MINOR WARNING: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS MILD VIOLENCE AND SLIGHT MENTIONS OF DEATH FROM A STORY-RELATED ARTICLE
Hey everyone, here we are at the second episode of Knightfall! I was really not expecting myself to upload this one today but I hope you guys will like it! I also appreciate the patience you guys had for this one! School really took a turn with my life right now lol but I'm happy to get this one out.
Enjoy! :D
Episode 2: Waridi Mweusi
The clock in the foyer read six o'clock in the evening, which was a bit of an unexpecting time for the next episode to start.
"When shall we initiate the banquet, middle-aged one?" asked the deep voice that belonged to no one other than Dimetrius Knightfall himself. As he was saying his phrase, his voice can be felt swerving from one side of the foyer to the other.
"An hour from now most likely." answered Chris confidently before looking at the camera to get ready for the intro. "Last time on Total Drama, we had a slightly quick challenge to decide which team gets what room. Or in one of the teams' case, the attic."
Scenes of the teams finding their rooms to stay in were shown on the screen.
"This episode will mark the teens' first night here in Manoria and we are kicking it off with a night challenge!" he said as he snapped his fingers. "Who will be the unlucky knight to fall first tonight? Heh, that rhymes. Find out now in Total Drama Knightfall!"
The theme cuts into the screen.
Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine
The camera zooms into the two large entrance doors of Manoria. Chris immediately greeted the camera with a malicious smirk on his face.
You guys are on my mind
The view now shows the living room, where Laila was seated on the couch with her legs up on the ottoman. Maelle comes in and serves her tea, but accidentally trips, causing the tea to spill on both girls.
You asked me what I wanted to be
The tea splashes onto the camera (luckily the camera is tea-proof) and it washes away to reveal us a view of a bedroom. Gerald was busy looking at himself in the mirror but suddenly turns around due to someone tapping him on the shoulder. The person doing so was Foster. Gerald immediately hid behind on what or who seemed like another being known as Allan. Foster blinks at the sight, and as soon as he opened his eyes again, they were gone.
And now I think the answer is plain to see
The camera now zooms through the window to get a view of the garden. Pandora was seen taking a picture of a beautiful chrysanthemum flower patch when Tala unknowingly passes by. This causes Pandora to snap a picture of Tala by accident. The two girls looked at each other before slightly blushing and looked away.
I wanna be famous
In another part of the garden, we can see Fridge, Aditi, and Jessica playing with a ball. Fridge throws the ball towards Jessica with a powerful force. Luckily for Jessica, she was able to duck down just in time as the ball flew past her, however, it hits Aditi who was behind her, sending the shorter girl flying towards a flower patch.
I wanna live close to the sun
The scene changes to the study room where Sheldon was busy reading and calculating stuff from a book. To his dismay, Rory and Sua were on the other side of the room jamming to music, with Rory slamming his hands on a table to the beat to improvise drumming and Sua singing, or rather, screaming some lyrics.
Well, pack your bags 'cause I've already won
Sheldon became angry and crumpled up a piece of paper to throw at the two. Hector however passes by the room on his wheelchair with Jace pushing it and Hector is accidentally hit on the head with the paper. This causes Jace to send a glare towards Sheldon.
Everything to prove, nothing in my way
Back outside just near the forest that was near the manor was Tyler with a hunting bow and arrow with him, ready to aim and shoot. Suddenly, Jeremy scares him from behind by singing and acting out some gestures from musicals… with a hand drawn clown mask on his face. Tyler accidentally shoots aimlessly towards a tree, sending birds flying away, which now surprises the musical nerd.
I'll get there one day
The scene cuts to Wyonetta who was now in a dark room. She looked cautiously everywhere with a flashlight on her hand and began to step backwards as a sign of almost wanting to run out of the room. When she turned back, she accidentally ran into Eli, who was a bit shocked by her running into him but nonetheless bore a smirk on his face.
'Cause I wanna be famous
In the foyer, Summer was seen putting a disk on a phonograph. She smiled, giving the audience a sign that music began playing from the phonograph though no one can hear as what we are hearing right noe is the theme song. A hand then was in front of her, in a 'may I have this dance?' kind of motion. Summer looked up and saw Pierre who wore a smile on his face. She gladly accepted his offer and the two began to dance.
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na!
In one of the bedrooms, Laverne was seen trying on some outfits she brought along with her. Naka was also watching her do so, complimenting on how the model looked. Laverne then gave Naka an outfit to try on as she thought it would fit her but Naka's expression says otherwise.
I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous
Dustin was back in the basement, looking at the room full of the Manorian treasures. The only light source in the room then begins to run out, resulting in only pure darkness.
I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous
The darkness clears up, revealing a rather ghostly being looking much like a human, only a ghost or some spirit. He had grayish hair, and a blue outfit that made him look like some kind of royal guard. It cannot be Dimetrius, right?
*whistling in tune*
Mist takes over the screen and eventually clears up as the cast now gathered up in the foyer's main staircase for a cast picture. As the camera snapped the picture, the words Total Drama Knightfall showed up on screen.
After about a few minutes following up the events of the mini episode, Jeremy and Tyler made their way back to the Chevalier room.
"About time you two showed up." Maelle declared as she saw both boys arrive. "It feels like it's been ages since Gerald upped and left and now we have no idea about where exactly he could be."
"I'm pretty sure he was still here before I went out to look for Tyler." Jeremy told her.
Pandora jutted a finger in her chin as her camera sat on her lap. "Hm, speaking of which, where were you, Tyler?"
"Let's just say that we may want to stay away from a certain door." Tyler told them.
The team looked at each other with concern.
Tala was about to ask him. "Did you go in-"
"No." Tyler quickly shook his head. "I had the urge to check it out but Jeremy talked me out of it, luckily. But I feel like something scary is in there so I'm just gonna stay away from it."
"Ugh, is it bad that I'm kinda curious about what's in there?" Pandora sighed to herself as she also felt the urge and desire to see it.
"I don't know about you guys but if you all are going to check it out, I'm not coming." Foster objected.
"Besides, we still have to find Gerald." Naka said.
Right as the shaman had mentioned him, Gerald stepped back into their room, by himself and without anyone whatsoever.
"I guess I spoke too soon." Naka whispered to herself.
"Allan got mad so he stormed off." Gerald shrugged. "It's all your fault that you guys didn't listen to me."
"Whoa whoa whoa, who said who?" Naka opposed him. "If I'm not mistaken, I don't think all of us heard your rant about this Allan and all."
Maelle wasn't exactly the type to get annoyed, but now, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She can't see this Allan and for sure the others couldn't see him too so what was the point?
"You know Gerald, if you want to let us know about Allan…" she exhaled. "Just please show him to us."
Gerald nodded with confidence. "Of course I will. We just have to find him because you all scared him and made him mad earlier."
"I have a really really bad feeling about this." Tala said. Pandora nodded in agreement.
The Ritter room seemed a bit quiet. Eli was sitting on a bean bag watching from an old shabby television. Fridge and Aditi were fanning Laila with papers while Laila herself was lying down on one of the beds. Laverne was seated on another bed on the other side of the room, glaring at Laila every now and then, most likely because of how annoyed she looked at the snob. Jessica and Hector were just talking to each other about things.
"Ugh, do these TVs even work?" Eli began to whine, dropping down his remote and scooped a handful from a bag of potato chips. "This show is so boring. Actually, there's nothing showing up on the screen other than a bunch of poorly colored vertical bars."
"Would you keep your mouth zipped? I am trying to sleep here." Laila scolded the lazy guy. "Aditi, your fanning is useless, there's no air coming here."
"I'm sorry, I'll just do my best!" Aditi forced a smile as she began to fan the snob slightly faster.
"And Fridge, why on earth did you stop?"
"I'm tired… I'm sorry Laila." Fridge sighed from exhaustion as the big guy sat down on the floor. Luckily, the floor did not crack whatsoever.
Jessica sighed as she watched her team. "Looks like this team is… not gonna be the best."
"Well, what do we do?" Hector asked her. "I mean let's face it, the other teams are not as good either."
"Yeah, you're right." Jessica nodded. "I'm just worried. Like, what's the first real challenge gonna be about? We already saw how some of them fared. Like… Laila and Laverne."
Laverne was ready to join in their conversation. "Please, Laila looked like she didn't want to be here in the first place." She told the two softly so that the others couldn't hear."
"Let's just hope that this challenge will be easy." Hector said.
Similar to the Ritter's room, the Lytsari team was also silent. But unlike the former, they were actually being eerily silent.
"Ugh, this is all your fault!" Wyonetta sent an accusing finger towards Rory, the drummer widening his eyes in surprise. "Honestly, if you didn't suggest that we should search in that storage room, we wouldn't have been stuck there for ages."
