•Stuck in Mayfield's bazaar•

(6) Silver Arrow

Also known as:

•Floor five

•The Archer

•Vanessa is in danger (again)

•Daniel's discovery

Vanessa's POV: 

We made our way back to the elevator after deciding upon the fifth floor. "Silver arrow, huh?" I heard Lonz hum to herself as she pressed the button to the fifth floor.

I wonder what else is in store for us... (Me: Ha, get the pun? Ok sorry-) I thought to myself.

The doors opened just then, revealing the sports department. Bats, Gloves, Jump ropes and several other sporting equipment as far as the eye could see.

"If we're talking about arrows then there should be an archery display..." Daniel murmured, looking around. "Let's go find it,"

We walked in silence, our footsteps echoing through the quiet room, until we came to an abrupt halt. 

A big stand stood grandly in front of us, filled with arrows and bows and what not. It had everything an aspiring archer could ask for.

"Cool..." I exclaimed, gazing at all the stuff in front of us.

Daniel's POV:

To my surprise, the hair on my arms suddenly rose, giving me goosebumps all over. An uncanny feeling settled in my stomach, and I swore I could feel someone's gaze burning holes into my back. 

BAM! A glistening arrow zoomed right past my ear, attaching itself firmly to the wall. I flinched, stepping back in surprise.

Someone is shooting at us! 

Vanessa's POV:

ZIP! ZAM! My heart flipped in terror as more and more arrows flew at us. "Take cover!" Matt yelled, and Daniel grabbed my hand and pulled me behind a stack of basketballs.

BANG! BAM! More arrows came our way, hitting the basketballs and popping them.

"What the hell?" Lonz muttered under her breath, and Daniel peeked out carefully from behind our hiding spot to see who, or what was shooting at us. He turned back around quickly, narrowly missing another arrow. "There's a really old fashioned archer out there," he informed us. "He looks crazy!"

"What do we do?" I asked worriedly. "We have two options..." Matt whispered back. "We either surrender, or attack him with the basketballs," he gestured to them as he said so.

"Something tells me he's not going to let us go even if we surrender..." Lonz said. "So..."

"We attack!" I declared, getting up and picking up one of the still inflated basketballs, and the others followed and we jumped out from behind our hiding spot.

Before we could attack, however, we realised that the shower of arrows had stopped, and said archer was nowhere in sight. "Huh," I said.

Daniel took a step forward, looking around. Matt and Lonz went in opposite directions, while I stood there, confused.

Until a cold hand wrapped around the back of neck.

I shrieked as I was lifted a bit off the ground by the back of my neck, the basketball in my hand tumbling to the floor.

Daniel's POV:

I whipped around when I heard Vanessa's shriek, and my heart dropped when I saw that archer holding her up by the neck.

"Vanessa!" we all cried at the same time as she squirmed in the archer's grasp, trying to free herself.

"Sneaking around in my domain!" the archer barked, his grip on Vanessa's neck tightening painfully. "Planning to steal my arrows, were you?"

"No-no, we were just-" Matt started but was cut off by the archer. "Hush!" he instructed.

"Goddamn it! Let her go!" I yelled, wincing at Vanessa's discomfort.

"Not so fast," the archer replied. "Because you've taking things that don't belong to you, and you must be pu-"

"Oh Jack! When did you come?" Matt said suddenly.

"What?! There's more of you roustabouts?!" the archer spun around to look where Matt was looking.

BAM!

Lonz threw the basketball that she was holding at the distracted archer. He stumbled back, and Vanessa managed to free herself from his grip, gasping for air.

"Charge!" Matt shouted, and we threw all the basketballs at him. Within minutes, he was overpowered. We did it!

I rushed to Vanessa's side, carefully helping her up. "You ok Princess-?" I asked softly, and she nodded, rubbing her neck. "Yep, don't worry Wolfie," she replied, letting me pull her in a hug. "Though you guys, that was clever! Thanks for literally saving my neck!"

"No problem cous," Matt replied, Lonz nodding along. "But, we still haven't found the silver arrow!"

"Actually, we did," Lonz stated. She walked forward, bending down by the unconscious archer and picking up a small, shiny arrow.

We all gave a collective sigh of relief. Atleast we got what we needed!

"Come on, we still have other floors to go to!" Vanessa exclaimed as Lonz stuffed the arrow in the duffel bag before heading to the elevator.

I nodded, but just as I took a step forward, I felt something brush against my foot. Looking down, I caught sight of an ancient looking scroll.

"Huh?" I thought, bending over and picking it up. It looked old, the tips starting to turn yellow with age. It felt really fragile as well, like it would rip into two of I held it too hard. I ran my finger across the fancy scarlet ribbon tied to it, examining it.

"Mate?" I blinked and looked up to see Matt gazing at me with a raised eyebrow. The girls had long disappeared to the elevator. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, right!" I stuffed the scroll in my jacket pocket, racing after my friends to the elevator. I wonder what the scroll is about...

To be continued...

A/N Sorry for the delayed update, I know it's been forever- And this was the second shortest chapter of this book- (I planned all my chapters except the prologue to be atleast a 1000 words long without the author's note.)

But hey, atleast I finished it, and sorry if this chapter was clumsy or rushed, I had no idea what to do because in the actual book, the fifth floor is actually very simple and boring so I tried to spice it up a bit. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and please consider voting and leaving a comment! See you in the next chapter! -Vicky<3