"Come on, Chef, put your back into it! This challenge isn't going to finish itself without a whole lot of elbow grease!" Chris stood on the sidelines of the village, chowing down on a sandwich while he watched Chef sweating as he worked on putting together some structure that seemed to be a pyramid of sorts. Pharaoh came to stand next to Chris, stroking his chin while he looked it up and down. "Well, whaddya think? Pretty good for something that's been put together by this oaf, right?"
"I'd say that it definitely…looks like a pyramid alright. I'd imagined mine to be far more elegant than this, but I suppose I can make do. I'm just glad that I get to be a part of this one." Pharaoh smiled at Chris before he was shoved towards the pyramid by the host. He stumbled all the way through the front entrance, disappearing from sight entirely.
"Yeah, make sure you get yourself as deep in there as you can! I don't want this challenge to be over in just a few minutes, I really want them to dig around for your 'remains!'" Chris snickered to himself while Pharaoh walked deeper into the tomb. Mallary came to stand behind the host, shaking her head at him, to which he could only roll his eyes. "Oh boy, what are you here to nag me about this time?"
"Just how you treat people, as usual…it's unbecoming of the host. You could've at least thanked Pharaoh for agreeing to be a part of the challenge." Chris, again, rolled his eyes, and Mallary sighed to turn towards the camera. "Last time on Total Drama: Haunted Village– Rose had officially been swapped over to the Banshees from the Ghouls, leading to some confusion between her and Rosa that I'm sure all the viewers had. Speaking of Rosa, she was getting on Jonah's nerves, with how terrible of a listener and rule follower she tended to be. Pen showed Moon how much he actually missed having Rose on his team, even if he didn't mean to show anyone. We then moved onto our challenge, based on those changeling creatures from grim tales. Three members of each team were taken and…done up with makeup to look like members of the other team. The goal was to find out who was a fake, and with Camille's detective skills, snuffing out Winfred and Pen came pretty easy. However, Katniss didn't care for Victor posing as Winfred and Rosa…was just not very good at playing Yvette. When it came down to the final two, Jonah was finally discovered as a fake Pen due to a slip in his attitude, and Yvette showed that it was far too easy to fake playing Victor. Rosa ended up being eliminated that night for her failure to cooperate with the rules…dance on, disco queen. But who will be the next to fall in this accursed game? Find out now on Total Drama: Haunted Village!"
"You do intros so boring!" Chris nagged Mallary, who sighed and slouched her shoulders.
An ominous thunderclap sounded off, followed by a lightning bolt that struck the dirt and caused a few greenish, rotting hands to rise up. They continued to rise until Mallary started stomping down on them, while Chef held Chris up like he was a frightened toddler. She glanced back at him as he rocked back and forth, only sighing as the camera zoomed past them and deep into the spooky woods.
"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," Abigail took a drag from a cigarette as she walked down the woodland path, only stopping and dropping the cigarette when a flashlight started to shine all over her. The flashlight beam came from a bush, and Camille stepped out to reveal it was her that was in control of it.
"You guys are on my mind," further down the path, Katniss was running around like a wild animal until she ran into Winfred who wagged his finger at her and pulled her up from the ground, helping her stand like a regular human.
"You asked me what I wanted to be and I think the answer's plain to see," Jeremy giggled as he crawled past the duo, leaving them both confused as to why a baby was anywhere in the woods to begin with.
"I wanna be famous!" Jessica came running through, shoving both Katniss and Winfred out of the way to chase after Jeremy, who climbed into a well and fell all the way down to the bottom of it.
"I wanna live close to the sun," Pen groaned at the bottom of the well while Rose was looking around for something in the water. He grabbed a small pocket knife from his pocket, getting ready to shank her, but when Jeremy splashed into the water, he somehow had the knife replaced with a rose, which Rose turned around to see and blushed from the romantic gesture.
"So pack your bags, cause I've already won," deep beneath the waters that Pen and Rose were standing in, there was a clearing with a lot of gems spearing down from the ceiling. Pharaoh rubbed his finger against one of the gems, clearly unimpressed with it as he flicked away the gem dust, though Yvette ran in and caught it in a vial before it could hit the ground.
"Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day," back up above ground, in a tombstone filled graveyard, Freddie rubbed his hands together with a malevolent grin before he opened the door to a mausoleum to try and scare someone, but no one was there.
