22
27. 6. 22, Sunday, 18:16
Of all people to pass out, the universe just had to decree it would be Adonis, the bulkiest weight they had to carry.
“Thanks,” Lana said to the frowning cabman, handing over an the extraordinary amount of cash to him – they were paying extra for him dropping them off in the middle of nowhere, for his silence and to not question why there was a comatose body with them. She tried to keep Julian and Denver in sight as they dragged out the unconscious Adonis from the backseat.
“Where the heck did you even all that money?” Emma asked inquisitively as the cabman drove off a lot richer than he was originally was and a crazy story to tell to his mates at the bar.
“It’s been a month since we joined Room of Fear, so we got paid a few days ago,” Lana explained. “I got them to pay me in cash – figured we’re going to need at the amount of bribery and taxis we need these days.”
“Well, Adonis did just have to get himself knocked out, didn’t he?” Freddie said moodily.
***
“He’s still alive,” Adonis announced.
All seven of them had scrambled out of their seats and ducked under the table lest they too got hit by a dart. Crawling over to Leith’s body, they were vaguely surprised that Allison and Conrad hadn’t come already. Perhaps one might’ve wondered why they were so calm about it, but in reality they were simply not processing it yet.
“Why does this keep happening?” Leo fretted. “Should we call someone? Conrad? I don’t think his mother would be too happy though.”
“No, you heard him, we have to get out now,” Denver protested.
“Yeah, Blowdart Man wasn’t fooled after all – he followed us all the way here,” Julian said grimly. “Though actually we aren’t really good actors.”
“Get out now, when Leith wakes up he can explain – we shouldn’t stick around too long,” Emma agreed.
“I know we saw Blowdart Man make a run for it, but what’s to say he ain’t waiting to take a pot shot at us once we leave here?” Freddie pointed out.
“Oh heck.”
Lana gave a small scream; everyone paled.
Adonis had been pulling out the dart from Leith’s neck, but sadly, unfortunately, clumsily…he had pricked himself with it. “Crap, why’s the world spinning –”
His eyes abruptly closed and he slumped forward.
***
Which was why they ended up having to carry him in between them as they made their way to a main road, as they hailed a cab and as they began to pull him down the dirt road leading to Ashwood Mansion.
However they couldn’t just show up at the front door demanding to be let in, thus they cut through the trees.
Emma squirted bug repellent into the air as Lana nodded approvingly (she usually gagged from the smell too, but today she was ready to make an exception, seeing as there were many unknown creatures buzzing in the woods. Denver side-stepped any puddles leftover from last night’s downpour he saw, wondering how cold it would be. Leo walked ahead, keeping the path in sight so they wouldn’t get lost.
“Oops,” Julian said, realizing he just scraped Adonis’s head against a particular jagged piece of root, but not entirely sorry, because hey, it wasn’t his fault if Adonis’s head insisted on lolling back
Freddie panted as she tried not to breathe in Adonis’s shoes’ stench. “I think we just ripped his shirt, but I’m not entirely sorry since this shirt is the one he said he didn’t like much anyway.”
“We’re almost to the Mansion,” Lana called out encouragingly. “Fred, please wash your hands! Touching shoes is bad for you!”
“Is this why you don’t have shoelaces?” Denver asked interestedly.
At last they arrived at the gates of Ashwood Mansion. Obviously they couldn’t get in by opening it, which was why they took a roundabout route to the back, once again in the woods, constantly checking to make sure the CCTV cameras weren’t facing in their direction.
Finally they got to a familiar dirt path in the woods. Relieved, they followed it to the wall of the back of Ashwood Mansion – the ‘wall’ was actually the compass-exit they had used not very long ago. By now the kitchen help should’ve left, if the schedule they had made from spying was correct.
“Do you think we can wake Adonis up?” Emma asked. “Or he’ll stay in a coma like Curtis or whatever?”
“The dart didn’t really prick him like it did to Leith, so I’d think the effects would be less drastic, scientifically speaking,” Freddie offered.
