Read [untouchable] (dropped version) :: —==SMASH CUT==—

we open the door to find two kids sleeping on the floor of a pantry. the two kids snap awake and some stuff happens that we already saw.

let’s fast forward.

Luke: let’s change the subject. we need a little help finding our friends.

Luke: but first, introduce yourselves.

Duff, he/him, and Bree, she/her.

Ellis: cool, cool. i’m guessin you guys just busted outtuva cell?

Duff: yep. probably an hour ago. i escaped, beat the shit out of a ghost, and met THIS twisted individual.

he gestures towards Bree, who smiles.

Jen: cool! i think we found the last two kids!

Luke: yes, it is pretty satisfying.

Duff: i don’t know what you’re talking about.

Luke: Leo, Jax, Criss and Malcom all escaped their cells recently, as you did. us four arrived a few weeks ago. in the beginning, there were six of us. it stands to reason that there’d be six new arrivals as well.

Duff: i see. so you’re looking for the other two of your veterans. they went missing.

Luke: precisely.

Luke: the ten of us reside in one of three '''houses'''. we came from house A to search for our friends who presumably ended up in house B. house C is inaccessible.

Your obsessive repetition is starting to come across as nearly fetishistic.

i don’t actually exist. so that means i can’t get horny.

Quite an eloquent retort.

i KNOW, right? *sexual moan*

Luke: house C is safe, house B is deadly, and house A is somewhere in between.

Luke: it’s been implied that someone else is here, plotting against us, seperate from the evil forces of the houses themselves.

Luke: if so, that would bring our head count from twelve to thirteen.

Duff: ah. good to know.

Duff: i’d be glad to help, but first, a query:

Duff: why are there twelve kids with superpowers locked in a seemingly endless haunted house that wants to kill them?

Luke: that’s an excellent question, one for which i have no answer.

Duff: swell. let’s find your damsels in distress.

the damsels in distress are not in distress. they are in descent, descent into hell.

by which i mean, they’re descending a staircase, an hour in the future. they’ve exhausted all other options non the previous floor, so they filled up on cupcakes and explored the nearest stairwell.

Ben: we’re not getting anywhere.

Ben: every step feels farther and farther from the safe house.

Ben: house A.

Ben: going down STAIRS is even worse.

Ben: like hiding in the basement in a fucking flood.

Ben: that didn’t make any sense.

Ben: more like.

Callie: boy. i get it.

Callie: we’re lost, we’re tired, we’re thirsty…

Callie: but we ain’t dead.

Callie: we ain’t gonna die.

Callie: i REFUSE to die.

Callie: i don’t know what i was THINKIN’ on that couch.

Ben: yeah… uh.

Ben: i don’t really know either.

Ben: i think i just gave up?

Ben: like in a movie, where someone’s dying and the just want to fall asleep and get it over with.

Ben: or go to sleep, i mean.

Ben: (SPOILER) is an asshole. i’m going to murder (THEM) when i find (THEM).

Callie: like (THEY) tried to do to us?

Callie: this kinda gits said a lot, but…

Callie: don’t become the bad guy, Ben.

Ben: yeah, you’re right.

they’ve been walking through the halls at the bottom of the stairs for… for a while now. ummm… these hallways seem to be… um, devoid of any doorways……………th-they’re little more than… more than ominous tunnels…

(sigh)

After a long, somber walk through the foreboding hallways, the two kids spotted something.

no.

There is was: the end of the hallway. Large and powerful, barely visible in the Light-Dark, was a door.

nope.

To two Children desperate for escape, the door whispered hope. In their eyes, it glowed with a beautiful Light, the Light of freedom.

stop.

The two teens faced a lopsided choice: trudge back to the dangerous unknown above, or follow this bright, wonderous beacon of hope.

…

They made their way down the hall. Slowly, they approached the doorway. Ben reached out toward the ornate crystal knob…

The imagined Light turned filthy. Sick. Rotten. The wood of the door began to decay, to putrefy. It died away, leaving a gaping Abyss.

The fate of the two Children had only begun to dawn on them before a swollen, viscid tendril slithered forth from the Darkness to envelope them.

…

smash cut…

Ellis freezes. his eyes glaze over as a look of abject horror.

he clutches his temples and begins hyperventilating.

Ellis: WOAH! NO! FUCK! FUCK! NO! SHIT! WHAT THE-!

he drops to his knees, then to the floor, he lays there facedown.

Ellis: they’re dead.

Ellis: …

Ellis: they died. i just watched them fuckin die.

Jen: they didn’t.

Ellis: it was the bloodiest shit i’ve ever seen.

Ellis: i fuckin hate my power.

Jen: they didn’t.

Vera: ya don’t BELIEVE him?

Jen: they didn’t.

Ellis: denial’s a shitty copin’ skill.

the Originals are all coping shittily. they seem to be using the Transparent Poker Face method. i’m using the Transparent Shitty Jokes method to cover up my own grief.

They were minor [Characters] who presented a logical obstruction to the story’s progression.

FUCK off.

Jen: we’re staying.

Luke: what do you mean?

Jen: i don’t want to live in the safe house.

Jen: i want to live in the death house with them.

Luke: …

Luke: i agree.

Vera: i agree.

Ellis: i agree.

Criss: i agree.

Malcom: i agree.