"I wanna be famous!" He turned around to look and see where the person that was supposed to be inside had gone, only for Rosa to jump right in his face, causing him to scream and stumble backwards into the mausoleum while she giggled at his misfortune.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," Jackson was hard at work, tinkering away at the Hearse of Shame while Victor suddenly walked by, tripping over the mechanic's legs and causing him to hit his head against the bottom of the car. Jackson started cussing violently while a nearby Jonah cleared his throat and shook his head at him.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Leon slid past the three boys on his knees, playing wildly on his guitar before he slid right into Vinnie and knocked over her pot of honey, which caused her to panic and try to scoop it back into the pot.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Moon watched all the chaos going on around her before turning to face the camera with a grin. Her eyes suddenly lit up with a blue light, and it temporarily blinded the camera's view of the village.
The camera was finally granted its sight again, and it revealed Rico and Felix sitting next to each other by a campfire. They were minding their own business, not even looking at each other until Mimsey snuck up behind them and placed the chef's hand on top of the gardener's. She was out of sight by the time they noticed, and they glanced over at each other and blushed bright red. The camera panned out to show that each of the contestants was around the campfire, whistling the closing tune.
"Come on…stupid tiny monkey wrench…why can't they just let me work on a real car?" Jackson grumbled to himself as he sat outside the cabin in the woods, fiddling around with another model car, as he tended to do. This one seemed to be made to look strikingly similar to Victor, based on its color scheme alone. But he was having quite a difficult time trying to get the wheels properly fixed on. Eventually, the wrench he was using slipped out of his hands and fell to the ground, bringing him to sigh. "Just great. You know, if I had another wrench in my hand, I'd be chuckin' it across the woods right now."
"Hey, Jackson! Whatcha doin'? You sound all grumpy," Vinnie popped out of the cabin, moving to sit next to Jackson. Of course, her paws were already covered in honey from the pot she had, and she was shoving it into the mouth of her costume. "You can have some honey if you think it'll cheer you up at all! I think it solves all of my problems!"
"Get my hands all sticky while I'm trying to work with a small car? Yeah, I don't know if that's exactly the best idea." Jackson looked over to Vinnie, immediately seeing her drooping down from the slight attitude he had given her. "N-now I didn't mean to…ah, sorry, Vinnie. I just get a bit heated when I'm working on cars and the like…key trait of a mechanic, I suppose. This one's s'posed to be for Victor, but I can't really seem to get the wheels on tight enough. They're sort of drooping down as is."
"I get it, things can be frustrating at times…um…maybe I could try helping? I don't know how good I would be at it and all, but I think it's probably worth a shot, right?" Vinnie looked towards Jackson, who seemed a bit skeptical of the idea at first. "Here, I can just…uh…" She took a look around her, making sure that nobody was watching before her blueish, glowing hand stuck out of her costume, grabbing the car from Jackson and pulling it out of his sight. "I've got pretty tiny fingers, so it shouldn't be that hard to fiddle around with this."
"Hey, if you think you got it, more power to ya. I definitely appreciate the help…it's gonna save me a headache. Or two. Or three." Jackson chuckled to himself, pulling his beanie off of his head so he could ruffle his blue hair. "Ah…so, you do any good spooks for Chris lately? I got him pretty good last night…got inside his radio and kept manually changing the stations. Heh, looked pretty terrified, I'd say."
"Spooks…? No…I don't think I've done any since I got here. I know that Chris really isn't a good person and all, but I just…can't bring myself to try and scare anybody. I'd feel just plum awful if I did." Vinnie sounded like she was really focused on what she was doing inside her suit, as a few of her words were mumbled. "Oh! I think I got it!" She eventually thrust the car back out of the costume and towards Jackson, showing him that the wheels had been finally put together properly.
"Huh? You actually got that pretty quickly…not bad, not bad! Would've liked to have somebody like you helping out around the shop back when I was still alive. Definitely woulda helped us get things done a lot quicker and all." Jackson chuckled and took the car back from Vinnie as he stood up, with her standing to join him. "Say…wanna give this to Vic with me? I'm sure he'll appreciate it."
"Oh, I'd love to do that! I still feel pretty bad about the last challenge, so I wanna make it up to him!" Vinnie nodded at Jackson, and the duo headed towards the boys' side of the cabin.
Confessional
"Vinnie and I chill around each other quite a bit these days, guess the two of us just really get along and all that. It's nice to have a buddy…even if we're dead and all." Jackson chuckled to himself, shaking his head a little bit. "Not like I don't like the rest of my buds around here, they're all great. She's just special, y'know?"
"I'm glad I could help Jackson out with that car…since helping other people tends to be the only thing that I'm really great at. Wish I could help myself a bit more…but I'm fine being miserable if it means that the people around me can be happy." Vinnie had taken the head of her costume off to show her blue face, which was gently smiling at the camera. "And Jackson…he's a good guy. So…I like helping him out."
