《The Fourth Friend (An Amphibia Story)》Part 19: Wax Museum
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Skylar's P.O.V
'New town! New town! New town!' The Plantars all cheered as we walked through the front gates.
'Food! Shops!' Polly said as she looked around the town.
'This place is so cool! What should we do first?' Sprig asks.
'Lets see' Hop Pop says as he pulled out his wallet only to find it completely empty. 'Nothing. All we can afford is window shopping kids'
'Aww' we all sighed at the disappointing news.
'Man it's hot' Anne said, clearly sweating under her hood.
'You said it, screw these hoods' I say before lowering said hood, Anne doing the same.
'Better' Anne happily sighs.
Seemingly the entire town gasped in unison at the sight of the two of us.
'Right, sometimes I forget about the whole we're freaks in this world thing' I say.
A small tadpole in the crowd started crying, proving my statement even more.
'Whoa whoa, don't cry. We're not monsters, we're just weird. See?' Anne explains as she wiggled her nose and ears.
The town awed at her small performance and the tadpole from before spoke up.
'Mommy, mommy. Give the freaks money'
'It was a lovely performance' the tadpole's mother said, passing Anne a few coppers.
'Do it again! Do it again!' The tadpole cheered.
'Milk it!' Polly tells us, adding a tip sign to her bucket and putting it in front of us.
I then do the simple trick of pretending that your thumb fell off which resulted in applause from the town.
'This is so much better than that creepy old oddities museum' a frog in the crowd said.
'Oddities museum? What the heck an oddity in Amphibia? Am I right?' Anne joked but her attempt was met by nothing but silence.
'Stick to physical comedy Anne' I tell her.
'Got it' she smiles before pretending to punch herself in the face.
By the time the evening had come around Anne and I had made quite a bit of cash from our little show.
'Wow girls! You made a bucket of money, literally!' Sprig smiles.
'Woo! Now, how are we gonna spend all of this cash?' Anne asks, looking around.
'That oddities place looks like it's still open. How about that?' I ask, pointing to the Curiosity Hut.
'Well, you made the money. But only if you two keep your hoods up. I don't like you two drawing so much attention to yourselves'
'Deal'
'You got it Hop Pop'
We entered the hut and were met with a hall filled with all sorts of different wax statues.
'Well, I think this place is closed so let's leave and never come back' Polly quickly says, clearly spooked by the creepy museum.
'Yeah this isn't what I was expecting. Maybe we should head back to the Fwagon' I suggest, backing away from the giant spider statue.
'Are you kidding? C'mon!' Anne says as she walks further into the museum. 'Guys it's all fake. They're trying to scare you' she laughs, taking note of our scared expressions. 'Whoa, look at this hot mess'
We look at what Anne was referring to and see a statue that looked like and old frog.
'It's actually pretty lifelike' I comment, crouching down next to it and inspecting it more.
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Polly jumps on my head to get a better look as well. 'Yeah even smells real' she says, going to touch it.
'Hands off the merchandise' the statue says, slapping Polly's hand away.
All of us jump away from the frog and scream at the jump scare. I cling onto Anne's arm as the unknown frog just laughs at us.
'The old mistaken for a grotesque lifeless being. Works every time. Welcome to my museum of oddities! I go by many names but you can call me the Curator' the frog or Curator welcomes.
'Little on the nose but ok' Polly shrugs.
'And if you chuck some of that cash into this here sack, I'll give you a tour of the grandest museum these parts have to offer' the Curator says, holding out the sack. Anne steps forward and drops a few coppers into the sack but the Curator looks at the two of us funny. 'What's the matter girls? Faces too ugly for public? HA!'
'Wouldn't you like to know' Anne smirked, pulling her hood down further.
'Ooh a mystery! I love it! But enough chitchat, walk with me. I've traveled all over Amphibia collecting it's most rare and frightening creatures' the Curator says as we follow him through the museum. 'Like the two headed love dove! There's... I dunno, probably some kind of marriage allegory in there' he says showing us one of the statues. 'And over here, the Bugball playing preying mantis, Airbug. There's nothing in the rule book that says a mantis can't play Bugball. I got the weirdest stuff right here, feel free to look around. But keep in mind breathing in the dust will be extra!' The Curator then throws a smoke bomb and disappears.
'AHH!' Polly shrieked, jumping up into my arms. 'It's eyes, they're watching me!'
'Well this is enough creepy monster stuff to last me a lifetime' I mutter, looking at the towering beast Polly had run from.
'Yeah me too' Sprig agrees.
'Anne, this place is freaking us out, we're gonna wait outside' Hop Pop says, the Plantars and I swiftly making an exit.
The four of us sit around outside until Anne burst out of the museum a minute later.
'Guys! You won't believe what I found in there. A Skipman!' Anne smiled.
'Wait seriously? How'd that even here?' I ask, standing to face her.
'I dunno, but that Curator guy is gonna give it to me. All I have to do is be the museum's main attraction for a day'
'WHAT?'
'ARE YOU CRAZY!'
'Anne you cannot by any means do this' Hop Pop sternly says.
'But this is the first time I've found something from back home, it could explain so much' Anne tries to persuade.
'Yeah c'mon Hop Pop, sure the Curator is creepy but this could be really important' I agree with her.
'I understand that girls but as you said, that Curator guy is... well just look at him!' HP points to the window that greets us with the sight of the Curator's creepy smile. 'Tell you what. Let's sleep on it, come back in the morning and see if we can get some answers. Ok?' he offers.
'Ok, you're right, we can wait' Anne sighs.
