At least, Susan had to assume that it was Susan, as there was only a small box (all the dimensions were about a foot). Written on the front was ‘Jerk-in-the-box’ and there was a small handle attached to the side. A small Cronos plushie came out from the shadows, and began cranking the handle, the tune of ‘pop goes the weasel’ began playing with a tinny music box tone.
At the point where the ‘pop’ would happen, the lid of the box popped open, expelling Lindsay’s screaming head. The head bobbed up and down on the spring it was attached to, wearing a ridiculous jester’s hat, and with a sign underneath that read ‘World’s biggest jerk ^’.
“Now then,” the teddy bear said, the plushie closing the box’s door on top of Lindsay, muffling her screams once more, while some more plushies turned Susan back around so that she was facing the one-eyed leader once more. “How shall we deal with the accomplice then?”
“Tear out her stuffing!”
“Rip her limb from limb!”
“Take out her batteries!” Various unseen cries shouted out recommendations on how to punish Susan.
“Silence,” The bear (who was clearly the leader of this tribe of toys) shouted, silencing the audience. He paused, a look of concentration on his face (at least what Susan supposed was concentration, it was hard to tell), before proclaiming, “I have decided!” There was a long pause before he continued, “I have decided to offer this being a kindness that her friend would not offer us. Set her free!”
Mumblings through the crowd expressed a general disagreement to their leaders decision, but nobody dared to properly argue. The thin wire holding her in place were sliced, setting her free from the board, the unexpected freedom of movement causing her to fall to the floor. She quickly scrambled to stand up, before the elder toy continued, “Child of the flesh, I sense in your heart a kindness not present in your compatriot. I offer you the choice to leave, letting your friend remain in our realm, or to suffer here with her.”
The response that immediately jumped into Susan’s mind was to just leave. Given the choice, literally anyone else in the group would easily trade Lindsay’s life away for their own. However, despite her immediate desires, there was something holding her back from just giving in and leaving.
It was freshman year. Susan hardly knew anyone at Whale Gulch University outside of a couple of classes. She met a guy on Blubber (the Tinder-esque dating app for those going to WGU). When things started out, he was extremely sweet. He would always be open to what she wanted to do, and they started spending almost every waking moment with each other, eventually moving in together.
As the year progressed, Susan started noticing a major change in his behavior. He would start asking her to stop spending time with her friends and hang out more with her. They started avoiding public gatherings, and when they did go out, he began drinking more heavily than he had when they started dating. When they made love, he started acting more assertively. On more than one occasion, he would get a little too rough in the bedroom and leave her with a bruise or a bump, and then demand that she would lie to cover for him (which she would, after all it was just and accident). Then, the accidents began to occur outside of the bedroom.
It was after a particularly bad ‘accident’ that Susan finally realized she was in a bad relationship. She had asked him if she could go out to see her parents who were in town, after he said no, she went anyways. Needless to say, his anger when she returned to their apartment was immeasurable, and their relationship ended when he punched her in the face.
She had nowhere to go, after all he had done his best to cut her off from all of her other friends early, and even worse she was afraid that if she did try to tell someone, he would come after her and do something worse than a shiner.
Lindsay shared a single class with Susan at the time. It was a lecture class of about two hundred plus students. On that fateful day, Lindsay chose the seat next to Susan. She didn’t have to get involved, she could have chosen a different seat, or just not bother asking her what happened, or not gotten involved at all. But she did. And that was why Susan knew what she had to do.
Susan didn't bother pleading for her life, she turned around, grabbed the box containing Lindsay’s head, and began to run. She had no clue where she was going, no clue where the rest of Lindsay was, she only knew that she couldn’t stop running.
From behind her, she heard the whizzing of objects fly past her. One of them managed to find purchase in her left arm (the one not holding Lindsay’s head in a box), causing it to thud to the floor behind her.
Susan managed to make it to the staircase mostly in tact, and as she began to descend to the ground floor, she could hear the elder teddy bear shout out to her, “You fool! Your friend shall be the worst of your troubles! Do not believe her lies, for she wishes ill will upon you!”
As Susan descended the stairs, she approached the counter where Sapphire stood with her back turn. “Excuse me Sapphire, we could use some assistance.”
“What can I do for you- Oh my God!” Sapphire turned, a look of shock across her face.
After explaining the situation to Sapphire, she went up to the second floor and managed to retrieve a couple of extra boxes with the ‘Jerk-in-the-box label’ and even find Lindsay’s discarded torso and her clothes. Sadly, she was unable to find Susan’s left arm.
Susan began opening the boxes, each one containing either a hand, a foot, or the one that contained her head (which of course, after being trapped for so long, was swearing up a storm), “Took you fucking long enough! Do you know what those fucking toys did to me?!”
Susan did her best to ignore her (Sapphire simply slinked away, trying her best to avoid conflict), removing her various body parts from the springs they were connected to, and connecting the bits as best she could to where they were supposed to be (which involved placing her hands on her shoulders and her feet on her hips. “Ugh! Are you fucking kidding me? I look like some sort of freak!”
Susan continued to ignore her friend, “Hey Sapphire, do you happen to have a snow globe? My mom collects them and I promised her I would pick one up for her.”
“Of course miss! Let me go get one for you,” Sapphire, said, thankful for any excuse to avoid hearing Lindsay’s biting remarks.
Lindsay eventually managed to calm down. “Susan?”
“Yes Lindsay?”
“Thanks… For saving me…”
“No problem,” Susan said, smiling, “I knew you would do the same for me.”
“Heh, totally,” Lindsay said, recognizing in her mind (for the first time in ages) her selfishness, in that she probably wouldn’t have.
“Aww! Come here,” Susan said, hugging Lindsay with her good arm.
“Wait Lindsay! That feels weird,” Lindsay barely managed to get the words out, before her various parts shot off of her torso, bouncing around on springs that kept the parts technically connected to her torso.
Susan stared in horror, before finally cracking, laughing at the ridiculousness of Lindsay’s situation. Lindsay, while initially protesting asking for help, eventually broke down too, laughing at her predicament.
Their laughing died down as Sapphire finally came down the stairs, snow globe in hand. She looked at Lindsay, her various body parts still springing around, and said to the two, “I don’t know if they can help, but it might be best if you got your friend to the medical tent, they should be able to help, or at the very least remove those springs so that her parts will stay connected.”
“Yeah Sapphire, I think we’re going to take you up on the offer,” Susan said. She purchased the snow globe so that it would be shipped straight to her Mom’s house, pushed all of Lindsay’s parts back towards her body (where they thankfully stuck again), and hoisted her friend under her one arm (which was much easier since her friend dropped a few pounds) and made their way to the medical tent.
Head to the Medical Tent <Convergence Point>
Read one of the other paths:
1.) Veronica and Spencer (Tunnel of Love)
2.) Heather and Echo (Carnival Games)