"Hm…what do you think, guys? Does that moon look full enough to you? I can't really tell from this angle…" Chris peered through the window of the main lodge's lobby, looking up at the sky, directly at the moon. It certainly did look full…or at least mostly full. Hearing him question it was enough to make anybody else question whether or not it was truly a full moon. Mallary and Chef walked over to join him, with the ghost host looking over his shoulder. "You see what I mean, right?"
"...I'm not sure, but does it really matter? Just because the challenge will be based on werewolves doesn't mean that there are going to be actual werewolves." Mallary stepped away from the window, holding her hands behind her back while Chris glared at her.
"Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but when you've been hosting this show since the very first season, you really want things to be as accurate as they possibly can be!" Chris furrowed his brow while Chef rolled his eyes at him.
"I wouldn't worry too much about what Baby McLean here thinks…he's probably just cranky cause he's been stuck out here in the pouring rain and dark for so many weeks now. It ain't 'good for his beauty routine.' Or so he says." The co-host and the ghost host snickered together while Chris pouted and turned the other way. "Aw, baby's gettin' upset because of a little teasing."
"I am so docking your pay after this episode!" Chris grumbled, hearing the two others still laughing at him while he walked away from them. "Last time on Total Drama: Haunted Village– things got spooky, and I mean really spooky, when Yvette met Winfred in the library to discuss what had been going wrong with Leon before! Leon himself was busy hiding from Katniss in a closet, though that maybe didn't work out so amazingly for him…well, he got lucky I saved him when I called for the challenge. The challenge was another fairly simple one: head into a pyramid to find and bring back Pharaoh, who hid himself somewhere inside it! Jackson had the bright idea to trust his gut on which way to go, but Jonah wasn't having that, and insisted he lead the way regardless. Yvette took charge of her own team, telling her mates how to avoid the traps…though Pen still set off a pretty good deal of them. After Jonah led his team to a dead end, and I swiped the whole lot of the Banshees up in a net, Katniss ended up finding Pharaoh with her powerful nose, bringing him back to her team to secure their second win in a row! Jonah ended up quitting the show after how he treated his teammates, and Moon found an idol which she told Pen to give to Rose to hold onto. Oh…and those two also hugged. Not the most exciting romance, but it is what it is. But maybe we'll get something more entertaining out of Rico and Felix…who knows? You'll have to find out on this episode of Total Drama: Hauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunted Villaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage!"
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, maggots, move it, move it!" Chef grumbled as he ushered the Ghouls out of their stay in the mansion. A few of them pretended to act drowsy from "being woken up in the middle of the night," but most of them didn't care to put up this sort of facade. Well, there was Rico, who was either just a really good actor, or really as tired as he looked. He had bags under his eyes which damn near drooped right off of his face. The co-host took one look at him and scowled, "Boy, come on now, get your butt in gear!"
"Oh…I just can't help being so tired…we were all supposed to be sleeping by now, but we got woken up out of nowhere…" Rico raised his hands to rub his eyes while Chef rolled his own at him. For the most part, there were only a few ghosts that knew that Chef actually knew they were ghosts, those few being Mallary, Jessica, and Leon. With Jessica gone, this only left two that knew about this. He hadn't made the attempt to let them know of his knowledge of this, but he still couldn't help but be a little irritated by Rico's tired display.
"Well, you're gonna have to get yourself as awake as you can, we got a pretty hefty challenge coming your way in this one." Chef grinned and started to walk ahead of the group. "Mallary's grabbing the Banshees for the challenge now, and we're all gon' be headed to the same place."
"We'll be doing another challenge where we can all see each other? Oh, that's wonderful news!" Moon clasped her hands together and smiled while Pen walked alongside her, looking a tad confused by what was making her so happy. "I'd just like to see how Rose is handling herself on her new team…we haven't seen how she fared in these past two challenges."
"O-oh, right…well, she hasn't been eliminated yet, so shouldn't that give you some idea or sort of idea, at least?" Pen glanced away, hiding yet another blushing face, though in hiding it from Moon, he ended up showing it right to Rico who, while still exhausted, just giggled when he saw him like that. "N-now don't you go laughing at me, twink! I've…come down with a bit of a cold, that's why my cheeks are red!"
"I never said I was laughing at you, Pen," Rico leaned towards Pen with a little smirk on his face, completely ignoring the fact that he had just been called a twink. "But you can insist that you aren't blushing because you've got a soft spot for a certain French beauty, I won't judge!"