Rory immediately had his arms up defensively. "I was just making a suggestion."
Sua stepped into the argument. "Unnie, don't blame him! We didn't even know how the door locked itself."
"Guys, maybe we should just think about how we're supposed to sleep." Summer said in an attempt to stop the blaming and arguing.
"Summer's right." Pierre nodded. "Maybe some of you guys brought sleeping bags?"
"Well I have one." Jace declared. "But it's probably because I thought that the season was gonna be held in a campsite and not in here… then again I didn't really pay attention to the commercial." he rubbed the back of his head in slight shame.
Sheldon suddenly got an idea. "Maybe we could use trashbags as sleeping bags?"
"No!" the rest of the team countered.
Suddenly a faint beep was heard.
"All contestants, please report to the banquet hall located on the far left of the first floor." Dustin's voice rang the PA system. Wow, there's a PA system? "I repeat, all contestants, please report to the banquet hall which is located on the far left of the first floor. Also, please be in your best formal attire. Thanks."
The Lytsari team all looked at each other before grabbing their things, with the exception of Wyonetta.
Wyonetta (Lytsari): "Could care less about formal attire anyway."
It didn't take a long while until everyone was round up at the banquet, dressed in their best attire that they brought along with them… well, maybe except for Wyonetta.
The hockey player immediately caught the attention of no one other than Laila, who just merely threw a scoff at her.
"Hmph, as expected of the commoner folk-"
"What did you just say, old lady?" Wyonetta snapped at the snob, already about to clench her fist.
"Whoa whoa whoa there, ladies. Just focus on your own teams now, okay?" Rory got into the middle of the two and gestured to Wyonetta to go back to the Lytsari team. As they did so, Laila just rolled her eyes in annoyance.
The camera pans to the rest of the contestants in their best attire.
Gerald just simply wore a simple dark blue tuxedo.
Jeremy's attire consists of a green suit, a red necktie on it, black boots and long, green robes that reach his feet.
Sheldon had on a plain black suit with a red tie.
Tyler was wearing a black tuxedo with a dark green tie and a white dress shirt underneath. Judging by his facial expression, it looked as though he wanted to switch out of that outfit as soon as possible.
Fridge had a tuxedo of his size as his attire.
Eli, much like some of the other boys wore a pretty simple black suit and bowtie.
Hector's own outfit on the other hand consists of a brown open business suit and dress pants with a white undershirt with black dress shoes, and white trousers underneath his dress pants.
Jace simply had on a black polo and jeans.
Rory's attire wasn't also too formal as it simply was a forest green sweater, dark khakis, and red and black sneakers on his feet.
Foster took a more formal route with a black button up dress shirt, gray dress pants, and black shoes.
And lastly with the boys, Pierre had a navy blue suit with a white dress shirt underneath.
The camera then goes on to the girls starting with Maelle. She wears an off the shoulder purple gown with black lace over top, black heels, black earrings, and a purple rose pin in her hair.
Next to her was Summer who had on an 80s style wine red shoulder exposing dress with long sleeves and wine red pumps.
Laila's attire looked more… shimmery than the first two girls', which was a sleek, backless gold mermaid-style dress.
Laverne's outfit consists of a sleeveless halter floor length burgundy dress that has a left slit that reaches mid-upper thigh, embellished black belt, with a black lace over-layer that goes from the belt down with the same slit.
Pandora's outfit was simply a dark green dress with some black pumps and an emerald necklace.
Aditi on the other hand also wears a dark green dress but with separated sleeves. She also has brown tulips patterns on the bottom of her dress. Her outfit also had some details like a dark brown frilly collar, some silver earrings and a silver necklace, a ring on her right hand, and lastly a platinum circlet with an emerald in the center.
Wyonetta, unlike the rest of the cast, just showed up in her regular purple hockey jersey outfit.
Jessica wore a black vintage long-sleeved dress and black stallion women's black python boots that matched her dress.
Tala was wearing a maroon colored pantsuit with a white collared shirt underneath. Her hair is pulled back with a few pins, and she wears black heels. She was also the only girl who pretty much didn't wear a dress.
Naka's outfit was a simple brown dress with some designs on the trim. This was accompanied with matching sandals.
And lastly, Sua had on a peach colored one strap dress with the skirt swishing every time she moves. She also wore heels so that her skirt doesn't make contact with the floor. Her hair is also neatly fixed with a peach colored ribbon, and there was a bracelet on her wrist.
"What is this?" Jace gasped under his breath as he observed the tables in front of him.
"Welcome knights, to a feast of Manoria." Dimetrius' voice eerily rang throughout the banquet hall. There were around four long tables donned with royal red table cloth all lined up together. On the tables were plates, a table napkin, and some silverware placed in a French table setup.
All sorts of food were seen on the table as well, the kinds of food that you would see on a royal feast. There was roasted chicken, ham, some veggies and soups as side dishes, pastas… maybe more than you could imagine. And mind you, the desserts aren't even here yet!
"So we are really gonna eat all this?" Eli already had a grin on his face, further emphasizing his rather lazy persona… maybe. Fridge didn't help either as he was also nodding eagerly, most because of how good the food looks.
Despite how enticing the food looked, Laila seemed a teensy bit displeased.
"What kind of table setup is this?" she grimaced a little, pointing towards the set in front of her. Maybe she didn't like how the table napkin was placed on the glass? Isn't that what it's supposed to be? Or is it that not the French table setup? Or maybe she is just really picky?
"So… this is the challenge?" Pandora asked the host. Her gaze turned to Dustin but he looked as if he had no clue what was going on compared to Chris who just shook his head. "...We're supposed to eat?"
"That's enough questions now." the host countered. "And yes, this is a fancy dinner or as Dimetrius points it out so be my guest and start digging in."
"I love how everyone all does their best to look snazzy then there's Wyonetta and Chris." Jessica joked, gesturing to Wyonetta's 'formal' attire and Chris' usual dull getup.
The host gave her a rather annoyed look. "With this face," he gestured to himself. Or rather, his own face. "...you can pull off any look. You don't need snazzy outfits to look snazzy because my face is already a hundred times more snazzier than all your outfits combined."
Tala almost erupted into laughter as she took her spot at the dining table."Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?"
"It's not." Chris defended himself, but only received several snickers from some of the cast in return. "Whatever. Bon appetit."
Everyone else followed Tala's lead and took their seats at the dining table. All three teams decided to sit near each other, while Chris and Dustin were on each end of the table, seated comfortably, but not really eating. This gesture from the two immediately grew suspicion, or at least in Maelle's eyes.
"And may you two perhaps tell us all the reason why you two aren't eating?" asked the maid as she simply but gracefully took a quick sip of her tea from her cup.
Dustin suddenly felt the urge to somewhat answer. Just because he thinks that he would be observed intently if he doesn't. "We are-" Chris shot him a glare. "-full. Yeah, we are full. Reaaaaaally full. Thanks for asking."
Everyone stared at the assistant for a bit while Chris mentally facepalmed himself. "Yes, he's right. We already ate our dinner before you lot."
The castmates just kept on eating slowly, with Laverne barely touching her platter.
Laverne (Ritter): The Grecian model had a 'something's definitely not right here' kind of look on her face. "I am not eating that much because I somehow feel like we are being, I don't know, drugged."
Sheldon noticed the model not eating her food. "You know, if a human individual does not partake in their share of supper and not even the tiniest bit, the individual will most or least likely have a difficult time in taking their slumber due to the feeling of famine-"
"Shut the heck up, word-for-brains." Wyonetta snarked from across him. Eli saw this interaction just a few seats away and couldn't help but laugh.
A few moments have passed and the contestants slowed down on their feast. Some didn't look affected or full or bloated or anything, though it was evident that a few started to feel a bit doozy and woozy.
Fridge (Ritter): "The food was so good!" He satisfyingly wiped his mouth with the use of his gigantic right hand. "But now I feel like I want to take a nap." He yawned. "Does this place seem like a good place to sleep? Yes? Okay, good-"
The big guy leans forward and falls asleep on the sofa, knocking down the camera in the process. Nothing can now be seen on screen besides pitch black and the only noises heard were Fridge's loud snores.
Aditi was one of the contestants who began to feel a bit sleepy but did her best to fight it as it was evident in her rather forced smile. "The food was good." She simply praised.
"Yeah, and Allan agrees too." Gerald nodded but was immediately followed by a yawn.
Tyler wanted to ask something. "What was in it?"
"Oh… you'll find out sooner or later." Chris answered with a taunting tone.
"Yeah…" Dustin added with uncertainty.
And just a few seconds after that, everyone couldn't handle the sleepiness within them and soon fell asleep on the dining table.
Approximately an hour later...
