Young Writers Society

Télos was still itching to make his golden sword appear. He didn't want to risk scaring away whoever had moved if they were in the same situation as them, but he was also still a little worried about the possibility of ghosts. Swords couldn't really do a lot against ghosts. He was aware of that. But he still took comfort in the idea of having some kind of weapon - and he could always make it disappear when he found the source of the noise.

His golden sword appeared in his unfamiliar hand.

A second later, he heard Bo talking. He must have found the source of the sound. Télos was so caught up in getting to Bo that he forgot to put his sword away. It wasn't until he reached Bo's side that he realized his mistake.

Télos awkwardly froze.

The mannequin didn't say anything at first. They just kept sitting underneath the clothes rack; Télos could make out a little bit of them from behind one of the night gowns. Still a little too far away to reach the clothes right in front of the mannequin, and not wanting to move his feet - which had to be what the mannequin was watching - Télos lifted up his sword and gently pushed the night gown to the side with the very tip of his blade.

The child-size mannequin stared up at him with a face as blank as his own.

Bo stared at the sword.

"...Well, I didn't know he had a sword. But I guess it makes a good curtain-opener. Among other things," he said, looking back at Telos, and then to the child-sized mannequin.

"I'm Bo. What's your name?"

The mannequin glanced between the two of them.

"I'm T-" Télos started to say, but he didn't get a chance to finish his introduction - the mannequin suddenly got to their feet and darted over to his side. They were trying to give him a hug, but they were too small to reach his waist. The best they could do was hug his legs.

Télos just stared.

A second later, the mannequin had shifted so they were peeking out from behind his legs - still tightly holding onto them.

"I'm Aquarius," the mannequin quietly said.

If Télos had eyes right now, they would have widened.

The sword disappeared as he spun around and grabbed onto his little brother - who really was little now. Aquarius gave a startled yelp when Télos suddenly lifted him up, but he didn't struggle. If anything, he just accepted it, throwing his arms around Télos' neck to keep himself from falling.

"I can't believe you're here!" Télos exclaimed. "You're so small."

"Oh!" Bo said, when the boy ran to Telos's side. He stood up again, looking down at the two as they hugged. "You know each other?"

Télos nodded - he would have been grinning, too, if he had a mouth right now.

"He's my little brother," Télos said. "Technically we have different dads, but I usually ignore that."

"...I'm sixteen," Aquarius helpfully interjected.

"Oh!" Bo wished he could smile. He tried to be more expressive with his voice. "Well. It's nice to meet you, Aquarius."

Bobby dashed around the corner and glanced back. Over the sounds of his pounding pulse, he could hear footsteps, voices. They're still following me.

He frantically looked around. Dead end.

Not good, not good, not good.

A pipe.

No time to tell if it would hold his weight, he grabbed hold and shimmied up. The pipe creaked and shook under his weight, but still, he climbed.

Up, up, up.

There was a creak, then a snap.

For a moment, he was weightless. In the air with nothing to hold him. Then he was falling.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

He never hit the ground.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. A department store. Clothing racks were all around, all well-stocked and the place seemed clean, but it also looked closed. There were no customers around, no staff that he could see. No one to kick him out or give him dirty looks.

He hopped down from his stand, wondering if this was a dream.

Self-consciously, he ran his hands over his shirt, trying to smooth it out in case there really was someone here.

But it felt weird, and there was a hollow clack when he put his hand to his chest.

He looked down, and screamed.

"It's nice to meet you, too," Aquarius said, ducking back behind his brother's leg. Télos would have given Bo a smile if he could, but he didn't have the lips.

"He's a little shy-" Télos started to say, but he didn't get a chance to finish. A second later, he was being cut off by a scream from nearby. Now that there were three people stuck as mannequins, one of them being his younger brother, Télos was more willing to accept that ghosts really weren't involved.

"I guess there's more people like us," Télos said. He glanced down at Aquarius - who had frozen the moment the screaming started. "We should probably go check that out."

Aquarius gave a little nod.

"...Do you want me to carry you, or...?"

"I think I'm okay with walking," Aquarius quietly said.

Télos gave a little nod in confirmation - remembering that his brother couldn't see him when he smiled - and started to head towards the source of the screaming. He could hear his brother's now tiny footsteps following him from a little while away.

A second later, they were back at the display from earlier. The new person-turned-mannequin was just a little bigger than Aquarius was.

"Don't scream," Télos said, raising his hands up in mock surrender. He thought for a moment, then corrected himself. "Actually, feel free to scream, but don't be afraid of us - I think we're in the same situation. You just ended up here as a mannequin, too, right?"

Bobby's chest heaved despite his attempts to stop it, and he inched backward, away from the others.

It's not real, it's not real, it's not real.

Just a nightmare. That's what this was. A nightmare.

"Don't hurt me," he squeaked out.

"I'm not going to," Télos reassured the unnamed mannequin. He felt a little pang of worry at the begging, but he pushed those feelings aside. No one here, save for Aquarius, had any reason to know about what had happened. Even Aquarius didn't know a lot. So it was time to put aside his self-pity and guilt and focus on calming the newest member of their group down.

"We're in the same situation," Télos slowly - and carefully - repeated. "We're normally all people. I'm Télos, g-"

He faltered. Maybe now wasn't the best time to bring up being a god.

He looked glanced behind him, feeling Aquarius brush up against him as he finally reached his side. "This is Aquarius - he's my little brother. Bo's currently the mannequin without a head. None of us know how we got here. I promise we won't hurt you - we'll figure this out together."

After a moment, he slowly lowered one hand and held it out towards the unnamed mannequin - hoping it would come across as comforting.

Bobby glanced at the offered hand warily.

"I-I'm Bobby," he said without taking it.

Bad people always acted like good people. It was the first lesson anyone learned in the streets and alleys. If you didn't have anything left, the bad people would come and try to use that against you. Never, ever, let them get what they want.

Bo watched from behind Telos, letting Telos talk to the scared kid this time. He gave Bobby a little wave.

"Do you want to join us, Bobby?" Bo asked. "We're going to try to figure out what's going on, maybe do a little exploring. I figure it might be good to stick together. Or at least, less scary than being alone."

Bobby hesitated. Slowly, he gave a small nod, making a small sound of confirmation.

It was better to be with bad people than alone sometimes. Even if these people weren't good people, if they wanted him with them they'd keep him safe for a little while at least.

Or, that's what Bobby told himself.

He kept his distance from the group, his gaze downturned.

Télos tried not to be worried - or upset - by Bobby not taking his hand. It was probably because he was nervous; there was no need to overthink it. What he did need to figure out was if they had found everyone here, or if there were more people-turned-mannequins lurking around in the store.

"We should probably look for other people," Télos suggested. "...And clothes for Bo."

Aquarius gave a little nod.


Aquarius could tell that Bobby was nervous about what was going on, too. Aquarius had been feeling a little better once he realized Télos was here, but it was still nerve-wracking to become a mannequin, be smaller than he had been in a very long time, and not know what was going on.

Bobby wasn't lucky enough to have his own version of Télos here.

When Bobby lingered back behind the group, Aquarius decided to do the same, too. Now that he was so close to Bobby, he realized they weren't exactly the same size. Bobby was a little bigger than him - but not by much.

Maybe that would help. Télos and Bo had to seem like strange giant mannequins, but Aquarius was tiny. He wouldn't seem like a threat, right?

"Hi," he shyly said.

Bo turned to Telos. "Oh, yeah. There was a men's section, right? I can grab something there. I mean, thankfully, I'm just plastic and all, but clothes would be nice."