I was in Indianapolis to see the F1 Car Racing, so I finally arrived back to finish this chapter. I hope it isn't too rushed! Enjoy please!
Chapter 9: Waxing Anxiety
"Frank?"
"Why do you need me? Your appearances scare me too much," he said. "I don't know why you'd, I mean you've, wasted your time on coming here to this hotel." Dry Bones, glanced over at the picture of Frank Briar and could see that the picture and Frank were both the same person, yet Frank's face was disfigures and ruined.
"But I thought you would help us."
"I don't like helping people," he said. "I'm too tired."
"But are you off of Death's list?" asked Goombella. "Or are you in danger still?" Frank picked up his mug and took a long sip of iced and sat back down, without even replying to Goombella's question.
"Us and our friends escaped from a ride," said Goombella. "I had the premonition and we cheated Death, and we tried to find help."
"Did you say ride?" suddenly asked Frank. "What ride?"
"It was the Insanity ride on the top of the Stratosphere Tower. You know, the one all over the news," said Dry Bones, seeing a look of uneasiness on Frank's face.
"That ride," Frank said, in a voice so soft that they had to lean in to hear him. "I swore that I got off that ride because someone was too scared to go through with it. Was that…you?"
"I think it was," said Goombella, and both Dry Bones and she exchanged glances.
"Crap," he groaned. "Don't tell me that Death has targeted me again. Even though I escaped once doesn't give him the right to kill me once more, I mean again."
"So you were on that ride with us?" asked Dry Bones in disbelief. "That's incredible."
"Incredible?" demanded Frank. "I'm going to die again! My legs are shaking!"
"Did you have pictures?" asked Goombella. She took out a few of her photos from her bag of the first few victims and showed them to him. He shook his head in confusion.
"Look at this picture," she explained, showing him the picture of Koopie Koo and Steve. "She died when a radio fell into a Jacuzzi. In this picture she's holding an iPod in front a pond. This guy," she pointed at Steve, "Had his head burned by a malfunctioning hair dryer. The sun sees to be burning his head in the picture."
"A heiligenschien," said Frank softly, and snapped back to his conscience. "Nope, sorry. Instead of pictures we had clues all over the place when it was someone's turn to die, like the music or such as a peculiar shadow. But I have to admit that your situation is better. Pictures could be fun to look at and guess the clues. Could you show me the other one?"
Dry Bones reluctantly handed him the picture of Poochy, and Frank immediately studied it in interest. After around thirty seconds he finally guessed.
"Did the guy strangle with his collar while going down stairs?" guessed Frank. "Or did he break his neck somehow?"
"You're close," said Dry Bones. "He got decapitated when his chain got lodged in an escalator."
"That's impossible!" exclaimed Frank. "How can someone die like that?"
"You should know also from your blimp situation," replied Dry Bones. "Death kills people in weird ways, and he died when the escalator brought him down to the bottom, and suddenly gained life once more, forcing pressure on his head and killing him."
"Did blood spray on any of you?" Frank asked, grinning. "That's the best part." He reached over and grabbed the next picture from Goombella's hands, the picture of Thomas in the arcade. But after a few seconds Frank suddenly looked dumbstruck and baffled.
"Hey, that's me!" he said in surprise. "I'm in the background of the picture! But I'm smoking!" The two others looked over at the picture, and saw that indeed Frank was the smoking person in Thomas' photograph. They were surprised as well, but would be more surprised at Frank's next statement.
"I…I quit smoking two months ago," he stuttered in confusion. "I remember being in the arcade, but I swear to mother fucking god damn son of a bitch that I was never smoking!"
"Shush," said Goombella, not knowing why Frank had to announce all that profanity. "I think this is something that Death had made, probably a sign of something that would affect you maybe, like in the future?"
"Or maybe I'm overreacting," said Frank. "Leave me alone now, I'm too tired. I don't know why it shows me smoking on my pipe in the picture, but you guys have to leave."
"Why?" asked Dry Bones. A few seconds later the doorbell for outside of the door rang, and Frank hurriedly started to clean his desk.
"Hello, Lakister Arrêter Devoursé?" called a lady voice from outside. "I'm the prostitute for the deaf people whom you called to come over."
"What?" hissed Goombella in a disgusted voice. "Frank, that's sick. You're not deaf and your name isn't Lakilester something."
