Up In The Club [Closed/Rania]

The first thing that cued her into an awakened state was that infernal throbbing. The booming was so loud that she felt like her ears were going to bleed out. At first, Rania could only see as if she didn’t have control over her own body yet. But eyes were open now and all they could see was a hazy fog. She coughed feeling suffocated from the fog machines spouting here and there. Other people seemed to like it though. Every time they went off, there was a cheer. Commoners were so easily amused nowadays, weren’t they?

And just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, her eyes were visually attacked by the strobe lights. The movement made her so nauseous that she had to steady herself against a wall. Well, at least Rania was with a friend, right? A friend with an obnoxious voice and seemingly superficial in just about every way, but a friend nevertheless. “When Jason was at the table, I kept on seeing him look at me while he was with that other girl. Do you think he was doing that to make me jealous?” She opined blanketed with a nauseating insecurity.

“Do we even know a Jason?” Rania asked, now more confused than ever that she would make a friend like this. Suddenly, she felt herself being dragged forward onto dancefloor by said friend as she, once more, professing judgment in the most superficial way possible.

“Wait, pause, Jason just liked my selfie. What a creep. Is that guy sleeping over there? Yeah, the one next to the girl with no shoes on. That’s so ratchet,” she whined, emphasizing the word ‘ratchet.’ Rania didn’t even know what that meant.

“Hey, where are we—?“ she tried to ask but her voice was drowned in a sea of loud, awful music and high pitched screaming.

By this time, Rania felt sufficiently less like she was having an out of body experience. Peripheral vision cleared around her until Rania could see that she was here alone. There was no ‘friend.’ That was all made up in her mind but she could have sworn that someone was talking to her. In fact, there it was again! That same voice! “That girl is such a fake model. She definitely bought all of her Instagram followers”—Instagram? What the hell was that?—“Who goes out on Mondays?” It wasn’t until the crowd started screaming along to the lyrics that Rania realized this was a song. Yes, now in this day and age, a song could be qualified merely by someone talking the entire time which begged the question again, where the hell was she?

In the void of blackness, she suddenly picked Jian out of the crowd and marched straight for him. “Hey!” Rania yelled emphatically, before slapping him in the face. Water squirted from the bottle he was drinking from before smashing into the adjacent wall.

“Where the hell are we? And can someone please tell me what on earth is a selfie?!”
- - - - -
Word count: 504
GP: 10

Total: 504 / 10

Jian had a plan. Or, well, he had an idea. He was going to kill the DJ! That...was it really, that's all he had. So it wasn't so much a plan or an idea as a desire and a bottle of water but that's more than most people had!

he could feel it in the air, the wrongness shed by the music which spread across like a thick choking smog, the people dancing away had already been consumed, lost to it. The club goers had no idea what was happening it was just him.

Because he was the hero...

he was the savior...

it was up to him...

Pain exploded across the side of his face, shocking him and for a moment clearing up the fog that had settled in his head. Wait, none of this was right! This wasn't real it was a trap!

The word selfie blared across the speakers and smothered his temporarily lucid thoughts but either way the girl had grabbed his attention. "Shit did I chip another fucking tooth?" he mumbled, realizing with a sinking sense of depression that his very expensive water was spilling on the floor. Like pouring molten gold out! Agh! "Where the hell are we?!" he returned her question in kind but incredulous. Wasn't it fucking obvious?

THEY WERE UP IN THE CLUB.

Or up in the hizzub? How did people say it? White people that is. His hand pulled away from his cheek and finally looked to the woman who he was seriously considering charging with assault. Oh, a shinigami (what the hell is a shinigami?), and a really pretty one too! Yeah! Totally, right height, long pretty hair, a nice face, not too chub- wait she was talking to him. Was she asking him to dance? I mean even with the shitty music he'd probably go for it.

What wait? What was a...selfie?

