Escape the Night: The Masquerade Part 1
A/N: Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night! It's time to start Season 2, and boy is it going to be a wild ride. Yes, my sister did have her eye exam earlier and it went well. Anyway, time for the story. Onward!
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.
PROLOGUE: JOEY IS MISSING!
It'd been a year since the 1920s house incident and the families of the victims held a memorial service to remember the lives of those who'd died that night, and even though it meant the risk of opening old wounds, Joey Graceffa, Dawn Hatcher, Eva Gutowski, and Oli White all attended the service with their own families and friends.
Although it'd been hard for them to look at the photos of their late friends, in some way, it also helped since it meant that they were all finally starting to heal from the trauma and the guilt of what they had had to do in order to seal away the evil of the house and stop Arthur, who'd been using them the whole time.
Not that anyone outside of the four survivors and the Society Against Evil knew that, the rest of the world believed the cover story that the Society had provided to explain away why a group of YouTubers and a single actress had gone missing for three months, and as far as Joey, Dawn, Eva, and Oli were concerned, that was the story they were going to stick with and be done with it.
Of course, this didn't stop newspaper reporter and blogger, Jermaine Whitehouse, from pestering them about the whole thing, and when he started asking demanding questions about the Society Against Evil itself, they all had once again threaten to sue if he didn't back off. In the end, it took the threat of a restraining order to get him to back off for the time being.
Five weeks after the anniversary of that long night, Joey was in his and Daniel's bedroom of their house, getting ready to meet up with Dawn for lunch, and he was looking forward to seeing her again since she'd been out of town working on various acting projects. He was also eager to share with her something that he'd been keeping to himself. Something that he hadn't even shared with Daniel either, and he wished he had shared this with both of them sooner since he knew that they both cared about him deeply.
'I should've told Dawn and Daniel right away,' he thought, glancing at his reflection in the mirror and made mental note to get his hair bleached and styled since it was more brown and curly then he really liked it, 'but I didn't, and if what I've been feeling lately is a sign, it was a serious mistake on my part.' For the past month, he'd been having unsettling dreams and feeling ill at the oddest of times, and only when he was alone.
Joey had intended to tell Daniel, but his boyfriend had been called away for a big dog event in San Diego, having taken their three huskies, Wolf, Storm, and their new puppy, Lark, with him, and so he planned on telling him when he got back next week. Unless Dawn could help him first.
Joey hadn't been sure of what was causing it at first, but he now suspected that it had to do with the deed to the 1920s house that he'd chosen to take with him to keep it from falling into the hands of others who could've been harmed by the evil, and yet he didn't even have the deed since the Society Against Evil had managed to get from him when they took the dinner coat.
He'd been reluctant to let them have his coat and the deed, but after talking with James McCoy, one of the leaders of the Society, in private, he figured that they could put it somewhere safer then he could, and he'd pushed it out of his mind for close to a year.
But now, Joey was starting to wonder if some of the evil had been on the deed itself, and that it had somehow infected him. He hoped not since that might mean going through hell again, and he hoped that Dawn could help him figure this out before it go worst.
Joey headed downstairs and toward the front door when there was a stabbing pain in his stomach and he doubled over, clutching at the hallway table that was directly under a mirror. "Ngh!" he groaned, panting as the pain started to fade and when he straightened up, he gasped when he saw his reflection in the mirror: his eyes were pitch black instead of blue, and black veins were running from his eyes and over his face.
"No," Joey whispered and quickly took out his cellphone, speed dialing a certain number. "Please answer, please answer, please- Ugh!" He groaned again when the pain started up in his stomach for a second time, almost as if the Darkness knew who he was trying to call, and it was trying to stop him. "No, no, I won't give in!"
`"Joey?"`
Hearing the voice of his best friend, Joey tried to speak as the Darkness kept trying to overwhelm him. "Dawn! Dawn, I – I need your – I need your help!" he gasped, feeling the Darkness moving through his body like a poison.
`"Joey what is it?"` Dawn asked, her voice filing with concern. `"Joey? What's going on? Talk to me!"`
"The – the d – the Dark-" Joey tried to get the words out, but then he was completely overwhelmed by the Darkness and he blacked out instead, collapsing to the floor.
`"Joey? Joey can you hear me? Joey!"`
Dawn drove her car through the residential areas of L.A., being mindful of the speed limit, but she was determined to get to her friend and help him. 'Hang in there, Joey,' she thought, using shortcuts to get to his house that much faster. 'I'm coming!'
