Okay, I finally made this chapter despite all the homework and school stuff. Enjoy!

Chapter 15: Mouth Cutting

Holding up the broom above her just like in her photograph, Lahla knew that the container of hazardous items was going to collapse on her at any second. Blood trickled over her face and clothes as her arm bled from the syringe impalement, and she knew how to save herself, yet in the act she needed to be precautious. Outside, she could still hear the Masquerade Party going on, with the shouts of people cheering on for a sword juggler.

"If only Goombella was here," she said to herself. Something then terrible had struck into her mind. The last time she had seen her last were a few days ago, when they're deadly situation was still going on. Who had died since that time? She never left her hotel room to meet up with them. Maybe her best friend was as dead as her sister, along with Dry Bones, and possibly the others. She looked up at the box above her, and quickly collected up her mind that she herself was next to be targeted.

She picked up the pocketknife right besides her face with her left hand and held it into the air, preparing to throw the object. On the wall behind her was a large glass-stained window pane, with its hinges barely sticking into the wall and hanging at a tilted angle. She discovered if those hinges were somehow broken, the window pane would slide down the slanted table below it and land right on her. She would use it to cover herself from danger.

Praying for good luck, she tossed it at the tearing hinges of the window pane. But because Lahla was a terrible thrower, she missed completely and hit the table instead, sticking the pocketknife into the wooden table. But she had accidentally moved her weakened right hand in the process, and a heavy screwdriver struck her chest heavily. Trying to bide with the pain and be more careful, she realized that not only could the pocketknife help her, but the other deadly objects as well.

Picking up the screwdriver, she looked behind her once more and threw it, making sure that her hand was staying still at all times. Her shot had improved, but had only hit the glass pane. She picked up the metal pipe by her side, and carefully threw it as well, yet this shot was just the same as before as the metal pipe banged on the glass with a CLANG! Her only chance left was the long syringe.

She pulled it out slowly out of her right hand, whimpering at the pain and at the same, time, held the broom in her right hand upright to hold the box up. At last, she held the syringe up and looked behind her. This was her final chance to break the window pane and bring it to her, and as she aimed the syringe at the busted hinges, she threw it.

"I'm looking for Lahla Oostelbos who must be working here as a volunteer," said Goombella. The manager lifted his stack of papers, looking through all the volunteers' names when he suddenly remembered.

"Oh, I remember that I assigned her for her new job. She's controlling the hovering machines along with two others. Lemme give them a call." He picked up the phone and dialed the "Room in the Ceiling".

Goombella, still worried about her two friends at that time presently, looked more closely at Lahla's picture. She looked at Peeka, at the flag that Lahla was holding up. An American Flag. Peeka was holding a strawberry smoothie, yet Goombella didn't know what death would lead up to that. She looked at the shirt Lahla was wearing and realized that printed right on her pink shirt which was clearly visible was the words 'Backstage Door'.

"Yes, yes," finished the manager, hanging up and turning around. "Lahla is not…" Goombella had already left the room in search of her friend.

The syringe bounced off the hinges, but because the syringe was a weak and fragile item, it broke in half and had no effect in bringing the pane down. Lahla looked back at the box above her in a stare of dizziness and pain. Her right hand would soon be out of strength, but if that was so, then the items would fall and kill her. But then she realized the container itself would also be heavy enough to smash her, ending her innocent life.

Then an idea struck her. She could make more objects fall, which she could use to bring the pane to her. As she raised her left hand to hold the broom as well, she found that she was too afraid. The next object may be the one that Death intended to kill her with, instead of the previous items that had either missed or distracted her. She looked up and noticed the bracelet dangling from her right wrist.

Her hope was risen as she carefully untied the bracelet with numerous luck charms on it, but her goal wasn't to just keep it with her but to use it as an item to break the window hinges. She coiled the bracelet in her left hand carefully, and then realized that this was her last and only chance to succeed in this difficult task. She threw the metal bracelet at the hinges, and with her best aim and luck, the hinges were hit by the bracelet, just as the glass-stained window pane fell down, then down the slanted wooden table, and right into Lahla.

But the pane had slid into her right arm holding up the broom and had knocked it down. She gasped as the broom fell away, and as the huge, entire container started to plummet out with deadly items, she picked up the glass-stained window pane and held it above her, screaming at the same time while wrenches, kitchen knives, and razors fell askew. Lahla was safe as she looked above her at the falling blur of objects, crashing against the glass which was the perfect size to cover her entire body from danger. Not only did the plastic container fall, but the other containers below it fell as well, making a racket of sound that was loud enough to beat the party occurring outside.

But she didn't expect the entire shelf full of glass and other objects to tilt over, and as it did, it crashed against the glass protecting her, and Lahla shrieked out loud as she thought the window pane would shatter at such a force.

The stained glass pane had protected her when the shelf plummeted over, and was still holding strong until the end. Lahla opened her eyes slowly, and as she realized that the shelf had fallen over and that she could lift away the glass without getting hurt, she did so. All around her was a dangerous mess, with shattered glass and deadly items scattered all over the floor. The shelf had shattered to pieces as it hit the ground, so around her was just a horrible disorder of what would have killed her.

But Death was not satisfied, and she had not yet intervened in the true way. Lahla hugged her throbbing and aching arm as she stumbled towards the sink, taking care of the syringe impalement and blood first, then switching over to washing her hand, which was sore from holding the broom for up so long.

"My job," gasped Lahla. "It's been nearly ten minutes already." In a quick hurry in attempting to leave the dangerous mess, she opened the cabinet over the sink to pull out a case of band-aids, yet still scared and precautious on what evil forces were still occurring within the room.

