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"Ge-Get ready for a surprise!"
Beware that this page may contain spoilers for related material. If you are new to anything, like if you have not played the games or read the books yet, please read at your own risk! |
“Kara convinces a Pizzaplex employee no one will know if he lets her spend a little more time in the VR attraction.” |
Drowning is the second story in Tales from the Pizzaplex 6: Nexie and chronologically the Tales from the Pizzaplex series' 17th story. It was written by Kelly Parra.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Walsh Family
- Kara Walsh
- Martin Walsh
- Mrs. Walsh
- Peggy
- Peggy's Parents
- Lola's Family
- Lola
- Lola's Brother
- Lola's Parents
- Francine's Family
- Francine
- Francine's Mother
- Francine's Father
- Zach's Family
- Zachary
- Zach's Mother
- Ralph
- Drowned Girl
Locations[]
Summary[]
Kara is disappointed by how short the new VR attraction in the Pizzaplex is. While waiting in line to reenter the ride, she sees a mysterious dark figure of a girl in the attraction. Kara asks the attendant to turn on Hypertime so the ride feels longer than it really is, but the attendant gets distracted and sets it wrong. Inside the VR attraction, the mysterious girl chases Kara as she desperately waits for the experience to end. The girl eventually catches Kara, and Kara is dead when she is released from the attraction.
Plot[]
Kara Walsh is a 15-year-old sophomore who likes to be risky and spontaneous. As a reward for receiving good grades on their last semester report cards, Kara and her friends Lola and Francine get full-day passes for the Mega Pizzaplex, which gives them infinite gameplay and unlimited rides on special attractions. Kara is disappointed that the special attractions only last five minutes. Lola’s brother heavily recommends a VR attraction called the Resort, where you pick between experiencing a Waterpark, The Beach, or Coaster City. Despite being annoyed by the thirty minute wait Kara gets excited when she sees posters of the Waterpark experience.
Zachary, aka Zach, is the line attendant for the Resort. Despite Kara’s interest in the Waterpark, her friends chose Coaster City. Upon entering the VR room their bodies are scanned by a blue laser light that uploads their bodies into the virtual reality, creating perfect digital replicas that stay in digital memory until being cleared overnight. Once finished, the girls are secured into VR chairs and given helmets. Zach explains that they control heat sensors, movement, and visualization. They can also use a microphone to speak and give commands, and on the right armrest is an emergency button. Kara notices a poster advertising Hypertime, which Zach explains is essentially just an extra shot of adrenaline through the sensors that players can purchase.
Kara and her friends are only able to go on three rides before the experience ends. The girls are amazed by how real it felt but aren’t willing to wait in the line again. As they’re leaving, Kara spots a VR monitor hanging on a wall displaying the Waterpark. Kara spots a dark figure with long hair at the bottom of the pool, but when she tries pointing it out the screen shifts to a roller-coaster ride. For the next two hours, the girls play laser tag, eat ice-cream floats, take pictures in photo booths, and do a couple sessions of karaoke. Lola’s brother is going to pick them up soon, so they decide to hang out in the arcade. Kara spots the Resort being closed before the employees go on break, and she tells her friends she’s going to the restroom in order to talk to Zach.
Kara wants to know how the attraction works, so Zach takes her to the control panel. He explains that Hypertime needs a number between one and ten put into it in order to set the virtual extended time frame, with one feeling like an extra hour when in reality it’s still a five-minute turn. If it’s set to zero, the experience will keep going. Zach is willing to let her try it out once he clocks out first in order to monitor her, but she convinces him to leave her alone since the experience is five-minutes long. Zach goes through the player scans and reselects Kara, clicks on Waterpark, and goes to set Hypertime to one when his boss calls him to Gator Golf to cover a quick break. Zach rushes over, leaving Hypertime at zero.
Kara appears inside a giant waterpark enclosed with tiled walls and a high arched ceiling. She’s surrounded by pools and doors leading to other areas, creating a never-ending giant labyrinth. Kara begins to go down a few waterslides, with a tall one making her feel nervous. The reason Kara loves to be risky is because she deals with fear head-on. When she was five, her second-cousin Peggy was climbing a tree and had inched out on a branch that was too small and cracked. Peggy landed on her head, ending up in a coma and suffering a traumatic brain injury. Kara never forgave herself for being unable to help, giving herself nightmares. Her parents are constantly going after her for taking too many risks, which causes Kara to face more things that scare her. She goes down the tall waterslide and in the pool something brushes her leg. Kara begins to walk through the labyrinth, ending up in a jungle. In one of the pools she sees a girl with black hair. Kara moves on to the next area, which is outer space themed. In one of the pools she sees the girl again, now clearly able to see her pale skin and gray clothes. Kara tries to help, but the girl attempts to drown her.