She'd been confused by his phone call, but hearing the fear and pain in his voice, she'd guessed that something dark was harming him, and while she wasn't sure of how she could help him, she wasn't about to let her best friend be taken by evil again.
Pulling into the driveway of the house and making sure to turn off the engine, Dawn got out and hurried to the front door, knocking on it while trying to peer through the side windows first. "Joey? Joey can you hear me?" she asked, knocking again. "It's me, it's Dawn. Can you hear me?"
Not getting any answers and fearing the worst, Dawn took out a key, which Joey and Daniel had given to her in case of an emergency, and unlocked the front door, entering the house.
Locking the door behind her and pocketing the key, Dawn looked around the front hall and saw a cellphone lying on the floor.
'That's Joey's phone,' she thought, hurrying over to it and picked it up, her heart pounding in her chest as she held it close. 'If his phone is here, does that mean?' She pushed the thought from her mind and set the cellphone on the table. No, she wasn't going to go down that path until she knew for sure that something had happen to her friend, and she began searching the house, calling out Joey's name.
Outside, three black SUVs with an odd gold symbol on the doors pulled up in front of the house, and men dressed in dark clothing got out. Once they were all assembled, they headed to the front door, where one of them used a special key to unlock it, and they entered the house silently.
Unaware that there were now others in the house, Dawn was upstairs, searching the rooms for her missing friend, and she entered his and Daniel's bedroom, looking for some clue of what had happen to him.
"Come on, Joey," she muttered, looking around and found his photo album lying open on the bed, and she chuckled when she saw that it was opened to the page that had photos of him, Daniel, and her at Disneyland three months before all hell had broken loose. "Joey, you, Daniel, and I need to head back there some time to update those photos."
Dawn turned to the desk and saw that the laptop was in sleep mode, but it was also open. She went over to it, ran her finger along the mousepad, waking the screen up, and she found an open document that was a part of Joey's personal journal. Although she knew better then to read someone else's private thoughts, she hoped that this would give her some clue of what was going on, and whether the evil they fought against last year had something to do with him not being in his own home and the strange phone call.
Dawn read the latest entry and her heart dropped like a rock into her stomach. "Oh my gosh," she whispered. "Joey, you freaking idiot. Why couldn't you have left the deed at the house?" She felt like kicking herself for not figuring out why Joey had been so reluctant to hand over the dinner coat to the Society Against Evil that day, and why he'd been eager to have it back.
'He had the deed in the coat, which ended up in the hands of the Society,' she thought. 'But there must've been some Darkness on it, and it ended up tainting him. And if that Darkness has been growing in him this whole time-' She didn't even finish the thought, and she knew that she didn't have to either. She was going to figure out where the Darkness had taken her friend, and she was going to save him.
Dawn turned to the doorway and froze when she heard a faint creaking of floorboards. She wasn't alone! Thinking quickly, she quietly hurried over to the closet and duck inside, sliding the door so that there was only a small crack that she could see through, and no sooner had she done this when a man in dark clothing entered the bedroom.
She wasn't sure if this was someone she could trust or if this man had something to do with Joey's disappearance, but either way, she wasn't about to let him know that she was there, and there was also the possibility that he wasn't the only one in the house. Luckily, she knew of a secret way of getting out, and the small door in the back of the closet was her way out.
Moving as quietly as possible the moment the man was looking at the computer and not at the closet, Dawn slid over to the small door and opened it, glad that both Joey and Daniel had made sure to have the hinges oiled regularly, and she snuck through it, entering the closet of the spare room next door.
Shutting the door behind her, Dawn peered out to make sure that there wasn't anyone in the room before sliding the closest door aside and she exited the closet. She tiptoed over to the door and open it just enough so that she could peer into the hallway.
'No one's out there, good,' she thought when she felt a hand touch her shoulder and she immediately reacted by slamming her trainer into the knee of the man that'd been hiding on the other side of the bed where she hadn't seen him. He cried out as he dropped, especially after she jabbed her elbow into his chest, and as he fell to the floor, a white cloth fluttered out of his hand.
Dawn bolted out of the bedroom, ducking when another man tried to grab her, and she kicked his legs out from underneath him. She ran for the stairs, grateful that she hadn't forgotten any of the karate she'd learned during her years doing Power Rangers, and because of this, she avoided more attempts by the dark-clothed men to capture her.
The brunette was almost to the stairs when one of the men managed to grab her, wrapping an arm around her throat, and she clawed at his arm, kicking and screaming as she struggled to get free. "No! Let me go! No!" she screamed and she stomped on his foot, elbowing him in his stomach and chest, doing everything she could to get free, but he was definitely stronger then she was.
