Author's Note: Heya, it's uh… it's been awhile since the last chapter (I can't believe I left this almost two months…). I'm not gonna lie and say I've been too busy, tbh shortly after I posted this and the finale came out some things went down IRL that made me really struggle to get myself motivated to do this chapter. I'll try to not let future chapters take as long, I don't wanna say that's guaranteed, however I can say at the very least that I want to finish this sequel and the possible season three story if I ever go through with it.
On a lighter note the review for the last five episodes will be at the end of the chapter, so uh… spoiler warning in the unlikely event you haven't watched them yet.
Reviews
Guest: I always thought that Scary Girl had to have had a reason as to why she acted the way she did, and combined with the crumbs season one had given us I gave her a backstory that explains why she did what she did. It doesn't excuse her actions as stalking people is a horrible thing to do, but there likely is a reason beyond 'going further in the game' that I felt would explain why she went so far in trying to do 'conform to societal norms', but I suppose until a potential third season is released we won't truly know.
Guest(2): I'm really sorry about the delay, like I said above there were issues that kept me from being motivated to continue, but the wait for chapter four shouldn't be as long.
MatiasND: I always read the reboot seasons (and basically all of the 13 episode seasons) as taking place over the span of two weeks. One challenge per day with the possible exceptions of night challenges (which never happen in the reboot). I apologise for any confusion with that, but yeah Lauren's section is the morning of episode two, and the last couple episode three.
It only affects Chris if he ever finds out about it, and I wouldn't say 2nd least favourite (I think that title belongs to Ella given how he treated her in PI). The lawsuit is ongoing behind the scenes, with the producers working to try and cover up/defend Chris while he's back at the island hosting.
Chapter Three
Ezekiel was tired…
Despite the fact that it had only been three days since Lauren had left in that weird outfit to compete in her second season, and only forty eight hours since he'd gotten that phone call from her teammates about what she had admitted to doing as she got eliminated, it felt much longer had passed for the Prairie Boy, and he was beginning to struggle slightly with keeping his mind off of things.
He had tried his best to not let what everyone on the island had told him get to him, but ultimately the discomfort and anxiety over the whole situation was beginning to get to him. At first he had tried to get into any form of contact with Lauren, wanting desperately to find out what was going on and more importantly if she was okay, however every single attempt of calling or messaging had gone ignored.
Eventually after having come to his senses the morning after Lauren's elimination and the subsequent conversation with her former teammates, he had proceeded to throw himself into any and all chores that he could in order to keep his mind off of things until he either heard from Lauren, or at least heard anything from one of the other contestants on the island.
He quickly found himself however overworking himself slightly in doing so, his mornings spent travelling back to his farm from the funeral home, the majority of the day spent helping his family with tending to the farm, and the night time spent travelling back 'home', where he would spend the night alone with only the decorated skull for company.
He still wasn't entirely sure as to why he was coming back to the home, it wasn't as if Lauren was just going to materialise in front of him, it wasn't the most comforting place for him either considering how eerie parts of the building were without Lauren being around to liven the place up. And it would have been so much easier for the Prairie Boy to have stayed back at the farm, maybe spend some more time outside of his farm work with his family.
Ezekiel shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his mind as he laid on the couch in the living room of the building, the decorated skull sat on a cushion in front of him as the Prairie Boy found himself flipping aimlessly through channels…
He eventually gave up, leaning backwards into the couch with a soft sigh as the channel he stopped at began playing some other reality show that looked vaguely similar to Total Drama, except in a completely different location and a more varied group in terms of ages.
After a few minutes Ezekiel found himself beginning to doze off slightly, the exhaustion from the last couple days beginning to get to him, however just as quickly as his eyes closed they shot back open, the sounds of his phone's ringtone echoing around the room.
Ezekiel tiredly glanced around for a moment, eventually finding the small device sat next to the decorated skull that accompanied him on the couch, he reached past the skull and picked it up, an eyebrow raised upon seeing Millie's face greeting him.
Ezekiel shrugged slightly, a small frown on his face as his finger hovered over the screen for a moment, hesitating to accept the call. He knew what one of the others calling him likely entailed, and deep down he was worried about what else might have happened concerning his girlfriend, snippets of the conversation with the former members of Lauren's team briefly flashing through his mind.
