Lost In Purple

Chapter 47: Mankind Eternal

Melanie's POV

"You've never seen a horror movie before?" Johnny asks in disbelief.

All I do is shake my head and feel his disappointment create this immense aura around him. I've never had the time or money to see one, nor did I ever really have a reason to see one. The horror film reviews that some people have are almost always less than stellar, and there hasn't been one with a plot that's interested me either. However, there's the possibility that horror movies are better with friends, and I've just been missing out since I've never really had any before.

"How can you even call yourself a Scarer if you haven't seen one? That's like becoming a rocket scientist without knowing any math, that's-that's crazy," Johnny chuckles.

"Stop making fun of me…" I whine, "I've never had a reason to see one or have worked up enough courage to go. I also never wanted to go to the movies alone, and my parents didn't really care to see them so, I ended up just staying home and studying."

The theater lobby is empty since it's nearing nine o' clock, and the lights are dimmed to a very comforting level. The red velvet carpeting makes the place look regal, and the white walls and ceilings compliment it perfectly. The air is invaded by the lingering smell of popcorn and other sugary foods, along with the subtle sound of bass that's vibrating the walls around several theaters. I haven't been to many movie theaters, but I can safely say that this is peak movie theater experience and I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Well anyways, what do you want to drink? Do you maybe need some sort of snack as well?" Johnny asks as we close distance between the rest of the RORs at the concession stand.

I take a quick look at the menu and find that there's no food that I particularly crave. I don't really want pizza or nachos right now...I'm not really feeling pretzels either. A drink would be nice however. "I'll just get a small drink," I reply.

"A small? You sure? Knowing that this is your first horror film, I can guarantee that you'll run out within the first 20 minutes," Johnny mentions.

"Huh? Why? Do you normally get parched while watching movies?" I ask.

"I mean yeah, but film lightweights like yourself normally drink as a nervous tick when it comes to horror movies. A small will only help you for so long before you're left with nothing but your poor, lonesome self," Johnny clarifies.

Not going to lie, I'm especially nervous now. A part of me wants to believe that there's no actual way that this horror movie will scare me to my core, but I might be blissfully unaware of what it will be like. Ugh, this why I hate them. I get become too far gone and unnecessarily paranoid for anyone's liking.

"How about a large? It's my treat," Johnny insists.

"Um…would-would you share it with me then?" I ask.

A smirk runs across his face. "Don't mind if I do."

We got here fairly early, so we take our time getting everything we need for the terrifying night ahead of us. I say that as if this is worse than last week at Fear Tech, but things like this always feel worse when they are yet to happen. I try to hide all the fear I feel as Johnny leads me over to the soda fountains, asking me what I would like. The only soda I've ever really felt like was worth the money was this strawberry one. It's reminiscent of both candy and fruit snacks which obviously makes it number one in my book. Johnny seems to enjoy it too since he apparently drank it religiously in middle school before discovering the 'wonders of alcohol.'

"John! There's no way you were that much of a trouble maker," I gasp in disbelief.

With a small shrug, Johnny says, "You might think so, but I never got in trouble for doing that in middle school. Now that I think about it, you're the first person I've ever told that."

"What?! Did anybody even watch you as a child?!" I interrogate.

Johnny reaches out to fill up the soda cup while not looking at it. "Nope. As you know, my parents were never around, so I pretty much had to learn everything on my own. I figured my early teens was a good time to experiment with all the 'grown up' drinks. While that obviously wasn't a good idea, I was able to learn what my limits were and how to deal with hangovers. I also can't complain about becoming one of the most fun kids in high school because of that,," He explains.

His arm pulls away from the fountain just before it overflows, and turns towards the counter so he can grab a lid and a straw. Even though this isn't important, I'm so glad that they're not paper straws. While I do like that paper straws are better for the environment, they almost always become soggy and unable to transfer any amount of fluids through it. Even if we did have to use them, I would just not use a lid or straw and drink straight out of the cup commando style.

However, we're talking about Johnny's infuriating past here, so I continue talking about him. "John, I almost want to smack you over the head for your parents. That's actually infuriating to hear you talk about since you're the school's saint valedictorian," I mumble.

He pops the lid on the cup and pushes the straw through before gulping down a couple of sips. "Mmmm. Tastes like childhood…and please don't hit me. I'll have you know that I've since learned from that and have grown to become a better person because of it."

"You had better. I can't believe you even told me that because I would have sworn that you were a literal angel as a child," I add not believing him.

"Meh, nobody's perfect. I will say that that was the worst thing I did as a child though, so your guess isn't as far off as you'd think," He remarks.

