Yesterday's Winning Vote:
Option 1 – Stay and listen at the door.

Though the rational part of your brain screams at you to run, the neural pathways responsible for curiosity were blown wide open by the umbrella cracking against your skull. You edge up against the door and press your ear against it to listen.

Nothing...

Nothing—no screams, no shouts, no *thrap* *thrap* *thrap*. There isn't even—breath? You exhale sharply—no sound. You follow a drop of water from a leaky pipe in the ceiling to the floor—silence. You're about to knock on a wall just to test one more source of sound when—

--you're in a room of blue, or, perhaps more accurately, you're in the middle of an endless expanse of sky blue. You take a few steps, but, with no frame of reference, it's impossible to know if you actually moved at all.

A sound from the left draws your attention: words. Voices from the same direction as your apartment door would have been. Your attention is specifically piqued when you identify one soprano as Sandy.

“This conversation is not for you,” you hear Sandy say amongst the other deeper, harsher voices.

A sharp poke in the ribs spins you around straight into the glare of Sandy's angry face. “You're a stupid man for staying, and you're even more stupid for listening.” In the background, you can still hear Sandy's voice after her lips have stopped moving.

“What are those other voices? Who are you talking to? You're not actually here are you?” your mouth fires out without asking your brain for permission.

“You can actually hear them? Awww, I thought you only cared about me.” Sandy sticks her lower lip out in a pout. “As for here...well, I'm always here. You, however, should be at the park.” Before you can blink, Sandy has stabbed the umbrellas through the middle of your chest. You can feel your heart make one last futile attempt at beating before the blue around you fades to black.

* * *

You come to with a pounding in your head. The incredible stiffness in your arms and legs makes it seem as you slept wrong for days.

“Hey, asshole.” You open your eyes to see a police officer tapping a billy club repeatedly against your skull. “Get up and get outta here before I arrest you—and get a shower!”

“Uhhhhhnnn...” you moan as you pull yourself off the bench and take a few uneasy steps down the closest path. Thick green grass is growing on all sides with large trees providing intermittent shade. You have the feeling you've been here before, but knowledge of what city you're even in escapes you.

You pull out your wallet and check the contents: two hundred dollars but no credit cards or ID of any kind. Your—

<“Up, up, up!”> a voice in your head shouts.

Yesterday's Winning Vote:
Option 2 – Rush past the girl and out the door.

Smiling nervously back at the girl, you wait for something to draw her attention away from you. Instead she continues to stare intently at you with wide, blue eyes.

"So, how--" you start to when a watch alarm goes off in the next room. Without turning her heard, the girl's eyes drift in the direction of the alarm. Taking this as your chance, you rush towards the door, hopping over the torso and slipping past the girl.

You make it to the open doorway when a crack at the back of your knees sends you flying into the hall.

"You can't go without me!" the girl shouts as she stands over the torso, gripping the umbrella like a baseball bat. "No one goes without me!" The torso starts to twitch.

Looking around for help, you see the two officers step around a corner down the hall. "Help!" you shout. No answer.

The girl steps forward with a terrible gleam in her eyes. Desperate, you ask the first thing that comes to mind. "What's your name, little girl?"

Pure joy fills the girls eyes. "I'm Sandy!" She takes another step forward.

"And, Sandy, you want to go to the park?" Another step closer.

"Uh huh." Sandy nods enthusiastically.

"What if I had a better idea?"

Positively giddy, Sandy jumps up and down and steps right in front of you. "Ooh, ooh, where are we going?"

"I'm staying right here, but you're going to Hell." Bracing yourself against the wall opposite of your door, you cock one leg back and send your foot flying at her midsection--and your foot slides right through her like a phantom.

Sandy's eyes cloud over into solid black, and, she whispers, "You don't get to go to the park." The umbrella is a blur as she brings it down on your head, and the resulting crack is surely something that would come up in counseling if you ever went. When Sandy swings the next time, you put your arms and legs up in defense. The blow lands against the sole of your left foot, and, despite the excruciating pain, you kick back against the umbrella. Sandy stumbles backwards into your apartment and falls to the floor.

*thrap* *thrap* *thrap*

The bladed torso spins back across the room, directly towards Sandy.

You jump up and slam the door shut, hoping that something terrible would happen in your absence.