I thought you were a good writer until today. The utter lack of skill displayed in this chapter is astounding.
I am truly disappointed.
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Now you’re getting it! You’re becoming more like Ghid every day.
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Wow, I took a month-long break from this site (apparently I can procrastinate in social interactions on the internet as well) and I’m already two chapters behind… time sure flies. That’s unacceptable. Please make it stop.
And, since nobody tagged me during the time of my absence, Renner’s apparently still alive somehow. That’s a pleasant surprise.
Edit: why is everyone on the boards talking about bats now?
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uh.
run while you still can
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–
Chapter 21
–
The Dark Wall.
What a stupid cliché name.
It wasn’t even a wall, it was a dome; it surrounded that small strip of homes which Ghid had unfettered control over, and it was constructed to keep him in. Ghid in return constructed his own artificial dark wall further inside the larger one, centered around that eyesore tower, which was tall enough to extend past the original dome and allowing him to, in theory, simply waltz out of his containment whenever he chose. But with all the powers that being Ghid brings, flight is not one of them. At least he could see the stars now and then.
Regardless, the original dark wall had a significant advantage over its duplicate in that it was completely impenetrable to any force - and yet it proved to be ineffective against a wheelless vehicle driving directly towards it while the blue flames of a playing card engulfed all passengers on board. I was seated on one of Diero’s knees while Cordax sulked on the opposite one, trying to keep the extremely large suitcoat from blowing away. Sonus sat on the middle seat, jumping repeatedly as he watched the blue flames crawl across his body. Renner closed his eyes and waited for the process to complete.
Then an odd sensation came over me. It was a warmth, so unfamiliar and distant yet present and comforting. It was the closest thing to that hope I felt while trapped under the smoldering walls of Monopoly’s home, a comfort and light to my eyes so accustomed to the artificial beams of that fake sun constructed in the dome of darkness.
It was the sun beginning to rise.
On my left there was a small diner styled after the manner of a 50’s diner, with several large boards covering where a curved glass window ought to have been. A large neon sign proclaimed the name Fifty’s; I guess all the good ideas for restaurant names were taken. Diero interrupted my train of thought regarding the naming of culinary establishments by violently standing up and dumping me on the ground, Cordax letting out a yelp before tasting the delicious dirt of Fifty’s driveway, on the house.
“We got tracks here.” The deadsperado sniffed despite his lack of nose, sticking his pointy chin almost directly into the impression of a large foot print - I assumed I was the only one of these dunderheads who recognized it as the print of that yellow fellow with the terrible calligraphy. They lead onto a compacted dirt road and disappeared, and following them back to their origin point showed them trailing all the way back to the dark wall, which seemed eerily distant now.
Cordax had sputtered and hacked and scrambled to his feet, but now stood quizzically staring off at the tracks and scratching his chin. “If they went there… But that’s not possible, only I and monopoly know about that place. Hey- GGHIcKUlp”
Diero had gripped him by the throat and Renner sauntered up, tipping his head down to give what I can only assume was a menacing expression. “Something you need to tell us, Cordax?”
“Y-urg-yeah, forgot to mention,” Cordax gasped, ten spitting a large blob of blueish saliva directly into Renner’s eye. He calmly and rationally reacted by shouting and flailing until he fell into the only undamaged window on Fifty’s, breaking right through it and collapsing on the furniture inside.
“Your mother is a hamster.” Cordax stuck his tongue out and quickly regretted it as Diero immediately dropped him back in the dirt.
Renner was thankfully too busy picking pieces of broken glass off his body to bother retorting to that. He had only broken the window a little, but Diero vaulting through the remainder of it solved that little problem. I clambered through the open hole in the wall and started scrounging about for anything important behind the counter.
Renner mumbled something to his cohort about why in the world he was ever dumb enough to bring that stupid kid and Diero kindly reminded him he had a hot streak going and then Cordax clambered through the window gasping for air and implying he had swallowed a bug and-
What? Me? Oh, I was reaching under the counter for the Akaku that was there. I walked around the counter, looked at it, and watched the eyes glow orange, dropping it in shock as the rest of the party saw the-
None of them saw anything. They were too busy trying to handle Diero’s attempt at the Heimlich maneuver which saw him threatening to break Cordax’s ribcage as the latter almost screamed in protest with Renner trying to hurriedly talk Diero down, who didn’t understand what the issue was and wanted to see it through. So I did the whole thing again - I picked up the mask, looked at the eyes as they glowed orange, dropped it in shock and gave as much of a violent reaction as I could… And still nothing.
“Oh no. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and waited for someone to do something.
Renner finally looked at my plight, screamed “GHID MASK” and began violently stomping it into as fine of a powder as he could manage. Diero and Cordax stared at this process, frozen in place in surprise and concern for Renner’s mental health.
As this happened, I quietly slipped back out the window, tapping Cordax on the shoulder as I crawled out the open hole in the wall. There on the wheelless bike sat Jethryn’s lower half, now going by Sonus, staring directly at the sun in complete silence. I strolled up and looked at the sun for a moment to see if there was anything interesting happening, but it was just the sun, towering over the horizon, bathing the grey sky with an orange warmth.
“Cold.” Sonus finally spoke. I began to say something in reply, but paused. Something about the way he said that word seemed important to hear, and so I stood, silently waiting for the rest of his thoughts.
