Enjoy this chapter!


Chapter 6: Dreaming An Answer

"Did you know that this hotel washes 15,000 pillowcases everyday?" asked Dry Bones in amazement. "And there's also a rocky swimming pool somewhere around us."

"It's six days until our flight back home," said Goombella as they walked outdoors to search for the pool. "I don't think we'll have enough time, will we?"

"Of course we'll be fine," said Dry Bones, a bit uneasy on what Goombella was saying. "Why are you asking such a thing?"

"Before six days," said Goombella. "Death will already kill us all before we arrive at home. We need to find a way to stop us from dying."

"But we have six days," reminded Dry Bones. They spotted the rocky pool a distance away from them, and had no choice but to go there, knowing that a swim in the water would rest them at ease. They got ready and entered the pool, as Dry Bones swam in backstrokes and Goombella just splashed her feet in the water, sitting on the edge. She looked into the water, as something started to possess over her like a shadow.

She was on the edge of something, and fell forwards to discover that she was falling. Stories below was the ground, and she gasped as she discovered she was no longer in the pool, but in midair, about to smash into the ground. Closing her eyes, she expected to feel pain.

Her head rose from the water as she gasped for air when Dry Bones pulled her up onto the edge of the pool in alarm. Goombella blinked, but found that she was still back on the ground.

"Are you all right Goombella?" he asked. "You seemed unconscious while you were submerged in the water." He got a towel and wrapped it around her until she was well to speak again.

"I remembered I was falling of a building," said Goombella in confusion. "Then you woke me up."

"As long as we're okay, everything's fine," reminded Dry Bones. "Let's go back to our rooms now."

"But we have to save Thomas," Goombella suddenly remembered. "He was the one to die next in the ride."

After around ten minutes, Dry Bones entered Goombella's room to find her looking at the enlarged photos which she had printed out. He sat besides her and examined the picture in silence.

"Any ideas?" asked Goombella. "How is he going to die, if our theory is correct?"

Goombella had taken Thomas's picture in the Stratosphere Rotating Arcade. He was resting his head and arms against a rolling stool, while behind him were two air-hockey tables with the name 'Half-Aire' visible on the sides of them.

"Well, we know that words have to do with these," pointed out Goombella. "Such as in Steve's magazine, it spelled out 'SPA', and they died in the spa. A heiligenschien was forming around Steve's head, which means that body parts matter."

"So if there was a guy holding scissors in front of the person's crotch, then does that mean…" Goombella gave Dry Bones a look of disgust.

"Fine, I was just fooling around. Well, we obviously know that his death will happen in an arcade," added Dry Bones. "But is 'Half-Aire related somehow, such as being the name of a store or a place? Maybe it's a name of a certain arcade game."

"He's leaning against a rolling stool," added Goombella. "Perhaps he'll fall forwards into something because he'll roll forwards."

"How about that guy smoking against the wall?" said Dry Bones. "He's smoking a briar pipe, with the 'NO SMOKING' sign right besides him."

"A fire," suggested Goombella in slight alarm. "I think that perhaps an arcade machine would burst into flames, killing him."

"But there's just one problem," realized Dry Bones, getting up from the bed. "Where exactly is Thomas? He's the only one who didn't stay with us in this hotel, and wherever he is, it's probably in a place of games and entertainment.

"Why don't we ask Ludwig and Wendy?" said Goombella. "They probably know where he is." After gathering their belongings, they went into the elevator and traveled their intense way to the twentieth floor, and then made their way to the thirty-sixth room.

Dry Bones knocked on the door and found no answer. He knocked again in a louder tap but failed to hear anyone within the room. He decided to give the knob a turn, and was surprised to find it open. But on the bed, they were in disbelief to find two things, one of the things cut open, and the other all scratched up and worn, as if it had been there for overnight.

"Oh my gosh," gasped Goombella, as she made her way to the torn up pillow. "They destroyed a pillow! They're in serious trouble now."

"They deserve it," said Dry Bones, as he picked up the worn out note on the bed. "Hey, it's a letter to the maid." He read it out.

'Please, we are SOOO sorry about the ripped pillow. But we had to go in the middle of the night to help refurnish the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum for a new job. Forgive us, and don't tell the manager about the pillow! We'll even give you extra tip! XOXO Wendy HugsnKissesSmoochSmooch!'

"They had to leave at the last second," said Dry Bones, dropping the note on the floor. "When they're next on the list, they'll have no rescue from us. Son of a bitches." They closed the door and made their way to Lahla's room, hoping she would accompany them.

"Why can't you come with us?" asked Goombella. "We need your help in saving all of us, and to find the design."

