Tomoko's Date: Epilogue

Sophia Maoulin

Elena and Sophia carefully descended the spiral staircase, the stone walls flickering with the light of torches and the faint glow of their fairy companion.

At the bottom, the space opened up into a vast hall with a vaulted ceiling that soared high above like a cathedral. At the far end, a massive stone door loomed ominously.

Instinctively, Elena raised her fists, while Sophia's fur bristled in response to the sinister atmosphere. Though neither said it aloud, both expected a monster to burst out at them any moment. Wordlessly, they both understood to remain silent, to avoid alerting any threat.

"Wow! Sure is a big hall, huh?" Nym said loudly, not having come to the same conclusion.

Immediately, Elena grabbed and shushed the fairy. The tiny creature fell silent, not from the shush, but out of adoration at being held by her muscular goddess. Sophia, meanwhile, merely rolled her eyes.

As they approached, faint, flickering numbers made of thin flames began to emerge. The fiery figures grew brighter with each step they took, etching out three bold, glowing digits: 400.

"Interesting," Sophia whispered. "Do you think this is like the other numbered doors, where the it refers to hours? That would make day sixteen. But those doors were silver, so maybe this is..."

However, before Sophia could finish her train of thought, Elena approached the door, uninterested in analyzing it. She released Nym and pressed her massive arms against the heavy door. The frame shook slightly but did not budge.

"Shit, this is heavy," Elena groaned, putting all her strength into the door, but she met with equal resistance. As Sophia watched her effort, she noticed the numbers above her starting to count down rapidly, before stopping at a new number: 358.

"Elena, the numbers are changing," Sophia noted. The Amazon stopped pressing to look up at the blazing digits. The moment she stopped pushing, they returned to 400.

"Hey, that's the number it started at," Nym observed unnecessarily.

"You think it's a strength gauge or something?" Elena considered, crossing her arms. "Am I seriously not fucking strong enough?"

Sophia wasn't so sure. Slowly, she approached the door and softly pushed. The digits rapidly decreased, even faster than Elenas, before stopping at 309.

"What the hell?" Elena exclaimed in confusion. There was no way the slim Sophia could be stronger than her.

"Elena, can you help me with this?" Sophia asked, while craning her neck to see the numbers above her.

"Uh, sure," Elena nodded, still confused. Finding a free space, she pressed on the door, further reducing the blazing numeral to 267.

Meanwhile, seeing the other girls working together, Nym pressed her tiny frame against the entrance to absolutely no effect.

"Okay, stop, I think I figured it out," Sophia claimed, taking a step back, to which the still perplexed Elena followed. "Elena, what's your VP score?"

"Uh, around forty," Elena answered.

Sophia nodded. "I'm guessing forty-two. Mine's ninety-one." She looked over at the doorframe. "I think this door measures the VP of those who try to open it."

"Oh, so you're saying we need four hundred?" Elena asked, catching on.

“Yeah,” Sophia muttered, absentmindedly curling her tail. “To be more specific, it takes the total VP of everyone opening it, so one person doesn’t need to do it alone.”

"Got it," Elena smiled. "So how many more points do we need?"

Sophia pressed her hands to her temples, struggling to recall everyone else's point total. She couldn't help but feel frustrated that this underground chamber seemed to be the only one in the castle without a scoreboard—especially in the one place where she actually needed it.

"Mrs. Wolf and Lauren were really low. And I think Tomoko was around where you are, though she probably has more from the date."

Elena couldn't help but feel her cheeks warm up at this, as she imagined what Tomoko could be doing up there. She shook her head to stop the erotic fantasies before they could manifest. "So, we're probably halfway there, right?"

"I guess," Sophia concluded. She looked up at the door with growing disappointment. "I guess our search ends here then."

“Awesome! Great progress,” Elena beamed, gently slapping Sophia on the back, while carefully restraining her strength to prevent the small girl from flying off impact.

"I guess," Sophia repeated, after taking a deep breath to refill the air that Elena had hit out of her lungs. "I would have preferred actually finding the place instead of another obstacle. Especially after everything you went through to get here."

Elena's smile faded. "Hey, I told you, don't worry about me." She looked over to the spiral staircase. "I told you, I'm not letting this place beat me."

"It's not a question of..."

"Anyway, I'm starved. Let's get some grub!" Elena loudly declared. With large steps, she marched back to the stairs, as if she hadn't a care in the world.

Meanwhile, Nym continued to push against the door, oblivious to everything that was happening. "Just a bit more. It's bound to budge any minute," she announced.

Sophia decided to leave the fairy to her delusions and followed Elena out

Olivia Booker

Olivia pushed her recently blonded locks out of her eyes as she approached her bedroom door. She wondered if Lauren had barricaded the door as she had done the night before. However, when she turned the doorknob, she was slightly surprised to find that the door creaked open effortlessly.

The inside was in complete disarray. Shelves had been toppled, their small amount of contents strewn haphazardly across the floor. The remnants of torn billows and sheets, ripped apart in what looked like a frenzy, sullied the floor like a crime scene.

Olivia's mattress, once neatly positioned on a bed framed by the wall, had been dragged away, likely repurposed as part of an initial barricade. Now, it was awkwardly placed at an angle, no longer serving its purpose of blocking the door.

Olivia pressed her lips together as she looked over to Laurens' bed. She could see the frame of the girl in the darkness, wrapped in the only undamaged blanket.

Olivia glanced down at her mattress, noticing it was bare, without any blankets or pillows. She realized she should feel angry about this, but the frustration wouldn’t surface. She turned her gaze back to the goth girl. "Hey, Lauren, are you awake?" she whispered.

The girl made no response.

Shrugging, Olivia lay down onto her bare mattress, too exhausted from the day to care. Brushing her infuriating hair out of the way again, she closed her eyes and attempted to sleep.

Meanwhile, Lauren remained wide awake, her plan repeating itself in her head, filled with determination. 'Good, she saw me sleeping,' she thought. 'She can be my alibi.'

She returned her focused on the clock. Her mission was clear: pretend to sleep until 2 AM, then head to the location where the voice awaited her.

She would go into the woods.

AUTHORS NOTE: Q&A next chapter. Please submit any question you have here. Of course, you can also just send comments or fan/hate mail as well.

With that said…

Bonus Image

Oops all Goths, Pt. 3 (Finale)