Author: BlueSabby
Rating: PG-13 to R, each chapter may be different
Summary: You help Chlex decide where to go and what to do.
Disclaimer: Neither of us have anything good that we want taken from us by the WB. We don't own them, don't sue us.
Don’t ask how, but we got it in our heads to let our readers be in charge for once. The idea of this story comes from the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. If you’re not familiar with them, it goes like this. You read the a few pages and then there is a cliffhanger. You have two options about what you want to do. You flip to the page with your choice and read your fate. Here, we will give you a choice at the end of the chapter. After everyone has voted, we will then write out a scene based on your choice. Now, you must be aware that in the books, choices often lead to death or some sort of badness befalling the main characters. This story is no exception, consider yourself warned. Enjoy.
A/N: Sabby: So yeah here's the new thing in town. Another of our collabs and I hope you'll have fun with it. We sure as hell do, already now *g*
A/N: Blue: Another crazy idea from us. Hope you enjoy it, now read on and rock the vote!
Profane curses spilled from Chloe’s mouth as she stomped through a thicket of bushes. She wasn’t Ms. Outdoors 2004, but she didn’t hate nature, either. At least, when it wasn’t trying to draw blood from her. The bushes had those damn prickers on them that always seemed to find the one inch of your skin that wasn’t covered by clothing.
As one of the barbs scratched her skin, what she was looking for came into view. She ignored the small pain and trickle of blood as the bushes fell away and a path made itself clear. Chloe walked towards the decrepit building and tried to ignore the nibble of trepidation that had started in her stomach. Taking a deep breath, Chloe squared her shoulders and walked towards the building that loomed in the moonlight.
It was times like these that she understood why her father worried about her curiosity getting her killed. She had been preparing to go home and watch some movies while eating copious amounts of chocolate. But, when she had read the slip of paper that had been pushed under the door of the Torch, her plans had quickly changed.
The drive hadn’t been too long and the map that was drawn on the note had been excellent. But now that she was here in the darkness and could hear the small sounds of various animals in the brush, it didn’t seem like the best idea. At the very least, she should have waited until morning.
‘Really, what kind of idiot would come out to an abandoned funhouse during the dead of night?’ Chloe didn’t really want to focus on the answer. The note had stated that if she went to this place, she would see some “Wall of Weird material.” In the safety and comfort of her office, she had even managed to convince herself that it was mostly likely one of Pete’s jokes.
Now that she was out here, she realized her error. But, it was too late to turn back. She was quickly approaching the doors of the funhouse. Or, more accurately, where the door should have been. They had long ago either been stolen or blown off the hinges. The front of the funhouse was made to look like the face of the clown. The clown’s mouth was open and when entering the building, you would walk into the mouth. ‘What kind of sick fuck designed this place?’
Chloe stopped directly in front of the entrance. She slipped her hand into one of her jacket pockets and wrapped her fingers around her cell phone. If anything freaky went down, she’d be able to reach the outside world. As she stepped through the doorway, a hand clamped down on her shoulder and she couldn’t stop a scream from escaping her lips.
Lex had been agitated for the better part of the last half hour. After finding a strange note on simple white paper on top of a stack of quarterly reports that had a very shady warning on it, he'd immediately grabbed his gun and took the silver Porsche, determined to follow the directions given and find out what the hell was going on.
When he'd come upon the fun house, Lex had carefully checked the surroundings, then opted to wait inside the shadows of the entrance for whatever was bound to happen. When he recognized the familiar face of Chloe Sullivan coming out of the shrubbery as the blonde made her way straight to the entrance without even sparing her surrounding a glance, the only thought that sprang to mind was 'figures'. He waited until she'd almost walked past him to grab her shoulder, his intention to shock her about as strong as to get her attention. When she whirled around screaming, he clamped a hand over her mouth. You never knew who else might be there and listening.
“What the hell are you doing here,” he hissed
Angrily, Chloe batted Lex’s hand from her mouth. She couldn’t believe that she had made such an ass out of herself in front of him. She was mad at herself and at him for making her freak out. Whispering, she said, “I might ask you the same thing, Lex.” When he merely slipped his hands in his pockets and stared at her, Chloe rolled her eyes. She should have known that Lex would get his answer first before progressing on with the conversation. “I received a note telling me to come to the funhouse. A note that I’m assuming you got as well.” Her heart rate had begun to return to normal and she could now think a little more clearly.
While she wanted to investigate what in the hell was going on, she had to admit to herself that she was glad to have another body with her. ‘Especially that one,’ a voice inside of her popped up. One that had been more and more vocal as of late where Lex was concerned.
Lex nodded curtly. “I'm assuming you have no idea as to who sent that note?” He removed his left hand from his pocket to touch her elbow then started to lead her slowly away from the entrance and a little further into the fun house.
Chloe looked around, taking in their surroundings. This was definitely not a place that they should be creeping around at night. She could see it was in poor condition and that there were numerous ways that one of them could get hurt. Many pieces of jagged wood sprung up from various places in the main room. She turned her attention back to Lex and said, “No, not at all. You?” She knew the answer already but figured she’d keep up the polite conversation as she came up with a plan of attack. She slipped her hand in the pocket that didn’t have her cell phone in it and took out a mini flashlight.