Keeping a firm grip on the girl's throat without harming her, the man ignored her attempts to break free as he reached into the pocket of his jacket and extracted a capped syringe. He wasn't surprised when Dawn's struggles increased when she caught sight of what was in his hand, and he removed the cap with his teeth before injecting some of the clear contents of the syringe into her neck.
"No! Don't do it!" Dawn pleaded when she saw the syringe. "Not again! No!" But she could feel the sting of the needle, which made her gasp in pain, as it entered the vein in her neck, and the second that the sedative hit her bloodstream, she could feel herself growing sleepy. "Not again…" she moaned before falling unconscious and her whole body went limp.
"She's a fighter this one," one of the men, who'd been punched by the actress, commented as he picked himself up. "No wonder she has the Light inside her."
The man that was still holding the sleeping girl, nodded as he recapped the syringe and put it back in his pocket. "Yeah, go check on the others and search the house while I get her out to the car," he instructed while repositioning her in his arms so that he could carry her better, and her head was now resting on his shoulder.
He then carried her down the stairs and out of the house while his men searched the place for the missing owner.
He carried Dawn to one of the SUVs and loaded her into the backseat. He removed from her pockets her cellphone and her car keys, and he was strapping her in when his men came out with reports that there was no sign of Joey. They had found traces of Darkness throughout the whole house, along with Dark magic, and they all knew that meant that the Darkness had overwhelmed Joey Graceffa and had taken him somewhere else.
But the question was where?
Dawn wasn't sure of how long she'd been unconscious, only that when she started to wake up, she knew that she was lying on something soft and comfortable, and her head was pounding something fierce. She let out a groan as her eyes flickered open, squinting at the sunlight that was coming through a large bay window, and she gingerly sat up, finding that she'd been lying on a couch.
"My head," Dawn groaned, swinging her legs so that her feet were on the floor, but she didn't get off the couch, for she was certain that if she'd tried to stand up, her head was going to fall off, and she pressed a hand to her aching forehead. "Ow."
"Drink this," a familiar male voice requested and a familiar hand set a steaming cup of tea on the small table in front of her. "It'll help with the headache, which is an unfortunately side effect of the sedative you were given, Ms. Hatcher."
'I probably shouldn't,' Dawn thought as she picked up the cup and blew on it a little before taking a cautious sip, 'but if I'm where I think I am, then they wouldn't drug me again so soon after letting me wake up.' She made a face at the taste of the strong tea and coughed a little as it ran down her throat, but her headache was fading. She managed to finish the tea off and set the cup back on the table before finally looking at James McCoy, who was seated across from her in an armchair with his own cup of tea.
It was a different study from the one she'd been in with her friends last year, but it was clear that it was another safe house for the Society Against Evil, and she was already feeling pissed at them for letting Joey be taken by the Darkness and kidnapping her. "Was kidnapping me and sedating me really nessecary, Mr. McCoy?" she asked angrily.
"It was an unfortunate decision, Dawn, and I do apologize," said James with honest regret. "Given how you and Joey acted when we last meet, I wasn't sure if you would be willing to come see me since the events of last year."
"Well, seeing how Joey and I had just attended the funeral for a friend when you showed up, how would you have reacted if you've been in our shoes?" Dawn inquired, her eyes flashing with anger.
"I would've acted the same way," James agreed, sipping his tea before setting it aside. "Still, I am sorry for your recent treatment," he added. "I take it that you were at Joey's house trying to find him?"
Dawn nodded. "Yes, he called me and while not a lot of what made sense, he sounded like he was in pain, and he tried to tell me that he was being overwhelmed by Darkness," she replied and shared with him about the journal entry she'd been reading before his men had grabbed her. "Joey never should've taken the deed from that blasted house, but he did."
"I know," James agreed, sighing. "And I can assure you that the deed has been locked away so that the evil tainting it can't harm anyone else, but I can't say the same for Joey."
"Where did the Darkness take Joey and why now?" she wondered, worried for the wellbeing of her best friend. "It's been a year, why did it have to happen now?"
James sighed again and did his best to explain. "Darkness, like any form of energy or even magic, can take time to grow," he told her, "and why it took as long as it did to grow inside Joey, it may have something to do with his exposure to an outside force that was pure and good."
"You mean, like some kind of spiritual force?" Dawn guessed and something clicked in her mind. "Something like a Light?"