Confessional End
"There must be something in here…something about what's happening to Leon…" Winfred had brought himself to the mansion's library, taking a look at the vast variety of books on the paranormal that were available for the contestants to read. He had one pulled out about the effects of correlation between the afterlife and a need for substance in regular life. "Leon mentioned something before about…what was it, adrenaline? Something's gotta be happening to put him under those odd spells…"
"Ecto-adrenaline is what he had mentioned, actually." Yvette's voice called from the door to the library, effectively startling Winfred…which wasn't actually the most difficult thing to do. She calmly walked towards him, her hands clasped behind her back as she did. "I know…I've seen Leon in both states of mind. Quite an odd phenomenon that's occurring in his spectral form, I would say. Nothing that I've checked in this library points out anything that might be of use in that sort of investigation."
"That was the truth," Winfred thought to himself as he looked at Yvette, who was just calmly smiling at him. "Well…that's a shame. I do hate to see him in such a miserable state…and helping him get past this hurdle so he can actually enjoy his afterlife would be great. It's just that…no matter where I look, I can't really seem to find what it might be that would actually help out with this investigation. Maybe I'd benefit from asking for Camille's assistance?" The scholar chuckled to himself, though got no reaction out of Yvette.
"Camille is quite talented when it comes to discovering hidden information, I will give you that much. I doubt she's got the time to help you out, however. She seems like the type that's always busy with something important…perhaps it's best to just up your own efforts?" Yvette cocked her head to the side, still smiling at Winfred, who was a little put off by her sudden point about Camille.
"R-right…she does seem like she's always out and about, doing something. I guess it would be frivolous to ask her for her assistance. Well…what of you, Yvette?" Yvette raised an eyebrow at Winfred as he brought her name up. "You're certainly a smart lady, perhaps you'd be able to give me a hand with this matter? Or if you know anything about it already, anything is nice to know! Whatever I can get to help Leon out."
"I do appreciate that you've recognized my brain power as my primary asset and all, but regretfully, I don't believe I'll be able to help you in your endeavor. It's not that I don't want to…but I simply know nothing about what's forcing that ecto-adrenaline into his body. Maybe it's just a lingering sensation from his former life…a reminder of how he passed. There might be nothing we can even do about it." Yvette adjusted her glasses, still smiling, as before.
"...And that…was a lie…" Winfred gulped nervously, trying to keep himself quiet as he stared back at Yvette, whose smile was a lot more cryptic than he had initially remembered it being. "W-well…it was worth a shot asking you. I've got no problem just working on it myself, if that's what I'm left to do. As I said…it's anything to make sure that I can help him out."
"Right, of course." Yvette nodded to Winfred, who took a few of the books with him and started walking towards the door to leave the library. As he finally got over there and was about to leave, Yvette suddenly spoke up again. "Oh, Winfred? That Katniss…what do you think led her to her ultimate demise? Her instincts, right? An animal's got quite the symbiotic relationship with their own instincts…makes them do things you'd never expect from a human."
"...I would guess that would have something to do with it, yes. I've never asked, and I don't intend to. I feel that conversation might just upset her." Winfred didn't look back at Yvette, but he could tell that she was staring at the back of his head. Rather than choosing to continue, he took his leave from the room, tugging at his collar as he walked down the mansion's halls.
Confessional
"Yvette…she had mentioned that she knew nothing of what was causing the issue with Leon, but that was a lie. I don't understand…why would she lie about something like that? She doesn't gain anything from him being in such ethereal pain, does she?" Winfred scratched at his chin as he thought, still appearing just as nervous as before. "...There must be something that she does gain from this situation, but what? Something she doesn't want me to know about…"
"Winfred likes to pry quite a bit, doesn't he? That's quite the shame…as I really don't care for when others dip their fingers into my own affairs. Just as the wondrous Scarlett would detest such intrusions, I am no different." Yvette adjusted her glasses, her normally blue eyes being their vicious, red hue once more. "While Winfred may not have any symbiotic relationship for me to work off of, I do believe that I can use Katniss. I'll have to keep that in mind if he continues to poke around in my business."
Confessional End
"Ah! I said I was sorry! I know it's happened a lot now, but you don't have to bite me!" Leon ran into a supply closet, slamming the door shut behind him. The door slamming was followed by a sudden thud against the door, and then some snarls that one could only imagine were coming from Katniss. The rocker took a few deep breaths before sitting down on the floor, his back resting against the door. "Katniss, please, you have to believe me on this. I would never act like that if I can control it…I tried kicking the ecto, I don't know how it got in my system again!"
"Leon always go after Winnie! Winnie Katniss best friend! Leon say was accident last time, but happen again!" Katniss started to slam her body against the door, attempting to bust it down, but not having any success with that. She eventually stopped and went back to growling while pacing around the door on all fours. "No reason for Katniss to trust Leon!"
