A/N: Well, I waited until Monday to start this chapter, and although the votes were initially close a couple of the later votes decisively swung the poll in favor of Nightmarionne. So in the interest of actually getting this chapter done on time, we're going to go with Nightmarionne as the Nightmare/8th player joining our TMP game.
With that being said, Happy Halloween! This is gonna be a VERY different chapter from the last Halloween chapter (which IIRC wasn't even posted anywhere near Halloween lol).
Alex: Who knows? And at least Fritz didn't somehow insult two of his sisters in the short time it took to climb up the water slide platform stairs, which is progress…I guess.
Phillip: This won't be a Trick-or-Treating chapter this time around, I have something VERY different planned.
Jack0Lanterns: Nightmare taught Mike ways to contact him in case of an emergency, like if the battle between him and William had REALLY gone South. It's merely a communication device, Mike can't do things like summon demons in his mind or anything like that (not that he'd want to because that sort of action would be, to put it mildly, really fucking stupid).
JZKiller: Jeremy Fitzgerald doesn't exist in this fic. Back when I first started writing it, I believed he was one of Michael Afton's personas. And while I don't believe that NOW (it's probably only Fritz that was a disguise), it's way too late to make that kind of change at this point.
Chapter 89 – Trivia Murder Party Part 1
The ghosts' second Halloween turned out to be just as enjoyable as the first.
As they had done last year, the Schmidt family drove over to visit the Marshalls, and the two sets of siblings enjoyed another fantastic movie together, this time watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas" to really get in the Halloween spirit. The kids were delighted by the antics of Jack Skellington as he tried to understand Christmas, though they were a little uncomfortable with the idea of Jack kidnapping Santa Claus even though it was clear there was no malice behind his actions. After Meghan broke up a lengthy debate between Susie and Jeremy over whether The Nightmare Before Christmas qualified as a Halloween or Christmas movie, the kids all went trick-or-treating a second time, and their night was just as enjoyable as it had been last year. The only real differences this time around was a sense of ease now that Charlie was no longer at risk of discovery from being in the Puppet (though Alex and Meghan were both disappointed that she couldn't carry an extra bag of candy anymore) and there was no potential child kidnapper lurking in the bushes (Liz was more than happy with this, as she had privately come to realize that she had been too lenient on the last guy and in hindsight should have exposed him and dragged him over to the police). By the time the kids were done trick-or-treating, it was well past 10 PM, and the families happily exchanged their good-byes and went their separate ways.
"I REALLY wish I could eat candy," Cassidy sighed as Mike pushed open the front door to his house. "I mean, it's not like we'd get any health problems from it since we're dead and all."
"Oh, sure…" Mike drawled, "…we'll just be rotting MY teeth instead. And don't even get me started on the fact that we still don't know if you'd end up being affected a sugar rush, something that I am NOT testing."
Gabe shrugged. "Was still fun, at least. Hanging out with Alex and Meghan after a long time."
"Didn't Dad say he was going to do something tonight for Halloween in his dream world?" Susie asked. "Something about how he was going to try do something both scary and fun?"
Mike nodded in confirmation. "That's right, Susie!" he declared. "I'm going to actually try to scare YOU for a change. Nothing that should actually traumatize you or anything too bad, but keep in mind that the game I have in mind for my dream world may remind you of your…unpleasant pasts." The ghosts grimaced slightly at this. "If this was back when we first met, I wouldn't even think about doing this. But you guys have been here for a year now, and you've already faced your fears in the worst possible way when the rotten rabbit douchebag who shall not be named tried to fuck things up like an asshole a few weeks ago. I think you guys can handle what I have planned."
Fritz gave Mike a defiant look. "You won't scare us!" he challenged.
Mike grinned. "Good, because this is supposed to be more fun than scary anyway." He beckoned to Charlie with a finger. "Come help me get to sleep faster so I can set this up more easily."
"I'm not sure if ghost-induced supernatural sleep is healthy for a living person," she muttered in bemusement, "but since we're only doing this once a month I assume we'll be fine."
"Just don't stop my breathing or something like that and we should be good," Mike joked as he and Charlie made their way to Mike's bedroom. Charlie put a spectral hand on Mike's head and lulled him to sleep, and within a few seconds he was snoozing soundly.
Charlie floated back over to the rest of her siblings. "Give Dad a few minutes to set up whatever he's setting up, and then we'll all enter his mind together."
"Gotcha," Jeremy replied. The kids spent the next few minutes mindlessly checking their phones as they waited for Mike to set up whatever scare he had planned. Once they were satisfied that their father was ready, Charlie led them up the stairs and into his room.
"We're going to do this the same way we did last time," Charlie instructed. "Ready?"
"Yep!" the ghosts chorused. Charlie sent the kids into Mike's mental world just as she had once before, and followed soon after. She felt herself cross into Mike's mind…and immediately knew right away that the atmosphere was very different than it had been last time. And not in a good way.
She could see the rest of her siblings a few steps away, but everything else around her was an empty black void disturbingly similar to the nothingness that Mike had trapped William Afton in moments before he had utterly destroyed the murderer's tainted spirit. Charlie could see her brothers and sisters looking around in confusion and growing nervousness.
"W-where are we?" Cassidy asked nervously.
"I don't know," Gabe mumbled.
"Dad?" Liz called out into the emptiness. "Where are you?"
There was no verbal response, but a giant screen similar in size to the screen of a movie theater suddenly flickered to life in front of and above them. The ghosts looked up at the screen as ominous music began to permeate into the void. The screen immediately turned black except for the phrase "A Jackbox Games production, adapted by Mike Schmidt" written in white in the very center.
"Jackbox Games?" Susie read the name in confusion.
"I dunno," Liz shrugged, just as equally baffled as her sister.
The first image to appear was a picture of the 1993 Freddy Fazbear pizzeria from the outside in the dark of the night, the building long abandoned and in a state of disrepair.
"Yikes, the place has really gone to shit…" Fritz commented as he stared at the ruined restaurant.
The image disappeared, replaced by a phrase, "starring Gabe as" with a plushie of Freddy Fazbear directly underneath it.
