Carolyn's Comments:

Mood: Bored Again

Comments: New chapter for you! Enjoy or die!

Later on, everyone sat in the employee's cafeteria. All the dancing knights from before were now quiet and talking at a table. The rest of the staff that Cronos had hired all sat at random tables.

They were a rowdy bunch. Obscenities filled the sound waves, chairs were hurled across the room, belching contests shook the very foundation of the building, and it was more than once that Carolyn had to give someone the 'ol 'one finger salute'.

The cafeteria itself looked like the great hall of Hogwarts meets a high-school cafeteria. It had a high ceiling, and stone walls. But the floor was tiled and the tables were cheap fold-up poker tables. The chairs were hard and made of metal. Food was kept on a long counter with glass in front of it, so you had to ask the person behind the counter for something, which would subject you to many foul curse-words.

Cronos, not wanting to bother with dude behind the counter, elbowed the glass barrier. The glass shattered easily, under his strength. He pulled a chocolate pudding out, brushed off the larger shards of glass, and went to sit with his friends.

"WE'RE FREE!" Someone cried as a group of people that the man behind the counter had scared off, hurried to grab some food.

Katie had gotten a coffee, but she'd flung it at someone after realizing that it tasted HORRIBLE. She was now dumping sugar on the table, forming it into a pile, laughing happily. Sam, Caitlin, and Alex looked on in amusement.

"Having fun?" Cronos asked sitting down next to Sam.

"I AM!" Katie said loudly and cheerfully.

"Oh goody. Now focus on your sugar again. The adults are talking." Caitlin said sounding like an adult scolding a child. Katie, still smiling and never blinking, went back to her sugar pile.

"So where's Carolyn?" Alex asked. "I was sure I saw her getting into a fistfight with someone a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, the guy tried to cheat her out of a quarter in Blackjack." Caitlin sighed, "Honestly, Carolyn's such a little miser, that if you try to take a penny from her you'll face her wrath. Believe me, I've tried!"

Suddenly Carolyn's voice boomed throughout the room. "Can I have everyone's attention please?" She was standing at a podium near the back of the room. Cronos and Alex's jaws dropped. Carolyn had changed out of her old outfit, and she was now wearing her trademark pink top with spaghetti straps, a pair of baggy jeans, and white sneakers. These articles of clothing banded together to form TRADITIONAL Carolyn! (Not available in stores…yet). As she spoke, only one thought was going through Cronos and Alex's seedy little minds: "I can almost see down her shirt!"

Even as Carolyn called for silence, no one in the room shut up (except for Cronos and Alex who were too busy drooling).

"You're drooling into my cheesecake!" Sam yelled moving his plate away from Cronos.

"Can everyone please be quiet?" Carolyn called out once again. She was trying to sound polite, but at the same time she was really annoyed. When no one crammed their pie-hole, Carolyn grabbed her microphone, held it up to her lips and screamed at top volume: "LISTEN UP YA BASTARDS!"

Silence fell over the room.

"Thank you." Carolyn said as her blood pressure plummeted back down to its normal level. "Now, I have some announcements to make to my new staff members. First of all, yes: this place will be run like a dictatorship."

"Am I the only one who's not surprised?" Sam asked rolling his eyes.

"I'm surprised." Katie said. She was drawing anime characters in her pile of sugar with a swizzle stick.

"Secondly:" Carolyn continued. "We need a camera man. I wouldn't trust one of those drunks Cronos hired with a piece of string, so that rules them out."

"HEY! THOSE ARE MY OLD ARMY BUDDIES YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Cronos shouted. Cronos had once been enrolled in the army after his mother abandoned him when he was two. He had grown up learning the ways of combat, becoming a skilled solider, learning how to grow out his multi-colored hair, how to look feminine but still masculine and attractive, and how to throw bitching keg parties. He left after setting fire to a keg in a commanding officer's office. Cronos had, unfortunately, forgotten that alcohol can have explosive effects.

"So we'll have one of the Knights of the Round Table do it." She pointed at them, "Has anyone of you ever used a camera?"

"William has!" Galahad called out, "Of course it was an old-fashioned black-and-white camera…"

"Close enough!" Carolyn yelled. "William! Stand up!"

A man with flaming red hair and a goatee of matching color stood up. "That's me!" He had a thick Scottish accent.

"I dub you 'Sir Billy the Cameraman'!"

"Sweet!" Billy sat down again.

"Some more announcements," Carolyn went on, "Anyone who pisses me off, will have their eyes pulled out, and then strangled with their retina cords, unto death."

