Life of crime

A choice

"Wait... it's still here!?" Grimoire exclaimed, lifting his head up in shock.

Sally's eyes widened, realizing Penelope's beetle was still in the room, "...it's still inside the gramophone..."

Just then, one of Penelope's birds tapped on the gramophone, releasing an ear piercing noise from the bug which echoed through the room. That was the last thing that the two detectives heard before they were knocked unconscious.

After what seemed like hours later, Grimoire had awoken, trying to move to only realize his hands and legs were tied. Starting to panic, he tried to look around the room to see if anything could help him free himself, only to find out it was too dark to tell if they were even in a different area or they were still in Flora's tower, he could barely see anything, even himself.

"Sally!" Grimoire whispered loud enough to be heard.

"Huh..? What happened?" Sally murmured as she opened her eyes. She tried to lift her hand up to help soothe her headache, only to realize she too was tied up.

"About time you two woke up." A familiar voice filled the room, increasing the duo's adrenaline rush. The two could tell Penelope was right in front of them, the voice wasn't too far away. "You were out for rather long, I was considering waking you two myself." She added.

The two were silent, they wanted to say something, do something, anything, but their bodies weren't letting them. They just couldn't.

Then, Penelope piped up again, however, footsteps could be heard circling around them. "Now, I'm going to give you an option." She spoke up again, this time in a low tone. "Either, you join me.." She took a moment to grab something before continuing. "..Or you die here. Simple as that."

That statement made Grimoire and Sally freeze in fear. Both were terrified of death and being murdered was the last way they wanted to die, since both solved crimes that normally revolved around murder.

"I will be giving you a few minutes to think, if you do not choose after I come back, I will kill you regardless. Better make up your mind." She finished before exiting the room. After hearing her finally leave, Grimoire spoke up.

"Sally, what do we do?! We need to find a way out NOW." He freaked out. For once in his life, he didn't know what to do.

"I think we're stuck with our current choices.." Sally sighed sadly.

"...What?" Grimoire questioned. "No, no, no. You can't possibly mean-"

Suddenly, Sally interrupted, "It's no use. I don't think we can escape this situation like this. We're tied up, the room is too dark to see anything, and she's most likely armed." She continued. "I know you don't want to die like this, neither do I. We have to join her."

Grimoire fell silent, and looked down. Sally's words made sense, and she probably had a point. "Fine..." He responded, his voice quivering. "But one day, we'll find a way to bring Penelope to justice, and we will return to our normal lives." He promised.

"Of course." Sally agreed.

A few minutes went by, and Penelope finally came back. "So, have you two made your decision?"

"We'll join you." Sally responded quickly.

Penelope smirked a little, satisfied. "Wise decision."

A/N:

I'M ACTUALLY KINDA PROUD OF THIS WOW.
Anyway this is the first time I wrote something with actual effort in a while so this might be a little wonky. Also it might take me a while to come up with chapter 2 idea cus I only have chapter ideas that will have to come after the build up and shit.That's all I really gotta say for rn. Thanks for reading :D