"Look, I'll do whatever I can to prove that I had no intention to fly off the handle like that, but I can't do that if you're going to be chasing me around and trying to kill me all the time! N-not that you can actually kill me, but still!" Leon let out a deep sigh, turning himself around to face the door. "Please…I know that it's really hard to trust me, but I fully intend to show you however I can that it wasn't something I chose."
"Grrr…if Leon actually telling truth, Winnie let Katniss know! Katniss not trust Leon so soon!" Katniss plopped herself down on the ground in front of the door, cuddling herself up like a dog that had decided to take a nap.
"S-so…can you let me out of this closet so we can go find Winnie? If I can talk to him, I'm sure that he'll understand." Leon pleaded with the wild child, but she didn't respond. "Katniss…" After a few seconds, he ended up hearing her snoring outside of the door, and found himself a bit puzzled. "Oh…she's asleep. Well…I guess this would be as good a time as any to…wait, no. I can't just phase through the door…Chris could be around. Oh man…"
"Attention spooky ghosts and goons!" Chris's voice hollered out at perfect timing, giving a sense of relief to Leon, though Katniss shot up from the floor, barking from having been woken up so suddenly. "I'm sure you guys are having fun off in la-la land or whatever it is that each of you is doing right now, but we've got another challenge coming up for you! Can each of you head deep into the village? You'll find exactly where you'll need to be for this next challenge…it sticks out like a sore thumb!"
Confessional
"Gotta thank Chris…I don't know how long I would've been stuck in that closet if it weren't for him calling us for the challenge. That always seems to at least get Katniss distracted…so I can freely move around." Leon chuckled, but eventually sighed and slumped back in the confessional. "I really hate that this happened again…I was trying to avoid it as best as I could, but it seems that I failed with that. I just need to be more careful…a lot more careful."
"Leon still evil in Katniss eyes, but Winnie know best. Have to ask Winnie if Leon can be trusted." Katniss grunted at the camera before spotting a bird flying around above her. She jumped up and caught it, but it pecked her on the nose and flew away while she whimpered. "Evil bird! Evil just like Leon!"
Confessional End
The two teams came to the heart of the village, as Chris had requested them to before. They passed by plenty of abandoned houses and all, though they remembered him having said something about being able to easily tell where the challenge would be taking place…and oh, boy, they definitely were. They ended up coming across the pyramid from before, which had finally been finished being constructed by Chef, who was panting while laying on the ground. Mallary was there to fan him off, glaring at Chris, who was standing just near the entrance to the large structure.
"Pyramids…odd that we didn't see this being built at all throughout the day…" Jonah looked the pyramid up and down, heading the group of people and being the first to stand before Chris. "Well, I do have to say that this is pretty impressive. So, what's the plan here?"
"The challenge, right! So, this here pyramid isn't just any pyramid…it's the tomb for our very own Pharaoh! You know, the contestant-turned-intern!" Chris looked over the remaining fourteen contestants, all of which were looking back at him and wondering what he meant by that. "We sent Pharaoh in here super early in the day, telling him to pick whatever spot he wants to rest in and all. Your job, as teams, is to find and recover him from the depths of the tomb!"
"So just…going in there and looking for him? Well, that doesn't seem like it'll be too difficult with my expert detective skills on our side." Camille beamed to herself, with Jonah being mildly annoyed by her arrogance.
"Yeah yeah, detective and yadda yadda, whatever. Too bad for you that we've filled this thing up with booby traps! You'll hardly be able to stay in one place really long enough to investigate, so you're forced to keep moving!" Camille seemed a little disheartened by this, which only brought Chris more joy. "So, if there aren't any questions, how about you all shove in there and let's get this show on the road!" The teams sighed before they started to shuffle into the pyramid, leaving Chris to smirk and watch them disappear from his sight.
Confessional
"Wandering through a pyramid to look for Pharaoh…certainly not the most intense challenge that we've had, but perhaps the booby traps are something to worry about." Jonah paused in thought, "...We'll have to keep our wits about us to make sure that we don't stumble into a trap too easily. Rosa may be gone, but there are still other members of my team that…aren't always the best when it comes to being patient and following directions."
"Oh…I know I could just make doors in all the walls, but Chris is probably gonna be watching me! Zut…this is just like the maze challenge from before. I don't wanna do something stupid and get in trouble with this team, too! I wish Moon was here…and Pen." Rose blushed while she spun her braid around her finger.
"Rose will be alright to do this challenge, right? I certainly hope so…I remember what had happened the last time we were put in a maze type challenge." Pen rubbed the back of his head, blushing and glancing away from the camera. "N-not that I care whether or not she loses or anything! It's none of my concern, really!"
