It didn’t take long for
Lloyd to reach his destination. The
doors of the auditorium stood before him -- normally, they would have beckoned
droves of students within its walls for a scream-heavy pep rally, or the best
performance the band (bless their hearts) could muster. But now?
Lloyd could only wonder what horrors hid inside.
If I’m right, Gaston has the power to create illusions -- albeit in an
enclosed space, he thought, covering his mouth. Which
means that the moment I step inside, I could fall prey to some heinous
hallucination. But as long as I keep my
wits about me -- as long as I remind myself that it’s an illusion, and nothing
more -- I may be able to disrupt his hold on me. And the sooner I do, the better a chance I’ll
have at saving JP.
He pushed the key into
the slot, and jiggled it about until the door gave a loud click. “Seems as if it worked,” he said with a quick
nod. “At long last…it’s finally time to
bring this struggle to an end.” He
glanced aside and giggled to himself.
“Heeheehee, I feel like such an important person all of a sudden! My heart is all a-flutter! Is this how it feels to be an action
hero? Ah, to think I could be a part of
such a pantheon without gaining a hundred pounds of muscle!”
Lloyd raised his
eyebrows. “Who am I talking to? Gracious, it’s hard to be endearingly
haphazard when there’s no one around to listen.” And with that, he opened the auditorium doors
and stepped inside.
…Well, the auditorium.
It wasn’t quite the
auditorium he knew, though. A state of
flux had overtaken it -- dust and gravel and plaster debris covered most of the
seats. Piles of bricks, several of which
stood taller than Lloyd, littered the room and had started tumbling toward the
stage. Pipes small and large -- some
metallic, others plastic -- had been thrown atop rows of uprooted chairs. Ladders and wires remained abandoned, leaning
against whatever surface they could find.
Not that Lloyd paid
much mind to the surroundings. He kept
his eyes on the stage the moment he’d entered the room. Not just because said stage had hardly been
touched; no, that was where JP had been forced to kneel, with yards of rope
wrapped around his body.
And with a shotgun
barrel hovering inches from his head.
“Lloyd!” JP yelled,
squirming a few millimeters closer. But
of course, Mrs. Overdose wouldn’t let him get too far; she tugged him back, and
nearly threw him onto his backside.
“JP! It’s good to see you again, brother!” Lloyd
called out. “It feels like it’s been
forty chapters since the last time we talked to each other!”
“Hey! HEY! A
little focus here would be REALLY nice right about now! ‘Cause my day’s been kind of crap right now,
and I’m pretty sure that having my brains splattered everywhere is just the
thing I need to cap it off.”
“Don’t you worry, I’ll
have you free and at home wrapped in your blankie soon enough.”
“Who says I have a
blankie?”
“Eh? You mean you don’t? What sort of neglected, loveless child
doesn’t have a blankie?”
Mrs. Overdose groaned
and glared at the ceiling, gnawing on her reed all the while. “This is
the guy you’re after? I’ve seen salads
more dangerous than this kid.”
“Ku fu fu…now, now,
madam. Don’t let his foppishness deceive
you -- I wouldn’t have chosen him as my rival if he was anything BUT a threat.”
Lloyd gasped and turned
to his right -- and there, sitting atop a downed pipe, sat his adversary. “Gaston Leroux…we meet again! And this time, I’ll be certain to end this
battle before your machinations even begin to take root!”
Gaston chuckled, and
spread his hands wide. “Really, Lloyd? Really?
You honestly think that you’re in a position to make such hardy
claims?” He swept a hand before him,
fingers squirming as he moved his gloved palm through the air. “You’ve no idea how I’ve even begun to affect
this town, yet you assume so hastily that you can prevent it? I appreciate your earnestness -- if only
because your despair upon defeat will make it all worthwhile -- but come, come
now. You can barely handle a handful of
people, much less save an entire town.”
“That may be true. But even if it is, that’s no reason for me to
refuse to try.” Lloyd thrust a finger at
Gaston’s chest. “For the sake of this
town, and all the people within it, I will defeat you!”
Another biting
chuckle. “How?”
Lloyd dropped his finger,
but continued to stare at Gaston.
“Pardon my assumption,
monsieur, but I daresay you hardly
seem like the fighting type. If your
intention is to defeat me, then how will you manage the task if it comes to
blows?” His fingers started to crawl
along the hilt of the knife in his chest, squirming about like the legs of a
spider. “You’re only a half-step above
the average mortal. All it would take to
silence you -- to close the curtain on your unappreciable charade once and for
all -- is the speeding of a blade across your heart.”
Rather than object,
Lloyd just gave him a simple nod and smile.
“True, I am only human. And given
your…” He glanced at the knife. “Disposition…I should likely assume that
you’re a cut above the average man. But
there are more ways to defeat an opponent than with brute force alone.”