"In a way, yes," James answered, suspecting that he already knew what she was going to ask next.
"And if there is such a Light, could it be inside me?" she asked, and when the man shrugged, she sighed. "Seriously? You're gonna pull a Gandalf at a time like this? Joey is missing! And if there is something inside me that can help, I need to know what it is!"
"And I do wish that I could give you the answers that you crave, Dawn," James said regretfully. "But there are some things that you need to discover on your own, but I can promise you that when you do figure it out, you will have the full support of the Society Against Evil." He then handed her a cellphone that she recognized as her own and her car keys. "Now, since it's possible that Joey will try to reach out to you, wherever it is that the Darkness has taken him since my men couldn't find any trace of him in the house, and when he does, there is a number that I put in your phone so that you can call us the moment you know where he is. Do that, and we can give whatever help is possible."
Dawn stared at her cellphone, feeling conflicted in more ways then one, and yet she knew that if the Society Against Evil could help her save her friend, then she was going to have to take a leap of faith. "All right," she agreed, looking at the man. "Once Joey reaches out to me, I will call you to let you know where, and hopefully there won't be a repeat of last year."
"I hope that there isn't a repeat either."
Joey stumbled through a dark forest filled with fog and clutching a lit lantern in one hand, unaware that a purple portal had just shut behind him. He wasn't sure of where he was or even how he ended up there. Also, he was wondering why he was wearing a long-sleeved beige shirt with a ruffle neck, covered by a beige colored silk vest, beige pants, knee-high black boots, and a long dark blue velvet coat with gold buttons and a gold brooch with a small ruby in the center.
It also wasn't helping matters that his head kept feeling like it was going to split in two either. 'Where am I?' he wondered, stumbling over rocks and tree roots toward an unknown destination. He stopped at one point when the pain in his head increased so that he pressed a hand to it, unaware that black veins were growing across his face, down his neck, and over his arms and hands. 'And why am I in so much freaking pain?!' All he knew for certain, was that there was something seriously wrong with him, and he needed help.
Joey kept moving through the fog until a massive building rose out of the darkness before him, and for a brief moment after climbing a circular flight of steps to reach the wrap around porch, he thought he was back at the 1920s house, having been lured back somehow. But when he looked up at it, he saw that it was much bigger and it was Victorian.
He was surprised when the door in front of him opened on its own, and he felt drawn to go inside, which he did, finding himself in a wide white foyer with a black/white checkered floor and a circular staircase going upward. He looked back when the door shut behind him, and he was wondering why he was there when-
"Gah!" Joey cried out when there was a stabbing pain in his stomach and he dropped to his knees, the lantern shattering and going out the second it hit the floor, but he didn't even notice. He was in too much pain as the Darkness forced its' way through his body. Gasping in pain, he clawed at his own face that was now covered with glowing red lines, trying to get it out, and then he threw his head back, screaming as the Darkness erupted out of his mouth like a demon being exorcised.
Finally free, Joey fell backwards onto the cold floor, unconscious.
The Darkness flew through the air in a circle near a statue of a stone angel with cupped hands before going back down, flowing across the floor and into the base of a tall wooden staff, where it was absorbed into a purple crystal embedded in the top. The owner of the staff was a tall woman with her long blonde hair done up in a heart-shaped bun with diamonds in it, her blue eyes were outlined in thick black makeup, and her lips were red. She was wearing a long black dress with dark feathers sticking out of the collar, the bodice had a very low cut that reached her belly, and the black skirt was opened in the front, revealing her thigh-high black boots. She also wore gold jewelry on her neck and on the hand that was grasping the staff.
She smiled evilly at the crystal as it glowed briefly. After over a century, she finally had what she needed to finish what she'd started so long ago. 'Thank you, Joey,' she thought, going over to his unconscious form and ran a long fingernail along one side of his face. 'Thank you for brining the Darkness to me.' She knew that she needed more then just the Darkness for her plan to succeed, but she was now one step closer thanks to this young man, and she was certain that she could get the rest that she needed from him too.
She looked up as two robed men entered the foyer. "Take him to the study," she ordered. "There is much to do." And she beamed as her followers lifted Joey off the floor and carried him away. 'Yes, there is much to do, and now, you will help me accomplish what I should've accomplished so long ago.'
Joey wasn't sure of how long he was asleep, but when he did wake up, he found himself lying on a lounge chair in what was clearly a study of some kind, and for a brief moment he hopefully thought that he was in one of the safe houses of the Society Against Evil and they had managed to rescue him from the Victorian house.
