she could read the message floating in front of her. The words or the letters - she couldn't really tell what those glyphs represent - were kind of scrambled but like in an anagram she began to see a pattern and then she understood the meaning. But before she could manage any coherent thought on the subject, she felt something snap in her mind and everything went dark.
###
Martha was leading the way through the forest. The red-haired girl was scrupulously following the glowing roots, as pointed out by Bethany. Even if they were reluctant, the boys had finally consent to join her. The alternative wasn't better anyway.
The environment was quickly changing. The phenomenon was similar to their approach of the first pedestal, but the corruption was way more important. The darkness was overwhelming. Soon the forest thin out and the path was disrupted by more veins coming from other places, but the general direction was still clear.
They finally reached their destination. The pedestal was waiting for them. It was almost too good to be true. Spencer ran toward his girlfriend and grabbed her arm to stop her. He murmured:
- "Martha, that's too dangerous."
- "Yes, but what do you want us to do?"
- "I'm sure it's a trap. Bethany said she couldn't approach the remaining pedestals before. Why could we now? And, where is she anyway? I mean, we may have wasted some time before going after her but she is not there and she should be. Something bad could have happened to her."
The red-haired girl stared at him. She could tell, this time, he was sincerely worried and not just overly suspicious.
- "Maybe but we're too far now. I mean, the pedestal is right here. We can finish this. I refuse to think she has lost. So, if we win, she wins too, right?"
Spencer smiled. Martha's determination was always something he loved to witness. She was a warrior at heart, for sure.
- "Ok." He conceded. "But we have to plan carefully first. We..."
Spencer didn't carry on as Fridge appeared in his peripheral vision. He muted some swears. The petite man was already halfway to the pedestal.
- "Fridge!" he tried to call as low as he could.
Clearly, that wasn't loud enough for his friend to hear but the cloud reacted to that. It suddenly agitated and soon it oozed hundreds of dark drops all over the plain. The shadows were quickly forming.
- "Fridge! Shadows!" Spencer yelled this time. The petite man looked around.
- "There are everywhere! What do I do?" He screamed. The shadows turned all at once in his direction. "Oh my god!" He exclaimed, releasing he just became the canter of all attention.
- "The pedestal! Just touch it!" Yelled Spencer back.
Fridge began to run. Hopefully, as the rest of his skills, the disadvantages of his avatar were not active. Even with shorter legs, the football skills kicked in and he was pretty fast. Spencer and Martha followed. The shadows seemed to ignore the couple as they were still converging toward their friend. It was like they knew he was the one that could really change the course of events.
Out of breath, Fridge stopped one foot from the pedestal and stretched his arm. But before he could reach the dark surface, his hand was blocked mild-air by a strong grip. Surprised, he turned round. As if she had just appeared from the nothingness, Bethany was looking back at him with a mixture of determination and anger. Her left eye was totally white.
- "Oh no you won't." Growled the evil incarnation.
- "What are you doing? We were about to win!" Fridge squealed.
- "I won't let you stop me." The petite man realised who he was talking to.
- "What are you talking about? What do you want?" He asked in panic as he could see the shadows still converging towards him.
- "I want to get out..."
- "I don't know who you are, you inside, but you're stupid. If you really want to get out, you would let us do what we want. Jumanji is a game. If we win, it will let us go. We did it once. Let us purge the cloud."
The grip tightened around his wrist. He grimaced as it became slightly painful. A sinister smile grew on the evil incarnation lips. He leaned toward the petite man and murmured in his ear:
- "Funny that your friend thought the same. But your victory isn't mine... I am what you call the cloud."
In a reflex movement, Fridge stretched his free arm in order to touch the pedestal. Immediately, the avatar pulled him back with an unexpected force. The petite man fell flat on his back, a few meters away. The backpack absorbed a bit of the impact, but it cut his airways.
