Chapter 263

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Note: Gary is from the classic show "Are you afraid of the dark." Ross and Sophie are from the episode "the tale of the pinball wizard."

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Gary was watching the news of the attack on the United States Capitol from Antarctica. He once thought he was pretty good at making up scary stories, but he couldn't have thought up something this scary. As he watched this, two people approached him, Ross and Sophie. Gary had thought he's made up these two people for his story "the tale of the pinball wizard" yet here they were.

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Gary: Wow, you two are real? Sorry, this just seems weird to me.

Ross: Weird for us too. I mean, did we act the way we did because of how you told your story? Or did the muses inspire you to tell our story so accurately?

Gary: I'm not sure. There were times when I felt motivated to tell a story a certain way, like the story had to go a certain way. But I've also seen people who said they felt uncharacteristically motivated to act a certain way, like someone else was telling their story. I guess it's like the chicken or the egg, or the mother and the cave painting, noone knows which came first. But I'm glad that you two made it out okay.

Ross: Yeah, I was a minor thief and I was lazy.

Sophie: And I was a spoiled teenager who used my looks to manipulate boys like him. But did either of us really deserve to be thrown into that game? To have to fight for our lives like that?

Ross: We know it was mr Olson who trapped us in there, we just kind of wonder if your story played a part in that.

Gary: If it did, I'm sorry. I honestly thought I was just telling a story, that the most it would do was convince my friends that they wre playing video games too much. How long were you in there?

Sophie: Hard to say, we sort of lost track of time in there. We just fought to survive, ate when we could, tried to have a few moments of fun. But we couldn't last forever.

Gary: Guess Olson was a real hardliner.

Ross: I think he was training us, wanted us ready for this upcoming final battle. How did your Midnight Society get started?

Gary: My grandfather started this group in the 1930s with his friends to tell scary stories. They also might have been dealing with their own fears of getting involved in the war in Europe. Somehow they attracted the attention of a demon, he gave them the Silver Sight. It was a powerful weapon, and they became somewhat corrupted by it's power. They decided to hide it, never use it again. When war came they all went, even the girls became nurses for the war effort. When they left, others took on the roles, it went on for over 80 years, before the worlds broke down. My grandfather and the others knew it was important for the Midnight Society to continue. They feared the day would come when they would have to fight real monsters again, and it did. My first real experience with monsters was the same demon who wanted us to find the Silver Sight, and also become corrupted. Since then other versions of the Midnight Society have also had to deal with real world monsters, they did pretty well actually.

Sophie: So you guys were training for this final battle, same as us?

Gary: Yeah, I guess we were. We just never knew it at the time. But, it is kind of cool to have all members of the Midnight Society together, for the first time. Just wish it wasn't under such circumstances.

Ross: That would have been nice. So, were all your stories about training for this battle?

Gary: I doubt it. Most were, probably, just entertaning stories. I doubt that the prom queen was training for anything, she just wanted to see her boyfriend again, and she got her happy ending.

Sophie: Good for her, hope we all get happy endings.

Gary: I hope so too, not all of our stories ended happily.