A jagged lance of pain shot from his left temple and down the back of his neck. Shinigami were spiritual beings of great power, invisible to mortals and charged with maintaining the balance.

Shinigami didn't exist.

There was a Shinigami in front of him.

"What is your name? What the hell are you doing here? You're...in the club! You can't be here, that doesn't make any sense!" Hysterics! That's what was gripping him. The world around him swayed while he lurched unsteadily. Nothing made sense! Nothing made sense here at all! And she was the least...sense making thing of them all! "You don't exist, you're a ghost!" And I'm a mortal with magical powers!

He blinked, trying to clear a starburst pattern that cropped up in his vision. He felt like he was going to vomit.

"And how the hell do you not know what a selfie is!?" The most alarming thing of them all.

473/9/18 GP Total

The DJ kept on playing the same song over and over again. The same obnoxious voice, the same awful beat reverberating in her chest, it bled into every part of her like poison. Each vibration hit her like a brick wall and it felt as if the floor was moving. (Maybe it was an earthquake?! Or maybe not.)

By now, Rania had a headache and it wasn’t just because of this awful song either. It was like… it was like…! “Oh my god, I wanna look tan. Living with my bitches, hashtag ‘live.’” Rania groaned. The girl they chose for this song had a really, really annoying voic—wait, wait, that wasn’t her voice. “It was mine!” Eyes widened in disgust as the shock hit her like a frying pan.

She grabbed Jian by the shoulders and shook him, him being the guy she just slapped. “I don’t know what I’m doing here! If I did, do you think I would be asking you?! I don’t even want to be here. I don’t even know how I got here in the first place!” Then, a girl suddenly walked by and Rania was hit with a pang of jealously. She looked to Jian and snarled at him, “That girl, did you think she was pretty?” Her eyes narrowed at him in suspicion. He definitely thought she was pretty—but wait a minute, why the hell did that even matter?

Rania looked at the DJ, then back at Jian, then at the DJ, and once more, back at Jian. “Okay, let's back it up here a little bit. My name is Rania. I don’t know why I’m here but there’s one thing I do know and it’s that DJ. He’s evil! He has to be using some kind of power, the music that he plays emits like a brainwashing shockwave and it’s taken over everyone else in this club. We’re the only two left now. We have to stop him!”

She looked around, panicked, wondering exactly how they could stop him. Rania began hyperventilating. This was more stressful than anything she’d ever done before. Suddenly, she felt like she was going to vomit too but then, an idea sparked into her mind. She crisply snapped her fingers and exclaimed, “I got it! We have a dance-off!”

With a confident grin, Rania turned to the crowd, a path clearing toward the dancefloor like the parting of the red sea. However, the grin quickly turned right back into panic. “B-but the only kind of dancing I know how to do is ballroom dancing! Quick, are you any good at this sort of contemporary human dancing?!” Well, she only called it dancing to be polite. The more she observed, the more it looked like they were just writhing in pain.

“And for your information, I kind of died in the 1800’s! How do you expect me to know what a selfie is?! Although whatever it is, we should probably take one before we do this dance-off.”
- - - - -
Word count: 501
GP: 10

Total: 1005 / 20

That voice, it sounded so familiar, it sounded almost like...

wait.

let me take a selfie!? Was it, could it be, was the girl in front of him in league with the D-

She began to shake him something fierce, head rattling around like he made no efforts to steady himself. "Woah! Hey what the hell! Get a hold of yourself," hysterics right? In the movies you were supposed to slap woman when they were being hysterical right? Knock the crazy out of 'em or something along those lines. (man old media was pretty sexist). Jian's hand wound back but something inside stopped him, ah, something like...survival instincts? It seemed she didn't even notice the goings on, distracted by a girl who walked by. Jian blinked looked over at her before a snarl snapped him back (hey she was kind of cute...). "Woah, hey babe! Of course not, nothing compared to y-" He shook is head slightly, another sharp stabbing pain radiated through his skull like someone was trying to drill into it. A hand raised towards it but it faded just as quickly as it came.