"I just don't have the guts," explained Lahla. "Poochy's death was very disturbing for me and very horrific. I can't live to witness another accident happen, and I'm beginning to think that Peeka is really dead, instead of being in some regular imaginary world."

"Don't think that," said Goombella softly. "We still can save us." After a minute of talking, Lahla finally agreed… to not accompany them in their search of a death cure. Goombella and Dry Bones headed straight to the taxi area and looked at the Directory Map of Las Vegas.

"I think I found it," said Dry Bones. "Circus Circus: A hotel with an indoor circus, amusement park, and arcade play place. I believe that that's where he is." After waiting patiently for a taxi, a black taxi finally showed up and closed in front of them. He opened the door with his automatic switch and looked at them in an eerie way, as the two looked back at him in hesitation. He was wearing a black sports jacket with a hood that covered everything other than his eyes.

"Step in," he said as they stepped in. "Tell me your final destination."

"Circus Circus," Dry Bones told him.

"Circus Circus?" repeated the taxi driver. "Are you sure?"

Dry Bones and Goombella exchanged glances. Were they sure that Circus Circus was the correct place, or was it the wrong location to find Thomas? Although they weren't 100 percent sure, they felt that Death was going to strike him next at that location.

"Just bring us to Circus Circus," demanded Dry Bones quickly. Without a pause the driver sped off in a hurry to their destination.

There was a concealed taxi window separating the passengers from the drivers so the passengers had more privacy to themselves, without the driver realizing or taking notice on their actions.

"Poor Lahla," thought Goombella out loud. "I think she's not yet coped over Peeka'a death, and neither have I over Goombario's. It's like the world and Death is turning against us."

"It wasn't just us," said Dry Bones. "Remember, a similar thing happened to a person three months ago, and he was in our situation."

"Who was that person?" Goombella asked. "Is he well-known?"

"I did some research by myself and found out his name; Mush Rumberg," said Dry Bones. "You're not the only one who received premonitions before"

"Where could we find Mush?" said Goombella.

"He died when a sign smashed him in the back of the head, remember?" he replied. The driver took a sharp turn, making them both fall to the side in surprise. "Princess Peach, the one who played a giant role in this entire dilemma, died around two months ago when she was hit by a truck." The blasting horn of a truck rang out in the street, making the two of them alert and amazed.

"A truck," said Dry Bones. "That can't be a coincidence."

"Do you know what intervening is?" asked Goombella. "I didn't quite understand it."

"Well, I researched that also," he said. "It's like, 'When someone is next to die, another person or the person him/her self can dodge the death, thus skipping the person and planting the target on the next person on the list.' As Mush said, intervening might not be good, because the next death might be more gruesome and painful than the one you should have suffered."

"It's like interfering with someone's death," stated Goombella. "It's like…hey! Where's the driver?" They glanced through the separating window directly in front of them to look at the driver, but they both saw that the driver was not in his seat, nowhere to be seen. The taxi kept on driving on its automatic mode.

"The car has no driver!" exclaimed Dry Bones, as their car suddenly slid into the other lane, causing other cars to narrowly dodge them and pull out onto the side. Goombella tried opening the door on her right, but her seatbelt was lodged under it and was jammed, unable to open. Dry Bones tried to open the door on his left, but found that it was locked.

The cab was starting to make awkward turns, as the two of them saw that right in front of them, the direction their car was driving, were a crowd of people on the sidewalk.

"Move out!" screamed Goombella. People on the streets were startled as the taxi moved onto the pavement walkway, then straight towards a wall.

Cracking and opening the separation window, Dry Bones hurriedly reached into the control manual of the driver's seat and unlocked all the doors.

"Get out of the left door!" he commanded to Goombella. He managed to dodge a wall by turned the steering wheel, making Goombella fall to the right and unable to get up. Dry Bones grabbed Goombella's hand and opened the left door, revealing a ground of hard concrete. They both jumped out just as the car hit right into a fire hydrant, making people around the area in surprise and shock as the taxi cab let out a loud siren. Goombella and Dry Bones were unharmed as they got up from the ground.

"That was close," gasped Dry Bones in relief. "But where on earth did the taxi driver go? And where are we?"

"I thought Thomas was next," said Goombella in confusion. They quickly left the scene of the crash, hoping that nobody realized that they had just jumped out of the cab at the last second.

"If Thomas was next, then we weren't supposed to die," realized Dry Bones. "That taxi thing was meant to bring us somewhere." They both looked up and saw a large building, with a glass Coca-Cola bottle on the side of it on another building, and M&M figures on the other side.

Gameworks Arcade


Yeah, I probably won't update very much because tomorrow and the next three days from three days from now are four final exams, and today is Thursday 6/8/06. So nervous...