Chapter 0

Chapter 0
“C’MON, HURRY UP IN THERE FLANN, YOU’RE TAKING FOREVER!”
Flann Snyder stood in his room, tying a knot on his bandanna and combing his blaze-like blonde hair. As he did so, he yelled back in annoyance, staring down his door as if he were able to see his sister through it. “I’LL BE OUT THERE IN A MINUTE NOOK!”
“YOU ALREADY SAID THAT TEN MINUTES AGO! C’MON, YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!”
“JUST WAIT, WILL YA?!” Flann quickly looked back at the mirror before walking right out of his vibrant yellow bedroom to the dull blue living room. There sat his little sister, Nook Snyder, on the couch with a tense posture, waiting as she wore a pouting expression over her face.
“Finally, what took you so long? You were in there forever!”
Flann ran his hand back through his hair as if he were showing it off. “Just had to groom this pride of mine, Nook. I always gotta look good, you know?”
Nook rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you and your stupid hair. It’s not like we’re going to a party or anything, jeez.” 
Flann whined and mumbled, petting himself on the head as though he were trying to comfort his hair. “My hair is not stupid…”
“C’mon, let’s go already! Stop being such a baby! I don’t wanna waste any more time!” Quickly hopping off the couch, Nook hopped towards the door with the excitement of a puppy.
Flann chuckled in between his words. “Alright, alright, comin’.” Nook dashed out of the house and stood besides the car, waiting for Flann to unlock it. He followed behind, accompanied by the melody of his car keys, which jingled as he took them out of his pocket.
BEEP! BEEP!
The two entered the car and sat inside. Flann began to buckle his seat belt, glancing over at Nook, “Put on your seat belt, Nook. I don’t wanna see you flying out through the window when I’m driving.” 
“Yep! 'Kay!” Nook yanked onto the belt time and time again before she was able to extend it far enough for her to buckle the belt.
Flann inserted his key and turned it, causing the car to emit a loud roar. “Okay! To the movies we go!”
“Hey, Flann?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Flann slowly backed out of the driveway of his home, looking back to be sure he wouldn't collide with anyone or anything. “No problem sis. Didn’t wanna see you sitting alone in the house all day since everyone’s out of the house. Too bad Sorrel’s at school, though. I know you really wanted her to come with us.” As he turned back and looked at the dashboard, he groaned. “Shit.”
“Huh? What is it?”
The fuel meter on the right side of the dashboard flickered a bright red, indicating that the vehicle lacked fuel in the tank. Flann tapped the glass of the dashboard, uncertain on whether or not the tank was truly running close to empty. Unfortunately for him, it was. No amount of acting surprised nor denial would change that.
“This thing is almost out of juice. Gotta get it filled up.” 
Nook frowned. “Okay...”
…
"I'm gonna head to the front counter real quick, sis." 
"Alright. Please don't take too long, Flann..."
Nook sat alone in the car as it filled itself with silence. Flann had left Nook to pay for the gas, and with boredom beginning to grow on her, Nook decided to turn on the radio to keep her ears and mind occupied. Turning up the volume and browsing through different stations, various songs and advertisements blared out the stereo.
“♩Oh! Oh! Oh! O-Reil–”
FFSSSSHHH.
“Hey, you’re listening to–”
FFSSSSHHH.
“BREAKING NEWS! Missing persons reports have skyrock–”
FFSSSSHHH.
"♩I was young, it didn't stop you coming through. Oh-a-oh! They took the credit for your second symphony♩"
A song began to chime from the radio to the rest of the car, and so Nook laid back, bopping her head to the rhythm and singing along. This continued for some time until Flann arrived back at the car, carrying a variety of edible goods. Shutting the door on his way in, Flann threw the snacks into the back seats, doing so with a goofy grin.
“We’re gonna eat good during the movies,” Flann exclaimed. “Amirite?”
Nook looked at the excessive pile of snacks sitting on the back seats. “Jesus Flann, stop buying so much food all the time! Aunt Lisa keeps giving you so much money for you to waste it all in one day. Besides, do you really think we can sneak all this in?”
Flann gave a blank stare towards Nook, slowly bringing out a bag full of KitKats. He shook the bag in a teasing manner, bringing back the grin moments before Nook’s rant. As the sounds of the individual KitKats shuffling against each other and the plastic being stretched were made, Nook gave a very disapproving look, to which Flann said, “C’moooooon, you know you want it.”
“No.”
“They’re your favoriiiite.”
“I said no, Flann.”
“Mmm. Yummy. C’mon, I won’t tell anyone.”
Unable to refuse the tempting offer, Nook couldn’t help but grab the bag from Flann with guilty pleasure and a sigh. “I’ll allow it.”
“Atta girl,” Flann said, giving a nudge to Nook’s shoulder as he laughed. It wasn’t long until Flann finally noticed the song playing from the stereo, prompting him to nudge Nook’s shoulder again as he pointed to the radio. “Hey, this is our song! I’m surprised you managed to find it.”
“Yeah, heh.” Nook’s expression became sullen. “Mom and dad liked this too."
“Hey, Nook…” Flann began to frown, and he slowly turned the volume of the radio down until nothing more could be heard from it. “C’mon, don’t think about that right now.”
“Sorry, I know… it’s just… well…”
Flann sighed. “It’s alright, Noelle. I feel that way, too.”
