Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 26

My eyes landed on Ella who was finally awake. She looked at me and sighed, "Yes, you can do my hair." Yay," I cheered making my way over to her. Once I got there, I plopped down behind her and began to brush her hair. "Your roots are showing," I commented as I ran the brush through her hair. "Yeah, I know," she replied, "It's not like I've had time to get my hair dyed since this mess started." I nodded even though I knew she couldn't see me. Surprisingly, Ella didn't have any tangles! She has the thickest hair out of all of us and it hadn't been brushed in almost two weeks, but it was somehow perfect! I swear she can do magic. I finished brushing her hair in no time, now all I had to do was style it. "How do you want it?" I asked. "Oh, don't worry about that," Ella said, "I can do that myself." "Okay," I replied standing up. As Ella put her hair in a ponytail, I walked back over to Anna and held out the brush. "Ew!" Anna squealed, "Empty that before you give it back!" I rolled my eyes, "Oh my gosh there's not even that much hair in it." "Still!" she protested crossing her arms. "Fine," I sighed going over to a small trash can and emptying the brush. Once I had done that, I handed it back over to Anna who took it with no issue. Right then, Margret strolled in. "You guys are up," she said, "I was wondering how long you would sleep for. " "What do you mean?" I asked, "It's still the morning." "If you consider morning to be three in the afternoon then sure," she scoffed, "You guys have been out for hours." "It's three!?" I exclaimed. Margret nodded, "Yeah, you guys were out like lights." "Dang," I said, "Have the adults woken up yet?" "Oh yeah," she said, "They've been up since ten." "Really?" I asked. "Yes," she replied, "They ate and everything. Speaking of which, there's food in the kitchen if you want some."

"You have a kitchen in here!??" Jack asked in shock. "Yep," Margret hummed, "How else would I eat?" Jack blinked a few times, "Well since you're a celestial being I assumed you didn't eat." Margret stared at him with an unimpressed look, "I'm a World Keeper. Not a celestial being. There is a difference. Also, celestial beings do eat they just don't often because they say it takes up too much time." "Oh," Jack whispered. With that Margret turned and walked out of the room. "So," I said, "Who's hungry? Because I know I am." "I could use some food," Leo muttered standing up from the floor. I glanced at the others, "Well that's two of us. What about you guys?" "Why not," Ella said getting up, "It would be rude to not eat the food she made us." Jack nodded in agreement and walked over to where I was standing, "I'm coming too!" Anna exclaimed running over to us, "I'm not staying here by myself! Besides I don't want to miss anything exciting!" "I don't think you'll miss anything exciting," I chuckled. "You never know!" she replied. "Whatever you say," I smiled. With that, we set off on the journey to find the kitchen. Now you think that since Viva had messed with me twice by now it would have gotten bored, but no. It insisted on making navigating this place a living hell! And apparently, since there were more people with me it decided to make it even harder! Everything kept shifting around! One path would open and then immediately close! Viva just couldn't make up its mind! We had been walking for about twenty minutes and still hadn't found the kitchen! Why did this building have to be so hard to navigate!? "Do we know if we're even going the right way?" Jack asked. "No," I told him, "Viva will just spit us out wherever it feels like it." "Who?" Ella asked. "Viva," I said, "That's the library's name." "The library's name is Viva?" Ella questioned. "Yep," I replied. "Interesting," she said.

"Guys look! There's the kitchen!" Anna said pointing toward an opening. I glanced over to where Anna was pointing, and sure, enough just past a bookshelf not too far ahead was a door cracked open revealing a kitchen. Finally! We made it! Entering the kitchen, we were greeted by the sight of hamburgers sitting on the counter. The patties were already cooked all we needed to do was put them together. "Oh my gosh," Jack gasped, "It's not mush!" We all burst out laughing, out of all the things he could have said! That was the first thing that left his mouth! "Oh my gosh," I wheezed, "Is that seriously the first thing you thought of?" "Yeah," Jack said sheepishly. "I can't believe you," Ella laughed, "Out of all the things you could have said. It was that." "Oh, shut up!" He whined, "We've been eating that stuff for a whole week! I'm glad to have real food!" "Same," I smiled. I headed toward the counter, and began to put my burger together. As I walked toward the table with my completed hamburger, I noticed Leo was looking through the fridge. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Looking for bread and butter," he replied. "Why?" I asked. "So, I can make a grilled cheese," he answered. "But there are hamburgers," I said. "I don't eat hamburgers," he replied turning to face me. "Why?" I asked. Leo rolled his eyes, "Because I'm a vegetarian." "Really?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "I don't eat meat. So if I can find the bread and butter, I can use some of the cheese on the counter to make myself a grilled cheese." "Check the door," Ella suggested, "The butter might be in there." Leo searched the door and pulled the butter out. "Thanks for the help," he said. "No problem," she replied. Wait, Ella and Leo just had a conversation. They didn't argue. Oh my gosh! The whole asking and answering questions thing worked! Maybe they won't argue anymore! Maybe they're getting along! That would be great! Then they wouldn't try to kill each other every time something bad happens! That would be awesome!

