Bowling was one of the many things that I had never been skilled at.

Until I got to Carousel.

I gave myself all those points in Hustle to try to survive using Oblivious Bystander. I had never taken into account how it might help me aim a ball down a wooden lane.

In fact, most of the players were doing really well at bowling. Obviously, Chris was doing the best because he out-leveled us by quite a bit, but I bowled above 130 for the first time in my life in my very first game in Carousel. That was pretty impressive considering we weren’t allowed to bowl three strikes in a row.

Antoine was beating me because of his higher Hustle and general athleticism. I wasn't sure how stats worked on things like that outside a storyline, but I could feel it helping me.

Every time Grace's alarm went off, we would all stop what we were doing and watch as she went over and locked the front door, and flipped around the open sign.

The first time, a well-groomed man in his early 30s came and attempted to open the door only to leave when he saw that the sign said closed. It wasn't an NPC.

It was an enemy.

He must have had a trope that prevented me from seeing much more than that. I assumed he was the Quiet Man Grace talked about. He was forced to go entertain himself elsewhere.

The other unwanted intruders worked the same way. Lock the doors. Flip the sign. Watch until they walked away.

After a long while, a few rounds of bowling, and a few rounds in the arcade, the phone call Grace warned us about came in. Even though we knew it was coming, it still sent a chill down my spine when I heard it.

We all waited in anticipation to see which player would be chosen by the woman with the raspy voice.

“Is there a Camden here?” The employee at the desk asked as she placed the phone against her shoulder.

“No one here by that name,” Reggie called out.

The employee hung up the phone and everyone cheered and congratulated Camden for being the lucky winner.

We ignored the fact that if he had answered that phone, many of us would likely have died because of it.

We all dispersed into our own little groups. Antoine found an opportunity to get Chris alone by challenging him to ski ball. He was likely preparing to ask questions about Zoe. I could see they were having a difficult conversation.

Chris was talking about something, and Antoine stood there, wide-eyed, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“It looks like Chris just dropped a bombshell on him,” Anna said, as we spied on them while pretending to pick out new bowling balls.

Was that good news or bad? If it was true that someone else was given a quest to beat the game, that would certainly make me feel more confident in our decision to pursue Dina's quest.

We would have to find out when we got a moment to speak with Antoine.

Travis and Vernon Haley mostly spent the whole time alone with their team. It turned out that Travis could be a relatively normal person from time to time. I had half-expected him to harass me because of the comments he had made in the past.

He didn’t. It was a pleasant surprise.

As my friends talked and laughed, I found myself forgetting that I was surrounded by danger. I enjoyed being there. At that moment it felt like we were at a real bowling alley hanging out and having a good time.

Maybe the Bowlers were right about taking a minute just to enjoy yourself.

I felt at ease in a way that I hadn't been able to since I entered the bowling alley. It almost took me too long to figure out why.

The Hysteric trope (I don’t like it here…) that I had been given was incredibly useful, but its cost was that it gave you actual anxiety along with the information you received. The fact that I was no longer feeling the same anxiety I had was strange considering that I was in a building with multiple dangerous Omens.

Or was I?

The realization chilled me like a splash of ice water. I looked over at the lane where the bowling bag Omen had been. The bag was still there but I didn't see the Omen anymore. Nothing appeared on the red wallpaper; it was as if I was just looking at a normal bowling bag crammed with clothes.

It was the same with the present that had been thrown away in the trash can. There was no Omen that jumped out to greet me when I looked over there.

Strange.

I turned around and looked out the front window. The entire time we had been there, the ranting woman could be seen talking to her reflection. When I looked again, she was gone.

There were no Omens in the bowling alley anymore.

“Quiet,” I yelled. “Be quiet for a second.”

The others heard the panic in my voice and stopped their conversations.

The Omens were gone but as I focused, I could still feel something. Something distant and growing. Was this normal anxiety or was there another omen nearby? I couldn't tell.

Then I looked up.

Whatever it was wasn't directly above us, but when I looked out toward the back side of the building and up into the ceiling, I felt an intense burst of fear. Even through the roof, I could tell that there was an Omen outside.

As this realization dawned on me, my anxiety kicked into overdrive, and I walked toward the doors to get a look at what it was.

“The omens are all gone and there is something outside!” I screamed as I walked toward the door. The others cycled through their own scouting tropes to confirm what I had said and then followed me.

When I walked around the building and looked up in the direction of the pulsing fear that felt like it was pressing against my forehead, I saw it.

The storm.

A single jet-black cloud floated in the distance over the top of a large chemical factory that was pouring smoke into the air. I could see lights flashing around the factory. There was some kind of meltdown.

I saw the Omen.

The Black Snow

Difficulty: Apocalypse. The world is ending.

Trigger: Imperceptible. (Savvy too low)