Who the hell was she!? Why was she his girlfr-no, she wasn't, she was...his jealous friend? Or...ex? Agh! Why did she feel so familiar! He didn't know who she was! That meant, she had to be working with it, right? She had to b-

She looked to the DJ, sealing forever his suspicion, then to him. She had such pretty eyes...uh! For a godless servant of satan! He guarded himself, waiting for a moment of weakness well she tried to trick him. Rania!? That name was definitely made up! it was like John Smith! Rania's were everywhere, of course she'd pick it! It was the perfect fake name! Trying to ploy him with a familiar story, being lost and confus---

Wait she wanted to...stop the DJ? Of course! The music! That's what was doing it, and she was going to help him! Euphoria filled him, he grinned widely. "Right! We can do anything together! We just have to come up with a plan" she glanced away panicking, Jian could only stare dumbly towards her, trying to figure out what the could possibly do.

"A...-dance- off?" Jian stared at her incredulously like there was something on her face. Well there was, lips, eyes, eyebrows, hair, teeth, all those sort of things, but something UNUSUAL. "You want to...have a dance off?" Jian followed behind her, staring ahead.

A dance off.

For real?

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING!" he shouted. What a brilliant partner he had!

"Ballroom isn't going to do it, what! You're the one who came up with this idea and those are the weak moves you're bringing! Damnit, Rania!" A wholly unique name actually. "This isn't going to cut it, we have to -step- to them! Or...stomp the yard. Agh! One of those two I'm pretty certain!"

Jian sighed impatiently, how could she not see the truth so clearly in front of her. "You can't have died, you're right here dummy, that's one the delusions! Please, everybody knows ghosts aren't real, it doesn't make any sense! Now, come on, study the moves of the people around us, so that we can win this dance off, so that we can defeat this -clearly- evil DJ who is using bad club music to mind control random people. RANIA! Keep your head in reality! No more ghost talk!"

Uh...wait.

Guess he'd never really said it out loud before. Did that mean, was it possible that--one of the kaleidoscope hit her just right, cascading a soft pink light around her. She was absolutely radiant! An angel, sent to save him from the terrible DJ. Of course, what did a hero get from their fair maiden, a kiss! Jian leaned forward as she turned, possibly to study the dance moves of the other enslaved. She was in a panic, he had to encourage his hero with this!

Wait no, what the hell!? He froze mid lean only in time for her to turn back to him resulting in a circumstance so unlikely there there was an entire genre founded upon the principal alone. It was something that was accompanied by a faint pink filter, cherry blossoms, and a frantic shoves followed by several seasons of denial over an obvious fact until there was a cancellation or a rushed ending.

In other words.

-FAKE-

He leaned back as if struck, had it even happened? Was any of this real!? The requisite shame that followed cause him to cough, turn away slightly, and begin to gyrate unusually in a desperate attempt to put it behind him.

"You gotta move your hips Rania!" He said quickly, returning to what was -really- important.

Tearin' the hell out of this dance floor.

"It's the only way!"

813/16/34 GP Total

For a moment, Rania stood there seemingly frozen in time, staring at Jian staring back at her. She tilted her head to the side as he spoke. It was a questionable phrase, a questionable label—babe? Is that what she was to him? A baby? Rania shook her head vehemently. No, no, this must have been some contemporary human slang, a cherished nickname perhaps? Is that what young men called young women nowadays? Though more importantly, how did Rania not understand the term? It’s not like she stopped living—I mean, sure she was dead but she wasn’t like dead dead. Get with the times! She mentally slapped herself back to reality—or well, whatever this place was, reality or not.