He took a deep breath, readying himself for whatever news would come from Millie, or whoever else was going to be with her for the conversation, and pressed down on the icon to accept the call, quickly bringing the phone up to his ear so that he could hear them.
The Prairie Boy only had enough time to mutter a tired "Hello…?" into the phone before Millie spoke, her tone a mixture of concern and fear.
"Lauren's missing…"
"What?" Ezekiel almost shouted, his body beginning to wake up as he fully processed the information. His eyes widened in fear as the phone almost dropped from his hand, whatever news he was expecting it wasn't something as serious as that.
He quickly raised the phone back up, faintly hearing the sound of Millie calling out to him from the speaker, as well as another voice in the background, however that one he couldn't make out what they were saying.
"You okay Ezekiel?" Millie sounded really concerned.
"I-I'm fine eh… you just surprised me with that…" Ezekiel apologised, a small frown on his face. "But what do you mean Lauren's missing?"
"I looked all over for her when I arrived at the resort, but she's nowhere to be found and her room is completely destroyed, heck I even asked Chase if he'd seen her at all and he hasn't…" Millie explained, her tone sounding concerned.
Ezekiel took a moment to process this information, Lauren's gone missing again from the resort? And this time… he could do nothing about it since last time he'd been there with her the whole time she'd been AWOL. He opened his mouth ready to respond, however this quickly turned to a mixture of annoyance and concern as Ezekiel began to hear the sounds of both Millie and presumably Chase fighting over the phone. "Hey! Give that back Chase!" Millie complained, her voice slightly fainter.
"No way, I need to confront him about what Stalker Girl had been doing! He was clearly in on it!" Chase responded angrily, Ezekiel frowning in annoyance at his words.
"Did you not listen to a word the others said!" Millie shouted at him as the sounds of them fighting over the phone continued. "He wasn't involved at all…"
"Well that's not what Julia and MK said!" Chase revealed, Millie gasping in shock before the sound of a loud smack could be heard through the speaker, before what was most likely the sounds of Chase falling to the floor.
"And you believed them! Are you crazy!" Millie cried out in surprise, annoyance creeping into her tone. "Didn't you learn anything from them last season!"
"Well… I… uh…" Chase could be faintly heard, the prankster unable to reply to Millie's words.
"That's what I thought." Millie stated, sounding unimpressed with Chase before placing her phone back to her ear once more. "Sorry about that Zeke…" She apologised.
Ezekiel suppressed an animalistic-like growl as he spoke his next words, trying not to spook Millie since she'd done nothing wrong. "I-It's fine… I just… shouldn't be surprised that the 'new Heather' of your season would say that."
Millie giggled slightly, trying to hide her own nerves as she replied. "Yeah, to be honest nothing got mentioned after the night Lauren got booted, not until I was at least…"
"You…" Ezekiel gulped softly, hesitating for a moment. "You don't think she's back on Boney Island? Do you?"
"I hope not…" Millie sighed. "But to be honest, I almost think she's doing what you did on that plane… I think she might still be on the island."
Ezekiel's eyes widened in a mixture of horror and shock. "Y-You're joking, right… t-there's no way she's gonna do that."
"I mean, it sounds like a 'Scary Girl' thing to do" Chase interrupted again, however the slight anger he had towards both Ezekiel and Lauren before was gone, almost sounding slightly concerned himself. "She did look really angry at us when she was voted out, maybe she wants revenge?"
Ezekiel could hear Millie go silent over the phone, and his blood went cold at the thought. This was turning scarily like his own situation had been. "I-I should b-be t-there…" He eventually stuttered out.
"What?!" Both Millie and Chase responded.
"I'm getting a really bad feeling about this, Millie's right, it feels too similar to what I did in World Tour…" Ezekiel was shaking, extremely worried about the unknown status of his girlfriend at this point.
"Ezekiel! Listen to me!" Millie shouted down the phone. "It's going to be alright! We'll find her and… I'll call the others on the island and ask them to keep an eye out for her. We won't let anything bad happen to Lauren I promise!"
He could then hear the venom in Millie's voice as she spoke next, although not to him. "Right… Chase!"
Chase laughed nervously, and although Ezekiel couldn't see them he was sure Chase was rubbing his head and looking sheepishly at Millie. "Yeah… sure… I'll help…" He was really beginning to regret coming with Millie to look for Lauren instead of continuing his recording.
