A JSE Fanfic
Part Seven: The Rescue
[This is part of a small ten-part series I wrote for Halloween 2019. There's a new villain in town, and Jackieboy is on his list. Jackie and the others arrive at the third location, cutting the time real close.]
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It took thirty minutes even to drive to the other side of town. A time that was helped along by the streets being almost empty at 3:30 in the morning, and also by Chase going…well, it was best to say a LITTLE over the speed limit. Thankfully they didn’t run into any police with speedometers.

They reached the address quickly, Chase parking the car haphazardly on the side of the street. Jackie didn’t even wait for the car to fully stop before he’d pushed open the door and practically fell out, stumbling a bit before taking off in a dead run toward the building. It looked like an abandoned one-story house, just like one you’d see in the suburbs. But when Jackie threw open the door and ran inside, the interior was very different. The floor was metal, as were the walls, and florescent lights embedded in the ceiling lit the the hall, which led toward a large room.

“Jackie! Wait for us!” Chase called, his voice distant.

“Sorry, no time!” Jackie yelled back, not bothering to look behind him. The room at the end of the hall was completely unlit. Jackie didn’t care, and sprinted down the hall.

The room was dark, but light from the hall shone in, bright enough for Jackie to barely make out a camera on a tripod, hooked up to a computer on a folding table, long cables leaning from both to connect to the wall. The camera was pointed toward an especially dark part of the room, from which Jackie could hear water splashing and heavy breathing.

“Marvin?” Jackie called cautiously.

More splashing, accompanied by muffled shouting.

“Shit. Hang on!” Jackie began feeling around the walls, looking for a light switch. Rescue would be a thousand times more difficult in the dark. Luckily he found one, flipping it on with a clunk sound. Industrial lights overhead turned on, revealing the mostly empty room, and the glass box with Marvin inside.

“Marvin! I’m here!” Jackie bolted across the room, falling to his knees next to the glass box. Marvin stared at him with wide eyes. The box was nearly full, and he had his face practically pressed against the top of the box to get as much air as possible, a feat made more difficult by the gag stuffed in his mouth. “Fuck, hang on, I’m getting you out of here,” Jackie promised. Marvin barely nodded, a small whimper escaping.

Jackie examined the box. It looked like glass, but he wasn’t sure if the gamemaster would build it out of something so breakable. The top of the box was interesting. The glass walls extended up over the top layer—which was punctuated with small holes—for another two inches. Jackie instantly knew that a design like that would mean the water would completely fill up the box, even overflowing, but anyone inside would be stuck under and unable to get out. He couldn’t see any hinges or locks that could possibly show how to open it.

“Holy shit!” Jackie jumped, looking over his shoulder to see Chase and JJ enter the room. Both of them were aghast.

“Guys, come help me! I don’t know how to open this!” Jackie pleaded.

Wasting no time, Chase ran forward. JJ followed closely, kneeling by the side of the box and signing reassurances to Marvin through the glass. “Okay, okay, there has to be a lid or something, how would he get inside otherwise?” Chase muttered. “Uh, is there a way to stop the water?”

Jackie looked at the area where the pipe connected to the box. “It’s like, welded onto there,” Jackie said. His eyes followed the pipe upward, where it ran along the wall. “But right there!” He pointed. “It looks like there’s a loose pipe. We just need to knock it off, or something.”

“How do we do that?”

“Uh…” Jackie looked around. “The camera tripod. Those things can be pretty heavy, and it should be able to reach.”

Chase was already moving the moment Jackie said ‘the tripod.’ He ran right over, pulling the camera off the top and throwing it onto the table. The tripod folded up easily enough. Chase lugged it over to the area under the loose pipe, raised it, and one!—two!—three!—four! strikes later the pipe burst, clattering to the ground in a spray of water that instantly drenched him.

Jackie exhaled slowly. “Alright. It’s going to be okay, Marvin, you’re not gonna drown. We’re getting you out.”

Marvin made a small sound, something in between relief and fear.

“I—I really don’t see any way to open this,” Jackie muttered. He ran his fingers along the edges of the box, looking for any sort of seam.

JJ looked over at him. 'Maybe we should break it?'

“Can we do that? The last time I saw something see-through, it was plexiglass, unbreakable.”

JJ knocked on the wall of the box. 'It sounds like regular glass.'

“If we break it, broken glass is gonna fly everywhere,” Chase pointed out, joining the other two and dragging the tripod with him. “Are we okay with that? With risking Marvin getting hurt?”

'Well, I think we should ask him,' JJ signed. He knocked on the glass again, getting Marvin to look at him. 'Marvin, we can break the glass to get you out, but there’s a chance you could get hurt. Are you willing to bear that?'

Marvin nodded vigorously, eyes wide.

Jackie took a deep breath. “Okay. If you’re sure. Chase, give the tripod to me.” He stood up and took the tripod from Chase, flipping it upside down. “Marvin, try to get away from this side, just to minimize…anything happening.” Movement was difficult, but Marvin scooted as far from the wall Jackie was indicating as possible. “Okay. Here we go. On the count of three.” Jackie hefted the tripod like a golf club, grateful that he had the strength to do so easily. “One…two…three!” And he swung with as much force as he could muster.