Her eyes enlarged as Jian proclaimed to have the exact same idea. “W-wait, really?” I was just kidding, she wanted to say but was she? Was she really kidding? No, far from it, Rania was actually kind of serious and it seemed that Jian was too. This meant she had to steel her mind for—for—not ball room dancing?! “Stepping to them? Stomping the yard? What do these ridiculous phrases even mean?!” Rania was totally out of her element here. It made her want to cry, feeling the back of her eyes well up in tears. She was having a mental breakdown and Jian was the only one who could stop it. He was the only one who understood her out of the vast sea of idiots that continued to writhe in pain to that same fucking song. Only Jian could save her. He was her soulmate—

Wait, wait, no, that didn’t sound right either. When Rania turned around again, he had come so close to her face he might as well have just kissed her right then and there. Wait, wait, I think… “Did you just try to kiss me?!” Like clockwork, Rania slapped him again. “At least take a girl out to dinner first! Or at least buy her a drink! Hell, I don’t even know your name. How dare you try and kiss me!” But in that moment, she found herself staring at his lips, those luscious human lips… Rania bit her own thinking that maybe a kiss from him wouldn’t have been too bad if he had actually done it.

Arghhhh, but that wasn’t the point! The point was… the point was…!

She was screaming. She was screaming at an unusually high pitch, pointing at Jian in half shock, a little bit of awe, fear, and all disgust. In fact, Rania was screaming at such a high decibel that the room began to shake. Her own soundwaves were defeating the DJ’s soundwaves but just as the patrons of this club began to come back to their senses, Rania stopped. This wasn’t the way to defeat him. They were supposed to have a dance-off, not a scream-off. But for the love of god—“J-Jian that is SO LEWD!”

Huh, I guess I did know his name after all.

Well anyway, Rania simply could not gyrate her hips in the same manner. Instead, she spread her arms out, as elegant as could be, and started prancing around the room on her tiptoes. Just as quickly, Rania stopped. “Oh shit, wait, that’s ballet. I meant to do ballroom dancing. In any case, we cannot beat them at their own game!” There were gasps of horror as the crowd took a step back in fear of the dancing that Rania exemplified. “Take that, DJ! Why don’t you come down and fight us instead of cowering behind your cozy little booth, huh?!”
- - - - -
Word count: 603
GP: 12

Total: 1608 / 32

"Quit with the ridiculous ghost act Rania! You're a young woman, full of life, you were born to stomp the yard or whatever the actual expression is! Come on, channel into that inner white girl you have!" Inner spirit? Ah, he could detect that sadness again, she wasn't going to be okay was she? Was he? He felt out of control, drifting through some dark void. He was exhausted, drained and dying. All he had to do was open his eyes-

wake up

No. No! That wasn't it, they had to work together, they had to help each other, that was the only way they were going to get through this, as a team. As she turned around he blinked, they were inches from it, thank the lord. He went to say something in response but she struck him, ACK! "T-that should be flattering! Geez! And it was a joke! A JOKE!" he exclaimed, pulling his hand away from the stinging cheek. Damn! She knew how to slap, did she draw blood? Did he lose -another- tooth!? Rgh! Woman! What did they even want. For that moment, before he slipped away to his desperate distraction the way she looked at him, that obvious desire. They could forget the world, he and her, who cared about shitty club music, and vampiric hell DJ's and their wicked plots to enslave innocent vapid club goers, when they had each other?

Oh no nevermind, he was already 'dancing' and she was screaming. The room trembled, glasses formed spiderwebs cracked and the closer ones shattered, yet even in spite of that the music was heard clearly above it all. Wait, no, she drowned them out~! The patrons were turning to her, but wait, they didn't look entirely pleased either. "That's not how you do it!" Holy hell what was her problem, was she enraptured by his sick dance moves or something to the point of madness? He had to admit, as he swivelled his hips, hopped in a 180 degree turn and dragged a finger up along his body, miming that he was indeed too hot to touch, that he could see why she might have thought so.

LEWD!? Also who the hell was Jian!?

wake up

Oh right he was.