"Oh fuck me gently with a chainsaw…"
A loud yawn was heard from one of the couches in the living room. There lies Jeremy, who has seemed to be awake from his god-knows-how-long slumber.
The musical nerd instantly sat up and immediately looked around his surroundings. Where was he? On the couch in the living room, for sure. But how did he get there? How long has he been sleeping in there? And more importantly, where are the rest of the Chevalier team?
"Ugh this is probably just a nightmare." Jeremy groaned, flattening his now messy hair. "Where is everyone…"
"Jeremy?"
"Huh?" The musical nerd instantly shot up as if he were a kid who suddenly knew the answer to a test, but instantly calmed down as he heard the familiar voice. He quickly recognized that it was Tyler calling him.
The hunting enthusiast was seated on the floor. By the looks of it, he was just asleep from the corners of the wall compared to Jeremy who was laying on the couch like some sort of emperor.
"Thank gosh you're here, I thought I was the only one inside this room." Tyler sighed in relief.
Beeeeep.
"What was that?" Tyler sprung up as he heard the faint beep. It sounded like it came from… by the table?
Jeremy walked over to the table where he thought he heard the beep.
"Knights-"
The musical nerd jumped back for a bit. It was probably just some sort of telephone to communicate with everyone.
"Wow, what a setup." Tyler commented. "I'm assuming we're onto the challenge portion now, I guess."
"Knights, welcome to your first official challenge in Total Drama Knightfall." Chris' (rather try-hard) announcing voice rang through to the telephone. "I am pretty sure you all know the gist earlier. After dinner, all of you have split up in your sleep."
"Or rather, they put us somewhere while we were all asleep." Jeremy rolled his eyes. "They must be lying."
"Shh-" Tyler shushed him as Chris continued to speak.
"There are two things you must do to complete the challenge. Let me explain the first one. All of the rooms you are staying in to sleep and rest have been locked. The keys are all placed in three different safes. You must find the safe that has your team's color and logo and unlock the combination.
How will you know the combination? There are clues all over Manoria. Your clues should be located near the safe. These clues can be anywhere and anything; they can be hidden in paintings, under carpets, on the flower vases, inside old books… anywhere, as long as you think hard enough, you'll get them."
"Ugh, I don't want to find things that I don't even know." Tyler groaned a little.
"The second thing? It's quite simple. Make sure you are with your entire team by the time you unlock the safe. You are lucky if you woke up with one of your teammates because you might want someone to keep you company and… let's say safe. If you get unlucky, something will haunt you."
"I don't like the sound of that." Jeremy shuddered.
"The last team to unlock their safe or if they failed to unlock their safe is up for elimination. If you think about it, this challenge is similar to the practice challenge you had earlier, only a bit more difficult. Good luck, knights."
Jeremy and Tyler looked at each other nervously.
"Let's hurry up so that I can get out of this tux."
Hector hissed under his breath after hearing the announcement inside the manor's library. Why did he have to wake up alone, and why him?
The engineer rolled his wheelchair towards the door and grabbed the doorknob.
Of course it just had to be locked, dammit.
"Ugh, why did it have to be locked, come on. Out of all the places in the world..." Hector groaned in frustration. This was his lucky day, sarcasm included. Not to mention, the feeling of worry started to startle him. Something will haunt you? Man, now he hopes he doesn't get hurt or injured.
There's probably a reason why the door was locked. He looked everywhere around the library, up and down, left and right.
"Maybe I should just wait until someone finds me. I really don't know how am I supposed to get out of here…" he pondered.
Foster was making his way through the darkened hallways just near the entrance of the manor. He gripped a tennis racket tightly on his hands, and it was one he somehow conveniently found outside as that was where he woke up from his hour-long slumber.
The survivalist focused his gaze on the hall in front of him, with constant glances behind and on the sides to keep himself checked.
When he got further down the hall, he could hear footsteps… footsteps that were running, to be exact. This only made his heart pound a thousand times faster. Sweat was trickling his forehead. Maybe this is just some sort of sick joke…
"Hey, whoever you are, this is not funny you know!" he hollered out in hopes for silence, which was unfortunately in vain as the footsteps got louder. He looked back and almost jumped back.
A boy was around a yard behind him. He had blonde hair, pink streaks… is this the guy with Gerald earlier? The same guy that Maelle couldn't see?
The boy ran away until Foster couldn't see him anymore.
Now he thinks he was just being haunted by hallucinations.
It had been a few minutes, but Naka never bothered to stand up from her seat. Before anything else was said, she was actually still in the banquet hall in her seat as if nothing just happened and that all she did was take a quick nap. Even after listening to the challenge mechanics, she hadn't thought of getting into the move and groove until now.
"Where's everyone?" she wondered out loud before finally standing up. Considering how long the room was, she decided to go for a quick little stroll around the banquet hall in hopes of finding someone, or better yet, someone from her team. "Maybe I should look around before heading out."
The modern day shaman had her eyes peeled out in case there was anyone during her little stroll. In fact, what made things even more difficult was the lighting. The chandeliers were dead shut and the only light sources present were the candles that were lined up in the middle of the table, just by the empty platters they ate earlier. They weren't even enough to light up the whole hall.
"Is someone there?" hollered a voice on the other side of the banquet hall. She couldn't tell who, so she immediately assumed that this voice wasn't coming from a teammate. This challenge is roughly considered a race after all, so should she stick with whoever this was?
"Yeah, this is Naka. And who is this I'm talking to? It's too dark in here to see anything."
"Pierre." immediately answered the voice. "Well, I can't see you either. Should we try and get out of here?"
"Of course we should." Naka answered, wondering why he would ask that. Of course neither of them would want to stay there. She found one of the doors and twisted the doorknob. Luckily, it wasn't locked. "Come on, let's go." She added. Pierre managed to find her and so the two made their way to the banquet hall.
The scene changed to another door opening but this time, this was in a more well-lit room than those other rooms from earlier. A head peeked from the door as soon as it was slightly opened and it revealed itself to be Pandora.
The photographer stepped into the room. The room looked rather small, only having a wooden clock, a small table with a flower vase on it, and the most important thing in the challenge.
The safe with the blue Chevalier logo on it.
"Guys come in, I think I found it!" She squealed with delight. The door opened either more allowing two other contestants to enter. These are revealed to be Maelle and Tala.
"Oh thank the stars, at least we woke up together just by this room." Maelle sighed with relief.
Tala immediately scanned the room. "Yeah, that's true. But now what do we do?"
The thought was also present in Maelle and Pandora's minds. What should they do? Should they start figuring out the code to the safe or should they wait for the other Chevaliers? Or maybe find them?
"One of us can wait outside the room and see if any of the other Chevs are coming." Maelle suggested.
"I'll try and look for clues." Tala volunteered as she continued to skim the room.
Suddenly, the lights began to flicker.
"Oh no." Maelle sighed. Until the lights completely went off.
"What happened?" asked Pandora, who was already out of the room.
"The lights went out," said the maid. "You two stay here, I'll go see if I can find a flashlight." She added and exited the room.
"Be careful." Tala told her. "You might trip on your dress."
"Got it."
Tala (Chevaliers): "Now I'm actually kinda glad I wore pants. Imagine how much the other girls have to go through… especially the ones in really long dresses."
"How are we gonna get in?"
"I don't know."
Summer and Jace were currently in a bit of a dilemma. They both woke up at the same area where Foster woke up earlier and they both saw Foster enter the manor with no problem so they followed him. The problem was that as soon as they arrived by the entrance, the door was locked.
"Was there anything back there besides the telephone?" Jace asked the blonde.
"No, I didn't notice anything." answered Summer. "Why would they put some sort of key on the telephone?"
"Well, how they managed to have a telephone plugged outside was already something questionable." Jace added. "But we shouldn't focus on that right now. Let's just-"
The two immediately turned their heads and saw someone pounding on a window as if they were asking for help.
"Guys! Hey!"
Jace squinted his eyes and came into a realization. "Hey, that looks like Hector!" He said before rushing up to where he was as Summer followed suit.
"Hector! What happened?" Summer asked as the two arrived.
"Well, I woke up in here. Luckily the safe of my team is already in here but the problem is, I'm pretty much locked up in here and now I have no idea what to do." Hector explained his story. Despite the obstacle that the window caused, both Lytsari member were able to hear him well.
"Okay, we'll try and see if we can help you." Jace assured. He then saw some sort of lock on the bottom right side of the window. Why was the lock outside and not inside? Well that mystery is probably saved for later. "Hey Summer, can you try and open the lock over there?"
The blonde girl managed to unlock it with no problem whatsoever. The two opened up the window successfully.
Hector sighed in huge relief. "Thank gosh. I kinda thought I was gonna lose air here."
