Yes, I finished the chapter the day before my three-day exam torture! There is some violence and blood in this chapter, so be cautious. Enjoy!


Chapter 7: Pool Slide Reaper

The sky was already dark and nighttime, as Goombella and Dry Bones looked up at the sign on the building above them.

"Gameworks," read Goombella. "So this is where Thomas should be, not Circus Circus. Death had caused the taxi to crash near this place."

"Does this mean he was helping us this time?" asked Dry Bones, looking up at the large letters. "If he has, then let's go."

"What gives you the impression that Death is a he?" Goombella said.

"Because I can't imagine a feminine character killing all these helpless people," he replied in his imaginary wisdom. "Neither could you, could you?"

"Let's hurry up now," insisted Goombella.

They both ran into the building immediately to see a tall rock-climbing structure nearly eighty feet tall, and saw people scampering around the place at their own enjoyment. They made their way further down into the crowded arcade area.

"He could be anywhere," said Dry Bones. "Where would he be?"

Goombella remembered. "He's always in a closed up area with limited people," she said. "Every time I visited him he's mostly there, cut off from the crowd."

"I'm guessing that he's in there," said Goombella, pointing to a door which said 'Smoking Permitted: Separate Arcade Room.' They both went inside to a wide open area, covered with smoke and arcade machines. There were virtual jet skis all over one side of the room which had actual moving and stationary jet skis, and hanging on the ceiling were pointy decorations which seemed to wobble the slightest bit. Goombella was correct with her guess and within seconds they finally spotted Thomas playing a Shooting Alley game.

"Thomas!" hissed Dry Bones. "We've been looking all over for you."

"What for?" he asked, shooting down a cat, obviously fake, down from a window sill. "I like this place."

"You're in trouble," said Goombella. "According to this killing dilemma that we were trying to explain, you're the next one to die." Thomas ignored her and shot down a (mechanical) lady from her stool, and she yelled and fell down when the stool rolled away.

"The rolling stool," whispered Goombella to Dry Bones, and she took out the picture to show him.

"Can't seem to 'nderstrand what ya talkin' about," he replied, putting the gun down. He saw Goombella holding the enlarged photo in her hands and grabbed it from her, looking at the picture in confusion.

"This's me, ain't it?" he said. "Why's me pictur' with y'all carrin' it?"

"You're the next one to go," said Dry Bones. "Ever since we got off that ride at the Stratosphere Tower, Death is stalking all of those who got off."

"Ok, if thes the-orie is true, than why ain't you next 'stead of me?" he told them, walking away from them.

"Because it's the order we were supposed to die on the ride," explained Dry Bones. "Goombella remembers that Koopie and Steve were the first to fall out of their seats, and Poochy…Tom, are you listening to me?"

Goombella spotted an air hockey table behind her, but discovered that it wasn't called 'Half-Aire' on the side of it. In the picture, there were two tables, but the room only had one.

"You have to trust her," insisted Dry Bones helplessly. "She saved you once, and she's trying to save you again."

"But I don't trust her no more, cause she ain't ma friend even from the start," said Thomas, causing Goombella to turn suddenly and look at him in surprise and hurtfulness. Thomas had never said anything so unkind to Goombella before.

Thomas just stood where he was, but then ended up walking away from them even further. Goombella saw numerous people around her smoking cigarettes, and remembered the fire smoking sign in Thomas' photograph. Something was reflected of the radio which seemed to be a dark shadow, which loomed across the room in an eerie fasion. Goombella gasped as it started to make its way to one of the jet skis, and began to float towards her.

Near the virtual Jet Ski arcades was a man lighting his cigarette, and Goombella noticed that on the side of the Jet Ski, there was the word 'Aire'. The shadow then reflected against the glass of an arcade machine, and Goombella turned around in fright, knowing that Death was soon about to strike at Thoams.

"Tom, just---"

"Leave me alone," snapped Thomas, pushing away Dry Bones away from him and walking in exhaustion between two pool tables. He took a stick from the side and laid it across the table, as he laid his head and arms on the pool table as well, revealing that the pool tables were rollable.

"Nobody botherin' me, nobody killin' me, nobody'll beat me," he said, stretching his elbows out carelessly.

