It had been about four months since this little bizarro nightmare started, with a new teacher showing up about every month. The anticipation had dulled a bit after the pattern was recognized, but it didn't make it any less nerve wracking when they had to walk into the room, knowing something bad was gonna happen.
They had realized after last episode that there might actually be permanent consequences for the monstrosities that occurred during these incidents. Hopefully, it was just a fluke, a misstep. The mark hadn't gone away, or even shrunk in the month since the encounter with the butterfly, but it didn't really hurt either. They just couldn't touch it. Still, Red had realized his attempts to feign apathy and indifference weren't going to work anymore. And that's why he had to be dealt with.
Thankfully for Roy, he was. Even if it wasn't planned.
...
"Oh. I guess it's my turn to choose a card. Hmm. What is the biggest thing in the world?" It was nice that the set up was a game of sorts. It almost felt normal in a way. More natural than just sitting around waiting for something to happen.
"Hmm. That's a tricky one!"
"A mountains? A sky? A windmi-"
"No!"
Duck really hated how rude he was supposed to act. The worst part for him was that it wasn't out of character. He'd really need to reevaluate himself when this was all over.
"If only there was some way to learn more about the world."
The script hadn't exactly made clear what they were supposed to be learning this time. The trio aimlessly gazed at the globe.
"Yes, if only there was Some way to learn more information about this!"
...
A head spun around on the globe stand.
"Wow look, a-"
"I'm a computer! I'm a computery guy!" A strange looking object appeared on the opposite side of the room on top of a desk. "Everything made out of buttons and wires! I'd like to show ya-" he jabbed his mouse pointer into Yellow's face "-inside my digital life! Inside my mind there is a digital mind."
The trio's eyes raked over the object. They'd seen some strange things so far but this guy was just out of place. As a few seconds ticked by, the object seemed to grow nervous before Red remembered he was supposed to say something.
"Oh. Maybe you could help us answer this question. What is the biggest thing in the-"
"CLEVER! I'm very clevery guy!"
"Wow!"
"Count to a fifty in the blink of my eye!" He winked at the trio and hopped off the desk. A piece of paper fell out of his mouth. "I'll print a picture, and then I'll tell you the time!" He gestured to a screen on his shirt.
"Time?!" Insert flashback here.
"Help you to find something you're wanting to find! No it's easy to be a clever smart boy like me, if you can do it all digitallyyyyyyyyyY!" The object's voice reached an octave higher than necessary and the trio were tempted to cover their ears.
"Wow! I'd like to be as smart as a computer!"
"Actually," Red raised an eyebrow, "we already have a computer-"
"GREAT! Great news!" The computer pulled a long sheet of paper out of nowhere. "Now, before we begin our journey, I just need to get some information from you! What's your name? Where do you live? What do you like to e-eat?" At the stutter, his eyes seemed to flash and dart about for a moment.
"I live in my house!"
"Spaghetti!"
"Well my name is-"
"GREAT NEWS!"
Red sighed as the object continued to rattle off inane questions, but then something struck him. This was completely stupid and ridiculous. Well, that was obvious from the get go, but it had never occurred to him to fight against it. Sure, Roy would probably murder him if he tried to fight back but this object looked like he couldn't even be older than 14. He could punch him in his stupid, evil face and just leave!
"Wait a minute..."
This was dumb.
"Stop talking."
This was awful.
"Be quiet."
Why hadn't he tried this before?
"SHUT UP!" Red raised his fist to knock the object square in the skull but before he could even swing, the boy caught it and turned his head a perfect 90 degree angle to glare at him.
"DON'T TOUCH MEEEEEEEE-"
...
"Welcome! To my digital home! Everything made out of numbers and code!"
Well that didn't work. AND now they were in some sort of virtual reality. A virtual world inside a virtual world? Huh. Red contemplated this as he mindlessly repeated his lines more times than he needed to.
"I don't get it. How can it be? If I'm sitting at home, but I'm inside the screen."
The trio felt a strange out of body experience in the real world. Sure they were there, but they felt much more conscious in the object's digital world. World. They were thinking the word world too many times. Duck's head started to spin.
"But if he's not quite real, then I'm not real too! And your not real you is inside your real you!" That tongue twister of a line didn't really help.
Red rolled his eyes almost subconsciously, putting as little effort into his lines as possible. "Oh WOW how amazing. And interesting too. But in this digital world, what can we do?"
The object stared at nothing, almost completely still.
"What can we-"
"Hey, good question! Well it's up to you! In the digital world, there's only three things to do!"
The trio stepped in front of three large, black doors inside a checkered room. Yellow opened his first to a cute little dancing graphic.
"Wow, look a pie chart!"
Duck opened his to see... himself. Wearing kinda cool looking clothes actually! Damn. "Digital style!" he posed.
Red opened the door to see the object awkwardly dancing in the large room. "Do a digital dancing. Hey this is fun!"
Three doors.
