I left you guys with a cliffhanger, huh? Kind of mean, but hey, it keeps 'em guessing. The Riley/Ivyness is seeming to be getting higher and higher with every quiz. Maybe, just maybe, I'll add some more. Oh, and I'm thinking about making a sequel…
Ben, Patrick Gates, and Ian, along with his comrades, were walking inside Trinity Church. Ben jeered close to his father and whispered, "Are you alright?"
Patrick frowned, "What do you think? I'm a hostage!"
"Sit down." Ian commanded them.
"Let him go, Ian," Ben said angrily, "Or you can just figure out the clues yourself. Good luck."
"Ben," Ian said, a mocking ton in his voice, "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation."
With those words being said, Phil brought in Abigail, Riley and Ivy. He forced them to sit down in one of the pews.
"No, wait," Ian said to him, "Bring Liberty to me. Just to be sure she won't try anything."
Phil went to grab Ivy, but she stood up immediately, shooting the man a glare.
"Don't…I can fxxxing do it myself." Ivy spat, walking heatedly up to Ian.
"There you are," Ian said once he reached her, "Now no funny business, or you're going straight home. You understand?"
"Just shut up," Ivy said sourly, "And let's get this over with."
"Good girl." Ian said to her, which only made Ivy grimace.
Ben gave Ivy a look as if to say, 'We'll just have to listen to him for now.' Ivy understood.
"Now let's take a look at that map."
Riley played with his thumbs nervously. He couldn't do anything to help Ivy, though he knew how much she hated her uncle.
Abigail wondered what Ben was doing. She felt so helpless, like Riley did. Abby felt like it was her fault for Ian taking charge once again.
Ivy had her arms crossed and she leaned against the pew. How she hated this. For the first time, Ivy had felt like she was doing something special on her own, and now Ian had to come in and ruin it. She felt bad for Ben, because she knew that he had wanted to find this treasure terribly. She felt bad for Abigail, who had been pulled into this, not jumped in, like she did. And, no matter how much she tried to deny it, Ivy felt bad for Riley, who was by far one of the nicest geeks she had ever met.
While all this thinking had been going on, Ben and Ian had deciphered the clue.
"…not inside. Beneath. We have to go beneath the church." Ben finished.
Everyone stood up. Abigail ran directly to Ben.
"I'm so sorry, Ben," Abigail said.
"None of this is your fault." Ben replied.
Viktor pushed Abigail forward before she could respond, and Ben followed, though he probably wanted to slug him.
Riley went to go talk to Ivy, to ask if she was ok, when Ian grabbed her wrist…hard.
"You are coming with me." Ian said to her sharply.
"Let go of me! You're cutting off the blood circulation to my hand!" Ivy groaned, trying to pull away. But Ian's strong, firm grip was no match for her.
Riley, in spite of himself, went up to them.
"Um, Ian," Riley said, his eyes darting back and forth, "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to let her go. She's not going to do anything."
Ian glared at Riley, who quickly walked away, blushing nervously. But remarkably, Ian let go of Ivy's wrist. She took it with her other hand, cradling it.
"Stay close," Ian warned, "Or consider yourself bound for New Jersey."
Ian passed ahead of everyone else, so he was leading. He passed Riley, and Ivy knocked into him.
"Thanks." She whispered quickly.
Riley gave her a weak smile and started to say something, but Shaw pushed Riley ahead. Riley stumbled, but kept going. Shaw then looked at Ivy suspiciously. She shot him a nasty glare, and followed Ian reluctantly.
Everyone went to a small room that smelled like dead rats and was covered in dust. Trinity Church was, after all, quite old, and it was possible that it could contain things like that.
"What are we looking for?" Ivy asked Ben.
"Parkington Lane," Ben replied, "It could be something along the lines of-"
Suddenly, Riley perked up from the other side of the room, "Parkington…Parkington Lane! Hey, I found it! Err, him!"
Ian shifted in front of Ivy and got to Riley first. She pushed through Viktor and Shaw, not caring.
Riley had found a stone plaque, reading, "Parkington Lane." Below was the written date in which the person lived. It appeared that it wasn't a place after all.
Ben started to say, "Well how are we going to…AAGHHH!"
Viktor came tearing through with a big club-like object, slamming on the 'gravestone'. He broke the wall down, and it revealed a coffin.
Carefully, Ian, Ben, Viktor and Phil lifted the coffin out and brought it into full view. They were about to set it on the floor when the bottom fell out, and with it, the decayed corpse of Parkington Lane. The entire group jumped back and grimaced.
"Careful no one steps in him." Viktor said.
But now it wasn't the dead body they cared about. Abigail and Ivy leaned forward, looking down the hole where they had taken the casket out. It was a long, dark tunnel.
"Ok," Riley said, peering down it like everyone else, "Who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?"
"You say that like it's an easy thing." Ivy retorted.
"Well, yeah," Riley replied smartly, "If going into the unknown and the possibility of not coming out doesn't bother you."
Ivy clicked her tongue. Now his comebacks were getting even better.
"All right, McGregor, Viktor," Ian said to his comrades, "You stay here. And if anyone should come out without me, well…use your imagination."
Ben and Patrick exchanged worried glances, as did Abigail and Riley. Ivy swallowed hard.
"Shall we?" Ian said.
Ben stepped inside first, followed by Ian, then Shaw, and so forth. The tunnel was quite small, and so they all had to crouch down. Ivy was in front of Riley, and he wasn't particularly happy about her butt being almost in his face.
"Could you possibly move the line a little faster? You're blocking my vision." Riley complained from behind her.
"Riley, for once, just shut up." Ivy snapped.