Cronos listened as he ate his pudding. He was chewing a mouthful of cheap chocolate substitute and microscopic glass shards. He looked down into the brown depths and gagged. A cigarette butt was buried beneath the fudge. Cronos no longer felt hungry.

"Also, anyone who tries to leak spoilers of the story to the public will have the skin stripped off their forearm, like little bits of string cheese, unto death." She looked at another piece of paper. "And one last notice from the cooking staff. Anyone unhappy with the meal plans, should keep their opinions to themselves, unless they wish to be subjected to a severe tongue-lashing."

"That I can live with." Alex said, glad that it wasn't a gruesome fatal punishment.

"…Unto death." Carolyn finished.

"DAMNIT!"

"You shouldn't say bad words." Kate whispered looking up from her sugar.

Other members of the audience were unhappy, but none of them dared show it to their psychopath employer, except for one brave soul who stood up and yelled: "BOO!" So Carolyn flipped him off.

"You can, of course, go fuck yourself." She snapped.

"She shouldn't swear so much." Katie whispered.

Carolyn came down from the podium and walked towards the table where her friends sat. Alex grabbed her arm. "Here! Sit next to me!"

Cronos, not missing a beat, grabbed Carolyn by the other arm and pulled her down into the seat next to him. "Nice try dipshit."

"Phooey!"

"Please stop swearing." Katie said. Her voice was soft, but she had stopped playing with the sugar, and that WASN'T a good sign.

"Damnit Alex," Carolyn said rolling her eyes, "Why can't you just be non-perverted like Cronos is?"

Before Alex could respond, Katie exploded into tears and stood up.

"STOP SWEARNG! YOU SHOULDN'T SAY BAD WORDS, AND I'M GONNA TELL!" She broke down sobbing. Sam pulled her back down into her seat.

"Calm down." He said patting her on the back. "Just go back your sugar."

Katie's tears instantly dried up and she became cheerful again. "KAY!"

Later, Cronos sat in his room flipping through the TV channels.

"Sweet! They have HBO!" He said grinning as 'The Sopranos' started.

Suddenly the door flew open and Katie ran in. Cronos spat out a mouthful of the beer he'd been sipping.

"What do ya want with me?!" Cronos asked faking a cheesy Scottish accent.

"Carolyn got all her stuff unpacked! You gotta come see! It's really cool!" Katie screamed bouncing around on the tips of her feet.

Cronos sighed and turned off the Mafia-themed show, just as someone was shot for stealing the Don's bag of Cheetos. He followed Katie out into the hallway. As they walked through the corridor, Katie noticed an open door.

"Whoops! Left my door open!" Katie said. She cheerfully closed the door, but before she did Cronos got a look inside. It was a mess, the bed was overturned, the floor was soaked with rotten food, and soda stains covered the wall. And all Katie had done was take a nap in it.

"Well, we all have our talents." Cronos thought. He followed Katie down another couple of doors, until they stopped at one the read 777. Katie pushed the door open and walked in, Cronos followed.

Instantly, Cronos was confronted with a Nerd/RPG fan/Anime fan's version of Heaven. The walls were so covered with posters of anime and videogame characters, that you couldn't even see the wall. Carolyn had hooked up a new computer with a DSL line. There was a TV with a PS2 hooked up. The room reeked strongly of incense.

Carolyn, Caitlin, and Sam all sat at the computer. Carolyn was showing them how fast the new Internet connection was. She was swearing about AOL a lot.

"Damn AOL, nearly ruined my Internet experience!" Carolyn rambled. She noticed Katie and Cronos. She smiled and stood up.

"How to you like my home away from home?"

"How about Heaven away from crap-shack?" Cronos joked. Katie spotted a snow globe on a small table. She grabbed it and laughed.

"Oops! That's for Christmas. I guess I forgot to put it away." Carolyn reached over and tried to take the snow globe, but Katie hissed like a cat and yanked it back.

"Okay, fine." Carolyn said throwing her arms up in the air, "I don't care!"

Katie happily shook the glass sphere. "LOOK! IT'S SNOWING IN A MINITURE VILLAGE!"

Suddenly there was the sound of the door opening from the back of the small hall that led to the door.

"Room service!" A voice called.

"I didn't order anything!" Carolyn said frowning. Suddenly someone burst into the room. Everyone immediately recognized him. His light green skin, his long silver hair, the scar across his left eye, and his red slits for eyes. Dressed in a long black cloak, he leered down at them.

"We meet again, Carolyn. Prepare to die."