After the two executions, we all stood there in complete shock and silence. Some people had their mouths open. Others dropped to the floor crying and mourning over our lost friends.
"Dingle! Festro!" Slog sobbed. Billy put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, but knew he couldn't say anything to take away the pain Slog felt. Fart, Gweelok, and Ramona were also on their knees mourning.
"Quit crying, ya bunch of babies!" Tanezumi scolded.
"You killed our friends!" Slog cried.
"They shouldn't have murdered people, then, dick lips!" Tanezumi laughed.
"Shut up! You stupid overgrown rodent!" Billy hissed, balling his hands into fists. "Leave Slog alone! Let go of Uncle Grandpa! Let us out of here!"
"I dare you to hit me, Billy. I'd love to see you die!" she cackled at him.
Billy just let out a frustrated grunt in response. "I won't give you the satisfaction!"
"Aww..." Tanezumi seemed disappointed. "Well, move along now! We're all done with trials. There's no need to stay here!" she motioned for us to go back on the elevator.
We all did so in silence. There were sobs heard amongst the group. The elevator had a considerable amount of space now that 7 of our friends have been killed. Once the elevator traveled up we all piled into the cafeteria to have dinner.
For the most part, dinner was silent. It was a bit more silent with even more tension in the air than the dinner after the last trial. Finally, Steve spoke up. He had that serious tone that he had throughout the investigation.
"You do see now how the buddy system isn't going to work, Gus." he sipped on a cup of tea. That was actually the only thing he had in front of him. No tray of food at all, not even a small dessert plate.
Mr. Gus only sighed in response.
"It doesn't seem like anything is working... we're all going to die" Slog sobbed.
"Not if someone doesn't kill everyone else first" Steve pointed out.
Mr. Gus pounded his fist on the table.
"We can't just give up like this! We have to keep trying!" he had a bit of desperation in his voice.
"Why? Death is inevitable at this point!" Dennis sighed.
"For Uncle Grandpa! For ourselves! For goodness!" Mr. Gus tried to motivate everyone. "We need to stop internalizing the hate and thinking selfishly! We have to work together toward the common goal of getting out of here!"
"Mr. Gus is right!" Fart joined in to defend Mr. Gus. "Killing our friends is something Tanezumi wants us to do! That's not very nice! We can't kill our friends to entertain some evil rat!"
"Yeah! Mr. Gus is right!" a familiar voice said. We all turned around and found it was Uncle Grandpa. His eyes were puffy and red, it looked like he had been crying. "I do NOT want to lose any more of you! Please! I'll even try to help you find a way out of here! I'm trying, just hang in there please! We'll make it all out together!"
"Why did you bring us here in the first place?" Steve asked him.
"I told you! I wanted you all to get along! I didn't know Tanezumi was going to come here and do this! I just wanted you all to get along!" Uncle Grandpa explained again.
Billy sighed. "We will try for you, Uncle Grandpa."
"That's what I like to hear!" Uncle Grandpa smiled, still sniffling a bit. He then disappeared and left us to continue our discussion.
"Well, now that we have that taken care of, there's something I want to ask you, Steve." Mr. Gus directed his attention to Steve, folding his hands together.
"Yes?" Steve asked, taking another sip of his tea.
"Who are you?" he asked.
Steve tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"It's clear you're not Steve. We know now you have multiple personalities. I'm not trying to call you out, but I'm upset you haven't told me about this earlier. If I'm not talking to Steve, who am I speaking with?" he asked.
Steve gave him a grin. It wasn't his usual "jerk smirk" either. It was a very mysterious grin. I wouldn't call it sinister, but the grin seemed it was withholding many secrets.
"My name is not important. This body wants to be referred to as 'Steve'. Address my body as Steve. Who I personally am is not important." he replied.
"It is to me." Gus said. "Listen, there's been increasing tension between us over the years and I want it to stop. We need to get along, so does everybody else. We should all understand and know who we all are."
"Problems between us should be discussed only between us, Gus" Steve told him, taking another sip of his tea. "Our identities are not important. Our goal is important. Do not lose focus on the goal."
Mr. Gus sighed. "Alright, we can talk after dinner, then." he looked out at everyone else. "Tomorrow, we'll explore the new part of the amusement park and make sure to look for a way out!
The rest of dinner was silent. After we ate, we began toward our rooms to go to sleep. It was early, but the executions that took place took away our morale. I was about to get into my room, but then I heard Mr. Gus's voice talking to someone. I was a bit curious, so I decided to eavesdrop.
"What's wrong with you, Steve? Why do you lie? Why do you keep secrets from me? Why do you create tension between us? I know we've been hard on each other, but you're my friend. We're friends, Steve, but you treat me like I'm your enemy most of the time." Mr. Gus rattled off the questions. He seemed quite upset.
"There's nothing wrong with me or Steve. I never lie. You should ask Steve that question." Steve replied.
"Which one? I don't know who you are anymore, Steve." Mr. Gus sighed.
"It's better that way." Steve told him.
"Do you really hate me that much?" Mr. Gus asked him.
Steve was silent for a few moments.
"Well?" Gus demanded and answer.
"You tried to kill us." Pizza Steve's voice dropped down to a very serious, grave tone.
Chills went down my spine. Mr. Gus tried to kill Pizza Steve? When? How? Why? I continue to listen in, hoping for an explanation.