"For heaven's sake, not you, too!" Pen groaned before turning back to see Moon giving him the exact same smirk that Rico was giving him. "I should've known that you would've told others of that theory you have. I-I don't have any soft spot for anyone, especially not Rose!"
Confessional
"I have a soft spot for Rose," Pen turned himself away from the camera, cradling himself as if he feared for his own life. "I'm such a pushover that I can't even stay insistent on my hatred for the French! Instead, I've fallen for one of them! Granted…she is…c-considerably beautiful…for a Frenchie, I mean! P-perhaps also one of the sweetest people I've ever met…heavens, I'm a fool! I've done a horrible thing by letting myself be wooed by that gorgeous temptress!"
"I like being able to tease Pen about him having a crush on Rose…I mean, I've got a pretty big crush of my own, but if I was getting teased about it…I'd just be a real gay disaster!" Rico fanned himself off with one hand while he held his orange rose in the other one. "S-so having someone else to be in that position certainly makes me feel a bit better."
Confessional End
"Come along, all of you. There's a rather big challenge going on today, it would behoove all of us to get there before Chris decides to give the win to the Ghouls by default." Mallary was indeed ushering the Banshees out of their cabin, all six of them that were left, anyways. Vinnie, Jackson, and Victor all walked together, not to much of anyone's shock. Rose and Felix ended up walking together as well, which left Camille trailing behind the others, but she happily took the time to inspect the area in search of any of the remaining idols. Little did she know that there was only one that was yet to be discovered, of course.
"It's really late…never thought we'd be doing a whole challenge at midnight, but I guess we should really expect the unpredictable from Chris. Not how I would want to run my show if I had one, but you know," Felix stretched his arms out before holding them behind his head and leaning back while he walked. He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Rose seemed particularly happy about something. "You're all bright and peachy…must be really excited to have another challenge, huh?"
"Oh, non…not happy about the challenge! The other day, after our elimination ceremony, Pen came by from the other team and gave me a hug! I've been feeling pretty good ever since!" Rose wrapped her arms around herself to hug herself, blushing and smiling innocently, even getting a chuckle out of Felix. "I know that we don't really feel those sensations and all, but I still feel all warm inside, somehow."
"Hey, I'm always feeling warm inside, too. Though, maybe that's because of the nature of my untimely demise…" Felix glanced down at the burn marks all over his body, cringing a little bit when he saw them. "Well, guess we'll never know. I mean, Mallary's pretty smart with all the ghost stuff, even though she hasn't been dead for that long. Maybe there's like…books about this kinda thing. I still haven't figured out how to use my 'spooky, spectral powers.'"
"Oh? That's weird, from what I have seen, you just need to think about it. Everybody has a different one, I know that much! Like me and my doors!" Rose suddenly gasped, covering her mouth with one of her hands. "T-that reminds me! If I ever stumble into your room, I promise I don't mean to! I sometimes don't know where my own doors are going to lead to, is all."
"Doors? Guess that's pretty cool…I really don't know what my thing would be, maybe something with cooking? I can cook the perfect meal every time, that'd be fitting!" Felix beamed at his own confidence, with Rose just giggling innocently.
"I've actually taken note of all the powers that I've witnessed in use, if you two wanted to hear?" Camille butted her way into the conversation, mildly startling the two of her teammates, though they still seemed eager to hear her out. "As far as the people that are still here go…Rose can create doors from point a to point b, Vinnie can make people become overwhelmed with happiness, Victor can communicate with animals, Rico can sprout plants to life, Moon has several hex based abilities, and Pen can pickpocket people from afar. That last one got me into a fair bit of trouble."
"Then…what's your thing like? Since you know all these other ones and all?" Felix stared at Camille inquisitively, though she just smiled and walked away from the two of them. "Right…she wouldn't want to give away any sort of game advantage that she can get. Well, no biggie! I'm sure I'll find out what my whole deal is soon enough!"
Confessional
"I did exclude Yvette from the conversation, of course…telling anyone that I know what she's capable of just endangers myself more than anything else. But as far as things go for myself…" Camille snickered to herself before blinking and revealing that her pupils were a bright blue color. "Of course, you can't see much of what is going on from my angle, but it tracks things. Right now, I've got it set to Chris…I'll know where he is at all times since I can follow his trail. Nifty for a detective."
"Seems like everybody else knows how to use their powers better than I do…maybe that means I'm not actually dead?" Felix's eyes lit up excitedly as he thrust his hand towards his face, sighing when it phased straight through it. "Nope, definitely dead. I guess I'm just a pretty useless ghost, huh?" He laughed for a bit, but ended up sighing downheartedly.
