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Chapter 18: Disaster

Most parts definitely was super cliché. I am so sorry🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

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Nana Noodleman, revered as the best theater singer of her age. Her mother wanted to be like her, despite all that she had already achieved in life. She viewed her as perfection, an ideal woman that everyone has to be. Crystal couldn't agree more now that she's merely a stage away from the retired singer and actress.

"My hands are sweating," Aeon whispers to her ear, making her land a punch to his gut.

"Then do something about it."

Meena cues the song as Miss Crawly points a spotlight at Buster who descends on the moon. How ironic.

"All creatures great and small! Welcome to the Moon Theatre! I am your host, Buster Moon, and--WHOA!" Crystal's eyes widens as the moon slips down the pulley. Her elephant friend was definitely in charge of everything behind the scenes right now, something must've happened. After regaining back control and snapping out of their shock, the host returns to his intro, "Okay, Behold! The very first stage lit entirely by... squid power!" Hundreds of squid suddenly light up the underwater stage as the beat kicks in. Everyone was jaw dropped at the gorgeous sight. It's like liquid fireworks. The squid move and change colour in perfect synchronisation with the music. A very dazzling show indeed. "And as you can see, this is no ordinary theatre! This is a palace of wonder and magic—"

"This is beyond modernized, Meena. And in a span of overnight..." Crystal silently breathes out.

"Now welcome our first contestant —"

BANG! The auditorium door flies open revealing three brown bears. The one in the middle who seemed to be the boss, bellows out his first demands, "Which one of you is Moon?"

"Hey, hey hey! You can't just barge in here!"

"You know this guy?" he raises his knuckle where he squeezes the little white mouse in his grip.

"F*cking rat," Crystal curses under her breath. The guy's rotten, she should've expected something shady as this would happen not only on hers or Johnny's side.

"Mike here says you got his money and it's in that box," he points to the large treasure-like box in the middle of the stage.

None of them knew how to handle the situation, they didn't want to intervene with some big bulky thugs that wants to rampage in the theater all because of the pompous mouse's big mouth. Aeon however, was not going to have any of it. This is something of importance to Crystal as well, so he wanted to step in and give them a piece of their mind. A hand pulls him back, and it's digging its nails into his palm. Aeon looks back to see Crystal shaking her head.

"G-give 'em the m-money!" Mike shouts in alarm.

"Okay! Okay! Hey hey hey, take it! The whole chest! It's yours. Okay? It's all right here."

"Open it."

Moon drops his smile and panics, "Open it? I - I - Me?"

"Open it!" Mike is literally begging through rapid breaths right now.

"Okay, no, I-I just don't have-I don't have the keys so maybe you could come back later—"

"Get outta the way!" the bear tosses Moon aside and raises his baseball bat, smashing the chest in pieces. Dust piled up around it like it hasn't been opened in ages, and what they saw definitely shocks them in a whole other level.

Mike saunters over to it without much of a care for the others, looking as if he practically owns every piece of it, "Hey hey, there ya go! Big guy with
the bat! Who needs keys, right? Alright, let's get this thing squared up now." The dust clears up around him to reveal only broken junk inside. "What the... That's it? That's all there is?...... He lied.. Moon lied to us all!"

'So now you're focusing the blame on Moon,' Crystal pinches the bridge of her nose. This is stressful enough as it looks, and she hadn't even slept yet so there was no room for her to be angry at the moment.

"Well things really took a wrong turn," Aeon crosses his arms as everyone else started blaming the theater owner as well.

"Guys, guys, just— Can you just hear him out for a moment? Oi." No one seems to want to listen to her. Crystal gives up, tired from all that's been going on since yesterday, "Okay, fine. Ignore me." She figures that the prize money isn't exactly supposed to be somewhere that is easily stolen like how it was publicly displayed in his office by the window, which is what Johnny was exactly aiming to get to before. They are too consumed with their conflict to see a crack appear on the stage. By the time they did, it's already too late to move. The entire glass stage explodes, sucking everyone down in a tidal wave.

"Crystal, watch ou—" Aeon was engulfed with water, and then Crystal, pushing both of them deeper in the back stage apart from everyone else.

One thing that she never learned was to swim, that was the biggest mistake that she's facing as of moment.

Aeon resurfaces, holding on to a wooden pillar. "Crystal?!" he searches around until he was pushed down by the wave again.

The girl got stuck under the stairs by the edge of her shirt that had clung to the bent metal. She's currently trying to get herself out, but to no avail. Crystal was losing her last breath right as she finally got to tore her shirt out. The stairs can be heard creaking even as she is under water. 'Come on. Come on!' her arms flail around to try and get herself above surface. Pieces of debris fell around her, and the last things she knew was someone's arms wrapping around her before all the floorboards starting crushing all of its weight on both of them.