Confessional End
"This depiction of hieroglyphs seems rather crude and offensive…" Moon ran her hands over one of the walls inside the pyramid, clearly having some distaste for the etchings that were there. They were all shapes, but they seemed to be pretty terribly done, like a toddler was given a little chisel and told to run wild in the pyramid. "Well…I guess this is the sort of thing that I should know to expect from Chris at this point, anyways."
"I never took Chris for being one that cares about how people feel about things, so…seems pretty on brand, yeah." Rico casually walked ahead of Moon, not realizing that he stepped on a button as he continued to walk. A spear suddenly thrust down from the ceiling above him, crashing into the floor right in front of him and startling him so badly that his skin went ghostly pale. "W-w-what kind of booby trap is that supposed to be!? T-that's obviously meant to just kill somebody!"
"You said it yourself that this is Chris that we're dealing with, Rico. I'm shocked that this can surprise you if you've already acknowledged that simple fact." Yvette swerved around the spear and continued to walk along the path, with the other teammates following behind her. Rico was the last to follow the rest, still being nervous from having been nearly impaled so early on. "If I were to guess, I would assume that the traps will be activated via buttons, switches, and tripwires. In other words, don't touch the walls, and watch where you're walking." Before Yvette could keep walking, she heard a loud thud behind her, and turned around to see Pen's hand on the wall, with a bowling ball cracking through the floor right in front of him. "...I just told you to not touch the walls."
"I-I was only trying to see if this hieroglyph was supposed to be about French people or not! It was a pig, so I figured it would be." Moon sighed at Pen's comment, and the group all continued along, trying to be a bit more wary of their surroundings. Meanwhile, with the Banshees, Jonah was leading the way, not to anyone's shock.
"S-so…what do you guys think we should look out for in here? I-I don't want to accidentally set something off, so knowing what we're looking for might help." Victor was staying near the back of the group when he was suddenly patted on the back by Jackson.
"I wouldn't worry so much about any of that, just trust your gut! That's what I always do when it comes to things like this! In fact, I'm one of the only mechanics at my dad's shop that was ever able to find his missing ten millimeter sockets!" Jackson smirked and started to walk past the rest of his team, joining Jonah up at the front. "If you give me five seconds, I could probably figure out what direction we should go in."
"No offense, Jackson, but I'm not sure that going with our guts is really going to be our best option in this scenario. When the place is full of booby traps, you never know when you'll stumble into danger…and having to go back and look for a lost teammate in this pyramid really doesn't seem that optimal for us." Jonah ruffled up Jackson's hair, which seemed to annoy the mechanic a bit. "I have no problem with taking charge of the seven of us in here, should be easy enough to find Pharaoh and bring him back before the others get the chance to."
"Pardon my intrusion, of course, but…I feel like maybe listening to Jackson on the going with the gut thing could be somewhat beneficial for us. I always go with my gut whenever I'm in the kitchen, and look at me! I've hardly got a scratch on me with how good I am at that!" Felix beamed and struck a pose, though Jonah immediately pointed to his arms, which were littered with burns and cuts aplenty. The culinarian blushed and tucked his arms behind his back, "Alright, alright, you've made your point."
"I will at least ask, before we get too far in and since we're at a fork in our path right now…does anyone have any preference on which of these two paths we should take?" Jonah turned to look back at the rest of his team, only seeing a raised hand from Jackson. "...Okay, Jackson…where would you like to go?"
"Well, the gut is saying to take the left, so obviously we gotta take the left." Jackson nodded, completely sure of his answer.
"Then we'll take the right. Remember what I said about not going with the gut here? It's just going to lead us into trouble." Jackson groaned while Jonah turned down the right of the two paths, the rest of the team following him, with some of them a little annoyed about him just disregarding Jackson's idea immediately. Meanwhile, down the left path, it was only a short walk to the room that Pharaoh was in. The intern was laying down on a cot, eating grapes with a smile on his face.
Confessional
"I know…I know that it may seem like I am acting rude towards Jackson, but it's the reputation that he's left with his decision making in the past. He snuck into one of the mausoleums in our first elimination challenge, almost giving up our identities as ghosts to Chris right off the bat. Not only that, but he can be pretty loose, just like Rosa. I do like him, but I'm just not sure that following his gut is going to lead us to the end of this challenge." Jonah sighed as he rubbed his temple.
"This must be what Rosa was talking about when she said that Jonah was a big stick in the mud…didn't wanna admit it then, but I kinda understood it. I mean, he's always been so…stiff about everything. Maybe the way I wanted to go would've led us right to Pharaoh, y'know?" Jackson shrugged his shoulders lightly, "Far be it from me to assume the role of leader from him, I guess."