Confessional End
After some time, the two teams ended up converging, with Chef and Mallary leading them further and further into the woods, not following any sort of path or anything. They could, however, see a good deal of tracks through the mud, some human, some animal, but nothing really out of the ordinary…until they came upon a set of tracks that looked like wolf paws, only far larger than the average. At this point, the two hosts stepped aside, allowing the contestants to take a look at the tracks, though of everybody, the most interested seemed to be Camille, naturally. As she leaned in closer to get a better look, something suddenly jumped towards her, splashing mud all over her.
"Man, Camille! You really should've been paying attention to your surroundings, now look at you!" Chris laughed uproariously while Camille glared and brushed some of the mud off of her body, returning to her team in silence. A good look at the host showed that he was the culprit of the strange prints, wearing werewolf shoes rather than his usual shoes. "Ghosts, it's a full moon out tonight, does anyone know what that means?"
"Awooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Katniss howled loudly up at the sky, embarrassing Winfred while Yvette grinned at the two of them. "Full moon…means wolves come hunt. Katniss more fierce than wolf! Katniss hunt wolves!"
"...Ah…well, part of that mostly incoherent sentence was onto something, I'll give you that much. But more importantly, a full moon is when werewolves get to come out and hunt! Werewolves are fierce creatures of the night, bloodthirsty beasts that rip flesh from bone, real monsters!" Chris cackled maniacally, but soon cleared his throat and held his hands behind his back. "But for the sake of this challenge, the werewolves are just going to be Pen and Victor."
"I-I have to be a werewolf?" Victor gulped nervously and looked over at Pen, who didn't seem any more thrilled about the idea than he was. "M-maybe there is someone better suited for this task than me…Camille, maybe? Jackson, Vinnie, Felix, Rose…you know, anybody other than myself?"
"Right, we wanted to pick the two people that we knew would be the absolute worst at the job! Makes it a lot more entertaining for the folks at home." Chris grinned while Pen glared back at him, "So, here's the situation! Pen, Victor, you two are going to wait for five minutes. In those five minutes, the rest of your teammates must hide somewhere within the depths of the woods, anywhere to keep themselves out of sight and out of mind. Rule is: they can't move once they've picked their spot! After the time is up, the werewolves will be off to hunt for their five, or six, in Victor's case, targets."
"Eh, Chris? How exactly is it fair if Victor's gotta find one more person than Pen does?" Jackson looked a bit worried for Victor, who already seemed like he was about to break down from all this pressure.
"Trick question: it isn't fair! Anyone who has seen the show knows that I don't care about things being fair or not!" Chris didn't care at all about the scowls he was getting from the bulk of the Banshees. "As I said, you all have five minutes to get yourselves hidden, so…go and hide, yeah?"
Confessional
"I'm pretty much the only competing player on my team for this challenge. Sure, the others hiding in good places also plays a big part in the challenge and all, but when it comes down to it, I'll be taking the fall if we lose." Victor still looked pretty stressed out, though he started laughing to himself. "N-not that it matters, anyways. Losing this show doesn't really mean anything…we can't win money, we're dead. Still…I'd like to show I'm not wholly incompetent. So I can maybe join Mallary on other missions down the line. I…like having company."
"I only have to find five people on the other team while Victor has to find six…while that may be the case, I still feel like this won't be that easy of a task." Pen brought his hand up to his face, stroking his chin while he thought. "...Hm…nothing I've got really helps me with finding anybody. I…could find Rose and have her lead me to the others…but she'd be in danger with her team if that were to happen…I think that will stay off the table for now."
Confessional End
"Alright, ghosts! Your time to hide is all up, so wherever you are now is where you're going to be staying until you've been caught by one of the werewolves! Good luck and try not to get eaten by an actual wolf while you're hiding!" Chris's voice came howling through the woods via his megaphone, but it shut off fairly quickly, and the hiders were left with nothing other than the sounds of the creatures that dwelled within the woods. Everyone was hidden in different locations…for the most part, at least.
Katniss had found a dark cave, which she wandered inside of with no issue. Winfred chose to climb a tree, anything to prevent the further sullying of his proper outfit with all the mud. Camille was hidden in a little stream, completely underwater, though she had a straw going from her lips to above the water just to make sure Chris and Chef knew she could "breathe." Rose's hiding spot wasn't very clever, as she was in a bush…but her tush was sticking out from the back of the bush. Jackson fixed up a pile of sticks and rocks, almost looking like a scrap heap that he dove into. Yvette dug a hole in the ground, covering it up with some leaves to properly hide herself. Leon cradled himself up as best as he could, trying to blend in with the large rocks at the base of a rather huge rock that was at the center of the woods. Moon, like Winfred, was in a tree, though hanging from the branch like a bat…she couldn't help herself from doing that. Vinnie regretfully took the shirt off of her bear costume, and just walked along with the wildlife in the woods to seem as inconspicuous as she could.