"T-Thank you eh… really…" Ezekiel responded, genuine gratitude towards Millie and even Chase.
"No problem!" Millie responded reassuringly, and Ezekiel could tell even over the phone that she was smiling. "You're our friend, and Lauren is too… even if she scares the life out of us sometimes"
"Most of the time!" Chase coughed out.
Millie sighed. "Yeah… most of the time… but the point is we still care about you guys, and seeing what's happening to her… we wanna help."
Ezekiel nodded, genuinely thankful for their support "Thanks eh, b-but promise me you'll keep me up to date, I'm about one bad situation away from making my way to that island myself!"
Millie laughed nervously in response to that. "W-We'll make sure it doesn't come to that…"
"I mean I wouldn't mind if it means he brings those other guys with him again." Chase grinned, remembering some of the antics he shared with the older contestants after his elimination last season.
"Chase… you know that's not gonna happen…" Millie deadpanned.
Chase just groaned in disappointment, both of the others in the conversation chuckling slightly, although Ezekiel was more confused given he couldn't see what was going on.
"Well… I should probably let you two carry on with, well… whatever you guys were planning on before…" Ezekiel trailed off, his expression dropping once more as he remembered Lauren disappearing.
Millie noticed this and her last words to him were a little more reassuring. "Don't worry Zeke… we'll find her soon… I promise…" She then hung up before either Ezekiel or Chase could respond.
Ezekiel lifted the phone away slowly, looking down at the device once his hands were back near his lap, before sighing heavily.
"What the hell is happening to you Lauren…" Ezekiel whispered to himself, putting the phone away and grabbing the decorated skull sitting next to him, holding it closely to him as he curled into himself.
"First the 'normal' stuff and now this…" Ezekiel sighed once more, trying to keep his worry contained even though there was nobody around to judge him. "I just hope you're okay right now… wherever you are…"
*The Next Day, midway through Episode Four*
"Rat Faces, you're up!" Chris announced gleefully, this challenge had gone swimmingly for him so far, neither team seemed to be getting many, if any, of the questions right. Soon enough the whole cast would be plunging into a pool of wolverines for his own amusement.
Axel was trying to inch her way towards the glass bridge for her team, however she was quickly getting irritated by the huge pressure on her right leg that was Emma's grip.
"Don't worry! I've got this! No seriously, just listen to me… I know people, I am a people person!" Emma tried desperately to convince Axel, smiling nervously up at the increasingly pissed off looking survivalist.
Axel looked back at the others with a deadpan look, trying to hold off from snapping at Emma. "Is she though…" She asked bluntly to her other teammates.
Damien and Caleb looked unsure about answering it, however Priya decided to be a little more optimistic about Emma's 'skills', giving her another chance to redeem herself. "She seems super confident about it, let's give her another shot…" Her tone didn't seem nearly as confident as Emma was, however Axel relented at this.
Emma stood up gratefully, ready to try again, however Axel glared back at her. "I hate wolverines…" Axel began, getting into Emma's face, placing her finger under Emma's chin and flicking it slowly, almost threateningly. "So you better not mess this up!"
Emma just gulped in response, suddenly not feeling so confident about how this was going to go as Axel stepped onto the glass platform. Her expression got even more fearful as Chris began to speak once more.
"Rat Faces! Get ready for your next question!" Chris announced gleefully, pressing the button in his hand to reveal the next contestant's question… Lauren appeared on the screen, dressed in her old outfit and was turned away from the camera, presumably having been talking to somebody just before the Chris in the video began to speak to her.
"Scary Girl…" Chris began, his voice filled with barely held back disgust for his least favourite of the new contestants as Lauren glanced back at the camera, her smile wide and looking terrifying. "Would you rather…"
The camera then glitched briefly, Lauren suddenly looking straight at the camera in a way that made the more nervous contestants like Damien and Emma jump back slightly. Axel just glanced back at them, rolling her eyes slightly as she waited for Chris to announce Lauren's question.
"A, take truth serum and be questioned by Chef…" Chris continued as Lauren smiled widely on screen. "Or B, only be able to eat Chef's cooking for a whole year?"
The video was then paused for the challenge to continue, Chris waiting patiently but smugly for Axel's response, although he did take a moment to glare at the image of Lauren, remembering the day she'd come in for this interview, he'd hated that one purely because she'd dragged Ezekiel along for the ride.
