A/N Hello, everyone, huge apologies for the lateness, I've totally not had time to update with getting stuff ready for college.
Thanks to all Reviewers!
Dedication: To Cheryl for her review! :D
Disclaimer: I only own the plot.
"I brought you a present," The man that Iola was rapidly beginning to loathe announced. He plopped the unconscious Phil into a chair opposite hers.
"What the hell did you do to him?" Iola demanded or would have demanded if her mouth weren't taped shut, instead it sounded rather more like "mmph! Urgh! Meh!"
She watched their captor attempt to keep the unconscious Phil from sliding down in the chair. He procured some rope and bound Phil tightly to the chair, having the dual goal of keeping him from escaping once he awoke and keeping him from falling out of the chair prior to that.
"Sorry, where you trying to say something, little girl?"
Iola swore that when she got loose she would hurt him in a painful way for referring to her in such a manner.
"I bet you want to know what I did to your friend, not to worry, he's perfectly alright or will be soon enough." He assured her in a way that was decidedly not comforting at all.
"Mergh!" Iola pronounced in a tone that implied dark thoughts indeed.
"You're quite rude, you know." He informed her.
Iola scoffed and rolled her eyes at this statement, as she was unable to speak and inform him why she felt no obligation to treat her kidnapper politely (although she would think he would be used to it with such a charming personality as he had).
"Here I am bringing you a gift, and you can't even be bothered to say thank you." He continued shaking his head in dismay at her lack of manners.
Iola really wished that she could point out that even if she had any desire to thank him (which she didn't), such efforts would be rather hampered by the fact that her mouth was in fact taped shut.
"I bet you're wondering what my plan is, aren't you?" He inquired benignly. "It really is quite brilliant."
Iola rolled her eyes; clearly she was in the presence of a megalomaniac. Plus, if he thought he was so brilliant then why did it seem like he was about to reveal his grand master plan to her? Everyone knows that the ultimate undoing of any good criminal mastermind is revealing his plan. Duh (1).
"…Well, too bad."
Maybe he was a tad smarter than the average criminal, but not by much.
"You'll find out in time, once our little game progresses further."
-Story Break-
"I think it's safe to say that any theories that Iola simply got lost are off the table at this point," Frank said grimly.
"The only question is how Phil could have disappeared off the carousel." Biff continued. "Well, not the only question obviously, but you know what I mean."
"Yeah, we do." Chet agreed. "Look, what we need to do is find Iola and Phil and then get out of here as fast as possible, even if we have to walk the entire way. Something strange is going on and I get the feeling we don't want to be around for the finale."
"Tsk, tsk." The chilling voice that had rapidly become familiar to them sounded over the intercom. "Trying to leave already? After I was so very hospitable to you."
A cry of 'merugh!' sounded muffled in the background before there was a loud crash over the loudspeakers and it went silent.
"That sounded like Iola." Joe stated slowly.
"Are you sure?" Tony asked.
"Positive." Joe confirmed. "We need to find her."
"I am very sorry to have left you all," The voice had returned again. "One of my house guests was being very disrespectful, so I was forced to silence her. I guess it's true what they say, teenagers are so very ungrateful."
"Don't you touch her!" Joe exclaimed glancing wildly around as though expecting to suddenly spot whoever it was who had taken Iola and Phil.
"I will do whatever I choose Mr. Hardy, try to remember that it is I and not you who control the game," The man continued coldly. "If I so choose I can end the pathetic existence of your precious Iola right here and right now and you will never see her again."
"Leave her alone." Callie piped in.
"Jumping in as usual, Miss Shaw?" The voice asked silkily. "I'm not surprised; you do seem to have quite the temper."
"As if you're fit to lecture any one on temper or hospitality, you nutcase." Callie spat back.
"Really, Miss Shaw, you would do well to hold your tongue, you will find that such outbursts have consequences, when you come and join my little house party, very, very soon. Until then I bid you adieu!"
"That's it. We're done splitting up." Frank said firmly. "It's done us absolutely no good so far, and we are not going to risk this guy grabbing anyone else."
"What we really need right now is the police." Tony pointed out. "We really don't have the manpower to scour this park for Iola and Phil."
"We can't just leave and go walk to the nearest town, which if memory serves me is at least three miles away," Joe replied. "No way am I leaving without Iola and Phil."
"Maybe we should just send two people to go get help, while the rest of us look for Iola." Callie offered.
"The only problem is that we're all trapped in here, the gate is locked." Tony pointed out.
"We could probably climb it." Biff stated pointing toward the fence. "It's not that high, only twelve feet or so."
"I don't know." Frank put in doubtfully. "Splitting up could be exceptionally dangerous."
"I rather doubt that whoever is behind this is going to follow us onto the main road," Tony volunteered. "He seems to be more interested in playing a game here on the fairground, and if only two of us slip out he'll still have plenty to occupy him here."
"We may as well," Joe said. "We need to act fast, before this guy has time to hurt Iola and Phil."
"Fine," Frank agreed. "Who is going to go?" He immediately eyed his girlfriend. "You should really go, Callie, it seems like he's angling for you to be one of his 'guests' very soon."
"Oh, no way," Callie replied. "First of all I cannot climb that fence. Second of all, Iola is my best friend and Phil is my friend too, and no way am I leaving." She crossed her arms firmly across her chest and glared up at her boyfriend.
Frank sighed; he should have known that would never work. "Who is willing to go, then?"
"Biff and I will go," Tony volunteered for both of them. "As I rather doubt that Chet is any more likely to leave here than Joe or Callie no matter how temporary."
Chet nodded in agreement with his friend's statement.
"I'm up for it." Biff agreed.
"It's settled then, you two go off and get help, as fast as possible, stick to the main road, don't go wandering off into the woods." Frank cautioned.
"We won't." Tony promised for the both of them.
Frank, Callie, Joe, and Chet soon found themselves standing alone in the deserted fairground awaiting whatever would come next.
A/N (1) When I wrote this I was totally reminded of the Evil Overlord List which is amazingly funny and can be found here: ..
Anyway, review! Update should be on Thursday, but is not guaranteed because I am just seventeen days away from college and my mom is forcing me to start packing up my stuff. :P