"Ok then." Riley said quietly.
Eventually, they made their way out of the tunnel. Ben had found torches, which he passed around to everybody. Ian used his lighter to help light the torches and they continued on.
The catacombs beneath the church were dark, dusty and bad smelling. Ivy got stuck behind Abigail because Shaw pushed her aside. Ben waited for Riley to come, and he nodded to his friend, assuring him it would be all right. When Abigail came, he did something completely different.
"Come here…"
Ben grabbed Abigail and kissed her. She smiled at him afterwards.
Ivy saw the whole thing. She grimaced, "Eww…get a room."
Ben smirked at Ivy and laughed a bit before turning away to follow Abigail.
"Why does that never happen to me?" Phil asked himself.
The group was soon led to a dark room. Ben smartly found a wooden 'chandelier' and lit it. This revealed a large room that was full of strange contraptions. Stairs and wooden moving mechanisms were all over the place. None of them looked recent…or safe.
"How do a bunch of guys with hand tools build all this?" Phil said aloud.
"The same way they built the Great Pyramids…and the Great Wall of China." Ben replied.
"Yeah," Riley said, "The aliens helped them."
Ivy bit her lip to keep from laughing, "And by the smell of this place, the zombies, too."
"Right, let's go. What are we waiting for?" Ian said impatiently.
"I'm not going down that thing," Patrick Gates spoke up, "200 years of termite damage and rot…"
"Dad, do what he says." Ben said desperately.
Ian looked at Ben, and then at Ivy, just to be sure she was still nearby. Bt Ivy wasn't returning his glance. Instead, she was staring down the shaft, and breathing rather uncomfortably. Her eyes were growing wider and wider.
"We haven't got all day." Ian said to her angrily.
Ivy continued to stare down the shaft in fear.
Riley understood, "You're afraid of heights."
Ivy shot him a fierce look, "No I'm not."
Riley backed away, "Sure, sure. If you say so."
Ivy then put her foot forward. There was no way she was letting Riley Poole prove her wrong.
They continued going down the shaft. Each person went down slowly, and very cautiously. One wrong move could send one of them falling into the darkness below.
"Watch your step," Ben's father said, "We're right under the Trinity graveyard. That's probably why no one ever found this."
The room began to shake, and dust fell from the ceiling. A rumbling sound echoed throughout the shaft.
"What was that?" Riley asked.
Ian replied, "The subway."
Just then, Shaw stepped on an uneasy piece of wood, and it broke. He fell right through.
"Shaw!" Ian shouted in surprise.
Abigail let out a scream as they watched the man fall into the darkness below. Everyone saw him disappear into the dark pit in disbelief.
A huge bang occurred. Then the platform they were standing on began to cave in. Riley grabbed Ivy and threw her across to the nearest platform before jumping himself. Ian and Phil jumped onto the elevator.
Ivy had landed on her side, and it hurt worse than ever. She groaned in pain and looked over at the platform. Ben was dangling off it, the Declaration closeby.
"Ben!" Abigail screamed, "Grab my hand!"
Ben grasped Abigail's hand and she pulled him up. Meanwhile, Patrick threw his torch to Phil.
"Abigail!" Ben called to her, "Get on the elevator!"
Patrick Gates, Riley and Ivy jumped onto the elevator that Ian and Phil were on. Now it was just Ben and Abigail on the lone platform.
"Here!" Riley said, his outstretched arm trying to reach his friend.
The rope and wood on the platform snapped. Abigail fell with it. Ben got her hand just in time. Now she was hanging off the edge.
"Get down there, get down there!" Patrick urged Ian. He wanted to get the elevator lower so they could reach Ben and Abigail in time.
"The Declaration!" Abigail whispered sharply as the document neared the edge.
Ben's mind was churning. What could he do? Then, like lightning, it hit him.
"Do you trust me?" He asked Abigail.
She replied instantly, "Yes."
Ben waited until the swinging platform they were on was over another one. He let go of her hand. Just as he had planned, Abigail landed safely on it.
He looked down and made sure she was ok. Then he fell and was soon hanging off the edge, just as Abigail had been before.
"Hang on!" She called to him.
Hanging on was difficult. Ben now had the Declaration, but it seemed there was no way out. He searched for a another platform or something, but there was nothing around. The nail in the piece of wood he was gripping was coming out, and it seemed there was nothing he could do…
"Son!"
A rope fell to Ben. He looked up to see the faces of his father and Phil, both holding the rope. He grasped it, and swung over to Abigail.
Ivy and Riley, in the meantime, were so terrified they were clinging to each other. Ivy's face was buried in his shoulder, and Riley's around were wrapped warmly around her. Patrick Gates and Phil turned to see them.
"Not dating, huh?" Phil said suddenly.
Ivy opened her eyes, as did Riley.
"Aggh!"
"Not happening!"
They both let go and pretended nothing had happened. A romance between them was the last thing Nerdpants and Avril Lavigne needed. They proceeded, Ian, Phil and Ben's father following.
"I'm sorry," Ben said to Abigail, "I'm sorry I dropped you. But I had to save the Declaration and-"
"No, no, don't be," Abigail assured him, "I would have done the same thing."
Ben looked at her in incredulity, "Really?"
Abigail smiled at him and nodded. Riley came in at exactly the right moment.
"I would've dropped you both," He said nonchalantly, "Freaks."
And that is the end of Part 9. Sorry it was so freaking long, but I had to write out that stuff or else the story wouldn't make sense. Yes, I put some little 'moments' for Riley and Ivy, so I hoped that pleased you. As for the sequel idea, there will only be one if my readers (that would be you) wanted one. So if you do…speak up!