Axel glanced back once more, only for her glare to get more intense as she noticed Emma begin to bite her nails in worry. She looked over at the other three from her team still in the challenge, hoping they'd have some idea, only for Caleb to shrug, Priya to grin nervously whilst shaking her head, and Damien…
Damien looked like a nervous wreck at the sight of Lauren, shaking in fear at the sight of her…
"Pull yourself together Damien! It's just pixels on a screen! She's not gonna hurt you!" Axel shouted over, looking really annoyed at what she thought was a pathetic sight.
"I-I'm t-trying!" Damien shouted back nervously, gulping as he tried to calm himself down.
"Emma! Have you got an answer yet!" Axel called over to her.
"Okay, nobody likes Chef's cooking…" Emma muttered to herself nervously. "But I can't imagine that Scary Girl wants anyone knowing what's going on in her head?"
"Except Ezekiel…" Caleb grinned knowingly, unaware not only of the fact that he may have messed up slightly by saying that, but also of the fact that Chris glared over at him at the mere mention of Ezekiel, now knowing that he'd have to cut out this part and get Emma to do a confessional instead.
"Yeah… except Ezekiel…" Emma agreed, before smiling with false confidence. "So it's gotta be B, one hundred percent"
Emma then shouted over to Axel, placing her hands around her mouth as she called out to the survivalist. "B, Axel! B!"
"You better be right!" Axel warned Emma, pointing towards her as she stepped forward onto the blue panel in front of her, before looking towards the screen to hear what Lauren would say.
Chris grinned, pressing the button again to play the rest of the clip, knowing full well that Axel had screwed up by trusting Emma on this.
"I pick A!" Lauren announced gleefully as the camera glitched again to a close up of her face, a red X plastered over it to show that Axel had got it wrong. Axel didn't even have the time to brace herself before the platform disappeared from under her feet, sending her plummeting and screaming into the pool of wolverines.
"Crap…" Caleb winced as Axel fell. "Maybe she does trust more people than just her boyfriend…"
"Wait, what's she saying…" Priya shushed him, pointing at the clip of Lauren that had yet to finish.
"No skeletons in my closet!" Lauren announced gleefully, the audio then sounded the slightest bit off but in their concern for her next words none of the cast registered that. "I mean… there are, but only because I live in a funeral home…"
Everyone else shuddered slightly in fear at this fact, whilst Chris grinned knowingly, taking his little piece of revenge against Lauren for the ongoing lawsuit against him. "Ahh, I miss that weirdo…" Chris said sarcastically to himself, a smug look on his face.
"Speaking of… anyone know where MK is?" Chris asked the others, also taking a moment to look down at the five contestants currently at the bottom of the cliff after their plunge into the pool, missing the nervous looks Bowie and Julia gave each other.
Whilst this was happening though, the Rat Faces and Ripper were still trying to process the information that Lauren had just dropped on them.
"I'm sorry, what the hell does she mean funeral home! AND there's skeletons in her closet!" Damien looked nervously towards the now blank screen, at least somewhat thankful that the image of Lauren was no longer there to haunt them.
"Didn't she say she lived in a circus? Why the sudden change?" Priya questioned.
"Between this and the stalking she admitted to the other day, I'm just shocked that the feral guy she's with is still alive…" Ripper shrugged, looking over the edge and down the cliff, watching with concern as Axel tried to escape the wolverines in the pool.
"You mean Ezekiel? Hang on… do you think he knows about this?" Emma asked.
"I mean, we could always ask him about this whole… 'Funeral Home' thing?" Damien responded, only for the others to look at him. "Wait… what are you looking at me for?"
"I mean, you're the one who's closest to Ezekiel here." Caleb pointed out. "I barely spoke to either of them, neither does Emma or Ripper, and I doubt Bowie or Julia are gonna be in on this…" He pointed to the latter two, who were currently trying to tell Chris about MK's whereabouts… something about explosive diarrhoea.
Damien however looked at Priya first. "Wait… but Priya hangs out with them just as much as I do?" He questioned.
"Well… I do… but I'm gonna be busy with my training after the challenge…" Priya excused herself, an apologetic smile on her face.