“Even if he doesn’t wake up, it’ll at least give some proof to our ‘sick’ story,” Leo said.
Lana pressed her shoulder against the ‘wall’ and pushed hard, grunting and huffing. It gave way after a few tries and swung open. Grinning, she, Emma, Denver and Leo climbed in. Julian went in first, then Freddie pushed Adonis in. Lana closed the compass, glad that the schedule was indeed correct and the kitchen was empty.
“How do we wake him up?” Julian nudged him with his foot. “We dragged him across the woods, the road, and through a secret exit. He won’t wake up then, how do we wake him up now?”
“They say putting things in people in coma’s hands might wake them up with a feel of something familiar,” Freddie said. “But I don’t think that works. Sounds a bit weird, and coming from me that means something.”
“What if we slosh water on him?” Denver asked with a gleam in his eye – after so long, retribution would finally be paid. All those times Adonis dumped water on him…aha, he was going to get a taste of his own medicine.
“Give it a try, seeing as we don’t have any other ideas,” Lana said. “All yours, Denver.”
Denver unzipped his backpack and took out his water bottle, with a smile slightly too wide for Adonis’s liking had he been awake. Uncapping it, he held it upside-down. Water dribbled and spilled from it like some Fountain of Youth the wrong way up. Water that splashed onto Adonis’s slacken face.
Water that had absolutely no effect other than ruining his hair.
“Well, that’s a bust,” Leo said.
“It was fun, though.”
“What if we yelled into his ear?” Emma proposed. “That’ll ‘shock his senses’.”
“Won’t hurt to try.” Lana gave her a thumbs-up.
Emma searched up ‘Chicken Dance’ on her phone, put it on max volume and held it next to Adonis. The whole ordeal was ridiculous was enough to set them giggling and chuckling. They had just escaped from a man carrying a weapon with a victim out cold, and here they were in a kitchen trying to wake him up with the world’s most annoying song ever. Albeit their laughter sounded a bit maniacal.
Adonis barely moved.
“My turn, and boy have I been waiting forever to do this,” Freddie said gleefully. She headed to the fridge and yanked open the door.
“Fred, this is no time for a snack,” Lana scolded.
“Is there any rice?” Julian urged.
“There is…this.” Freddie held up a frozen fish from the freezer by its tail, revealing her braces in her smirk.
“EW, FRED, PUT THAT BACK! THAT’S DISGUSTING!” Emma shrieked.
“HAHAHA!” Denver doubled over. “Wait, is that cold?”
“WINIFRED MADISON THOMPSON, UNHAND THAT FISH AT ONCE, IT’S SO UNHYGIENIC!” Lana bellowed.
“Dude, I’ve been holding fishes since I was a kid. At the supermarket and at the farm. And if anything’s going to wake Adonis up, it’s going to be Mr Salmon here.”
She slapped Adonis with the fish.
Silence, as the girls gaped at her, shocked and appalled. The other three boys turned their heads away to hide their twitching faces.
Someone finally broke it. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY PLACE?”
Oh, no, no, no. Ben Dover.
Ben Dover, glaring at them from the ajar doorway. Ben Dover, narrowing his already narrow eyes at them. Ben Dover, of all people to catch them in the act.
“We can explain,” Emma peeped.
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL SICK, BUT INSTEAD YOU’RE HERE, EATING MY FOOD!” Ben Dover hollered – his only decibel level seemed to be that. Loud.
“Your food? Seriously?” Denver scowled. “How can you accuse us when you’re literally here to steal food?”
“I’M TELLING DAMON!”
“Beeeeen…” Lana sang in her demented, off-key way, waving her hands around like floppy seaweed. “You ate too much at lunch and you’re just dreaming about all of this, so get out now before we morph into dishes and dance with spoonssssss!”
At that moment Adonis chose to wake up, though whether it was because of Freddie’s fish or Ben’s bellowing no one ever knew.
