NOVEL NEXT Chapter Twenty-Five: A Pattern Emerges
”What do you mean that Ruck killed her?” Anna asked.
None of us had been prepared for that curveball.
“She was killed in a hit and run sometime yesterday evening before the party. Witness statements said that it was an orange pickup truck. The description sounded just like the one that Ruck was driving. They had paint chips from the scene.” Camden said.
"Oh..."
"In real life, it would be a coincidence, but... I doubt it is here," Camden said.
“OK, but what does this have to do with him getting murdered?” Kimberly asked.
None of us knew.
Was it possible that someone from the party knew this girl? If so, how would they have known that Ruck was responsible?
“He did almost hit the house when he pulled into the driveway,” Anna said. “He had been drinking.”
“But who would have known so quickly?” I asked. “It doesn't make sense.”The murder victim in a whodunnit having a dark secret is not unusual. However, this was really late in the movie to find out about it. I couldn't figure out how this fit into the larger puzzle.
“In any case," I said. “We have to look into Evan. Only one person could have known that I was at the house at the time of the murder, and that's the killer. Either he is Ranger Danger or Ranger Danger told him that I was there.”
Evan was the best suspect so far, even if we didn’t know the motive.
“I'm not going to be able to do that,” Antoine said. “The game is today so unless this story ends before then I'm probably going to get forced into playing.”
It hit me.
“You will be forced into playing,” I said. “Think of it. We're being hunted by someone dressed as a football team's mascot. I'll bet anything that he's there.”
“He'll blend right in,” Anna said.
“Exactly.”
With Second Blood approaching, these were our stats and abilities:
Player Stats and Tropes
Riley
Antoine
Anna
Kimberly
Camden
Archetype
Film Buff
Athlete
Final Girl
Eye Candy
Scholar
Plot Armor
13 / 2
14 + 2
16
12
13
Mettle
1
4 + 1
4
1
2
Moxie
4
1
3
4
2
Hustle
2
4 + 1
2
3
2
Savvy
5
1
2
1
6
Grit
1
4
5
3
1
TROPE MASTER
Type: Insight
Stat: Savvy
Effect: Sees enemy tropes. Lose half of PA
IT’S PART OF THE UNIFORM
Type: Buff
Stat: N/A
Effect: Higher Mettle when attacking with sports equipment
LAST ONE ALIVE
Type: Rule
Stat: N/A
Effect: Cannot die until the party is killed
CONVENIENT BACKSTORY
Type: Buff
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Can change backstory to assist with the current task.
EUREKA!
Type: Insight
Stat: Savvy
Effect: Helps find important information with text.
CINEMA SEER—SURVIVE
Type: Buff
Stat: Savvy
Effect: Buffs Savvy and Grit of Allies by predicting plot elements
GYM Rat
Type: Buff
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Buff Mettle and Hustle by revealing athletic backstory
WHO’S WITH ME?!
Type: Buff
Stat: Moxie
Effect: In Finale, Allies gain a buff to relevant stat when assisting the player.
SOCIAL AWARENESS
Type: Insight
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Can see the Moxie stat of all enemies and NPCs.
RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB
Type: Buff
Stat: Savvy
Effect: Buffs Savvy and Mettle when fighting an enemy with their weakness.
THE OBLIVIOUS BYSTANDER
Type: Rule
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Cannot be targeted while convincingly acting oblivious to the enemy
JUST WALK IT OFF
Type: Heal
Stat: Grit
Effect: Heals Hobbled status by walking
LET’S NOT FIGHT
Type: Buff
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Stopping infighting buffs Savvy
LOOKS DON’T LAST (Not Brought into the storyline)
ZIPPOS ARE CHEAP
Type: Buff
Stat: Savvy
Effect: Boosts Savvy for plans that expend Zippo lighter
ESCAPE ARTIST
Type: Buff
Stat: Savvy
Effect: Plausible escape plans boost Hustle
GET A ROOM!
Type: Rule
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Exploration with loved interest during the party boosts the odds of important discoveries
A HOPELESS PLEA
Type: Rule
Stat: Moxie
Effect: Asking to be released forces the captor to explicitly deny the release
As you might imagine, Antoine found it easy in this storyline to talk about how he plays sports and works out. I hadn't been around when he did it, but it didn't really matter. He got the bonus to both Hustle and Mettle that his Gym Rat trope afforded him.