"Yeah, both of us agreed to do our workouts together." Caleb added, smiling at Priya, who returned it with a small blush on her face.
"S-Sorry Damien, y-you're gonna have to t-take one for the team." Priya apologised, looking slightly flustered.
Damien sighed in acceptance. "Alright… but if Zeke or Scary Girl decide to hurt me after this, I'm blaming you two in particular." He warned the pair, however the small smile on his face betrayed his otherwise threat.
"Can we get on with things please Rat Faces!" Chris shouted over, before grinning over to the Skunk Butts, seeing Ripper step forward nervously. "Alright! Skunk Butts… next question…"
*Later that night*
After the phone call that had taken place the previous night, Ezekiel hadn't been too surprised that he'd been called once more about the ongoing situation with his girlfriend.
He had left the farm around an hour beforehand and was just about back at the funeral home that Lauren (and now himself by extension given the current circumstances) called home when his phone had once again gone off.
He answered it almost immediately, only pausing slightly at the different name that had flashed up on the screen, but he shrugged it off as he lifted the phone to his ear, believing that the person calling had most likely just been eliminated and was at the resort with Millie and hopefully Lauren.
Ezekiel hadn't been too surprised about the phone call, what he was surprised about however was what the phone call was about…
He hadn't even been able to open his mouth to greet the other person when they immediately began to question him.
"Is Scary Girl really living in some freaky Funeral Home?" Damien's voice greeted him, his tone filled with uncertainty and fear.
Ezekiel's first reaction was to almost literally face plant onto the ground beneath him, the Prairie Boy not having expected this at all, after all they had never told anyone else about where Lauren had been living for the past few months in between seasons. Anytime they had been able to see anyone from the show it was far away from the building, and the two had never been seen apart…
It had been something they had agreed on as a just in case method of protecting Lauren from being found by her family, neither of them knew how far they would go to try and find her so they never risked it, even after her abusive parents had already confronted Mecidi about Lauren a couple of months into the break between seasons.
Instead of face planting however, Ezekiel simply shook his head clear of his thoughts, raising an eyebrow in confusion at Damien's comment. "Eh? W-What are you talking about?" Ezekiel responded, feigning ignorance. "She lives in a circus eh… we showed you guys the last time you visited"
"Dude, I can tell you're lying… besides we just had a challenge where she revealed it…" Damien revealed, his tone becoming slightly more deadpanned as he spoke, although the discomfort about what Lauren had said in the challenge still remained.
"Wait… YOU'VE SEEN HER!" Ezekiel shouted, his eyes widening with a variety of emotions running through them, the shock of her living conditions being revealed on TV at the back of his mind as he began speaking once more. "Is she okay? Is she back in the game? Or back at the Playa? What about the rest of you? She didn't try and get revenge, did she?" Ezekiel's mouth was going at one hundred miles an hour, Damien not being able to understand any of the questions that were being asked.
"Well… not exactly…" Damien began sheepishly, he'd heard from Millie about what had happened at the resort the previous night involving Lauren's sudden disappearance.
It was pretty safe to say that none of the remaining thirteen contestants had felt particularly comfortable about the fact that Lauren was most likely hiding on the island with them, even if that was just a theory as to where she had gone as of now. True to Millie's promise to Ezekiel, they'd kept a subtle look out for the Scary Girl whenever they could, however there had been no signs of her on the island, aside from the recording of her that Chris used in the challenge earlier.
"Look… it wasn't really her okay Ezekiel… I'm sorry" Damien continued, looking somewhat regretful that he'd gotten his hopes up. "The challenge involved these interviews we did a few months ago just after the end of last season, do you remember?"
Ezekiel paused for a moment, a small but sad frown on his face as he registered that Lauren hadn't been seen after all. But then he began to register Damien's second comment about those interviews, he remembered that there was something like that, Ezekiel had gone with Lauren to hers, although this had been before the season had aired so there wasn't much danger at the time of her family finding out.
But there was one major problem with what Damien had said…
"Wait… you said that she mentioned the funeral home?" Ezekiel questioned, sounding both confused and terrified.
"I did… why?" Damien responded, sounding just as confused and terrified as Ezekiel.
"Well, that's the weird part… I remember being with her for the whole thing, although I wasn't allowed to be on camera. But… I know she never once mentioned where we were living in the whole thing." Ezekiel explained.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah eh, I mean she mentioned the circus but that was her old home before last season."