The two stayed silent for a moment as the sound of the car’s engine continued to run in the background. Nook broke the silence. “You know, that’s probably the first time you've ever called me that in a while.”
“What? Don't you like it? I can keep calling you Tom Nook if you want. You’re a greedy little gremlin, just like him.”
Nook punched Flann’s arm with playful intent, giggling along the way. “Don’t say that ever, you friggin douche! I’m not that greedy!” And for a moment, Nook and Flann continued to punch and poke at each other until all of their laughter was out of their system.
Afterwards, Flann looked over to Nook once again. “Hey… wanna play some songs from my playlist on the phone? I should have that aux cord in the thing down there.”
“Oh, um… where?”
“Right there, in front of you, on your side.”
Nook opened the glove box and grabbed the aux cord from there, handing it to Flann to be connected to his phone. “There we go. Here, open up YouTube and put the song on; I’m gonna start driving.” He handed the phone back to his sister, who, a few seconds later, began to play a song.
"♩Pineapples are in my head! Got nobody 'cause I'm brain-dead. Pineapples are in my head! Got nobody 'cause I'm brain-dead♩"
While the speakers in the car continuing to sing their song, Flann and Nook took off in the car without a minute's notice.
…
“Hey, are we almost there yet, Flann?”
“Yeah, just 15 more minut– WOAH!” 
HONK.
The car came to a sudden and violent stop, slamming Flann’s face into the wheel. The car emitted a loud honk, as well as the other cars from behind. “God damn it! My nose…” Flann laid his hands on his nose, checking for any damage done to it. There was nothing that felt disfigured or out of place, so Flann looked over to Nook, trying to assure himself that she was not harmed in the stop. “Nook?! Nook, you okay?!”
“Oh, Flann…” Nook, perfectly fine from the stop, wrapped her arms around each other in disappointment. “Don’t you ever take care of your car?”
“C’mon, you know I do. It was just the gas, I swear…”
Flann exited the car to inspect the front of it, but it wasn’t long before one of the drivers behind him opened his window to angrily yell at him. The driver revealed himself to be a man donning a rather messy-looking mustache to compliment his collared shirt with a loose-fitting tie.
The driver slammed his hand on the side of the door with such force. “HEY, WHAT THE FUCK?! WHY’D YOU STOP, YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING HIGHWAY!”
Flann yelled back in response, trying to de-escalate the situation. “Hey, come on! Calm down; there’s something wrong with my car!”
“WELL KEEP IT MAINTAINED NEXT TIME, ASSHOLE!”
The driver moved around Flann’s car and drove off at such speed, kicking up dust onto Flann and the car. The rest of the vehicles, though not as fast as the previous driver, quickly drove around Flann and Nook, with some of the drivers giving them either looks of pity or annoyance.
Flann took a deep breath, attempting to suppress the stress and frustration building up within him. “Calm down, Flann; he probably just had a bad day at work. I can’t really blame him,” he whispered to himself. Continuing to look at the front of the car, he saw that the front of it had sunk into the ground, strangely enough. Baffled by his discovery, he signaling Nook to leave the car, which she did. Flann attempted to lift the car up, but every time he did so, all of his tries turned out unsuccessful. After a few more tries, Flann called it quits. “Nook, get the phone. I need to make a call.”
Nook melancholically replied, “Mhm.” She climbed back into the car to grab the phone and back out, handing it to Flann. He dialed up a number, and minutes later, a man answered from the other end of the call.
“H-hello? Hi! T-thank you for calling Ether Autoshop! How may we h-help you?”
“Yeah, I think my car’s stuck.”
“In w-what way? Would you m-mind e-explaining?”
“I… can’t. Okay, maybe I guess you can say that my car… sunk into… the ground?”
“‘S-s-sunk’ you said?”
“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but you can see it for yourself. Just… please come over.”
As Flann went on in his phone call, Nook began to notice that the ground was shaking. With concern, Nook attempted to get Flann’s attention. “Flann, I think there might be an earth-”
“Not now, Nook, I’m o- OH SH-”
Nook, confused by the sudden silence from Flann, called for her brother. “Flann?” No response was made, causing panic to be induced into Nook’s mind. “FLANN?”
Going over to Flann’s side of the car, she found that he no longer stood there, much to her dismay. “FLANN, WHERE ARE YOU? FLANN? FLANN?!” The ground began to shake once more, though with greater intensity, as though there were a herd of elephants running in Nook’s direction. Nook made an effort to maintain her balance herself but failed, forcing her to grab onto the car window to regain it once more. 
“W-woah! WOAH! WHAT’S GOING ON?”
And as if it never happened, the shaking dispersed.
“What…? What the hell is going-” 
Suddenly, Nook, along with the car, fell into a black sea of what seemed to be nothingness. 
“OOOOOOOOOOOOON??!” Nook continued to scream and scream as she sank deeper and deeper into the dark abyss. “HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!” Unfortunately answered by only the screams of her own, Nook fell further and further into the dark anomaly until, finally, she and the car took a hard impact to the ground. 
“OOF!”
SMASH.
The vehicle was almost flattened, and all the air in the wheels was violently forced out, all by the force of gravity. It had barely missed Nook, who struggled to rise up onto her feet.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
“Ugh… what… was that?”
Category:Submit To Insanity
Category:Tales