Confessional End
"W-Winfred, my man!" Leon was practically panting as he ran up to Winfred, placing a hand on his shoulder and taking some deep breaths. The scholar was shocked to see that he was so exhausted, and didn't even really know why he was running in the first place. "Y-you gotta help me, man! Katniss won't let up on all the gnawing and the biting, it's really making it difficult for me to concentrate on the challenge. S-she even tore part of my pants off…" Leon lifted up his left leg to show that there was, indeed, a good portion of his pants missing.
"Oh my…" Winfred glanced back to see Katniss following the two of them, Leon's pant leg still stuffed into her mouth. She was chowing down on it, trying to gnaw it to shreds. "Katniss, please, you know that behavior is so unbecoming…why don't you give Leon his pant leg back and ease up just a bit, okay? We're all on edge in this booby trapped nightmare…it'd be better for all of us if we could just get along." The wild child grumbled to herself, clearly not really wanting to listen, but she inevitably spat out the pant leg towards Leon.
"Uh…" Leon took one look at the soaked piece of fabric and shuddered, "You know, on second thought…I think you should probably just keep it. I can always just…get another pair of pants if I really need them." Katniss wasted no time in scooping the pant leg back up, and went right back to chowing on it while Leon sighed. "T-thanks, Winfred. Owe you one for that, I really do."
"No, it's really no trouble at all. I'm just remorseful that I haven't figured out what had happened to cause your sudden shift back to how you were when you first got here." Leon seemed a bit shocked to hear the scholar talking like this, "Yes, you told me that you didn't take any more adrenaline before…that was the truth. Which leaves me to wonder about what got it into your body. Maybe a lingering spell, but…it lasted quite some time. Too long to just be a little lingering."
"I-I'm really not sure…I mean, if I knew, I definitely would've told you already, but obviously I didn't know, so…yeah." Leon looked ahead to see that Yvette was scolding Pen again for setting off another booby trap, this one being a log that swung out in front of the group. "We're kinda trailing behind…better catch up with them so we can keep tempo, right?"
"Right, right…"
Confessional
"This challenge is actually quite a good one for me to do my thinking in…all I've got to do is make sure I'm following the rest of our team, but that isn't too difficult, all things considered." Winfred smiled lightly, but his smile didn't last very long, "...All this being said, I don't think I'm drawing upon any reasonable conclusions other than Yvette having involvement in the case at hand. She isn't aware that I can tell lies and truths apart, which is a good thing, but I don't doubt that my nervousness earlier may have alerted her of that. I'm a bit too scared to even be near here, as of this moment."
Confessional End
"See? There's barely been any booby traps or dead ends this way, I'd say we're well on the right track to the end of the challenge." Jonah was still leading his troop, with Jackson right behind him, still looking annoyed at having his idea earlier rejected so suddenly.
"But I'm getting so tired from all this walking…this feels like more steps than they even have in the pyramid." Rose groaned, being at the very back of her team, right next to Victor. The two of them both looked like they had been run through it with how much walking they were doing, but this didn't stop Jonah from continuing on ahead. "C-can we maybe just take a little break here?"
"Rose, you're a ghost…I really don't understand how you can feasibly run out of energy just from walking." Rose pouted after Camille pointed out the obvious, with the detective snickering about her own remark. "I'm teasing, of course. I wish we could stop for a bit, I could probably look around for clues, but Chris mentioned booby traps that'll keep us from doing that. If I were to guess, I'd say that he's probably got a remote control somewhere that activates traps in this pyramid. That's what he meant by that."
"Pretty good observation, Camille…he's probably watching us through a camera and groaning because you found that out." Jonah smirked a bit, continuing on down the path. Meanwhile, outside of the pyramid, Chris was looking at a tablet screen while holding a remote and groaning. But back in the pyramid, it seemed that the path that the Banshees were taking was coming to an end…a dead end, to be exact. Jonah stared at the wall in front of him, feeling around it with his hand before turning around to face the rest of his team. Jackson, in particular, looked pretty annoyed. "W-well…my apologies, it would seem I've led us down the wrong path!"
"You mean that we should've gone with my gut in the first place, right?" Jackson huffed and turned around to start walking back the way they came.
"Now, now, I apologized, I would say there's no need for any further hostility between us, Jackson. A gentleman doesn't pursue these little squabbles any further than he must." Jonah walked to join Jackson, who glared at him.
"You know, Rosa was definitely right about you, Jonah. You got a whole stick up your rear end. You wanna be the leader, you feel like you've got some duty to be in charge of us all, but who cares? Just let us be ourselves…mighta saved us a whole lot of searching time if you would've just done that." Jonah wasn't even sure how to respond, as Jackson continued to glare at him.