The sight of Freddie holding a fish above him, Ben Dover with his hands on his pudgy waist, and everyone else frozen like they were running somewhere, plus the ice on his cheek and Lana’s screechy singing was enough to get him to pass out again with a ‘damn it I must be dreaming’.
***
“Here you go, you little crap bag,” Adonis growled, dumping his pudding into Ben’s bowl. “All our dessert. Are you happy now, fatso?”
“Well, you wouldn’t want me to tell Damon I caught you in the kitchen yesterday, would you?” Ben smugly dug into his dessert – he rarely ate his dinner first if there was dessert.
“Hey, you were also in the kitchen,” Emma spat angrily.
“Mmm, but you wouldn’t want to get kicked out, so that’s why you’re all giving me your dessert for the next week like what you said in your deal.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Freddie said, exasperated. “Before the way he eats gets my book dirty.”
All seven of them left the dining hall, cross that they had been forced to negotiate off all their dessert just to make Ben not snitch on them. Not only that, now it meant he had some leverage over them – all though, thankfully Ben wasn’t clever enough to figure out why they were there in the first place.
They headed to the girls’ room like always. The investigation board, recently updated that morning, was waiting on the table, along with the newest address they could check out: Hemlock’s Psychology Clinic.
According to Google and extensive research, Hemlock’s Psychology Clinic was a therapy clinic only reserved for some serious teen nut cases, the ones who every other therapy had failed. Run by the Hemlock family for about three generations already, they had also found out Jon Ashwood and Doyle Hemlock the First had collaborated together on several cases – Jon had made several serums and cures just for Doyle to use. It definitely explained why Leith and Conrad had been sent there.
“Someone open up Hermes News Network,” Denver said. “Let’s see if they did a report on Leith too, and I want to know if Curtis has woken up yet.”
“Doubt it,” Adonis grunted. “I just got a prick and see where it had me.”
“Slapped by a dead fish?” Julian said innocently.
“Shut up.”
Emma smacked both of their heads from behind. “Be quiet, both of you.”
Lana switched on her laptop and connected it to the TV, displaying Hermes News Network’s official website. She started scrolling while everyone else watched the screen intently for the word ‘Ashwood’.
More And More Hurricanes Striking Florida…
Rex Walker Still Not Found – Did He Really Run Away?...
Arsonist Becca Graves Out On Parole…
New Yellowstone Park Wolf Pack Found…
Drug Dealer Lionel Stross Still At Large…
“There!” Leo yelped, and pointed.
Leith Ashwood Knocked Out – Police Suspect Foul play
Lana clicked the link.
Once again another Ashwood has been attacked: Damon Ashwood’s adoptive son Leith Banks. A call made by his distressed brother Conrad and mother Allison was picked up by the police yesterday around evening time. Unlike last time, the call was not anonymous, but the words used was strikingly similar.
Further investigation proved that Leith has also been put into a coma, with the exact same wound his uncle Curtis – who sadly has not woken up yet – had received to the neck. Currently now he is in St Ignatius’s Private Clinic and doctors there have declined comment, meaning we have no way of knowing how he is doing.
Is this the work of a rival show? A connected attack to take out the Ashwoods? An old enemy of Jon come to seek his revenge?
Subscribe to Hermes News Network to be updated!
“Blowdart Man,” Adonis spat, rubbing his index finger and thumb together, feeling the mark made by the dart.
“If he followed us to Curtis and Leith’s, will he follow us to Hemlock’s too? I really don’t want another person to go on the news because they got shot because of us,” Leo worried.
“We’ll just have to take that chance,” Adonis said resignedly. “Any luck on finding more about the clinic?”
“Yup,” Denver said, not looking up from his phone. “Hemlock is famous for three things: his collaboration with Jon Ashwood, their nut cases and how they miraculously cure every one of them through ‘unorthodox methods’. Says here Jon made some serums just for Doyle Hemlock the First to use on the crazier people, altering their brain chemicals and whatnot.”
