Author's Note: These pictures are getting worse, I know. There is not many sword related things in Escape The Night I could work with, so I'm so sorry these pictures suck. So, like I said, most of these things for cleansing this artifact are fully original, thank God. Let's just say I'm too creative for my own good. 

Also, this one may be a little bit long, so please keep that in mind. So, grab some snacks and a drink if you want and let's get on with the chapter!

Your Author, Marbella. <3

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"We look at the person and see..."

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Valentina's POV:

We head outside and see this strange woman in red and black with a sword in her hands. It looks like something you could use for sword-swallowing and it even had blood on it.

This must be the Sword Swallower, and she hurt herself ramming that thing down her throat.

Then, Oli runs towards the arcade again.

"Oli, what are you doing, you coward!?" Zach exploded, thinking Oli was trying to hide.

"OK, A) Don't yell or this sword swallower is gonna start chasing us faster than you can say 'I'm gonna die tonight' and B) There was this note on the arcade door, so I went to go get it." Oli contended, showing us it.

He gave the note to Lizzie, and she read it.

It read:

'The Sword Swallower was always disgusted by the way the inventor treated his children and she always wanted to help them. So, she hid a box covered in a million hands in the shop with a lock pick inside of it, hoping the twins would find it and run away from town. Be wary, though; the Sword Swallower is onto you.'

"I'm not scared of this bitch; she's just a kid, it's not like she can hurt us." Zach scoffed, obviously thinking he was the president or something.

Gear: 'So, Zach is cussing this sword swallower out and I'm just in shock about this whole situation. Like, there's three ways you talk about a monster; you beg them not to kill you, you try to calm them down or you cuss them out. Zach cussing this girl out is just gonna get us all killed! Like, if you don't get a hold of yourself, I will drop-kick you. I'm not even kidding.'

Then, she shrieks like a banshee and just starts charging towards us, scaring the shit of us as we race to the Inventor's Shoppe.

"Being dead for three hours is not helping my body right now!" Lizzie panted, running as fast as she could. Zach was speed-walking and not actually running and is just weighing this group down.

"The door better be open this time!" Zach grumbled, still speed-walking. Once again, I ended up kicking the door open as we all raced inside and blocked the door with a plank, the Sword Swallower pounding on it.

We looked around for a box covered in hands. We weren't having much luck because Zach kept holding up stray hands that were lying around all over the place and saying that this was what the note was talking about.

"Zach, I swear to God, if you hold another hand up, I'll slap you with it." Lana expressed, pointing at Zach. We all started giggling and I could see Gear was looking over at Lana.

"God, I love that girl." Gear muttered, smiling immensely.

And then I looked over at Lia, who stood at the other side of the room.

Oh, God; she looked so pissed.

Lia: 'Wait, Gear's still dating Lana? *Cue long silence as Lia gets increasingly angry.* Oh, that little CUNT! I knew I shouldn't have trusted him. That's it, fuck Lana, I'm killing Gear now.'

"Gear, you better be fucking with me when you just said that! I heard you!" Lia screamed, turning around and pointing at Gear.

"OK, I just wanna get this whole..... shenanigans over with for Lizzie. So Lia tried to seduce Gear, and he was having none of it, so he's still dating Lana, and Lia's now a Yandere. Now, Lia, please shut up; we have work to do and I don't wanna have to kill you." I effused, trying to calm the situation down.

Lizzie just nodded and began looking again.

The whole animosity lingered until Oli finally found something.

"Wait, I got a box... JESUS!" Oli screamed, dropping the box.

Thankfully, Lizzie caught it.

It was the box covered in a million hands- as in; it was literally covered in hands.

Thank God it didn't need a code- but inside was a lock pick.

Zach: 'So, inside of this box is a lock pick. I honestly thought it would be the gem since it was in a box covered in a million hands, but I'm guessing it was just the clue.'

Now we had the lock pick, we need to find the actual lock we could use it on.

