Minor warning: Indications of violence and injuries.


Odes To Manoria

IV. They Never Knew the Door was Locked


On the Chevaliers' floor, Foster, Tyler, Gerald, and Jeremy were seated around a small table talking about the details of a certain event. Lunch had just passed and the storm continued to crash through the coast, indicating that the storm probably won't stop anytime soon.

"Did you… really see them?" Tyler asked Foster in particular, the hunter raised an eyebrow in confusion. "If you did, then it wouldn't make sense because why would he hurt him?"

"I swear, I did. With my own two eyes. They weren't that far away either." the survivalist breathed, still not being able to get over what he had witnessed hours ago.

"Maybe they followed us." Jeremy theorized. "It's probably the only way. I mean, they're freaking spirits, how else would they be able to see where we were headed that time. It just means that we're not safe here anymore."

Gerald felt like he was going to explode in craziness with the mention of Allan over and over and over again. Did he get tired of it? Maybe yes, but every single time someone opens their mouth and pronounces those two syllables, the pit in his stomach just increases out of pure concern.

Jeremy, Tyler, and Foster couldn't help but look at him with worry.

"Hey, calm down." said the musical nerd as he rubbed a hand on the boy's back. "Foster was probably just… seeing things."

"JEREMY, YOU THINK I'M JUST SEEING THINGS!? ALL OF THESE WERE REAL, WHAT THE HELL!?"

The musical nerd immediately felt his heart pumping a million miles per hour as the outburst was directed towards him. Awkward silence immediately ensued after that.

In the bathroom were Tala and Pandora. It seemed as though those two have a routine of going in the bathroom every other hour or so, but in this case, it was just to change Pandora's bandage.

After Tala changed the bandage on the photographer's leg, she sat up.

This was when Pandora light grabbed the mathematician's hand and placed what seemed like a polaroid on her palm.

"Pandora… what's this?" Tala asked, her eyes skimming through the polaroid. It was Pandora facing the sunrise from a balcony. And god she looked so beautiful like that, she thought. Her eyes continued to run down until she could see a caption.

"The sun rises when you and I meet, and when the wind blows, you will know my heart."

"Wow…" Tala mouthed, her eyes not taking off of the picture.

"Well… that was the first picture I took on my camera. The angle is a bit awkward though-"

"I think you look perfect." Tala said with a faint blush, though she was hoping the photographer wouldn't see.

Pandora giggled. "I want you to keep it."

"Why?"

"To remember me by."

"You're leaving?!"

Pandora quickly shook her head. "No, I'm not. It's just that, wouldn't it be a bit too emotional if I give it on the day either of us gets eliminated?"

"Yeah… I think so."

The two of them looked at each other for a bit… until they could see some white smoke coming out from under the door.

"Smoke?" Pandora asked. She opened the door, only to find that the whole area where the Chevaliers rest was bathed with smoke. And where were their teammates?

"Guys!?" Tala hollered out, but there was no answer.

Suddenly she felt drowsy. Her head started spinning… until her eyes closed. She let herself stumble back and fall into a deep slumber on the floor. Little did she know that Pandora also collapsed from behind.


The Red Ritters were gathered up on their floor, discussing their unexpected outcome from the challenge.

"Weren't we supposed to lose?" Jessica asked her team. "Because… we didn't get anything. Then suddenly out of nowhere we got one fish."

Everyone looked at the ground, not knowing what to say.

"Maybe Laverne caught some and she was lying that she didn't get any so we could go to elimination." Laila pinned the matter on the model.

"What? You think I would do such a fishy thing? If anything, maybe you got some while you were being bait!" Laverne argued back, slamming her hands on the table in front of her.

This sudden move from Laverne caused Aditi to flinch. "Laverne, Laila, please-"

"Yes friends! Stop, you must!" Fridge chimed in, though his voice made it seemed like he was joking. "Fights are not going to solve other problems, friends."

"Fridge has a point. This is getting tiring now, you two." Hector nodded in agreement, giving death stares to both Laila and Laverne in the process. This finally caused them to sit and be quiet. "Though I have to say that we may have to ask the one who handed in the fish after the challenge because… don't you think that that person made a move? Isn't that right, Eli?"

Eli didn't flinch whatsoever as the handicapped engineer called his name. He turned to Hector and was about to open his mouth to say something but-

"Hey, what's that smoke?"

"Smoke? Come on, Eli. You're just trying to change the topic-"

"No. There really is smoke coming in here right now."

Everyone looked towards the area near the stairs. There was indeed smoke coming into the room and it was rapidly spreading. It was the exact same smoke that spread around the Chevaliers' room.

"Do something!" Laila frailed.

"Is there a fire extinguisher?" asked Jessica.

The Ritter team continued to panic but they didn't have much time. It didn't even take them long enough for them to immediately feel drowsy and fall asleep.


"I can't believe we lost again." Rory sadly sighed. "How is it even possible? I really thought we had it in the bag this time. Now we lost like, two members compared to the Ritter who lost none."

"Hey guys, we'll probably win the next challenge." Summer assured her team. "Once everything settles down, maybe."

