Whoa, how long did it take me to finally update? Anyway, just enjoy!
Chapter 8: Informative Finding
After the two of them ate their breakfast at New York New York Hotel, Dry Bones went off to research more on intervening and the cause of Death's actions by hacking into the back computer room of the Houdini Magic Shop. Goombella tried to make her way to the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum which was a distance away and tried calling the two victims on their cell phones hurriedly with no luck. She took the monorail train as her fastest way.
"Hello?" asked Goombella who had called the number of the Wax Museum. After a few seconds a lady answered the phone.
"Hello ma'am," replied the front lady. "This is the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. How can I help you?"
"My name is Goombella. Are there two workers in your building named Ludwig Van Koopa and Wendy Koopa?" she asked.
"Come again?"
"The first name is Ludwig Van Koopa. The second name is Wendy Koopa. They're siblings."
"Ah ha, right here," responded the lady quickly, and Goombella could hear her flipping through pages in a book. "Ludwig and Wen Koopa are furnishers and designers in our new building section. Would you like to talk to them?"
"Yes, please," replied Goombella. She heard the phone disconnect from the lady, realizing they were passing under a tunnel. After a few seconds when the train passed the tunnel, the lady called Goombella back on her phone.
"Is this Goombella?" asked the lady.
"I'm sorry, I was cut off," explained Goombella.
"Well, anyway," said the lady. "They're out for lunch somewhere where none of us know. They don't seem to be here at the moment." Goombella held back a sigh of frustration.
"Okay, thank you," said Goombella putting her phone back into her pocket. She got off the next station and made her way into the other monorail from across her which took off in the other direction, and started her way all the way back to where Dry Bones and she had parted. Her job was to bring both of the Koopa kids back with her, but she was unsuccessful.
Dry Bones heard the magicians' footsteps heading towards the back room, as he quickly x'ed-out his page and hid under the desk behind a cardboard box. The magician was testing the string for his floating card magic trick.
"That's how they do it," Dry Bones whispered to himself. Suddenly his phone started to vibrate from Goombella calling. The magician turned around as Dry Bones quickly pressed the END button on his cell phone. After a few minutes the magician exited the room.
Dry Bones logged back onto the computer and went back to the biography of what seemed to be of Frank Briar, a survivor from the blimp accident. The info was extremely helpful, but the picture of him was shown before his certain accident with a metal chest.
Frank Briar, Rebel and Survivor of Death's List
Frank Briar was a cheater and a victim of the infamous blimp accident who had been pulled of by his best friend, Mush Rumberg, the toad who had the vision of the fateful day. Although he was known for being the non-believer of the group, his sense rose into him later on at the closing stages. His addiction to smoking with his pipe caused trouble in a few of the deaths, but he had quit smoking the day of Peach Toadstool's death day. Now settling to a life away from danger, he and Jill Hillsherry, the other young toad who has cheated with him, are believed to still be on the list. Frank had recently had his eighteenth birthday a few days after Peach's death, the same day that the father of Mush had died.
At this sentence Dry Bones stopped. He had read somewhere that Mush's father had been suddenly taken of the list, which he hopefully could use to investigate a way Mush's father had cheated Death. But it turned out that he didn't cheat Death after all.
He had moved away from his destroyed home to settle in San Francisco, but is now believed to be living in Las Vegas.
Dry Bones' eyes widened at this statement.
His whereabouts are currently unknown, but investigators believe he is living a quiet and non-smoking life at a cheap hotel, most likely in Motel 6. He is trying his best to stay away from any possible danger. If you would like to email Frank, please email quitter(underscore)fb at hotmail dot com, although people think that he never replies.
"Las Vegas," repeated Dry Bones, not believing what the biography said. "It says he's in Las Vegas." He rolled his way in his chair to the desk next to him and pulled open the drawer, searching for a Las Vegas guide for Motel 6.
After a few minutes of researching, he finally memorized the location of Motel 6. He then went back to his search engine page and checked for a news article of Mush's father, and was grateful to find an article about his death which was posted on a news website.
Carl Rumberg, 45, Dies in freak accident
A toad named Carl Rumberg has died today on January 13, a victim believed to be in the popular blimp curse with other people involved. His beloved car was left rolling down a hill from a malfunctioned break chasing Carl down the street, and he tried his best to run away from the non-stopping car. The Jaguar eventually hit him and sent him flying into his favorite lawnmower, a prize possession of his, and he was impaled by the handle, which caused the lawn mower to turn on its power and partially tear his face. Two people whom we were hoping to interview, the two members of this same blimp curse, were not found by authorities. This accident was seen by a few neighbors and has touched them emotionally, knowing that the Rumberg family is no longer alive. It is known that all members had died from other, bizarre freak accidents.
