Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Suspense/Mystery

Oli sums up Joey's muddle of thoughts with a single, bewildered sentence: "What the hell is going on?"

By this point, Shane's no longer in his seat, having staggered over to the nearest window and collapsed in a heap on the floor. He's still coughing up blood, but at least someone thought to provide him with a napkin. Joey rushes to his friend's side, his heart going twenty kilometers a minute, hoping against hope that it's all some sort of sick prank.

"I think I got poisoned," Shane somehow manages to choke out before another spray of blood erupts from his mouth.

"Oh, Jesus!" screams GloZell.

Oh Jesus is right. "He says he was poisoned!" Joey informs the group, just in case some of them didn't catch what Shane said (half of them are still busy running around like chickens with their heads cut off, so it's possible).

Everyone starts talking at once. Eva points and shouts "It was the maid!" while GloZell screams a string of prayers and curses.

Joey is trapped in a state of shock. He doesn't know what happened, he doesn't know who did this to Shane, and he certainly doesn't know what to do about it. All he knows is that Shane Dawson, one of the closest friends he has, is dying right in front of his eyes.

At least Matt still seems to have his wits about him. "I'm reading the telegram," he announces, snatching the fallen note from Shane's abandoned plate. Justine's by his side in seconds, looking over his shoulder as he reads.

"What does it say?" several people ask for the second time tonight...except this time, no one really wants to know what the damn thing says anymore.

Matt looks up from the telegram and confirms their worst fears. "It says he's been poisoned."

Poisoned. The very word sends chills down Joey's spine. He never dreamed that any of his friends would meet such a terrible fate...but then again, it's my fault, isn't it? I invited him here. He'd probably be at home trying some milkshake or whatever if it wasn't...if I didn't...

Honestly, he's beginning to regret throwing this party in the first place. After all, Shane's life is way more important than Joey's sleep cycle.

The news that the telegram predicted Shane's poisoning earns several more "whats" from the guests, but then Lele of all people points out what might be the worst part of this entire sordid story. "So he was...He knew!"

Deciding he has to see this for himself, Joey snatches the telegram from Matt. His hands shake as he reads it aloud to the guests, a part of him still praying that maybe someone will yell "Pysch!" and the entire thing will turn out to be just a horrible nightmare.

In fifteen minutes you'll be dead...your lungs filled with blood...HOWEVER, you know I love games. There is an antidote hidden on the first floor of the house. If you and your friends are wise enough, they'll be able to solve the clues and save you.

Antidote... Joey's mind is racing to catch up with his mouth. So things aren't hopeless after all. We can save him. We can save him...

The symbols of your cult mark the clues leading to the antidote. It all begins with your last dish of the night.

May you die in horrible pain, my cursed enemy.

 

Matt did not sign up for this.

Going to a dinner party, thinking you'll have a good time, and then one of your fellow guests goes and gets himself poisoned...that's the kind of thing that happens in old mystery novels. Not real life. This is ridiculous. This entire situation...it's ridiculous and terrible and tragic and unbelievable all at the same freakin' time.

And now...it's up to them, isn't it? They're the only ones who can save Shane—and, to be honest, Matt isn't sure if he's up to the task.

It all begins with your last dish of the night...

"What does she have under there?" asks Justine, her voice trembling as she points to the maid.

Matt glances at Sarah and yes, she's still holding that covered dish she brought in seconds before Shane...don't think about it. "She's got the last dish!"

Oli rubs his eyes and backs away slowly. "What the hell..."

"What does she have under there?" Justine's tone is bordering on frantic at this point.

The maid places the dish on the table, and Matt can't help but stare in apprehension. What's under there? How do we know it's food? It could be a freakin' bomb for all we know...

Eva, who's closest to the dish, reaches for it. "I'll open it."

"Girl, I will fork you up," snaps GloZell, brandishing her fork in Eva's direction. "What is underneath there?"

Eva takes off the lid and omigod it's a head it's a freakin' head why is there a head there what is going on no no no no no...

