Got nothing really important to say, so I'll just say this. Enjoy!
A few minutes after the group left the lake, they finally reached the house and Skips and Benson went back to carrying Mordecai and Rigby respectively. Thomas looked over at them with worry and found that the ride to the house seemed to have calmed them down a bit, as they've stopped shaking. Unfortunately, the scared looks on their faces were still there, a fact that unnerved Thomas greatly.
As they entered the house, Skips and Benson carried Mordecai and Rigby upstairs and into their room while Thomas, Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost sat on the couch. Nobody said a word as they waited with bated breath, hoping that those two would be okay.
Eventually, Benson and Skips made their way back downstairs and stood in front of the rest of the group.
"Alright you guys, we've put Mordecai and Rigby in their beds. I'm going to call a doctor. Hopefully, they'll be able to figure out what's wrong with them. But in the meantime, I want you guys to leave them be. Is that clear?" said Benson.
"Absolutely." said Thomas.
"Sure, bro." said Muscle Man.
"Uh-huh." said Fives.
"Okay then. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a call to make." said Benson, who exited the room as quickly as he could.
Meanwhile, after Skips took a seat on one of the chairs, the tense silence returned to the living room, as none of the guys knew what to say. Eventually, Thomas decided to speak up.
"I hope that they're going to be okay."
"Don't worry. They're tougher than you think." said Skips.
"Yeah but, did you see the looks on their faces after we pulled them out of the chest? They looked completely traumatized!" said Thomas.
"You've got a point there." said Fives.
"True, but they've been through a lot ever since they started working here. I doubt that a regular old monster attack would do that to them." said Muscle Man.
"Look, I appreciate you guys trying to downplay this whole situation, but I'm still really worried about them. I'm gonna go check up on them." said Thomas.
"Dude, Benson told us to leave them alone!" said Fives, who floated in front of Thomas's face as he attempted to get up.
"I don't care." said Thomas. "I'm not going to feel any better until I'm sure they're going to be okay. Besides, I was with them when they were dragged into the chest. I'm sure you guys can't imagine the amount of guilt I'm feeling right now knowing that they're in this state because I wasn't there for them!"
Thomas pushed aside Fives before making his way upstairs. Fives tried to float after him to stop him, but Skips held up a hand, signifying that he should let it go, which Fives did reluctantly.
Thomas slowly snuck his way through the hallway, trying not to make any noise and get caught by Benson, who would no doubt hear it considering how quiet the house is. Despite having never actually been upstairs during his time working at the park, Thomas was able to discern Mordecai & Rigby's room from the other doors in the hall, as the door was the only one that was actually slightly open.
Thomas crept over to the door, taking wide but light steps, and eventually found his way to the door. He opened the door as slowly as he possibly could and slipped inside to find Mordecai & Rigby fast asleep in their beds. It almost looked like they were completely normal, but Thomas knew that wasn't the case. For instance, Mordecai's twisted ankle was propped up on a couple of pillows, and Thomas could clearly see the bite marks through the leg that was showing. Skips apparently managed to stem the bleeding while he and Benson were in this room, but there were still splotches of Mordecai's blood on the sheets, staining the pristine white color.
Thomas gave Mordecai a look-over, looking for anything out of the ordinary past what has already happened to him, but found nothing. Confident that the blue jay was going to be alright, Thomas turned to Rigby, and was surprised to see that the raccoon was sleeping on a rusty old trampoline. He also saw a large pile of dirty laundry a few feet away from the trampoline, which puzzled Thomas, as he never saw Mordecai and Rigby wearing any clothes. Unfortunately it didn't occur to him what the real purpose of the clothes was, as he saw that Rigby was also covered by a slightly blood-stained sheet.
After looking Rigby over and finding nothing, Thomas softly smiled, happy that nothing life-threatening happened to them, and crept his way out of their room. He closed the door part way and began making his way back downstairs, when a loud creak suddenly reverberated through the hallway as Thomas stepped on a board too hard. The goat froze, hoping that no one heard it. He waited a few seconds to see if someone was coming upstairs, but no one did. He let out a sigh of relief before finishing his trek downstairs, about to sit back down on the couch when…
"Thomas!"
"Oh crap." Thomas thought to himself as he looked over in the direction of the kitchen to find a steaming mad Benson.
