“You have 15 minutes, Little Missy,” Jules said. “If you try to fight me on this, I don’t care if you’re a bride or a bronco. The real world is knocking, and when it hits you, it’ll knock the hair dye right off your head.”

“Thank you so much,” Daphne said deliberately. “This will mean everything to my parents.”

“Uh-huh,” Jules responded.

I wasn’t sure why Jules had decided to play her character so adversarially. It was interesting.

We walked to the chapel.

“Riley,” Daphne said. “I want you to know that I will always love you. I would marry you anywhere, at any time. All I want to do is give you the happiest day of your life.”

We were On-Screen. I had to engage with her on this.

“You don’t have to promise me happiness,” I said. “That’s too much to promise. I just want you to be there with me no matter what.”

I figured my character would be a little bummed with Antoine’s death.

Daphne looked at me closely. She held tightly onto my arm.

“I know you can’t trust happiness with what happened to your parents. I know. I just hope that we can have one perfectly happy moment. Just you and me. You can’t count on having more than a moment, but you can trust the moment.”

“Well,” I said. “Let’s go have our moment.”

And that was how we ended up rushing into the chapel, with me standing at the front like some sort of doofus as a record player played wedding music.

None of my family was there. Thank goodness. I didn’t want Carousel to cast any NPCs to pretend to care about me.

I realized I was staring at the pews. My side was so blank. Her side, at least, had people on it: her parents, her cousin Emmet, and his wife sitting in the back row, waiting to return to the slot machines, surely.

If we were ever to get married, it would look very similar to this… if we were somehow able to escape from Carousel.

Daphne had given Kimberly a pep talk, begging her to try to put on a happy face for just a few moments, and Kimberly had agreed, though she did look at Daphne in a funny way. I couldn’t blame her. What would the audience think of us? A wedding while Antoine’s body was still cooling.

Yes, Daphne was taking the wedding a bit too seriously.

And maybe we should have called it off; it wouldn’t really have affected the story that much. But each player is responsible for their own subplots, and Daphne, or Rachel, as she was called from the storyline, was responsible for giving her two elderly parents the experience they had waited for their entire lives. I hoped it was worth it.

After a long wait, the wedding march came, and there she was.

Her father was walking arm in arm with her, crying joyous tears.

She cried too. And her beautiful white dress…

They had given her a great dress to wear. Even as a stylistically blind guy, I could see that that wedding dress was special. It was sleek and ornate at the same time. She wore a white veil. She looked fierce and graceful all at once.

My heart raced when I looked at her, and I probably didn’t look half bad myself in my tux, especially with the fresh haircut.

She locked eyes with me and smiled, and it drove me wild.

When she passed her mother, she reached out and grabbed her hand, smiling deeply at her.

Her mother was crying her eyes out in her wheelchair.

Then they made it to the front, to the altar.

Logan led us through the words. Did I take her to be my lawfully wedded wife? She would never forgive me if I didn’t.

She even took me to be her husband. Somehow, it didn’t seem like a fair trade; I definitely got the better side of that deal.

Then was the reading of the vows. I had put some time into mine, but I was still nervous as heck.

“Rachel,

I don’t always know the right words, but I know what I feel.

I never believed that I could actually let myself be loved. It always felt so impossible.

But with you, it just happened.

You’re my safe place, my reason, the best hand I’ve ever been dealt.

I promise to love you in the good, the bad, the boring, and the beautiful.

I promise to choose you, every day, for the rest of my life.”

Everyone clapped.

Then her vows.

“Riley,

I never thought I’d find someone like you.

You’re kind, steady, and you see me in a way no one else ever has.

I know I can be a little strange, a little hard to understand, but you never made me feel like I had to change.

All I’ve ever wanted is to give you one perfect, happy day.

And being here with you, like this… it’s everything.

Riley, I’ll love you till the day you die.”

Logan gave us the “in sickness and in health” speech, and we both made our promises.

We smiled at each other and then kissed when Logan directed us to kiss.

And just like that, I was a married man, at least until the storyline ended.

It was a strange moment. The blood-red glow from the stained glass window was omnipresent and cast a morbid veil over the event.

Stolen novel; please report.

Under its light, even Daphne’s wedding dress looked red.

