Chapter 10: Blake

Summary: Tulip and Mikayla are being hunted.

AN: As a heads up, Blake (the protagonist from the scrapped book 6 concept) is female in this AU!

It was only after slamming the door behind her and jamming it that Tulip felt comfortable turning her head to look at Mikayla as she sank to the ground in relief. She reached toward her friend’s trembling face and brushed a few strands away from her eyes.

“You alright?” she asked as she caught her breath. Mikalya shook her head.

“Who cares about me, that large roach nearly sucked the life out of you!” She teared up, her lips quivering. “I thought you were gonna die.”

Tulip pulled Mikayla into a hug. She rubs her back gently as they hold on tight to each other.

“Well it’s a good thing I had you here to get it off of me before it was too late,” she said. “Hitting it off of me was totally badass, by the way. You really saved my life.”

 She mustered up a small smile, hoping it would be enough to get Mikayla to calm down. Her heart sank a little when she realized that her friend was still shaking violently from the experience.

“What if it’s still chasing us?” Mikayla asked. “What if it comes back and I can’t stop that thing in time–”

“It won’t. Not as long as this door keeps it out long enough for us to find the front of this train,” Tulip assured her. “Maybe it’ll give up and leave us alone. For now…”

Tulip stood up and took in her surroundings. As far as she knew, they were on a really weird train with entire worlds enclosed in each train car. The last car they were in was filled with nothing but boxes. 

It was also where a large roach-dog creature snuck in through the opened car door to attack them. Tulip quickly pushed Mikayla out of the way before the monster descended upon her. It would have reduced Tulip to nothing had Mikayla not thrown a large box at its “head” to throw it off so they could escape. 

Surprisingly, that was the only scary part of their entire experience this past year. Most of the cares were filled with amicable denizens whom they helped out along the way. Tulip still has a few towels and face masks in her duffle bag from the spa car they left a few days ago.

Now, they found themselves in a world that resembled what Tulip assumed was the Mediterranean Republic packed into one train car. Cats and strange looking people with roses for heads populated the place, going about their day as normal. No one paid much mind to the two teenage girls huddled in front of the door. 

Tulip helped her friend up and led her into the town. She couldn’t help but admire the surrounding architecture that enhanced the mesmerizing horizon above.

“It’s beautiful,” Tulip admitted, turning to Mikayla.

“Yeah, really beautiful,” Mikayla added, looking back at Tulip. Tulip felt her face heat up and looked forwards.

“Let’s… get going,” Tulip said to change the subject. She held out her hand and pulled Mikayla along into the throng of rose people.

“Do you think Ryan and Min-Gi know we’re here?” Mikayla asked after a long period of silence between them. 

Tulip shook her head. “If they did, they’d have found us by now. Or…someone would have.”

“That, or this train is too big for them to catch up to them. We still havent seen Jesse or Lake around even though they went through the trailer not too long before we did!”

“We’ve been separated from them for so long...I hope they’re ok. Especially Lake. I wasn’t exactly the nicest to them before we went on this trip.”

“We’ve gotta find them before we get off this train,” Mikayla insisted. “Before that roach gets to them too!”

“We will,” Tulip promised. “We’ll get the heck off of this train and all of us will get to go home…somehow.”

“For now, I guess we should try and get a feel for this place while we figure out how to get to the next car,” Mikayla said, looking at a lone moped sitting near a wall. She gave Tulip a soft smile and nodded her head towards the vehicle. Tulip got on first, Mikalya settling right behind her and wrapping her arms around Tulip’s waist to hold on.

The two of them rode through the town together, goggling at the various sights they passed by. Occasionally Tulip turned around to check on Mikayla. She always had her head resting on Tulip’s back and arms wrapped firmly around her as she gazed at the world around her. Tulip grinned at how content and calm Mikayla looked compared to how frazzled and scared when they first arrived in this train car. They stopped by a few shops for treats along the way. 

“I hope you girls enjoy your meal,” a rose woman said, handing a paper plate to Mikayla. “Thanks for being the first to taste it for me!”

