Chapter 10: The True Horrors of the World

"FOR PASSING THE TRIAL, YOU ARE AWARDED A MINI-PRIZE. THIS TIME, I HAVE ALSO MADE IT THEMATIC TO THE CHALLENGE YOU JUST COMPLETED."

The usual podium with a mini-prize on top appeared from the ground.

"Oh cool, a magnifying glass," Paula said picking up the item, "I can burn things with this!"

"Say, is there an order you use to determine the mini-prize for each round? It feels like these prizes are pretty random."

"I USE A RANDOM ITEM GENERATOR."

"What? Even if that were true, how do you make all the items?"

"MAGIC."

"Ahhhh of course."

"In any case, let's get out of here," Melanie said stepping back towards the door, "this mannequin is starting to freak me out."

"YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LIKE THE NEXT TRIAL THEN IF THAT'S THE CASE."

"And what would that be?"

"YOU'LL HAVE TO COME BACK TO FIND OUT. THERE'S ALWAYS A CUTSCENE BETWEEN THE TRIALS IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED BY NOW."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, "I'm pretty sure that's not how this wo…"

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"Wow check it out, I'm basically a god smiting these crabs right now."

It was around noon the next day after our 4th trial. Fiona was out exploring the other parts of the island while Melanie, Paula, and I were all sitting by the beach. Just as she stated she would the day before, Paula had taken the magnifying glass Ned have given us and begun using the sunlight to create a heat ray burning the various crabs and other shell creatures on the beach.

"We can eat these tonight!"

"What the hell, how did you aim the sunlight to hit exactly where they were going?"

"And that's why you're the survival assistant Xavier!" Melanie responded instead, "if you were a survival extraordinaire, you'd know that crabs have a land speed of about 1 foot per second, and can usually only move right to left. This particular crab that Paula just fried is called a stone crab, and is only native to this region of the world."

"Okay I expected this from you, but how would Paula know that as well?"

"She used to watch nature documentaries with me."

"Yeah dipshit, unlike you I prepare myself for any situation. Especially places where there aren't any law enforcement officials in sight."

The small wooden boat that Paula had come in was still there docked onto the beach. On quite a few occasions, we had rowed it into the sea. Unfortunately, the waves were usually too strong and we never made it far before it came crashing back to shore. The only thing we were able to do with it was catch a few larger fish with our harpoon gun. For some reason, likely due to the fact that we were in some sort of pocket dimension, it didn't matter which part of the island we were on, the waves continuously only crashed inward towards the island.

"Say, do you think what Ned said was right and the ocean only extends 20 miles? I mean it looks like its further out when we look at the horizon right?"

"Hell if I care. We should stay here forever away from the law where I can have my dragon."

"I mean sure but like… I don't know, doesn't it bother you guys how supernatural everything is?"

"I can tell you about the show Supernatural if you want me too!"

"That's okay Melanie…"

I sighed looking out in the distance. There were now 25 marks on the stone. Almost a full month since Melanie and I had first been cast out onto this island. And as I looked at Melanie happily reading her book, and Paula quietly burning sea critters with her magnifying glass, I thought to myself,

"Ehhhh honestly it's not so bad."

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"OKAY, BY NOW YOU SHOULD KNOW THE DRILL, JUST PRESS THAT BUTTON AGAIN TO GET STARTED WITH TRIAL 5."

"Ok," Fiona said blankly pressing the button on the screen. As she did, the walls in front of us spread apart but this time, instead of leading to a tunnel or gym, another small room appeared directly in front of it with a door on the other side.

"THIS TRIAL WILL BE A TEST OF COURAGE. YOU WILL BE GOING ONE AT A TIME THROUGH THE DOOR AT THE END OF THE ROOM. WHEN YOU ENTER THROUGH THE DOOR, YOU HAVE TO CROSS ANOTHER ROOM. IN THAT ROOM, WE HAVE PREPARED A WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY A CATORED HAUNTED HOUSE WITH ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL BIGGEST FEARS THAT WILL APPEAR INSIDE."

"Oh god that sounds horrible," I said, "but we just have to get across the haunted house right? So can't we just run across or something?"

