"You want us to help you?" Jack asks. Peregin nods.
"I can get you all out of here if you play along with my plan." Peregin tells us.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Jack says, letting go of my hand and wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
"Because," Peregin begins, pulling his wallet out of his jacket. He holds up a picture to Jack and I, "this is my wife, Katie and my children, the twins, Josh and Allison. I can't let Eppie hurt my family."
"Your children are very cute." I say, looking at the picture of the family. Everyone is filled with enjoyment. The children are playing on a swing set at a playground and Peregin and his wife are pushing the swings. Peregin chuckles and takes the photo back.
"Yeah, Josh is the star soccer player at his school and Allie's way ahead of the other kids academically." He explains.
"But, Peregin... How can you get us out of here?" Jack asks, we both look up at the man.
"Eppie's planning on moving you all to the basement. The basement is cut off into two parts, at the right time, we all go against Marty and Wyatt to bust out of here... And my name isn't really Peregin. Hi, my name is Stephen, nice to meet you properly."
"Wake up!" I yell, shaking Marcus' shoulder. He was slumped in a corner with Tyler and Caspar and Joe were being woken up by Jack.
Marcus jolts upright and smacks Tyler in the face in the process. This causes Tyler to sit up and hit Marcus back. I laugh as both Tyler and Marcus hit each other playfully.
"Guys, seriously. We're moving down to the basement." I say. Tyler looks at me with pure horror on his face.
"Excuse me! I am not going down to some dark basement that could ultimately be unsanitary and gross! Is there a bathroom down there where I can clean myself and fix my hair?!" Tyler shouts. I nod slowly and look over at Jack who seems to be having trouble waking Joe up. Caspar walks over to Finn and straight up slaps him in the face to wake him up. Finn jumps up and punches Caspar in the gut before realising who hit him.
"Holy shit! Sorry!" Finn yelps, he kneels next to Caspar and helps him sit up. Finn and Caspar then join in with Jack attempting to wake Joe up.
"Guys, before Wyatt or Marty get here. Jack and I have to tell you something." I say quietly.
"You're pregnant, aren't you?" Tyler says. Jack and I both look at Tyler weirdly.
"No! What?! I'm not pregnant!" I shout. Marcus places one hand over my mouth.
"Not so loud. They might hear you." He explains.
"Who's pregnant?" Joe asks sleepily, finally waking up.
"No one is pregnant!" Jack exclaims. I get up and stand next to Jack.
"Earlier while you were all asleep, Peregin came to talk to us," I begin.
"His real name is Stephen and apparently Eppie has his wife and children so he's only playing along with the tough guy act," Jack tells them, every mouth in the room drops except mine and Jack's.
"How do we know he's not faking it?" Caspar voices the question on everyone's mind.
"He showed us a photo of him and his wife and children. You had to be there, h-he was just too distraught for it to be a fake story," Jack says. Everyone turns to look at me and I nod.
"He's telling the truth. Anyways, if we play along with Stephen's act, he can help us all get out of here," I say. For some reason, I thought of Zoe. My best friend back in England, she's probably having lunch with Blake... Or was it Barry? Whatever his name was. I also missed my other friend Zoe... I wondered if her and Alfie were okay.
"You okay?" Jack whispers in my ear as he wraps his arms around my neck from behind me. I nod and swallow hard.
"Just... thinking."
"Don't hurt yourself," Jack says and he gives me a peck on the cheek.
"I- Hey!" I turn around and hit him on the arm. Suddenly the door opens and we all think it's going to be Wyatt or Marty but instead a new person stands there. He looks pretty young, a bit familiar. He smiles and then I realise where I've seen him before.
"You're the front desk guy..." I say, Jack lets go and stands next to me, holding onto my hand.
"That's right! I was the front desk guy! Congratulations, Arabella. I'm Chris, and this," He says, stepping sideways to reveal the girl who was also at the front desk, "is Christie. Eppie sent us to get you."
Everyone looks around at each other, these two aren't in the least bit scary. We could easily take these guys.
"Out!" Christie chirps, trilling a high pitched laugh.
We obediently get up and go out into the hallway. Chris stands behind me and hits my behind. I turn around and punch him in the nose.
"What the hell, dude?" I yell. Chris clutches his face and stands up slowly. He goes to hit me but I duck underneath his hand and kick him in the shin. He cradles his leg instead of his face now and growls angrily. Everyone else has stopped walking and is watching us. In one blink, Chris has bent down and swiped at my legs, causing me to fall onto my back. He leans over me, his fist raised but Jack pushes him to the side.
"Don't touch her," Jack says. Chris whacks his fist into Jack's left cheek and goes to kick him but Marcus and Joe stop him. Joe grabs onto Chris' leg and Marcus takes hold of his shoulders, pulling him down so he slams onto the ground. Christie taps me on the shoulder and I spin around, my face colliding with her palm.