“We will, Thanks for the spaghetti, Ms. Nancy!” Tulip said as the two of them ran off.

The girls sat on a bench laughing and talking together as they finished eating. The moped was parked on the side next to them. Mikalya leaned back, swinging her legs back and forth on the bench.

“You know, if we weren’t on this weird, never ending train without a way to get out… I wouldn’t mind going to places like this with you," Mikayla said. “I never thought we’d end up in …straight up Italy of all places. It’s like we’re on a mandatory vacation, sorta.”

Tulip looked confused, but decided not to ask about what Mikayla meant. The sound of cats screeching interrupted her thoughts. Several screeching cats ran out in all directions in front of the two, followed by what appeared to be an elderly rose woman with a suspiciously heavy bag.

“Stop, thief!” Someone yelled out after the rose woman.

Tulip got up first. “We should stop her!”

They took off after the old rose woman. She was surprisingly agile and fast. The two girls struggled to keep up. She took a sharp turn into Nancy’s restaurant, where the girls followed hot on her trail. Various screams and crashes filled the air, occasionally punctuated by Mikayla and Tulip profusely apologizing for the mayhem. 

The thief knocked over pots and pans, sending spaghetti and meatballs tumbling onto the floor. Tulip and Mikaya tried their best not to slip on the food as they pursued the old woman.

After a series of turns and collisions, they eventually had the old rose woman cornered. If she had a face, Tulip assumed she’d be glaring at them right about now. She huffed and threw the bag of coins on the ground. Tulip blinked a few times when water started to spill from the bag. Nancy came out soon after, sighing with her hands on her hips.

“Again, Gertrude?” She chided the older woman. “I hope it was worth wrecking my kitchen now?”

Gertrude huffed and ran off, leaving the bag of coins on the floor. Nancy sighed and walked over to pick up the bag.

“Sorry about that girls, Gertrude likes to steal the coins from the fountain around here for some reason. Heaven knows what she uses it for,” Nancy says. She looked back at her kitchen with a sigh. “And now I’ve got to clean up the mess she made. And it’s only a few hours before my restaurant is supposed to open!”

“We can help you out!” Mikayla offered. “It’s the least we could do.”

“Well, you guys can start by cleaning up the food spilled on the floor while I return these coins to the fountain. I’ll help with the rest once I get back.”

As Nancy walked off, Tulip began with getting the leftover spaghetti and meatballs off of the floor while Mikayla wiped the counters down.

“Any change on your number?” Tulip asked, checking her own hand. Their number has gone up and down throughout the year, and they’re still trying to figure out how exactly the numbers work around here. Sometimes it went down when the girls helped others and goes up when they have a disagreement of some sort. But sometimes the number doesn’t change at all regardless of the actions they took. 

And right now, their number was the exact same as it was before the roach creature attacked them.

“Nothing,” Mikayla said with a sigh. “Maybe it’ll change when we finish helping Nancy out!”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Nancy came back inside the kitchen.

“The bad news is that I’ll have to make everything from scratch again because most of the materials I used for this batch were ruined,” Nancy said despondently. “The good news is the stores that I get my materials from are still open. We’ve still got a few more hours before my restaurant is set to open. Would you girls mind picking some stuff up for me?”

Tulip nodded, and she and Mikayla set off in the moped after Nancy gave them a list with directions.  She felt comforted having Mikayla’s arms around her once again as they traveled through the town to pick up the materials Nancy needed.

Once they came back, Nancy greeted them with enthusiastic air kisses and hugged the two of them. 

“By the way, the exit out of here just opened up,” she said. “Of course, you two are welcome to stay here for a while for the opening of my restaurant if you’re not in a hurry.”

The girls scrambled for the door after giving Nancy another hug.

“We’d love to stick around, but we’ve gotta keep going,” Tulip said as Nancy handed them a container of food. Good luck with your restaurant! I’m sure it’ll be a big success. Bye!”

