Tory's PoV
What's going on? Where is the box? Ella was supposed to put it there.
My mind is racing out of confusion, we agreed upon this board, I gave her the nails myself to fix the board we would pry it open, I can even tell the difference between the old nails and the new, shiny ones that I bought.
But it made a noise, it must be here. I start pressing my ear against other floor boards to see if I can pick out the faint noise of the lullaby. No go. I stand up and just have a quick look around the room and spot Ben, he looks as confused as I am about this whole thing. I'm about to voice our my concerns when I here something terrible.
A scream in the distance.
Ella! I think as my eyes widen and meet Ben's whose obviously just come to the same conclusion as me. Without thinking I start running, not caring if the boys were to follow and find out my prank because something was obviously wrong, that scream sounded genuine and I know Ella wouldn't want to ruin the plan either. I'm about half way there and I can here Hi and Shelton asking questions while running after me and Ben:
"What was that?"
"Where are you going?"
"What's going on?"
"Slow down my legs are going to fall off!"
I didn't hesitate when I got to Ella's room, I opened the door quickly and found her standing up against the far wall. I was slightly confused for a second, why was she just standing there? What scared her? Then I see it.
The box.
I definitely didn't put that there.
Shelton and Hi are obliviously taking in the room until the realise what was going on, "You set this all up!? Why would you do that?" Hi asks confused.
"Why did I do it, maybe because of the fact that you scared me the other day and I wanted revenge," I reply with an evil grin.
"Dope." Ben says, smacking Hi on the head.
I mentally eye roll at them.
"Umm... Guys?" Ella pipes up, nodding towards the musical box in the floor in front of us," Can anyone tell me what's going on?"
She gives us a quick recap with what happened and the hairs in the back of my neck rise and the room suddenly seems to get colder.
No one seems to know what to say, all of us sporting the same confused/worried faces. I to try process what Ella told me, try and make sense of it. There's no logical explanation for what happened.
Unless someone else is in the house too, I think quickly scanning the room making sure we are alone.
"Maybe, we're not alone..." Shelton finally utters.
"I think we should leave," Ella says determined as if all the fright leaked out of her. She walks over the door purposely quickly and pulls the handle.
Again and again. Nothing happens.
"What the hell?"
"Open the door!" Shelton said urgently, slightly uncomfortable with the fact that we were all stuck in the same room with a creepy box.
"I can't it won't open!" We all rush over to the door frantically pulling and pushing it hoping that it will open and we can escape. We kick and yank as much as we can but nothing happens, it is as if the door is made of reinforced steel or something.
"Maybe there's another way out or som-" Ben gets cut off by a the sound of the music box. He quickly goes over to it and kicks I into the wall swearing at it. It smashed into pieces but the noise continues.
"It's coming from… something else."
"That's impossible, we only brought one!" Ella yells over the increasing volume of the music. We all start searching around for the box eventually pinpointing the sound from coming inside one of the desk draws. We pull it out to see a note attached to it.
You should have left this place alone, now we have no choice.
"What do t-they mean they have n-no choice?" Shelton stutters, naked fright in his eyes.
"It's just a joke," I say unconvincing.
"Unless this is all part of your plan, it's clearly not a joke, we're the only ones here for gods sake!" Hi says panicked.
I quickly tell them it's not a joke but I have a plan.
Flare.
I careful formulate the plan in a way Ella won't suspect anything by emphasising things like "if we were together we can be really strong. Act like a pack you might say."
They all nodded seemingly getting my drift and we turn away from Ella and head to the door, flaring on the way and as one we draw back and ram into the door together. It stands no chance as we barge into it and it comes away from the hinges and splinters in the floor.
Power down.
But what if we need a flare again, we may not be able to!
It doesn't matter, Ella will see. It's not as if we can wear our sunglasses at this time of night!
We all power down and turn around to find the room empty.
"Ella? Ella. Ella!" We all rush into the room looking around but it's clear.
Ella is gone.