The soda is passed over to me, and I take it without hesitation. I take a couple gulps as well, agreeing with Johnny that it tastes like childhood. The ratio of flavor and carbonation is perfect, the temperature is perfect, and the taste is perfect. I can feel the dopamine soaring through my veins when it slides down my throat. At the same time though, it reminds me of puberty and when everyone started having negative opinions about me. Now that I think about it, the last time I had this soda was probably in the eighth grade.

My head starts making all sorts of connections, and I especially start thinking about the eighth grade makes me think about what Johnny said. "Um, you said you learned everything on your own. What exactly does that mean?" I say with an undying amount of curiosity.

Johnny smiles, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter as the others stock up on napkins and lightly butter their popcorn. "Everything. Cooking, cleaning, fixing, you name it. The only things that I can think of that I didn't learn on my own was changing my diapers, speaking, and the concept of personal hygiene."

"How did you know what was a useful skill if you learned everything by yourself then?" I ask.

"I didn't know actually. My Dad expected my mother to go and make money for the family along with him when I turned five and left me by myself. So, when my mother did eventually find herself at home, she asked their servants to teach me," He elucidates.

Oh. That sounds really lonely. The relationship between his mother and father sounds kind of toxic as well, but so don't think its a good idea to say something like that. The servants part also seems kind of degrading like, 'Hey, we're Johnny's parents, and we don't feel like being responsible parents so we're going to hand of all of that onto others because we're lazy.' I know that sounds blunt, but that's what it feels like.

I find a way to turn that into a optimistic thing though. "Oh so your mom just wanted you to learn everything for the sake of your future? No wonder people think you're amazing," I marvel.

"I know. I've been told that many times before," He brags while rubbing his claws on his sweater, "Alright, let's go find the guys. They're probably already in their seats waiting for the movie to start," Johnny states before pulling me with him.

I look around and see that they've all disappeared, leaving me looking like a child who just saw a magic trick. I take a couple more nervous sips of soda and we amble through the gigantic hallways, turning left to find the theater labeled with a big 9. Above the 9 is an electronic sign that says Mankind Eternal, and another sign underneath it that has a big warning sign on it. Johnny, of course, doesn't have the patience to see what it says and has us walk right past it. A feeling of regret rushes through me as the dim lights fade away, and we enter the gloomy hallway towards the empty theater. When we turn to see every seat in the room, we see Javier and the rest of the RORs sitting in the center of one of the middle rows, quietly conversing with each other.

The two of us take our time lifting our feet a couple of inches for numerous occasions until we reach the middle row, stepping closer to the five of our friends. Randall and Bruiser are on the left end of the row, Chet and Chip are in the middle, and Javier is on the right side. We decide to sit next to Javier, Johnny being in between me and him.

"Amigo? When do you think we will get the next Scare Games riddle?" Javier questions after leaning closer to Johnny.

Johnny grunts as he takes a seat, and crosses his legs to get comfortable. "Uh I was thinking sometime next week. Why do you ask?"

"I want to know if Oozma Kappa will be even stand a chance during the next event. Considering that they should have been eliminated during this last one, I'm going to assume they'll botch this next one as well," Javier responds.

"Don't even worry about them," Johnny says rolling his eyes, "They've proven themselves to be hopeless. If they can't do a simple obstacle course, how will they be able to do anything else. They'll just simply continue being an embarrassment to the university, nothing more nothing less."

They're not hopeless though, and it enrages me to hear him talk like they're not even people with real emotions and capabilities. None of them have experience in being a part of a competition like the Scare Games before, and it only means that they'll learn how to adapt. It's obvious that they didn't do very well in the first event, but they all still eventually made it to the finish line, so they're not going to give up, sit around, and not do something in order to become better Scarers.

"Do you think they will remember that it's a team competition?" Javier asks.

Johnny answers sounding tired of this conversation. "Probably not. To top that off, I don't think they remember anything about Scaring. Seriously, I don't know why we're even competing against non-scaring majors. It's discrediting at this point to just be in their presence."

"Can't that niño Wazowski be considered a Scaring major still? Won't he be let back into the program if he somehow wins?" Javier questions further.

"He wont," Johnny sighs, "A purposeless monster like him doesn't even have a chance. He's not worth anyone's time since he's so small and not scary, so I can't even believe Hardscrabble even gave him any attention, or anyone's attention for that matter. If I were her, I would have just thrown him to the curb. The kids a lost cause."

I keep my mouth shut, but Johnny has no right to talk about someone like that. People aren't superior or inferior to each other, we're not made to serve those who show more social adorned traits than others. Everyone should also be given the chance to prove themselves to be greater than what they seem, and from what I know, Mike wasn't given that chance. Johnny's opinion is one of the worst I've ever heard by a long shot, and I don't think I'll ever hear something like that ever again. I would be under exaggerating if I said that his opinion on this matter didn't burn my ears while listening to it.