The problem is... I don't think anybody knows how to work it.

We just needed to find a lock we could pick.

"Guys, could this be it? Like, who keeps this kind of lock on a cabinet?" Gear requested, pointing to the lock.

Zach was apparently the only person who knew what he was doing, so he grabbed the lock pick.

Soon, the cabinet popped open, and inside was the green jewel- the Sword Swallower's disgust, apparently, and we put it in the sword's handle.

There was also a note next to it. I quickly grabbed it, hoping I could do something useful.

The note read:

'The Sword Swallower's biggest fear was being forced into a place where she knew she didn't belong. She knew she didn't belong to the side of Delamont that worshipped Dynamo, the goddess of the town. Because of this, they buried her sister alive to force her to join the religion. Her grave in the cemetery has the key to where the next gem lies.'

Oli: 'Really? I've already buried somebody alive before and I hated every second. Well, we're not burying someone alive, but we might have to dig a dead person up and I ain't having that.'

"Yeah... Even though Gear dumped me, I'm just gonna give up on all of this shit." Lia admitted, facepalming.

"Bitch, I wasn't even dating you! You were the one trying to seduce me and you caused this mess!" Gear shouted, throwing his arms out.

"OK, you seduced me, though!" She rebutted.

"OK, Gear, for once, we can agree to disagree, but Lia, seducing somebody's boyfriend is not cool. So, I'm sorry, I'm ending our alliance." Zach hissed, folding his arms and literally turning his back on Lia.

Lia was just in shock and on the brink of a breakdown.

"Can we just get this gem already?" Lizzie mouthed, perplexed about the whole fight that just went down.

We left the Inventor's Shoppe through the back door and tried to be quiet.

But as soon as we got to the front of the shop, the Sword Swallower chased us.

Me, Gear, Lana, Oli, Lizzie and Zach got to the cemetery, but since Lia had given up and didn't even run with us, the Sword Swallower captured her and dragged her away somewhere.

We found a note on the cemetery floor. Lana grabbed it and read it.

It read:

'You have made it to the cemetery, but one of your friends has been captured in the process. So, I have twisted the plot even more. Your captured friend is now automatically in the final death challenge, leaving only one slot remaining for the voting soon. If anybody else is captured from this point forward, your name will go into the deck of tarot cards.'

Lizzie: 'This is crazy. I literally just came back from the dead, found out Lia tried to seduce Gear, Lia just got captured and is in the death challenge now. Like... WHAT?!'

"Well, at least they didn't capture any of the helpful people?" Zach shared, shrugging.

"OK, for once, you're actually being reasonable. But keep in mind, this doesn't mean we still don't hate you." I reckoned, immediately looking at the graves for the name of the Sword Swallower's sister.

We all ended up doing this, with little to no luck because it's so fucking dark out here.

"Wait, guys, I've just remembered something," Oli predicted, all of us running towards him. "Isn't that Sword Swallower's name 'Sword Swallowing Sally' or something?"

"Yeah, it's her nickname. Why?" Heidi passed on, bending down next to Victor to look at the grave closer.

"Then maybe 'Fire Juggling Flora' is her sister? I mean, makes sense." Oli continued, motioning to the letters.

Suddenly, I lift the cover off of the top of the grave to see a stone crucifix. And inside of it is the purple jewel. The problem is the cross doesn't either slide off or break open to let us reach it.

We were all trying with no luck until Lizzie stepped in.

"Great; first, you guys can't even figure to move the couch to get a harp box, and now, you can't even get this thing open?" Lizzie chuckled, approaching the grave. 

She snapped the cross back to reveal there was a hidden compartment containing the box with the jewel and yet another note.

Valentina: 'Lizzie definitely gets the award for initiative tonight; I wouldn't have even thought that we needed to snap the cross back to get it!'