Not long after our conversation about the hit and run, a group of university students and football players came to get Antoine for the big game. The rest of us were dragged right along with him.
Even having seen the University of Carousel stadium twice I wasn't prepared to see it on a game night. The entire place came alive. The stadium was not the biggest football stadium I had ever been to. In fact, it wasn't even as big as the one back at my real college. However, it was still large.
The stands were in the shape of a horseshoe. On the left of the entrance, was the section for the away team. It was sparsely populated by SMU fans. I wouldn’t want to go to Carousel for a football game either.
On the right was the home team side filled to the brim with cheering fans of the Fighting Torsos. In the curvy part of the horseshoe was the student section along with food vendors.
The stands were built on a large, concrete-enclosed base. I didn't know what was under there. I assumed it was storage or locker rooms. With the many entrances and exits to the area, it was difficult to navigate or track the people coming in and out of the stadium.
The field had been repaired between scenes. The only reason you could tell that something had happened to it was the slightly off-color sod that had been used to repair the grass. The goalpost had been put back in its proper place, but it still bore nicks from the chain that had pulled it down.
The roar of the crowd made talking difficult.
“Kimberly and I will go to the student section,” Anna said. “You two go to the home section. Find Evan. He’s either going to give us a lead to Ranger Danger’s identity or he’s going to incriminate himself. Either way, if you guys find him, I think Camden should be the one to talk to him.”
That was probably a good idea. Evan wasn't going to be happy to see me not in jail.
The previous scene had been early morning. This scene was getting darker as nighttime approached. The stadium lights turned on. The game was about to begin.
Camden and I rushed to the home section of the stadium. Moving around there was difficult. The stands were really packed, even more so than they had been at the candlelight vigil. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I got the impression that a lot of the traffic was scripted. Perhaps we were being held up, delayed.
“Do you see anything?” I asked Camden. I practically had to yell.
“Nothing!” Camden answered back.
I looked all around the stadium. I needed to find Evan. Heck, if I could lay eyes on Ranger Danger at least that would have been something. Both were no-shows. In fact, I didn't know where any of the NPCs were. Mark, Nathan, Amber, the SMU guy that had yelled at Ruck. They were in the wind.
“Look it's Anna,” Camden yelled at me. He pointed over to the student section.
I could barely see what he was pointing at but then I saw her waving her arms trying to get our attention. She and Kimberly were pointing toward something beneath us down on the field. We were up in the stands so we couldn't easily access the field, but we quickly walked down to the guardrail and peered down at what she was pointing at.
It was Evan. He was standing amongst other students in what I can only assume was the tunnel that the team was about to come out of. He was far closer to us than he was to her.
“Let's go,” I said.
I didn’t know how Camden would go about trying to pry him for information, but we were running out of time. When the finale came, we would not be able to find any new plot information to help us solve the mystery.
If we couldn’t find the killer’s identity and motive, then we would just slowly get picked off until we all died in the final battle. Ranger Danger’s Immortal Mask trope would make him unbeatable without this information.
It was now or never.
It was just as difficult to get back down from the stands as it was to get up there. We could only hope that Evan would still be near the tunnel when we finally made it. Everyone walking along the pathways and ramps leading up to the stands were trying to go up. We were the only two trying to go down.
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got down to ground level and ran around the outside of the stands near the field. We ran as fast as we could to the tunnel where we had seen Evan standing.
We were in luck. He was still there talking to some other NPCs.
I stayed back in hopes that he wouldn't see me. Camden walked forward and crossed over the side of the tunnel to where Evan was.
And then the bad news came.
A poster appeared on the red wallpaper.
Everyone is a Suspect
.It was like Carousel had waited for that very moment. We weren't just playing against the story. It was playing against us.
Just as Camden made it to the other side, the band started to play and football players, coaches, and cheerleaders started to pour out of the tunnel that Camden had just crossed over.
We were being separated again, just like we had been at the frat party. I tried to keep an eye on Camden. I saw him and Evan moving closer toward the mouth of the tunnel as the emerging players caused a surge in the crowd. After a few players had passed, I couldn't see Camden anymore.
Did they go in the tunnel? Was this scripted?
The needle on the plot cycle was nearly to Second Blood. If that wasn’t enough, the Everyone is a Suspect trope only activated when a murder was about to take place.