"Let's wait and see then," Javier concludes just as the previews start, "Oh and by the way, I've heard crazy things about this movie."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Johnny asks. He said he was expecting this to be kind of corny so this comes as quite the surprise.

With a little shimmy, Javier positions himself so he can sit comfortably in the leathery, cushioned seats. "People have been saying that this is one of the first horror movies that's truly terrified them, because of it's almost hyper realistic presentation of the human zombies."

"Wait really?" Johnny whispers.

Javier looks confused. "Yeah, didn't you read the warning sign outside before you came in? The monster world hasn't ever seen anything like this in the film industry, and it's said that it'll keep an entire future generation from becoming Scarers."

Oh god.

The moon has gone green as the crackling of flames drowns out the silence. Blood curdling screams echo down the empty streets, covered in the many car wrecks and destroyed street side stores. Any and all signs that have writing on them have weathered off, and the lights that used to illuminate them have since lost power. The skyscrapers above have started growing vines and various other forms of flora on their sides, and even invade the parts of the buildings that have holes blown into them, most likely from explosions. New beginnings of plants have even weaved their way through the cracks in the pavement down below, showing how long this world has been plunged into despair.

A reptilian female monster wearing a ripped up black hoodie and backpack, who looks to be in her late teens, tiptoes out of an alleyway to see if anyone occupies the street we've been shown. She turns her head behind her after hearing another scream the penetrates the sky, alerting the rest of the city that something grim is occurring. She pants heavily in fear after hugging the building next to her, and entering one of the shops, probably to scavenge for supplies that might still be within.

The dust that has accumulated floats in the air, barely moving until the breeze generated by her movement sends them rocketing in various directions. Many of the shelves have been knocked over and have caused many things to be spilt all over the floor, and the light fixtures have been destroyed, making the wiring and the fixture itself reach down towards the floor. There's even a couple of streaks of blood that are scattered around the store, curving in unnatural ways along with floor and up the walls. The girl cautiously avoids every obstacle in her way, intentionally trying not to make a sound as more screams fill the air and the fires outside continue to burn intensely.

She finds various rations and tools for her to put in her backpack, and hesitates to make the risky journey back outside. But before she leaves, she finds a large knife that lays on one of the shelves. She reaches for it and drags it off the shelf, but wasn't ready for the shelf to collapse thunderously and dramatically, causing several raspy roars to pierce her ear drums. She jumps behind the counter that was originally used as checkout and hides underneath it. The camera shifts above her to show two humans running in, flailing their arms and then stopping when they find nothing they want in from of them.

Their faces are decayed to a point where the skin has turned grey, and their eyes glow with a swamp green hue. Each individual strand of muscle is revealed and are covered in dried blood as they gurgle grotesquely while searching for what made the sound. They twitch and tweak relentlessly as infected goop spills out of their mouths, making unsettling cracks and clicks when their feet inch closer to the shelves. One of them even has its entire torso ripped open, revealing an incomplete skeleton and bloated digestive system.

The girl peeks over to see the two human zombies moving deeper into the store, giving her the chance to escape. Unfortunately she's instantly noticed as she slides over the counter and takes off in a full blown sprint. The two humans screech, and alert hordes of them towards their location. With a switch to a first person view, we can see the girl jumping over obstacles and dodging every human that comes sprinting in from in front of her. Her pants and whimpers can be heard even when the appalling shriek forms the hundreds of creatures behind her screech with to no end. She miraculously avoids them all, and takes refuge in an empty and dark brick building at the edge of the city for the purpose of turning on the power to the district. The sanctuary that she lives in with other survivors need the power to see if they can contact anyone outside the city for help, and have sent several others in here only to never hear from them again.

She finds the staircase after searching in near darkness, and moves down to the basement that's been partially flooded. It's musty, mossy, and moldy, and smells of rot, making it obvious that it hasn't been occupied in many years. The echo of water dripping for above only adds to the uneasiness and suspense. The girl doesn't seem to have patience and rushes further into the basement to try her best and turn on any sort of generator or switch that could complete her mission. That's when more human zombies sprint out of the hallways because of the sound of her feet plunging into the water on the floor. The camera moves close to the humans face as it screams relentlessly at the girl, clawing at her and now not stopping until she's dead.

I take my eyes away from the screen and come to the conclusion that this movie was way worse than I thought it would be. While the story isn't really all that great, those human zombies make me want to go home to my parents and throw my head underneath my beds blankets. It seems almost everyone else agrees as well. Chet sits in his seat while shivering and his claws close to his mouth. Chip has his eyes and mouth wide open, while Bruiser and Javier look like they've been forever traumatized. It's Randall and Johnny who look like they don't know how to feel about it. I keep my focus on Johnny though, knowing that he's doing his best to analyze everything about this supposed piece of 'art.' I just keep my eyes away from the screen and lean against his arm out of slight fear.