And right there and then, Matt's brain switches on the mute button, and everything becomes a rush of soundless shapes and darkened lights. Nothing makes sense. Everything's insane. He's crossed reality's threshold, and there's no going back.

 

When he sees what's under the lid, Oli's first thought is good God, she wasn't expecting us to actually eat that, was she?

It's a head. It's a flipping head—brown hair, closed eyes, bloody mouth, clearly male. And it's dead, and it's human, which means that...nope, not going there.

Of course, everybody screams. Eva, Lele, and Sierra are in full-blown panic mode, pushing each other and hiding behind the chairs in an effort to get away from the horror before them. Arthur tries to calm them down, but he might as well be trying to stop an earthquake for all the good it does.

"Wait." Oli takes a closer look at the head, and he can't help but notice the piece of paper sticking out of his...ugh, that's revolting. "There's something in his mouth."

Ignoring his friends' shouts of disapproval, he reaches into the bloodstained mouth and fishes out the rolled-up slip of paper. It's disgusting, yes, but if it'll save Shane, it's got to be done.

"Are we not gonna call the police for this?" Lele wants to know.

Tim shushes her as Oli unrolls the paper and reads it aloud to the group.

Something is not okay with this room. I like it in a perfect order, but certain things want to wander around the table instead of finding their perfect fit. Can you figure it out?

"Wait, what?" is Joey's immediate reaction.

"This is what we gotta look for," Oli explains, pointing out the strange symbol scrawled on the side of the first telegram. "This symbol."

Justine's already up, wandering around the table, taking quick glances at everything in the room. "That symbol...that symbol means something."

"Why are we still here?" Sierra asks. "I feel like we should..."

Oli tunes her out, focusing on the two notes in his hands. "A perfect fit..." Think, Oli, think, you can do this... "...can you figure it out..."

He glances over at Shane, who's lying on the floor, looking like he's halfway to the grave already. Arthur's kneeling over him, monitoring his condition...but he's not a doctor, we need a doctor, were there any good doctors in the 1920s? I don't know...

Shane is dying. There's no question about it. This guy is literally coughing up blood over here, and everyone else...well, to be honest, one or two of them are still eating their food, apparently not really bothered about what's happening. And their non-reaction boils Oli's blood—don't they notice that Shane's life is on the line here? Don't they care?

"Come on, guys!" he shouts, a hint of irritation mixed with desperation in his voice. "Shane is, like, dying!"

 

"I'm too stupid for this!" shouts Lele, and Sierra's inclined to agree. Not about Lele (Lele's no genius, but she's a lot smarter than she gives herself credit for), but about her. Sierra Furtado. She's an idiot, and she knows it, so why even bother?

Besides, she's convinced this isn't real. It can't be. The notes, the clues, the severed head on a platter...it's all too ridiculous to take seriously. Shane's just being Shane, playing some sort of colossal prank on them, pretending to die just to scare the heck out of his friends. And Joey's probably in on it, since everyone knows that he and Shane are tight. Heck, this house probably isn't even in the 1920s, and there's probably secret cameras installed everywhere so that "Shoey" (is that what they're called?) can film this entire thing and put it up on YouTube. MY FRIENDS WATCH ME DIE, they'll call it, or some equally clickbait-y title, and it'll get ten million views and everyone will laugh at them.

Yeah. It's a prank. It has to be. Sierra can't bring herself to consider the alternative.

"Omigosh," moans GloZell as everyone continues scouting the room for clues. "Shane gon' die..."

"Wait!" Matt's standing by the window, a glass holder in his hands. "What was that symbol on there?" He holds it up, revealing a glowing symbol on the top left of it. "Was it this?"

Eva makes a beeline for Matt and glances at the symbol. "Oh...yes it is, yes!"

