Chapter 18

"So how are we going to get in?" Alasdair asked. They were in a hotel, which was near the castle. It turned out that Amya was not only fluent in German, but also in French, so she easily got them booked into the hotel. Alasdair and Emerson had a room, Jeremy was with Ryker and Amya was on her own. They'd stayed one night and were getting ready for the next day, planning what they would do.

"We'll use your natural charm and skills of persuasion to get them to let us in." Emerson answered convincingly.

"Seriously?" Alasdair asked hopefully.

"Dear god no, we'll get you to teleport us onto the roof and then climb through a window or something." Emerson said casually.

"Oh. Well I guess it'd be pointless to waste my charm at such a time as this.

"Oh, no that isn't what I meant. You don't have any charm." Emerson said pointedly.

"Oh… thanks." Alasdair said completely put down.

"That's alright." Emerson replied cheerfully.

There was a knock at the door and Amya walked in with the others just behind. Amya took a seat on the bed and the other two stood up each leaning against something.

"Where did you put Scraper's gun?" Emerson asked Amya.

"I handed it into lost property at the reception desk." She said and Emerson laughed.

"Genuinely?" he asked in disbelief.

"Genuinely." She replied. "So do we have any plan of what to do today?" she asked.

"We're gonna use my natural charm and skills of persuasion to get inside." Alasdair explained seriously.

"Hahaha, but really how are we supposed to get inside?" Amya asked again.

"Why is that so far-fetched?" Alasdair asked disbelievingly.

"Because you don't possess a single thread of charm." Amya explained.

"Hey! I do! I have heaps of charm! I have mountains of charm!" Alasdair insisted.

"No you don't. You kind of have more mole hills of charm, or slight bulges of mud of charm." Amya replied mockingly and Emerson laughed, Alasdair just sat back on his bed and began to sulk.

"Ok, so what's the actual plan?" Amya asked Emerson.

"Alasdair teleports us up to the roof and we go through a window." Emerson explained and Amya pondered the idea.

"I guess that could work…" she decided. "But I suggest that we go up on different parts of the roof and go in different windows in different parts of the castle."

"That's a lot of differents." Jeremy muttered.

"So you're suggesting we split up?" Emerson asked.

"I am. If we spread around our 'entrances' then we can spread the love and instead of them working together and completely destroying us, they'll destroy us individually."

"Yeah, much better than getting humiliated in front of you guys, I love getting annihilated on my own." Emerson said happily. "It gives me a sense of achievement, shows that I can do things on my own."

"Right…" Alasdair said, not sure how to react. "Ummmm, yeah I guess it's our best bet, we might as well. What are we gonna do when we get in there?"

"We need to find Caiden obviously so once we're in, we go looking for him. If we can, apprehend one of the Bloody Murderers and force them to tell us." Amya explained.

"Alright, do you guys have anything to add?" Emerson asked Ryker and Jeremy. Ryker grunted, shaking his head.

"Just one thing." Jeremy said and Emerson nodded for him to go ahead. "Will I be going in on my own, or what?"

"Well, if you all go in on your own," Emerson started indicating the other three. "Then you come with me."

Jeremy nodded. "Alright, I'll stop you from getting shot."

Emerson grinned. "Oh, of course. If need be, I'll use you as a meat shield." Emerson assured him.

"Great, so we're decided." Amya said. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, meet downstairs in the lobby in fifteen minutes." Amya turned and left the room leaving the four guys.

They sat there in silence, none of them with any clue of how to break the awkwardness. Alasdair coughed in a pitiful attempt to make it less awkward, but it did the exact opposite. Finally Alasdair couldn't take it anymore; he muttered something inaudible and disappeared, leaving the other three alone, the awkwardness building up. Emerson cursed quietly to himself, silently wishing he could do the same.

Emerson glanced at the other two. Ryker was standing there calmly, not seeming at all awkward; Jeremy on the other hand was the opposite. He was trying to be casual by leaning against the wall, but was failing miserable. He was fidgeting and looked around, every so often coughing or yawning to try and make it less awkward, it really wasn't working.

"Do you do this kind of thing often?" Jeremy asked Emerson, desperately trying to break the ice.

"Well… I like to say I've done my fair share of this kind of thing. Not as much as Caiden used to, but I have done a reasonable amount of 'work' for people." Emerson explained.

"Right, right…" Jeremy said. "Well I'm in safe hands then." He said laughing nervously and Emerson gave him a supporting smile, more out of sympathy than anything else. The room descended back into awkward silence.

"We might as well go downstairs." Ryker said and Emerson nodded.

"Yes, of course. Good idea."

Emerson opened the door and held it open so Jeremy could walk through, as Ryker went through, Emerson looked at him in deep gratitude and Ryker just nodded.

When they reached the lobby, Alasdair was already there, he was looking at a shelf of souvenirs by the door. He looked up when they entered.

"Ah, sorry about that, I just really wanted to have a proper look at these wonderful souvenirs." He said.

