The many winding paths of Grasscove, USA: Part Two

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Grasscove, USA”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

Lilliana sits on a chair across from me and takes a deep breath. She fists her right hand and rests it underneath her chin, then she says:

“A few months ago, I woke up feeling like there was something…off. I brushed it off as waking up from a surreal nightmare, but the odd feeling didn’t go away. It persisted onto the next day, then the day after that, and so on.”

Lilliana moved her hand away from her chin, putting both her hands on the different sides of the armchair as if to steady herself and continued:

“The off feeling was that the very thought of blood, rich and red, dripping from the flesh of breathing beings, was more appealing to me than eating food. Any food I ate, I threw up when alone. I thought at first that I had some strange, undiscovered disease but then, one night…I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take another day spent throwing up what was supposed to give me life and so, I jumped out my window and landed perfectly on my feet, going on with my search for blood…I don’t know who I killed, but when my senses became clear to me, I saw a dead boy bleed before me, a teenage boy, his eyes bugged out…but I felt better than ever. Elizabeth, that is how I learned I was a vampire. I don’t know how or why this happened, but I didn’t want to talk about it…please…don’t be mad…”

“Mad?! Why would I be mad? I just…I’m just confused, that’s all. You’re a vampire? Are you sure it’s not some kind of weird sickness? I just can’t believe that you’re a vampire and you killed that boy and-“

“Elizabeth. This took a lot of me to confess. Don’t dismiss this as something that didn’t happen. I know that I’m a vampire and I’m not the only one. Emery is too.”

There’s no hint of a joke on Lilliana’s face. I can’t believe that it was her who killed that boy, that vampires exist, and all this time, Lilliana was scared of telling me.

“Emery is real?” I ask, my voice whispery like a ghost’s.

“Yes, he’s real and we meet at the train theme park. Come on, I’ll show you right now.” Lilliana says, getting up from the armchair.

There’s a flicker of happiness in her eyes, as if she’s excited to show me the theme park, but first-

“I’m gonna change out of my pajamas first and then I’ll join you.” I say, getting up from the chair.

Lilliana nods, muttering “Of course, of course” and as I get up, I still wonder…

How is this happening?!

……………………………………………………………….

I’ve changed into a red tank top with sparkling, sequined flourishes of flowers, bell-bottom jeans, and black high-top sneakers. If I’m going to an abandoned train park, I want to look stylish and yet somewhat practical.

I had jumped out the attic window in Lilliana’s arms and we both came out unharmed. If I had any lingering doubt about Lilliana being a vampire, it was extinguished in that moment.

I asked her why we were going to the train theme park earlier and she said that it was where she and Emery would meet up. She had texted me tonight because she was originally going to send me pictures of the train theme park but decided that it would be better to tell me the full truth.

I know a little more now, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this, to gain a deeper understanding of this. We’re currently at the train theme park, surrounded by train-centered attractions that are choked by curling ivy leaves. The air smells like blue cheese and just now, I remember that this theme park was called…”Rickety railroad”. Why anyone would want to take their kids to a theme park called “Rickety railroad” is beyond my understanding. I guess entertainment was cheap back in 1953.

We’ve stopped in front of a dark ride called “Gory Grasscove”…wow, I’m actually surprised that a ride built in the 1950s has that name, since gore wasn’t really a thing until the 1970s. Maybe it’s a ride made during the seventies and not the fifties, I don’t know.

But either way, we’re here and Lilliana is telling me to follow her. None of this seems wise or right but then again, Lilliana is literally a vampire, so I doubt that doing the right thing is going to be the correct thing right now.

I follow her to the stereotypical haunted house design of the attraction and we sit in a black carriage seat together, the seat that would take us throughout the ride…if it were still in operation.

I’m only sitting here because Lilliana is doing this. I have faith that Lilliana has a plan for this but still…does it involve somehow getting this ride to work?

Lilliana smiles at me, then she turns away from me and cries out:

“With the spark of unholiness, lead us away!”

She reaches out with her left hand, her fingers extended out like claws and from it, deep, sapphire blue sparks rain down, circling around us and…and making the carriage move.

Lilliana’s grin spreads across her face, making her gray-blue eyes glimmer in the pale moon glow of night. I take it in before we’re plunged into the darkness of the ride and we’re surrounded by…

It’s the town of Grasscove. Well, what people back in the 1970s interpreted the town of Grasscove to be in the Wild West time period. There isn’t any light in here, but there are animatronics who cry out lines, some of them being cowboys who shoot fake bullets into the air, and a backdrop of a Wild West scene behind them. The animatronics are lit by golden, hazy light so that riders know they are there, but not enough for riders to make out the mechanics of the ride.

This could almost be a romantic date if it weren’t for the fact that the music and the animatronics voice lines combine together to make a strange whirlwind of noise, something that sounds like a disorienting dream and-

The clocktower in the ride that is modeled after the real thing bangs a resonance sound, something that reverberates all around us, that seems to make the ground shake, and I find myself clinging to Lilliana, shocked by the sudden sound, but she doesn’t flinch, not once.

I hear someone jump onto the back of the ride. It’s not an animatronic, it’s an actual person, I’m sure of it. Who else is on this ride and why are they here and-

“Howdy, Liz! Name’s Emery. Lilliana told me all about ya!”