Lex shook his head, looking down as Chloe pulled out a small purple mac-light and switched it on. As far as funhouses went, this one looked even more rundown in the orb of the flashlight than it had before. “It wasn't handwritten and all it said was. 'You will find what you are looking for here.' Then the directions and that was it.” They kept walking down something like a hallway and Lex got that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach that he'd learned slowly but surely was not a good idea to ignore, ever since he came to Smallville.
Thinking of all the times in a horror movie some monster attacked from the ceiling, Chloe ran the beam of light up over their heads. She didn’t see any kind of mutant, werewolf, boogeyman, vampire or Frankenstein ready to spring down at them. However, she did see one huge whole above them. The house was much bigger on the inside that it had appeared from the path. No doubt about it, Chloe did not get warm fuzzies from this place.
Looking over at Lex, she said, “That’s what mine said, too. Very strange. So, Lex, what is it that you are looking for?” It was a loaded question, but one that she could pass off in the interest of finding out why they were both summoned here.
Lex smirked as he pulled her a little closer to him, away from a huge puddle on the ground that she would've stepped into while looking back and forth between him and the ceiling. “There's a lot of things I am interested in, but I don't think any of them can be found in a ramshackle funhouse. What about you?”
Sticking close to Lex, Chloe peeked through various doors as they passed them, Chloe said, “Truth, justice and the American Way. You know, the usual.” She gave Lex a small smile. “That, and a way to dominate the world by the time I’m thirty. Which I doubt I’ll find in here.” When she walked into a spider’s web, Chloe quickly wiped it off her face. “This sucks.”
Lex chuckled under his breath and pulled a stray web from the back of her head, snapping it off his fingers to let it float to the ground. “Interesting, I never knew you were going for world domination. I never strived for that sort of thing myself.” He peeked over Chloe's shoulder as she opened yet another door into a dusty room.
Seeing nothing of interest in the room, Chloe shut the door and turned her attention back to Lex. “Sure you haven’t,” she said, clearly not believing him. She could just imagine Lex having numerous rooms in the Manor devoted to just that pursuit. When she opened the next door, a figure flew out at her and she screamed yet again as she crashed back into Lex.
He had barely enough time to catch her around the waist and pull her to the side before that 'thing' swooped back the way it had come and disappeared back into the dark room. “What the fuck was that?” His eyes narrowed as he peered through the still open door into the darkness. Unconsciously, his hands were still securely around Chloe's waist.
Chloe moved back towards the door and felt Lex’s hands tighten around her waist as he tried to pull her back towards him. She had a better look at what had come towards them and she had figured out what it was. “I think it was a mummy,” she said. She peeked inside the dark room and trained her flashlight on the figure. Sure enough, it was a dummy wrapped up in gauze. Now, it looked cheesy. However, a moment ago, Chloe was ready to run out of the building.
Shaking his head, Lex pulled Chloe aside and slammed the door shut, maybe a bit too aggressively. “This is ridiculous. Whoever sent us these notes obviously just wanted to pull a prank and they've already succeeded in getting us out here in the middle of the night and looking for god only knows what.” Never the less he kept moving deeper into the bowels of the funhouse, a hand still at the small of Chloe's back as they kept walking.
Chloe thought about what Lex had said. “Ok, so let’s work from there. Is there anyone that we both know that would want us out in the middle of nowhere for some reason?” Chloe went through the various people that she knew. There were plenty acquaintances that she could see doing this. However, none of them would pull Lex into this. Plus, she didn’t know how they would have found out about this place. As they entered yet another dusty, dingy, creepy room, Chloe looked at Lex. “Any suspects?”
Lex shook his head. “Nobody that I know would pull such childish pranks. The only person I would have thought capable of it is currently residing in Wichita and I don't think he'd pull you into this with me.” The room was almost empty aside from a few sheet covered lumps of what Lex assumed to be props.
A chill ran down Chloe’s spine. She didn’t like this room and couldn’t put her finger on why. She ran the flashlight over the lumps in the room. As the light illuminated one of the sheets, it started to rock back and forth. “Lex,” she whispered his name and gestured to the now moving sheet clad lump.
Lex stepped closer to Chloe and followed the flashlight that was now illuminating one of the sheets. The fabric was moving back and forth and Lex knew that there was no draft in the room, he would have felt it. “I'm sure it's nothing,” he said, not sure who he was trying to convince with his statement as he slowly approached the moving lump of fabric.
The “nothing” kept moving and Chloe found herself rooted to the spot. It began to move at a quicker pace and the sheet fell off of the lump. A little girl stared at them as she rocked back and forth in an old rocking chair. She was pale and had dark hair and even darker eyes. She smiled over at them and simply said, “Hello.”
Choice A: Chloe and Lex stay to talk to the girl
Choice B: Chloe and Lex run off
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