By the time everyone had gotten their food, Leo had found the bread and began to make his grilled cheese. We chatted and goofed off as he cooked, and we ate. It was nice to be able to relax without having to worry about our safety. After everything that has happened it was nice to just unwind. "What type of food can you cook?" Jack asked when Leo finally joined us at the table. "I can cook about anything," Leo replied, "Well except meat. I've never cooked that before and I don't plan on it, but if I had to, I'm sure I could figure it out." "Do you bake?" Anna asked. "Oh gosh no," he said shaking his head, "Last time I tried that I almost set the kitchen on fire." "Just like Ella," I chuckled. "You can't bake either?" Leo asked turning to Ella. Ella shook her head, "Last time I tried I got banned from the kitchen. It was bad." "Yeah," Jack nodded, "And the sad part was they were "break and bake" cookies." "Really?" Leo snorted, "Oh my gosh! You're just as bad as me!" "Seriously?" Ella asked. "Yes," he nodded, "That's what I torched. They were sugar cookies too." "No way!" Ella laughed, "I was trying to make chocolate chip!" "Bruh," Jack snickered, "You're like the same people! How did that happen!?" "I don't know!" Ella laughed, "Maybe we should team up and try again!" "Yes!" Leo grinned, "That's a brilliant idea! I saw some in the fridge!" "NO!" Anna, Jack, and I shouted in unison. "You're going to burn the whole building down!" I cried, "Margret would kill us!" "Margret wouldn't know it was us," Leo smirked, "We'll make it look like you did it." "You wouldn't!" I gasped. "We would," Ella grinned, "In fact, we'll do it right now!" They both shot up from their chairs and dashed for the kitchen, Leo swung open the fridge and Ella turned on the oven. Anna, Jack, and I flew to our feet and chased after them. Leo snatched the "break and bake" cookies out of the fridge and tossed them on the counter. At that same moment, Jack tackled Ella to the ground, and Anna and I grabbed Leo. We had managed to successfully pin them to the ground when Margret walked in. "What is going on?" she asked amused. "They were going to burn down the kitchen," Jack explained.

Margret glanced at the "break and bake cookies" on the counter. "With those?" she asked. "Yes," Jack said, "You would be surprised at the damage they can cause." "Okay," Margret nodded, "I'll leave you to it." Then, she walked out. Once she left the room, we continued our fighting. Jack began to drag Ella away from the oven while she kicked and clawed at his legs. Anna and I tried to move Leo out of the way so Jack could get through, but he had latched onto the underside of the kitchen cabinet and wouldn't let go. "How is your grip this strong!?" I asked trying to pry his hands off the cabinet. "Practice," he replied, "Lots and lots of practice." "What did you practice on!?" I questioned. There was no reason for someone to practice their grip! Who did that!? "The last bag of chips," he answered, "You get pretty good after your roommate tries to rip the bag out of your hand every time you grab it." "Seriously?" I snorted. "Oh yeah," he said, "Kyle was vicious when it came to chips." "You should have seen what happened when I opened his favorite popcorn without his permission. It looked like I had been attacked by a feral raccoon." "He doesn't sound like a pleasant roommate," I told him. "Nah," Leo replied, "He was great, you just didn't want to make him angry." "I figured," I said finally prying him off the cabinet. We dragged the two of them out of the kitchen and down the halls. They fought us tooth and nail every inch of the way occasionally latching onto something, but finally, we made it back to the room we were staying in. "Oh my gosh," I gasped, "You're strong! I need to talk with your roommate!" "Good luck with that," Leo said, "He'd have to come back and haunt me if you wanted to do that." "True," I replied. "What is going on in here?" Carmen asked staring at us. "Oh, we were keeping Ella and Leo from burning down the kitchen," Anna replied. "Okay," he nodded, "Well Margret wants to talk to us so, you might want to come to see what it is." "Okay," I nodded.