“I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Riley Lawrence,” Logan said, and then everyone clapped and cheered.

The moment couldn’t last forever, but I wished it could for Daphne’s sake. This storyline had brought out something strange in her. Maybe she was trying to live vicariously through her character. It felt like it. This was the equivalent of an amusement park ride for her.

It was time to move to the banquet hall for the reception, which was not that much different than the normal catering they usually had in that room. But it had all the classic wedding foods, and we were On-Screen and Off-Screen as we gave Carousel its footage.

Of course, Carousel got footage of us sharing the wedding cake. Daphne insisted on it.

“Don’t shove it in my face,” she said.

“I won’t,” I said. And I was honest. I took a small piece of the cake and gently put it between her lips.

She did the same for me. It was incredibly sweet.

She kissed me on the cheek for a photo op. The icing got all over, and we had to go clean up.

Robert and Beth Hutchins approached us. They hugged and kissed their daughter. Beth hugged me, and Robert shook my hand.

Then Beth, almost in an apologetic whisper, said, “We’re gonna go up to our room.”

She looked absolutely exhausted.

Daphne hugged her and said, “I am so glad you got to be here.”

“So am I, sweetheart. So am I,” Beth answered in tears.

We waved them goodbye as Robert pushed Beth’s wheelchair out of the banquet hall and toward the elevators.

I turned to Daphne as she wrapped her arms around me.

“We did it,” I said. “We gave them a perfect day.”

Daphne hugged me tight and said, “Yes, we did.” She was practically giggling like a schoolgirl, crying happy tears. She wasn’t even pretending.

“We should go up to the penthouse,” she said. “It is our wedding day, after all.”

Was she playing her character? Or really swept up in the romance?

“Sweetheart,” I said, “we have to try to figure out what happened to Antoine. Remember? There’s a killer on the loose.”

The brightness in her eyes dulled. “Right,” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You were getting caught up in the moment. It’s a reasonable thing to do on your wedding day.”

“Right,” she said. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go make sure my parents make it up to their room okay, now that you mentioned there’s a killer.”

“Of course,” I said. “I’ll come with you; maybe I can get some of the other guys too.”

“No, no,” she said. “That isn’t necessary. I’m sure they won’t attack if there are three people there who could scream or run away.”

Then she let go of my body and moved away, gliding across the banquet hall toward the elevators.

She was making a terrible move.

Even if she were with her parents, a killer capable of taking on Antoine like that would easily overpower the three of them. If they had time for an ambush or any other kind of strategy, they could do so without letting anyone get a scream off, especially if there were multiple of them.

But I was On-Screen, and I couldn’t advise her about her play.

I stared after her. I felt the real groom’s heart beating in mine. I was overcome with love.

I almost wished it would stop so I could think straight. It almost felt like she had just used Moxie on me, but it took a while to realize that.

After they had loaded into the elevator, an announcement came over an intercom.

It was Jules.

“Excuse me, guests and employees of the Carousel Casino, Hotel and Resort, please make your way toward the banquet hall on the first floor to receive an important security announcement. Attendance is mandatory.”

It wasn’t that hard for everyone to attend. Most people were already there. Ida Rae was a sparsely populated storyline. It was funny that we had activated it in a place like a casino, which had been very populated beforehand.

We went Off-Screen as the NPCs all took their places, and all the relatives and employees staged themselves around the room to get ready for the big announcement.

Kimberly, still looking absolutely miserable, found her way to me.

“Ramona’s missing,” she said.

I looked around. She was right; I couldn’t find her anywhere.

“She was just with us in the kitchens,” I said.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kimberly said.

“Maybe she’s off exploring. She was playing her character a bit antisocial,” I said.

“There’s still no sign of any of the other players making it here,” she said.

We still didn’t know how Ramona had gotten drawn into the storyline, but if she had, who else might have too?

Wherever they were, if they were in the storyline, they probably weren’t doing well outside.

On-Screen

Bobby stood before the crowd of people.

“You’re probably wondering why we called you down here,” he said. Then he looked at the crowd and said, “My assistant is here to explain that.”

Jules rolled her eyes and took Bobby’s place.