When he regained his senses, he felt a strange sensation where Bethany's avatar had touched him. He lifted his arm to take a look at his wrist. Dark tiny square where multiplying on his skin.
- "Spencer!" he yelled. "That thing got me! I think it's converting me."
All the shadows stopped at once. For a moment, Bethany's avatar glitched badly, almost freeze framed. Spencer didn't wait, he ran toward his friend and helped him on his feet, carefully avoiding the contaminated zone. He kept an eye on Bethany who was now waiting near the pedestal with an uncanny stillness.
- "What is it waiting for? What's happening?" asked Fridge
- "I don't know. She glitched and they all stopped. Maybe she is fighting back and holding them." he replied. Then, he grimaced. "By the way, why on Earth did you go to the pedestal alone."
- "I thought you and Martha were going to chat forever and it was just there..."
- "Are you ok?" Asked Martha joining them.
- "It's spreading..." said the petite man, looking back at his arm with concerns.
- "We have to act quick." The red-haired girl added, glancing over her shoulder.
Spencer look at the same direction. It was too dark to see what was happening above but there was definitely movement on the ground. Somewhere behind the pedestal and Bethany, the light from the roots was wavering as things were slowly sliding over it. The shadows didn't seem to notice their presence anymore. They knew that if it was really Bethany holding them back, they may had not much time. They kept low voice just to avoid triggering the shadows still in their vicinity.
- "If they circle the pedestal, it will be too late. We won't be able to approach." Stated Martha.
- "Spencer, if we win, what will happen?" Asked Fridge, deadly serious.
- "I'm not sure because the game is so corrupted, but I guess it should reset."
- "Like the last time, just one of us has to win, right?"
- "Yeah but none of us should lose." Corrected Spencer. "I don't want any of us to share the fate of Oberon or our any of our avatars. What do you have in mind?"
- "A Fridge special." The black man replied, smirking.
###
Fridge had explained his strategy. It was dangerous, as they had just one try. But, they believed in the message of second pedestal: teamwork. If they did it together, they would have a chance. They knew they didn't have the superpowers of their avatars but physically Spencer and Martha were athletic. They counted on that in order to win.
Around them, the shadows were randomly wandering. The three teenagers took their position for their final assault. Martha slowly walked backwards as Fridge was moving forwards. The petite man stopped a few meters from the pedestal. Between them, Spencer was observing the shadows, waiting for the good moment to give the "go".
He was nervous. His friend had given him a really physical task. He knew Bravestone was naturally strong but, as himself, he never brought down anyone, football player style. He tried to focus on his breathing to calm down his racing heart.
Suddenly, he saw the opportunity. Without hesitation, he yelled:
- "Now!"
Then, he charged in Bethany's direction. As her avatar was shorter than his he had to bend over to catch her in her mind section. The impact was strong, and she fell heavily on her back. Led by the momentum he fell over her.
At the same time, Martha ran towards Fridge who kneeled down and did round back.
For a second, the shadows seemed confused as they couldn't decide which one of Martha or Spencer they should go after. But the confusion didn't last. They split in two groups. The first one slid back to the pedestal and formed a quickly growing barrier around it and Bethany. The second one rushed towards Martha, but she was fast enough to outspeed them.
- "What are you doing?" growled the evil incarnation blocked by Spencer's mass.
- "Winning." He replied.
In the same time, Martha reached Fridge and used his back as a springboard to do an impressive jump over the dark swarming barrier. The moment, she leaped the chasing shadows covered the petite man. Martha landed precariously near the pedestal. She didn't take the time to recover properly so she literally stumbled onto the dark block. The next second, it began to vibrate.
- "Stupid humans!" Bethany's evil avatar roared.
The shadows that where converging towards the two teenagers overwhelmed them. They were engulfed by the multitude. There was no pain but the scary sensation that their body was slowly disappearing. Then, everything stopped when the heard a huge bang. The energetic blast was the last thing they were aware of.