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'You're gonna sneak back once they fall asleep, aren't you?'
'Mhm! You coming with me?'
'Fine. But you're staying by my side, that place creeps me out'
'Deal' Anne smiled as we followed the Plantars back to the Fwagon.
It didn't take long for the Plantars to fall asleep. We waited for Hop Pop's snores to fill the air before making our way down from the top bunk. Anne slipped as soon as she stepped down, making an audible thud and causing one of Sprig's toy figures to almost fall on Hop Pop. Luckily she caught it before it could awaken the eldest Plantar.
'Honestly sometimes you're as clumsy as Marcy' I whisper as I drop down beside Anne.
'No one's as clumsy as Marcy now cmon' Anne retorts, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her.
The two of us snuck off to the museum trying to stay quite so we don't disrupt the sleeping town.
'Curator! Yo! Curator!' Anne called out in search of the frog. Suddenly a torch was lit which revealed the frog in question. 'Oh there you are'
'That's definitely not creepy at all' I mutter.
'Welcome welcome! Oh wait there's two of you now, even better! So glad my little stars are here and all stars need a stage!' He said, pulling a curtain to reveal a flashy new stage.
'Whoa! Fancy' Anne praises.
'Right. Soooo, about that Skipman-'
'Bup, bup, bup. All in good time kids, you'll get what's coming to ya' the Curator cut me off.
'Liking the sound of that' Anne smiled.
'I'm not!'
'Just relax. Say, why don't you two stand up there, soak it all in' he suggests.
'C'mon Sky!' Anne cheered, pulling me on stage.
'Hey I never agreed to be an attraction!' I protest.
'Oh cmon it'll be fun!' She persuades.
'Fine' I grumble, standing on the mark with Anne.
'That the spirit! Since you two are my main attractions, I'm gonna let you in on this museums biggest secret. You see truth is, nothing's fake. Everything here is real! Real and frozen in wax... just like you!' He said before pulling a sheet off of some contraption and pulling a leaver, trapping the two of us.
'Yup this all tracks' Anne says, finally realising that we've been duped.
'I mean it's crazy how easy that was. Honestly I thought I was being way to obvious about it' the Curator admits.
'I can't believe this, I'm so stupid!' Anne groans.
'Hey, hey, don't talk about yourself like that. You're probably a very bright young lady who's just having a bad day' he comforts.
'Aww thanks, that's actually a really nice thing to say' Anne smiles.
'Hey it's what I'm here for. So as you've probably guessed, you're not just the main attractions tomorrow, you'll be here forever!' He laughs as he pulls another leaver which then started to pump the wax machine.
The two of us move to the side of the case to avoid the wax falling on our heads. I thought that the container would have filled up in a second but it seemed to be going at an agonisingly slow rate. The Curator then walks over and leans on the glass while eating some unidentifiable meat.
'Hey while we wait how about I tell you all about my amazing museum!'
'No, please no' Anne groans.
'If you're gonna drown us in wax the least you can do is not bore us to death first' I plead.
'So it all stated with money-'
He talked for almost an hour.
'Then it hit me, artefacts! You can charge people when they break em, win win!'
'Sooooo boring' Anne groans, banging her head on the glass.
'Someone please save us' I whine.
'And Newtopia's got a ton of them. That's where I got that skip guy you wanted'
'Newtopia, of course!' Anne smiles at the news.
'Guess we're on the right track' I quietly cheer as well.
'Say you want some of this canned meat? It's edible!' The Curator offered before the wax machine started to fail. 'That's what I get for going with the cheap machine' he grumbled, punching it in an attempt to fix it. 'I think I got it!' He cheered as he gave the pipe an extra hard kick. 'Now we're cooking with gas, or whatever it is that we frogs use'
'AAAAAHHHHHHHH' a yell was suddenly heard. We all turn to see Sprig and Hop Pop running towards us.
'Who are you? A cop? I ain't going back to frog prison!' The Curator yelled, threatening him with a club like weapon. 'Oh, just a couple of common frogs. Ooh I can stick em in the same mold. Call em the two headed frog of Froglantis! It's devious!' He yelled, going to attack the Plantars.
'Guy! Help!'
'Get us out of here!'
Anne and I yelled for help until the wax filled above our heads. I was stuck, completely frozen and stuck due to the wax and I can only assume Anne was in the same predicament. I felt most of the wax I was sitting in flow away meaning that the container had been broken open.
'They're frozen!' Polly yelled.
'Take em to go!' Hop Pop said before I felt myself be picked up.
The sun had begun to rise as the Plantars, Anne and I were back at the Fwagon. Anne and I sat close to the campfire to melt away the wax.
'We'll never get that Skipman now' I sigh.
'You mean... this Skipman?' Sprig asks, holing that exact object out to us.
'No way! Dude! You're the best!' Anne cheered.
'Thank you, thank you!' I thank the frog boy. 'And the Curator said he got it from Newtopia!'
'Which means we're on the right track!' Anne explains.
'You know what else is on the right track? You two keeping a low profile and it jumping into things without us' Hop Pop scalded.
'I'm tired of facing my fears girls!' Polly complained.
'We know, we know. We shouldn't have gone off on our own. It was reckless and besides, we work better as a team' Anne smiled.
'Well the important thing is that we're all ok. Except for the Curator, he's dead' Hop Pop said with no remorse for the man.
'Onward family! To Newtopia!' Sprig smiled, looking to the sunrise with a heroic pose.
'He guys wanna see something cool? Did you know that this thing has a laser? Wha-bam!'
AAAAHHHH IT BURNS!'
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