Upon approaching the crossing to the next car Tulip sat down with her legs crossed and pulled a notebook out of her duffel bag. She flipped through  page after page until she reached one that was blank. Mikayla crouched down next to her.

“So… we’re calling that car the ‘Straight Up Italy’ car,” Mikayla said. “What do we know now?”

“Well, the door opened after we helped Nancy clean up after stopping that old woman from robbing the water fountain. But nothing happened to our numbers.” Tulip’s brow furrowed a little.

“Even though it went down when we helped that dinosaur baseball league win a game. But it also stayed the same when we got out of the color clock puzzle together.”

“So we do know the number goes down when we make progress towards something, The problem is we still don’t know what good things specifically make our numbers change.”

“We’ve also gotta make sure we keep our cool so our number doesn’t go up so high,” Mikayla said, reaching for the notebook.

“What are you gonna do?”

Mikalya held the notebook close to her as she scribbled away at the pages. Tulip decided to give the girl some privacy while she waited. Mikayla flipped the book around to show Tulip a series of drawings in the open spaces of the pages. She drew Nancy, the old lady that was trying to steal coins from the fountain, and some spaghetti and meatballs all over the page.

“Since we didn’t take any pictures with our phones, I figured doodling the things we see would be cool. You mind if I work on the other pages?”

“Sure, but let’s get into the next train car first. Feels uneasy being out here sometimes. Let’s go.” Tulip led Mikayla into the next car.

The girls find themselves in a fancy golden ballroom teeming with walking octopus people in fancy clothes.

“Dang, I feel underdressed,” Mikayla commented, looking down at her gray jumpsuit. 

As soon as Tulip took another step, she was stopped by what appeared to be a walking chandelier with white dots for eyes.

“What do you think you’re doing, stepping out in these…plain clothes,” the chandelier scoffed. “I cannot present you in such a state, I must get you two prepared immediately.”

Before either of them could say a word, they were whisked away to what he called “The Cotillion Room”. As they walked down the hall, they passed various portraits of different passengers and octopus people in fancy clothes.

“Former debutantes, all paired off now,” the chandelier continued.

“Where do they go after they’re paired off?” Mikayla asked. “And… Do you know how the heck we can get off of this train?”

The chandelier did not answer either question of hers.

“Well, here we are!” He said, presenting a large set of doors. “ I'll be back to collect you all later. So follow the feet, learn the steps, no mistakes or you’ll be trapped here forever!”

“What?”

“Ok, Cheerio!” He pushed the two of them into the room and closed the door behind them  Tulip tried to go back after the chandelier to ask what the hell was going on, but the doors refused to budge.

“Wait, we still have questions! Don’t leave us here” Mikayla banged on the door, but her attempts to escape were as futile as Tulip’s. The two of them turned around and sank to the ground in frustration.

After a few minutes of silence, Tulip said, “You know, I’m not much of a dancer.”

“I took a few classical dance classes a couple of years ago,” Mikayla said. “I might be a little rusty, but I don’t mind taking the lead. That is, if you’re willing to be my partner.”

She got up first to stretch her arms and legs before turning back to Tulip and holding out her hand. Tulip smiled and let Mikayla lead her through the steps. She stumbled a few times but managed to get the hang of it.

“You’re a natural at this,” Tulip said, beaming. The other girl grinned, highlighting the dimples on her freckled face.

“You’re not half bad yourself,” Mikayla said as Tulip leaned in to dip her gently. “You sure you aren't taking secret dancing lessons in your coding club or something?”

“Nah,” Tulip chuckled. “Unless you count me making a spoof version of Dance Dance revolution you play on the computer. Which you said you’d play as a test run for me, by the way.”

Mikayla laughed. “I’m still at the tutorial level.”

“The tutorial is the easiest part! The challenge comes at level ten, where you–”

“Wait, wait, no spoilers!” The two of them dissolved into giggles once more as the chandelier returned.

“It’s time, lovelies! And not a moment later!”