Goombella exited off the monorail train and headed towards the New York New York hotel, unaware of Dry Bones' discoveries. A wave of falling swept through Goombella, and she once again pictured herself falling from the edge of the building. She gasped as she was suddenly caught by two hammer bros.
"Are you all right?" asked one of the hammer bros, setting her back to her feet. "You seemed as if you were fainting, so we caught you in the nick of time."
"I'm okay," replied Goombella. "I just felt a bit dizzy." The two hammer bros were dressed up in sparkling suits, and Goombella assumed they were in a hurry to reach a show or dinner party when she saw that they were also holding huge suitcases.
"Well, I guess you'll see us later," said the other hammer bro. "We're the Comedians Brothenians and we'll be holding a show tonight at seven thirty." He winked at her. "I hope you're coming, you dazzling mistress."
"Thank you," she replied, walking off to finish her own business. She finally reached the Houdini Magic Shop and saw Dry Bones, waiting at the entrance of the store with various razors in his hands.
"Razors?" gasped Goombella, backing away from Dry Bones in surprise.
"Goombella!" he said, stepping closer to her. She realized that he wasn't holding any razors in his hands but printed papers from the computer. "Let's go, shall we?"
"What's that?" she said, pointing to the papers he was holding.
"Oh, these?" he asked. "I'll tell you in the monorail train. Do you have Wendy and Ludwig with you?"
"No, I couldn't find them because they were out for lunch," she said. "Let's go now."
During their ride in the train, Dry Bones showed and explained all the paper and info he had discovered to Goombella, and told her that one of the survivors, Frank Briar, was coincidentally living in Las Vegas.
"It seems too much of a coincidence to me," she said. "But I'm happy we could get help."
"Oh, and remember when we were discussing about how Mush's father cheated Death?" said Dry Bones. "He didn't. It turned out that he was killed a few days Peach was."
"In what way?" asked Goombella, knowing that his death would be gruesome.
"It said that two of his favorite items killed him," explained Dry Bones, reading from the paper. "His car was running down the road by itself, and flung him into a lawnmower, piercing him." He put the paper down and realized the shocked expression on Goombella's face.
"Yeah, and it ended with his face beingdestroyed in a horrific way. Too bad we couldn't meet him."
"Next stop, Stop 67," the speaker called out. "Please exit through your right." The two of them stepped off the train and went down the stairs, then asked a train attendant where Motel 6 was located.
The motel was very cheap, unlike all the other hotels around it. It was only popular to the people who were living here or people who hated to spend money on worthless luxury in expensive hotels.
"Can we visit a person named Frank Briar?" Goombella asked the front manager. The manager didn't reply.
"Hello?"
"Unless you know him, I won't let you see him," replied the manager, holding up a newspaper which covered his entire face.
"We have some important news that has to be delivered," said Dry Bones urgently. "We-"
"Nope, I need proof," the manager replied, still not lowering his newspaper. "Otherwise he's probably not interested in seeing anybody at the moment, and I would know that."
"But we need him," said Goombella desperately. "We need his help."
"Oh?" asked the manager, slightly lowering the newspaper. "And what kind of help is this?"
"We're going to die," said Goombella. "Please, I know it sounds crazy-"
"It doesn't sound crazy to him at all," he said, and he finally lowered down his newspaper to reveal his face. His face was burnt on the right side severely, and a scar was placed over his right cheek, caused by an excessive burn. His face was disfigured, and so was his neck, and parts of the rest of his body. Goombella and Dry Bones just stood their ground in surprised shock.
"Yeah, yeah, guess who I am?" said the manager of the motel, lifting himself from his seat. "I'm Frank Briar."
It's Frank! Hahaha, what will happen in the next chapter?
Thank you readers for the reviews because they were really helpful, and to that guy who realized that Tom Fan was in Chapter 7 of Ripple of Cheating, wow! How the heck you'd know that! Thanks to my reviewers! Oh, and please review if you feel like it.
I guess that emailing Frank a knowable question is the best idea. Be warned that he's always tired, and he gets ticked off once in a while.