"Wow look a bar graph!"
"Digital style!"
"Do a digital dancing. Hey this is fun."
Red shook his head a little. His body grew a little more disconnected. The boy took a glance at his brothers, but they seemed enthralled with their doors.
"Wow look a line graph!"
"Digital style!"
"Do a digital dancing, hey this is fun!"
Reality set in. He was back in the room. Sort of. He still felt a tugging tether to the now unconscious object.
"Wow look an oblong!"
"Digital style!"
"Do a digital dancing hey this is fun!"
Red stood up out of his chair. The darkened room was only illuminated by the object's glowing screen and-
And some light spilling out from behind a door in the corner. Something he hadn't noticed before.
"Wow look nothing!"
"Digital style!"
"Do a digital dancing, hey this is fun!"
He inched towards the door, the tether growing looser. He felt a pair of eyes on his back, but there wasn't anyone there.
"Nothing."
"Digital style!"
"Do a digital dancing, hey this is fun!"
His hand rested on the doorknob.
A garbled mess of tangled limbs and broken images and spastic motion and dissonant sounds oozed throughout the digital world. The other two had no thoughts. They were moving and nothing else and there was a lot of them but they weren't real.
Shoving the door open, Red stumbled into a bright, white room with checkered tile and a table in the middle. A myriad of items rested on and around the table and a tape recorder played a text-to-speech-like voice.
Red took in the strange scenery as the recorder droned on in the background. A pulsating beat from the other room muffled the approaching footsteps.
The voice concluded, "You are not invited to the party."
"Wait, what?"
For a fraction of a millisecond, the boy felt an infinitely sharp pain against the back of his neck. Then nothingness.
...
The blood spilled out of the victim's neck, splattering into a large puddle of red. As it seeped into the cracks of the tile and stained the body's clothes, the hair of the victim swirled around in the thick liquid.
Roy stepped out of the dark corner he'd been watching the episode from. He was surprised. While that wasn't planned, it certainly worked in his favor. Much more than Shrignold's deviation did anyway. He reached across the room and gently closed the door. Best not to scare the other two yet. Speaking of which.
His son and Duck groaned as they woke up, their eyes blurry and empty. Duck grabbed his son's hand and led him out of the chair. The green haired boy glanced at Roy, whispered in Yellow's ear, and shooed him out the door. Walking over to Roy, he took a deep breath and asked, "Uh, where's Red?"
"He's busy right now. You'll see him later."
"Busy with what?"
"I had a talk with him. We have some things to work on. Now go on. Leave."
Duck looked as if he was about to argue but held back at the last minute. He shot a confused look at Roy one last time before walking out the door downtrodden.
"Well it's just... I feel like we were still kinda testy with each other earlier. I just wanted to give him a hug and let him know I'm not mad anymore."
"I'm sure you can tell him later," Roy said with an edge that was insisting that Duck leave already.
The boy nodded and shut the door behind him.
Roy walked to the other room and took a gander at the interesting sight. His silly little Colin, unconscious on the floor next to that pest's dead body. It was about time he got rid of him. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn't done it sooner. And what a brilliant thought it was! He should do it again!
Roy picked up the teen's head and body and dragged them out another door he created. It was time for some adjustments to the plan.
...
Paige stared at the house from their hiding spot behind the tree. Another poor object had gone in, but they knew he wouldn't come out. Such a shame, he seemed like such a sweet boy.
The ran pattered gently down on their papery hair, which was thankfully thick enough to not get too soggy from the downpour. They wished they could talk to those kids again, maybe apologize. But it wasn't meant to be. As they mulled over their miserable existence, something caught their eye.
At the backside of the house, Roy was carrying something tall and... lanky. He dragged it through the mud and dropped another rounder looking object on the ground. The man heaved the lanky thing into a dumpster and then tossed the round thing in as well before finally slamming the lid shut. Their interest was thoroughly piqued and they waited for Roy to return to the house before investigating.
Paige rolled down the hill out of the woods and slinked up to the large metal behemoth. They awkwardly pried the lid open with their skinny arms and glanced inside.
The object was greeted with a dead, decapitated body. Paige resisted the urge to scream but it proved futile as they startled backwards, the lid slamming shut again with a loud CLANG. They gasped and scrambled to throw open the dumpster. The urge to vomit never washed over them, they realized with disappointment. How jaded had they become? They couldn't just leave the kid here though! It wasn't right! Ah- but what did they care about what was right, they thought bitterly. All they ever did was hide and watch from the distance as atrocities happened. What made this any different.
Well, they argued with themself, maybe this was the chance to change that. Maybe they could but their stupid stringy body to use for once.
With the lid no longer needing to be held open, they hopped in the dumpster and threw the head out as gently as possible before lifting the body in their arms and crawling out. Thankfully, the kid wasn't too much taller than them, so they could easily wrap the arm around their shoulder and drag them along while they carried the head in their other arm.
It was finally time for Paige to fix their mess.