Now, I know what you’re going to say: “Don’t go into the tunnel with a killer around.”
But I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t know if I would be able to find Camden or if the same trope that separated us would keep us apart. However, I knew there were limits to the trope’s power. After all, the trope didn’t stop me from witnessing a murder.
Would it stop me from preventing one?
I pushed forward into the tunnel, fighting against the stragglers who were running out. By the time I got through, I didn't see Camden or Evan. I wondered how long it would be before I could find either one of them.
I raced through the labyrinthine tunnels. That place was massive and confusing. There was no sign of either of them. There was no sign of anyone at all. There were so many doors and paths under there that I could have passed right by them without even knowing it.
Those same doors could also have concealed a killer.
I quickly raised my hood over my head and put on my sunglasses. They made traveling through the dimly lit tunnels under the stadium difficult, but they also bolstered my Oblivious Bystander trope.
Maybe I was pushing my luck, hoping to survive another run-in with Ranger Danger using only Oblivious Bystander as a shield, but I had no choice.
The only sounds that could be heard were the faint whispers of the wind and the distant roar of the crowds above, echoing down through the concrete corridors. I could feel the vibration of thousands of feet stomping along to a fight song.
There were dim yellow lights placed along the tunnels along with some shafts of light from the stands above, where bolt holes and seams in the metal had not been covered, allowing the stadium lights to shine through.
Footsteps.
I heard them behind me. They made a distinct soft echo. They were quiet enough that I would not have noticed them if I had not been listening for them. I was being followed.
I couldn't turn to look and see who it was, but given the circumstances, I had one guess, and he was wearing a flat-brimmed cowboy hat.
Did I just keep walking deeper into the tunnels or did I try to find a way to turn around and get back out toward the entrance?
Going forward was easier than turning around if I wanted to keep Oblivious Bystander active.
I moved forward at an even pace trying to act like I was supposed to be there. The footsteps followed.
I noticed that my Chase Scene status had turned on. That was all the confirmation I needed. Ranger Danger was ten feet behind me.
After a long hallway, I started to doubt that Camden would have gone this far. Unlike me, he wouldn't have had any way of protecting himself. Of course, he may not have had a choice.
Heck, for all, I knew he could have been hiding out behind one of the doors I had passed.
As I moved forward, I noticed that the hallway had begun to turn left. I must have been approaching the turn in the horseshoe shape of the stadium.
When I got there, I was going to bend over to tie my shoe in hopes that I could get a peek at the person behind me while doing it. If I angled it right, I could kneel down facing the corner and Ranger Danger would stand directly behind me. I could then find a way to stand back up turning back the way I came instead of further down the tunnel.
Then, I would lead him back out to the entrance of the tunnel and make my escape while leading him away from anywhere Camden might be.
My Hustle stat increased by one point.
I almost forgot.
I had been awarded the Escape Artist trope for completing the Astralist storyline. I got the trope as a reward for coming up with a clever way of escaping my restraints. It gives me a boost to Hustle whenever I have a plausible escape plan, but the trope didn't just work when I was captured it also worked when I was being pursued.
Not only did that boost my ability to get away, but by awarding me a point for having a good plan, it also confirmed for me that the plan could theoretically work, which was arguably a more useful perk.
Now it was all down to execution.
Maybe that's a poor choice of words.
As I walked up to the corner where the two abandoned tunnels met, I casually bent down and pivoted my body to be pointed directly at the corner. With my sunglasses and hoodie, I thought it was completely believable that I wouldn't be able to see whoever it was behind me.
Have you ever tried to tie your shoes while a knife-wielding murderer walked behind you? I was so nervous that I nearly forgot how.
Ranger Danger stood behind me and paused. I didn't get a chance to look at him, but I was confident that it was the same masked figure I had seen before.
And then he kept walking.
At first, a wave of relief poured over me but then confusion set in. To my understanding, he shouldn't have been walking away from me. If I was his target, he should continue to pursue me until I eventually saw him and he could strike. That's how it worked with the Astralist. When I talked to Adeline about my plan she confirmed it. My low plot armor should force the bad guy to continue to pursue me.
Why was he walking away then?
Instead of turning left and going back in the direction I came from, I waited for a moment and turned right. I was going to follow him.
It was him alright. He paid me no mind.
