Sunburn: Part 5 (THE END)

       Still yelling, both Stan and Annie were swallowed by the water. Upon submergence, Stan noticed three very important things about the room they were now in, 1: spikes now lined the wall, ceiling, and floor, 2: The current(s) was VERY strong, and 3: The door was now closed. Still, he only had about one second to notice all of this before the various currents started fighting each other over where their helpless bodies would be tossed. Pulling the painting close to his chest and tightening his grip on Annie’s leg, Stan braced for impact on the spike covered wall that he was hurtling towards. There was a thud, both Stan and Annie screamed, and the two were once again thrown off in a different direction. The shields had held true!

       Back and forth, forth and back, back and forth once more, the pair was flung around the room screaming in terror. The shields were holding out well against the spikes, excluding the fact that water damage and, well, the fact that they had been beaten with spikes, had absolutly RUINED the paintings (which Roxxane had spent 3 hours posing for, the poor dear).  
       
       Luckily for Stan and Annie, the currents smashing them about the room were fickle and, on occasion, very kind. Caught in a very specific stream, the two were flung toward the door. The unlucky part was that the door was, in fact, closed. After giving a half-hearted attempt to scream in terror, the pair smashed through the door.

       Landing on the stairs on top of their paintings, which were now little more than wooden boards with frames, the pair tried to take a moment to rest. The moment was, however, burned away…literally. A great inferno blazed around the stairs as the two quickly realized that the room was now completely on fire.  They would have been choked out by the smoke, but the light bubbles remained firm.

       “Why can’t it just be…just…why?” Stan sobbed, burying his face in his hands. Annie gave a sympathetic whimper. Gazing through the fire, they saw the door was, miraculously, unharmed. However, it was very much closed.

       “Can’t you do something about this?” Annie asked. “Like a really big bubble to keep out the fire?”

       “Yeah sure! Wait…no. Too much power, not willing to spend,” Stan explained. “I mean, I could…but I really don’t want to. What I can do is make a bridge!”

       
       “A bridge through a room that is pretty much 100% fire?”

       “Back to back, we could use the paintings as shields! Though, we would lose the air bubbles, so cover up your mouth and try not to breathe…or die. ”

       “…sounds good enough to me…” Annie solemnly agreed as she covered her face with her trench coat. Stan did the same with his tank top and with another wave of his hands, the bubbles disappeared and a bridge navigating its way through the hellfire appeared.  Bringing up the paintings to their sides and standing back to back, they inched their way along the bridge of light

       “SEE!?” Stan yelled above the sound of everything burning. “TEAMWORK!”

       “WHAT!?”

       “TEAMWORK!”

       “I REALLY CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

       “THANKS! YOU TOO!”

       Upon reaching the door, Annie delivered a swift kick, knocking it open. There was a great roaring of wind that met them as they found the once mostly-normal room missing its floor and attempting to drag them into oblivion.

       “IT’S OKAY. THIS IS FINE. I’ll JUST…UH…I REALLY DON’T THINK KEEPING THIS BRIDGE UP WOULD BE GOOD FOR ME.” Stan yelled against the roaring wind.

       “Keep the bridge up!” Annie ordered. “If you drop it…I…I will do something! Something nasty!” Nervously, Stan waved his hands again and a very wide, sturdy bridge crossed the chasm.

       “Okay okay, fine,” he said, lifting the painting above his head. “Just don’t do anything rash!” With a confused scowl, Annie also protected herself against the crushing wind with her painting. Wasting no time, the two crossed the chasm and with another kick, made it back to the lobby.

       “YES! Sweet carpet!” Stan cheered as he leapt onto the carpet. “Floor I can stand on! Floor that isn’t going to kill me! Hooray!”

       “Ho *ZZZZT* y” Spork mimicked. Upon seeing his little soldier, Stan cheered again and began to chatter away incessantly with it. Annie, however, just gave a sidelong glance to Lizzy before turning to the final door.

       “Uh, Stan?” Annie said quietly. “Are we going to finish the game now?”