“Alright, folks. Eyes up, mouths shut. We’ve got a situation, and no, it’s not the storm or the buffet running out of shrimp. Earlier today, a guest, Mr. Antoine Stone, was found dead. Not-slipped-in-the-shower dead. Murdered dead.”

While Kimberly was watching Jules, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned to see Daphne.

She had a finger over her lips, hushing me.

She pulled me back away from the crowd.

Jules didn’t seem to notice our departure.

She continued, “Now, before anyone faints, screams, or tries to swim out of here… you should know local authorities are unreachable due to the flood. So until help arrives, you’re stuck here. With me. And with a killer. So I suggest everyone stay calm, stay indoors, and for the love of God, don’t wander off alone to ‘check the generator.’ This isn’t a cartoon.”

“We need to go explore,” Daphne whispered.

“Now?” I asked. “Our whole thing is that we’re supposed to stay here.”

“Everyone is here,” Daphne said. “Don’t you get it? The killer must be here too, which means this is the best time for us to be finding clues.”

I could see her point, but that didn’t make me want to wander off into the hotel or the casino any more.

I looked back at the others.

Jules was finishing up her speech. “If you know anything, saw anything, heard anything that felt off, come to me or my boss Bobby here. Otherwise, sit tight. We’re in lockdown until further notice. That’s all. Carry on. Try the salmon.”

Right after she finished, Bobby jumped in. “Wait, just a minute. If anyone saw anything or has any ideas, just tell me now.”

The crowd of NPCs then started to respond.

Some of the ideas were less than stellar, such as cutting off the power to all the floors except one or locking everyone up and waiting for the floodwaters to recede.

The maid reported that they had seen someone in a red hoodie running away from the basement when she found Antoine’s body.

Bobby was using the Wisdom of Crowds trope, which allowed him to get some useful information from a group of NPCs, mixed in with some really bad ideas. Carousel had apparently realized how impractical it was to only have 12 or some characters, so some random NPCs appeared to fill out the crowd, who had apparently been hiding in their rooms.

It was all On-Screen, and much of it would have been cut, but it was a great time to use the trope.

Daphne and I went On-Screen only for a few lines of dialogue to establish that we were leaving.

“Come on,” Daphne said. “Be brave, my dear husband.”

“I’m not concerned for myself,” I said, following along after her toward the elevator.

“Oh, you’re afraid for me?” she asked playfully.

“I’m afraid of how lonely you’ll be after they kill me,” I said.

She laughed. “How sweet.”

We got on the elevator, and she pressed the button for the penthouse.

“Why would we need to search up there?” I asked. “What makes you think Antoine’s killers would have gone there? Or that they even had a key?”

“We won’t know until we check,” she said.

We went Off-Screen as the elevator took us to the top floor, our honeymoon suite.

As soon as she got the door open, she was on top of me, and we were back On-Screen.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “At a time like this?”

“A time like this,” she said, “is our wedding night.”

She pushed me toward the bed.

We didn’t want footage of that at all, it would make us seem strange and off-putting to hook up under these circumstances, but we were On-Screen, so I couldn’t say that. What the hell was wrong with her?

“You’re sure this won’t ruin our memory of this night?” I asked, trying to put an extra helping of get-your-act-together into my words. I didn’t care if it came across weird. We couldn’t get frisky with a killer on the loose.

“I’m certain,” she said as she pushed me onto the bed. “This is my favorite part.”

I was about to ask her what she meant by that, but before I could, lightning flashed through the windows of the penthouse.

Thunder crashed soon after.

And all of the lights went out.

Even inside the penthouse with its many windows, it was completely dark.

“I’m getting tired of this,” Daphne said. “This storm is a pain.”

“We have to go downstairs,” I said. “It’s got to be pitch black on the first floor where the banquet hall is. There must be chaos. We have to help Kimberly and the others.”

“Oh yes, we have to help Kimberly, don’t we? Must help Kimberly.”

“Come on,” I said as I felt my way toward the door. “We’re going to have to take the stairs.”

As I led the way, all I could think was that maybe Daphne was being affected by the same force that allowed me to feel my character’s emotions. What if her character had experienced some sort of love mania, and now it was affecting Daphne? I would have to keep an eye on her. Maybe the enemy of Ida Rae was romance-obsessed. They could have a trope like that.

I shuddered at the thought.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep