The Enigma Of Dead Man's Avenue

The Final Hour

5:00. The final hour. Everyone was about 30% close to finding Damon. MJ felt a brick of sorrow whack him in the face. The only thing running through his mind was that if Damon wasn't found by 6:00, he would die. In the entertainment room, Dahlia and Nicholas were still talking.
"I didn't want anyone to suspect me. Oh and by the way, it's the final hour."
"Huh?"
"It's the final hour."
"Yeah, I know that but-" He suddenly made a realisation. "Wait, it's the final hour?"
"Yeah."
Nicholas felt a wave of misery splash over him. He felt bad for himself, MJ, and especially Damon. The kid was only 14, for god's sake. He looked down in gloom, and then he saw something, in one of the pool table holes. He saw a rolled up piece of paper. Dahlia acknowledged it aswell. Dahlia inquired, "Well, get it out." Nicholas rolled his eyes and picked up the rolled up piece of paper. He read it:
"It all lies in the hole."
Dahlia queried, "The hole? What hole?"
"I don't know, but let's go tell the others."
They went out of the entertainment room and in to the living room to tell everyone about this very peculiar note. They entered the living room, yet they were surprised to see no one in there. They did here footsteps upstairs though, so maybe they were doing the last search. Nicholas came out with, "So, this 'hole.' What could it mean?"
"Well, the library, genius."
"No, that would be too obvious."
"So what could it be?"
"Umm..."
"Umm..."
All of a sudden, both of them remembered:
"The hole!"
"Dahls, remember we walking in the long hallway and we fell through the floor?"
"Yeah, oh my god, let's go!"
Dahlia yanked Nicholas's hand and pulled him into the dining room. "Wanna do the honours, Nicky?"
"Alright, but don't call me that again."
Dahlia burst into laughter as Nicholas climbed into the hole. Dahlia did so aswell and then they were walking down the stairs.
"So, Nicky, can you not wait to get out of here?"
"Ugh, don't call me that! And yes, I'd love to get out of here."
5:14. Dahlia and Nicholas reached the bottom of the stairs, before bolting to the bookcases. The one with the long hallway was still open, as if no one even went near it. There was even a bit of fluff on there aswell. Nicholas proceeded, "Let me guess, I'm going first?"
"I thought you'd never guess." She stepped back. "Do the honours." Nicholas rolled his eyes and then proceeded to walk through the hallway. Dahlia followed behind and then they were walking down the hallway. Aurelia joked, "Nicky..."
"Ok, dahl-dahl."
"Ugh, my mom calls me that. Never say that again."
"Ok, Lia."
"That's actually good, so thank you."
"Ugh, alr-"
But before he could even finish his sentence, he tripped into the hole, falling through and getting a splinter. He screamed, "OW!", while Dahlia was laughing and holding her stomach. Nicholas was secretly grabbing Dahlia's ankles, to yank here into the hole. He pulled Dahlia from her ankles into the hole, as she screamed, "WAAAAAA!!", before falling into the hole. Nicholas began laughing very hard before Dahlia stated, "You absolute douche. Want me to remove your splinter?"
"Ok then."
Dahlia took the finger Nicholas's splinter was on and then pulled it off. He winced a little. Dahlia and Nicholas then made eye contact. They stared into each other's eyes for about 7 seconds, before looking away. Nicholas awkwardly spoke, "So, umm, should we explore down here then?
"Umm, yeah Nicholas."
Everything was a little bit awkward after the 7 second eye contact but they both proceeded to duck down and explore what was in the hole. After looking around for 5 minutes, Nicholas reached a little door, like a dog door but he could fit into it. There was also a miniscule keypad, like before. He called for Dahlia, "Dahls! There's something you need to see!" Dahlia rolled her eyes then went over to Nicholas, crouched down. Dahlia spotted the little door, then answered, "What, this? This is just a door Nicholas."
"Yeah but-"
Suddenly he stepped on something, and something crinkled. He picked up the thing he stepped on, and it was a rolled up piece of paper. There was a question on it though. He read the question:
"What is my favourite number?"
As Nicholas finished reading, him and Dahlia held a puzzled look on their faces. Dahlia wondered, "Huh, favourite number? What could that be?"
"Favourite number..."
"Favourite number..."
Suddenly, they realised it:
"Favourite number!"
Nicholas went to the keypad to punch in 'six'. All of a sudden, there was a ding, and a female voice said, 'access granted'. The door lifted up, revealing a big room. Nicholas automatically crawled through first, figuring that Dahlia didn't wanna go first. Dahlia crawled behind Nicholas, into the big room. After crawling through, they got up, and looked around this massive room. First they looked at the big massive flat screen. But no, that wasn't the only thing. The other shocking thing was what was below the flat screen. It was a big control panel with a load of buttons, all in specific colours. They both approached to the control panel and took a glance at it. There was really small buttons all around it but in the middle was a big switch, with 'on' on the left side and 'off'' on the right side. The switch was flipped to the 'off' side. Dahlia inquired, "Well, should we switch it on?"
"No Dahls, what if it's a trap?"
"Trap schmap. I'm turning this on."
She flipped the switch to 'on'. After doing so, the flat screen turned on, but it didn't turn on to just anything . A video turned on as it said 'Toilet' in the corner, and below it said 4:17 in the corner. On screen, storm was speaking, "What do you want?" Dahlia examined the screen and wondered, "What is this?", as she accidentally leaned on one of the buttons. Suddenly, there was a little ding sound, and it switched to another screen. In the corner, it said 'room B', but it also said 'LIVE'. On the screen, it was Damon, tied up, sitting on a chair with tape on his mouth. Dahlia and Nicholas held a flabbergasted look on their faces, as they both shouted, "DAMON!!" Nicholas queried, "Wait, where is 'room b?"