"O…kay. This is probably a pretty good hiding place, right?" Rico waved his hands around a bit, causing some large shrubs to sprout up around him and block him from anyone's view. He seemed pretty proud of himself, and when he turned to sit down and get comfortable, he found that Felix was enclosed within the same shrub barrier that he was. "F-Felix! I wasn't expecting you to be in the same place as me! U-u-uh…" Rico took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair to slick it back while aiming a finger gun at him. "'Ey…how's it goin'?"
"Are you a greaser now? I think you're a bit too cute to pull off that kind of cool look, it was a nice attempt, though." Felix slowly clapped his hands while Rico turned into a blushing mess, tapping his fingers together. "Guess we're gonna be stuck in here together until the challenge is over then, huh? Well, it beats being lonely the whole time, so I'm not complaining."
"N-nor am I! I was actually just talking about seeing how you were doing…we haven't been able to spend much time together lately. A-and…I wanted to show you that the rose you gave me is still doing really good!" Rico smiled as he reached into his sweater, retrieving the orange rose, which was in its little clay pot. Felix took a close look at it, noticing that it was definitely a little larger than it was when he had first gotten it for him. "I've been taking the best care of it so it'll grow to be huge and beautiful."
"I'm sure it'll be the size of a tree in no time then. It does have the best florist in the world taking care of it, after all." The two laughed together, before sighing at the same time and sitting in the mud, not too bothered by their clothes being stained. "F-forgive me if this just sounds awkward, but the moon's kinda glistening off of your glasses. Could you maybe take them off?"
"Take my glasses off? I…don't see why that would be an issue…b-but you have to take your glasses off, too!" Felix was a bit shocked by this request, while Rico crossed his arms and smirked to himself. "It's only fair, since that's what you're asking from me!"
"Well, yeah, I guess I can do that. If it makes you feel happy or more comfortable or whatever." Felix shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands up to his face, pulling his glasses off to show his black eyes. He squinted at first, just not being used to this sort of thing, but after a little while he realized that he didn't need them to see, and opened his eyes all the way. "Kinda forgot that we can just kinda see whatever we need with no issue."
"Yeah, I always forget those things, too." Rico giggled, having a hard time not blushing just from seeing Felix's full face, even if it was only a slight change. He then remembered his end of the deal, and took his own glasses off, inadvertently fluttering his eyelashes afterwards. The two boys sat there in silence and stared at each other.
Confessional
"H-he was just staring at me that whole time without saying anything…am I that hideous without my glasses on? Granted I haven't seen myself without them in so long now…m-maybe I am ugly that way." Rico blushed and put his glasses back on, "I-I hope I didn't ruin the mood our first time seeing each other in a challenge for a while."
"...Rico's really pretty," Felix refused to look at the camera while red spread across his face faster than the plague did to Europe.
Confessional End
"A-anybody hiding around here? I'm a scary werewolf, you don't wanna get found by me!" Victor attempted to sound menacing, but it was clearly of no use. He was walking through the woods, and eventually slumped forward and sighed while staring at the ground. "Oh…this is definitely a lot harder than I imagined it being…n-now my team is definitely going to eliminate me when I fail to catch everybody." The jinx whimpered and started to walk forward, barely paying attention to where he was walking. After a few steps, he seemed to put his feet on part of the ground that was hollow, as he sank right through and fell into a little pit.
"A-ah! Not another accident again!" Victor looked straight up to see that the pit he had fallen into really wasn't that big or anything, just a little one that was big enough to hold a body in it. He sighed in relief, seeing that it was so simple to climb out of, but then he suddenly heard some muffled noises coming from underneath him. "H-huh? What is…?" When he looked below him, he saw that he was sitting on top of Yvette, who looked phenomenally angry. "Ah! I'm sorry!" He shot out of the pit quickly, allowing her to climb out, disgruntled and annoyed.
"The goal was to catch us, not to sit on our faces, Victor. I don't know what sort of kinky game you are trying to play here, but I'll be the first to tell you that I don't wish to be a part of it." Yvette started to brush off the leaves and mud from her clothing, though she didn't have the best results. "You lucked out with your little accident just now…had you been paying attention, I doubt you would've ever wandered into that hole. Good game, I suppose…Victor."