How the hell did she know who he was!? No, he must have told her, there was no way they could have known each other, unless...were they actually

~-*soulmates*-~

"Damnit Rania! We can't win if you don't dance!" But, then she did. Arms stretched out, prancing around the room on- what the hell. "T-, that's not going to do anything what are you thinking! Even ballroom would have been better!" Shit this wasn't going to work! Rania said much the same. "You're right, maybe if you had sick moves like mine, but alone!? It's hopeless," wait what was she doing. "You can't go around challenging people to fights to resolve your issues Rania! What do you think this is, AN ANIME? There are -laws-, fighting is -illegal-!"

Jian turned tensely, taking up his place at Rania's side. Wasn't it also illegal, to play BUNK music in a club all night!? The DJ leapt from his booth, darkness no longer obscuring his visage. A tall man, dressing casual clothes including some kind of miscellaneous possibly band related tee. A white mask stretched around his head, with two large outcroppings that possible represented ears, two eyeholes that had black lines representing an X. The mask was cracked and jagged at the bottom revealing a widely spreading grin.

The music quieted changing to a pulse pounding techno beat.

"It's time to take a selfie." The DJ's voice was the same of that as the song, no lips formed words, it was if its mouth opening allowed the sound to escape.

The assembled crowd had parted, moving to his flank, their heads stared at the ground but they moved as if invisible strings directed their bodies. They assembled in a loose formation behind him. Arms raising up loosely poised towards the wayward pair ready to lunge into attack at any moment.

"Of your deaths!" Chilling, given the vapid bubbly voice that delivered the thread.

It was time, to thriller.

Jian looked at Rania grimly. "Oh my god Rania, I think this is it for us..."

“Inner white girl?!” Rania repeated and rather indignantly so. She gestured to herself, hand moving up and down. “What do I look like to you? I am a white girl! Stop being racist, Jian!” in that moment, she would have slapped him again but that would have been too predictable. Had to keep the boy on his toes after all—if he knew what was good for him but he didn’t and neither did she. Because Rania didn’t have a clue what was going on anymore, not that she had any idea to begin with. Not that anyone here knew what was happening.

Meanwhile, Jian was just digging himself a deeper hole. “Ooooh, okay, so you think kissing me is a joke now? And I should be flattered by that?!” Another shriek, another indignant shriek. This was being blown way out of proportion and such was a fight appropriate only for boyfriend and girlfriend. But they weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. They shouldn’t have been having this fight. If they weren’t going steady though—wow, steady, now that was an old phrase—then why on earth were they fighting about nothing?

Oh, that’s right. It’s because they were…

~*soulmates*~

Or some shit like that. Rania wasn’t sure but she just went with the flow because apparently that’s what you did here—wherever ‘here’ was anyway.

Then she stomped her feet on the ground (no, she wasn’t stomping the yard, sorry to disappoint), puffing her cheeks out angrily at Jian. “Listen, I cannot do whatever it is you are doing! This gyrating of the hips business is simply just not my style and you know what?! Don’t you tell me what to do! I’m going to freestyle this and wing it. I do what I want! I’m an independent blac… white woman who don’t need no man, after all!” Whoa, was that last one a little bit racist?

Whatever.

Rania merely shrugged off the thought and made her way through the crowd toward the booth. “Here, DJ, DJ, DJ,” she cooed “Here, DJ, DJ, DJ,” she cooed again. “I’ll take a selfie of YOU!” And then, there was silence.

“That’s not what a selfie is!” Someone in the crowd shouted idly.

“O-oh, it isn’t? Well, no matter—“ Then she did a double take. “Hey, hey, Jian, doesn’t this…” Rania pointed to a piece of porcelain white on the DJ’s face. “Heeeeeey, I know what you are! You’re an--!”

Oh, it’s time for thread exit already? Damn. Rania stood next to Jian in a white box, twiddling her thumbs. Huh… so this is what a thread exit—

Psyche.