"OF COURSE, BUT THE PATH YOU MUST TAKE IS NOT NECESSARILY STRAIGHT. THERE WILL BE INDICATORS ON THE GROUND OF WHERE TO GO, BUT YOUR BIGGEST FEAR MIGHT JUST POP UP RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU WHILE YOU HAVE TO MAKE A TURN."

As he finished his sentence, a podium rose up from the ground with a single microphone on it. As well, a part of the ceiling opened as a TV slid down and hung right in front of us.

"TO MAKE THIS EASIER HOWEVER, WE WILL HAVE A CAMERA FOLLOW YOU IN THE HORROR ROOM SO THE OTHER MEMBERS OF YOUR TEAM CAN SEE YOU ON THE TV AS YOU GO THROUGH YOUR PERSONAL NIGHTMARES. THEY CAN ALSO COMMINCATE TO YOU WITH THE MICROPHONE WHICH WILL PROJECT THEIR VOICE TO HORROR ROOM. IF AT ANY POINT YOU FEEL YOU CANNOT TAKE IT, YELL "UNCLE" AND THE NIGHTMARES WILL IMMEDIATELY STOP."

"Ehhhhh how hard could this be? Let's just encourage each other when we aren't doing our own trial and we should be alright."

Next to me, Melanie and Fiona appeared to be visibly shaking at the sight of entering the room. Paula however, had her usual cocky expression as she was the first to reach for the door.

"Pshhhh yeah, I'm not afraid of jack," she said, "how about I go first then, show you bitches how it's done."

"OKAY PAULA MONI WILL GO FIRST,"

"Hey how did you know my full name?"

"He personally knows all of your fears and that's the question you're asking?"

"OKAY, THE ROOM HAS BEEN PREPARED, YOU MAY ENTER THE ROOM WHEN YOU ARE READY."

"Alright here I go then!"

She entered the room and closed the door behind her. On the screen, we saw Paula in an empty white room with yellow arrows on the ground for her to follow.

"What is that it? This isn't so…"

Before she could complete her sentence however, suddenly from her side, some cops began to run towards her.

"Ha that's the best you got?" Paula said beginning to run across the path, "I've been here a million times, I can do this in my sleep."

"Paula watch out!"

"Yeah yeah I know, they're pretty fast but I'm faste…"

She was interrupted however as she suddenly ran into something… or someone for that matter.

"Oh hello officer! I wasn't trying to smuggle anything I was just… just AHHHHHHHHHH."

As Paula looked up at who she thought was just another cop, a figure in cop cloth with a large red nose and pasty white skin appeared in front of her.

"Why hello there!"

"Clo… clo… clown!" Paula said quickly back pedaling.

"Take me to jail take me to jail take me to jail!"

"REMEMBER, YOU CAN GET OUT OF HERE BY YELLING UNCLE"

"Unc…"

"No Paula, if you give up now you'll never get the pet dragon!" Melanie said yelling into the mic, "It's just a delusion, don't be fooled!"

"I don't know if that's worth it to be honest!"

"Why are you scared of clowns anyway?" I asked into the microphone, "I mean it's not that uncommon but still unexpected."

"Have you seen IT?"

"Good point."

As Paula hurriedly gathered herself towards the other cops, they had also begun growing creepy smiles as slowly one after another, each one turned into a clown.

"Holy shit fuck fuck fuck fuck."

Paula began to run back towards the other direction. Surprisingly though, she had managed to run along the path pretty well.

"Fiona said she'll kiss you if you can get through this!" Melanie again yelled into the microphone.

"No,"

"Fiona, my parents can order you infinite maple syrup bottles if we ever get off of the island."

"Okay fine."

"Okay do it for toots do it for toots," Paula said gathering herself, "you're just like my criminal record! Not real if I don't think about it!"

As she did, she covered her ears and sprinted as fast as she could along the arrowed path. Finally, after about 2 minutes, she arrived at a door at the end of the white room that she opened. As she did, she appeared back at what looked like the same room with a television screen as the 1st, 2nd, and 4th trial. The only difference however, was a podium stood in the middle with a microphone on top of it.