"Is that plushie supposed to be me?" Gabe asked.
Another image appeared, this time showing the office of the 1993 pizzeria from the perspective of the FNAF1 game. The kids watched as the light switch to the hallways flicked on…revealing the hulking figures of Bonnie in the west door and Chica in the window right outside the east door. Before the ghosts could shudder at their past selves the mini-film vanished, revealing a Bonnie and Chica plushie with Jeremy's and Susie's names above them.
"This is creepy as hell…" Jeremy mumbled.
The screen returned to the 1993 location, this time with Golden Freddy sitting in the office staring at the player with his empty eyes. The air began to twitch and hallucinations began to distort the office, but before Golden Freddy could complete his jumpscare, the image vanished and was replaced by a Golden Freddy plushie with Cassidy's name above it.
"Dad's really going all out, isn't he?" Cassidy asked rhetorically.
The next image was not of the 1993 location, but of the 1987 location, showing the Marionette creepily climbing out of his music box on the laptop. The unseen player put down the laptop only for a withered version of Foxy to leap out from the shadows of the hallway, mouth gaping open in a ferocious roar. Right before the jumpscare could be completed, the vision vanished, replaced with plushies of Foxy and the Puppet accompanied by Fritz's and Charlie's names.
"This is a disturbingly accurate representation of the FNAF2 game," Charlie muttered.
The last vision was of a dark underground facility that took Liz a few seconds to recognize as Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental. She could see Circus Baby's stage, with Circus Baby standing proudly on the center of the stage with two Bidybabs, one on each side of her legs. Liz watched with a weird combination of fascination and unease as Circus Baby's eyes suddenly started glowing a piercing green and she turned her head to stare directly at the screen. The image vanished and was replaced by a plushie of Baby with Liz's name next to it.
"Thank you for not showing Scrap Baby," Liz thought silently.
The plushie vanished, and the image of a head appeared on the black screen. A head covered entirely in shadows and darkness, with blood-colored flames burning around it and menacing red eyes glowing with the exact same color. The ghost kids let out fearful gasps and Charlie felt a thrill of genuine terror as she recognized the final stage of Mike's dark aspect just before he had turned into a towering demon.
"Is…is that…?" Gabe stuttered, but before he could finish the question, the image suddenly vanished. A terrified scream echoed around them, and the giant words "Trivia Murder Party" flashed onto the screen. The words vanished, and finally the area around them began to glow with faint illumination. Charlie gasped as she realized that they were in an arena very similar to the one that William and Mike had battled in, complete with the towering pillars ringing around the edge of the arena and the demonic statues beyond. The one major difference, one that Charlie was very grateful for, was that this time there was no fiery abyss beyond the edge of the arena. Instead, the room seemed to end at the pillars, with only a small ring of faint fire surrounding them.
The kids, having seen this for the first time, were no less disturbed than Charlie had been when she had first seen this for themselves. "Oh my God…" Jeremy breathed.
"Dad REALLY isn't messing around," Cassidy mumbled, answering her own question from earlier.
"Is this…is this where Dad fought and beat William earlier?" Fritz asked.
"Similar enough…" Charlie muttered in response.
"Welcome…to TRIVIA MURDER PARTY!" a booming voice interrupted all of them. The ghosts jolted and looked around them uncertainly. The words were spoken with an unsettling, inhuman inflection, echoing as though they were being spoken from everywhere and nowhere at the same time…but the core of the voice was undoubtedly Mike's. "One of the best games I've ever played in my entire life, a game filled with rounds of trivia, fun…and murder. Can't forget the murder!"
"Wait, wha…?" was all any of them had to say before Mike's voice continued. As he spoke, several giant pictures appeared in front of the kids, though not as large as the screen from earlier. The first picture was of a line of four Freddy Fazbear plushies with a trivia question and 4 answer choices written underneath them.
"I'm going to ask you a bunch of trivia questions. If you get a question wrong," Mike explained as he flipped to the next picture, showing just the correct answer. Two of the plushies had green check marks underneath them, while two of them had red X's marked overhead. "you'll have to fight for your life in a super fun minigame!" The next picture flipped up, revealing the two plushies with incorrect answers from earlier and what looked like a typewriter on the ground, "Some of these minigames are straight from the actual games themselves, and some are things that I've added my own twist to. If you fail the minigame," the next picture flipped up, and more than one ghost gasped at a plushie that had a white X scratched onto its belly…and had been sliced in half, "…I'LL KILL YOU. But don't worry!" Mike's voice, which had deepened menacingly for those three words, reverted back to its casual and cheerful inflection. "Ghosts can not only keep playing, but even flat-out win the whole game! When we have one person left alive, we'll go to the final round, where you'll have to fight for your life to be the first person to escape. Only one of you can win, and only one of you will live. I won't reveal any more details to you right now because spoilers."
The pictures vanished, and a row of the exact same eight plushies that had been shown in the intro sequence appeared in the sky above them. Freddy for Gabe, Bonnie for Jeremy, Chica for Susie, Foxy for Fritz, Golden Freddy for Cassidy, Marionette for Charlie, and Circus Baby for Liz. The ghosts found themselves being separated a few feet away from each other by an unknown force, and a smaller screen almost exactly like a smartphone appeared in front of each one. "Let's start with something easy, just to get you into the swing of things."
A giant number 1 that glowed with purple flames appeared and vanished almost as quickly.
"How many pawns are does each player start with in a game of chess?"
1) 6
2) 8
3) 10
4) 12
The question and answers appeared both in large letters in front of them…and on the smaller screens that Mike had created for each of the kids. A timer also appeared, showing 15 seconds and already counting down. "Use the screen to answer the question by pressing on an answer choice."
"Chess?" Charlie muttered. "Dad just introduced this to us a few days ago."
"This isn't so bad," Gabe mused as he clicked on the second answer choice.
"Pretty sure it's this one," Liz thought, her nervousness slowly fading.
The children clicked on their answers, and the moment the last one did the timer vanished. "And the correct answer is…"
2) 8
A green check mark appeared under every single plushie, the symbol quickly turning into $1000 before fading away. "Yes!" Susie cheered. "Got it right!"