The girls were once again whisked away to the top of the stairs where they first arrived. Tulip found herself in a fancy white dress, her braided hair tied into a neat bun. She looked at Mikayla, who was wearing a similar dress with her hair also tied into a bun. She looked like an angel. Tulip would rather wear something less… bright.

“You look great,” Tulip mouthed.

“So do you,” Mikayla mouthed back. The spotlight landed on the two of them, and the chandelier stepped forward. 

“I present to you as their entrée into society… Mikayla King and Tulip Olsen.  And now the couple will take their first dance together.”

Mikalya led Tulip down the stairs as they began to dance together. They nailed all the steps, practically floating across the floor. Mikayla giggled once more as Tulip spun her around and  dipped her. For a split second, their faces were just inches from each other and they were only focused on the other person right in front of them. When the song ended, the room exploded in applause. 

“The door’s up ahead!” Mikayla pointed out. “This was fun, but it’s getting a bit stuffy in this dress.”

The two of them got rid of their fancy dresses and walked to the exit. Tulip opened the door and was greeted with the most awful screeching. She came face to face with a mouth filled with tentacles within even smaller tentacles. She yelped and tried to slam the door. The creature pushed its way through and flew through the air, multiple of its kind slipping inside the ball room.  Screams erupted from the crowd immediately. 

Tulip reached out for Mikalya, but she had run away into the crowd as the creatures plummeted into the audience.  One had pounced on one octopus lady in a puffy blue dress. Just as it has done to Tulip before, the creature started to vacuum away the essence of the denizen. She tried to fight it off but to no avail. The denizen started to shrink and wither away until she was reduced to dust. Then, the creature started to tremble and glow until it just exploded into blue dust. The audience screamed in horror as they tried to fight off the roach creatures. 

Tulip continued to look for Mikayla while avoiding getting her essence sucked away from her. When she finally spotted Mikayla, two of the creatures swarmed the young girl. 

“Mikayla!” Tulip reached out and pulled her away from the corner, causing both creatures to pursue them. Mikayla stumbled and tripped, allowing one of the creatures to descend upon her. Before Tulip could reach out for her, the second one swooped down on her. She turned on her back and looked away from the creature for as long as she could. She could feel herself growing weaker and paler again as the creature started to consume her essence once more.

The door slammed open again, and a girl with  frosted tips burst in with what appeared to be some sort of laser gun. With one kick she knocked the first creature off of Mikalya and tackled the one on top of Tulip. While recovering on the ground, Tulip could see the girl wrestle the creature until it stopped moving. She got up and aimed her laser gun at the second creature charging towards Mikalya.  

A single hit from the laser gun transformed the creature into a small and harmless butterfly. The girl ran into the ground, blasting several creatures with her laser gun until all of them were turned into butterflies. She finally turned towards Tulip and Mikayla as the smoke cleared. The guests started to collect themselves and mourn over the ones consumed by the creatures as the girl walked over.

“You two ok?” She asked, placing the gun at her hip. Mikayla continued to cower on the ground, refusing to look up until the girl tapped her on the shoulder. “I hoped to come sooner, but I wasn’t quick enough to stop the ghoms from claiming a few denizens.”

“Ghoms?” Mikayla asked.

“Yeah. Big weird roach… dog things. I dunno, that’s what Amelia calls it,” the girl shrugged. “I’m Blake, by the way. Blake Stone.”

“I'm Tulip and this is my friend Mikayla. Thank you for saving our lives.”

Blake smiled. “Just doing my job.”

“Are you like, the conductor or something?” Mikayla asked.

“Nah, I could never manage a train like this on my own. Besides,” Blake said, holding out her arm decorated in green numbers. “I’m a passenger just like you who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Amelia’s the one you want to talk to.”

“Can you take us to her?” Tulip asked. “Could she help us find our friends, maybe get off the train too?”

“I’d have to catch her in a good mood, but I don’t see why not. Come with me. I think you’ll be better off then being on your own like this. But we’ve got ways to go to get to the engine.”