He'd only been so happy to see dry land once before, and for the same reason.
Bolting out of the water and up a few steps, Pewdie put a hand against the wall and tried to catch his breath. His throat was dry, and it stung when he coughed. He sluggishly made his way to the door as he shouted triumphantly. "Take that, bitch!" He forced a smile. At least he was still alive.
The next room was another wide open space. It felt lonely, unattended. There were no windows, so aside from a distant glow from a crystalline chandelier set high into the ceiling, it was very, very dark. It looked much darker than it was. What was left of Pewdie's bravery deserted him in that room. He saw a faint purple glow out of the corner of his eye and faced it. His eyes lit up; a bottle of oil!
"Wooo!" he exclaimed, filling his lantern, making sure that no single drop was left in the bottle. He lit it and sighed with relief. The sudden sound of shuffling feet caused him to freeze up, terrified, and he clenched the lantern tight. His eyes were clasped shut and he braced himself. A touch to his shoulder made him jump up and scream, and he tried to run the other direction. But whatever it was had a hold on his off-white t-shirt. "No!" he yipped. "No, no, no, no…!"
"Pewdie, calm down, it's me," a sweet and almost soothing voice assured him. He let his shoulders relax and sighed.
"Jennifer, don't scare me like that," he said, trying to sound angry. His voice cracking kind of ruined the effect he was going for. He turned to face her, but had to look up; she was three times as tall as him. "Wha…?" he breathed, confused.
"I'm a boulder," she said, as if she thought Pewdie was an idiot. "But that doesn't matter right?"
Admittedly, human Jennifer was very pretty. She had perfectly straight long black hair and stone-grey eyes. She was slimmer than he had imagined. "Still not going to happen," he reminded her, and himself as well.
Jennifer sighed. "I know. Anyway, Mr. Chair said he was looking for you. He told me to tell you that he was in the Study." Jennifer thought for a moment. "All this doesn't seem… right, you know?"
"I guess," Pewdie replied, not sure as to what she meant.
"What do they want with us?" she asked, her voice growing worried. "They took Stephano, and now Piggy too…"
"WHAT? When did they get Piggy?" Felix shouted, his voice getting higher.
"Just not too long ago," Jennifer said sadly. "He told me to hide and that he'd take care of it, but he never came back." She tried to hide her face, obviously about ready to cry.
Pewdie had mixed feelings about what was happening. There was no sign at all of any sort of end to the map, and he was lost without his Frenchman. And now Piggy, too? Anger boiled up inside him, but he kept it bottled up for Jennifer's sake. "Come on, now," he said quietly, "don't be all sad. We'll find them."
"How do you know that?" she yelled. "How do you know everything will be okay? Do you think I'm some child that'll believe anything you say?"
Pewdie was taken aback. He'd never seen this side of her. Granted, he'd never really paid much attention to her in the first place. "No, of course not," he stuttered out. "But what do you WANT me to say? We're all gonna die? There's no hope?" He planted his foot on the ground and dramatically put a clenched fist to his chest. "I promise I will do my best to solve this mystery and save our friends," he said, glaring out into the distance.
Jennifer smiled. "Just don't get hurt, okay?"
"Well, you know me." Felix walked past the towering Jennifer and took a better look around. "Now then, let's just…" He trailed off, noticing a strangely patterned door ahead of him. He approached it; it looked a lot like the carving on the dagger from Daniel's torturous-ritual phase. He tried to push it open; locked. "That figures," he muttered.
"I'm going to go try to find the others," Jennifer said. "And don't forget to go see Mr. Chair."
"Yeah yeah," Felix said, waving a hand at her without bothering to turn around. "I will."
Next to the green patterned door was a plain wooden one. He pushed it open and a bro stood to greet him. He screeched and closed the door again as fast as he could, tromping away to hide behind some crates in the corner of the spacious room. Peering over the crates, he watched it break down the door little by little. He stayed hidden. When he looked back up, it was looming over him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUHHHH!" he cried, scrambling to get up. He looked back; where the bro once stood was a cloud of dust.
"FAHKING POOFERS!" Pewdie raged. He kicked down the pile of crates out of spite. He stormed over to where it came from. Inside was another bro.
"Come at me!" he taunted. "I'm not scared!" The bro lumbered toward him and, to Pewdie's surprise, dug his claws into his side.
"Owh! The hell?" he yelped. Before he could begin to run away, the bro had his swelled arm around Pewdie's neck. Pewdie struggled and fought, but the bro had him, and as his vision faded he saw a familiar figure now standing in the doorway.
"Stephano!" he sputtered, suddenly having the will to hang on. Stephano didn't move, didn't even blink. Pewdie cried out again. "Stephano, help me!" He stayed put. Confused and angry and unable to keep himself conscious, Pewdie fell limp in the bro's arm.
Stephano nodded. His composure was calm, but his eyes showed regret.