Since the movie is blaring, I can't ignore everything about it. The human zombies only make me more terrified to be in the profession that I am, and it only makes me want to never step foot in the human world now. I know humans aren't actually like zombies, and that this is purely fictional, but there's this irrational feeling within me that makes me think that I couldn't fend for myself in the human world anymore. Johnny has told me that many of the scaring programs classes will teach you how to do that, but I don't even know if I could handle being chased or hunted by humans.

I'm also able to understand small parts of the movie when I unintentionally focus back into the plot. The girl ends up finding one of the survivors that was previously sent in the building and turns on the power with him. Over the course of a few days, they learn more about each other and fall in love (which is really cringeworthy). They eventually find their way out of the power grid, but get chased into a skyscraper and climb all the way up to the top to see in the distance that their sanctuary has been overrun by humans. The humans then break through the rooftop door and kill them.

What a truly dreadful movie. I think Johnny agrees with me when he shakes his head, but everyone else seems to be amazed by what they just witnessed. Maybe it's because Johnny and I are avid readers, and have digested infinitely better stories than that, while everyone else probably doesn't know what a good story is to begin with. It's possible that they're more surprised by the zombies though, of which I can agree.

"Ok…" Chip says to break the silence between us all as the credits roll, "Let's... just go home."

Randall, Chip, Chet, and Bruiser leave in somewhat of hurry, leaving Javier, Johnny and I behind.

"So uh…what did you two think?" Javier asks with his antennae drooping down.

Johnny has the courage to speak first. "I mean, the story was god awful, but the humans were…something else."

Javier seems shocked to hear him say that. He clearly thought otherwise. "Y-you thought the story was bad?"

"Yeah. It just wasn't interesting or original at all. We could have literally went to some electronics store, got a video game console, bought a zombie game, and experienced the exact same thing as that…aside from the human zombies of course," Johnny clarifies.

"Ok good, I was hoping that I wasn't the only one horrified by those zombies as well," Javier admits.

"I mean if you want to talk about how scary it was with someone, talk to Mel. She stopped paying attention half way through," Johnny chuckles before standing up and helping me stand on my two feet.

"You stopped watching?" Javier questions while leading the way towards the exit.

"Well it was because I didn't want to watch it anymore... and not because I was scared," I respond while trying to hide the quaking within my voice.

"Well regardless," Johnny sighs, "I'm sure we're all rethinking our career choices right now. Chet especially."

I can just tell that Chet and I will vividly remember this movie for the rest of our lives. The details on those humans were astronomical. No wonder there was a warning before entering the theater, and no wonder people have been giving rave reviews about the production quality. Everyone leaves the theater knowing they'll have nightmares, even Scarers who are considered to be fearless.

The ride home is somewhat quiet. It's nearing midnight, and everyone wishes to get some shit eye before school tomorrow. It's moments like these that make me thankful for taking classes later in the day so that I don't suffer first thing in the morning after getting no sleep. The boys all seem to be going through the motions of seeing something traumatizing and go up to their rooms after we finally reach home. I'm unfortunately too slow to do the same, trudging into the house with Johnny behind me. No light was turned on, which only makes me think that some human zombie will show itself as I turn a corner somewhere. So, I stop in the kitchen, and wait for Johnny to shut the garage door.

"You alright Mel?" He asks after walking up beside me.

"Um…n-not really. I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing that. The plot was terrible and the acting was sub-par," I answer.

He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close. "I get it. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared by that movie too," He discloses.

"You were scared too?" I ask, unintentionally admitting that I was scared myself.

"I normally wouldn't say this to just anyone, but yes, I was. There's certain reasons as to why, but I'm certain you would find it easier to understand if you asked Professor King. Even though he's a scientific mastermind, he's quite the literary genius and could tell you the exact reason as to why you should be scared watching that," Johnny explains.

"But I thought you were…like…fearless," I mumble.

Johnny sighs. "Unfortunately the monster world thinks being scared is a bad thing, as if it isn't something we need in order to survive. So, In order for me to survive toxic social constructs, I have to act like I am."

He makes an extremely good point. The first ever civilized monsters would have been killed by a plethora of things if they didn't cower in fear after seeing poisonous animals, or taking caution when building things. Fearing humans is something natural, not a curse.

Johnny takes my hand and pulls me to the front of the house towards the stairs, presumably so that we can go to bed. "While it might seem impossible now, I'm sure you'll be 'fearless' too some day soon."

Hello friends.

I'm just here to say that I will be taking a short break from writing and posting. I've been feeling a little burnt out recently and generally unmotivated to write, so I figured taking a break was the best option before I just completely stopped writing. Just like before, it won't be too long before I post again, but don't expect something within the next few days.

Thanks for reading,

Lupinelectro