“JIAN, HE’S AN ARRANCAR! HE’S AN ARRAAAAANCAAAAAAR!” But instead of becoming more worried or murderous or excited, Rania simply started chasing him around the club. “You know, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to tear off an Arrancar’s mask! Come back, DJ! Come baaaaack to meeeee!”

She then shot a deathglare toward Jian. “Babe, Arrancar. You, me, here, now?”

It was time to take a selfie.
- - - - -
Word count: 505
GP: 10

Total: 2113 / 42

"Oh please! That can't be racist then that's just me telling you to do it! God it's like nobody knows what racism is! It's a catchall for someone saying something involving race that other people aren't happy with! It's diminishing legitimate claims against racism, weakening a fundamental concept of language to a gut reaction thereby diminishing our more legitimate claims Rania!" He considered slapping her, but that would have been too unpredictable. Had to keep the girl comfortable after all, if she knew what was good for her but she didn't and neither did he.

"Well no! I was very obviously trying to cover up my embarrassment of wanting to kiss you by pretending once it had gone belly up that you should have just been flattered by that!" Jian covered his ears for the next shriek groaning plaintively. That was so unnecessary! The set of lungs on that woman honestly. She was the worst girlfriend not girlfriend he'd ever had! Why was she even doing this?

He grinned, beaming with pride as she appropriately stomped the yard, (yes, you did, don't like just embrace it gurl) watching as she puffed out her angry cheeks in that adorable way that she always did, for the last few minutes they had known each other. "Rania!" He frowned, as she stopped, moved by her words. "I'm sorry, you're right. I should never have told you to bust a groove like I did." He placed a hand gently on her shoulder and looked deeply into her eyes. "The truth is Rania, the real dance, was inside of you the whole time. In the friendships you made." He turned back as she surged towards the DJ booth. "Wait Rania! That's not what we're supposed to do!" Her pursued after her but there was no stopping her. "He's supposed to leap from his booth! Didn't you read above? Agh, it was really dramatic and now he's back in his booth! Showing that to get to him we'd have to fight This is really jarring you know!?"

"Wait! Oh shit! You're right! He's a car! A ran car? Wait, what the fuck?"

He watched dumbly as Rania began to chase the DJ around the club, he swung back at her, trying to shoo her. "Stop!" he hissed quietly, "This isn't how this scene goes! Damn you woman! Stop ruining this climactic confrontation!"

Jian blinked, looking back at her. Selfie. It was time to take a selfie wasn't it.

Oh....oh no.

He suddenly remember a joke, it was a really good joke too. One of the best. And as he ran over the details of it, the excellent timing and deliver, the interconnected pieces of ironic behaviour of each of the characters he began to laugh, slow at first but louder and more uproariously. "Oh my god Rania, don't you get it!? Don't you see!?" He looked at her, tears streaming down his face as he broke into hacking coughs, overcome by the laughter.

If she turned to look the DJ was gone, the crowd had drawn away and the club had begun to receed into a foggy blackness.

Jian straightened up, wiping the tears from his eyes. His mirthful look had twisted, genuine anger. She didn't get the joke.

"You don't get it do you Rania...?"

His head tilted to the right, twisting to an odd angle.

"I am the DJ of this club."

569/11/59 GP Total

“Oh my god, my boyfriend is racist!” She screamed, all dramatic-like with tears in her eyes. Okay, so not really. He wasn’t really racist. He wasn’t even her boyfriend but Rania just wanted to scream something dramatic like that.

Instead, they just continued fighting about things they shouldn’t have been fighting about like kisses that never happened (hm, this sounds awfully familiar but with a different guy though, perhaps?). Whatever. Rania shook her head, remembering she was supposed to still be glaring angrily at Jian. It was, however, hard to stay mad at him. The way he grinned was so cute and the way he frowned was even cuter, believe it or not. It made her just want to go up to him and hug him. No, no, don’t be sad, Jian, she wanted to say to him.