"Um…guys, I really don't know if now is the best time for us to be standing still and arguing…" Camille tried to butt in, but it was far too late, as Chris activated a trap from outside, which snatched the whole group of them up in a large net, preventing them from moving around. Of course, that didn't stop anyone from trying to scramble free, but they only ended up making the rope that was holding the net up snap. This caused the net to fall down to the floor, but everyone was still wrapped inside it.
"...Well…this would be a really good time for me to start a fire, wouldn't it?" Felix joked, though his whole team just groaned at him, clearly not in the mood for any of the jokes right now.
"Well…since we're stuck here, maybe we should try moving as a unit. Can anybody get their legs unstuck from this mess?" Jonah asked the rest of his team, though with some wriggling around, the only one that was able to get his legs out from the net was Jackson. "...I guess that's definitely better than none of us being able to. Jackson, carry us back down the path, please!"
"And now he wants me to carry, I see how it is," Jackson grumbled under his breath and heaved as he started to walk back down the path…though he was being really slow about it. Not out of choice, but because carrying everybody was just an immense task for him.
Confessional
"Well, I did try to lighten the mood up a little bit, buuuut it didn't really work or anything. I never was the best with comedic timing, though." Felix laughed to himself, but from the look on his face, it seemed like something was bothering him. "You know…I'm fine with whatever challenges we do, really, but I kinda wish that we had more where we could see the other team. Been a while since I got to see how Rico was…really missing the guy."
Confessional End
"This challenge really is dragging on…I was hoping we would've found the end already." Yvette sighed, with Rico walking alongside her. She looked at him, a bit confused by his presence. "Rico? Was Moon not just here with me?"
"Uh…oh, Moon! Right, right…she fell a bit behind not too long ago. I think she was trying to make sure that Pen didn't get into any more trouble…" Rico took a look behind him, though he only noticed Winfred, Katniss, and Leon standing there. "They…must've fallen really far behind, huh?"
"I suppose that's not too much of a problem…we don't need to have everybody on our team to find Pharaoh to win the challenge. Just odd that she feel back, but Pen has been pretty bad with all of these booby traps." Yvette adjusted her glasses and looked ahead at the path that she was taking, noticing that it forked off in two different directions. "Left and right, huh…I suppose the logical thing to do would be to split up down either path."
"Katniss smell…smell someone down on right!" Katniss trotted up to join Yvette and Rico, passing between the two of them and running down the right path on all fours. After a few seconds, the four members of the team that were still standing back heard a man scream from where Katniss had run. The wild child came trotting back soon enough, dragging Pharaoh behind her with her teeth tugging on his shirt.
"I-I would've just walked with you, you didn't need to use your mouth to grab me! You got me, you got me, you win, please, just let me go!" Winfred raised an eyebrow at Katniss, and she did finally let go of the actor, who sprung up from the ground and took a deep breath to try and relax from having been dragged back to the Ghouls. "N-now…we'll head back to Chris then to report your win, right?"
"That's the only logical move from this point, so we shall do that." Yvette adjusted her glasses again, turning around with her other teammates to head back the way that they came. Meanwhile, somewhere else in the pyramid, Pen and Moon were standing close together, with Moon holding onto something.
"...This must've been sprung up into here when they were constructing the pyramid…one of the immunity idols." Moon opened her hand to show that she did have one of the idols, and Pen looked at it closely with her. "Pen, I need you to do me a favor, if you don't mind. This idol…can you please give it to Rose?"
"Rose? But…why wouldn't you just want to hold onto it yourself?" Pen looked a bit confused as he looked up at Moon, though the expression on her face was a dead giveaway that she was pretty upset about something. "I-I mean…of course, I can give it to her. I just don't really see why you would want that. Doesn't matter to me, anyways. Other than the fact that I'll actually have to talk to Rose."
"Right, because that bothers you so much," Moon rolled her eyes at Pen, who blushed and looked away. "Regardless…thank you, Pen. Thank you very much."
Confessional
"Pen is right…I could just hold onto the idol if I wished to do so…but I believe that Yvette would find out about it far too easily. It's unpredictable in the hands of Rose, she might not even want to use it. Should the need for it ever arise…I'll get the idol back from her." Moon had a serious look on her face as her bat sat upon her head. "...I feel that it just might be the ticket to ending Yvette's reign of terror."
Confessional End
Yvette, Leon, Winfred, Katniss, and Rico had all gotten themselves out of the pyramid a lot faster than the other team and the two remaining members of their team, but they came bringing Pharaoh, who was still trying to shake Katniss' slobber off of his shirt. Mallary, Chris, and Chef all stood there, waiting for them.