“So now we just have to come up with a legitimate excuse to go see them,” Leo said doubtfully. “How are we going to do that?”
“You know, I just had a thought.” Lana straightened. “We keep wondering what happened during Adonis and Julian’s blackout, but we never really thought about WHY or WHO.”
Freddie caught on. “The marks on their necks look like Adonis’s dart scar – Blowdart Man must’ve shot them or something too, with some memory-wiping serum…now that I think about it, it sounds kind of plausible to think Jon might’ve made a memory-wiping serum.”
“Then Blowdart Man must’ve somehow gotten his hands on it and used it on contestants who failed to continue the Trail so they wouldn’t spill the beans about it,” Emma finished their conspiracy theory. “So it would be safe to assume Blowdart Man must be someone with high-up authority or close to the Ashwoods to get that serum.”
“Or he might’ve stolen it,” Lana added. “Makes sense. Then it must mean that Adonis and Julian must’ve found out something during that blackout that Blowdart Man didn’t want them sharing. And, have you noticed every time someone gets shot it’s when they’re telling us more about the Trail?”
“That part doesn’t make much sense though,” Emma said, shaking her head. “He wants us to continue the Trail, but strikes anyone who helps us with it?”
“Well, it does, logically speaking,” Freddie argued. “Blowdart Man didn’t shoot when they were telling us about the Trail, like when Curtis was explaining what the Trail led to. He only shot when it seemed like they were going to share something else.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Denver interrupted. “I’m not a conspiracy theorist or whatever you guys are, so please do dumb it down for us.”
“Like, I’m dumb, so yeah, I’m dumb, and we really need it to be translated into normal English,” Julian said helpfully.
“Ugh, so basically, it’s possible and highly probably that Blowdart Man shot Adonis and Julian with some memory-erasing serum or something, because they found out something that Blowdart Man doesn’t want us to find out,” Freddie said.
“Plus he’s been shooting Curtis and Leith because they were also going to tell us something he doesn’t want knowing, but he lets them live for a while to find out more about the Trail so we can continue it,” Lana finished.
“And who was the last person to be with Adonis and Julian?” Emma said.
The name fell out of everyone’s mouth at the exact same time. “Heather.”
***
“Hey, anyone see Heather?” Julian asked, popping his head into the games room, where Alex, Glen, Jordan and Anne-Marie were chilling.
“She left a few minutes ago,” Jordan replied. “Why?”
“We just want to ask her something,” Adonis said, which wasn’t really a lie.
“But it seems really unnecessary,” Freddie muttered, just loud enough for them to hear. Judging by Denver and Leo’s expressions they agreed with her.
“Oh come on, you don’t like anyone who’s friendly,” Lana said, exasperated. “Would you rather everyone be mean to you?”
“With all due respect you’d know their intentions better if everyone openly attacked on another. to quote that penguin from Madagascar, ‘friends are enemies that haven’t attacked yet’.”
“What, so me and Lana are secretly plotting to stab you?” Emma huffed.
“If you were plotting, how would I know?”
“Why every time we need her to leave Heather’s there, but every time we do need her she’s not?” Julian sighed.
Denver coughed. “You needed her to save you in the maze, and she WAS there.”
“Shut up,” Adonis snipped, rubbing at his neck unconsciously. “Where the heck is she? We’ve practically checked every single room in the Mansion.”
“Well, well, if it isn’t just who I was looking for,” a sharp voice said from behind. Everyone turned around; those in the game room tried to see too. “Adonis, Denver, Emma, Julian, Lana, Leo and Winifred, I want to have a word.”
“Alex, Glen, Jordan and Anne-Marie, would you kindly leave the room for a while?” Gwenda Shaw asked politely, but authoritatively. They hastily nodded and cleared out.
Gwenda steered the seven into the room, directing them to sit on the couch as she closed the door. She always looked very stern, like that cranky teacher from school who would yell at you just for asking to go the bathroom, but today she looked like someone had just been murdered and the seven were suspects.