I had spent hours mentally preparing myself to use the Oblivious Bystander trope to avoid enemies, but I had not yet considered whether I might be able to use it to follow them. I wasn't prepared. But I needed to see where he was going.
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I waited until he cleared around the next corner before I followed him. At this point, the tunnels stopped being straight and started being curved with multiple directions that you could take at any given time. I imagine that these smaller tunnels were for vendors, as this was the location in the stadium where all of the food kiosks were set up.
I wish I had brought a book or a newspaper, something to hold in front of me to make it look like I might not have seen Ranger Danger. Instead, I was just going to have to keep my distance and hope that he wouldn't turn around to look at me.
The crowd overhead suddenly burst into cheers. Somebody must have got a touchdown.
Another scream joined in with them. It wasn't coming from the stands above; it was coming from a small tunnel offshoot of the large pathway. Ranger Danger had just entered there.
“Help!” Camden screamed.
Ranger Danger must have been chasing Camden when I finally made it back into the tunnels after fighting through the crowd. He wouldn't need a special trope to find him, a Chase Scene is resolved by a simple comparison of Hustle stats unless a trope contradicts it.
If the killer's Hustle is higher, they will catch you. It's that simple.
Camden only had two Hustle.
No wonder my Escape Artist trope activated successfully. I wasn't the real target. His chasing me was just him playing along with my Oblivious Bystander trope.
I took off my glasses and pulled back my hood as I ran to catch up with Ranger Danger. It didn't matter anymore if I was Oblivious.
I burst into a room that held an exit door with crates of sports equipment stacked in front of it. Camden was trying to squeeze behind the crates, hoping to keep away from Ranger Danger. No doubt Camden had come in here seeking a way out. There was no way out because his Hustle score was too low. The story would not let him get away.
“Stop!” I screamed.
Ranger Danger did stop. He turned and looked at me. He waited for a moment as if he was taking time to consider whether to attack me or not. He decided that he would.
He lunged. I turned to run. Hoping that my boost to Hustle would be enough to get away from him, to lead him away from Camden.
But it wasn't.
I wasn't ten steps away from the door before I felt the knife. He grabbed me from behind and brought the knife around and drove it into my stomach. The blade pierced right through my hoodie and sunk into my flesh.
The pain was unbearable. My status changed. Now, I was scathed and the incapacitated light began turning on for long stretches of time every time I took a breath. Whenever it did, the pain was so unbearable that I could barely move. I had seen how this status had affected Kimberly and now I understood.
I was on the ground without even feeling the fall. I expected the finishing blow to come any second.
But it didn't.
Ranger Danger was gone.
I was in shock, having trouble figuring out what was going on.
I heard Camden scream.
I resolved to get to him even if I had to crawl. That was all I could do while incapacitated. I forced myself to move across the floor. You never notice how often you flex your abs until someone stabs you there. Every movement shot pain throughout my body.
Eventually, I made it to the door.
Ranger Danger was standing over Camden.
Camden wasn't unconscious. He wasn't incapacitated. He was bloody. He was dead.
“Why?” I asked. It just came out.
Why had he only wounded me but killed Camden? I couldn't take my eyes off my childhood friend lying on the ground. I didn't know how many times he'd been stabbed but it had been more than enough. This wasn't like one of the NPCs, whose deaths were so easy to accept because they weren't real.
My unconscious status started to flicker on the red wallpaper.
This time I screamed, “Why?”
Tears streamed from my eyes.
Ranger Danger gave no answer. Instead, he pushed on the same crates that Camden had been trying to push, but he apparently had much higher Mettle, because he was able to move them just enough to squeeze through to the exit door. He left.
The room started to go dark. I could see Camden’s status as being dead but that wasn't enough. I crawled closer to him even as my own consciousness started to wane. Blood soaked my clothes and the floor underneath me.
I remembered us being kids and pretending to fight zombies. Most of what we did back then revolved around my strange interest in scary movies. His parents never let him watch them.
When we played as kids, our characters always lived no matter who we fought against, whether it was vampires or Lord Voldemort.
But against Ranger Danger, against Carousel itself, Camden had died.
Why had I been spared?
I had suspected what was going on from the moment Ranger Danger passed me in the hall instead of attacking me.
Pattern Killer
Before the finale, the villain will only kill victims chosen according to a pre-established motive.
He couldn't kill me.
We finally had our pattern for the killer’s motive.
And I wasn't a part of it.