Damien blinked, his suspicion growing about this development, but it sounded like Ezekiel was telling the truth about the whole thing. He needed to dig deeper, because either Ezekiel was withholding part of the truth, or Chris did something to figure this 'Funeral Home' situation out.
"So you never told anyone this? At all?" Damien asked.
"No way eh, we didn't want unwanted attention from her family since they'd just hurt her, it was why she was living at this funeral home in the first place since she'd have been found at that circus." Ezekiel responded.
Damien thought to himself for a moment, this did sound rational, however there was still the comment itself that confused him slightly. "Okay, I can understand why you two would be secretive, but the issue here is that there's video evidence of Scary Girl talking about this."
"Well, what exactly did she say eh?" Ezekiel asked Damien.
He thought back to the clip. "Something about skeletons in her closet, and then justifying there being actual ones by saying she lived in that funeral home."
Ezekiel raised an eyebrow, looking extremely confused. "Well… um… I'll admit that she did say she had no skeletons in her closet, because I thought that was one of them phrases people said."
"You're not wrong, it means you have nothing to hide, that you'll reveal anything even if it's embarrassing or personal." Damien explained, before frowning. "But technically she contradicted herself if you're saying you two didn't mention this funeral home."
Ezekiel shook his head again, almost pleading with Damien. "I promise you she never mentioned it."
Damien took another moment to think to himself, Ezekiel didn't sound like he was lying, and he did remember how open Ezekiel had been both back at the Playa Des Losers last season and the moments they hung out in-between seasons.
"I believe you… b-but I almost d-don't want to…" Damien gulped. "B-Because if you d-didn't say anything, a-and Scary Girl d-didn't… t-then how does Chris know?"
Ezekiel's breath hitched, not knowing for himself… "Y-You don't think h-he followed u-us did you? L-Like a camera c-crew?"
"Hell if I know, but I suppose either way it's too late now…" Damien sighed, realising what this was gonna mean for both Ezekiel and Lauren when this episode eventually aired.
"Damn… s-so I guess w-we'll have to accept t-that they're g-gonna come for her…" Ezekiel realised, his tone sounding defeated.
Damien's expression softened upon hearing this, beginning to realise himself just how much this was hurting both Ezekiel and Lauren just to keep her safe from further abuse. "Hey, if you want we can be there if they try anything, I'm sure if what? Eight of us were there for you two so that they wouldn't try anything." Damien offered.
Ezekiel smiled softly, sounding grateful as he spoke. "You guys would do that? Even after all this?"
"Hey, it's like Millie said, you two are our friends, even if Scary Girl freaks me out all the time." Damien responded.
It was then that Ezekiel heard the door to the cabin Damien was in slam open. "Yo Damien… it's time for the ceremony man, get off the phone…" Zee called over.
"Really?" Damien sighed. "I guess I have to go then Zeke…" Damien then looked up to Zee. "Hey Zee, wanna say hi to Ezekiel while he's still here?"
"Of course man… sup guy!" Zee greeted with a small wave despite the fact that Ezekiel couldn't see him, only hear him.
"Hi Zee…" Ezekiel greeted back with a small smile. "Guess I better let you guys vote someone off…"
Damien sighed. "Yeah… I feel bad for it too, but Emma really screwed up today so she's basically voted herself off." He then shook his head as he stood up. "Well I'll uh… talk to you soon okay Zeke"
"Okay eh, just keep me updated if Lauren shows up" Ezekiel replied.
"Will do…" Damien smiled.
"Later man!" Zee added before Damien ended the call, the two members of the Rat Faces leaving the cabin to head to the elimination ceremony.
Ezekiel sighed once the call disconnected, leaning against the wall in the hallway, the door leading outside still open. Ezekiel slumped to the ground for a few moments, still trying to process everything that he'd learned from this conversation.
"God… why is this just getting more and more complicated…" Ezekiel whispered weakly to himself, having to hold back tears as he felt the familiar uncertainty and pain that he was becoming accustomed to since he first started to notice Lauren changing weeks ago.
Eventually however he got up, closing and locking the front door, before walking deeper into the funeral home, only to pause once he got into the living room.
"Wait… wasn't Lauren's bedroom door closed?" He muttered to himself, moving towards the slightly ajar door.