Then again they HAD gotten her adoptive son hit by a dart.
But then again how could she know that?
She sat herself on the armchair opposite them, looking disapprovingly at their clothing, which made them realize violently dropping pudding into Ben’s bowl probably hadn’t been the best idea. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“No?” Lana ventured.
“Ben Dover came to me shortly after dinner.”
It clicked – nearly all of them would’ve stormed out right about then to kill him. Then they really would be suspects.
“The bloody snitch broke his end of the deal,” Adonis snarled quietly.
“He’s going to be as dead as the roach I crushed yesterday,” Freddie said into Emma’s ear, who paled at the mention of a roach.
“I’m busting his head in,” Julian threatened.
“God, I hate that fatso.” Denver held out his hands as if to strangle someone.
“Calm down,” Gwenda said tiredly. “I really have no wish for contestants to be fighting amongst themselves.”
“What did he tell you?” Lana asked, polite as ever, even as she struggled to keep the cover on her annoyance shut.
“He said he was passing by the kitchen yesterday and caught you seven in there,” Gwenda answered. “However it is only until this point I understood what happened. He said...well, to quote him, ‘Spiderman was asleep on the floor, Anna was trying to tell me it was all a dream, Friedrich or whatever her name is was holding a fish, Denmark was all wet, Emily was playing some song on her phone and Lion and Julia were all looking at me weird’. I’m assuming Spiderman is Adonis, Anna is Lana, Friedrich is Winifred, Denmark is Denver, Emily is Emma, Lion is Leo and Julia is Julian?”
“Spiderman? Of all cringy things?”
“Friedrich is a German boy’s name!”
“Ugh, I’m not that girl from ‘Frozen’!”
“Is that really what happened? I’ll admit much of it is jumbled, so can I please get your side of the story? You do know that you’re not supposed to be in the kitchen, it’s off-limits,” Gwenda pressed. “I’d prefer things to be kept fair, but if you won’t tell me I have no choice but to punish you seven.”
“What do you think happened?” Denver crossed his arms.
“If I were to believe Ben, it seems like the seven of you sneaked into the kitchen to do something, perhaps steal food? But also according to him it seems like Adonis passed out, Lana was trying to cover up, Winifred was attempting to steal the fish, Denver somehow sprayed water on himself, Emma was playing music and Leo and Julian were the lookouts?”
“That does sound really weird and out of context,” Leo admitted.
“So what really happened? Keeping in mind the seven of you claimed to be ill too, this doesn’t really make sense.”
“We…were planning to take food,” Lana lied, her palms feeling sweaty.
“So the ‘sick’ story was just an alibi?” Gwenda prodded.
“Sort of,” Freddie said, which wasn’t lying.
“I’ll just assume the rest was exaggeration, seeing as it really is wildly unrealistic,” Gwenda sighed. “Can I know why? Is the food not enough?”
“No, it’s just that…” Emma faltered.
“We just got hungry,” Adonis said.
“Do you really think I wouldn’t notice the seven of you have been eating a lot more than the average teen these days? Usually during lunch and breakfast – you take more food than the rest, and keep coming back for seconds.”
The Phobia Club fell silent. They definitely couldn’t say ‘Oh, we weren’t eating it all at once, we were just packing extra to eat because we were going places involving really long car trips without your permission’.
“Are you all…not to be rude, perhaps having diet issues? Compulsive eating? It doesn’t say so on your medical report, but you all do seem to never be full.”
They shifted uncomfortably.
“I can understand if you do not want to tell me, but you all also have been very skittish and acting strangely recently too. Is there something you’re not telling us?”
“Yeah?” Julian offered.
Gwenda exhaled hard. “In that case, how about I schedule an appointment for you seven at Hemlock’s Psychology Clinic? You can talk about your issues in a safe environment there. I’ll leave you seven to think about it.”
She got up and left the room, leaving the Phobia Club gaping.
“Did we just accidentally somehow arrange an appointment with the very place we needed to go to?” Freddie wondered.