Thanks for the reviews, everyone! *hands out cookies* Well, I didn't want to keep you hanging, and this seems to be really doing good (four reviews so far, it's doing better than Xanatos). Well, here's where we find out if Mello gets his chocolate back.
Mello: Do I?
It's in this chapter...
Matt: Is he gonna blackmail me again?
No.
Linda: Don't forget to review!
We stood in front of the door to the supply closet. None of us said anything.
"Ladies first," I said to Linden.
"Uh...well, couldn't you go ahead of me, Mello?" she asked.
"Why? Are you scared?"
"Kind of,"
"Fine then, I'll go first," I said. Why did some kids have to make a big deal about a dark room? I mean, maybe if someone was hiding in it...with a knife, maybe...or a gun...and...
"Hey Mail, you should come too,"
"You're scared too?"
"No," I shot back. "Just...I grew up on the streets, dark places make me tense, okay?"
"So you're scared,"
"Am not,"
"Yes you are,"
"Thumb sucker,"
He turned beet red. "You said you wouldn't tell! And you said it in front of the girl that you said was like blasting it in a megaphone on amps to!"
"I'm standing right here, you know,"
"Just get down there already!" I shouted.
We were about halfway down the stairs when Linden finally asked "D-didn't anyone bring a flashlight?"
I facepalmed. "Ugh! Of course a flashlight!"
"Yes, I think that would help," added Mail.
So then, after we found a flashlight and after we walked back down the stairs, we searched the basement area for any extra mattresses. We had no idea where to start.
"Uh, I've never been down here before, so I'm not sure where to look," said Linden.
"Oh, so you're as good as useless to us now," I said.
"What? I'm not useless!"
"Hey guys, could you stop fighting? I think I found a door," Mail called over to us. "I think I played a game like this once,"
Sure enough, there was a door. Of course, there were huge spider webs big enough for someone to get stuck in. Someone like Linden, at least.
"Well, I don't think your mattress could be in there, the cobwebs look like they've been there for a while, and your mattress was taken recently, so..." Linden trailed off.
"Okay, you have a point," I said. "But you're still a chicken,"
"No I'm not, I just gave a good explanation for why it makes no sense to look there!"
"Hey, maybe we could look in there anyway and go on an adventure!" Mail suggested.
"Guys, focus! We can have the adventure once we find my mattress,"
"He's right, we're here for one thing only, so the sooner we get out, the better," Linden said. To be honest, I didn't mind her too much, but she got annoying sometimes. When she wasn't being a tattle tale or Near's stupid fangirl, she was pretty cool.
"Alright then Linden," I turned to her, "Can you think of anyplace we can find the mattress? Besides here?"
"We can try looking over there, but then I don't know this place too well. I'm mostly going by reasoning,"
"Right then," I thought a minute. "Okay, so since this place has a lot of dust, we'll look for the door or space where it looks like the dust was cleared off from recently. That would be the place they most likely put it, right?"
"Right," said Linden.
"So if you're looking for a clear spot, would this be it?" Mail asked, pointing to a doorway. Me and Linden rushed over.
"Mail, I take back everything I said about you!" I said.
"Huh? I was here for two days, what sorts of things did you say?"
"Nothing,"
We came over to the door, which had handprints all over it and looked like it was wiped off from all the dust. Most of the dust, at least. We opened the door together, and sure enough, there were two or three mattresses stacked one on top of the other. By now, I was glad I had Mail and Linden with me; how was I gonna carry all that chocolate by myself?
"Hey Mello," Mail spoke up as I dove for the first mattress and felt for the pockets.
"Yeah?"
"Just wondering, how much chocolate is in that mattress, anyway?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Well, I just think that maybe, what if the grown-ups noticed that it was really heavy and...well, they could've -"
"YOU'RE NOT SAYING THEY SUSPECTED ANYTHING, ARE YOU?"