Kara wanders in an attempt to avoid the girl. She runs through a donut shop theme, a beach theme, and an ice-cream shop, but the girl is still in every pool she looks at. Kara tries to press the emergency button on the armrest, but she feels completely disconnected from her real body. She panics but manages to calm herself down and tries to rest in a pizza parlor, but she’s suddenly dragged towards the nearest pool by the girl. Kara runs away and finds a small alcove in a rocky area with a miniature volcano that she decides to rest in. She has a dream about when Peggy had fallen from the tree, ending with water rising and Peggy shifting between herself and the girl. Kara wakes up to the girl dragging her closer and a voice in Kara’s head says, “Don’t leave me alone.” In the real world, Lola and Francine begin to worry and go looking for her.
Kara runs through multiple rooms in an attempt to find a way to leave as the girl keeps repeating, "Don't leave me alone." Eventually she sees a door that looks different and finds herself in an old house damaged by water. The girl’s voice begins to beg Kara for help. Kara thinks back to all the games she’s played and wonders if she’ll be able to get out of the Resort if she helped the girl. Since she wasn’t able to save Peggy, this could be her chance to save someone else. She looks around for the girl, finding a little girl's bedroom drenched in water. Inside is a music box with a carousel horse that refuses to stop. In a different bedroom she finds an old photo of the girl with black hair and her parents, who are all wearing clothes from a different time period.[1] Water suddenly spills out of the photo and the house begins to flood. Kara escapes to the top floor and finds the girl in a tub, but the girl pulls Kara in.
Kara finds herself in a large area of water. She breaks free from the girl and swims to the top, finding herself back in the Waterpark. Kara’s tired and drifts off to sleep, dreaming about an experience she had when she was ten. Her mother had a meeting to attend, so Kara disobeys her parents’ orders and sneaks off by herself to a skate park, where she breaks her arm trying to do stunts. The skate park begins to flood with water and Kara gets caught in the middle of a whirlpool, and when she wakes up she’s being pulled towards a pool again. Back in the real world, Lola and Francine can’t find Kara, and they decide to go to the information center.
Kara loses hope as she wanders the Waterpark. One door leads to an empty dark space that Kara nearly falls into. Kara runs into a mirror maze, where water begins to rise. In the mirrors she sees Lola and Francine insulting her and considering ditching Kara, her parents complaining about Kara, and the girl. The water rises and Kara manages to shatter the glass at the pool’s surface, accidentally cutting herself. As Kara walks, she notices that the themes of the rooms are becoming bleak. She reaches an area with various tall waterslides, with one coming down from the ceiling. Kara hopes that it can lead to an escape and climbs it, upsetting the girl. In the real world, Lola and Francine wait at the information desk for a few minutes, but Kara never comes. Francine spots Zach, and he explains that Kara went to the Resort twenty minutes ago and she should be out. Zach gets nervous when he learns they haven’t heard back from her.
Kara makes it halfway up the slide when she hears, “Come to me, Kara.” The voice is sinister and scares Kara, causing her to slip and fall and hit the floor hard. Kara’s legs are now broken, and the girl pulls herself out of the water. She grabs Kara’s ankles and drags her into the pool. In the real world, Francine, Zach, and Lola return to the Resort and notice the VR screen is showing static. Zach turns off Hypertime and the Waterpark and the girls rush to Kara. She doesn’t respond to them and Francine notices that Kara has vacant eyes with dark bags under them, pale skin, and dry parted lips. Francine covers her mouth to keep from screaming at the sight of her friend.
Speculation[]
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"I was the first! I have seen everything!"
This section archives a lot of theories and speculation, which usually occurs from pre-release media, or just things that are still unknown, so please keep that in mind while reading. The page will continue to be updated with the most accurate information as more solid evidence is supplied. |
- There are many theories surrounding the identity of the mysterious girl with long hair.
- Peggy: The most straightforward answer is that the girl is supposed to represent Peggy. In one scene, the girl seems to shift in appearance between herself and Peggy. Peggy fell from a large tree, just as the girl forced Kara to fall off a large water slide.
- However, this doesn't explain why the picture of her parents is described to be "from a different time period", as her parents would be in the current era.
- Charlie: The girl's bedroom contains a music box, which may be a reference to the music box in FNaF 2 that kept the Puppet at bay.
- Cassidy: The girl has black hair, just as Cassidy's supposed appearance in The Survival Logbook.
- Peggy: The most straightforward answer is that the girl is supposed to represent Peggy. In one scene, the girl seems to shift in appearance between herself and Peggy. Peggy fell from a large tree, just as the girl forced Kara to fall off a large water slide.
References[]
- ↑ "The picture was faded but she could see there was a girl with black hair, sitting with two parents. However, all their features were blotted out with white as if their faces had been rubbed off. The woman had black hair and the man had brown. The picture seemed to be old, and the clothes appeared from a different time period." - Drowning