"Well, we kind of have a problem ourselves too. We can't get inside the manor. But maybe we'll go from here and try to find a way out." Summer explained.
"I'm not gonna be heading out of this room since this is where our safe was but maybe I can help you find a key out of this library for helping me." offered the engineer.
"Thank you Hector, this means a lot." Jace smiled.
The two Lytsari teammates then entered the library from the now opened window and began the search for a key.
Meanwhile Fridge, Eli, and Aditi were in what seemed like the kitchen. There were some dishes on the sink, but other than that, everything was clean and the room was lit enough to see things. There was also a safe, but unfortunately, it wasn't their safe for Team Ritter. Rather, it was the Lytsari team's safe.
Both Fridge and Eli looked extremely tired and hopeless compared to Aditi.
"Come on guys! Let's turn those frowns upside down! We can get out of here!" Aditi smiled in an attempt to cheer them up.
"I don't know, I'm kinda tired of being positive in a situation where I don't know if I should be positive. I mean, it's clear that they made us eat all that and that led us to this so you guys probably know that I'm not okay with that." Eli explained his side.
"I think I'll break stuff again…" Fridge sighed. Out of the three, he ate the most food so he felt kind of bloated. He even ate more than Eli who also felt bloated. The jock tried standing up but failed miserably as he tripped on himself and fell back down, earning the kitchen tiled floor a crack.
"Oh…" Aditi now joined in the frowning. "Well, what can we do?"
"Maybe wait for the food to digest in our stomachs?" Eli suggested followed by a slight chuckle. "I would rather walk around in the dark than feel bloated 24/7."
"...I think I'll second that." Fridge agreed.
And the three began to let the time pass by.
"Ugh, get your nerdy ass off of me!"
"I can't!"
"Yes you can! All you have to do is just stand up!"
"Well I already tried and just fell back again! I really can't see without my glasses." Sheldon countered. He was currently laying right behind Wyonetta. They are both somehow tied up with rope so it was hard for them to get out.
"You're not the only ones here tied up, you know." Laverne's voice echoed not too far from the two. She was also tied up with Laila in the same situation as them inside the storage room.
"McLean, I demand you to get me out of this dump!" Laila ordered demandingly towards the telephone. "Now!"
"Well, no can do Miss 'Oh I'm So Rich'. You four are the most noisiest and whiniest of the bunch. Not to mention, for some reason, you four didn't even fall asleep so we had to tie you all up." Chris answered her.
"Hey, that does not deliver us justice whatsoever! So what you are saying is that we're the only ones tied up here?" Sheldon asked.
"Yes."
"See Sheldon? If it wasn't for you and your nerdy wordy tactics, we would've actually been a decent team but no!" Wyonetta rolled her eyes towards the nerd. "Probably the same goes for you two. Look at you two, looking all gussied up for some lovey-dovey high school prom."
Laverne just shrugged at the insult whereas Laila looked as if she was going to explode any minute.
"Well maybe try looking at yourself in the mirror to see if you look presentable for this kind of special occasion." the snob countered, eyeing the hockey player from head to toe. "Not to mention, you looked as if you just came from a sweaty volleyball game or whatever sport you play 24/7."
"Psh, it's called hockey. And what kind of special occasion? The special occassion of 'Us Getting Tied Up In Here' Day? Bite my ass." the hockey player snarked.
"You know what, I suggest we go find something that will get us out of here, like something sharp." Laverne suggested but to no avail as Laila as Wyonetta kept on exchanging arguments back and forth with Sheldon looking from one girl to another also back and forth.
Laverne (Ritter): "I was right to not even eat too much but then I wouldn't be tied up with Laila out of all people if I did."
Moving along to another batch of contestants, the camera pans to Jessica, Rory, and Gerald up on the manor's rooftop. Jessica and Rory were trying to find a way to unlock the door that leads the stairwell back to the second floor while Gerald on the other hand seems to be looking for something. Or someone.
Jessica was seen trying to break the lock with her bare hands but with no use. "I think we're gonna need to hit it hard with something… like a baseball bat."
"Well, where on earth are we gonna get something similar to a baseball bat?" asked Rory, a bit annoyed at the fact that they will have to find something in order for them to get back down. Not to mention, all three of them are from different teams so it gave them an, 'I'm helping the enemy' kind of vibe but that didn't matter anyway at least to them. "Hey Gerald… uh, we could use some help over here!"
Gerald rushed up to them, panting for breath. "I can't find Allan."
"Who?" asked Jessica.
"Allan. You know, that boy in a Pokéball shirt who walks around with me?"
Jessica and Rory looked at each other then back at the Chevalier member with concern. Never had they recalled seeing someone with a Pokéball shirt… then again, they were in different teams so it was kind of hard to comprehend, but still.
"Uh… maybe we'll find him downstairs." Jessica quickly dismissed. "Let's just try and find a way back."
"Alright then." Gerald nodded before he and Rory started the search for something to hit the lock with.
Rory (Lytsari): "Come to think of it, I've never seen someone with a Pokéball shirt. Should I be worried and think that he's imagining things?"
"Look, I think I see some flashlights by that shelf over there." Naka pointed to a small bookshelf that was just right by the window. Luckily it was placed there so that it was easy to rely on the moonlight when trying to find something in the dark. The shaman tossed one flashlight to Pierre who caught it with ease and the two simultaneously turned both devices on.
"Sweet. Now we'll be able to find our way around with this. I don't think I can spend thirty more seconds walking around in the dark." Pierre added with relief.
"Same here. Now let's go see if we can find any of our teammates." Naka told him. "Or anyone of that matter."
The two resumed their walk down the hall with the help of their flashlights as light source. (Since then again, no one would be able to rely heavily on the moonlight 24/7)
"Whoa!" Naka yelped as she felt someone colliding with her.
"Oh my, I'm sorry." Maelle's voice rang. It was obvious that she came the other hall so it was hard for her to see the duo coming. "I literally couldn't see a thing. The whole manor lost electricity. Or maybe only a part of the manor."
"Well at least you ran into someone with flashlights." Pierre laughed.
"...Yeah." Maelle nodded, obviously looking skeptical at the fact that Naka was with someone from another team.
"Uh, me and Pierre kinda woke up at the same place so that's why we're together in this challenge." Naka defended.
Maelle nodded in understanding. After all, everyone could wake up anywhere. "I see. So, me, Pandora, and Tala already found the safe but we could use some light to look for clues."
Naka looked at her teammate before at Pierre. "Well, it looks like you're on your own now. Good luck in finding your team."
"Good luck to you both as well." He said before leaving the two girls to go find their teams.
"Aish-" said a voice that obviously came from no one other than Sua.
The idol could feel a headache pounding on her head. She apparently looked around her surroundings and woke up in the middle of the hallway. But why?
"Maybe I'm near where the safe was…" she whispered to herself. Her hand went for her bracelet, and it had the key she found earlier on it as if it were some sort of charm. She got the key out of her bracelet and held it in her hand.
Not too far from her was a dark door. Even though the hallways were so dark due to having little to no light source other than the moonlight that shined through the windows, one could already tell that the door was out of place due to how different it looked from the other doors in the hallway.
Is the safe in there?
She held the key in her hand before inserting it through the keyhole and twisted it. A click was heard, indicating that she unlocked it.
Sua carefully opened the now unlocked door as soon as she had opened it. As she was doing so, a small creak could be heard coming from the door. She mostly assumed that the room she was about to head into was either the room with the safe, or maybe something worse, but the fact that she got the keys to said door, spiked up the curiosity that burst within her.
"Aish, what is that stench?" Sua grimaced, plugging the bridge of her nose in the process. It seemed as though she wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place but then again, curse curiosity. She had the key and the urge wasn't stopping her. "I hope Wyo-unnie won't be too mad at me once she finds out I'm missing."
Sua looked around the room. Compared to the visuals of the hallways, the living room, foyer, the rooms they were staying in, and all that, this room looked completely... different. Everything was full of dust as if nothing had been touched for about a century. There was a dust bunny on the corner of the room, even there were cobwebs up on the ceiling. Finally, the room stinks like hell.
She then turned her attention towards the other side of the room, but widened her eyes at what she saw.
Coffins?
Tyler was walking in the dark halls with Jeremy in search of their team.
"I hear chattering." Tyler whispered to the musical nerd. "Any of them could be nearby."
Little did they know that they could see that same door from earlier, but it was slightly opened.
"Uh, who's that?" Jeremy asked softly to himself as he could see a figure, a girl perhaps, slowly entering the room.
"Who's who?" Tyler asked him.
"...Never mind. That was probably nothing." Jeremy lied.
Tyler was a bit skeptical. Sure Jeremy has been with him throughout this whole time, but at some points, he did kinda act a teensy bit skeptical. "You sure?"