"I apologized one hundred times! I know what I did was wrong. I took a prank too far. I should have never done that to you! I beat myself up every day ever since that incident. Can't we move forward?" he pleaded.
"Our main body could have died. We already suffer enough danger and threat." Steve hissed.
"Is there anything I can do to make it up to you? Please, I-" Mr. Gus started, but Steve cut him off.
"Not to mention you wrote something on our back that had a huge psychological effect on Steve." Steve reminded him.
"Oh come on! 'Ignore me'? You wrote 'Kick Me' on my back!" Gus sounded frustrated.
"Gus, your actions were deemed unforgivable by us. We all agreed to never forgive you. You are a threat to our well being and as the guardian of this body I try to keep you at a safe distance. I only wish to be strictly business with you, Gus. As for the others, I'm not sure how they feel. Steve certainly wants to see you suffer. Sometimes I have to keep him in check." Steve explained to him.
"Can I talk to Steve?" Mr. Gus asked.
"I can bring him out for you but I don't think he'll talk to you the way I am talking to you right now." Pizza Steve warned him.
"Please?" Mr. Gus asked again.
I heard silence on Steve's end. A minute later I heard Steve say "huh? what? where?"
"Steve? Is that you?" Mr. Gus asked.
"That's my name, don't wear it out!" Steve's tone returned to his usual arrogant self's tone.
"Steve! Let's have a heart to heart talk, you and me. Your other personality said you and your other personalities were still upset about that incident a-" Gus was interrupted by Steve.
"What, when you tried to kill me? You think I forgot? Then you had the audacity to put an ignore me sign on my back? Who the fuck do you think you are?" Steve hissed the questions at him.
"Steve that was a long time ago, I want to move past it and make things better between us" he told him.
"No. It's not going to happen. You've been a threat to us since day one. You crossed the line that day. I want nothing more than for you to go through what I go through." Steve told him, his tone a bit condescending.
"Steve!" Mr. Gus sounded angry. "What the hell do you go through? How the hell am I supposed to know when you lie all the fucking time?"
"I don't lie!" Steve yelled back at him.
"Yes you do! You lie about everything! You have a problem! Maybe it's because you don't remember what you say? I don't know, but you lie to me, others, and yourself." Mr. Gus told him with a stern voice.
"I do not lie! Pizza Steve is a wonderful, talented, and cool guy! You always try to tell him he's not but he is! We deal with so much already, we don't need you funkin' us down!" Steve stomped his foot, his voice clearly has anger in it.
"What do you possibly deal with and go through?" Mr. Gus asked with skepticism. "Because I sure as hell do not see what you are going through!"
"You can't always see what people go through, Gus!" Steve pointed that out to him in a frustrated voice. "You can't always see how bad someone suffers unless you are in their head. Unless you can feel and experience their pain you will never understand or 'see' what someone is going through! And I am under no obligation to tell you about Pizza Steve's experiences. All you need to know is that if you lived a DAY in my mind, you wouldn't survive a goddamn chance. You couldn't even last the whole damn day!"
"Under no obligation? How the hell am I supposed to attempt to understand if you don't tell me, Steve? Explain that to me!" Gus was getting really angry.
"You don't know what it's like to live with Them!" Steve's voice began to trail off. He sounded really upset.
"Who? The other personalities?" Gus asked.
"No. The personalities are fine. I'm talking about Them." Steve brought his voice down to a whisper.
"Who's Them?" Mr. Gus asked.
"I've already said too much. I'm not going to risk my safety for you!" Pizza Steve said before storming away. He opened the door to Gus's room. I jumped back with a startled yelp as he did, considering I was right by the door. Steve lifted his sunglasses to look at me for a moment before shutting the door.
"How long have you been listening in?" he asked me.
"I-I-I-" I couldn't speak. I was so afraid and my heart was beating at a very fast pace. I clutched my chest trying to catch my breath.
"I asked you a goddamn question!" he demanded.
I let out a yelp. "I-I-I don't k-k-know!" I squeaked. I felt so pathetic laying there on the ground in front of Steve.
"What do you mean you don't know? You heard about what me and Gus were talking about didn't you?" he asked.
"I-" I was interrupted.
"Did you hear about Them?" he asked.
I nodded.
He sighed in response. "Don't ever bring it up, you hear? The less I talk about Them the better!"
He stooped down and grabbed my collar. "Steve's safety is of utmost importance! You hear? You will not discuss that subject with anyone and you will not try to delve deeper into the subject!"
I nodded. "Yes! I will not talk about it or even mention it I promise!" I was really afraid. I didn't think Steve would hurt me, but the way he was grabbing my collar was disturbing me. Whoever "They" are, "They" must be a complex mystery about Pizza Steve. Hopefully, "They" will have nothing to do with understanding the amusement park or why Tanezumi is doing what she's doing.
"Good!" he let go of my collar before offering to help me up. "Pizza Steve apologizes for scaring you."
I grabbed his hand and let him help me up. I dusted myself off before going to the door to my room.
"Good night" Steve told me.
"Good night" I told him as I went into my room.
What a crazy day! I tried to get Steve and Gus's conversation out of my mind, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Who exactly are "They". Why does Steve fear "Them"? Why are "They" a threat to him? Why is Gus a threat to him? I want to know more, but Steve might do something drastic if I try to press the issue. I decided to push it out of my mind the best I could. I could only hope whatever issues Steve is going through that he can overcome them. I laid down in my bed, and a few minutes later I fell asleep. Tomorrow would bring new challenges.