As the five boys approached the castle, they gazed upwards. It wasn’t the largest castle in the world (or rather, in the game) but the fact that it was the first one they’d seen up close combined with the fact that they weren’t exactly sure what they’d be facing made things that much more… terrifying.
Or was that a small feeling of excitement? Nick grinned like a child on Christmas morning as he stared upwards. “This is awesome!” He exclaimed, clenching his fists together. “What do you think’s inside?”
“I’d really rather not find out.” Brian said, shaking his head and taking a step back from the door.
AJ rolled his eyes at Brian’s lack of enthusiasm. Truth be told, he was starting to enjoy himself. There was something exciting about being in the thick of an entire new world. “Come on guys, the only way we’re going to get out of here is if we continue on.”
Howie eyed the large door that was in front of them. “How are we supposed to get in there?” He wondered aloud.
The other four guys just gazed at the door in bewilderment. They didn’t have a clue how they were supposed to go about entering the castle.
“Maybe there’s a password or something?” Kevin thought, looking around for any indication. There wasn’t much to the door, it was just your normal, run of the mill castle door. But, leave it to those boys to over think everything. “Keep the Backstreet Pride Alive!” Kevin shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth in an effort to make it voice louder.
Nothing happened.
“Why on earth would you think there would be a password?” AJ asked, rolling his eyes.
“Well it’s obvious that the person who put us inside this game wants us to work together, so it stands to reason that they would make us say cheesy things like that.” Kevin explained himself, giving AJ a look of superiority.
“To hell with that, I say we break and enter!” Nick shouted, pulling out his gun and proceeding to shoot at the door. All of the others gasped and ducked for cover as the bullets bounced off the door and flew in every direction.
“Jesus, Nick! What the hell were you thinking?” Kevin shouted, once Nick realized that shooting at the door wasn’t going to accomplish anything but getting all of them killed. “Have you ever seen any kind of door that opens when you shoot at it?!”
“Have you ever seen any kind of door that opens when you shout at it?” Nick replied, wearing a smug grin on his face.
“Will you guys cut it out?” Howie sighed, clearly exasperated. “The only way that we’re going to get through this is if we work together so- ”
“No, I think Nick has the right idea.” AJ cut in, trying to pull Brian’s flame thrower from his grasp. “Forced entry is the only way!”
Brian managed to pull away from AJ’s attempts to steal his weapon. “No! There is no way we’re burning this place down!”
AJ rolled his eyes. “We aren’t burning the entire castle down, church boy, just the front door so we can get in.”
Brian glared at AJ, but soon noticed that all the others were looking at him intently. “Fine.” He gave in. “I’ll do it, but ya’ll better duck.”
Doing as they were told, AJ, Kevin, Howie and Nick ducked for cover while Brian shot bright orange and yellow flames at the door.
Again, nothing happened.
“What the hell?” Nick asked angrily, to no one in particular. “Well, how are we supposed to get inside now?”
The five of them pondered that for a moment, worried that they’d exhausted all of their resources. AJ went over the options in his head. They’d tried a secret password, and nothing had happened. They’d tried shooting at the door, again nothing had happened. They’d even tried burning down the door and yet again, nothing had happened.
Suddenly it dawned on him.
“Uh guys?” AJ said, putting his hand on the golden latch that hung on the door. “I think there was one thing we forgot to try.” He finished, pulling on it.
Almost instantly, the door gave a loud creak and swung open allowing the boys entry to the castle. There was a long hallway, which caused their voices to ring throughout. All that could be heard was the arguing between the five boys over the fact that none of them had thought to try opening the door. Needless to say, four of them were feeling quite mortified while AJ was feeling overly proud of himself.
It seemed like they walked for hours through the hallway, and there didn’t seem to be an end. There were no doors to be found, so they just kept walking and walking… and walking and walking.
“Dude, this is taking way too long.” Nick whined, as he attempted to shift his weight to make himself more comfortable. It didn’t quite work. “I’m getting tired, by the time we get wherever it is we’re going, I’m going to need a nap.”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “You spend two hours a night jumping around on stage, how can this possibly be wearing you out?”
“That’s not the same!” Nick defended himself. The other just shook their heads. “What? It’s not! This is really stressful.”
“Okay, Nick.” Howie said, shaking his head.
“I’ll never yell at video game characters again.” Nick muttered under his breath.
For the rest of the walk, the boys stayed silent. That is, until they reached the end of the hall.
“Great, another door.” Brian said, sarcasm evident in his voice. Though, he looked more worried than anything. “What do you suppose we do?”
The four gave him a knowing look, and instantly all of them reached for the handle. Tugging on it, they expected the door to open for them without problem.
And it did.
The large doors swung open, causing the boys to jump back. They all looked upwards at the sight that was before them. A large white room, with nothing to the walls, nothing to the floor, not even a torch or anything in sight. In fact, it seemed as though the room gave off its own glow, that lighting was unnecessary.
“Shit guys.” AJ breathed, as the five of them cautiously walked into the room. “This can’t be a good sign.”
“Has anything to do with this game been a good sign?” Kevin shot back, while gazing at the scene around him. “Really, AJ.”
AJ held up his hands. “Just pointing out the obvious.”
The five boys stood in the centre of the room, unsure of what to do next. After a few seconds, Howie scrunched up his nose in disgust. “Guys, do you smell that?”
Without hesitation, AJ, Kevin and Brian gave Nick a glare. “What?!” Nick exclaimed, jumping back a bit. “It wasn’t me!”