"CONGRATUATIONS PAULA, YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIAL. YOU MAY TALK INTO THE MICROPHONE THERE TO SPEAK TO THE OTHER PEOPLE TAKING THE TRIAL. THEY WILL NOW ALSO APPEAR ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN IN YOUR ROOM AS WELL."

"Fucking hell, I am never doing that again."

"WHO WANTS TO GO NEXT?"

"I will," the red haired android said stepping up to the door.

"You got this Fiona!" Melanie said.

"Wow, I can't even imagine what you'd be afraid of," I said as she entered the empty white room now magically cleared of clown cops.

"Let me guess, the summer weather or something?" I said chuckling.

Fiona ignored me and began walking along the arrowed path in front of her. After about 2 minutes of walking, seemingly nothing appeared.

"Wow, is this because she's not afraid of anything?"

"JUST WAIT FOR IT."

Suddenly, in the area in front of Fiona, a bunch of gigantic polar bears appeared. About a pack of 5 of them began running towards her.

"Oh I mean I guess. Aren't polar bears all at the North Pole though? They're scary, but they're not in Canada I'm pretty sure."

To our surprise however, Fiona didn't run away from the polar bears at all. Instead, she walked closer towards them.

"So cute."

"Wait, I thought you said this was going to be our greatest fears? It doesn't look like she's too scared to be honest."

Just as I said that however, suddenly the ground beneath the polar bears began to shift apart. The ground turned into ice just as Fiona was about to give one of the polar bears a nose rub. Instead, the polar bears began to drift away from her.

"No…" she said softly looking like she was about to cry.

"What? What's so bad about this? It's sad but I don't think it's that bad."

"IGNORANT HUMAN, THE REALITY IS THERE IS NOTHING SCARIER THAN GLOBAL WARMING. LOOK WHAT IT'S DOING TO THE POOR POLAR BEARS WHO LOSE A LARGE PROPOTION OF THE ICE THAT IS THEIR HOME EVERY YEAR."

"Wow… so insensitive," Paula yelled into the microphone from the other end.

"What, how was I supposed to know that's what's represented here."

"Unc…"

"Don't listen to him!" Melanie said yelling into the microphone, "polar bears are super important to me too but this isn't the real Artic Fiona! When we get off of this island, I'll tell my parents to increase funding towards environmental protection! Not all 1%ers are the same!"

Fiona closed her eyes for a bit, tears still flowing out. Slowly however, she nodded and continued down the path she was on slowly.

"Good-bye… friends."

Strong heartedly running past the bevy of polar bears surrounding her that appeared to whimper softly, Fiona managed to make it to the other room where she met Paula.

"Nice job toots!" Paula said going up to her and laying a kiss on her cheek, "that's your prize as well as mine!"

"Go extinct," Fiona responded pulling away.

"OKAY, GOOD JOB FIONA, YOU HAVE CONQUERED YOUR FEARS AND PASSED THE TRIAL. I HOPE THIS HAS BROUGHT MORE AWARENESS NOW TO THE TRUE HORROR THAT HUMANITY MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR. THOUSANDS OF SPECIES ARE DYING EACH DAY BECAUSE OF HUMANS."

"True exterminate humans," Fiona said softly into the microphone.

"OKAY, WHICH OF YOU TWO WOULD LIKE TO BE NEXT."

"Looks like it's time for the survival extraordinaire to take the stage!" Melanie said running up to the door. She opened it leading to the now empty white room clear of the Polar bears and ice floor.

"Get them Melanie!" Paula shouted into the microphone from the other side, "there's nothing scarier than walking into the same room as you at the wrong time!"

As she began walking, suddenly the image of two what looked like anime characters in super hero outfits appeared in front of her and began staring deeply into each other's eyes.

"BEFORE YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT COPYRIGHT, I FOUND A LOOPHOLE AROUND THIS AS WELL. THERE IS SOMETHING CALLED THE PARODY LAW WHERE YOU CAN USE CHARACTERS FROM OTHER SHOWS IF THEY ARE PARODIES OF THEM. THE CHARACTERS IN FRONT OF HER ARE ACTUALLY NAMED IWUKO MIYAMORIA AND BARUGO KABIKI. FROM THE FAMOUS SHOW HERO'S SCHOOL. SHOUT OUT TO HORIKOSHI."