“How so?”
“Material
advantage.” Lloyd held out a hand. “If my assumption is correct, then you have
an impressive number of forces on your side -- innocents transformed into your
unwilling soldiers, by way of your illusion and manipulation. It’s enough to make me think twice about even
raising a hand against you. But…” He clamped his hand into a fist. “If I take away your soldiers and add them to
MY camp, then your chances of success shall dwindle as quickly as water down
the drain.”
Gaston cocked his
head. “Ku fu fu…so, you would build an
army in the hopes of defeating me?”
But Lloyd just shook
his head and smiled. “Not an army. A harem.”
“Ku fu fu…Keh heh heh
heh heh…heh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Gaston reared back and laughed, pressing a
hand to his mask as if worried his guffaws would blast it off his face. He slammed a heel against the pipe, and it
looked as if he might tip over the edge several times. But he didn’t, of course. He just laughed, and laughed, and laughed…and
when he finally came to a halt, he began staring smugly at Lloyd all over
again. “Oh ho…yes. Yes, yes, yes, that’s it, Lloyd! THAT’S why I’ve chosen you as my rival! Because you are simply so,
so…ENTERTAINING!”
He ran a finger across
his mask, as if to wipe a tear from his eye.
“What I find most delightful about you, Lloyd, is that you actually
think you stand a chance against me.
You, a jester and nothing more, think you can overtake my magnificent
self. You’re even more delusional than I
thought.”
“You speak of delusions
while creating illusions. How charming.”
“Well, what good is an
actor if he doesn’t have a proper stage?”
“To sway one’s heart
with words and motions alone -- surely we can agree that is vital to those of
the profession?”
“Hmph. Fair enough, Lloyd. And with that in mind, I wonder…can you
actually stop me, given the chance? Can
you, fool that you are, rout me in this one instance and bring our play to a
premature end?”
Lloyd nodded slowly.
“Very well, then. I’ll give you the opportunity to make good on
your words.” Gaston gestured toward the
ceiling. “My powers work best within an
enclosed space -- indoors, so as to make sure my performance is as captivating
and immersive as possible. But the
effect weakens in the presence of the sun, or the moon, or even a star twinkling
in the sky.”
“And that means?”
“Twenty-four hours from
now, my hold over the people you’ve touched -- your brother, your father, and
the fair maiden of the south -- will completely vanish, as long as they spend
enough time outdoors. The same holds true
for anyone else you manage to convert to your cause. The bonds you forge will become your
strength…and perhaps build a force that can upstage my own.”
“And why would you tell
me all this?” Lloyd asked, with any traces of a smile now gone. “What do you stand to by revealing your
weaknesses?”
“Weaknesses? These are merely facets of my power --
inconsequential, at worst. And
momentary, should my plans come to fruition.
I have no weaknesses…though I wonder if the same can be said of you.”
Lloyd winced.
“Oh, but I didn’t
answer your question, did I?” Gaston’s
shoulders rocked as he laughed to himself.
“Simple. Because I’m sure I’ll
win.”
He tapped a finger
against his wrist. “It won’t be long
now. Soon, the students of L. Bernstein
High School will be free from their cages, shuffling about to their next
cells. But in that interstice, who knows
what could happen? Why, word is that a
fight is certain to break out between two rivals. And that fight could turn into a struggle
between two factions -- one that quickly spreads from a quick skirmish into a
school-wide war. Or at the very least,
one localized in a certain area. And
anyone who’s ill-equipped to handle themselves amidst such a battlefield is
sure to be…oh, what’s the phrase I’m looking for? Ah, yes.
Trampled to death.”
Lloyd gasped. “You can’t mean --!”
“My powers work best
when they’re indoors. That includes any space indoors, over any distance. Like the trumpet of war beckoning for
battle, my call shall resound from one end of the school to another. The students, enraptured by my voice, shall
engage in a battle the likes of which no town has ever seen before. And in the ensuing chaos, you, and your brother,
will lose your lives.”
Gaston tapped his wrist
again. “Fifteen minutes. In fifteen minutes, the battle -- the show will begin. If you have a plan to stop me, I strongly
suggest you start acting on it.”
Lloyd clenched his
teeth. Fifteen minutes to save JP, stop
Gaston, and escape with their lives…it all seemed too convenient, too
elaborate. Gaston wasn’t just out to
defeat him; he wanted to test him, humiliate him, and break him -- literally,
if it came down to it.
But those clenched
teeth quickly turned into a bold smile.
Gaston had made yet another error.
He’d underestimated Lloyd far too much -- because as it turned out, the
prince had long since formulated a plan.
He turned toward the
stage. “Mrs. Overdose!” he called
out. “Join my harem!”
TO BE HEARTINUED…
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