They all shook their heads, clearly not believing him. That is, until Howie felt a drop on his head. He moved his hand up to his hair, touching the substance that had dropped upon it. Glancing at his fingers, he stared at the sticky substance.
“Okay, now that really wasn’t me.” Nick said, and the five boys slowly looked upwards.
The once plain white ceiling now looked as though it was melting. Covered in an off white liquid (with a little bit of a greenish tinge) it started to drip more heavily, forming a puddle on the far side of the room from where the boys were.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Brian mumbled to himself, not sure what to expect next. All that the guys could do was watch what was unfolding before them.
“Looks like you’ll have to wait to take that nap, Nicky.” Howie said dryly.
No one responded. Instead they all stared as the puddle on the floor began to build itself into a cube form. It was about a foot taller than Kevin, a little more sticky and a lot more gelatinous.
The cube didn’t have much of a face, just tiny black dots for eyes and a large mouth that it promptly opened, strings of goo lining it.
“I told you it wasn’t me.” Nick said, as once the cube opened its mouth the stench once again filled the room.
“Whatever, Nick.” AJ snickered. “We are fucking dead.”
“No man, I got it covered.” Nick said, running his hand through his hair. “This first boss of the game is always the easiest.” With that, Nick pulled out his gun and started firing at the cube. However, instead of the desired effect, all that happed was the monster encapsulated the bullets.
“Yup, you sure got it covered, dumbass.” AJ said sarcastically.
At that moment, the monster lunged towards the group, causing the guys to jump in every direction. Nick, being the slowest on account of the oh so long walk, was unable to move out of the way. Just like the bullets, as the cube landed on him he was immediately encapsulated.
If the boys hadn’t been so terrified, they probably would have found it quite hilarious. Nick was now hovering inside the cube, which had now grown in size. He was unable to move and just floated there, a shocked expression on his face and his hands held up in a feeble effort to protect himself.
“So we’re pretty much dead.” Brian shouted at the others.
Kevin just shook his head, unable to accept defeat. Giving the cube and angry glare, he drew out his sword (which he had been hiding all along on the side of his pants) and lunged towards it.
“Whoa, Kevin!” Howie shouted. “I never knew you had a sword in your pants!”
AJ snickered. “That’s what she said.” When none of the others laughed, he rolled his eyes. “Nick would have found it funny.”
“Speaking of Nick, make sure you slice away from him!” Brian shouted, and not a moment too soon. As Kevin sliced the cube in half (Nick being trapped inside one half), the jumped backwards. For a moment, it seemed as though he was victorious. Until the cube reformed itself. There were now two separate (albeit smaller) cubes bouncing around and taunting the boys.
“Smooth move, exlax!” AJ yelled, as Kevin stared dumbly down at his sword, wondering why it hadn’t worked.
“Now what are we going to do?” Brian wondered aloud.
“Try the flame thrower!” Howie shouted.
Brian stared down at his weapon, he really did hate using it. Though looking over at Nick made him realize he had no other choice. Pointing the flame thrower at the half of the cube in front of him (the half without Nick inside, of course) he squeezed his eyes shut as he shot at it.
The only result was a slightly melted cube, which once again quickly reformed itself. And as Brian stood there with a shocked expression on his face, the cube wasted no time in devouring him as well.
“Awesome.” AJ said sarcastically. The three remaining boys watched in fear as the cube melded itself into one once again. “Now what?”
“We’ve tried everything.” Howie said. “We can’t shoot at it, slicing it in half obviously doesn’t work, Brian’s flame thrower did nothing…”
“Not to mention it keeps eating us.” Kevin added, as the three of them moved backwards, away from the fast approaching cube.
None of them knew what to say or what to do, the monster was quickly looming towards them, taunting them with it’s gooey mouth, threatening to consume them as well.
“Fuck this game.” AJ growled, and he did the only thing he could think of. He drew in a breath, and spit fiercely at the monster.
Much to their surprise, where AJ spit on it the monster began to smoke and melt away into nothing. The cube recoiled, and continued to dissolve until there was merely a puddle left on the ground, with Brian and Nick lying face down.
“Who knew that would work?” Kevin pondered.
AJ grinned, feeling rather pleased with himself for managing to defeat the monster. “Sweet deal!” He shouted, as the three of them ran over to Brian and Nick’s aide. “Wake up guys.” He said, shaking Nick’s shoulder.
“What happened?” Nick muttered, slowing gaining consciousness.
“You guys got eaten by a deadly piece of jello.” Kevin laughed, helping his cousin up.
“You got rid of it?” Brian asked. “How?”
“I spit on it.” AJ replied, proudly.
Brian rolled his eyes. “Finally, that disgusting habit of yours was some use to us.”
Once the puddle has completely vanished, two golden treasure chests appeared in its place. One was lined with red jewels, the other with blue.
“Awesome, we get a prize!” AJ exclaimed with excitement, and went to open the red chest.
“Wait!” Nick shouted, pulling him back. “I play a lot of games, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, you usually only get one reward for beating a boss.”
The five looked at each other. “So which will it be?” Kevin asked. “Red or blue?”
Choose Your Own Path: The Bewitched Video Game by alota_cookin, AJsKellyMouse, rebellious_one, Sakabelle
Chapter End Notes:
If you want the Boys to open the blue chest, go to 4A.
If you want the Boys to open the red chest, go to 4B.
If you want the Boys to open the red chest, go to 4B.