He opened it, walking into the dark room and turning the light on. Everything looked as he left it when he left this morning, even down to the decorated skull staring back at him from the drawer next to her bed.
He took a quick look around, feeling like something was off even though nothing seemed out of place. Everything seemed to be normal, at least in terms of his and Lauren's definition of normal…
That was… until he got to the closet.
Ezekiel knew that the quote that Damien mentioned was fabricated by Chris, but something was bugging him about it, and he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, so he opened the doors, only to freeze…
Most of the items inside were left as normal… however the iconic gothic clothing that she usually wore as her main outfit was gone… the dress… her sleeves… her socks and shoes… all gone.
"W-What…" Ezekiel whispered to himself, his eyes widening in fear, his breath coming out shakily as he processed what was going on…
Unbeknownst to him, as Ezekiel stood there in both shock and fear at the disappearance of the outfit that had originally been left behind, dozens of miles away, walking to a small boat on a dock was a familiar figure wearing that exact outfit… leaving behind the torn up remains of a more 'normal' looking outfit to burn in a small fire.
Lauren smiled eerily to herself as she took a look at her half restored appearance, her 'normal' face remaining the same even with her gothic clothing back where it belonged. It wasn't exactly the Scary Girl she knew she was, but it was the best she could restore herself with the small window she had, not so scary but not so normal either…
She glared back up towards the horizon as she got onto the boat, looking in the direction of where she knew the others were competing. They couldn't accept her for trying to be 'normal', so she'd show them all how terrifying she could truly be…
End Chapter
Author's Note: Yeah I wanted to add another reference in, so Disventure Camp gets a mention. I watched S1 for the first time a couple days after I posted the last chapter and I did kinda enjoy it, at the very least with S3 releasing it's something to help tide people over whilst we wait for confirmation of more reboot seasons. As for the second section, I thought to expand a little on what went on during that small section of the episode, so I added little bits and pieces in to add context.
Alright now that that's out of the way, I believe I have five episodes to review… (SPOILERS for those who need it, but if you've read this fic up to this point I'd assume you've seen the whole thing)
First off, the Negatives…
Everything I said about Caleb/Priya in the first eight episodes is doubled here, I don't mind the ship, however they did NOT need to spend the whole season on them, and as a result Caleb has essentially no personality, which is such a shame given I had high hopes for him at the start of the season.
The eliminations just got worse and worse. I liked MK's although (not the season's fault) the leaks from the BBC ruined any suspense given we knew it was between her and Raj. Damien's was yet another offscreen sabotage by Julia, I get why it wasn't shown but at least put a flashback in or something. I was so annoyed when he lost the idol last minute because I was rooting for him to win.
TBF after Damien's the eliminations did get better, Raj's and Priya's were both good eliminations, and I did cheer for Julia when Priya got idoled out, even if the final three felt a little lacklustre, I couldn't cheer for Caleb and I had doubts about Julia winning given the main villain usually doesn't win (World Tour being the exception, All Stars doesn't count since Mike defeats Mal before the end of the challenge) so there was only really Wayne left.
Lastly, I was really shocked to see that the 'Normal Girl' revenge plot didn't go anywhere in the end, I thought that with all of the teases that she would have shown up at some point, but it just never happened.
That being said however…
The Cameo's were great to see, I'm shocked that they picked some RR cameo's instead of more of the Gen 1 cast, however I loved MacArthur's inclusion in the K9 episode, and I did laugh seeing the Tennis Rivals cameo the following episode. It's still strange to see them look the same (mostly MacArthur) which just reinforces this whole potential retcon idea.
MKulia is still the best part of the season hands down! I loved those two and if season three does happen with this cast, I hope these two become canon! If not then I hope Julia and Wayne do because every scene with those two in was just gold, I laughed so hard at their scenes in episode 12 when she walked in dressed like a hockey player.
The challenges were still great, and the K9 challenge joins the jousting and RLGL challenge as my favourites of the season. The only one I didn't really like was the memory game and to an extent the fear challenge.
Seriously tho, the finale did save what was otherwise a poor end to the season, my issues with the final three aside, the episode was great, Lauren was here and at her best (best part of the finale), I loved Mullet haired Julia, and while predictable I did like seeing Wayne comeback and win the whole thing.