"It's fine, we didn't even notice you were gone." Emerson said reassuringly but the look in his eyes was about as reassuring as an angry beaver.

"Glad to see you understand." Alasdair smiled back and Emerson's eyes turned a much darker shade of blue.

"Amya isn't down yet then?" Jeremy asked, noticing Emerson's expression and desperately trying to stop a fight before it started.

"Not yet, no." Alasdair replied.

At that moment Amya appeared in the stairwell wearing what seemed to be clothes fit for battle, a black leather jacket and tightly fitting leather trousers and Jeremy almost cried out in gratitude.

"Ah, Amya. Here you are." Jeremy said stating the obvious.

"That's opinionated." Emerson muttered thoughtfully.

"No, it isn't." Amya said frowning at Emerson's comment.

"That's also opinionated." Emerson said again.

"No, it's not, that isn't got anything to do with being opinionated." Alasdair said also frowning and now Emerson himself frowned thoughtfully.

"It could be…" he said stubbornly.

"Do you even know what opinionated means?"

"Haven't the foggiest." Emerson replied simply.

"So why would you say that that was opinionated if you don't know what it means?" Amya asked.

"Well I just thought that it sounded as if it was opinionated." Emerson explained and Amya frowned even more.

"So you're saying that it sounded opinionated when you don't know what opinionated means?" Amya asked, completely stumped by Emerson's logic.

"Yes." Emerson said decidedly happy. "Although actually maybe not because if…" he started, but stopped again looking completely baffled by his own logic, Jeremy couldn't blame him.

"Well, if that moment of complete insanity has passed, shall we be off?" Alasdair asked and Amya nodded.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." She led the way towards the door with Ryker, Alasdair and Jeremy behind her leaving Emerson to stand there alone in the lobby like a lost duckling still thinking about his new found wisdom. After twenty seconds or so, Jeremy came back through the door and led Emerson back out with him.

"Ok, so we have our plan, is everyone ok with it?" Emerson asked having finally recovered from his slight mental break down. They were waiting about a mile away from the castle having one final discussion.

"No, not in the slightest." Alasdair replied.

"Great so we're sorted…" Emerson started but then realised what Alasdair had said. "I'm sorry what? What's wrong with the plan, it's fool-proof."

"We're going to try and get in through the windows separately in broad daylight. You don't think they might have security cameras or something?" Alasdair explained and Emerson shook his head.

"No, it's fine cause we'll sneak in like ninjas, they'll never see us coming." Emerson replied. "The plan's amazing, there's nothing wrong with it at all."

"Actually it's really not, it's a terrible plan and there are thousands of things that could and most likely will go wrong." Amya said much to Emerson's dismay.

"It isn't that bad." Emerson insisted.

"Yes, it really is. In fact in my entire life, I've only ever seen a few that have been worse." Amya said and Emerson looked ready to cry.

"If it's so bad, then why have you agreed to it?" Alasdair asked her.

"Because it's the only plan we have and to be honest, I was getting pretty desperate."

"Great, well that's done wonders to my self-esteem, thanks a bunch." Emerson said sulkily.

"Glad I could help." Amya replied happily and she abruptly walked off, Ryker immediately followed her as if he knew she was going to randomly walk away. Alasdair recovered quickly and followed them, Jeremy shrugged to Emerson and the followed after the others.

"We'd better split up now." Amya said, they were now only a few hundred meters away from the castle, Ryker nodded and turned, beginning his walk around the side of the castle, where he was going to enter.

"Bye." Alasdair said and disappeared, he would reappear around the other side of the castle where he was going to enter.

"I'll go on the left, you two go on the right." Amya said to the others, indicating the side of the castle facing them.

"Yeah, alright." Emerson said. "See you in a few hours," he said and she nodded. "probably…" he added.

"Be optimistic." She scowled.

"No way, I've always found being a pessimist is much better, that way you don't get disappointed when you're caught and tortured." Emerson insisted and Amya just rolled her eyes.

"Trust you to be the happy one." She muttered. "Well stay safe." She said and turned to walk off.

"Amya." Emerson called after her and she stopped and turned again.

"Uhuh?"

"If you see Scraper, direct him over to me please?" He asked and Amya smiled.

"Of course." She said and walked off.

After a moment of silence as they watched Amya go, Emerson looked up at the massive castle in front of them.

"I hope you have some funny stories to tell me, this is gonna take a while." He said.

A/N: I'm so sorry!I just put so many exclamation marks, it was a ridiculous idea, it looks really stupid now. But honestly I am so sorry I took so long to update, I just wasn't writing at all. To be fair, I was in France for nine days, but still I could've updated other times. I know this is such an anticlimactic and short chapter, it's really boring, basically just a filler but the next one should be more interesting and exciting… hopefully. I haven't really been doing my writing from anyone's perspective so far, no 1st person, and the thoughts all switch. But that's my writing style so… meh. Thanks so much for reading, please review, it really brightens up my day and do whatever else you want with my story… except copying it (Hahaha, like someone would do that) if you did that, I'd come and rip your balls off, thanks.

Mangobean.