"We're going to move forward."

"We're going to move forward, as a team."

"And, as I say that, a new thought plants itself in my mind.

If I wanna get out of here...

I'm gonna have to fight.
For myself and my friends."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear's POV:

So... we've agreed to start working as a team.
That's great.

But, now, we actually need to start working as a team before somebody loses their shit and fucks this all up again.

We're sat in the lounge, regrouping our thoughts and emotions, preparing to take on our third hour of the night.

"We should try to find this next artifact, you know." Lizzie urges.

We agree and begin to search the lounge, since it was in last time.

Whilst we search, we hear a loud crash outside, as if something were thrown from the balcony.

"AH!" Lizzie squeaks, terrified by the noise.

"Maybe we should go outside and see what that was," Val suggests, hope in her eyes.

"It could contain our next big lead."

"Yeah, I gotta agree with Val for once," Zach says, folding his arms.

We open the lounge door and see what that loud bang was.

Lizzie: 'Every time we've gone outside, something... not very nice has happened. So, I'm just over here, thinking 'Please can we not go outside?'. But guess what? *Cue exaggerated silence* We're going outside, anyhow.'

We head outside and see a body bag outside on a cotton candy machine.

Wonderful; a dead body! I love seeing corpses!

Yes, I was being sarcastic. What do I think I am, a sadist?

"Do you guys believe we should open it? It's going to have something inside, I'm guessing." I suggest.

Val helps Veronica open the body bag and, low and behold, a body was inside it.

The clue's in the name! Don't tell me you didn't think the same thing!

"WHAT THE!?" Vanessa shouts, jumping back.

"Wait, there's a book in here," Val says, grabbing it and holding it to her chest.

"I think we should go back inside, don't you think? Before something pounces on us?" Lia hints, looking around, caution in her voice.

"Yeah, let's go. I don't enjoy being out here in the dark." Lizzie states.

Lia: 'So, now that we've solved the body incident, we go back to the lounge and read this book we found.'

We re-enter the lounge and Val reads the book she found to the group.

It reads:

'I will soon find the Bandit's Hat. Many have died seeking to get it. After gathering their obituaries, I realised their deaths link to those in the works of Maureena Waterlily. If you place these volumes in their proper order, the hat will be shown. The obituaries hold the key.'

Gear: 'I can tell right away that this Bandit's Hat is our next artifact. So, our goal now is finding that hat.'

"Wait, guys, I found a book by this Maureena woman. It's called 'The Opera to Die For.'" Lana calls out, showing it to us.

Wait, she was over there the whole time!?

Eh, whatever; she isn't dead and she saved us a bit of time.
Plus, she's hot, why wouldn't I forgive her?

"Wait, it says there's six books! Guys, we need six books by Maureena!" Oli shouts.

"I got one!" Vanessa declares, waving it in the air.
It's called 'A Feast Fit for a Vampire.'

This Maureena bitch seems like a creative, intelligent and psychotic human being.

Whilst I'm looking for a book under the table- who knows, they could be literally anywhere- Val speaks out again.

"Guys, I got the obituaries!" She shares, waving them in the air as I slide out from under the table.

Veronica: 'So, Val now has the obituaries and we have all the books. Now we need to line up the obituaries with the book and put them in order based on the date of death. This is going to take a while.'

"OK, so Daniella died of blood coming out of her ears at an opera show. That's 'The Opera to Die For'." Lia confirms, helping us order the books.

Jump a few minutes and we've sorted the books and put them in this book holder.

And then, this box on top of where we keep the artifacts opens up.

"Guys, I found a key!" Lana announces, waving it around.

"OK, be careful; don't drop it." I reply, looking around for a keyhole.

Val moves  a painting at the end of the arrow along the back wall and finds a keyhole in the wall.

"Wait, Lana, there's a keyhole in the wall over here." She alerts the group. 

Lana put the key in and opened up the section in the wall, which turned out to be a hidden safe.

Inside is the Bandit's Hat and a box.

Vanessa: 'So, Lana cracks the safe open with the key and inside is the Bandit's Hat. We've found our next artifact and now we just need to cleanse it.'

We look inside the safe with the hat and the box inside.

 Val grabs the smaller box and opens it, and inside is a note. Veronica grabs the note and reads it.

It reads:

'The Bandit's Hat infects all who touch it. To purify the cursed hat, five ancient rings must be placed around its band. To find the rings, you must form a hunting party and work as a team to find the missing rings. However, the Un-named Bandit guards his rings, and his touch or being shot by one of his blanks removes you from the hunt for five minutes. Your only sanctuary is under blue light.'

"So, we're going on a hunt for some rings, but the only way we can be safe is under a blue light?" Oli asks, wanting to make certain of the situation.

"It looks that way. We should get moving, though, we don't have a lot of time." Lana suggests, all of us agreeing and heading towards the door.

"Wait! Before we go, we didn't check the map yet." Zach pointed out. 

Heidi rushed over, pulld the map down, and lays it out on the table. 

We all looked at it. 

There was a motel that didn't look that important, but there was something that caught all of our eyes.

"The Un-named Bandit's Lair?" Vanessa asks. 

Underneath was a note, too. 

It reads:

'The Un-named Bandit was hunted because the town thought he was a monster for the taking. He sure showed them who the actual monster was.'

Now we've checked the map, Victor puts it back up on the wall, and we go outside now.

There's a mist covering the town and we can't see. 

What we can see, though, was a jester's hat that was missing three bells.

Along with the hat, there's a note.

I pick it up and read it:

'Each clue will lead you to a bell missing from the jester's hat. After each bell has been found, you must return to the hat and put the bell in its respective place to receive your next clue. There is an additional puzzle at the pump station that will give you an advantage for later in the night. It does not need to be completed to find the rings, but if you solve it, it will give you an advantage to get you through the later stages of the night.'

"So, we're looking for bells?" Lia asks.

"Yeah, we'll get a clue at a time for each bell to lead us to it," Val confirms to her.

"But there's also an additional puzzle at the pump station that will lead us to an advantage for the later stages of the night," Oli inquires. 

"So, what do we do about that?"

Lizzie: 'So, we discuss and come up with a plan; me, Gear, Lana, Oli, and Valentina will try to find the bells. Then, Zach, the twins, and Lia will go to the pump station to find the advantage. If any of us needs help, they'll let us know and somebody from our side or their side will help them. Once we get the advantage, we'll all work together to find the rings.'

"OK, I'll go with the people at the pump station," Heidi says, looking at Victor. 

"You help the clue finders."

Soon, we all set off. 

Lizzie gets the clue and reads it to us:

'Find the harp that can fit under your wing. But be careful not to break it when you touch it by the sling.'

As we try to think of where you can keep a harp in this town, we hear footsteps.

We turn around and see...

TO BE CONTINUED. <3