It turned out the box really was made of glass. Glass that could withstand restrained hits from someone curled up inside, but not a direct blow with a heavy tripod. The side of the box shattered inward, and water gushed out, leaving only a few inches inside.

Jackie dropped the tripod with a thunk, and reached through the shattered hole he’d made to grab Marvin, huddling against the opposite side. “C’mere buddy, I got you, you’re okay, you’re okay.” Marvin allowed himself to be pulled out, the jagged glass edges scraping against his arms and torso, leaving shallow scrapes behind. “You’re fine, see? You’re out now.” Jackie continued muttering reassurances under his breath as he tugged at the gag around Marvin’s mouth until it came loose. Marvin proceeded to gasp for air.

Chase and JJ came close, kneeling nearby. “How’re you doing, dude?” Chase asked tentatively.

Marvin’s eyelids fluttered shut. “…fine. With how it is,” he said in a raspy voice. “What’s happening?”

JJ started signing, hands flying too fast for Jackie to catch. He focused on the rope holding Marvin’s hands behind his back, and then once that was untied, he worked on the rope around his ankles. By the time he was done, JJ had finished explaining the basics of the situation to Marvin.

“A game? Well, it’s all gone to shit,” Marvin muttered, rubbing his wrists.

“You can say that again,” Chase said, standing up. “We gotta get out of here.”

“Yeah, agreed.” Jackie stood up, helping Marvin to his feet as well. He coughed awkwardly. “Hey, uh, I dunno if this is the time to say this so you don’t have to answer, but how come you couldn’t get out of there? You’re, uh…magic.”

Marvin took several deep breaths. “Magic needs spell words. Or gestures. Or for you to stop freaking out long enough to focus on making a proper spell so it won’t backfire on you.”

Jackie winced. “Right…sorry.”

“‘s fine.” Marvin closed his eyes.

Suddenly, there was a burst of static. “You’re doing pretty great on time,” came the gamemaster’s voice. “It’s currently 4:01am. You have two hours and nine minutes before the game ends.”

JJ’s expression darkened. He stood up, and signed viciously. 'Why should we keep following your twisted game?! You’ve nothing left to bargain with!'

“Hey, fuckface, I know you don’t speak sign, so let me translate that for you,” Jackie growled. “You don’t have anything to tempt us to finish your stupid-ass psychotic game.”

“Well, that’s very rude of you,” the gamemaster remarked. “The game can’t be psychotic, it’s not alive. And I don’t have any kind of psychosis. It’s kind of wrong for you to assume that because I’m messing with you, that I must have a mental illness. I think your doctor friend would take some issues if he heard you say that.”

Jackie flinched. “I-I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Shut up!” Chase yelled. “You’re a monster! And you can’t make us keep playing!”

“I can, actually. Because trust me, you’re going to want to complete the last set.” The gamemaster’s tone was far too smug for Jackie’s liking. “Unless you want the death of one of your friends on your hands.”

Jackie’s blood turned to ice. “What do you mean, you psych—you bastard?”

“Well, you’ll find out if you complete the next puzzle set in time. It is now 4:02am. You have two hours to solve the most difficult set. Good luck.” And with a crackle, his voice disappeared.

“Jesus fuck, we gotta get out of here,” Jackie muttered. “Come on, let’s go.”

They all left the building in silence. The sky outside was a lighter shade of blue than it had been when Jackie started the game, though it was still clearly night. Jackie sighed. “Alright. To the stolen car, then. Maybe we can drive around while we solve the next set. And figure out who he’s threatening this time.”

“I…I’m a bit confused,” Marvin said softly. “Wouldn’t we know who’s next?”

The others looked at him. “What do you mean?” Chase asked.

“Well, if he’s going after our group here, wouldn’t Schneep be the only one left?” Marvin reasoned. “So we gotta save Schneep, right?” He looked up as the others exchanged glances. “Right?”

Jackie covered his mouth, feeling tears prickle at his eyes. “Marvin…Henrik’s already…”

Marvin blinked. “Already what?”

Jackie shook his head, unable to finish. So Chase stepped up. “It was a…a trick. A fucking awful trick. There was this…trap rigged up, and Jackie had to…make a choice and—”

“I couldn’t choose!” Jackie blurted out. “I didn’t—didn’t even look, I just—and then Henrik, he—he’s gone, Marvin.”

Marvin stared, unprocessing. You could almost see the gears in his mind turning, grinding up the impossible news. He shook his head, backing away and looking between the others as if searching for a sign that they were joking. But they were serious as the grave. Marvin began shaking. He squeezed his eyes shut, wrapping his arms around himself and swaying from side to side. And then he let out a wordless, distressed sound, like a cross between a wail and a groan, that was followed by another, higher keen.

“I know…I know…” Jackie murmured. He blinked tears away.

Chase took a shuddering breath. “Hey. Bro, we…we need to keep moving. We’re going into the car now.”

Marvin nodded, not opening his eyes. JJ hesitated, then gently rested a hand on Marvin’s arm. Marvin flinched at first, but then reached out and grabbed JJ’s hand. He squeezed it.

“Come on, everyone,” Chase said, walking forward toward the car, gesturing for the others to follow. “We have more puzzles to solve.”