Arc II, Chapter 24: What Came Before

Priority number one: get away from the haunted hotel room. We knew that technically our odds of something bad happening were low, but this was the place where Cassie’s body had laid cold for over an hour. This was not a place we could sleep comfortably if we could avoid it. There were broken windows and some shredded wallpaper.

“You can come to my place,” Sidney offered. “My Dad will make you some scrambled eggs.”

“Your dad?” I asked. “You don’t mean…?”

She understood what I was asking. “No,” she said. “God no. The Stranger isn’t my real dad. That was just for the story.”

She and Constance shared a giggle.

“Your real dad is here?” Kimberly asked.

Sidney nodded. “Dad, stepmother, and her son. The whole family. That was part of the deal.”

I figured that Constance would invite us to her house because that was so close, but it turned out that place belonged to some random NPC from a story about mind-controlling leeches. She just took it over for our storyline.

As we walked through the night, Cassie and Isaac walked solemnly. Antoine had Kimberly wrapped in his arms. Dina trailed behind.

Bobby wanted to talk.

“You notice how the Now Playing board calls that story a reboot of Reply the Departed. Indeed it had.

I also noticed that the section on that board for Bonus Material had gained another ‘???’.

That told me that Reply the Departed had Secret Lore or something similar. If I were to guess, it had something to do with the blue lantern ghost. Even as we walked through the darkness, I still wanted to go find that lantern. Magic was strange.

“I can’t wait to listen to that tape,” Bobby continued. “It might give us a jumpstart on solving the Throughline. One step closer to figuring this whole thing out.”

The tape detailing the history of Carousel that Dina had stolen from the carriage that brought us to town was still unplayed. We didn’t want to listen to it while still at the hotel.

Constance, who was not very far ahead of us, said, “You might take Carousel’s warning on that.”

“What warning?” Bobby asked.

“When Carousel makes a point to mention something like that, that’s a warning,” Sidney said.

Constance nodded her head. “Yes,” she said. “I would wait until you completed the Centennial storylines at least. Wouldn’t want to steal Carousel’s thunder or you might also get the lightning.”

Sidney and Constance laughed together as fast friends.

“Is everything on the tickets a threat?” Antoine asked.

“I’m sure not everything is a threat. You must consider the context,” Constance said.

Antoine and Kimberly looked at each other.

The walk was about twenty-five minutes until we got to a house in a nice neighborhood with big lots and multiple stories. They each had nice gardens and automatic sprinklers.

“There it is,” Sidney said, pointing to a house at the end of a cul-de-sac.

It was the type of house you might wish you had grown up in.

“This is actually the cul-de-sac I grew up in,” Sidney said. “They’ve got NPCs in them of course, but the houses were from my world.” She led us up the driveway to the front door.

She took out a key and started fitting it into the lock. Before she could, the door was opened and a man in a T-shirt and pajama pants opened the door. He was slightly balding. He looked like any random dad.

“Sidney! Do you have any idea what time it is?” he asked. “You had us worried sick.”

“I tried to call, but my phone wasn’t working,” Sidney said. “I was at the library helping Ms. Barlow with an exhibit for the Centennial tomorrow. I promise.”

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The red wallpaper called her dad “Ross Martin, Worried Father”. He was level three. Nothing out of the ordinary.

His eyes shot toward Constance. “Oh,” he said. “I wasn’t aware you needed her tonight, Constance.”

“She did try to call, Ross,” Constance said.

“Oh,” Ross said, “Still. I don’t like not knowing where you are. After what happened before, you know. We moved to Carousel so I didn’t have to worry about you, you know.”