"Sure as a hippo. Let's go." Jeremy dismissed the topic and headed for the room where the source of the chattering was coming from.
As the two reached the room, they were immediately pleased to see Pandora and Tala inside the room. To make the lucky streak keep on going, lights emerged from the other hall. The figures holding these lights came closer to them and they were revealed to be Naka and Maelle.
"Oh my gosh, you're here!" Pandora squealed in delight as Jeremy, Tyler, Maelle, and Naka all entered the room.
"Have you guys figured out any of the clues yet?" asked Naka.
"Sadly no, it's too dark to see." Tala answered.
Naka held her flashlight towards the center of the room. "This should do the trick."
"Over here." Pandora gestured to a space next to the safe. There was a piece of paper.
"What does it say?" asked Maelle.
"Uh… 19." Pandora read. "Yeah, 19."
"19?" Tyler asked. "Maybe it's part of the combination?"
Pandora took a picture of the paper with her camera. She then noticed another paper sticking out under the carpet towards the far corner of the room as she could see it on the camera. "There's another paper by that carpet over there."
"I'll get it!" Jeremy offered in a singsong voice and skipped to where the paper was. He got the paper and read the number. "21."
"How many numbers do we need anyway?" asked Tyler. "I mean, this safe doesn't look like it has those locks where you have to turn them around and all that since there's a keypad."
Tala marched up to the safe as Naka shone the light on her. "Five digits."
"So we need one more, right?" Pandora confirmed. "Because technically 19 and 21 are two-digit numbers."
"We still have to find Foster and Gerald." Maelle told them.
"I'll go find them." Tyler volunteered.
Tyler (Chevaliers): "And I will also try not to look for that room." He shudders.
Eli, Fridge, and Aditi were walking down another set of halls. They were not feeling bloated anymore so they were able to walk around.
"Ugh, we have no idea where the others could be." Eli groaned. "How are we supposed to do this?"
"Cheer up guys, we'll find them out in no time." Aditi tried to cheer them up but even she was feeling nervous about the whole ordeal.
They continued to walk through the halls for about a few minutes until Fridge could hear a slight call for help.
"Do you guys hear that?" Fridge asked.
"Hear what?" Eli asked him back.
"The heeeeeeelp." Fridge tried answering.
The trio did not talk for a few seconds until they could hear calls for help as well.
"That way!" Eli pointed to one of the doors near them and Fridge and Aditi made a dash for it. "...I think."
Aditi pressed her ear against one of the doors. "Hello?"
"Hey, is anyone there? This is Hector! I'm with Jace and Summer right now but we're kind of trapped in here." explained the engineer.
"Guys, Hector's in here! Along with… some others whom I kinda forgot their names but yeah!" Aditi cheered.
"Great, now let's get them out of there." Eli declared and tried turning the doorknob but in vain. "Never mind, it's locked."
"Well, is there some sort of key in here or something?" Aditi asked.
Both Aditi and Eli looked around their surroundings for keys but they were nowhere to be found. Plus the darkness didn't help either.
"I have an idea!" Fridge hollered out loud as if a light bulb appeared and lit up on top of his head. He pumped up a fist with his right hand and began to do an arm swing.
"Uh I don't think that's a good idea, Fridge-"
"STAND BACK!" Aditi shouted from the other side of the door. She could hear the three of them rushing towards the far side of the room they were in.
With extreme brute force, Fridge delivered a powerful punch towards the door, sending it flying into the library room. Everyone took cover as a bunch of screams were heard from the cast. The door landed with a huge thud on top of a pile of old dusty books, followed by a loud riiiiiiip as Fridge's right tuxedo sleeve tore off.
"Mission accomplished." Fridge panted.
"Oh my gosh, thank you guys!" Summer expressed her gratitude by hugging each of the Ritters that found them. "I thought we were goners."
"No problem." Eli smiled and lit up as soon as he saw Ritter's safe. "Guys the safe is in here!"
Fridge and Aditi cheered as they entered the library room.
"Yeah, we have no idea how to open it though." Hector shrugged.
"Oh and guys, me, Eli, and Fridge found your team's safe by the kitchen." Aditi informed Jace and Summer. "We woke up next to it."
"That's good to know." Jace grinned. "Well, we're gonna find the others now. Good luck in getting the safe up."
"You guys too." said Eli.
Eli (Ritter): "Is it just me or is everyone… being real nice to each other? And I thought this was a competition."
SLAM!
The door behind Sua closed shut so loud that it startled the idol.
"Uh… hello?" Sua shuddered. She could already feel shivers going up on her spine due to how eerie the atmosphere was. Why were there coffins in the place? And.. did Dimetrius had to do with any of these? This was his house after all.
"WHY DID YOU ENTER THIS ROOM?" Dimetrius' voice angrily asked. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY AWAY FROM THIS ROOM! SOMEONE ELSE NEARLY WENT IN HERE, BUT YOU… YOU DO NOT SEEM LIKE A GOOD EGG."
"W-what?" Sua gulped. Behind her, a coffin stood upright from a pile of black roses that were on the other side of the room next to the window. There were even a lot of black roses inside the coffin as well.
"THEREFORE AS PUNISHMENT, YOU MUST PERISH IN FRONT OF ME! DISOBEYING MY HOUSE RULES WILL MAKE YOU FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!" Dimetrius roared with all of his might. This only startled Sua even more. She didn't know who or what was doing it but she could feel herself being pulled up from the ground. She screamed as she was now being thrown inside the coffin. "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ME!"
"NO!" Sua shouted loudly as she was now inside the coffin. She could hear the coffin being locked shut. "GET ME OUT OF HERE, PLEASE!"
"NO, YOU WILL NEVER GET OUT. EVER." Dimetrius yelled louder. With his presence, he is able to lift up the coffin and onto the window sill. Is he going to throw her out?
"Maybe we could go down through here." Jessica was seen pointing towards an air vent. She, Rory, and Gerald were still stuck on the rooftop. "I have no idea where this would lead us but this will surely lead us down."
"Then let's go." Rory declared and jumped in as if it were some kiddie slide.
"WAIT, RORY WE DON'T KNOW IF IT'S SAFE-" Jessica called out but it was too late. "Oh well, I guess I'm jumping in-"
She turned to see Gerald gone.
"Gerald? Uh… where are you?"
No response.
"This is not funny, Gerald!" Jessica called out to him in frustration. Should she find him? Then again, he wasn't her teammate. But still, should she be worried about him?
"GERALD, IF YOU DON'T ANSWER ME IN FIVE SECONDS, I AM GOING DOWN THE AIR VENT, I SWEAR." Jessica hollered again, sounding frustrated.
She waited.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…
"That's it. I'm sorry." Jessica sighed and went down the air vent. She hated to do this, but she couldn't wait forever.
Back with Rory, we could hear him screaming as he slid down. He then reached what seemed like the end of the air vent and landed on a box. As he did so, he could hear some screams but he didn't know who were those screaming anyway.
Thud.
"Ugh… where am I…"
"RORY!?" Wyonetta and Sheldon shouted in unison.
"Rory! Wait, who in Trevor's fedora is Rory?" Laila asked dumbfounded. Laverne hit her with her elbow. "Ow!"
"Rory, thank the idiots, you're here. Now get us out, I am sick of hearing these two Princess Peach and Daisy wannabes argue back and forth like a freaking swing on a kiddie playground!" Wyonetta demanded. Again, Laverne could care less about the insult but Laila… yeah, you know.
"Why are you all tied up?" Rory asked the four.
"Chris McLean." Sheldon nonchalantly answered.
Rory looked at the box he had landed. There was a knife. How'd it get there? He didn't know. But thank goodness he didn't get cut.
The drummer pulled out the knife and rushed to Wyonetta and Sheldon to slice their ropes off.
"The rope should not be that thick for the knife to pierce through it-"
"Yeah we know, shut your yap Sheldon." Wyonetta sighed.
After Rory successfully broke the rope free, Wyonetta and Sheldon rubbed their wrists in pain.
"By golly, I am never getting tied up again." Sheldon commented.
"Let's go before another team opens up their darn safe." Wyonetta declared and she and Sheldon rushed out of the room.
Rory was about to rush out of the room as well, but turned back and saw Laila and Laverne.
"Rory, hurry up!" Wyonetta called out.
"I'll be there in a sec." Rory said. He grabbed the knife from the floor and rushed up to Laverne and Laila, untying them up. "Don't make me regret this, guys."
"Thanks." Laverne expressed her gratitude.
"Yeah… thanks." Laila added.
Once the two girls were free, the trio exited the storage room and went their separate ways.