Dry Bones suddenly remembered his pose from the picture with Thomas leaning against the rollable stool, but in this case, the stool was a pool table.

Goombella backed against the wall as the dark shadow suddenly appeared in front of her, her body trembling in confusion and fright. It suddenly seemed to disappear.

At the exact same time, the person lighting his cigarette dropped his lighter on the Jet Ski besides him, causing it to spark and let out a blast of fire backwards. Right behind the machine was an arcade machine, which fell forwards from the flare and pushed one of the rolling pool tables forward at full force into the other pool table, the one which Thomas was leaning against.

Dry Bones jumped out in an attempt of saving him, but he was too late as the pool tables collided with each other with Thomas in between them. He was cut in half horizontally, splattering blood all over the two pool tables. Goombella shrieked in alarm as people in the arcade ran away in fear at the commotion, with yells of horror filling up the room. The tables rolled away from each other to reveal a gory mess of the bottom half of the victim, and Thomas' top half was thrown against the wall when the tables smashed together, right besides a shocked Goombella.

Goombella started to cry uncontrollably, as Dry Bones hurriedly ran over to her and brought them both into the bathroom on the side, into the Baby Changing Room, leaving behind a bloody scene in the arcade.

"It wasn't our fault!" cried Goombella in tears and shock, washing her face in the faucet. Dry Bones, discovering that his clothes were full of blood, got a pile of napkins and wiped his clothes as best he could. He also felt fear and shock inside him.

"It's okay Goombella," he said in a shaken and calm voice. "We had no chance."

"But I saw Thomas in that exact pose in the picture," she sniffed, "I was going to pull him away somehow, but a shadow frightened me and I failed." She wiped her face and eventually calmed down, as the two of them sat in motionless silence sitting on the baby changing table.

"I know who Death was," said Goombella. "The shadow looked like the taxi man who had disappeared in the taxi."

"What are you talking about?" asked Dry Bones, washing the floor with drops of blood and sitting back on the baby changing table.

"Never mind," said Goombella wearily.

"You know," said Dry Bones, grinning. "We're sitting on baby crap, you know that?" He let out a chuckle of relief as the two of them discovered that the table indeed had some awful brown stains. Goombella let out a smile as the two of them exited the room, only to be greeted by a policeman.

"Excuse me," asked the policeman. "What were you two doing in there?"

"We were just…err…discussing about something," said Dry Bones quickly. The cop looked at them suspiciously.

"Well besides that, you must leave this scene immediately," said the policeman. "There's been a terrible fatality around ten minutes ago, and nobody is allowed in this building. I don't know how the two of you even got here."

Goombella and Dry Bones were escorted out, but they both caught a glimpse of how many investigators and policemen were there, plus the amount of smoke. They called a taxi and went back to the MGM Hotel, only to discover that Wendy and Ludwig were sleeping over at the Wax Museum to finish up their job. But Goombella knew that solving the puzzle would be in need of an expert.

"We need to find Jill," insisted Goombella suddenly. Dry Bones looked up from Tom's picture, just as he realized that the two air hockey tables Thomas was between represented the two rolling pool tables which divided him in a gruesome style. He also realized that it was already eleven o'clock at night.

"Jill?" he said. "Oh yeah, you mean Jill, that other girl who was in the blimp accident. How about Frank? He might know more information."

"I don't know about Frank," said Goombella. "The problem is, we have no idea where any of them are, and they sure aren't in Las Vegas at this exact second, and we can't take an airplane. They're probably all the way back in Mushroom Kingdom, but not in Las Vegas." She took a breath of bleakness.

"You're right," sighed Dry Bones hopelessly. "They're not here in this area, and we can't go back to the Mushroom Kingdom until…we solve the solution by ourselves."

But they were wrong. The two survivors from the blimp disaster were right in their area.

So was Death, but he was wandering around Madame Tussaud's to set up a painful scheme.


Okay, sorry Tom! He was unfortunately killed in the goriest death so far because he deserved it. Also, I will contain a list of the so-far victims, with some of them unrevealed. (It's not in the Death order.)

Goombella

Dry Bones

Lahla

Steve

Koopie Koo

(unrevealed)

Ludwig

Wendy

(unrevealed)

Thomas

Poochy

(unrevealed)

(unrevealed)


I'll update as soon as I can.