"Well, well! Looks like the Ghouls went and won themselves another challenge! Not a big shock, considering that the Banshees are…heheh…all tied up!" Chris grabbed a megaphone from his pocket, and while some people questioned how it even fit in there in the first place, most just chose to accept it. He pressed the button on it before suddenly shouting into it, "Banshees! Hope you guys can scramble out of that net pretty soon, cause you've got another elimination ceremony to be getting to!" Obviously Chris couldn't actually see the Banshees, but he could hear a loud groan coming from several people within the depths of the pyramid.
Confessional
"...Well…it does seem to me that there is only one logical solution in this whole mess." Jonah cleared his throat before standing up in the confessional booth. "It's been quite a good amount of fun around my teammates…but I have to acknowledge when I've made a mistake. It's my duty as a gentleman, after all. I sincerely hope that my friends here can forgive me for what I've done."
Confessional End
It was their second elimination ceremony in a row, so one would've expected their to be some upset tension amidst the Banshees, but there was more so confusion than anything else. Jackson, Vinnie, Victor, Rose, Camille, Felix– all of them were still seated, staring ahead at Jonah, who was standing at the podium with Mallary, who was a tad confused as she held her platter of marshmallows on one of her hands. Even Chef, who was currently sitting and waiting in the driver's seat of the Hearse of Shame, was confused about what was going on.
"Ladies…gentlemen…" Jonah cleared his throat and stepped forward, looking over each of his teammates with a smile. "...I have to apologize to the lot of you, first and foremost. Jackson, in particular. I realize that I've been holding onto you all with an iron grip…and that perhaps has helped you all to harbor some animosity for me. Truth is, the animosity is all deserved…I should've been more willing to listen to each of you, to hear all of you out…to not assume that I hold some high ground over any of you." Jonah took a step towards Jackson, getting down on his knee and bowing his head.
"It wasn't a gentlemanly thing for me to do, and I can recognize when I have overstepped my boundaries. I wanted nothing more than to lead our team to success, but in doing so, I only divided us. I hope that you can all forgive me…as this will be the last night I spend in the village. Regardless of vote, I no longer wish to compete, as I can't stand the things that it's done to me. Please, all of you…take care…and may we see each other fairly soon. I can't wait for the day when the contest is all over and we can just…have fun. No rules…just a fun time." Jonah stood back up from the ground, smiling at all of his teammates, a few of which looked like they were close to tears from how emotional he was being. He nodded at Jackson and tipped his top hat to him, which got a grin shot back his way from the mechanic.
"Ah, you big oaf…next time I see you, we're gonna figure out how to make a steampunk-mobile! It'll be the coolest damn car anyone has ever seen!" Jackson got up from his seat and shook Jonah's hand. That handshake was all that the gentleman had left for his team before turning to head to the Hearse of Shame, which he entered with stride. Mallary and Chef shrugged as they looked between each other, and the co-host just started to drive off with Jonah in tow, taking him away from the village. This left the Banshees to start leaving the elimination ceremony, but when Rose got up, she noticed that Pen was standing off to the side, holding something behind his back.
"Oh? Pen! Another visit! It's so nice to be seeing you so frequently…though it does really make me miss being on the same team as you." Rose giggled as she walked over to the Englishman, who blushed the very second that he saw her so close up. "You have something behind your back, oui? What is it?"
"It's…ah, M-Moon told me to have you hold onto this…if you wouldn't mind." Pen gulped nervously before holding out the immunity idol towards Rose, who just looked unsure of it. She ended up taking it, inspecting it closely. "I-it's one of the idols…she just asked if you could hold onto it, is all."
"Oh…well, yes, I can do this for my friend. I don't mind at all." Rose giggled some more, tucking the idol into her sweater. "Was that all you wanted of me?"
"...M-maybe I wanted to just see you…o-obviously I was hoping that you'd be getting eliminated tonight." Pen couldn't say that with a straight face, and it didn't take a genius to tell that he didn't mean it. Rose smiled and leaned down to him, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"I like seeing you as well, Pen."
"...Y-you know you're the one French person that I can actually stand, right? Y-you'd better take that as a compliment, cause it means a lot, coming from me!" Pen grumbled while Rose continued to hold her hand on his shoulder. Eventually, he sighed, and suddenly wrapped his arms around her to hug her, which did catch her off guard. It also got her to blush quite a bit. "...A-And I miss you too."
"...I know, Pen," Rose wrapped her arms around Pen as well, pulling him in closer to her, "...I know."
*Votes: N/A
*Elimination Order: 20th - Pharaoh; 19th - Freddie; 18th - Mimsey; 17th - Jessica and Jeremy; 16th - Abigail; 15th - Rosa; 14th - Jonah
