Book Six, Chapter 23: Equivocation Part I

Hiding while the action was happening elsewhere was starting to get old.

Isaac had taken charge upstairs and was ushering people into this other version of Hot Head.

I stared from a distance, trying to understand what I was looking at. It looked like they would step up on the platform of his lower mouth and climb into some invisible space above, which must have been the oven up on the surface.

They were climbing one at a time, and in a hurry.

All I could do was listen through my headphones.

“Something’s wrong,” Avery said.

I could hear a hissing sound and a voom, like the internal mechanism was trying to fire on.

“It’s going to blow up,” Ramona said.

“It’s our only way out,” Isaac said. “Faster! Climb faster!” he screamed.

I could hear shaking, and I could see above as the giant version of Hot Head started to rock back and forth, shooting up flames.

He wasn’t the only thing doing that.

Looking around me in the pit, a mockery of the dining room above, I saw all the props start to melt away, and as they melted, pools of lava began to form on the ground. Fire plumes shot into the sky.

It wasn’t just Hot Head that was starting to ignite. This place was starting to look like hell. Properly.

I preferred it aesthetically to the nightmare pizza parlor. I just wished I wasn’t standing in it.

Upstairs, I could hear them rushing to get into Hot Head and to climb up to the world above before Hot Head himself was consumed and became nothing but fire.

One rescued NPC after another would go, until all that was left were the named characters. Ruck pushed Avery to go next and then grabbed Ramona by the arm and forced her up as she tried to stay back.

“You next,” he said to Isaac, who obliged him, climbing into the mouth of Hot Head and then ascending to the kitchen above.

Finally, Ruck made it up the stairs and barely made his way out of the oven before something started to burst.

I could hear them up above. They were in the kitchen, I had to assume, because of all the clanging pans that I would probably have to clean up. I could hear the back door slamming after they ran through it.

Then the explosion.

First, I saw the giant Hot Head start to ignite. Then I heard the sizzle in my ears. I reached up to bring my headphones down because I knew a loud noise was about to happen.

And it was, because at the same time that the Hot Head down here was exploding, all those pots and pans up in the kitchen seemed to explode too.

All around me was fire and lava.

A feeling of doom took over me. Was I trapped in hell?

The heat, which had not really been a problem before, suddenly became one.

I was so hot I wanted to rip off my clothes. I wanted to rip off my skin. I could feel it coming from all directions.

Sweat drenched me as the fires around me grew.

There was no escape.

Well, there was the one.

I woke up drenched in sweat, just as I had for every other nightmare. I was back in my character’s bed. It was dark outside.

There was a difference this time, though.

I remembered everything.

I rinsed the sweat off my body, then got dressed and ran to Pecatto’s Pizza.

I didn’t know how this weird dream thing worked. It was mostly Off-Screen, and likely the effect of the demon messing with me, or maybe it was Carousel. How could I know?

I saw the restaurant long before I got to it.

The firefighters had just finished putting out the flames, but there was still smoke rising, or maybe it was steam. The fire engines were still blaring their lights and horns.

I ran to the parking lot and passed a very confused NPC trying to convince a firefighter that she had just escaped hell, which was inside the oven man’s mouth.

That conversation was On-Screen, and I myself went On-Screen too as I surveyed the damage, but just for a bit.

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Avery, Isaac, and Ramona were standing on the far side of the parking lot next to Ruck’s car, which had not been moved since he was kidnapped. He was changing his clothes from a spare set he had in the trunk.

He wasn’t exactly shy, but they were Off-Screen, so what did anyone care?

Gus Junior was there. In fact, the entire Bonaventura family seemed to have shown up to watch as their livelihood went up in flames.

Standing next to Gus, smiling as she looked at me, was Verity Pryce, the head demoness herself.

Gus looked afraid.

He looked ashamed.

And I knew that as his restaurant was burning, he had made a deal.

Of course he had.

He was always going to make that deal.

For as good a deed as it was to rescue all those poor souls in hell, this storyline was really only about rescuing one person.

And if he didn’t make that deal, how could we save him?

Hell was a subplot, after all—a very distracting one at that.

Carousel gathered footage of the aftermath of the fire. As soon as the fire department left, the smoldering stopped.

Then, Carousel got more footage as Gus and the family stepped through the ruins of their restaurant.

It was time for the real final battle, which would not be fought with fists or swords, but with words. And who was better armed for this fight than Camden and Anna, who had arrived to see the destruction?

The family and many employees were gathered there.

All of the rescued NPCs seemed to have thanked their lucky stars and skedaddled.

That was for the best.

It would have been complicated to expand on that subplot with so little time left in the story.