"Hell yeah, off to a good start!" Fritz pumped his fist in the air.
"Not surprising, considering that we just learned about this game," Charlie commented.
"…crap," Mike's voice muttered, sounding disappointed. "That was a little TOO easy. Next question."
A giant number 2 appeared and disappeared, followed by:
"What is the full name of the vampire on Sesame Street?"
1) Count von Numbers
2) Count von Marks
3) Count von Tally
4) Count von Count
"Ooh, ooh!" Cassidy babbled excitedly. "I know this! We watched this together, right, Sus?"
Susie grinned. "Easy question."
Others, however, didn't seem to share the same opinion. "The hell?" Fritz spluttered. "That guy actually has a name?"
"I didn't even know Sesame Street even had a vampire!" Gabe exclaimed. "Hell, I can't even remember the last time I saw Sesame Street, that show is way below my age even when I was still alive. Uh…uh…uh…"
He quickly clicked on an answer, the last one to do so. "Who said…"
4) Count von Count
This time, only Susie, Cassidy, and Charlie had green check marks underneath their names. As for Gabe, Liz, Fritz, and Jeremy…
A blood red X appeared over the plushies' heads, and all four of them knew right away that they were in trouble.
"And it looks like we have our first potential losers of the evening. Let's go do something fun…" Mike's voice dripped with sadistic amusement, causing chills to crawl down the spines of every child (especially Charlie). The plushies immediately vanished, and the ring of fire surrounding the arena suddenly flared in intensity as the demon statues' eyes and mouths suddenly burst into flames as well. It reminded Charlie of the scene where Harry had faced against Quirrell in the first Harry Potter film…only with demonic statues.
"Well, hello there! Welcome to the Killing Grounds," Mike greeted them cheerfully, and the ghosts couldn't tell whether he was being sincere or mocking. A projectile screen flashed in front of them, and the kids saw shadowy hands move the words "SKULL DICE" onto the screen. The moment the screen vanished, the Freddy, Baby, Foxy, and Bonnie plushies reappeared.
"I figured we'd start things off with a little dice game. It's kind of familiar to a game you might've heard of. Does…Blackjack ring a bell?"
The ghosts' eyes widened. "Wait, isn't that the game where you want to try and hit 21?" Liz asked.
"Yeah, but that game uses cards!" Jeremy pointed out.
"Here's how this is going to work. You each will be given a dice, and you can roll that dice as many times as you want to add to your score."
A green dice appeared under each plushie, with an identical dice appearing on the four players' screens.
"In 30 seconds, I will kill the player with the lowest score. But if you go over 21, you die instead!"
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh…." Gabe exhaled. "Now I see the similarities."
"And since we can't have the safe players just sitting here and doing nothing, I'm giving them a dice too. If they roll a skull, that adds 1 to everyone's score!"
"Ooh...so we can help screw someone over!" Cassidy realized with a grin.
"3…2…1…BEGIN!" Mike shouted.
The ghosts immediately began to roll their dice. Liz started out with an early lead with a 6 while the others only got a 3 or lower, but they quickly caught up with high numbers of their own. Susie, Charlie, and Cassidy all tried to roll skulls repeatedly, and the former 2 both rolled 1 while Cassidy managed to roll 2. By the time 20 of the 30 seconds had passed, Liz had rolled a 19, Fritz and Jeremy both had 18, and Gabe was at 17. The Freddy boy grimaced as he realized time was running out, and he was currently the lowest. He knew he could try to wait it out and hope that his sisters rolled 3 skulls to knock Liz out, but that was a long shot. As 5 of the last remaining 10 seconds passed and only 1 of them rolled another skull, Gabe knew that he had to roll 1 more time. He rolled his dice…and cursed as he rolled a 6. Immediately, the dice vanished and Gabe's 23 turned a blood red color. He had made one last desperate move…and lost.
"Well, would you look at that?" Mike commented, and everyone could hear the smugness in his voice. "You busted. And since you busted in this game…I get to bust open your life!"
"NOOOOOOO!" Gabe cried out as a white X scratched itself onto the Freddy plushie. The plushie was thrown into sharp focus as a scream identical to the FNAF1 jumpscare scream bellowed out. The scream was abruptly cut off with a strangled yell as the plushie suddenly exploded, and a ghostly figure took its place. The shape of the plushie was still unmistakably Freddy's, but it was now hollow and transparent, showing a clearly visible skeleton inside it with Xs over its eyes.
"And it looks like we have our first death, ladies and gentlemen!" Mike called out as the flames surrounding them faded back into dormancy. He brought up all the plushies in front of them, Gabe's ghostly Freddy plushie mixed in with the still living ones. The word "Scoreboard" flickered into existence, and the children could see how much money they had won so far. Susie, Cassidy, and Charlie both had $2000, while Gabe, Fritz, Jeremy, and Liz all had $1000. "I know it's rough that you got killed first, but like I said, this game isn't close to being done yet! You can absolutely still win the game!"
"That's nice to know, I guess…" Gabe muttered. Some of his siblings were looking at him with sympathy, but a few were smirking. They remembered well the prank that had blown up their Minecraft houses, and were satisfied with how the mastermind was getting his just desserts.
"Moving on!" Mike's voice interrupted them as a giant 3 briefly materialized.
"Which does P.S. stand for?"
1) Per se
2) post scriptum
3) parce sepulto
4) pax sinica
"Easy," Jeremy scoffed.
"So easy," Gabe agreed, relieved that he knew the answer after his plushie had just gotten killed.
"What?" Susie spluttered. "I don't know this!"
"Sucks to be you," Liz smirked as she put in her answer.
Once they were done, Mike continued. "And the correct answer is…"
2) Post scriptum
Green check marks appeared for Charlie, Gabe, Liz, Jeremy, and Fritz…while Susie and Cassidy received red Xs over their plushies instead. "Let's go someplace fun…"
"Oh, God no…" Cassidy groaned as the flames burst into life around them again.
