When Writers Go Bad: Chapter Ten
"Marius?" Shadow13 asked very softly, very calmly, "what happened to your eye?"
All at the table looked up suddenly from their food, and Marius felt several pairs of eyes boring into him.
"Not one word," Chauvelin hissed at him. "Or we're all dead."
Marius gulped, said nothing.
Shadow13 now began to
grow annoyed. "Well?" she demanded, though still far more calm
than she had been that morning. "What happened?"
"I…uh….."
Shadow13 stopped bothering with the poor baron, who was frightened senseless. Instead, she rounded on Ellen. "What did you do this afternoon?" she inquired, seemingly merely out of curiosity, not out of suspecting something.
"I fed the fish!" Ellen stated proudly, puffing her chest out.
"Excellent!" her creator praised. "All by yourself?"
"No."
"No?"
"No, Erik, and Chauvelin, and Javert, and Marius helped me!"
Shadow13's features now narrowed. Shadow gulped in her chair, poking at the food on her plate.
"And what time did you feed the fish?"
Ellen thought very hard, but came up with nothing; she was walking happily and blindly into the trap. "I don't remember!"
"Was it after I came home?"
"Yes."
"Was Marius' eye like that after I came home?"
"Not until we fed the fish!" Ellen stated proudly; she liked knowing the answers, which was usually Shadow's job.
"Why not until then?" And still, the question was very innocently put forth.
"Because that's when they fought!"
Shadow13 burst from her chair now, her temper exploding much like a volcano. "They what?" she demanded, wheeling on Shadow.
"Well…..you see-" she futilely began.
Too late. Shadow13 had moved on to assaulting Erik. "What did you do to them?"
The Phantom of the Opera nearly fell out of his chair. "Me? I didn't touch them!"
Ellen only now realized her grave mistake, and was wildly trying to correct it. "No, Emily, he didn't hurt them! Roberto bit Marius' finger, and he yelled, so Chauvelin yelled at him, and they started hitting each other-"
"Actually," interceded Marius, "Chauvelin was the one doing the hitting."
"You traitor!" seethed the citoyen.
Ellen continued, ignoring them, only focusing on freeing the Angel of Music from harm. This, in turn, held Shadow13's attention, and she listened, enrapt; Ellen never, ever lied. She was too stupidly innocent for that. That is why Shadow13, against her better judgment, believed her. "-And then Javert tried to pull them apart and Erik just sort of scooted away, and then Shadow came out and stopped them, and….well….that was it….."
Slowly, Shadow13 sat back down in her chair, and said but one word: "Alright."
Shadow stared from Ellen, who still looked very upset, back to Shadow13, and said nothing. Dinner shortly ended, and the characters were sent back to their rooms.
…
"Ow! You stepped on my foot!"
"Will you all shut up?"
The corridor to the men's rooms was very dark. That is why Raoul, Valjean, Marius, and Chauvelin had, thus far, not been spotted by a passing plot bunny – one of many that roamed the halls. Valjean had managed to break the locks of his own bedroom door and moved on to his neighbor's. They had proved to be the other three listed above, and he was patiently working on Sir Percy Blakeney's door when Marius had accidentally trod on Raoul's foot. He had said nothing, allowing Citoyen Chauvelin to put the two, love sick puppies into order.
"Do you think we could just leave him in his room?" implored the accredited agent as the old man skillfully worked on trying to crack the door. He silently glared up at the man, and wouldn't have spoken, had he not remembered that the dark of the hall meant that Chauvelin could not see his glaring eyes.
"No," he responded, and Chauvelin sighed, letting the subject drop. "Ah!" he cried in success, backing away from the door, which was silently swinging open of it's own accord. In the doorway, Sir Percy had been patiently waiting.
"Lud, but I thought you'd never get it through with!"
"You could tell we were trying to open the door?" Marius asked, surprised.
"With all that noise you made? Of course, m'dear boy!"
About a half hour later, Erik and Javert had joined the band, and Raoul and Marius were now loudly whining that they wanted to be with their spouses. It was upsetting Erik no end, who, of course, also wanted to be with Christine, but hadn't the privilege, and just annoying everyone else. Chauvelin was glaring rather menacingly – not that any one could see him – and strongly resisting the urge to give Marius another black eye.
"Shut up!" seethed Javert. "With all the noise you two are making, their bound to hear us."
"I miss Cosette!"
"I miss Christine!"
They continued unperturbed until all felt like ripping their ears off.
"Alright, alright! We're going that way, we're going!" insisted Valjean, trying to placate them.
…
"Ow! You stepped on my foot!"
"Will you all shut up?"
The band of gentlemen had been joined by a trio of ladies, and success would seem to be very near, had not a few problems arisen:
One was that they had no idea where they were going. Another was that once they solved the previous quandary, they still didn't know how to get back home.
"I've found a door!" Valjean cried, silencing all. He then went to work trying to unlock it, a few whispered words and hushes occasionally joining the air. He unlocked this one far faster than the other ones; this one didn't have so many locks. They all filed into the dark room, clinging to each other.
"So, where are we now?" asked Marguerite, holding her husband's hand.
"I think I can answer that one."
A light clicked on; they were in the fluff dust storage room. Bags lay in small mountains, dust lay in piles. Shadow13 was sitting quite calmly in a chair, Shadow and Ellen standing next to her. Lita had turned on the light, and was remaining by the switch. In the writer's hand she carried a pistol.
"Now, what on earth are you all doing out of bed?"
To Be Continued…..