       “RIGHT!” Stan exclaimed, shooting up from his conversation with Spork and hurried over to the door, opening it wide. “There it is! The dollhouse, it all its glory! So, Annie, how in the world are we going to decide who gets to win?”

       “Like this…” Annie whispered, drawing her knife from her pocket. “I’m sorry…”

       “Like what, Tex? There needs to be a-guh…” Stan’s statement was cut off by the knife plunged into his back. Stan sputtered for a moment, coughing up a little bit of blood, before falling forward. Reacting to the fall, he focused and quickly formed a barrier of light, protecting him from Lava’s wrath. The blood was warm as it pooled from his mouth onto the barrier.  Stan struggled to lift himself up again, but Annie stepped down on his head as she threw her painting to act as protection from the floor.

       “I’m sorry Stan, but this isn’t personal, it is just…just what needs to happen!” Annie apologized as she grabbed the Stan doll from his pocket and threw it into the lobby. She then quickly walked onto the painting and towards the dollhouse, which was different somehow. Stan raised his head, watching his competitor win. It was over…Annie was about to win. But, he couldn’t let that happen. He was Stanford Ammonra! He. Doesn’t. Lose. Acting more on instinct than on anything else, Stan aimed his hand at the dollhouse, felt the light gather in his palm, and fired a beam at the dollhouse.

       Too late did Stan realize why the dollhouse was different. The entire second floor was now full of water, and the first floor was partly on fire. More importantly, however, was the lack of doors on the third floor. The world slowed down as the beam hit the miniature house, knocking it off of the table and burning it away. When it did, the entire house lurched forward into a spin, throwing Stan into the room as the walls of the house were suddenly ripped away. Again, instincts kicked into overdrive and, with a scream of terror, Stan flung his arms out to his sides creating a large bubble of light about the size of the now ex-room, with a layer covering the very intact floor.  

       Shaking and holding his hands up, Stan assessed the situation. The bed had not been harmed by the laser and was now sitting in the middle of Stan’s makeshift room. Annie had also not been harmed by the beam, but she had been thrown across the room and was now lying still on the ground. Fortunately, her doll had survived the flip and was lying at her feet. The most worrying fact, however, was that he had just destroyed the house, and if there was no house, then where were they?

       I AM VERY, VERY, CROSS, STANFORD.

       Stan looked up to where Lava’s voice was resonating from and let out another whimper. Surrounding the bubble of light was a swirling cocktail of fire, water, and inky darkness which Stan was going to assume was void. The mixture was churning violently around the bubble, pressuring it to break on all sides.

       “Oh no…” Stan moaned.

       OH YES, STANFORD. YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE HOUSE, AND WHILE THIS IS NOT TECHNICALLY AGAINST THE RULES, YOU HAVE RUINED MY CURRENT LIVING SPACE. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.  AND ANNIE, YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED HIM. I WAS FORCED TO MOVE YOU TEMPORARILY TO MY DOMAIN.  I SUPPOSE YOU WILL BOTH HAVE TO BE DESTROYED. NOW, PLEASE LET DOWN THE SHIELD SO I CAN BURN, DROWN, AND CRUSH YOU TO DEATH.

       Stan stiffened as he felt a surge of force come onto his shield. Groaning and squinting his eyes with effort, he poured more power into the wall separating him and Annie from certain doom. The knife wound burned as Stan coughed up more blood from his punctured lung, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was living and keeping the shield up. There was movement from the other side of the room and a noise that Stan was VERY familiar with, the cocking of a gun. Opening up his eyes, Stan saw Annie standing across from him, gun raised.

       “Okay…Annie…now, I know what you are thinking…” Stan began but was soon cut off by an unknown voice coming from around Annie. Whether it was because they were in Lava’s domain, the stress that the incorporeal world was putting on the real world, or even just chance, Stan heard a voice that he wasn’t supposed to. The voice sounded like it belonged to a shady car salesman, but less corrupt, and was fading in and out from what Stan could hear, but the message was clear.