"What were you doing upstairs?"
Thomas stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence to explain himself, when Skips stepped in.
"Listen, Benson, Thomas was really worried about Mordecai and Rigby. Can you really blame a guy for wanting to find out if his friends were okay?"
"He blatantly disobeyed my orders!" said Benson.
"Calm down, bro! He didn't do anything to hurt them. Right, Thomas?" said Muscle Man.
"Right! They're still fast asleep and untouched."
Benson took a moment and calmed himself down. As his gumballs returned to their normal shade, he finally spoke up.
"Alright, fine. I'll let this go. But please leave those guys alone. They've been through a traumatic experience, and I don't want anything to get worse before the doctor gets here."
The group nodded in understanding before Benson went upstairs to do some paperwork in his office.
A few weeks have passed since the incident, and the park has mostly returned to normal, outside of Mordecai being forced to walk on crutches. The doctor pretty much confirmed what Thomas found out during his excursion that all Mordecai & Rigby suffered was some cuts and bruises, as well as Mordecai's twisted ankle. He did refer them to a psychiatrist, which they have been going to for the past few days, despite both of them thinking of how stupid it was.
During the last session they were at, the psychiatrist suggested that they were at a stage where he felt that they could finally be able to confront their fears and tell what happened inside that chest, not just to him, but to their coworkers. The two groundskeepers, despite their reservations, agreed and recounted their story to the psychiatrist. Once they finished, the psychiatrist decided to let them go early so they could tell the story again to their coworkers, which is the situation they find themselves in currently.
The entire park gang was sitting in the living room (including Pops) around Mordecai and Rigby, as they mentally prepared themselves to recount their story one more time.
"Alright, I think we're ready to go." said Mordecai, after receiving a glance from Rigby. Sighing, Mordecai began to tell the story.
"You know how the lake is way bigger on the inside than on the outside? Well, it was kind of the same way inside the chest. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure how Rigby managed to get the monster out of the chest in the first place with it being so big."
"It was a normal sized chest when I was looking in it at first." said Rigby.
"Right. Anyway, as the monster was dragging us in, we were wildly grabbing at anything we possibly could before we got dragged in completely. And as you guys saw, we latched onto the edge of the chest." said Mordecai.
"Our heads weren't really too far into the chest, but from what we could see, it was enormous inside the chest. It looked almost like that Dizzy world we were in that one time." said Rigby.
Pops nodded, as he remembered being inside that world.
"This world wasn't populated by realistic looking versions of us, though. It was much, much worse. Bottom line was that we were pretty much in hell, or at least some facsimile of it." said Mordecai.
"Once we saw the area we were in, we thought we were dead, or at least were going to die and go to hell. It was almost like the monster was like some kind of Cerberus, dragging us down to the fire, where we would spend the rest of eternity. And that scared us. It scared us real good. I imagine it would scare anyone, really." said Rigby.
"Thankfully, you guys were here to save the day, and pulled us out, but not before the monster took some nice chunks out of us and broke my ankle. Let me tell you, if I wasn't so scared at that point, I would have been bawling my eyes out from the pain. I'm not afraid to admit that. The pain was horrible." said Mordecai.
"Anyway, that's pretty much what happened. Thanks for listening, guys. It's nice getting this whole thing off our chests." said Rigby.
Pops looked visibly nervous after hearing that story, but he hid it well as he tried to be brave for the boys.
The rest of the group stood up and went their separate ways after comforting Mordecai & Rigby, who looked visibly shaken after remembering the events of the incident.
After everyone left, Mordecai and Rigby laid back on the couch in silence, reflecting. A few minutes later, Mordecai turned towards Rigby.
"Hey dude?"
"Yeah?" asked Rigby.
"You know, I've been thinking." said Mordecai.
"About what?" asked Rigby.
"About this job. We've been risking our lives since day one working here, and I'm tired of it. I want a job that's actually something safe." said Mordecai.
Rigby turned towards Mordecai with a confused look on his face.
"Wait, what are you getting at?" asked Rigby.
"I want to leave."
Shocker! Mordecai wants to quit? What will everyone else think of this?
Anyway, that's the end of Chapter 3. I hope that you guys have enjoyed it, and I'll be seeing you guys next time for the fallout of Breaking Point! See ya.
RK