A/N: Update time! Enjoy!
As Rachel made her way through the maze, her phone began to ring. Pulling it out to see who it was, Akiko's name shines back at her. Answering the call, she quickly puts it to her ear.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Rachel!" Akiko cried.
"Yeah, what's up?" She replied.
"We know who Mr. Nobody is!" Akiko began. "Louise and I looked up what we could about Mr. Nobody and we found an article about the incident from Cassidy's story!"
"Really? What happened?" Rachel asked.
"Well, we looked more into what we could about Mr. Nobody. Turns out he preyed on people who had either had very little friends or no friends at all. He would pretend to be their friend for a few weeks before snatching them and turning them into his wax puppets. Not only that, but stories involving him date back to the colonial times."
"Colonial?" Rachel paused in her trek.
"Yeah, apparently the story was that he was once a candle maker who developed a fascination with wax encased things. Says it wasn't until his neighbors noticed people disappearing that he was finally caught. They supposedly set his home on fire with him in it to stop him. But the problem was, he was said to have made a deal with the devil, because of course, the devil had to be involved, in order to continue his work." Akiko finally finished.
"So, he's been turning people into wax figures ever since?" Rachel asked. She began her walk once more.
"Yeah. The stories even say what his real name is," Louise added in, apparently present on the other side of the phone. In the background, she heard someone breathe in sharply.
"Really? What is it?" She asked.
"Rachel!" Gavin cried out from the other side. "It's Wickham! Mr. Nobody's real name is Eli Wickham!" Rachel let out a gasp. Before she could say anything else, something collides with the back of her head and darkness overtakes her.
When she opened her eyes, Rachel finds herself laying on a table, her arms and legs tied up by ropes that were attached to the surface. With all her might, she began to struggle, trying to break free.
"I wouldn't bother trying to break free. I've had many years of practice to make sure that the only one who's undoing those knots is me," Mr. Wickham's voice called out from her left. She turned her head to see him standing smugly nearby against another table. "So happy you could finally join us. Did you have a nice nap, my dear?"
"You're Mr. Nobody," she simply says. He let out a laugh and nodded his head.
"At your service!" He mockingly bowed. "And you're that no good Mr. Tophat's daughter. Who should have kept himself out of things that didn't concern him! He took my tadpole away from me!" He hissed, dropping his friendly voice for one deeper and inhuman. "She was mine to have, not his! He had plenty of children to have instead!"
"Except that he saw me first!" another voice called out from Mr. Nobody's left. Both him and Rachel turned their heads, Rachel having to lift her's to see above her feet, towards the voice. There, tied in a similar fashion to Rachel was nothing other than Cassidy herself. She glared daggers towards Mr. Nobody from where she laid. "He knew me long before you ever came into the picture and would have stolen me long before you ever could if not for my father!"
"Yes, but you were mine!" Mr. Nobody hissed back, stalking closer towards her. He stopped on the side where her head rested, placing his hands on each side of her head to lean down to look at her. "I was the one who got to you first, so you were mine to have! We could have been so happy together, all of us could have been happy together!" He stood upright and waved his hand around them. Looking around, Rachel finally noticed the partially melted figures of wax mannequins surrounding them. "And he stole you, he ruined everything!"
"Marcus saved me! I didn't want to become part of your sick collection! I didn't want you!" Cassidy shouted back. "Now, let me and Rachel go!"
"Not going to happen, my little tadpole," he said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "I have big plans for you and Tophat's little spawn." He moved away from the table and returned to his table, playing with something that was on it.
"What are you going to do with us?" Rachel asked after a moment. Mr. Nobody shot a glance over his shoulder to her before turned back to his work.
"Well, my dear. Seeing as your father prevented me from making Cassidy part of my collection, it's only fair that along with finishing where I left off, I make you part of it as well! After all, he stole what belonged to me, so I'll just steal what belonged to himself right back!" He answered. It was then that Rachel saw what he was playing with. A boiling pot of melted wax. Seeing her horrified gaze, he smiled even more wickedly.
"I would say that it won't hurt and that it would be quick, but I would be lying on both accounts. I'm going to enjoy making you suffer for what your father has done," he cooed. This caused Cassidy to let out sounds of frustration and make her struggle even more. Mr. Nobody just let out a laugh and turned back to the pot. As he continued to work, Rachel took a look at the area around her. Everywhere she looked, there were wax figures. There were some there were completely covered in wax and some that had the wax partially melted from them. Of the ones who were partially melted, the melted wax revealed the bones of the people who were trapped inside it. As her gaze circled around, she saw the flicker of movement in between figures in the distance. Doing a double-take, she tried to find the movement again. A few feet away she saw another flicker of movement from the corner of her eye. More and more she saw movement making its way closer and closer to where they were, but no matter how much she tried, she could see what was making its way towards them.
The sound of shoes grinding the ground as they spun brought Rachel's attention back to Mr. Nobody as he spun around and made his way towards her with a ladle that dripped hardened wax. He stopped by her side and studied her.
"Now tell me, my dear. Which one should I start with? Your left leg or your right one?" he asked, tapping the ladle on each leg as he spoke. Fortunately, the wax on the ladle had cooled enough that it didn't burn as it made contact with her skin, but she never the less was uncomfortable with the contact.
"Get away from her!" Cassidy called out from behind them.
"And who's going to make me? You?" he laughed without turning his head, continuing to look at Rachel as he tried to decide on his process.
"No, but he certainly can!" Cassidy replied, causing Mr. Nobody and Rachel to both finally look in her direction. Right next to where Cassidy laid was hundreds of scorpions emerging from behind the rows of wax figures and coming together to form a massive pile. More and more came together and began to shift the top higher and higher into the air until it finally stood as tall as Mr. Nobody. Soon flashes of another object began to appear from inside the mass and more and more scorpions began to disappear from sight, as though they were merging into the object underneath. Finally, moments later, only one scorpion remained on the now fully formed human figure. Three pairs of eyes watched with differing emotions as the last scorpion crawled its way up the person's torso and disappeared into their open mouth. The mouth prompt shut and their eyes flow open and looked directly at Mr. Nobody.
"Miss me?" Mr. Tophat asked with a feral grin.
A/N: ~Guess who's back, back again. Tophat's back, tell friend.~ Sorry, couldn't resist. Well, I'll see you all next week for the exciting next installment. Until then, take cares!