However, there was no time for that. Her body had been carried away by some unknown power and now she was chasing the Arrancar DJ around the club. That all quickly disappeared as Jian’s voice cut through all of the fog and evaporated sweat. She looked around in a panic. W-where did the DJ go? Wait, nevermind that. Where did all the people go?! Why was the club empty now?! Oh, was it closing time? (No? No, it wasn’t? Damnit.)

Seeing no other way out, she walked over to Jian as he was having some sort of revelation. She tilted her head to the side with a frown, brows creased, as he cried with tears of… laughter? Madness? Insanity? Rania couldn’t really tell but it was scaring her. This wasn’t the Jian that she knew. This wasn’t her Jian. It was… it was…!

“Wait, you’re the DJ? But that’s preposterous, you’re not an Arrancar,” she deadpanned at him with an irritated look on her face. She stepped closer to him, bringing one hand toward his face, feeling angrier and angrier about this failed date. Rania heaved a sigh and—

Now, at this point, you're probably thinking she’s going to slap him, right? It’s what she’s been doing to Jian all thread long. Well, find out if you’re right or not below!

Psyche!

There was a misty sort of look in her eyes as the fog cleared, leaving only the two of them in an empty club with the strobe lights still going.

“Wait, but if you’re the DJ then that means…” Her eyes perked up somewhat. There was a feeling from within that she’d never felt before. It was almost—it was warm and it spread throughout her body like a virus but like a, like a happy virus!

Rania couldn’t control what happened next. It was as if her body wasn’t her own and instead of getting mad at Jian, she leaned in—and kissed him.

“DJ got us fallin’ in love,” Rania whispered as she pulled away from his tender lips. Her eyes opened, still so close to his face, staring into his as he stared back at hers.

Then, both of them froze.

“Wait, wait. Cut, cut,” said a familiar voice from off-set somewhere. Both Rania and Jian were sitting in directors’ chairs looking into a large camera overlooking filming. “What do you think, Jian? I just don’t like it. Doesn’t feel like the way this thread is supposed to end, you know?”
- - - - -
Word count: 554
GP: 11

Total: 2667 / 53

He delighted in that look of confusion, as she wondered where the people had gone, as she worried if she had time to get a last drink even though last call was minutes ago. He could have watched that face forever, that panic. Delightful.

"You've known it all along Rania, part of you, deep down, always knew that I was the DJ. Don't deny it..." he paused as she looked at him. Irritation, deadpan! Ah she was spoiling it! She was ruining everything! She couldn't just break it again! Stick with something! Anything! She brought back her hand and he watched it lazily, wondering if once more he was about to be struck, would he stop her? He wondered. No, he quickly realized, too obvious, the build up made it apparent she wouldn't, but then, what would she do in its place?

She looked pretty in the pulsing strobes, well, pretty every 1/30th of a second or so, which was as often as he could see her. "That means...?" the sound escaped his lips slowly, as realization began to dawn. She couldn't possibly be intending what? No, no, he was the villain now, and she had to attack him! Cut him down! They were destined to fight, star-crossed lovers forced to their inevitable end!

He would cackle and cajole! The villain would dance around pulling everyone by their strings! Wahaha! Look at me, the bad guy, look how convincing I am with my plots and plans! But as she leaned closer he could feel all pretense of that act begin to melt away, replaced by a strange sensation that spread from his stomach.

"Rania what are yo-"

Their lips met, for one moment Jian simply stood there shocked that it had happened, and sensing that it was about to end closed his eyes and pressed into it, a hand brushing along her arm gently. This was it, everything that either of them had ever wanted. They had defeated the wicked spell cast over them with their power of their love. They'd awaken and pursue this new feeli-

"Absolutely not," he shot back, shaking his head with a look of disgust. "This is all wrong, all very very wrong." He looked at Rania and gave her a nod. "I agree. This can't be right, but then what? What the hell do we do to end it? I mean, I suppose she could have stabbed him in that moment, pulled away with a blade gleaming in his blood or something, as much sudden dramaticism as we could hope to have from this."