       “ANNIE! STOP WASTING MY TIME AND KILL HIM! NOW! YOU MISSED SO MANY OPPORUNITIES BEFORE, DON’T YOU DARE WASTE THIS ONE! KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM!”

       Trembling, Annie fired a shot, grazing Stan’s shoulder, causing what Stan assumed was Shade to go into another tirade. Annie shot again, this time missing Stan completely and getting defected by the bubble. No longer shaking, she grit her teeth and took aim one last time. The sound from Lava’s attacks, the pressure on his shield, even Shade’s murderous screams, all were just background to Stan. All that mattered was the barrel of Annie’s gun, and his demise.

       “I’m sorry, Tex,” Stan croaked. With a quick twist of his wrists, the thin barrier of light between Annie and the floor disappeared. As soon as her feet connected with the wood, Annie’s eyes grew wide, her pupils shrunk, and she began to scream. Clutching her head in her hands, Annie sunk to the floor screaming in agony. With some of the burden relieved and no time to waste, Stan dove to the bed, grabbing it up and, with a quick prayer, slammed it down onto the Annie doll.

       The world shattered around Stan, and for the first time in quite a long time, Stan was blinded by a wave of light. Weightless, Stan remained in the light for a moment, but it was all short lived for his world shifted once again, materializing a cabin around him. He fell with a thud onto the floor, groaning in agony from his still recent wounds. Sitting up, Stan saw that the new cabin was his, in every sense of the word. Christmas lights hung from the ceiling, the walls were lemon yellow, and the bed was covered in sheets with a sunrise pattern on them. Most importantly, however, was the laptop sitting on a desk next to the window. Stan would have jumped up with joy, if it wasn’t for the various wounds ridding his body, and because of the crying coming from near the door.

       Stan turned to see Annie crouched in corner crying bitterly. He slowly stood, walking towards her on the now completely safe floor and said, “Listen, Tex, I am so sorry that I did that to you, I know how it feels and it is terrible and I am sorry…okay?”  
Annie did not look up, but kept crying. “Annie, I apologized!” Stan exclaimed. “Stop crying please! Is there anything I can…huh?”

       “I’m sorry, Shade, I’m sorry sorry sorry” Annie cried. Stan paused for a moment, letting what he had heard sink in. He balled his hands into fists, anger rising rapidly in him. Stan raised a fist, and punched the air around Annie’s head; once, twice, three times, furiously attacking the empty space around Annie. Annie, sniffing back more tears, looked up at Stan, bewilderment etched onto her face.

       “Take that, you stupid shadow thing!” Stan yelled at the air around Annie. “She was just doing what you asked her! The entire time! I was very close to hating this girl for hitting me with a gun, stabbing me, and breaking a promise…TWICE! But I think it is pretty clear now that you are the only bad thing here! Gahhh, you should feel privileged to have this girl as a host or whatever weird thing is happening! So lay off of her… if you were yelling at here which I actually don’t know if you were or not! Seriously! Now, Annie, I am sorry you have to deal with that stupid thing every day and if he EVER throws a tantrum like that again, tell me and I will take care of it. Kay”

       “Uh…sure I guess…” Annie sniveled, “b-but why are you being nice to me? After all I did to you?”

       “Because…because it wasn’t your fault.” Stan sighed. “Of course, I did win, as I got `Stanford OR Annie to the bed first,’ so this house is technically mine. Still...I don’t want to see you homeless, so you can stay here until this game is over. It is the least I can do, after all, I broke my promise, so I owe you. Besides, I can probably find somewhere else.  Deal?” Stan held out his hand again to Annie. Rubbing away her tears, Annie reached out and shook it, smile overtaking her face.

       “GREAT! Now, only rule, don’t you dare touch the laptop or there will be a reckoning.” Stan grinned. “But first things first, I am in incredible pain and I need to see that freaky Doc Jay…oh, and Roxxane! She never told me that the game would involve all of this crap! Funny thing, by the end there, it was almost EXACTLY like my trip to Mexico. But I have to go yell, and then probably die from blood loss…BYE!” And with that, Stan stormed out of the cabin making his way towards the feast, and the next round.