We get the jewel out and put it in the handle and Gear reads the next note. This one said:

'The Sword Swallower was rarely sad, but when she was, it was for a devastating reason. After her mother died in an explosion at the pump station, she could never find the courage to perform another show. Perhaps setting alight her mother's ashes so she can fly free is the best course of action to claim the jewel.'

"How does that even work? I mean, I'm assuming it's a metaphor, but you can actually set somebody's ashes on fire?" Lana pondered, looking very confused indeed.

After clearing up it was most likely a metaphor, we raced to the pump station to find an urn on a table, a lighter, and a note. The note was stuck to the table and it read:

'Use the lighter on the rim of the urn to find the code to the safe. Inside of the safe will be a riddle and a Jefferson disk with the jewel of sadness inside of it. However, be wary; for every wrong guess to solve the riddle, your name will go into the voting pile.'

We were all cautious about the situation, as per usual. But then, we had to discuss who would use the lighter on the urn.

"OK, is anybody here a pyromaniac or an arsonist? If you are, you're not doing it." Zach considered, waving his arms everywhere. This guy sure puts the drama in 'Drama King.'

After we sorted out.... that, I ended up using the lighter on the urn so Oli could put the code into the safe and solve the riddle. After a hot second of attempting to not burn my jumpsuit, the code became clear.

"Oli, try 4925!" I call out, putting the lighter back down as we all huddled around him. It worked and inside, as promised, was a riddle and a Jefferson disk.

Oli read the riddle to us. The riddle was:

'What is something you can never break, even if you can't pick it up or touch it?'

"How many letters are in the answer?" Gear pondered, looking quite confused. I think we all were.

"There's seven." Oli conceded, showing us.

"OK, what can you not break, pickup, or touch that has seven letters in its name? Anybody got any ideas?" I said.

We were all thinking for a hot second until I saw Lana's face light up.

"Oli, try 'Promise.' I'm sure I saw that riddle somewhere growing up." Lana confided, pointing to Oli. 

He entered it into the Jefferson disk and it popped open, revealing another note and the gem we needed.

"Lana, that was so smart." Lizzie praised, hugging Lana.

Meanwhile, back in the current situation, Oli put the jewel into the handle and read the note that would lead us to the second to last gem. The note read:

'The Sword Swallower loved to be generous, especially towards the children in town. She would make them gingerbread houses to take home and enjoy whether they were just there to visit, or if they lived there. There are 10 gingerbread houses lined up on the market stall facing the arcade; one contains the jewel, one contains a nasty treat, and the others are empty. Choose wisely and be careful; the nasty treat will scare you.'

We race over to the market stalls and see the 10 gingerbread houses perfectly lined up, a bit like a white picket fence in a way.

"OK, this is gonna sound really, really, really stupid." I began, hoping to not get attacked by this suggestion. 

"But... why don't we all stick our hands into the gingerbread houses and just hope for the best? Saves time from going into each individual house."

"OK, I gotta agree; everybody, just stick your hand in." Lana chimed in.

"OK, this thing's coming off!" Zach yelled, taking off his blazer and throwing it on the ground.

 "I ain't wearing that again; it's a little heavy on the shoulders. Anyway, let's just get started."

We ended up doing that, and we got nothing at first. It took a hot second for anybody to think about anything.

And then Gear fell over.

"Guys, I got it! I got the jewel!" He called out, waving his hand in the air, a note attached to it.

"Well, none of us got that nasty treat then. Thank God." Oli sighed, taking his hand out of the gingerbread house and shaking it around.

Zach put the fourth jewel into its space as Gear read the note attached to the jewel. It read:

'To cleanse the Sword Swallower's Sword, you must claim one last jewel and emotion; her need for death and murder. To do so, two of you must be chosen by vote to face her deadly game tables and be willing to get their hands dirty to do what needs to be done.'

"Oh, not this again!" Lizzie moped, obviously devastated that this was still happening.

"Well... lounge it out, guys?" Zach sighed, shrugging.

We all nodded and ran back to the arcade and into the lounge.

This is gonna be a nightmare to explain to Lia...