“So cold up there. So lonely. Alone. It can see the doings of every man, every action in repetition, the tiny specks of sentience making greater and greater impact, for better or for worse. For evil or for good. No thought taken to their individuality, their hopes, their dreams and fears and terrors walking in the dark, hungering, craving their hopes and hearts.”
What. Is this getting philosophical? It’s just the sun.
“They stand, they push back the night, the horrors, the creeping night returns once more, but only for a time. The shadows themselves are forced to hide only by the light of the sun, and it is a necessary task lest the world be clouded with the black of night. But there are no friends for that solemn sentinel, alone, in the cold.”
“So cold up there.” Sonus wrapped his arms around himself and drew his elongated head closer into his shoulders. “It’s so cold to be alone.”
I had pulled out a cigarette, but I had no means to light it. So it sat, being completely boring, in between my fingers. There was a question I knew I had to ask, but the implications it would bring were serious. They could, if improperly taken, threaten everything.
“Who is that darkness?”
“You.” He replied.
The cigarette fell to the ground. I was frozen in place, thoroughly terrified at the one word answer I had received. The sun’s warmth did nothing to alleviate my fears and tension at the accusation; far greater implications had been made by his statement than I could have ever made with mine.
“Every person is their own walking terror.” Sonus continued, oblivious to the sound of my joints unlocking and the air exhaling from my artificial lungs in exhausted relief. “Every person carries a shadow, a fragment of him. They feel his eyes bearing down at all times, his wickedness and vile thoughts hissing out behind their ears, speaking the worst of thoughts to their minds. He is everywhere in this world.”
I had leaned away from him during this speech. Who was this ‘Him’ he spoke of? Was it Ghid, perhaps? Because with the whole giant dome thing, you’d think people would be less concerned with his presence, being entombed and all.
Thankfully, to my saving grace, Renner appeared from out of the front door. “Either of you hungry? I looked around, and the only food there is a fridge drawer full of partially frozen spinach and nothing else. Oh wait, you probably can’t eat. Well, what about you, Tott?”
“No.” I puicked the cigarette back up off the ground and dusted it off. “Just a match is all I need.”
“Well then, we need to get going.” Renner said, looking back at Cordax as he climbed through the window and fell on his face. A guttering match had appeared under my chin and the wily grin of Diero peeked at me from my side. How he got here I don’t really know, but I reminded him how much I cared by lighting my cigarette with his flaming eye socket instead of the match.
“Dream: WILD CARD.” Renner said, climbing aboard the strange vehicle and starting it up. “We’re headed to the old cider factory to see if Monopoly was headed over there. Cordax, why do you have that?”
Cordax, who had picked up the Ghid suitcoat he had left on the vehicle, jumped in surprise and tried very badly to hide it behind his body. “Nothing nothing there’s nothing um it’s a gift from an uncle of mine yes that.”
“Uncle Ghid?” Renner said, raising one eyebrow. Now everyone was looking at him to see what his response would be.
“Sure?” Cordax whimpered, trying to sidle behind the bike. Diero grabbed him and set him on his knee again, motioning for me to climb up. I begrudgingly ascended, noticing for a brief moment the questioning stare of Sonus. He was now suspicious of me. Just wonderful.
The card was thrown, and that wheelless contraption rocketed forwards, entering the blue flames and emerging on the other side… And wildly swerving to avoid colliding with another vehicle. Diero was tossed from the bike in the process, and that means Cordax and myself as well. I did my best to roll off the pile of moron that preceded me to the ground, and almost collided with the vehicle itself.
While that strange contraption of Renner’s was a mix of reds and silvers, this one was jet black. It had some highlights here and there, but it was clearly meant to be extremely cool-looking or something. Blindingly reflective, polished to a ridiculous extent, and clearly designed for one and only one person. Renner approached during this inspection, and eyed the vehicle in what might have been jealousy.
“Now who in the world do you suppose this is?” He mused, while I looked towards the cider factory it was parked in front of. Someone was here ahead of us, someone with a much sweeter ride.
I wonder if I could switch parties.
–
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What is nine plus ten?
New chapter finally out. I really gotta pick up the pace on these.
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I’m behind by like 2 chapters 
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Well, knowing my most recent crime, I won’t be surprised if Renner dies a horrible death in the next chapter.
Also, my series of extremely deep and accurate analysis of chapters will be coming back really soon. I haven’t been stripped of the title of the Ultimate BoD Theoriser yet, have I?
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hey ghid was I the big monster guy who appeared in the last chapter
wait
Is tott N01 confirmed?
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About time, you have a lot of chapters to catch up on
Well at the present time there’s no other contenders so
Are you a giant pile of skeletons?
Tott is, in fact, someone
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no
wait
is it eilrach?
is he someone to trust?
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do you?
mmmmmmmmmmmmmaybe.
I gave enough pointers in the chapters to figure out these questions yourself balookah
I didn’t say he wasn’t @N01InParticular, just that he is someone.
but I also didn’t say that he is @N01InParticular.
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when do I show up
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I mean, now that they shot it with the eilrach bullets he is eilrach
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you already have
there’s one really big indicator to show which ones are eilrach
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yay I got it right