Escape the Night: Betrayal at the House on the Hill

A/N: Hello, world and welcome to the nest installment of the season finale of Escape the Night! I hope that you all had a good weekend, and my wasn't too bad. So, our surviving YouTubers are going to have to get back inside the house to reach the gargoyle, and that isn't going to be easy.

Now, on with the episode!

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.

CHAPTER THREE: HIDE AND SEEK PART 2

The quartet made their way to the front of the house, sneaking up the stairs to the front door, hoping to get inside without being seen by anyone. They reached the front porch and Joey was checking through the glass for any sign of the evil maid.

"Watch for Sarah," Eva whispered.

Joey nodded and reached for the doorknob, quietly opening the door so that they could slip inside undetected.

Marvin just happen to round the corner at that exact moment and he spotted them. "I see them in the front!"

"Crap! Inside now!" Joey bolted through the door with Dawn on his heels and they didn't stop until they ducked inside the library with their backs pressed against the wall as they slid down to the floor that they were aware of Eva being with them – but there was no sign of Oli. "Where's Oli?"

"I don't know," Eva moaned and spotted the groundskeeper moving past the windows. "I see Marvin. I see Marvin."

Joey shook his head. "I don't know where he is." Then, Marvin passed by without incident. "He didn't see us."

"Oli must still be hiding outside," Dawn guessed. "He probably didn't get a chance to get inside because of Marvin showing up like that."

'Please don't be dead, Oli,' Joey thought as they kept hidden while listening to Sarah moving around upstairs. 'Please don't be dead.' He wasn't sure if he could handle the death of another friend right now.

Oli was hiding behind a potted plant, cursing the fact that he'd gotten separated from his friends, who were inside while he was stuck outside! He wasn't entirely sure how it happen, but there he was, and now he was having to sneak to the back door since it wasn't possible to go near the front door with Marvin lurking around.

Oli made his way along the porch, being as quiet as possible, and he turned a corner, only to find himself face-to-face with Arthur! 'Crap!' He bolted down the stairs while the ex-butler called out about having found him, and he fled. Somehow he was able to avoid being captured, and he found the stairs to the back door.

Oli managed to get inside without being seen and began searching for his friends when he heard Joey's voice softly calling out to him from the direction of the library. "Oli! Get inside! Oli!" And he quickly joined his friends, relieved to find them alive and safe.

"All right, listen," Joey whispered. "Sarah's upstairs. She needs to come down here so we can go up-" He stopped when Dawn shushed him and he heard footsteps on the stairs. He peered around the doorframe and saw that Sarah was coming down the stairs. "She's coming. She's coming. She's coming. Get under the table. Get behind the table."

They scrambled into the dinning room and hid under the table, pulling in the chairs to keep themselves from being seen…hopefully. Much to their horror, Sarah entered the dining room, looking around, and they were certain that any second, she was going to look under the table and find them. Thankfully, she didn't and she left the room instead, clearly intending to search for them elsewhere.

Once she was gone, they pushed the chairs out and crawled out from under the table and made their way to the doorway. They jumped a foot in the air when they heard Marvin's voice from outside, and it was getting closer!

`"Come out! Come out and play!"`

The next thing Joey and Dawn knew, they were bolting up the stairs and they could hear Sarah coming after them. They reached the second floor and duck into the nearest room, where the holy water had been found, only to see that Oli and Eva weren't with them, and when Sarah suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, they screamed and slammed the door shut, locking it.

`"Open the door!"` Sarah's voice screamed and she banged on the door hard. `"Open the door!"`

Joey and Dawn backed away, their hearts pounding in their chests, and they exchanged fearful looks. How were they going to get out of there? And were Oli and Eva still safe? Or had they been killed?

Down on the first floor, Eva was still in the library while Oli had been forced to duck and hide under the stairs, and they could hear Sarah banging and shouting at a door, which they assume meant that Joey and Dawn were hiding in a room and had locked the door to keep the evil maid out. After about a minute of this, they could hear Sarah moving around again, clearly having given up in trying to get to their friends.

