24 in 24
Story Written by Freedom Fighter

Well, it had to happen... a chapter without Bridgette in it! After all, we have to find out how some of the others got captured, right? I guess we should start with the group that matters...

Disclaimer: The characters of the 'Total Drama' series belong to Fresh TV, Inc., Teletoon, and Cartoon Network, not me.

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Chapter Nine - Stop Looking at Me! (03.21.11)
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"If I ever get out of here!" Heather yelled. "YOU'RE BOTH DEAD! YOU HEAR ME?"

The sound of metal door slamming shut could be heard, and it immediately silenced Heather's shouting. The raven-haired Asian growled over her current predicament.

"I can't believe this is happening!" she continued to complain. "Is this how you treat someone who won a million dollars? Is it? SOMEBODY GIVE ME AN ANSWER!"

"THE ONLY ANSWER YOU'LL GET IS MY FOOT UP YOUR SCRAWNY LITTLE BUTT IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP!"

LeShawna appeared against the bars in a third cage, to Heather's right.

"Bite me!" Heather said in response, who also stuck up her middle finger to add insult to injury.

"Oh! OH! Do NOT tell me you just gave me the finger!"

"I think I just did!"

"Oh yeah? You've got a death wish, don'tcha?"

"What's with all the noise?"

That question came from a fourth cage, this one across from LeShawna and to the left of Lindsay. It had been asked by Trent, who appeared along with Harold and Justin.

"You guys are here too?" gasped Lindsay.

"We're not the only ones," Trent replied, pointing further down the row.

Sure enough, Lindsay followed Trent's finger and saw that there were many more cages just like the ones they were all in. Soon after, many of the other captives made themselves known by pressing up against the bars in their cages. Owen and Duncan were in one together, Katie and Sadie were paired in another, and Eva had one all to herself.

"Wait!" Trent spoke up again. "Where's Gwen?"

"Present..." the aforementioned goth mumbled.

Gwen appeared to Heather's left, having been placed in the same cage as her mortal enemy. Gwen was gussied up like her rival as well, wearing a form-fitting, strapless, black-and-green accented dress that ended just below her knees. But her outfit was in much better condition, with the only notable discrepancy being a sizable tear on the left side of her stomach, where her pale white skin was visible because of it.

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" asked Lindsay. "Why are we all here?"

"Not sure about the why, honey," replied LeShawna, "but we can tell you the how!"

"Fine!" relented Heather. "But I'm not telling it this time!"

"Ooh, ooh!" Owen shouted, waving his tuxedo-clad arms all about. "Can I tell it? Can I? Can I?"

"Go ahead, big guy!" Duncan told him, also decked out in a tuxedo. "Fire away."

"Okay, okay... it all happened as if it was just yesterday..."

"It was last night!" Heather growled in reminder.


Heather was standing in front of dilapidated mansion sitting on top of a hill overlooking the city. A banner had been tied to the pillars holding up the roof of the house's porch. It read 'Total Drama Champions Charity Dinner.'

She was beginning to think this was a joke. Or worse. The siding was jutting in several places. The small set of stairs connecting the sidewalk to the porch had no railing. A couple windows were missing their shutters, and one glass pane had several visible cracks in it. Plus, the grass looked as if it hadn't been mowed in a few months.

"This place is a dump!" Heather angrily concluded.

"That's what I said!" she heard someone agree with her.

Heather glanced over to her left and saw Owen sit up in the tall grass. He slowly got to his feet and made his way over to the Asian girl, who was tapping her foot with impatience.

"Did you know about this?" Heather asked him, determined to get to the point fast.

"Great Scott, no!" Owen shouted. "I was expecting a red carpet. Y'know, like the one at that award ceremony we went to that one time..."

Heather huffed and puffed as she paced back and forth, trying to figure out what was going on. But before she could come to her own conclusion, the third member of the 'winners club' finally showed up.

"You keep glarin' like that, and your face'll stick that way!"

"Duncan," grumbled Heather, "I was wondering when you were going to show your ugly mug."

"Hey!" a girl shouted at her. "Watch what you say about MY boyfriend!"

Gwen stepped out from behind Duncan, and just like that, she and Heather, the old rivals, got into an impromptu staring contest.

"Gwen."

"Heather."

"What are you doing here, loser?" taunted Heather. "Winners only!"

"You were all allowed to bring one guest!" replied Gwen. "I'm Duncan's plus one!"

"You look more like a plus three," Heather teased, as she pointed to a slight bulge around Gwen's stomach.

Gwen was about to tear Heather limb from limb right there, but Duncan stepped in to stop her.

"As much as I'd loved to see a catfight in which clothes get salaciously ripped off, I didn't spend 150 bones renting out this tux just to not wear it out! So knock it off!"

"Aw," cooed Heather. "Now little Gwenny needs her tough, punk boyfriend to fight her battles?"

"At least I HAVE a boyfriend!" Gwen shot back, with a smirk on her face. "I seem to remember a certain someone having a crush on a certain OTHER someone. Oh, yes! Alejandro!"

"Ew, ew, ew! Don't you DARE mention his name around me!"