"Welcome back to the Killing Grounds!" Mike greeted them as he revealed the next minigame, this one labelled "MIND MELD." This time, white cards appeared in front of every ghost, and the Chica and Golden Freddy plushies were both in the spotlight now. "I'm going to give you a category and you have to write an answer that fits that category." The other plushies appeared. "Everybody else will be playing too! And if anybody matches your answer, or if you don't give a correct answer…YOU DIE."
"Seems simple enough, I guess…" Jeremy muttered.
"One of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring."
The ghosts quickly processed the members of the Fellowship through their minds, trying to decide whether writing an obscure or a seemingly obvious answer choice would be the better decision to make. After a few seconds, all of them had written their answers down, giant versions of the cards appearing face-down underneath each plushie.
"Now let's see who's a potential mind reader."
The cards flipped, revealing:
Susie: Merry
Cassidy: Boromir
Fritz: Gimli
Charlie: Legolas
Gabe: Sam
Liz: Aragorn
Jeremy: Gandalf
Susie and Cassidy both breathed a huge sigh of relief as they saw that nobody else had written their answers. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Mike asked incredulously, causing the ghosts to snicker. "Not a single match? Bullshit!"
The plushies vanished and they returned to the main screen. "All right, I'm done playing nice," Mike growled.
"What letter did author Vincent Wright never use in his 5,000 word novel Gadsby?"
1) U
2) D
3) I
4) E
"Uh…uh…uh…WHAT?" Cassidy spluttered.
"The hell is Gadsby?" Susie exclaimed.
"How the hell would any of us know this?" Fritz protested.
"Ughhhh…." Liz groaned as she randomly picked an answer.
"And the correct answer is…"
4) E
The ghosts let out exclamations of dismay as a red X appeared over every single plushie.
"The FUCK?" Gabe exclaimed. "No E?"
"So apparently this guy never used the word THE in his 5000 word novel!" Charlie commented in disbelief.
"How the fuck is that even possible?" Fritz asked incredulously. "I can't even think of five sentences that don't use the letter E!"
Cold, chilling laughter interrupted their interjections, sending a shiver down their spines. "Heh heh heh heh heh ha ha ha ha…everyone is wrong! Which means ALL of you can now join in the fun!" The flames of the Killing Grounds burst to life…only this time, there was a pile of money on the floor. Mike put up the name of the minigame on the screen: "ARENA."
"You spent 20 days hunting me down and trying to kill me. So I think it's time that I get to see you bring down that misplaced aggression on each other instead."
"That's a low blow, Dad…" Gabe muttered.
"You can attack someone else," a sword appeared in the air, "you can defend yourself," a shield appeared to next to it, "or you can grab some money," a bag of money completed the trio. Arrows appeared, with the sword pointing to the money, the money pointing to the shield, and the shield pointing to the sword. The ghosts quickly realized that this was a rock-paper-scissors style of minigame. "If you don't kill someone, then I will. So make your choice."
The ghosts looked at the three symbols floating in the air, then looked at each other with wary eyes. Trying to guess what their siblings were going to do, each ghost made a decision and submitted it on his or her screen. "Let's see some action, people!" Mike declared.
Charlie and Susie had both picked shields. Cassidy had picked money, while Fritz, Jeremy, and Liz had all picked swords.
The first pair of plushies to appear was Fritz and Cassidy. Cassidy's eyes widened in horror as Fritz's sword hit the Golden Freddy plushie and carved a white x onto its body. "WHAT?" she exclaimed. "Fritz, WHY?"
"I still haven't forgotten that prank you did on us," Fritz smirked. "And since Gabe was already dead, it was down to you or Susie, and I picked you."
"This is why I picked a shield," Charlie muttered. As if to verify her decision, the next pair of plushies to appear was Jeremy and Charlie. Jeremy's plushie tried to attack with a sword, but Charlie's shield raised up to block the attack and render it harmless. The last pair was Liz and Fritz, whose jaw dropped as Liz's Baby plushie used its sword to carve another white X into its body.
"Liz!" he protested, his voice filled with betrayal. "But why?"
"Because I had a feeling somebody would try to attack Cass and Susie, and you called me fat!" Liz smirked. "Perfect time to get revenge!"
"But you already got your revenge!" Fritz whined.
"Huh, you know, as much as I love some good ol' fashioned violence, this really didn't have the impact I thought it would. So I hope you don't mind if I finish the job."
The Golden Freddy and Foxy plushies were both thrown into sharp relief with another scream. This time, a volley of nails impaled themselves straight into the bodies of the plushies, which let out a strangled yelp as they flipped over, transforming into ghosts just as the Freddy plushie had earlier.
"This is BRUTAL!" Cassidy exclaimed.
The Scoreboard returned, with two ghosts now joining Freddy. Charlie was in the lead with $3000, while Cassidy was in second place with $2500. The rest of the ghosts all had $2000.
"You know, I'd never thought I'd say this about a game involving murder, but this is actually really fun!" Fritz commented.
"Yeah, I'm definitely having a good time, that's for sure," Susie agreed.
"Wish I wasn't dead," Cassidy sulked as she stared at her ghostly skeletal Golden Freddy plushie.
"Glad you're liking the game! Just for that, I'll throw you a bone with Question 5."
"What are the five consonants and one vowel that contestants receive for the bonus round puzzle on Wheel of Fortune?"
1) R, E, S, T, N, L
2) I, N, T, R, S, L
3) Y, E, R, L, N, D
4) P, L, O, T, S, G
"Thank God, an easy one after that Gadsby bullshit," Liz muttered.
The ghosts had no trouble answering this, and all of them answered in less than 5 answers.
1) R, E, S, T, N, L
A green check mark appeared under every plushie that time. "Yeah okay, I need to stop being this nice," Mike's voice grumbled as he moved on to question 6.
"Where was Transylvania?"
1) Russia
2) Romania
3) Slovakia
4) Nowhere – it's a made-up place
"Transylvania?" Jeremy repeated. "Isn't that the place where Dracula's from?"
"Yep," Gabe confirmed.
"Thought so."
