"How did you know you needed to turn off the lights?" Piper asked is slight awe. Not that I was getting a swelled head, but I felt pretty good about myself. I explained to both Piper and Reyna how I figured out the answer to the 'puzzle'.
"Wow, I'm surprised Percy, that was well thought out for someone like you." Reyna mocked.
"Hey, I can be smart when I want to be!" I protested loudly.
"Wow, so your saying this whole time you've chosen to be stupid?" Piper chirped.
"Yes… er I mean no!" I stumbled, trying to voice an answer that didn't sound completely stupid. The two girls both began to laugh uncontrollably at my embarrassment. I wanted to make a comeback but opted not to, I preferred them laughing with each other rather than killing each other.
After trying and failing to unlock the northern and western doors, we grouped in front of the eastern door. Reyna, who still had the card, swiped it though the card indicator next to the door. The door made an audible clicking noise, signaling to us that the door was unlocked.
"Ladies first." I said, though it sounded more like a question.
"C'mon, stop being a coward. If Ringmaster really wanted you dead, she'd blow you up right now. She obviously wants you to play the stupid game; she's not going to kill you for opening a door." Reyna said exasperatedly, her eyes extremely annoyed.
"Then why don't you go first?" I countered. Reyna smirked before she responded.
"Because you said ladies first, I can't go in until you do." Piper chuckled softly at Reyna's insult.
"Fine…fine I'll open the stupid door." I finally gave in. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the door, aside from the card indicator next to it. It was a solid brown color with a golden doorknob. Timidly, I outreached my hand and slowly opened the door; the door creaking in protest.
Just like the library was, the room was completely dark. Knowing an argument would be pointless; I decided to walk in first without protest. The second my whole body was through the door bright lights snapped on, causing me to temporarily close my eyes. Behind me I heard to sharp intakes of breath, Reyna and Piper. What had they seen? The second my eyes adjusted to the room, I saw what they saw, another picture that would be permanently scarred into my brain.
It was a man, with dark red hair. His body looked as if it had been deprived of sunlight and food for years, it probably had been. He was slightly taller than me and looked about forty. He wore a fine red suit with a black tie. The man's face was, in a word, terrifying. His eyes were completely blank, the pupils lifeless. A sick smile played on the man's face, as if his action's pleased him.
Around him were critters, the most notable being the spider that sat on his soldier, right next the firm rope completely wrapped around his neck. Every rope has another end, this one was no exception. The side of the rope not suffocating the corpse of a man's neck was tightly tied to a ceiling fan.
The man's body swayed ever so softly, his lifeless limbs dangling, he was at least four feet off the floor.
His smile… It looked twisted, even demonic. I never believed in demonic undertaking, but this man made me consider it. His lips were extremely pale, so much it could easily be mistaken as white. Even more pail was his skin, which looked far too similar to a zombie for my taste.
"P-Percy, we n-need to g-get him down." Piper's voice trembled; she was so quiet you could barely hear her. I was unable to truly form words myself, so I simply nodded. There was a desk right behind from where he was; that's likely where he jumped from to hang himself. I climbed on top of the desk, careful not to make contact with him. I stood on my tippy-toes and did my best to untie the firm knot.
Eventually I did, unfortunately I forgot he was in the air, so he unceremoniously collapsed on the ground. His arms and legs folded unlike any man's should. I dragged his heavy corpse out of the room, hoping to relive some stress from Piper and Reyna. Eventually I made it into the middle of the library, where I laid him down. I was about to walk back into the room when something caught my eye.
On the man's lifeless index finger was a ring and it was not your average wedding ring. It was completely red with a glistening black diamond in the center. I pulled the ring of his dead finger to inspect it more. Upon closer examination I realized that the ring had some sort of engraving, though the text was too small to read. I shoved the ting into my pocket and looked at the man once again. The smile had still not left his face. I could almost here him say something like: "All according to plan." I shivered once involuntarily before going back into the room with Piper and Reyna.
"So what'd you find so far" I asked both Reyna and Piper as I got a good look at the room. It was oval shaped and extremely small compared to the massive library. The room was full of filing cabinets stuffed with papers. The desk I climbed on earlier was in the middle of the room. It was large and extremely neat; it probably belonged to a boss of some sort. Behind the desk was a pitch black leather chair.
"Check this out." Reyna said while thrusting and old piece of paper into my hands. It read:
Dear Grey Twilight,
It has come to my attention your faith in the Paladins has been lacking as of late. I must remind you, leaving the Paladin's once you join is impossible. I especially can't emphasize how important this is now, with our goal so close. The world will be erased, only people like you and I will remain. Please, you're a good friend of mine; don't make me have to kill you.
-The General
"Who's Grey Twilight and The General?" I asked the pair of them.
"I wish we knew. Either way we need to show this to the world ASAP. If the Paladins are close to their goals, then the rest of the world is close to extinction" Piper explained urgently, her voice slightly fearful.
"Don't tell me you're actually scared of them. There is no way any group of people can destroy an entire world." Reyna countered.
"Is that so? Tell me Reyna when was that letter written?" Piper asked, already knowing the answer.
"October 6th, at least that's what it says on the envelope."
"Exactly; and on October 7th this article was released in Nevada." Piper then gave the article to Reyna, who read it out loud.
"New virus, IC, is has been confirmed by scientist. The virus, Infirmuscorpus, origin is currently unknown. Scientist have called this virus extremely dangerous because it weakens the body's will to fight while it symptoms can run wild.
"The virus is said to cause fevers and suicidal thoughts according to one scientist who was exposed to the virus accidentally. Nevadan scientist are working tirelessly to kill the virus in there dessert facility before returning to major cities."
"That doesn't sound good." I said after a long pause.
"No it's not, the Paladins were successful, at least in creating something that can kill mankind." Piper said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Let's hope they kill the virus. I don't want to escape here to a dying world." Reyna murmured to us before resuming her search for hints out of the room.
"Let's worry about escaping first." Piper mumbled to me when Reyna was out of earshot before she went to look for clues of her own. There were tons of filing cabinets, so I knew it'd take a while for us to find a legitimate hint.
I had been searching for what felt like forever when I truly began to get frustrated. There had to be at least a million papers in this office, and we needed to find the one with a hint. Sometime while we were searching, Piper found a briefcase with an odd lock. Instead of numbers, it had four directional buttons; north, south, east, and west.
Other than that, we had been completely lost when it came to finding hints. I was about to throw in the towel when Reyna finally found a hint.
"Guys I found a poem. I think it's the code for this briefcase, but I can't make heads or tails of it."
"What's it say?" I asked her.
"Time is wrong, Time is drawn, and Time is immoral."Reyna read out loud.
"Well I heard Time three times's, let's try and figure out what it means." Piper said before we all went quiet in thought. My mind was drawing a blank for the longest when I heard it, the answer. Where the answer came from I wasn't sure; it definitely didn't come from my brain.
The answer:
You tell time using a clock.
The clock's hands move clockwise or right.
So time was equal to right.
That wasn't it, of course. The rest of the line was needed to fully decode it.
The opposite of wrong is right
The opposite of drawing is writings. Writing is similar to right.
Something immoral is considered wrong, wrong is the opposite of right just like left is the opposite of right.
The answer: Five right, one left.