He pursed his lips and shook his head. "No, it isn't right. But then, is anything we're going to do here right? I think we've skirted too long on the edge of nonsense without hitting a central thread. It's just...crack for cracks sake you know? Maybe if we could tie it to something real..."

Jian was pacing slowly around the set, making sure to carefully hop over the small inflatable pool housing the shark they needed for scene two.

"You know, we could just...end it. Pull the plug." He moved over to her, desperation in his eyes. "Just end it all right here and now, never tell anyone the real ending, ah, it might be the only way to salvage this mystique!"

"Would you be willing to do it...? With me? I mean, we'd both bare the responsibility, surely we'd be run out of awards, no chance of that then but...maybe."

"Or maybe it's time to face the music finally, no matter how scary it is we both just need to-"

WAKE UP

Jian's face shifted, forming the front surface of a digital readout showing the time 6:00 flashing frequently. From his mouth a high pitched wailing began, repeating over and over again.

638/12/71 GP Total

Rania shifted in her seat next to Jian with a contemplative look on her face as she crossed her legs. She let out a sing-song sigh, tilting her head from side to side with a slight pout. “I dunno about that either… Even that seems predictable. Like really, Rania stabbing Jian at the very end? Just seems totally out of left field—I mean, not that this entire thread hasn’t been just that but a bloody ending like that just doesn’t feel right either.” Then she looked past the camera toward the Rania and Jian on set who were both still frozen and called out, “Hey, what do you guys think? You’re the characters in this thread. Give us some feedback here.”

Dramatically, the on-set Rania pulled back with a heavy inhale. She’d been holding her breath this entire time and hadn’t, in fact, actually been frozen. She was blue in the face as she faced the on-set Jian who was suffering very much from the same symptoms of having held his breath for too long. “I think… Well, I…” Then she held up a hand. “One sec, seriously gotta catch my breath here.” She hunched over, hands on her legs for support. After a few minutes, Rania finally tossed her hair back in a fabulous hair flip straightening her posture to face the two directors.

Then, curiously, she tilted her head to the side with a blank expression drawn upon her face. “Wait… was there supposed to be some script we were following?” She looked confused, brows furrowed into a puzzled look. “I mean, this… this…” Rania took a few steps around the set, doing a complete rotation as she turned. “This isn’t a thread. It’s real life, isn’t it?” A few of the cameraman shook their heads, looking at her as if she were crazy. “W-wait, this is all fake? It’s not real?”

Rania then found herself furiously shaking her own head. “No! That—that can’t be true! Jian,” she said with panic in her voice. “W-what are they trying to say? I don’t understand!”

Then, she began to ramble. “I mean, if this isn’t real, then what is? What is life? Who am I? Who are you?!” Rania took a step back with a crazed look in her eyes. “No, you don’t understand, Jian. This is beyond scary. This is absolutely, completely, ridiculously—!”

‘WHEN JASON WAS AT THE TABLE, I KEPT ON SEEING HIM LOOK AT ME WHEN HE WAS WITH THAT OTHER GIRL…’

Her alarm went off to the sound of the song Selfie. Rania’s bloodshot eyes ripped open as a blind hand groped for the alarm clock. The time on her phone read 6:00am and there was a high-pitched wailing that she could only assume was the throbbing of her head from having drank too much last night. Slowly, with a slight groan, Rania rose from her bed. “Babe, I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that…”

Wait, babe?

There was someone next to her and it was Jian.

Last night was no dream. Fuck.

BUT FIRST, LET ME TAKE A #SELFIE.
- - - - -
Word count: 520
GP: 10

Total: 3187 / 63
End. For realsies this time. I think. Maybe. Actually, tbqh I'm not really sure.