Young Writers Society

"Don't be a wimp, Sophie," said Violet. She swiveled her bat directly in front of the mannequin. "You, explain yourself."

I pushed the bat away from me.

"I can possess things," I said. I didn't point out that this time was accidental. I didn't like pointing out how little control I had over it sometimes. I used to be a Type Three ghost. Even though I still had some ectoplasm in my veins, I wasn't nearly as powerful as I had once been. "I possessed the mannequin after seeing that robot."

The robot just kept creeping towards us. In retrospect, it wasn't all that intimidating.

I looked Violet right in the face. Or I would have, at least, if I actually had the eyes to look at her with.

"Is that good enough?" I asked.

Violet stared at the mannequin, brows furrowing. Then, satisfied, she nodded and took StoneCracker away from its face.

"Yeah, it's good enough," she replied. "Can you, er, repossess your body?" she asked, gesturing to his lifeless human body. "More importantly, is that thing a threat?" Violet pointed her bat at the robot.

Sophie looked at Skull.

"This is the most terrible and cruel ability you can have. Possessing mannequins. That's creepy!"

Sophie thought for a moment.

"But they can help us? As cannon fodder?"

I gave Sophie an unimpressed look that she couldn't see.

"It's not just possessing mannequins," I said. "I could possess you if I wanted to. I could possess anyone here except for The Phantom, and could possess that robot, too."

Which, now that I was looking at it, wasn't really doing all that much besides slowly moving down the aisle. I didn't see any obvious weapons on it. I decided I'd commit to not revealing that I had been spooked into possessing the mannequin. My powers worked on instinct when I got too emotional, and getting startled was a good way to make me accidentally possess the nearest thing.

"...I don't think that's a threat," I finally said. Now that Violet wasn't guarding my body, I tapped it with the tip of my mannequin foot. A moment later, I was sitting back up in my own body. The mannequin fell to the ground with a crashing noise. "All it's done is push that ball out of the way."

Violet offered Skull a hand up. "Welcome back to the land of the flesh," she said, grinning. She glanced around at the others. "I guess everyone got what they needed. So, now what do we do?"

Susan

"That was a terrible strategy to fight that robot, if that was your plan," said Vankous. "Like. Were you trying to play dead?"

"Vankous, please? Can we all focus on not doing. You can go around arguing with everyone after that maybe?" Susan sighed. Vankous was starting to go a bit too far now. Nothing about this place suggested they were going to all make it out alive if they didn't properly work together.

Vankous grumbled but didn't reply.

"So. Yeah. How about we move on, and maybe try to look for something of a way out? Maybe get to a high place again to try and see if there's a place where this city ends."

"It wasn't supposed to be a strategy," I said, arms crossed after I took Violet's hand and got back to my feet. It didn't occur to me in that moment how that probably revealed how accidental the possession had been. But I agreed with Violet and Susan on us needing to keep moving. I didn't want to be stuck here. I especially didn't want to be stuck here with Vankous.

"Let's go find some place tall, then," I said, already leaving behind the aisle, the mannequin, and the robot.

Violet nodded with satisfaction. "Sounds like a plan," she said. "So long, creepy robot. Don't haunt us in our dreams!"

Snickering, she followed Skull out of the aisle. Someplace tall, huh? Violet tapped her lips. "Let's just scale this building like before with that wolf," she suggested. "If we get on the roof, we might be able to see the outskirts of the city."

I mulled that suggestion over.

"I saw a staircase back that way," I said. I pointed towards it, even though I had already turned and started walking towards said staircase as soon as I decided I liked Violet's idea. "We should be able to get to the top that way."

It would be a lot of walking, considering how many floors this place seemed to have, but I could handle it. I had done more walking around Arium than I had done here.

Violet nodded eagerly and ran ahead of the group. She lightly jumped onto one of the tables and leaped across each section. When she reached the staircase, she finished it off with a forward flip and landed gently on the ground, one leg stretched out to break the fall.

Violet nimbly stood up and opened the door with a flourish. Then she leaned against it, arms crossed and smiling lightly.

"Provided there isn't a wolf up there, I'm all for going to the roof," said Susan finally speaking up. "Its as good a strategy as any and its pretty close by. And this store feels safe enough sans the creepy robot."

Vankous grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "I wouldn't mind if there was a wolf." but nodded.

With that, our group headed for the stairs.

By the time we reached the top, I seriously questioned my earlier comparison with walking in Arium. I had done a lot of walking there, sure, but hadn't ever done it up stairs. It had mostly been flat. My legs were screaming at me by the time we reached the roof.

I did my best to play it off, though. I didn't say a word and just stood there grimacing.

Violet snickered at Skull's "I'm too cool to show pain" face, but she couldn't resist ignoring that the stairs were steep. She bounced on her heels to regain feeling. The wind was cool across her face, albeit a little chilly. Violet looked around.

"Alright, does anybody see an exit?" she asked, scanning the city.

I shot a glare at Violet when she snickered, but quickly followed lead and peered out at the rest of the city.

As far as I could see, there was a barrier surrounding the entire city. Like I had noticed before, it stretched from the ground up onto the sky.

"We're trapped," I noted. "At least it's bigger than my jar was-"

My gaze landed on a building towards the center of the city. There wasn't too physically different about it, at first glance, but the longer I looked at it, the more it stood out. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. It looked like some kind of laboratory, with walls that were slightly more cleaner on the outside than most of the buildings here.

"We should go there," I said, pointing at it.