"Well, we gotta figure out, it's only 5:33."
"Umm..."
Suddenly, Dahlia spotted something. "Nicholas, look!"
"What is it?"
Dahlia led Nicholas to another, smaller control panel. It was labelled 'blueprint'.
Nicholas asked, "Well, what was it you wanted to show me?"
"This!" As she was showing Nicholas the other control panel, she accidentally pressed a button as she said, "Whoops." All of a sudden, there was another ding sound and they both turned to the flat screen tv. It was a blueprint of the whole house. Suddenly, Dahlia began to piece it all together, "Ok, so if the living room is there and the kitchen is there..."
Suddenly, Nicholas remarked, "Dahls? What are you doing? How do you know all this?"
"Oh sorry, forgot about you. Look let me explain. So I really want a walk in wardrobe. So I asked my parents and they said they'd only give it to me if I worked out all the blueprint shit. So yeah."
"Oh, okay then. So where are we?"
"You see that green dot there in room A?"
"Yeah."
"That's us."
"So this is room A?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"So, where is room b?"
"Well, if you were smart enough, you'd see that room a is near the library, preferably in the middle."
"Ohhh! Wait!"
"Ugh, what?"
"When me and Char went to investigate the library the first time, I pulled a book on the middle bookcase, revealing a small room."
"Proceed."
"But then it was just that room. So I don't know then."
"Maybe it's something different, you never know."
"Alright then."
5:43. Nicholas and Dahlia have just left the surveillance room, to go to the middle bookcase.
"So, Nicholas, you just gonna pull a book?"
"Yeah, if it worked last time it'll work this time."
Nicholas started pulling random books. He pulled a very peculiar book, Harry Potter. Suddenly, the bookcase shifted, revealing the same small room. But something was different. There was a trap door. Nicholas and Dahlia crawled through, and then they were in the small room. Nicholas stated, "Well, Damon isn't here and it's 5:45."
"Umm, the trap door?"
"Well, there's a keypad on it so, yeah."
"Well, we can find the riddle, we just need to look around."
They were looking around, and then something fell from the sky. And yep, you guessed it, a note. Nicholas stepped on it and it crinkled. Dahlia heard the crinkling and went over to Nicholas. They both made eye contact, again. But this time, it was for 10 seconds. After the 10 seconds, they immediately looked away. Many thoughts were running through the teens minds. Like, why did they keep on making eye contact? And why this riddle was so hard? Nicholas looked at the riddle and read:
"I have 3 hands, but I don't touch them. I have no legs, yet I run."
As soon as Nicholas read the riddle, Dahlia went to the keypad, and punched in 'watch'. Suddenly there was a ding sound, and a woman's voice saying, 'access granted'. The trapdoor flung open, revealing a ladder. Surprisingly, Dahlia went down the ladder first, before Nicholas proceeded to go down the ladder. Weirdly, it was a very short climb down the ladder, 5 seconds to be exact. When they finished climbing down, a small room was revealed, but most importantly, Damon. He was tied to a chair with tape on his mouth. They both shouted "Damon!", as they ran over to him to untie him and yank the tape on his mouth. As they untied him, they saw the rope marks on his wrists and felt so sorry for him. They then pulled the tape off his mouth, and he winced a little. He then fell into Nicholas's arms, wrapping him in a big hug. He sobbed, "Thank you, oh, thank you." Nicholas started shedding tears as Dahlia found something on the floor, "Ooh, a gun!" She went down to pick it up. Nicholas snatched it off her, "Oh Dahls. Look give it here." Dahlia was a bit flustered but then footsteps were heard. Nicholas held the gun, then said, "Look, guys, go behind me."
Dahlia replied, "Bro, you ain't never held a gun in your life."
"I know but-"
Suddenly, someone was in the room. And it wasn't just anyone, it was that same silhouette, from when Nicholas was locked in with Aurelia. The silhouette spoke, "Hello, Nicholas."
"What do you want? I've got a gun!"
"Oh but sweetie..."
A gun cocked, but it wasn't Nicholas's.
"So do I."
"Don't come anywhere near us."
"I won't come anywhere near y-"
All of a sudden, an alarm went off. The silhouette spoke again, "Uh oh. Tick tock, times up. And instead of killing you, I'm killing the boy."
Nicholas shouted, "NOO!!", as he pulled the trigger on the gun. There was a sudden, "OUCHH!!", as the silhouette added, "My thigh, you bitch! You'll pay for this!" The silhouette then scurried away, up the ladder. They went to go catch the silhouette, but they disappeared. Nicholas remarked, "Look, Dahls and Damon, follow me up this ladder." They all darted up the ladder, one by one. First, Nicholas, then, Dahlia, finally, Damon. When they reached the small room. The silhouette wasn't there. They ran to the library. Surprise, the silhouette wasn't there. But there stood Charlotte, Storm, MJ, and Aurelia. MJ took a glimpse at Damon then shouted, "DAMON!!", as he bolted towards him as they wrapped each other up in a warm hug. Dahlia ran over to Aurelia to hug her, since her and Storm were no longer together. Nicholas ran over to Charlotte to hug her. At this point everyone was hugging, except Storm. Whilst Nicholas and Dahlia were hugging, their eyes met, again. They made eye contact through their whole hugs. But one thing was for sure. This game wasn't over.