"R-right, good game…" Victor slowly backed out of Yvette's way, allowing her to start leaving the woods, though she couldn't do that without first leaving a terrifying impression on him. "A-alright…that's one of the six I'm supposed to find…which leaves Katniss, Moon, Winfred, Leon, and Rico…o-oh boy…that's still a lot of work…and I have no idea where to even start…looking…?" Victor glanced further down the path that he was walking on, spotting the massive rock in the middle of the woods. He saw plenty of other rocks there, but more importantly, he came to notice a rock that…well, wasn't so much a rock as the others. It honestly looked a lot more like a rocker.
"T-that doesn't really look like a rock…maybe I should check that out next?" Victor gulped nervously as he started to walk towards the odd thing out in that bunch, eventually getting up right behind Leon and staring down at him. He could see that the rocker was trembling where he was all curled up. "Uh…Leon? Is that you?"
"Ack!" Leon swung around to see Victor looking at him, and immediately felt embarrassed because of his terrible hiding spot. He pulled himself off of the ground, rubbing the back of his head and trying to play it off as best as he could. "Look man, I'm not one for hiding in the background, I'm a rockstar! Gotta make my presence known and everything! It's the best way for me to stay cool, you know?"
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense…r-rockstars really weren't around when I was alive, so you're the first one that I've ever seen and all…" Victor just felt awkward with how insistent on his own coolness that Leon was being, and hardly maintained any eye contact with him. "W-well…uh…you can probably get headed back now and all, since I caught you already. No point in you sticking around if you don't have to and all." Leon sighed and started to walk away, leaving Victor to continue looking for the remaining four hiders on the Ghouls.
Confessional
"Of all the outcomes that I could've imagined, I never would've thought myself to be the first hider caught by the other team…though in hindsight, my hiding spot seems like it was too easy for Victor to stumble upon." Yvette adjusted her glasses, "He's accident prone– bound to stumble into a hole in the ground, should one exist around him. I can't say that I'm too shocked about the result now that I've considered that information."
"Alright, I get it, I wasn't good at hiding, but all the good spots were pretty much taken! T-that, and I did hide in a cave at first, but then Katniss came in and…yeah, that story tells itself, doesn't it?" Leon shuddered, and he could've sworn that he heard some growling coming from outside of the confessional booth. "I-I really hope that's just a real wolf, I can't take much more Katniss at this rate."
Confessional End
"Blast…I've been wandering these woods for so long now, but I haven't found anybody yet…" Pen grumbled as he passed underneath some brush, looking ahead to try and see if anybody was hiding around where he was getting close to, but he didn't see anybody. He sighed, mindlessly walking by a troop of animals that was nearby…and not noticing that one of those animals was an obviously yellow bear. He just wandered right by, leaving the animals to continue about with their business.
"P-Pen didn't see me? This hiding spot is a lot better than I figured it would be…" Vinnie sighed in her own mind, just keeping as quiet as she could while she looked down at the ground to see all of the tracks she was leaving…which had speckles of honey all over them. "N-now I just have to hope that he doesn't notice that I left a bunch of honey everywhere I was walking."
"How much longer will I have to go on before I finally find somebody? I mean, really…I feel like it shouldn't be this difficult!" Pen sighed, continuing along through the woods and coming across a little creek. He didn't look down into it, but he did hop right over to the other side, not noticing that Camille was right below where he had jumped, her eyes wide as she thought she was for sure a goner. The boy kept on going ahead, passing by this huge pile of sticks and mud and leaves, just grimacing when he saw it.
"T-these woods are really a lot filthier than I had anticipated them to be…I guess the wildlife must just be building burrows for themselves to try and keep out of the cold." Pen shook his head at the pile and kept on walking, leaving Jackson undiscovered, just like the other two members of his team before him. The mechanic let out a sigh of relief, which Pen heard, but when he turned around, he couldn't actually see the source of the noise. "Huh…must just be the wind." He turned back and kept going, giving Jackson more relief, though he didn't sigh this time.
"Please, just give me something…anything, at this point! I just want to find at least one person before Victor's found the entirety of my team! M-maybe one of the really bad hiders might be put in the hot seat if I get a few people…" Pen swallowed a lump in his throat before freezing in place, seeing a bush ahead of him. Not just any bush, though…this bush was different from any other bush in one main respect: Rose's rear end was poking right out of it. The shrimpy boy covered his eyes pretty much immediately, with his face turning the same hue of red as a ripe tomato.