`"Where is the other one?"` Sarah's voice snarled and Eva both cringed and bristled when the maid began calling out her name, mangling it. `"Eva? Probably up here somewhere."` And her footsteps faded away.

When they couldn't hear Sarah anymore, Joey carefully unlocked the door and peered out into the hallway, stepping out with Dawn behind him, and he called softly down the stairs. "Guys? Guys? Eva? Oli?"

Much to their relief, Eva hurried up the stairs as quietly as she could, but there was still no sign of Oli, and when they heard Marvin's voice shouting, they immediately started fearing the worst when Oli finally appeared.

Reaching the top floor, they found the door that would let them gain access to the gargoyle, but getting inside wasn't going to be easy. They first had to shove aside a small table and then pull up the bottom half of the door, which made an ungodly noise that had them all cringing.

`"They're upstairs!"` Marvin's voice shouted just as they got the door open, and they all duck out onto the balcony that the gargoyle was located on.

"Why is it the gargoyle?" Joey wondered, crouching down next to the gargoyle, rubies in hand. "I'm going to try putting them in." He reached over the head of the gargoyle and inserted both rubies into the eyes. "Ok, they're in. Now what?"

"Look for another clue?" Dawn suggested, surprised nothing had popped open when the rubies had been placed on the gargoyle.

Eva looked around and found a tiny chest. She picked it up and opened it, finding both an emerald and a note. "Here it is," she said, pocketing the emerald and she began reading the note. "'I overlook the back of the estate, and wait to feast on green. A met-'"

"Guys, guys," Oli whimpered, pointing at the stairwell. "Here she comes." And sure enough, Sarah was heading back up the stairs, and she looked more malevolent than ever. "She's coming. Get down!"

Dawn, Oli, and Eva all duck down so that they couldn't been seen while Joey quickly slid the door shut and duck down as well, making sure that they were out of view of the window.

Eva started reading the note again, keeping her voice low so that only her friends could hear her. "'I overlook the back of the estate, and wait to feast on green. A metal spiral-'" She stopped reading again and fell silent when Sarah peered through the glass in the door. She kept looking, but when she could only see the gargoyle, she frowned and walked away. "Did she see us?"

"No," Joey whispered, relieved that they were currently safe. "Omigod. Ok."

Nodding, Eva returned to the note and finished reading it. "'A metal spiral of pain will lead you to my table of blood'. Spiral staircase," she whispered, thinking quickly. "Back of the house. It must be. Let's…let's go."

Joey peered through the glass to make sure that the coast was clear. "She's gone," he reported. "Come on." He slid the door back up and they snuck out, Oli choosing to leave behind his flashlight since they only needed three flashlights by that point. "Ok. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. We have to be quiet." And they started down the stairs while keeping their eyes and ears peeled for the bad guys.

Reaching the first floor without incident for once, the quartet headed for the front door. Joey and Dawn had just reached it when-

"Ha!"

Realizing that they'd been spotted by Sarah, they bolted out the door as fast as their legs could carry them across the porch and down the stairs, hearing the maid call out Marvin's name. They didn't stop running until they reached the fountain and hide behind it again. "Guys?" They peered over the edge and saw that there was no sign of Eva or Oli.

"They must still be inside," Dawn realized. "Dammit! Why does this keep happening?"

"I don't know," Joey complained, frustrated that they'd been separated from their friends again. "I'm so freakin' upset!"

They both cringed and duck down when they heard Arthur shouting. "Come on!" he shouted in the distance. "This is insane! You guys are the worst searchers I've ever hired!"

"Well, at least we're screwing up whatever Arthur has planned," Dawn whispered, snickering a little and even Joey had to smile a little at the thought of frustrating the ex-butler. But that didn't help them much since there were three bad guys between them and their friends, and they had no idea if their friends were still alive or not.

How were they going to find the final owner, Arthur's brother, without them?

A/N: Man, our heroes are having a tough time aren't they? Anyway, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow to have a second root canal done, and I will see you all on Thursday for the next update. Bye for now! R&R everyone!