A bar of soap fell from the cabinet, and hit the edge of a tooth brush hanging of the edge. A razor, on the other thin edge of the toothbrush, was suddenly flipped into the air like a catapult, and before Lahla could see, the dangerous item flew accurately into her open mouth. She sucked in a gasped breath, causing the razor to be sucked in deeper into her mouth and cutting right into her uvula and tonsils. The cabinet door flung open without warning, hitting her brutally in the head and smacking her face up onto the floor once again, but in good chances, did not get pierced by any glass. She was knocked unconscious.

A minute had passed by. The razor was slowly making its way further back into her mouth. If she swallowed, or if the razor were to sink further through the flow of her saliva, then it would have cut through her neck and out causing a fatal wound. But it was lucky that two people had suddenly entered the wrong room at the right time.

"Whoa! What happened here?" exclaimed one of the Comedian Brothenians. "Ernest, who in the world would do this?" They're eyes wandered confusingly over the gigantic mess of the fallen shelf, as he tried stepping over to the other side of the room.

"Dernest, we're gonna be late for our show," Ernest insisted quickly. "Someone will clean this up."

"But look over there!" he said, pointing over to a figure near the sink. "I think that boo is knocked out unconscious!"

"Maybe she's dead," gasped Ernest, and the two hammer bros. made their way carefully in their sparkling clothes across the clutter to reach Lahla. Dernest reached for her hand and tried feeling for a pulse.

"Yep, she's just knocked out cold," he confirmed. "She's bleeding from her arm, and…oh my god! Her mouth!" He opened up her mouth, which was full of blood, and they both saw a sharp razor far in the back, almost cutting into the back of her throat. "Hmm, haven't we seen her before, or am I just imagining?" he said, looking at her face.

"Well, I'm not pulling it out," said Ernest in a frightened tone. "You do it."

"For heaven's sake, why don't you do it Ernest?" replied Dernest in a voice as scared as his sibling.

"You should do it!"

"You do it!"

"You do it!"

"You do it!"

"She's going to die, so just do it!" exclaimed Dernest. "You're the one who found her in the first place!"

As Dernest opened up her mouth as wide as he could with his hands, Ernest raised his shivering hand and slowly moved it into her mouth, inch by inch. He finally had the urge to reach the metal object, which was far back and nearly entering her esophagus.

"I got it!" said Ernest. "Oh man, this thing is sharp. How do I pull this out of her mouth, I might just cut her uvula."

"Her uvula is already cut off," realized Dernest in a disgusted voice. "Do it slowly and carefully."

"Okay, okay, I'll try my best." Ernest stuck in his other hand into her mouth, and moved the razor slowly up its way through the clogging blood. He tried looking away at the bloody sight of her mouth.

"Okay, you're doing well," said Dernest. "Come on, you're so close."

"I got it!" shouted his brother triumphantly, raising his bloody fingers and razor from her mouth, as his brother released Lahla's mouth. "I feel like a surgeon! Is there a sink where I could wash my hands?"

"You'll never live to be a surgeon," his brother replied, and they both got up to the sink and washed their hands as quickly and cleanly as they could. Lahla at this time stirred on the ground, then slowly gained back her conscience as she got up to her knees and spat the amount of blood besides her on the floor, and shrieked as she saw the amounts of small pieces of flesh that had spat out as well.

"Hey!" said Ernest, turning around. "You're back!"

"Where…who are you?" asked Lahla, still slightly dazed at what had happened.

"We found you on the floor with a razor in your mouth," explained Ernest quickly. "Then we saved you by pulling it out."

Lahla looked at them, and looked at them again. They seemed strangely familiar as if she had met them before somewhere. "Thank…you," she said.

"Hey, no problem," said Ernest.

"Umm, not to break up a sudden life save, but we're supposed to be on stage right now," said Dernest, tapping his brother's shoulder. "Remember?"

"I almost forgot," he said in disappointment, dusting off the dirt off his clothes. "See you later, umm…Lahla I think it is?"

"How did you know that?" Lahla replied back in amazement. But he just winked at her as they two of them left the room in a hurry. Lahla heard one of the brothers say "She almost died" as their footsteps slowly faded away down the hall.

But she then remembered where she had met them before. She had met them last week; they were entertaining her with a magic trick. As her thoughts started to recollect, she remembered herself walking away from the ride which nearly killed her. She looked back at her sister left sitting on the ride, and then entered back into the lobby, then saw the two brothers striking up a conversation with her. They were sitting next to her on the Insanity Ride.

She heard footsteps coming closer, walking at a fast and familiar pace. Lahla got up to her feet quickly. The person had suddenly entered the room.

"Lahla! You're safe!" the person exclaimed.

"Goombella!" she replied back, as they hugged each other in relief and as their worries suddenly faded away. They were still together, and none of them had yet been taken away by Death. Goombella looked around at the unusual mess.

"What happened?" she asked Lahla. "Your mouth and arm is bleeding, and you have cuts all over. And there are knives and hazardous all over the floor, tell me what happened."

"I was holding up a shelf with a broom, which almost toppled over me," said Lahla, still trembling at what had recently happened. "I saved myself."

"But Lahla, you can't save yourself," remembered Goombella. "You're still---"

"Wait, but then a razor was in my mouth somehow and I went unconscious," she told her. "Then these two hammer bros. brothers in these fancy clothes saved me, and I remembered: they were on the ride with us that Friday. And I think they're next to die!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another chapter cut short to save for later stuff. I hope you liked it! Reviews of any sort are welcome, I'll probably update in a week or later.