"We'll never find them in time." Jace declared. He and Summer were going nowhere at this state. They looked at Laverne and Laila heading their way. "Let's split up. We'll meet each other in the kitchen. We have to let the others know that our safe is in the kitchen."
Summer hesitated, not liking the fact that they have to split up. "Okay."
Jace nodded and the two split up. He ran corridor after corridor and then collided on someone with a flashlight. "WHOA!"
"WHOA!" yelled the person he collided with.
"OW!" yelled a third person.
Jace (Lytsari): "I thought I only crashed into one person."
Jace was able to see who he bumped into.
"Pierre! And Rory!" He grinned.
"Bro I thought I was following Wyonetta and Sheldon." Rory facepalmed. "Hey, at least you guys are still my teammates. Now we have to go find them.
"I was with Summer earlier. I think she needs to find Sua." Jace told them. "Aditi, Eli, and Fridge told us that our safe is in the kitchen so we better hurry up."
"We have to find Wyo and Sheldon first because I think I lost them." Rory said.
"Then let's go. We need to round up our whole team before the other teams do." Pierre added and the three boys made a run against time.
They ran to the kitchen and met up with Wyonetta and Sheldon.
"Man and I thought you were behind us, Rory." Wyonetta sighed. "Where are Summer and Sua?"
"Summer went to go find Sua I think." Jace informed.
"I'll go find the two of them. You guys start working on the safe." Rory said and rushed out of the kitchen.
"So where should we start searching for clues?" Aditi asked.
"Here?" Eli answered by asking back. "I mean the clues are supposed to be near here, right?"
"There's an office room just next to this area. Maybe we should look for clues there." Hector suggested.
"Yeah, let's go." Fridge agreed as he tried to attach his sleeve back to his arm.
When they went out of the room, they could see Laverne and Laila rushing up to them.
"Nice, how'd you found us?" Eli asked the two girls.
"You guys were talking so loud that you kinda gave your location away." Laverne jokes.
Aditi chuckled. "Well luckily, I am a loud speaker."
"So where are all you commoner folk heading to?" Laila lazily asked.
"The office. We should find some clues there." Hector answered. The Ritter team then went to the office room.
Hector (Ritter): "Jessica is the only one missing. I hope she's doing fine."
"Ugh…"
Gerald groaned. It appears that he was stuck on a tree. How did he get there?
"Gerald!" A voice called him. He didn't know who, but he managed to look down.
"Allan?"
"Allan, no, wait, it's Foster!" Foster revealed himself. "How on earth did you get up there?"
Foster began to analyze Gerald's situation. The tree was connected to the roof. Did he accidentally fall from the roof and onto the tree? What in the world?
"Where's Allan? And.. how do I get down…?"
"JUMP!" Foster called him. "I'll catch you!"
"Promise?"
"Yes! I am a survivalist, I have to be able to catch people! Now jump!"
Gerald closed his eyes. He had to trust him. It was the only way. Even it seemed kind of high up.
He leaned back and fell.
Thump.
"Ugh… that catch didn't go so good." Foster groaned as he felt like he could see a million stars orbiting around him as if he were some kind of random planet. "You okay?"
"Yeah I guess." Gerald groaned, a pounding headache coming onto him. "Have you seen Allan?"
Foster did see Allan. But should he tell him?
"H-he's with the others. He's okay. We have to go to them. I heard that they're somewhere on the first floor so they shouldn't be too far from here. Come on." Foster said as he helped him up. The two Chevalier boys then made a run inside the manor.
"Found you two." Jeremy scolded them like a mom as soon as the boys entered the manor. "Everyone else is literally waiting for you though, we found the safe. Oh, and Allan is also waiting in there too."
"That's a relief." Gerald sighed.
Foster looked at the musical nerd suspiciously, but it was then replaced by a nod.
Jeremy (Chevaliers): "Okay, I kinda lied about the Allan part. I overheard Foster telling Gerald that Allan is with them. I just don't want to have to run into his Allan problems. Even Maelle was getting kind of annoyed. I'm just going to hope that he's secretly with the others or something or else me and Foster are toast."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A shrill scream was heard through the second floor halls of Manoria. Summer could hear the scream just where she was at.
She gasped.
Summer (Lytsari): "I know we've known each other for less than a day but that scream sounded like Sua. I have to find her."
Summer was about to run but tripped over onto the floor. She groaned for a bit before standing up.
"Curse these heels… and how long this dress is…" she muttered under her breath. She took off her heels and tore the bottom part of her dress so that it only reached up to her knees. Saving someone from potential danger was more important than looks anyway.
She had the sash she tore off from her dress and her shoes on her hand and began to run to where she thought she heard the noise.
The room with the dark door.
"Sua?!" She called out. There was a coffin that was just about to be dropped out from the window. They were on the second floor of the manor so it was going to be kind of high if that coffin fell down. "Sua where are you!?"
Sua pounded the coffin she was on. Summer could easily see that she was in the coffin that was about to fall off the window.
"Crap, wait, hang in there!" Summer called out.
"SILENCE!" Dimetrius' voice rang in the room. "DO NOT TOUCH THAT COFFIN!"
"No!" Summer countered. "You are not going to oppose me, Dimetrius!"
The 80s' girl rushed up to the coffin that was about to fall off the window and attempted to pull it back from the handle.
"YOU CANNOT DO THAT!" Dimetrius roared. Even though he cannot be seen at this state, Summer could feel the coffin being pulled in the opposite direction.
"NO!" Summer cried out, not knowing what to do under this kind of pressure. Literally her teammate's life is placed on her hands at this point. She then got an idea and ran to where she left her shoes. She grabbed one heel and attempted to hit the coffin's lock with the heel part.
She hit it even harder at the lock with all her might after about two failed attempts. She finally got it unlocked and opened the coffin with all her might. The coffin was just centimeters from falling off the window.
"Sua, grab my hand!" Summer yelled. The Korean idol jumped from the coffin she was laying at and jumped to reach Summer's hand. The two girls screamed in shock as the coffin fell off the window and onto the ground below.
"Summer, I'm slipping!" Sua shouted in fear as her hand started to slip from Summer's grip.
The blonde girl now used up all her strength to pull the other girl up, Sua managed to grab the window sill with her other hand in an attempt to hoist herself up and help Summer.
Once they did so, both girls collapsed on each other and onto the ground. Summer was panting heavily as Sua was inhaling big gulps of air since it seemed like staying inside the coffin lost all the air inside of her.
"We have to get out of here." Summer told her. She helped the idol up and the two rushed out of the room. Sua quickly locked the door with the key she had and the two girls stepped back.
"Whoa, are you guys okay?"
The two of them turned back to see Rory all worried about them. The three immediately pulled each other in for a hug.
"Oh my god, I am never going in there again." Sua cried out, trying to not think about the nightmare that just happened.
"Hey, it's okay." Summer comforted her. "We're fine now."
The three broke the hug.
"We found the safe you guys, we need to open it up before the other teams do." Rory told them. The two girls nodded and the three ran to the kitchen.
"21 and 19..." Tala jutted her chin before entering in the current numbers they had.
"There's the number 1 over here." Naka said, grabbing a piece of paper with 1 written on it that was suspiciously hanging on a picture frame compared to the other two numbers that were hidden not on the wall.
Pandora tilted her head. "But that doesn't make any sense. We don't even know what order these numbers could be in."
Foster groaned in frustration, not liking the direction they were heading to… if they were heading somewhere. "What if this is all just a prank? Like, whatever is in this safe could make us lose. Or worse, what if the key's not in there anyway?"
Maelle got up and dusted her purple gown. "We are going to need hints." She looked at her team. "A lot of hints."
Tyler looked at them, then at the door where he could get a good view of the dark door that was bothering him earlier. "Maybe the hints are hidden outside of this room."
Gerald grabbed his arm. "Allan says that we shouldn't go in there. He also says that it is scary and that we could be in danger if we enter that room."
"Then why does it look like it's been opened? And it looked kinda beaten up from what I could see." Tyler countered. "Jeremy, you were with me earlier this afternoon. It's been closed this whole time."
"It's not. It's locked shut. That's impossible." Jeremy told him.
Jeremy (Chevaliers): "Yeah, that was a lie. Before we got here, I think I saw someone go inside that room. I don't know who it was, but I think it looked like… Sua? Still, no one here is going to go in that room and that is final."
Maelle could care a bit less about Jeremy and Tyler's argument as her attention was on the wooden grandfather clock that stood just right next to the safe. In fact, the clock was so close to the safe that it seemed… quite unnatural to look at.
"Why is it so close to the safe…?" She pondered to herself. "I don't get it."
"Something the matter?" Tala asked.
"I'm thinking the clock is a clue." Maelle confirmed. "Have you ever seen an antique wooden clock this close to a metal safe?"