The ghosts mulled over the answer choices (all of whom had gravitated towards one of two answer choices) and made their decision. "Who said…this one!"
2) Romania
Green check marks appeared under Charlie, Gabe, and Jeremy's plushies…while red X's appeared over Cassidy, Susie, Liz, and Fritz's plushies. "Dammit!" Cassidy pouted. "I thought that it didn't exist!"
"Yeah, me too!" Liz agreed.
"Guess it does," Fritz shrugged. "Not that I care, I'm already dead!"
"The rest of you who are still alive…come with me."
The Baby and Chica plushies were taken over to the Killing Ground, where Mike displayed the next minigame, "WORDS." A grid of 5 letters by 5 letters appeared in front of them, and Mike spelled out the word "REAPER" as an example.
"Use letters to spell the longest word you can before time runs out." The rest of the plushies appeared. "Everyone else will be playing too. And if anybody can come up with a word that's longer than yours, I WILL KILL YOU."
The grid vanished and a different one appeared in its place. The letters displayed were:
L, N, D, A, C
U, Y, E, D, M
A, S, E, T, B
Z, E, P, J, R
O, R, H, N, I
"Okay…" Liz thought, "what kind of word can I make out of this?"
"I've got to think of something good," Susie thought, "and fast!"
After a few seconds that were counted down by a hourglass that Mike materialized, the time expired all too soon. "So what did you come up with?"
Liz had come up with the word "CONDEMNS (7)", while Susie had come up with the word "RESCUER (7)."
"Not bad. But the real question is, did anyone do better than you?"
Liz and Susie held their breath…and their eyes widened in horror as Gabe's ghostly Freddy plushy appeared with the word "DAMNATION (9)" and Charlie's Puppet plushy appeared with the word "MARTYRDOM (9)". The number count underneath the Chica and Baby plushies both turned blood red.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. It looks like your vocabulary just wasn't good enough to carry you through. And you know what that means."
"Dammit!" Susie pouted as the Chica and Baby plushies were thrown into the spotlight. The two girls could only watch as the plushies representing their favorite animatronics were sliced in half, before flipping over and turning into ghosts.
Going back to the Scoreboard, the ghosts could see that only two players were still alive, Jeremy and Charlie. Mike proceeded to give all the ghosts a hundred dollars each for every letter they used in their words. Which meant that Gabe now had $4900, Jeremy had $4700, Susie had $3700, Fritz had $3600, Cassidy had $4200, Liz had $3700, and Charlie had a commanding lead with $5900.
"To all of you haters out there, I recognize your hatred and I acknowledge it as a perfectly valid emotion to have. I just don't give a single flying fuck about your opinions."
"Who…are you talking to, exactly, dad?" Charlie asked in confusion.
"Anyway, moving on!" A giant flaming purple 7 appeared, followed by:
"Where is Area 51…allegedly?"
1) New Mexico
2) Nevada
3) Texas
4) Arizona
"What's Area 51?" Fritz wondered aloud.
"I think it's some super secret government facility somewhere," Gabe answered. "Apparently the U.S. military will shoot anyone who comes even close there. There's some really secret stuff there that they don't want ANYBODY knowing about."
"I heard they have something to do with UFOs," Susie chirped in. "But I don't have any clue where it actually is!"
The ghosts shrugged and picked their answers. "And the correct answer is…"
2) Nevada
Green check marks appeared under the Freddy and Foxy plushies, while red Xs appeared over everybody else. "Yeah…I just completely guessed for this one," Fritz admitted.
"Ooh…it looks like our two living players both got it wrong. Which makes this more fun for me!" Mike cackled. He forced the Bonnie and Puppet plushies over to the Killing Grounds, where he put up the words "CHALICES."
"When knives and explosions don't do it for you, sometimes you've got to stick with some good old fashioned poison!"
A plate suddenly appeared in front of them containing 8 chalices. While some of them were rather standard looking, there were some interesting ones in there as well. A chalice shaped like a skull, a cup identical to the Carpenter's cup from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and bizarrely, a white modern coffee mug with "WORLD'S #1 DAD" on it.
The rest of the plushies appeared. "All the safe players get a poison pellet to put into a chalice. So pick one."
"Aww yeah, we get to try and kill someone again!" Fritz smirked.
"If we all pick a different chalice, then there's only 3 safe ones for them to choose from!" Susie realized.
"Yeah, but we can't see which ones the rest of us our picking, so I'm assuming we can overlap," Gabe pointed out.
The sound of a drop echoed 5 times, signaling that each safe player and ghost had picked a chalice. "Now you two…pick a chalice to drink from."
Jeremy and Charlie both studied the 8 chalices carefully. After several seconds of deliberation, each made their choice. "Yum yum…now let's see what everyone drank."
The WORLD'S #1 DAD mug appeared under the Bonnie plushie and the skull chalice appeared under the Puppet plushie. Four wisps of smoke materialized from the selection of 8 chalices…including the mug and the skull chalice. Two skulls appeared underneath both plushies, signifying that they had both chosen an option that had led to death.
"Dammit!" Jeremy cursed. "I knew picking that mug was a bad idea, but I just couldn't resist!"
"I thought the skull chalice would be the obvious choice," Charlie snapped her fingers in disappointment. "I was like, oh, that's the obvious one, and because it was obvious nobody would pick it. But the only person I mind gamed was myself!"
"This is why you don't drink things from random cups at parties, kids," Mike interrupted them. "I mean, not that you'd be able to, since you're ghosts and all, but…yeah, you get the point."
Two white Xs scratched themselves onto the two plushies' bodies. Everyone watched as the plushies were frozen in ice and shattered to pieces, before they were replaced by ghostly versions of themselves.
"Geez!" Jeremy exclaimed. "That poison froze our bodies and broke them to pieces? What the hell kind of poison is that?"
"Liquid nitrogen?" Charlie deadpanned. "I don't even know…"
Back at the Scoreboard, Mike gave $500 to every player who had successfully poisoned either Jeremy or Charlie. Susie, Cassidy, and Liz each received 500 dollars. After this latest round, Gabe had $5900, Jeremy had $4700, Susie had $4200, Fritz had $4600, Cassidy had $4700, Charlie also had $5900 (tied with Charlie for first), and Liz had $4200. And all of them were dead.
