Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
CHAPTER NINE: CLUES AND HIDING PART ONE
*****
Going back outside, the group hid themselves behind a hieroglyphics display to avoid being found and caught by the guards that were searching the area, and once the guards had moved on, then they were able to come out of hiding.
“Where are we going?” Gabbie wondered, keeping her voice soft to kept from being overheard by the guards.
“Wait,” said Joey, pointing to what had to be the biggest cage he’d ever seen in his life, and inside were their captured friends. “That’s them.”
“Should we go?” Gabbie inquired.
“Definitely,” said Benny, not wanting to leave their friends locked up. “Let’s go.” And hurried toward the cage with his friends following.
*****
Meanwhile in the cage, the group was looking for numbers or clues that would help them with the combination lock, for they were hoping that there was something in the box that would be able to help them get out of the cage and regroup with their friends, and as they searched around the ground, brushing away leaves with their feet, they started finding numbers and shapes.
“There's a number!" Rosanna exclaimed, finding a little gold square with the number 2 written in it. "There's a number! Alex! Alex! Esther! Justine! Dawn!”
“Oh, six,” said Alex, finding a small gold circle with a 6 in the center. “Here’s six.”
“Oh, and here’s another one,” said Colleen, also finding a number.
“And there’s more numbers over here,” Esther announced, realizing that there were more numbers then they really needed. “But which numbers will go into the lock?”
Justine was wondering the same thing since the combination needed three numbers. “Maybe there’s other clues hidden by the human remains?” she suggested and started searching the skulls with Ro and Alex.
Colleen also helped check the skulls, finding a white stone object that resembled an egg, which she pocketed on the off chance that it would be useful later, and then she, Dawn, and Esther knocked over the body by the fire pit after talking each other into going near it, finding something wrapped underneath it.
The Duchess gingerly picked up the gross bundle and unwrapped it, finding that there was a small book inside. “You guys, there's a journal in here,” she said, opening it just as their friends arrived at the cage door, and admittedly, she wasn’t too happy to see Joey at that particular moment. “Oh, it’s you guys.”
“Joey.” Alex moved to the cage door, happy to see him. “Good to see you. Did you know that punching someone in the face can hurt your hand?” he asked, for his hand was sore from punching that guard earlier and he was sure that his knuckles were starting to bruise.
Joey was about to respond when his eyes widened behind his glasses when he saw Mortimer. “Wait, is that Mortimer? What’s he doing here?”
Colleen, who’d been fully intending on ignoring Joey, glanced up and sighed, realizing that he was probably not going to trust Mortimer after the whole betrayal business in Everlock that’d lead to the release of the Carnival Master, and so she went to the cage door, where she could see that Bretman, Benny, Jack, and Gabbie, who was clearly trying not to gag at the sight of the blood and gore, were also there.
“Joey,” she said and he looked at her. “Now I expect that you aren’t wanting to trust Mortimer, for I know what happened after I died at your hands” she paused for a moment as Joey winced with obvious guilt in his eyes “and with that being said, Mortimer isn’t corrupted anymore. Apparently there are these beings known as teachers or something, and they taught Mortimer these lessons or something, and he’s a good guy again.”
“You sure about that?” Joey asked, not sure if he could trust Mortimer after what happened in Everlock with the Carnival Master, and when she nodded. “Ok, so what do you have there?”
Colleen glanced at the book and opened it, finding writing. “Well, it looks like a journal with writing in it…maybe it’s something useful.”
“Ok,” said Joey, still uneasy to see Mortimer so soon after crossing paths with the Sorceress. “You guys solve that. We're gonna try and find a way to get out of here for you.”
The Duchess nodded, not really sure if she could believe Joey, but if it kept him out of her hair for a while, she was all for it. “Thanks, you go and do that.”
Mortimer watched them go, and he had a feeling that Joey hadn’t been too happy to see him because of what happened with the Carnival Master. ‘He probably won’t trust me like before,’ he thought, ‘but I’m here to help and redeem myself, just like them. Dawn is willing to give me a chance, I hope Joey will give me the same chance.’
*****
Leaving the cage, Joey’s team returned to the porch to search for something that could help them get the cage open to free their friends.
“How do we get them out of there?" Joey wondered.
"I don't know,” Gabbie admitted, nervously touched her two-toned hair, and was wishing that her new heart wasn't so damn loud. "Should we...?"
“Wait.” Benny noticed something that hadn’t been there before. "What's this?" He hurried over to a painting of some Egyptian god or other, which has five random holes next to it, and his friends quickly followed him.
Reaching the display, Bretman read the note that was underneath the picture. “‘With my five eyes, I can see all things and keep the Pharaoh safe’.”
“The Pharaoh was the person on the card, right?” Gabbie asked, referring to the card from earlier.
Benny nodded. “Yeah, that’s who was on the card.”
“What does the rest of the note say, Bretman?” Jack asked, getting them back on track.
“‘But they've been plucked out by his betrayers and can no longer protect him’,” Bretman finished reading, wondering who was missing five eyes, and why it was his responsibility to find them.
“So we need to find the five eyes,” said Joey, examining where the eyes were suppose to go. “Maybe they found eyes in theirs.”
Gabbie was about to suggest that they go back to ask, when one of the guards suddenly entered the area, and they all retreated, finding a place to hide behind the wall.
“My goodness, Joey,” Bretman complained quietly as they hid from the guard roaming around, “what did you and Dawn drag me into?” ‘Actually, this is all Nikita’s fault,’ he mentally corrected himself. ‘Come on this mission with us, she said. It will be fun, she said. There will be cute boys, she said!’
“A mission that’s going south on us more ways then one,” Joey muttered. “Sorry you got tricked into this, Bretman.”
“This isn’t on you, sis,” said the Playboy, “but when I next see Nikita, she’s goin’ to get an earful.”
Once the guard was out of sight, they came out of hiding to start looking for the eyes that were needed for the puzzle.
“Ok, where would they hide the eyes?” Benny wondered.
Joey went around the fountain and saw something in the water that looked egg-shaped, which he snatched up. “I think I found one!”
“Joey, put that one where it belongs and I’ll see if the others found one of those egg-shaped stones,” said Benny, hurrying back toward the cage.
Joey, Jack, Bretman, and Gabbie went back to the display to place the eye where it belonged.