"...U-uh…Rose, I really don't mean to be looking and all, but I think you've got your rump sticking out of the bush you're hiding in." Pen's observation caused Rose to suddenly pull the back half of her body into the bush, though this ended up just making her face stick out. Of course, at that point, the two of them made eye contact, with Rose being just as flustered as the boy that discovered her. "I guess I found you, so…you can skedaddle, you know."
"Oh, Pen! I thought my hiding spot was going to be a lot better than that…but I guess I picked a bush that was a little too small to fit me. Maybe I should've tried one of the ones I found before this…" Rose sighed and pulled herself out of the bush all the way, getting up to her feet and standing before Pen with a smile on her face. "It's nice to see you in the challenge, though! It's been a while."
"It has been a while…you're the only person I found so far, too. Guess that makes sense…fate would want me to bump into you of all people." Pen saw that his comment made Rose frown, and he felt guilty about it right away. "Not…that that's a bad thing or anything. It's just ironic, considering our past and all."
"So…you're happy that you found me first?" Rose seemed a little bit confused, and given that she wasn't the brightest, that was something to be expected from her.
"Uh…I…guess you could say that or whatever." Pen was right back to trying to hide his blushing face, but like always, he was pretty terrible at it.
"Oh, Pen, you know I'm glad you found me first as well! Especially after that hug a few days ago…I've been wanting another one!" Rose started to walk towards Pen with open arms, and he didn't know how to react, but his first instinct was to step off to the side. This, however, caused her to trip on a rock, and when she hit the ground, the band around her neck came undone…causing her head to roll off of her body and downhill, further into the woods. "Oh non, pas encore ça!"
"Ah! Rose!" Pen ran after her head while her body sat down on the ground, calmly waiting for her head to be returned.
Confessional
"I remember the first time my head rolled off of my body…it hurt a whole bunch for a second, but then it was fine after! Those guillotines sure are pretty terrifying." Rose smiled at the camera, though it was only her head that was in the confessional booth, nothing else. "It's much less painful when I'm already dead…though still very embarrassing."
"Gah! Why did I do that? Her whole head fell off of her body because I dodged her hug, now I just look like…a brute! N-not to worry! I'll find her head soon enough, and then I won't have to worry about appearing evil! A-and she'll be in one piece again!" Pen nodded semi-confidently, "Oh…I still feel plum awful for this!"
Confessional End
"A-ah! I said I was sorry, I had to impersonate him for that challenge, I didn't want to!" Victor was running away from Katniss, who was chasing after him like a wild beast, her tongue flailing in the wind. He kept running, looking back at her the whole time and not paying the slightest bit of attention to where he was going, which ended up being right into a tree. He bumped into it hard and, lo and behold, Winfred fell out of it, landing right in between him and Katniss, causing the wild child to stop in her tracks.
"Oh! I didn't expect to be knocked out of the tree, I thought you'd just be pointing me out and telling me you found me. Well done, nonetheless." Winfred got up from the ground and cracked his neck a bit, taking a look at the cowering Victor, as well as the growling Katniss. He picked up on the situation fairly quickly, and shook his head at Katniss. "Now, now, Katniss…we've both been found, that means it's time for us to concede. Victor…you've done well in getting us, of course. Best of luck finding the others. Katniss, let's take our leave from these…grimy woods. I'd like a change of scenery."
"Hmph. Katniss would tear Victor apart if Winnie no show up. Victor lucky…Katniss no forget what Victor do, though!" Katniss bared her fangs at Victor while her and Winfred started to walk away from him together, leaving the jinx to sigh to himself. He started to "catch his breath," simply sitting against the tree's base.
"T-this challenge would've given me a heart attack if I was still alive…lucky I'm not, I guess. With four of them found…that only leaves…Moon and Rico, right? I'm doing a lot better than I ever would've imagined before…" Victor sighed again, and suddenly, one of his ears twitched. He heard something calling to him, though he wasn't sure what it was at first. "...High pitched…frantic words…a hint of raspiness…this is…a bat's voice…" The jinx got up from the ground, holding his hand up to his ear while walking towards where the noise was coming from.
"Hello, bat…i-it's nice of you to talk to me while I'm all alone out here…but where are you? I'd like to see who I'm speaking to, if I might." Victor listened in as close as he could, and he heard the noises getting louder and louder as he moved due east. Eventually, he happened upon a much larger tree than the one that Winfred was hiding in. He took a look upwards and, not only did he find the bat that was speaking to him, but he also saw Moon, who had been dangling from a branch right next to said bat. "Moon?"