"Well, fuck!" Mike cursed. "I didn't think I'd end up killing ALL of you. I need one of you alive for the final round. Meh, I'll just pick you."
The Freddy plushie flashed, and was suddenly restored to its original living state. "It's kind of arbitrary, but you and Charlie both had the most money, and I basically did eenie-meenie-miney-moe real quick to decide which one of you should come back to life. Now that that awkward moment's out of way…TIME FOR THE REAL FUN TO BEGIN."
Everything vanished into darkness, not just the plushies but the entire arena itself as well. The kids were treated to a sequence of several Freddy's animatronic jumpscares on a big screen that abruptly popped up out of nowhere, taking them completely surprise and frightening the crap out of them. When the screen vanished and order returned, the kids realized that the very environment had completely changed.
They were now standing atop a balcony, looking down into a vast rectangular chamber that looked like an enlarged hallway. The chamber was divided into rows that stretched from one wall to the other, and the ghosts shuddered as they saw that the walls flanking the hallway were a line of menacing demonic skulls, their mouths hideously elongated from the floor to only a few feet below the level of the balcony. The width of the mouths was just long enough to cover the width of a row, a detail that the older ghosts instantly found suspicious.
And to complete the dark and creepy atmosphere, ominous music that filled them with a sense of both thrill and anxiety began to play from around them.
[[NOTE: Begin playing Trivia Murder Party 2 Final Round theme by Andy Poland. Trust me, this will be a LOT more exciting if you have the appropriate theme music playing with it.]]
"So, you've made it here alive. Congratulations. But as you'll soon see, getting here alive and making it out alive are two VERY different things."
The ghosts watched as the still living Freddy plushie was moved a few rows into the chamber next to the opposite wall, 14 spaces away from the other side. The rest of the ghosts were placed at the farthest left row, 21 spaces away, arranged from farthest to closest in order of decreasing amount of money held. "I'm going to give you a category."
MONTHS WITH 31 DAYS
August, November
"Tap on each answer that you think fits this category, and then submit your choices."
"Okay…" Gabe took a deep breath. "This shouldn't be too bad." He clicked on the "August" on his screen and submitted his answer. "Let's see what the right answer is."
August, XXXXXX
Two green check marks appeared above the Freddy plushie. "You move forward one space for each correct answer."
"Yes!" Gabe whooped as his Freddy plushie moved 2 rows forward, so that it was now only 12 spaces away from the exit. Then, to the ghosts' astonishment, the end of the hallway opposite where they were starting from began to glow with light as a giant EXIT sign hovered over it.
"You're on your way to escaping!" Mike declared approvingly. Then, a sinister combination of menace and amusement appeared in his tone. "But you're not the only one here now, are you?"
"Wh…what?" Gabe spluttered, whipping back to the left end of the hallway. To everyone's shock, the ghosts of the Puppet, Bonnie, and Golden Freddy plushies all moved forward 3 spaces, 2 spaces, and 1 space respectively, letting out a ghostly echo as they did so.
"All the other ghosts get to play. And if a ghost catches up to you, they get to come back to life by stealing your life force. Then, they get a chance to escape and win the game."
"Oh my God…" Jeremy breathed. "This is so intense!"
"How is a trivia game this freaking terrifying?" Liz gaped.
Cassidy grinned mischievously at Gabe. "Look out, brother…we're coming!"
"Here's EVERYONE'S next question!" Mike interrupted.
DRAGON POKEMON
Tyranitar, Gyarados
"And ghosts get a third option to help them catch up to you!" A third option appeared, though this one was faded and written in white with the icon of a ghost next to it.
Salamence
"Crap, was Gyarados a Dragon?" Jeremy mumbled. "I know two of them for sure, but…"
"This isn't too bad," Fritz thought. "Hope the other questions are like this."
The ghosts made their selection, and Mike revealed the correct answer, as well as how many spaces each character had moved forward.
XXXXX, XXXXX, Salamence
Gabe: ✓✓ (to 10 spaces away from the exit)
Charlie: ✓✓✓ (to 15)
Jeremy: ✓✓✓ (to 16)
Cassidy: ✓X✓ (to 18)
Fritz: ✓✓✓ (to 18)
Liz: ✓X✓ (to 19)
Susie: ✓X✓ (to 19)
"Dammit, Gyarados is a Water/Flying, isn't it?" Cassidy cursed. "Fuck!"
The Freddy plushie moved up again, but this time all of the ghost plushies followed behind, emitting a spooky cadence that sent chills crawling down their spine as they did so.
THINGS THAT CONTAIN PEANUTS
Mr. Goodbar, Kit-Kat, Reese's Cup
"Aww, you guys got the EASY one!" Gabe complained.
"Ooh, we just talked about candy with Alex and Meghan!" Susie said excitedly.
"Yeah, but I didn't think about what was actually IN those chocolates before," Charlie muttered.
Mr. Goodbar, XXXXX, Reese's Cup
Gabe: X✓ (to 9)
Charlie: ✓✓✓ (to 12)
Jeremy: X✓✓ (to 14)
Cassidy: ✓✓✓ (to 15)
Fritz: X✓✓ (to 16)
Liz: ✓✓✓ (to 16)
Susie: ✓✓✓ (to 16)
"Mr. Goodbar was that candy in the yellow wrapper, wasn't it?" Gabe asked rhetorically, before snapping his fingers. "Damn it!"
GYMNASTICS MOVES
Tick-tack, flic-flac, jumpo
The kids stared blankly at the question. "Uh…uh…uh…WHAT?" Susie spluttered.
"I don't have any fucking idea!" Fritz threw his hands up in the air in frustration.
"Dad, you're a jerk!" Cassidy sulked.
XXXXX, flic-flac, XXXXX
Gabe: ✓X (to 8)
Charlie: XX✓ (to 11)
Jeremy: XX✓ (to 13)
Cassidy: X✓✓ (to 13)
Fritz: ✓XX (to 15)
Liz: ✓X✓ (to 14)
Susie: X✓✓ (to 14)
"Just completely fucking guessed on that one…" Fritz muttered.