"Why? Afraid he'll show up tonight, back from the operating table to ask for your hand in forgiveness?"

"Alright, enough!" Duncan butted in again. "Can we agree to not talk about Mister Latin Hot Pants the Jack-Ass? The guy still creases me! What was his deal, anyway?"

"I second that," Owen spoke up, reminding them that he was there with them. "Al's one guy I don't wanna have to think about. Can we just do this charity thing and get our grub on?"

"Owen's right," Heather agreed. "Let's get this over with so I don't have to keep staring at Gwen's ugly dress!"

"Says the girl wearing a genuine 'Look at Me,'" Gwen shot back. "2005 called... they want their garish Crappy Barn dress back!"

"You know what? For that, you can... go first!"

Heather motioned towards the front door, and for the first time, Gwen got a good look at the facade of the shoddily-kept mansion's face. She gulped, then slowly made her way to the porch. She gingerly stepped onto it, fearful that it might collapsed under her own weight. Once both feet were up and she didn't feel the wood buckling underneath her, she took the last few steps to the door, reached for the knob, and turned it.

The door creaked open, and Gwen took a peek inside. Upon seeing her do so, Duncan and Owen moved to join her. Heather waited for a few seconds before finally following as well.

"Hello?" Gwen called out as she finally took a step over the threshold and into the mansion. "The guests of honor are here!"

Gwen looked around, expecting to see someone there to greet them. But all she could see was a dimly-lit corridor, illuminated only by white-colored Christmas lights hanging on the walls on either side of her.

Owen and Duncan joined her seconds later, and they also took stock of the scene.

"Whoa!" Owen gasped. "I didn't know it was Christmas already!"

"It isn't!" Duncan told him. "It's not even close to the fake July one yet!"

"I have a very BAD feeling about this," Gwen morbidly predicted.

But despite that, the trio continued moving forward, deeper into the house.

"Wait for me!" Heather cried out behind them.

Heather had just passed over the threshold, and the door slammed shut almost instantaneously. If she had been a millisecond slower, it would have gotten her foot... or worse.

But she was not completely out of the woods, as she quickly realized that the bottom of her dress had gotten caught in the door jamb.

"What the... I'm stuck! HEY!"

Duncan, Gwen, and Owen all stopped and turned around to see Heather struggling to free herself.

"The dress is working," Duncan smugly smiled. "It's a 'Look at Me,' and we're all looking at her!"

"Good one!" complimented Gwen.

She raised her hand in the air, intending to high-five her boyfriend. Duncan obliged and lifted his up as well, but as Gwen leaned forward to meet him, she felt her dress snag onto something, just to the left of her belly button. But by then it was already too late, as she could already hear the fabric of dress tearing.

"GAH!" Gwen screamed, forgetting about the high-five and looking down at the new five-inch hole in her dress.

"Well," smirked Duncan. "If you're so insistent of getting out of that dress after all...

"Not funny! This is brand new! I just bought it last week!"

"I think we've got a bigger problem," interrupted Owen as he was now standing within arm's reach of a wall. "I think this mansion's only got one room."

But that wasn't all he noticed, as he saw two small protrusions sticking out of said wall. He closed one eye and peeked through one of them with his other eye.

"Is this some mini-telescope or something?"

Suddenly, pink smoke shot out of it, blinding Owen instantly. In fact, it was shooting out of both of them. To make matters worse, another pair of protrusions appeared near Heather, and they too started to spew the pink smoke.

"A GAS CHAMBER?" Duncan yelled. "That's weak! They couldn't find an electric chair for me?"

Gwen was going to offer a sarcastic rebuttal, but she was already coughing as she had inhaled some of the gas.

"AAAAHHHH!" Heather screamed as she tugged even harder at her dress while simultaneously slamming her shoulder against the door, trying to force it open. "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

But she could already see both Owen and Gwen succumbing to the gas as they both fell to the ground. Duncan was already down on his knees, trying to crawl to the door and try and help Heather bust it down.

"Try... cough... the knob!" ordered Duncan.

"Cough... you don't... cough cough... think I'm... cough... trying?" Heather shouted back, as she tried to turn the knob.

But the door would not budge, and Heather could already feel herself getting woozy and losing consciousness. She fell to the floor, lying right against the door as she saw Duncan's arms give out as he, too, collapsed.


Back in the present...

"Wow," gasped Lindsay. "So... you all died?"

Heather facepalmed as Gwen explained it to her.

"We're right here, Lindsay! How can we be dead?"

"Oh," nodded Lindsay, understanding. "I see. So, because I'm seeing you all, that must mean I'm dead too! We're all dead!"

Gwen was in such disbelief after that patented Lindsay deduction that she took Heather's other hand and buried her face in that palm. But upon feeling Gwen's skin touching hers, Heather instantly pulled away.

"If she wants to be dead," Duncan mumbled as he clenched his fists.

"Shhh!" Owen shushed him.

"What?"

"Someone's coming!"

Everyone looked towards the same entrance where their captors had brought Lindsay in, and they all noted another familiar face coming towards them.

"I know you!" Harold exclaimed. "You're... YOU'RE..."

To be continued...