"Too bad," grinned Frank. "Now exit and leave me alone. Have I mentioned that I cheated Death not once but five times!" He chuckled as he made his way to the door.
"If it weren't for your friends you wouldn't have made it," reminded Dry Bones. "Not at least past your first intervene."
"Where's Jill?" asked Goombella quickly, but Frank made a threatening motion to them, signaling for them to leave immediately. The two of them went out the other way in failure.
"Good evening madam," said Frank in a majestic voice, grabbing the prostitute's hand in a flirty way.
"What?" she asked in surprise. "I thought you were deaf! Deaf people can't talk!" Goombella walked too far away to hear the rest of the messed-up conversation from inside the motel.
"Well, you were right," said Dry Bones in frustration. "Frank was really unhelpful. I can't believe he hired a hooker."
"But we can't forget about Wendy and Ludwig," she reminded him. "We still have our responsibility."
The two of them walked quickly to the monorail train as fast as they could, and made their way to the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum by hitchhiking in a car. As soon as they reached the museum, it was approaching nine at night, and people were already exiting the building.
"What time does it close?" asked Goombella anxiously. "Can we still enter?"
"It closes now," said Dry Bones in disappointment, seeing a sign with the schedule. "But we'll still get in."
"How?"
"Just tell the front lady that you have to visit Wendy and Ludwig," Dry Bones told her. "She'll probably remember you." Goombella nodded and entered the museum. Around a minute later she made her way out to Dry Bones.
"Yeah, it's okay," she said. "She told me that Wendy told us to come over when she was told about me wanting to come by the lady. Both of us can see them."
"That's perfect," said Dry Bones, and they both entered the museum, going through a side door to take a shortcut to the 'I Love Lucy' section of the wax museum, where they soon found Wendy and Ludwig working. Wendy was enjoying her time, painting the right designs, such as hearts and flowers, on the side of the pink shelf and on the walls. Ludwig seemed to be in an unfathomable mood as he tried to put a lamp together, but didn't seem too angry at that second. Wendy was the first to notice them as she looked up.
"Oh," she said in surprise. "Hi guys, glad to see you here." She finished up painting her rainbow on the wall and took off her leather smock, then dropped down the long hook rail she was holding onto the floor.
"Wow, what a surprise," said Ludwig. "Are you guys working here also, or are you trying to disrupt our work?"
After three minutes of describing how the design of Death worked and how they were trying to save them from Death, Dry Bones and Goombella were stopped by Wendy, who seemed to be interested and listening carefully.
"Sorry I was acting like a jerk the other days for not believing you," she apologized. "It just seemed unlikely and stuff, but I researched myself about the blimp accident too."
"You believe them?" asked Ludwig, raising an eyebrow at Wendy.
"Yeah, sort of," she replied sheepishly, but then spoke more against him. "What would you think Ludwig? Look at the others who died in the order Goombella is telling us from her premonition. And plus, the ways they DIED were not ordinary."
"The photograph," suddenly remembered Dry Bones. Goombella took it out from her pocket and looked at it for anything unusual or conspicuous.
"Okay," said Ludwig. "For example, if this was true, who would die next? Wen or I?" They all looked at Goombella.
"You both died at the same time," said Goombella. "But I'm positive that one of you died before the other, but I couldn't tell with the glass all over." Ludwig continued to go on with his talking, as Goombella studied the picture carefully.
Both Ludwig and Wendy were in front of the small movie theatre inside the Stratosphere Tower. Ludwig had that same blank, raised-eyebrow expression, while Wendy had her hands out to her sides in frustration. The floor had red marble tiles.
Thinking that Wendy might be the one to possibly go first, she studied everything around her in the photograph. Her head was slightly turned away, and she was standing next to a table and stool with a Koopa Troopa eating a hamburger. Above her was a neon light with the words 'Stratos-Movie Cinema'. Not knowing how the Koopa Troopa and the hotdog would represent her death, she looked at Ludwig in the photograph.
"So what if you commit suicide right now?" Ludwig said to Dry Bones. "Then will Death be destroyed because his damn design is totally ruined out of order? Come on, if---"
"You're being an asshole, but go on," sighed Dry Bones, following him back to a wooden table Ludwig was fixing.