Tala looked at her in confusion.
"Ever heard of feng shui?" Pandora laughed.
"Not really where I was going for, but maybe okay." Maelle nodded. "So… why is the clock here…"
"Clockwise perhaps?" Foster guessed. "I don't know, I just kinda assumed that since the clock is just right of the safe."
Naka suddenly had an idea. "Hey Pandora, where did you find those numbers?"
"Found them all in this room." Pandora nonchalantly said.
"No, I mean, where exactly?"
"Maybe try putting the numbers on the exact spot you found them." Tala suggested.
The photographer did as the mathematician suggested. She slipped the paper with the number 1 inside the picture frame located about three steps next to the clock. She then put the number 21 under the carpet that was right by the door they entered. And lastly, she put the number 19 around a few centimeters left of the safe.
Tala stepped on to the middle of the room and slowly turned around in a clockwise direction. "1, 21, 19."
She then rushed to the safe and typed in the code.
Click.
"It worked!" Pandora beamed and hugged Tala. "You did it!"
"Oh my gosh, you guys did it!" Foster sighed in relief. "Good night's sleep, here we go!"
The Chevaliers continued to cheer as Chris' voice rang up. "Looks like the Chevaliers have taken their first win! Let's see who does better between the Ritters and the Lytsaris."
Tala (Chevaliers): She was blushing. "That hug felt nice…"
The Ritter team have been inside the office room for ages in case of eventually finding any clues as to what the code of the safe was.
"I found a newspaper." Aditi called from the office desk. Everyone in her team rushed up to her.
"What is it?" asked Eli.
"Well… I don't think you guys would want to read this." Aditi gulped. "It says here that Dimetrius has been assassinated on the 21st of January, year 1985. A lot of soldiers decided to do this to him because he…" she continued to skim through the article. "It uh… says that he murdered a lot of people and kept their corpses inside this very house-"
"Nope, I am not listening to any of that. Let's just split up and look for clues." Laverne declared uncomfortably. Even the others were getting uncomfortable, but what if this was a clue?
"Do you want to split up like what the Lytsari team did?" Eli began to oppose Laverne's idea of splitting up. "Because for sure, we are not the first team that will open up that safe, and we have no idea where it is. We don't even know where Jessica is!"
"Wait, what did Lytsari do?" Aditi curiously asked.
"They split up. Talking about Jace and Summer since we saw them do that. I don't think they're all together compared to maybe the Chevaliers." Laila sneered. "Have you seen them? Sua literally went missing from what I've heard. I have a feeling we ran into most of the Lytsari team except for her.."
"You're probably just overthinking." Laverne rolled her eyes towards the snob. "Splitting up is obviously a very strategic move and maybe they did that to speed things up. This is a race after all."
Laverne and Laila both continue to stare at each other intently as if they were about to start a heated debate between each other.
"Guys, where's Hector?"
The voice asking the team came from Aditi, who is usually not in a worried state. She then looked at Eli with a confused look as he and Hector were closest to the door.
"I swear, he was just right here!" Eli countered, his arms up defensively. "Where else could he have gone?"
Everyone then turned their attention to Fridge, who immediately shook his head no. "I didn't hit anyone this time-"
"Oh great. We didn't even split up and we're starting to lose people just like Lytsari. Unless Dimetrius is behind all of this, then I suggest we stick together… Laverne." Laila eyed the Grecian model.
Suddenly, a scream was heard, followed by the sound of glass breaking.
"What on Alphonse's belt was that!?" Laila almost shouted as the two unpleasant sounds were heard.
"That can't be Hector." Laverne hissed under her breath. She quickly made a run for the exit of the room and was followed by the rest of the team.
While everyone rushed back to the library room, Aditi went back on the office desk and grabbed the newspaper that had Dimetrius' assassination article in case that gave away the code.
In the library room, the team rushed up to the source of the noise. Jessica appeared to have landed on a pile of old papers and Hector was present, doing his best to help her up. She also accidentally hit a flower vase nearby but it didn't seem to affect her as there were no scratches on the midwestern wrangler.
"How did you get here so fast, you legit disappeared right next to me." Eli told the engineer.
"I-"
"Well now that we have everyone here, let's get the safe open! Chop chop!" Laila demanded, interrupting Hector.
"Wait, I have the newspaper. Maybe the date here would give us the clue." Aditi said as she rushed over to the safe.
She began to type up the code of Dimetrius' assassination date: 1/21/19-
"Are you guys sure this doesn't need seven digits?" Aditi asked her team.
She only received shrugs for an answer.
However, she could hear the lock click. The small girl opened up the safe and it was revealed to have their key.
The Ritter team cheered with joy as they managed to open their safe.
"Challenge over!" Dimetrius' voice echoed throughout the entire manor. "And our losing team is no doubt, the Yellow Lytsari!"
Hearing this, the said losing team all exchanged negative emotions towards each other. Chris made it to where the team was at.
"Lytsari, meet me in the living room in half an hour for the elimination ceremony."
The team looked dejected as they went their separate ways.
"What do I do?" Sua panicked as Rory and Summer were thinking about the same question. They were the only people in the attic while the other four were elsewhere.
"Wyonetta will try to vote for either Sua, Sheldon, or Rory off, that's for sure." Summer analyzed. "But I have a feeling she'll go for Sua."
Rory didn't question Summer as to why she thinks Wyonetta will vote for him and let it slide. "Well, who should we go for? Maybe Sheldon? I mean Wyonetta was literally tied up to him throughout most of the challenge."
"Yeah, let's go for Sheldon. Good idea." Sua fumbled nervously.
"We don't know who the others are going for though, I mean they could be going for you, Sua." Summer pointed out. "Let's just hope our plan works."
Elimination Ceremony #1
"Well well well. The Lyt team was the first team to bite the dust. You guys just proved yourselves that you aren't very lyt. So sad." Chris laughed heartily afterwards, obviously making the sad part sound sarcastic like a joke. "What on earth happened to you?"
No one from the team spoke a word.
"Oh well. Anyway, one by one, you will enter the voting booth and cast your vote by writing the person you vote for in the index card placed on the table using the pen there. Once you've written your vote, place the index card on the ballot box."
Without a word, Jace went into the voting booth first to cast in his vote. This was followed by Pierre, Rory, Sheldon, Sua, Summer, and Wyonetta finishing them off.
After Wyonetta walked out of the voting booth with a confident look on her face, she took a seat on the couch next to Sua. The Lytsari team was seated on the couch on the order of how they went in the voting booth and voted.
A few moments later, Dustin comes into the room holding a bundle of six long light yellow feathers that were held together by a yellow rubber band. Chris was also shown holding a small box that he got from the voting booth, which could only mean that those were the votes.
"Looks like the vote went slightly easy for you." The host chuckled.
"You think?" Wyonetta snarked.
"...Give me time to finish." sighed the host and began to count the votes. "Well let me go on ahead and say who doesn't have any votes and all that. Once I call your name, you'll be getting a yellow feather indicating that you're safe."
Dustin began to remove the rubber band that held the feathers together.
"Safe with no votes are… Jace…"
Dustin threw a yellow feather at Jace but unfortunately it made a u-turn and flew back to the chess player and to the floor.
"Pierre…"
Dustin threw another yellow feather at Pierre, but it flew up above Dustin and hit the floor.
"Rory…"
Dustin threw a third yellow feather at Rory, but it just went straight for the floor.
"Summer…"
Dustin threw a fourth yellow feather towards Summer's direction, but it only flew around Dustin and landed on the floor.
"And Wyonetta."
Dustin threw the second to last feather at Wyonetta, the feather barely escaping his hands. Wyonetta tried to catch the feather but she was too far away so it fell to the floor… much like the other four feathers.
Everyone looked at the yellow feathers that were now on the ground just below Dustin.
"...Just hand them over the feathers next time instead of lazily throwing them, okay?" Chris sighed towards the chess player.
"Maybe next time you shouldn't use feathers as safety tokens." Dustin criticized.
"...Whatever." Chris rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Sheldon and Sua, you both are in the bottom two. Sheldon for being an… annoying pain in the butt and Sua for disappearing nearly the entire challenge just because you were curious about a lame room."
"But that room holds something weird in there!" Sua protested loudly, pointing towards the hallway where the room was supposed to be. "There were coffins everywhere! I was literally being buried alive in one of them by someone that would have sounded like Di-"
"Nonsense lies, there's no way that things like that would happen here in Manoria and Dimetrius assured us that." Chris countered the idol. "You're just being crazy. You stated that in your application, did you not?"
"Aish-" Sua swore under her breath, frustrated at the fact that Chris didn't listen to her.
"But it's true though!" Summer came into the idol's defense. "I saw a bit of it myself!"