"N-no, but...uh, yeah. I mean, they might've, and...well, I dunno what -"
"Jeevas, listen to me," I said, panicking now. "I set up those pockets in a way that if anyone were to move the bed, nothing would fall out. You would literally have to know about the stashes - or at least the pockets - to get to them. There's no way..." I had to stop talking, I was breathing really fast.
"Mello?" Linden came over to me. "Are you okay?"
I took a deep breath, and - much as I hated to admit how much this worked - counted to ten. To myself, because I didn't want the others to hear. Then, I looked at Linden.
"You okay?" she repeated.
"Help me move this mattress," I said. "I'll check the second one,"
We searched the next two mattresses, but we found nothing. We noticed there was a fourth one behind the stack...or what was a stack (it looked more like a lumpy pile by now), and I went for it. I felt for the one spot, right where...there it was!
"Guys! I found it!" I shouted. I was excited, ecstatic now...I could just taste it in my mouth, melting, sweet...
Except, I didn't feel the bar. Or any, for that matter.
"I-it's...it's gone," I said.
"What?" Linden gasped.
"Does this mean you're telling everyone that I still suck my thumbs?" Mail blurted out.
I felt horrible. It wasn't just the stash...okay, it was, but I'd worked so hard to make the slits in the mattress look like they were hardly even there. Plus there was just how hard it was to actually get all that chocolate - whatever wasn't left over from holidays or what I actually bought...uh, let's just leave it at that. And now, that whole supply was gone. And technically, it was all Mail Jeevas' fault.
"Hey," I felt him nudge me, but I didn't move. "Mells, you okay? We should get out of here, you know,"
"Y-yeah," I said, looking back over at the bed. My old one. "Let's go,"
We headed out of the room, tired, empty, depressed...okay, I was anyway. Well, Mail and Linden were tired...oh forget it. Our day officially sucked! So we came out of the room and tried to find the stairs so we could get out of this place. That's when I heard footsteps.
"Guys, you hear that?" I whispered. We all froze and looked around. That's when I felt Linden wrap her arms around me.
"Mm, are we gonna die?" she moaned.
"We're not gonna die, now can you please stop squeezing me?"
There were the footsteps again. Then, there was a crashing noise, like someone falling down the stairs.
"Hey, now we know where the stairs are!" said Jeevas. I rolled my eyes. Me and Linden both stopped short when we saw the white thing konked out at the bottom of the stairs. It was Near.
"Huh," said Mail. "Yeah, now we know why it's important to bring a flashlight,"
When we finally got back up to my room...our room, whatever...Mail didn't say anything to me, just kept looking at the floor, and sat on his bed. I think he knew I was pissed at him.
"I uh...I'm sorry you couldn't find your chocolate," he mumbled.
"Yeah well, we can't do anything now..." I said, before I felt myself choke up. I'd actually been holding it in ever since I found out the pockets were empty, but there was no way I was gonna cry in front of him and Linden Benson. I thought I could wait till I was alone in my room...when I remembered I was sharing it with this guy.
"At least I planned ahead," I said. I went over to the middle of the floor, felt for the right spot in the floorboards, and pulled them open. Ten left.
"Oh, nice!" Mail said. "You had a backup stash! That was genius!"
"Keep it down, will you?" I whispered, taking out a bar. I peeled off the wrapper and chewed on the bar. I needed comfort food.
"Don't tell me, you don't want me to tell anyone about this, right?" he said, getting out his Gameboy.
I smirked. "Right," I said.
"But seriously though, do you always have to have chocolate?"
"Do you always have to play on your Gameboy?"
"Touche,"
I climbed into my bunk, crawled under the covers, and slowly, carefully savored the last of my chocolate.
Just ten...nine now.
And with ninety-three chocolate bars, enough to get through the month, gone.
Aw, poor Mello didn't get his chocolate. T_T Hey, I had to torture someone besides Matt, right?
Mello: You have no soul.
Oh stop! It'll get better.
Mello: Yeah right.
Matt: REVIEW!