"Then maybe the design will be defeated," explained Ludwig, banging the table with a hammer. "Maybe you should try killing yourself right now and save us."
"That's already been proven impossible in the past situation, so that's not it."
"Ugh, damn," he grumbled. "Then you three are going crazy. Give me a hook hand so I can defend myself."
Goombella realized that there was a flower pot between the two of them in the photograph, but next to Ludwig was a poster for 'House of Wax', with the poster turned 270 degrees to the right.
"This represents the wax museum, most likely," she whispered to herself. "But what is the flower pot for?"
"Listen," argued Wendy to her brother. "Even if you don't believe us, we'll be the ones to live out through Death's targeting. You'll die first if you don't believe this."
"What if you die first?" Ludwig replied sharply. "Or, why hadn't Death struck in the past hours instead of now?" He pushed his wooden table against the shelf, making sure it was practical and fixed. Wendy rolled her eyes and went back to fixing her 'I Love Lucy' section, as Dry Bones tried to talk common sense to Ludwig, and Goombella studied the picture more, about to discover the true meaning of the photograph.
When Ludwig had pushed the table against the shelf, a pepper spray can on the top board started to roll from the sudden push, and gained more momentum as it fell down a stairs of plywood on the top of the shelf. It was nearing the edge, but was then blocked by a row of books. The numerous books started to push down towards the edge, with a flower pot placed directly on top of them.
"House of Wax," thought Goombella. She remembered the movie, where innocent victims were covered in wax by gruesome people. And she realized that Death's way of clues involved ghastly images, this one the waxed woman.
"Ludwig!" she cried, seeing a flower pot fall from the top of the shelf along with a row of books. The pot smashed across the floor, startling Ludwig and Dry Bones as they both fell down to the hard floor. Goombella saw a dark shadow loom over the lamppost, which suddenly swerved and struck into a vat, puncturing a hole and making hot wax spray directly at Ludwig like a hose.
"AHHHHH!" he shouted, his skin burning with pain as wax sprayed over his rough body. Dry Bones got up and quickly picked up a board of plywood over the opening, and attempted to hold the wax from spraying further by blocking the hole, as Goombella panicked as she tried to get Ludwig out from the sticky wax. He was yelling in pain, as Goombella tried her best to pull him out of the way.
The plywood broke in half, causing a giant hole to be formed into the vat as gallons of hot wax poured out within the room. But Goombella had already got Ludwig to his feet, and trying to run for her own safety along with the others.
"Get away from the wax!" shouted Dry Bones, as the four survivors tried to make their way to the emergency exit door. Goombella looked behind her to discover that the hot wax was melting immediately to the floor, fortunately. But she bumped right into Ludwig, who tripped with his waxy feet into Wendy, and caused them to fall in a piling heap of people on top of one another. The room was all silent as a strong sizzling sound was heard as the wax settled down, not spreading any closer to the protected people, in this case, three and one dead. Dry Bones picked up Goombella in relief, knowing they had saved Ludwig from Death.
"The poster for House of Wax was in his photograph," she gasped as she hopped back to her feet.
Ludwig, still covered partially in wax but currently fine and sticky, got up to his feet as well and shook his sister, who was laying directly face down.
"Wendy, get up!" he said, but stood still and horrified, backing away from her on the floor as he realized his clothes were full of blood. Alarmed gasps started to pour out of his mouth as he quickly covered it with his hand. Goombella stepped away as she realized what had happened, as Dry Bones stood motionless, stunned.
Ludwig had knocked Wendy down, and the back of her head was thrust down into the end of the long hook rail on the ground, which was covered in colorful flowers which were now useless in brightening the situation. Two bloody hooks stuck out from her dead body, one through her neck and the other impaled through the back of her head, the larger hook pierced through her punctured eye and the smaller hook jabbing out from her forehead, right under her bowtie, both her hands to her side in the same pose from her photograph.
Goombella suddenly saw her own hand change into a shadowy shade, as she gasped in alarm and horror, only for Goombella's hand to change back to normal. She looked at her hand in surprise, then at the dead body in front of her in fright and terror, with mixed feelings going through her body at once.
Ludwig screamed, his body trembling in disbelief. Another victim was dead.
Thanks for reading! I bet that nobody out there had any feelings for Wendy when she died, except for the characters in the story. Please review possibly! I will update as soon as I can.