"Okay whatever, we can discuss that later, isn't this exactly what Melanie wants to see though?"

"OMG I hope they make out," Melanie said staring at them.

Just as she said that however, suddenly two women appeared next to both of them. Two regularly dressed women who looked to be in the same animation style about their age but having no otherwise notable qualities. As they did however, Barugo and Iwuko suddenly stopped looking at each and turned their attention to the women instead. As they conversed, the two of them began holding the random women's hands.

"WHAT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, this is not canon I refuse to believe this. This goes against every one of my head canons."

"Melanie relax relax," I yelled into the microphone.

"HOW CAN I, WHAT THE FUCK!" Melanie said crying, "my head canon's ruined and I don't know what to do! Make it stop, Un…"

"No no think clearly about this," Paula said yelling into her microphone from the other end. "The sight of hot guys has blinded your vision. You can tell this is clearly not canon, because is this even the right guy pairing in Hero's School?"

"What? What's even the difference?"

"You're right!" Melanie shouted suddenly excited, "this can't be canon, because Barugo is supposed to marry Kitishima!"

With that thought in mind, Melanie suddenly gathered her courage and began to continue running forward.

"What? What the hell. How the hell did that work."

"Clearly you don't go on tumblr or reddit," Paula shouted into the microphone, "you can't avoid shippers."

After several minutes of running and dodging pass various other fictional characters making out, Melanie managed to make her way to the end entering the door to the room where Paula and Fiona were.

"GOOD JOB MELANIE, YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIAL. OKAY, JUST ONE PERSON LEFT, PLEASE GO AHEAD XAVIER."

"Okay I got this…" I said opening the door. As I did, I appeared at the same blank white room with a singular path of arrows the three previous islanders had been in before me.

"Go Xavier go!" Melanie said as I began walking down the path, "whatever it is you're afraid of, I'm sure you can conquer it!"

"Yeah I'm not scared of much to be honest," I said back, "it's not like they'll have "him" here any…"

Before I could finish my sentence however, I was stopped as right in front of me, a man about 6 foot tall with bulky muscles and a buzz cut who was indeed my biggest nightmare stood blocking me path.

"What's up dipshit."

It was Vernon Trent, a man that had traumatized me in middle school. He had done this for seemingly no reason either. He was simply bigger than me and chose to terrorize me specifically in every way from stealing my lunch money to shoving me in a locker.

"Oh… holy… Vernon! Fan… fancy seeing you here?" I said as he looked down at me menacingly.

"I feel like I'd get along with him," Paula said.

"You can get past him!" Melanie added, "or just let him do whatever he wants to you, honestly I don't really mind that option either!"

"Where you going punk?" the figure of Vernon said, "you want another atomic wedgy?"

"NO NO not again," I said pedaling backwards, "I don't know if I can do this!"

"And then the muscular Vernon approached Xavier imposing his will onto him," Melanie said into the mic, "will the submissive Xavier be able to resist… the temptation?"

"No no, what the hell this is messed up. I don't think I… wait what did you say Melanie?"

"Xavier pondered for a moment wondering if the bullying Vernon had done to him was truly bullying, or perhaps… a sign of love?"

"Melanie no what the…"

"No keep going!" Paula shouted grabbing the microphone, "hey dipshit, Melanie said she'll continue to narrate your life story with Vernon as if it were a BL fiction if you say uncle and don't run away from Vernon. Which one is scarier to you? Eh, I'm honestly okay with either outcome though."

"Xavier pondered for a moment, despite his mean-spirited nature, Vernon wasn't bad looking, perhaps he had a soft side to him."

"WHAT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," I said covering my ears. The terror of Melanie's words overwhelmed me as I ducked my head down and ran past Vernon along the path to the finish room.

"Hey come back here, I need your money for lunch," Vernon yelled chasing after me. Luckily, I was decently fast and was able to make it to the door at the end of the horror room.

"Damn maybe next time," Melanie said as I entered.

"CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE ALL PASSED TRIAL 5."