"You're not the only one," Charlie agreed. "Only one that I was sure of was jumpo because that sounded way too fake."
"Ooh, that one was a bit rough, wasn't it?" Mike asked, his voice dripping with amusement. "And now here's something to make you feel just a little bit worse!"
The moment he stopped speaking his words, the eyes on the demonic skull carvings flanking the farthest row suddenly glowed with a fiery orange light. The ghosts let out gasps of disbelief and horror as the mouths of the statues spewed out a wall of hellish flame that covered the entire row. The ghosts' fear turned into dread bordering on panic as the statues next to three more rows unleashed more of their flames, until they too were engulfed in flame. It didn't take a genius to understand what would happen to the plushies if the children moved too slowly. At the same time, the ominous music began to pick up in intensity, signaling that the next stage of the final round was about to begin.
Wall of Flame: 18 spaces from the exit
"Are we in Dad's mind right now, or are we in Hell?" Gabe asked jokingly, though he couldn't hide his nervousness at seeing the four walls of flame that now covered the leftmost rows.
"I wish I could laugh at that joke, but I can't," Charlie thought morosely, her mind flashing back to the hellish battlefield where her father and her murderer had dueled.
"Pick up the pace, if you know what's good for you," Mike hissed.
THE TWELVE APOSTLES
Peter, Judas, Andrew
"Those are those guys that followed Jesus, right?" Jeremy asked. "I know we've talked about them a few times on Sundays."
"Two of them are pretty obvious, but I don't know about the third one…" Charlie muttered.
"Those flames are creeping me out," Cassidy gave the wall of flames and the skeletal mouths spewing them a nervous glance.
PETER, JUDAS, ANDREW
Gabe: ✓✓ (to 6)
Charlie: ✓✓✓ (to 8)
Jeremy: ✓✓✓ (to 10)
Cassidy: ✓✓X (to 11)
Fritz: ✓✓X (to 13)
Liz: ✓✓✓ (to 11)
Susie: ✓✓X (to 12)
Gabe's Freddy plushie advanced closer to the exit, but so too did the ghosts of the other plushies with another unnatural echo. Gabe gulped as he realized just how uncomfortably close Charlie's Puppet plushie was to his own.
"Cutting it a little close there, aren't you?" Mike gleefully pointed out, as if mocking the danger the Freddy plushie was in. To make matters worse, the skull carvings flanking the next two rows unleashed their flames, an omnipresent danger that was growing ever closer.
Wall of Flame: 16 spaces to the exit
ROALD DAHL BOOKS
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG
"Ooh, Dad showed us those during the year. Those were some fun books!" Cassidy gushed.
"But were they Roald Dahl books?" Liz countered.
"How the hell should I know?" Fritz grumbled. "I didn't pay attention to the author name!"
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG
Gabe: ✓X (to 5)
Charlie: ✓✓X (to 6)
Jeremy: ✓X✓ (to 8)
Cassidy: ✓✓✓ (to 8)
Fritz: ✓X✓ (to 11)
Liz: ✓X✓ (to 9)
Susie: ✓✓X (to 10)
"It was all of them again?" Susie exclaimed in disbelief. "Come on!"
"I just realized how close Charlie's ghost is to me," Gabe mumbled. "Shit!"
The sounds of two more rows being consumed by flames silenced her protest.
Wall of Flame: 14 spaces to the exit.
"That ghost is right behind you, waiting to claim your life," Mike hissed. "Spooky, isn't it?"
MULTIPLES OF 8
8, 64, 154
"An easy one," Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God."
"Wait, that's not good!" Gabe exclaimed. "Cause Charlie can get it easily and catch up!"
"Heh heh heh…" Charlie snickered.
8, 64, XXXXX
Gabe: ✓✓ (to 3)
Charlie: ✓✓✓ (to 3)
Jeremy: ✓✓✓ (to 5)
Cassidy: ✓✓X (to 6)
Fritz: ✓✓X (to 9)
Liz: ✓✓X (to 7)
Susie: ✓✓X (to 8)
"Oh, I missed one!" Cassidy pouted. "I can't do mental math."
Gabe's plushie moved forward, tantalizingly close to the exit. The ghosts all moved forward with their unnatural wail…and Charlie's Puppet caught up to Freddy. "NO!" Gabe moaned as his plushie was pushed back one space and turned into a ghost…while the Puppet plushie came back to life with a flash of light. More flames burst out from the walls, consuming the next 2 rows.
Wall of Flame: 12 spaces to the exit
"Hah!" Charlie cheered. "I'm back to life!"
"You killed your friend, claimed his life force for your own. Congratulations," Mike congratulated, before his voice descended into a snarl. "But what happened to him, CAN MOST CERTAINLY HAPPEN TO YOU!"
COEXISTED WITH DINOSAURS
Horses, elephant seals, kangaroos
"…what the fuck," Fritz mumbled.
"How the hell are we supposed to know this?" Liz exclaimed.
"God, I have no idea…" Susie muttered.
XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX
Gabe: ✓X✓ (to 2)
Charlie: ✓X (to 2)
Jeremy: ✓XX (to 4)
Cassidy: XX✓ (to 5)
Fritz: ✓X✓ (to 7)
Liz: ✓✓X (to 5)
Susie: ✓X✓ (to 6)
"None of them?" Jeremy whistled. "Wow."
"Give me my life force back!" Gabe shouted triumphantly as his Freddy plushie raced up to the same row as the Puppet. This time, it was Freddy who came back to life, and the Puppet that was pushed back one row and into a skeletal, ghostly state. "I'm so close to the exit, if I can answer these next 2 correctly…"
[[NOTE: If you have not already reached this point, skip to 3:10 in the TMP2 Final Round Theme]]
And that was when a massive black iron gate slammed down in front of the exit, glowing with purple flames, a hideous demonic skull engraved on the front with glowing red eyes glaring menacingly at them all. The music had escalated again into a thrilling and frenzied pitch, highlighting the intensity and the beginning of the final stage.
