The two of them headed outside once the voices had faded away. Mysterious girl lead the way.

"We need to get to hallway number 17," mysterious girl informed her.

"Hallway number 17?" Maddy asked confused.

Mysterious girl sighed heavily and looked at Maddy as though she was nuisance which made Maddy frown at her. "The hallway where Xander is kept. Honestly, are you always this dumb?"

Maddy gritted her teeth and counted from ten to one. Her smartness was one of the things Maddy had great pride on. By insulting her again and again mysterious girl was begging for a punch in the face. "I didn't have the luxury to learn hallway numbers," Maddy spat out. "Unlike you, I was trying to stay alive."

"Whatever," mysterious girl muttered and started walking faster.

Maddy had to run to keep up with her. Stupid werewolves with their long legs and speed.

By the time mysterious girl halted to a stop, Maddy was sweating from keeping up with her. They stopped in front of a room. A room that was definitely not Xander's. Maddy shot mysterious girl a smug look. "That's not Xander's room. We are lost because of you."

Maddy opened the diary to the page pf the map and started walking when mysterious girl's hand shot out and grabbed her. Maddy let out a small yelp as she had her back turned and was caught off guard. She turned and glared at mysterious lady. "What?"

"How are you planning to get Xander out?" mysterious girl demanded.

"The same way I got out."

"Without your help," Maddy added a second later. She couldn't help snapping at mysterious girl. Something about mysterious girl really got on Maddy's nerves. We all have that person who we hate for absolutely no reason. Like if they even breathe you get annoyed. Mysterious girl happened to be that person for Maddy. Mysterious girl wasn't exactly nice to Maddy either, so Maddy didn't feel bad.

"And how exactly did you escape," mysterious girl asked putting her hand on her hip.

"By making a copy of the key and using a plastic label."

"You realize," mysterious girl said slowly. "Your room and Xander's room don't have the same lock and key. How are you going to unlock his door?"

That shut Maddy up. She hadn't thought that far. To be fair, Maddy really hadn't thought that she would actually be able to escape. Usually in storybooks, the characters make a plan and things go horribly wrong and then the characters just wing it. Maddy had sort of expected the same thing to happen to her so she didn't really think that ahead.

Maddy swallowed up all her pride and asked, "Then what should we do?"

Mysterious girl smirked at her and replied, "We break in."

"What?" Maddy whisper-screamed. "That will make a lot of noise."

Mysterious girl shrugged and took out a key and unlocked the room that they were standing in front of. The room was some sort of storage room. It was extremely dusty. Mysterious girl pinched her nose and went in.

Having no other choice, Maddy too went in. The moment Maddy went in, her nose started tingling. She was about to sneeze. Maddy quickly pinched her nose tighter than usual and held her breath. Sneezing now was not an option. With werewolf superhearing, they both would get caught. Once she was sure that she wasn't going to sneeze Maddy started breathing normally.

Meanwhile, mysterious girl was busy checking out the various tools in the room. After a lot of deliberation, she chose a huge hammer. She strode out of the room with Maddy following her.

"I don't think it's a good idea. It will give away our location," Maddy tried to reason with mysterious girl. However, reasoning with someone who has two brain cells is bound to be a failure. Soon, they reached Xander's room.

Mysterious girl was about to start hammering the lock, when Maddy stood in front of her.

"You are going to doom the entire rescue mission or whatever you want to call it," Maddy whispered firmly. "We can think of another way."

"What great idea do you have then? We are wasting precious time in here. It's not like we have lock picking tools right now," mysterious girl snapped.

At the mention of lock picking tools, Maddy remembered a video that she had seen a long time ago.

"I think I know a way," Maddy said excitedly.

She quickly stuffed her hand into her pocket. After a moment of fishing around in her pocket, she triumphantly produced two paper clips. She took one of the paper clips and bent it to form one straight line. It took a lot of effort as the clip was a little stiff. After that, she bent the clip to form an L.

"This is not the time to play origami," mysterious girl snapped.

"This will work. And origami is only folding of paper, not paper clips."

Satisfied with her work, she took the other clip. She straightened this one too, and bent the tip of the clip into a small w. She left the rest of the clip straight.

These two would act as lock picking tools. Gripping the two out of shape paper clips, Maddy approached the lock. Just like how she saw it in video, Maddy used her tools to try and pick the lock. She felt a thrill go through her as she picked the lock. She felt like a criminal through and through.

Maddy gave a small shout of victory as the lock clicked open. She threw a smug smile at mysterious girl. "See?"

"Maybe you are not as stupid as I thought," mysterious lady relented grudgingly, but Maddy could hear the hint of awe in her voice.

Maddy used the label of the water bottle which was crumpled in her pocket to open the door. She went in first followed by mysterious girl. When she entered, she heard a growl and before she could understand what was happening, hands wrapped around her throat. The moment Xander realized it was Maddy and not tooth-necklace lady he dropped her and before she could even breathe properly, he crushed her once again, this time in a hug.

When he let go of her, Maddy grumbled, "Your hugs are deadly. You almost crushed me. You should consider hugging your enemy instead of punching them on the face. Way more effective."

Xander just grinned and threaded his fingers through his hair. "I was so worried about you and I couldn't get out of this room."

"So, you broke the door," Maddy said amusedly, recalling the conversation she had with tooth-necklace lady about him breaking doors.

Xander just shrugged.

"This is very romantic and everything but we need to go. In case you forgot we need to escape," mysterious girl drawled.

Only then did Xander seem to notice that there was someone else in the room.

"Who are you?" he growled.

Mysterious girl cowered slightly though she tried not to show it. "Later. We need to escape now. I know the way out. Come on." 

Make sure to vote, comment and share this story. -Aroha