"Well what if this shit doesn't settle down?" Wyonetta questioned the blonde's optimism. "I mean look, it's still raining outside-"

"Precipitating-"

"Raining! Damn you, Shelly!" the hockey player facepalmed herself,

"Haha. Shelly. Nice pet names, you two." Rory laughed from the side.

"Pet names?" Sheldon raised an eyebrow at the drummer's sudden remark. "As from what I have learned during my years of growing up, pet names are only used directly for different kinds of animalia."

"Aren't humans also animals?" asked Jace.

Maelle shook her head, "You folks are talking about the weirdest of things during this time. First we went to talk about how we will improve next time. I will for sure not be surprised if there will be a debate whether or not a human is considered an animal in the next few seconds."

Right as the maid ended her sentence, everyone fell into dead silence.

Jace cleared his throat to break the dead atmosphere in the room. "So uh… ahem, I kind of want to apologize to you guys since I pretty much cost us the challenge here." he apologized, twiddling his fingers together in the process.

Summer stood up. "I'm going to go for a bit and check up on the others. I really don't know if I can handle staying here for the rest of the day thinking about how we lost."

"Understood." Maelle nodded in understanding.

The 80s girl then walked towards the staircase… only to be met by the same white smoke. She visibly flinched before dashing back to the team.

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked Rory as soon as he saw Summer's noticeably frightened expression.

"There's smoke downstairs." she said rapidly. "And-"

The smoke was already coming up to their floor.

"Uhhh what do we do?" Jace asked nervously.

Wyonetta was looking towards the hatch that leads them to the upper floor of the lighthouse. She then grabbed a nearby ladder and quickly placed it near the hatch.

"Guys, go up now, and hurry!" she ordered.

The Lytsari team began to move as quickly as they could. Rory was the first one to go up the ladder and made it to the room above. However, the team wasn't fast enough and the smoke already got to them. Jace was supposedly the next person to go up, but due to the smoke's effects kicking in, he collapsed to the floor and fell asleep, followed by the rest of the team.

The drummer immediately closed the hatch and couldn't believe what just happened.

"Oh man, what do I do now?"


A pair of eyes had opened weakly followed by a light groan. Then came a few sounds of rope being pulled.

"Ugh… are we stuck?" said a female voice, most likely belonging to no other than Paige White herself. The scene had lightened up a bit, literally, to the point where the viewers could get a glimpse of how bruised she looked. She had a black right eye, some bumps and bruises on her arms, and a few cuts on her shirt. The ribbon on her hair was notably missing so her auburn-blonde hair messily slumped on her shoulders and some right on her face.

Her wrists were tightly tied to a pair of yellowish wrists. This pair obviously belonged to Minghao, indicating that both interns were tied up to each other. The cityscaper looked as terrible as the archer. was, with bruises and cuts and bumps all over. The only difference was that both of his eyes were swollen and for some odd reason, his black hair was damp.

"I can't seeeeeeee…" Minghao whined like a baby, leaning from left to right until he end up tumbling on the floor, taking Paige with him.

"Ow! Quit that, you moron!" Paige cried out in pain, feeling pain on her side as if she was hit by a brutal punch. "Ugh my sides hurt."

"Where are weeeeee!" the Chinese intern wailed again. This time even louder and paired up with several attempts to flail his arms all around and about, failing miserably because they were stuck.

"Manoria." An ominous voice echoed in the dark room they were in. Was this the same voice they were hearing from earlier?

"Dimetrius!?" Paige gasped in shock again. "How did you even get us over here? You're just a voice!"

"Did you not witness my ritual of gathering? I have doubts that you haven't seen my true form. My immortal form-"

Paige loudly scoffed as if on purpose. "I don't give a flying shit, I will believe you again if you showed up right in front of my face right now, and aren't some silly ghost with the body of a failed member of a marching band like last night!"

The lights suddenly flickered on, and the next thing we see is that Dimetrius' face was merely millimeters away from Paige's.

"O…kay, you can step back now…" gulped the archer nervously.

Dimetrius stepped back. "I hope that you would make yourself comfy while being all tied up, Miss White." He said in an ominous voice, before untying Minghao and taking the intern with him.

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait what are you going to do to me?" Minghao asked the man with widened eyes.

"Oh nothing. I will just separate you two. Both of you are so noisy together." Dimetrius simply answered before dragging him out of the room.

"Dimetrius, what the hell!" Paige shouted but the door was closed before Dimetrius could even hear her. Now she was all alone, tied up, in a small room.


Side note: Laverne made a pun, I only realized it just now. Lmao.

This was delayed for a bit due to lots of stuff, so sadly, the release of the next episode may be delayed a bit, apologies for that. My goal is still to have it released by mid-May at most.

Anyway, this short episode was focused on everyone as next episode, we are going to jump right into the challenge so expect the next episode to be a bit shorter(?) than the previous episodes.

That's all for now, and as for Holiday Party, still accepting apps lol. Not sure when will I have a deadline tbh because I might extend but I think it also be sometime in May. Thanks for reading!