But that hope was dashed when he couldn't find their symbol anywhere that he could see, and when he tried to sit up, he found that he couldn't move. 'What the hell?!'
"Hello, Joey, good to see that you are finally awake."
Joey blinked as the tall blonde woman stepped into view with her staff in one hand, and he was immediately reminded of Maleficent. "Who-?" he began to ask, but he started coughing instead since his throat was very dry, and he probably would've fallen off the lounge chair if he wasn't already magically stuck to it, and probably by this strange woman.
The woman stepped forward and picked up a silver goblet off a nearby table, which she then pressed to his lips, coaxing them open until some of the cold water could pass them, and she smirked as he gulped it down. "There, now that should feel better."
Joey did cough a little, but it wasn't as bad, and his throat wasn't as dry as before. "Who are you?" he asked, wishing that he could move. "Where am I and how do you know my name?"
The woman laughed, setting aside the goblet. "Oh, so many questions," she mocked. "I know all about you, Joey Graceffa, and I know all about the evil that you and your friends fought against last year." She smirked at his alarmed expression. "That fool Arthur thought he could use you all as pawns to get what he wanted, and even the fools of the Society Against Evil used you all as well in their pathetic little war."
"What do you want with me?" Joey demanded since it was clear that she wasn't going to tell him where he was or even who she was. "Why bring me to wherever here is?"
The woman chuckled and circled the lounge chair, making a point of crossing behind a crystal ball that was resting on a gold stand so that he was aware of it, and when she was standing by his head, she played with his curls and laughed when he tried to pull away, but her spell wouldn't let him. "I needed the Darkness that had crept into your soul, Joey," she informed him, enjoying his fear, "and I still need more from you now that I have every single delicious drop of that Darkness for my plan."
"What plan?" Joey asked, wishing that this evil woman would quit playing with his hair, but he couldn't move out of her reach, and knowing that there had been Darkness inside him, this reminded him of what he'd forgotten. 'I never should have taken that dammed deed from that cursed house. I should've left it there.'
"All in good time, Joey," the evil woman promised as she stopped playing with his hair, "all in good time." She then bent down and grasped his chin in her hand, forcing him to look at the crystal ball. "Now, I need you to look into the crystal and think of your friends – the ones that are still living," she ordered as purple magic flowed from her hand and into his face.
"No," Joey moaned, trying to not think of the friends that were still alive back in the modern world, but he could feel her magic wiggling its' way into the memories of his mind, and faces of people he knew began to appear in the crystal ball that he couldn't tear his eyes away from. "Please…don't…"
The woman, however, was pleased as the images of different young people flickered across the surface of the crystal ball, images that included both Eva and Oli, who she knew had escaped the house, and she figured that she could still use them. And then the image of a young woman with short curly brunette hair and blue eyes appeared in the crystal ball.
"No!" Joey shouted, managing to yank his chin out of her grip and shut his eyes tightly, cutting off the image of his best friend. "I won't let you hurt her or any of them! I won't!" He could feel tears leaking out from under his eyelids, but he wasn't going to let her access his mind anymore. He wasn't!
The woman laughed, impressed that he was able to break free of her little spell, and yet she had managed to get what she needed. She gently placed her hand on the top of Joey's head and it glowed purple. "Sleep," she said softly, compelling him to slip into a deep sleep. "Sleep."
Once he was asleep, she gently stroked his face and returned her attention to the crystal ball, moving over to it, and summoning the images of eleven people, plus the images of Eva and Oli. "Yes," she whispered, memorizing the names that she'd extracted from Joey's mind despite his resistance, "they will do very nicely." She then summoned the image of Dawn. "As will you, Light-bearer. Joey thought he could shield you from me, but he failed."
'Yes, yes, this Light-bearer will be very helpful whether she wants to be or not.' Thrilled that she had another piece of what she needed for her plans, she turned to the sleeping young man, and used her magic on him once again. "Awake," she commanded and Joey opened his eyes, but they were unfocused, for she had him fully under her spell. "Rise."
His face devoid of emotion, Joey got up and stood next to the lounge chair, slowly blinking, and when she commanded that he go to the desk, he did so, seating himself behind it. She moved to the other side of the desk so that she was could be seen by him, and she issued her next instruction. "Begin writing letters to the following people, and invite them here. And here is what they are to say…"
Following her commands, Joey picked up the quill and he began writing on the paper before him.
A/N: Aw, man, Joey and Dawn just can't catch a break can they? I will see you all tomorrow with the first chapter. Bye for now! R&R everyone!