"Did you really think that I was going to let you escape that easily?" Mike questioned mockingly. "If you want to make it out alive, you have to answer the next question perfectly."
CHARACTERS SNAPPED AWAY IN "Avengers: Infinity War"
Nebula, Black Panther, Okoye
"And when I say all of them…"
The third answer choice suddenly solidified:
Okoye
"I MEAN ALL OF THEM."
"Ohhhhhhhh, snap!" Susie muttered as she smirked at Gabe.
"Fuck…who the hell was Okoye?" Gabe mumbled.
Liz's smirk matched her sister's. "Like we'd tell you."
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Gabe muttered. "Please tell me this is the right answer…" All the ghosts held their breath as Mike revealed the correct answer.
XXXXX, Black Panther, XXXXX
Gabe: ✓✓✓
Charlie: ✓✓✓
Jeremy: ✓✓✓
Cassidy: X✓X
Fritz: ✓✓X
Liz: ✓✓X
Susie: X✓✓
"YES!" Gabe whooped, pumping his fist into the air as Charlie and the others groaned in disappointment. The Freddy plushie pushed forward, and as it approached the iron gate the barrier lifted back up into the air to allow the plushie to pass. The kids watched as the Freddy plushie entered into the light, and both it and the light vanished.
And now that Gabe had won the game, a far darker fate awaited the ghost plushies left behind. A demonic roar drew the kids' attention back to the hallway. The rest of the skulls lining the hallway rows unleashed their unholy flames, one row at a time, moving faster and faster with each second that passed. The kids gasped in genuine fear as the Foxy ghost plushie was the first to be incinerated, letting out a terrifying scream identical to the screams of the original animatronics as it was consumed by the flames. The Chica plushie was the next to be devoured, followed by the Golden Freddy and Baby plushies, the Bonnie plushie, and finally the Puppet plushie. The flames destroyed the plushies without leaving a single trace remaining and advanced well past their destruction, not relenting until the entire hallway was engulfed. Then, the moment the last row was engulfed, the flames suddenly exploded upward in the shape of a nuclear cloud, the force of the blast sending the kids flying backwards. Though none of them were harmed or even felt a significant amount of heat from the blast, it did little to comfort them. For the explosion "cloud" had shifted into the shape of a demonic fiend's head, black save for two foci of flame that served as its eyes. A plume of flame erupted from the top of the "head", while the pillar of flame that led up to the cloud from underneath made the whole thing look like a hellish, elongated jaw. The children stared in horror at the demonic head-shaped explosion blast in horror. For most of them, it was their first true glimpse into the darkest depths of Mike's personality and imagination, a glimpse that was more than enough for them to understand how William Afton had been reduced from a savage, hellish, and nigh-unstoppable monster into a broken, mangled corpse.
For Charlie, it was a nightmarish reminder of Mike's demonic aspect that embodied him at his absolute worst, and all the brutality and cruelty he had unleashed as he had tortured and broken William's soul, one piece at a time.
The explosion cloud thankfully faded along with the rest of the flames and the rest of their surroundings, returning them back into the darkness. The kids were treated to the image of a newspaper that appeared on the big screen, with the living Freddy plushie featured on a picture to the left.
"GABE CLAIMS MACABRE $5900 PRIZE!" the newspaper proudly proclaimed. "DESCRIBES KILLER SHOW HOST AS SEXY BARITONE!"
The kids couldn't help but giggle at the message, their subdued laughter helping to drive away the lingering terror of what they had just witnessed. The newspaper vanished, and the rest of the kids were all treated to pictures of their ghost plushies and how they had died.
"So that's Trivia Murder Party for you guys!" Mike's voice returned. Though it still had that deep and unearthly inflection, it was otherwise back to the friendly demeanor that the kids were used to from their father. "What'd you guys think?"
"That…holy crap…that was…amazing!" Gabe exclaimed. "I didn't think I'd ever enjoy a game about us being murdered by a serial killer, but this was seriously one of the most fun things I've done since we've come here!"
"I know!" Susie added in agreement. "I want to play again! I want to try and win this time!"
"You really knew how to make the game both scary and fun, dad!" Liz praised. "It makes me really want to go for a round 2!"
"You might have overdone it a bit with the last part, but otherwise, heck yeah! I'm down to go again!" Jeremy commented excitedly.
"I'm glad you liked the game, guys," Mike replied with genuine appreciation. "And I'm proud of the fact that you guys weren't affected by the references to murder. You guys have no idea how much I invested into this."
"THEY MAY NOT…." a guttural, inhuman voice interrupted. "…BUT I MOST CERTAINLY DO."
The ghosts all gasped as they whirled around to face the source of the voice. They could feel the atmosphere tense up as Mike himself prepared to face their uninvited guest.
"I MAY HAVE ONLY JUST ARRIVED. AND NIGHTMARE TOLD ME LITTLE WHEN HE ORDERED ME TO CHECK IN ON THINGS. BUT I MUST SAY THAT, BASED ON WHAT I HAVE SEEN SO FAR…" Nightmarionne's eyes glowed and his grin widened. "…THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY MY KIND OF GAME."
/
A/N: The votes are in, and while the poll was initially very close between Nightmare and Nightmarionne, some of the later votes were decidedly in Nightmarionne's favor.
It's weird how writing works, sometimes. This was meant to be a fun chapter. This was meant to be a joke chapter. Hell, this was meant to be borderline CRACK. And yet it ended up being twenty-three pages on Word. TWENTY-THREE. And this is only the first round! Not to mention that formatting this chapter on the site was a major pain in the asscrack.
I've actually withheld from using some of the minigames that I consider "more fun" so that I could use them for the next round. Now that a Nightmare has joined the game, things will be a lot more…interesting. Especially since Mike was being fairly generous with his questions because this was the kids' first time playing TMP. Next time…he may not be quite as merciful.
Anyways, I'm probably taking next week off. Four weekly chapters in a row has exhausted me, and I need a break. I've also started getting assignments from rotations again, which isn't fun.
But with that being said, hope you guys enjoyed!