"Hm? Oh, dear…you found me." Moon unwrapped her legs from the branch, dropping down to the ground below and landing perfectly in front of Victor. The bat fluttered down to her shoulder, resting upon it while she glanced at it. "Catseye…? You alerted Victor of my hiding spot? Well, that wasn't very nice of you…though I must admit, I'm surprised that you could understand him. I thought I was the only one who had such a connection with familiar-esque creatures."
"Oh, well…I've always had an affinity for animals as a general, not just those that are mentioned as creatures of the occult. And since I passed, I started being able to speak with them…I did connect with them far better than I did with the other humans around my time." Victor looked down at his own feet, "...They took that as a sign that I was a warlock, and had me burned at the stake for it."
"...In…teresting. Well, I'd hate to make you relive that moment of your former life, so how about I instead congratulate you for finding me. I apologize for bringing back any bad memories." Moon gave a small bow to Victor, who smiled at her courtesy. "I'll be on my way, then…should you ever feel the need to speak with myself or Catseye again, feel free to come find us. We'll be glad to entertain you with conversation if we can."
Confessional
"..." Moon raised her hand up to her neck, running it along the rope mark that had been left there from when she was executed. "...Victor reminds me a bit of myself…though maybe a bit more frightened than I would ever be, but still, the similarities are there. And…it's nice to be able to talk to someone that shares some interests…and experiences with me."
Confessional End
"R-Rose? Where did you end up?" Pen cried out, worried for his dullahan friend. After he walked around and passed through some rather large bushes, he found her head resting on a rock, looking as embarrassed as she was when he found her the first time. "Ah, there you are! I was…w-worried about you, I'll admit. I've never had to go looking for a head in the woods before."
"I know, I know…it's just silly that this happened. And looking for me has definitely cost you some time in finding the others…so I'm not sure why you came for me." Pen walked right over to Rose's head, picking her up and holding her at eye level. He was trying to be gentle, but again, he wasn't too sure on how he should've been holding her in this state.
"N-nonsense! I was the one that caused this little mishap, so it should make sense that I would have to clean up my own mess. I'll take you back to your body, as well…" Pen gulped nervously, and ended up cradling her head close to his chest, as it was the only way he figured that he should be carrying her in this situation. Meanwhile, back in the makeshift shrubbery that Rico had put together, he and Felix were still just staring at each other, glasses not on either of their faces.
"I…d-do I look bad? Y-you've just been staring at me this whole time…I don't know what you're thinking here." Rico looked away from Felix, down at his own lap as he felt both awkward and embarrassed by this situation that he had been put in. "I-I can put the glasses back on, I really didn't know how I would look with them off, but I'm used to people I like not actually liking me like that. I-I mean…oh, why did I say that! I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say…I was just…"
"Rico…" Felix placed both of his hands on Rico's shoulders, trying to at least calm him down in some way, any way that he could. The florist finally looked back at the chef, tears forming in his own eyes, but not dropping down his face, as he noticed a rather warm smile being sent his way. "Glasses or no glasses, I think you're the most beautiful person that I've ever met. I-it feels embarrassing to say it, but…I wouldn't want you thinking that I think you're hideous or anything."
"You…think that I…" Rico could've sworn that there was a heart about to beat its way right out of his chest, even though there wasn't one.
"I'm many things, Rico! Overconfident…a bit cocky…maybe pretty bad at admitting when I've done something wrong…but I'm no liar! And even if I was, I don't think I'd want to lie to somebody that I…like as much as I like you. I promise you, I mean that when I say it!" Felix's words sent Rico pretty much overboard, and the two were back to staring at each other, though with a much different air about them this time. At the same time, Pen was still journeying back to Rose's body.
"I'm really sorry, Pen…I know you said it's your fault, but I can't help but feel it was my fault. I shouldn't have tried to hug you like that…I…I know you didn't really like me for a long time, and you're still warming up to me." Rose sighed while she was still in Pen's arms, and the boy spun her head around so she could face him. "But I really like you! You and Moon both are the closest to me…and you put up with me being an idiot all the time."
"An idiot? Rose…ah…blast…you're not an idiot, Rose. Well, sure, you can be a little ditzy at times and make some silly mistakes…but your heart is always in the right place! Well…the heart that you technically don't have." Pen was already stumbling over his words while he spoke, "I haven't been a particularly great chap to you at all…thanks to my hatred for the French. But you're different! You're not just some annoying Frenchie, you're my favorite annoying Frenchie! W-wait, I don't mean that you're annoying, I just…oh, this is really difficult to say! Moon was right when she said I can't handle my own infatuations!"