The next several minutes are utter chaos—everyone's running around, searching for the three glasses that fit in the holder, trying and failing at least twenty times in the process. Finally, Oli shoves the last glass into place, and two seconds later, GloZell's distinctive voice rings out over the chatter of the rest of the group. "Whoa! No, Jesus! I rebuke you, Satan!"

This, of course, gets everyone's attention, and it doesn't take long for them to find out what she's screaming at: an open box that Sierra is positive was not open before.

"Oh, lordy," GloZell frets, "it opened up by itself!"

The box (small, black, slightly sketchy-looking) has a note pinned on the front and three separate compartments inside. Each has a pitch-black lock on it, and each contains a small vial of yellowish liquid.

The antidote. It has to be. Or, at least, the pretend antidote...they'll get it unlocked, then give it to Shane, and he can be all "hahaha got you so good, you should've seen your faces," and everyone will laugh and continue with their dinner. And then maybe Sierra can finish that bread without feeling so guilty about it.

Sierra kneels in front of the box and begins to read the note.

There are three keys to unlock life, all hidden from view, but with one's strife you can attempt to save an innocent life.

"This is long," Sierra complains. "I don't wanna read this." She moves aside and lets the much-smarter Eva take over.

In the first floor study, one key to life is as high as a mountaintop. It's only a small thread, but it can give you what you're looking for. In the library is the second key, which lies hidden between the nine circles of hell described by letters and words. In the foyer is the third key to life, which can easily be found, but no one person can retrieve it without the helping hand of a friend.

 

"An innocent life?" Really? Has whoever wrote this note even seen Shane's vids? That guy's about as innocent as a dirty-minded college kid.

Not that it matters, of course, because he's still freakin' dying. And Tim sure as hell isn't going to sit back, pop a couple beers, and watch Shane Dawson die.

So now he's in the library, a card-carrying member of Team Letters and Words. "Uh..." He scours the place, scanning the shelves for potential clues. "Letters and words are in books..." Come on, DeLaGhetto, you have one job, dammit!

Now, if it was just him, he knows he could probably do a pretty decent job. But he's got Andrea, Sierra, and Justine with him, and he knows that none of them have read a book in years. That might be a problem.

"Is this a..." Sierra pokes at an especially thick book on the mantlepiece. "Is this a thing?" She giggles.

Yep. Definitely a problem.

 

Matt's in the foyer with Lele and Oli, trying to work out the "helping hand of a friend" clue. So far, all they've found is yet another box (seriously, if Matt sees one more box tonight he might start smashing things and scream-singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy").

"Where's the key?" he asks no one in particular, peering into the rectangular box before them.

But as usual, Oli is right on top of things. "Hold on, wait!" He waits for Matt and Lele to get their heads out of the box, and then he starts poking around the hole—or, at least, one hole in particular. "The square...so we need to get it to the square..."

Before Matt has a chance to react, Oli's gone and stuck his hand straight through the hole.

"I've got something!" he shouts in triumph. "A box...a box of some sort..."

The pieces click together in Matt's mind: the key, the key, this has to be the key...but how in the world are we going to get that box out of this gigantic box?

The three of them start sticking their hands through every available hole, feeling around, pushing the box, trying to guide it towards the exit...

...the helping hand of a friend...the helping hand of a...

 

One key to life—Shane's life—is as high as a mountaintop, and that's the key that Joey's group has set out to find.

"Look, look!" GloZell points to one of the study's many paintings. "There's somethin' sticking out of that mountain."

Joey and Eva drop what they're doing and take a gander at the painting in question. Yes, there's a mountaintop (high as a mountaintop), and GloZell's right; there is some sort of string sticking out of it.

"I don't know now, don't mess up these people's paintings..." warns GloZell as Joey gets to work pulling on the string. "That's someone's painting!"

Personally, Joey doesn't give two cents about the painting, not when Shane's life is on the line. So he gives the damn thing a few good yanks, the string comes loose, and there's the key.

"A key!" he shrieks, smiling for the first time since this entire mess began. We got it, we got it, thank God, we can still save him...