Chapter 65 of 99 · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Chapter 65 — Upside down: Corcunda

Book: A Parade of Horribles · Part: Horrible One · Previous: Chapter 64 — The hole; the dolls; Corky aboard · Next: Chapter 66 — Grull; Dong tilts a giant · Floor: Floor 10 — Don't Come in Last · Series: the series

Opening

The path ahead swerved. I turned, but the maze of boxes had all broken and shattered.

Summary

Figures army-crawl up the hood; the next room is a balcony over three storeys of molten metal; spider legs out, sideways then inverted. Grigori: it must be done standing and inverted; Donut on the oven burner; both halves hunched under the ceiling unzipping. Dong, sick, wraps Corky's head in Dekoki's plastic wrap, then Porky's — guts may spill, the brain must stay sealed. Porky's suit pops 'like a jack-in-the-box filled with noodles'; Grigori floats the guts; two half-hearts glow under spells; their faces at last — mantaurs with half-mullets, plastic-wrapped half-brains, exposed sinuses. Sideways: everyone falls, Donut into Grigori, the mantaurs and Dong jumbled in blood; then the ceiling, and Roller Limbo holds. The room goes on and on: Hot Wheels channels crossing the ceiling and walls between spikes, a river of metal below; Sweety sideways on the wall, her litter self-righting, fire feet trailing; everyone slower. Slag Elementals, molten gorillas leaping from the river, hurl metal — Jurgen's axe vanishes into one and does not return, but it falls. The card: Level 75 Neighborhood Boss, infused, a regenerator if it falls into the metal, the Coblyn Corporation's cheap protection — 'pretty much impossible to kill […] no boss box unless one is dead-dead.' 'Hold them together!' A glob rocks the truck; the heat sink tops. Under the ferret with slimes on its back — a Containment Warning — the trans-dimensional fold works and Carl's stomach lurches. 'I have you, and I will never let go again!' Grigori chants; Osvaldo on the wall, Free Love right-side-up on the ceiling by a roof device. Prepotente: any non-molten metal collapses an elemental back to the river until it melts. 'The initial casting is done […] Hold them no matter what happens, or it will fail!' Donut on the dingle dangle flapping two ways ('a hot dog that exploded in the microwave'); Dong: 'That is normal for the mantaur race. The windmill, it is called.' 'It’s normal for his penis to look like a hand after a fireworks accident?' A glob holes the hood; the engine whirs. Race ends in 10 minutes; the final casting; Dr. Metcalf 'still freaked out about the mantaur-penis thing'. Corky and Porky naked, pressed like a grilled cheese, hernias bulging, Dong holding them with eyes clenched and tears streaming — 'I got you' — his own health far into the red. The two red bars join into one; the names vanish and one returns: Corcunda. A notification waved away — and over the mantaur's head a god's mark for death. System Message: Grull has entered the realm.

Characters

• Carl — Sideways, then inverted; under the ferret; a hole in the hood.
• Princess Donut — 'Make sure their lips line up!'; on the dingle dangle.
• Corcunda (Corky and Porky) — Two half-hearts glowing; the bars join; the name returns.
• Dong Quixote — 'I have you, and I will never let go again!'
• Grigori the Placid — 'It’s the brain that’s important. And both hearts.'
• Prepotente — Non-molten metal collapses an elemental.
• Jurgen — Loses an axe into a slag elemental.
• Osvaldo — On the wall.

Locations

• The Gasworks Screw Factory, Steel Mill, and Doll Workshop — Hot Wheels channels on the ceiling over a river of metal; Slag Elementals.

Motifs

• I have dreamed thee too long / Half a prayer, half a song — Done, upside down, with a god's mark to follow.
• The gods — A death mark over the mantaur; 'Grull has entered the realm.'
• Carl's family — Dong holding them with eyes clenched.
• The AI's confessions — 'You will not receive a boss box unless one is dead-dead.'
• The tenth floor — Roller Limbo holds.