"Infatuation…Pen…? You've…taken that kind of liking to me?" Rose stared up at Pen, who swallowed yet another lump in his throat, not entirely sure what he should say. His face and hers matched that same tomatoey red from before. "...I've felt a similar liking for you…I didn't want to say that to you because I thought it would just make things worse."
"Rose, trust me, nothing you could do could make anything worse…I've been putting a damper on our whole relationship since we met." Rose smiled, and Pen even smiled back at her. They were in quite the similar situation to Rico and Felix, as the views of the two pairs were shown side by side. As the florist and the chef slowly leaned towards each other and closed their eyes, Pen lifted Rose's head closer to his own, and all at once, both duos locked their lips, all four of them lost in their moment. That was until something pushed aside one of the large plants that was blocking the view of Rico and Felix.
"Oh, Ric- WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AH!" Victor immediately stumbled backwards, and Felix and Rico broke their kiss, both of them blushing horrendously from being seen by the jinx. "I-I-I didn't mean to interrupt! I-I-I…challenge…werewolf…uh…CHRIS, I FOUND EVERYBODY!" He ran away quickly, leaving the two to laugh together nervously. But, when they looked at each other again, they couldn't help but sink right back into that kiss. As far as things were going for Pen and Rose…he finally pulled her head away from his face.
"I-I never knew my first kiss would be with a bodiless head…much less a French bodiless head…but I can't say that I didn't enjoy it." Rose seemed to be much more smitten than Pen was, as she could hardly even find the words to say to him. "O-oh…I didn't know that would have that kind of effect on you. Er…ah, let's find your body, yes?" The scrawny boy hurried back up the hill from before, finding Rose's body sitting there still, and he set her head down on her shoulders gently. "T-there we are! Good as new!"
"...C'était merveilleux…" Rose pulled herself off of the ground, still practically swooning from that one kiss.
"Oh dear…w-would now be a bad time to tell you that I think you look better without that corset hiding your true figure?" Rose blinked twice before straight up "fainting" in place, leaving Pen to rub the back of his neck awkwardly.
Confessional
"...We lost the challenge due to my…altercation with Rose. I know she has that immunity idol still in her possession…" Pen paused for a moment and thought to himself before shaking his head. "Moon…asked me to have her hold onto it for her until she was ready for it. I wouldn't feel right taking it from her…I can only hope that the team votes on my side against the person that was found first. But…should I lose…I think I still got something quite swell out of this."
"Je suis au paradis!" Rose fanned herself off, a bright red color lining her usually pale face. Her corset was also nowhere to be seen, and her chubby figure could be easily seen.
Confessional End
"Yvette…Pen…this is the last marshmallow of the night…only one more of you will be safe from this elimination ceremony." Chris stood before the Ghouls at the elimination ceremony, with the other five members of the team all holding onto their marshmallows while they watched him. He just had one ghost marshmallow in his hand, and was holding it above Yvette and Pen, both of which were staring at him, wondering when he would declare who would be receiving it. "...Pen…I'm sorry, but only catching one of the other team's members was just too much. You're done for."
"Ah…precisely the outcome that I had expected." Yvette adjusted her glasses and took the last marshmallow from Chris, while Pen stood from his seat and turned to face the mansion. Rose was somewhere in there, of course…probably still swooning from their kiss.
"Rose! M-my love! I'll be taking my leave from the village now! But please, I beg of you, don't worry for what may happen while I'm gone!" He shouted out as loud as he could, just hoping that his words would reach her…and luckily, they did. A window swung open and she peered out of it, out of her swooning state and now looking horrified of the news she had received. "Continue on without me, and we shall enjoy our r-romantic rendezvous…god, I can't believe I just said a French word…before long! Goodbye, my dear!"
"P-Pen…oh…au revoir ma bien-aimé! Au revoir!" Rose blew many kisses out of her window towards Pen, who caught them with a proud smile before he was dragged off to the Hearse of Shame by Pharaoh. The intern shoved the eliminated contestant into the back of the hearse, and Chef wasted no time in driving away with him, leaving the two teams tied up on members once again.
*Votes: Pen - Yvette, Leon, Katniss, Winfred; Yvette - Pen, Moon, Rico
*Elimination Order: 20th - Pharaoh; 19th - Freddie; 18th - Mimsey; 17th - Jessica and Jeremy; 16th - Abigail; 15th - Rosa; 14th - Jonah; 13th - Pen