"Really?" Rory widened his eyes. "Please tell me you're just joking-"
"Ghosts shmosts, you guys are just being a big bunch of pansies as far as I know." Wyonetta groaned. "Why am I even stuck with this team?" She turned to Jace and Pierre. "Please tell me you two don't believe any of this."
"I don't know, anything could happen, honestly." Jace answered.
"I don't. Sua, if you know something would happen in there, then why did you go there anyway?" asked Pierre as everyone's attention turned towards Sua now but the idol was interrupted by Sheldon butting into the argument.
"Well truth to be told there is an unusually ginormous chance that there could be paranormal activity happening in this premises considering how… ancient this manor may look-"
"We do not have proof. I don't think there's a camera in there anyway." said Chris. "If it was true, either Dimetrius or Dustin could've told me beforehand."
"I don't even live here." Dustin deadpanned.
"...By Dustin, I mean Dimetrius." Chris sighed. "Yes. Dimetrius and Dimetrius. You know what, whatever. Anyway, the last feather goes to..."
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"...Sheldon."
A shit-eating grin emerged from Sheldon's face, not even paying attention to the yellow feather that was being thrown at him (yes, it also fell to the ground).
"What-" Sua asked, her dark eyes wide with pure shock. "Wait, I'm really the first one out?"
"Yes. Now say goodbye to your team before I have you escorted." Chris announced.
The idol was still unable to comprehend the fact that she was eliminated. Summer and Rory immediately rushed up to her and gave her hugs and fist bumps.
"I'm sorry you had to leave early." Summer apologized.
"Yeah, it was kind of a shocker." Rory agreed.
Sua forced a smile but it was obvious that she was still bitter about leaving so early. "It's okay. Summer-unnie, Rory-oppa, I'll be rooting for you both." She had her fist up for encouragement. "Fighting!"
"I don't know what does fighting have to do with that but thanks." Rory laughed.
"It's kind of like good luck in my tradition." Sua grinned. "Anyway, I have to go now. I'll see you guys soon. And…" she turned to Summer. "Summer-unnie, thanks for saving me back there. I appreciate it alot."
"Aww, it's nothing. Glad to help, though." Summer said and the two girls shared one last hug before separating.
The rest of her team waved at her goodbye before some of the interns escorted her out of the area.
"So uh…" Tala was about to speak up. "Did Chris forgot about us or…"
"Nope, I didn't forget you guys. We just have to finish the elimination ceremony before you guys would come in but never mind that now so here goes. So now that Lytsari lost Sua, Chevaliers, one of you will take her place." Chris explained.
The room was filled with mixed emotions and loud gasps.
"Wow, I didn't know someone will go to a different team this early." Tyler commented.
"Are you going to decide?" asked Pandora.
"I will." Dustin stood up. "And out of you guys, I pick… you." He pointed towards…
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...Maelle.
"This was kind of a half-baked expectation, not gonna lie." Foster chuckled.
Maelle went over to her new team and was immediately met with different welcomes from the majority of Lytsari while the Chevaliers were still processing the ordeal. They were all dismissed shortly after (including Dustin).
Gerald (Chevaliers): "I'm kind of… glad. Because Maelle keeps on opposing my thoughts about Allan. With her on the other team, I have time to prove to my team that Allan does exist."
Naka (Chevaliers): "Maelle not being in this team is gonna be a bit hard. She was kind of standing up as a leader and she was good at it. Without her, I don't know who would take her place."
Wyonetta (Lytsari): "I hope this maid girl won't be as much of a problem like that idol."
Maelle (Lytsari): "I did not think that I would be the one moving. I thought it would be Gerald honestly."
As the remaining members of the Lytsari team and the Chevalier team left the foyer, Chris motioned the camera to a nearby television, holding a cable plug in his hand.
"Well then, now that they have left the room, let's see how the votes rack up." Chris smirked as he plugged the cable to the television and connected it to the camera inside the voting booth.
Lytsari Voting Confessional
Pierre: "Bye, Sua. You may have been of help last time but definitely not this time."
Jace: "Lesson learned: curiosity killed the cat. I guess. Well, now I know that I shouldn't be walking around to explore the mansion from now on…"
Rory: "Man, honestly, it sucks having to eliminate someone. Not to mention since we're the first team losing. Oh well… sorry Sheldon."
Sheldon: "I vote for the obvious choice. Sua was the most suspicious member. But unfortunately, I must also keep an eye on Summer and Rory as they both seem to believe her."
Summer: "I understand the point Wyonetta tried to make, but the thing is, it was just an honest mistake that Sua entered that room. If anything, someone who hasn't been of much help throughout this whole time should be going, like… sorry to say this, but Sheldon."
Sua: "I'm not sure who to vote for, but it's obvious that I'm not gonna be safe for tonight… unless something happens. Sheldon-oppa, mianhae-"
Wyonetta: "That idol wasn't with us for like 90% of the challenge so it has to be her going. Finally, I am tired of dealing with her loudness."
"Wow, no wonder why Sua was the first one to lose. But what if she was telling the truth though?"
He gave it some thought before shaking his head. "Never mind that for now. But how will both Chevaliers and Lytsaris fare out now that Maelle transferred teams? Will the Ritters stay in the middle? And not to mention, knights will be placed into the hands of royalty the next time we tune in."
The scene switches to a glimpse of the next episode where we can see the contestants inside a castle. A 'king' and a 'queen' were shown being trapped in a cage. In the same room, there were swords on the ground.
The screen fades back to Chris. "Find out next time when we return on Total Drama Knightfall!" He said before the scene fades to black.
Blue Chevaliers: Foster, Tyler, Gerald, Jeremy, Tala, Pandora, Naka
Red Ritter: Eli, Fridge, Hector, Aditi, Laila, Laverne, Jessica
Yellow Lytsari: Pierre, Jace, Rory, Sheldon, Maelle, Summer, Wyonetta
Votes: Yellow Lytsari
Sua (4) - Pierre, Jace, Sheldon, Wyonetta
Sheldon (3) - Rory, Summer, Sua
Eliminated: Sua (4-3 vote)
Author's note: GOSH, THIS TOOK ME LIKE, A BUNCH OF MONTHS TO WRITE. XD There was so much jumping from one scene to another. But I am so glad with how the challenge turned out. I tried to think hard about how will stuff will fall here and there and all. And those who were wondering, Team Lytsari did not meet up before Team Ritter completed the challenge to clear up the confusion. I was originally going to put a scene of Lyt and Rit going neck to neck but it would be weird consider Summer and Sua's conditions.
And about Sua, first of all, I'd like to thank my sister for creating her. She was a blast to write, but I had to cut her short because of plot. She still has some stuff going around her though and I can't wait to get to that.
Next will be the Ritter team chapter followed by Episode 3. Hope you guys like the episode and let me know what you guys think!
Elimination Table:
22nd - Sua
Meaning behind the episode title (big brain time, prepare to get your brain fried because my brain got deep fried when I wrote this, LOL): Waridi Mweusi, according to sources, means black rose/s in Swahili. All scenes in this episode were more or less related to the title though the main emphasis of this episode, if not obvious, was the scene with the coffins and the black roses that surrounded Sua under Dimetrius' control.
Black roses are a symbol of hatred. Also whenever a funeral was present, most people would usually wear black. Sua was shown to develop some sort of hatred towards Dimetrius after reprimanding her due to entering a forbidden room (this is the exact same room that Tyler speculated in the previous episode, though he himself has yet to find out), which caused him to lock her up in the coffin and bury her in black roses out of not exactly hate, but in a sense of dislike and obedience. This shows a symbol pertaining to her "death" out of "hate."
Also note the passcode that our resident mathematician Tala used to unlock the safe for the Chevaliers to secure their second win (1-21-19[85], Dimetrius' date of death/assassination as implied by Aditi if we disregard the last two digits). We will have three numbers; 1, 21, and 19. And if we put it in the alphabet setting, we get three letters: A (1), U (21), and S (19). These three letters, if not obvious, spell Sua backwards, which leads to Sua as our first boot. Those three letters also appear in the episode title, wAridi mweUSi in that order of the passcode.
...Well, it gets even weirder in the next episodes. XD
Special shoutout to those who tried to guess who the first boot was in the Discord server lol, the hints were really in the episode title but no one got it right. XD (Literally most of y'all thought it was either Summer [Black Roses may be a reference to an 80s band] or Maelle [wears a rose pin most of the time but it's not black] lol rip, gotta give props though for analyzing it). It'll probably be easier in the next episodes, because then again, no one would know that Sua was the boot here unless you've read that coffin scene lol. XD Anyone who wants to guess the next boot just for funsies, I'll leave the next episode title just below this author's note… may be obvious, may be not. See you all next time!
-Wang Raanee-
