House of Chaos ~FemaleOC x Joy Mercer~ (Seasons 1-3)

House of Arrest/House of Hoax

The next morning, Fabian and Max met the others at the end of the staircase in the house, each holding one of the puzzle pieces. "We're keeping them on us." Max told them simply. "I don't trust Victor and the others, there's too much we still don't know."

Trudy came in and asked Fabian to give Victor some mail as she was on the way to the supermarket and then lunch with Fabian's uncle.

But the moment she was gone, they looked at the mail and noticed one of the letters was the report from the hospital about what happened to Alfie.

Victor spotted them standing around and Fabian had no choice but to give the letters to him.

~~~

"You guys need to relax, remember what Joy said." Patricia insisted at school.

Mara, who had been walking their way, gasped. "You've heard from Joy? Is she alright?"

"Um...Joy is fine. But um, she's not coming back to school and uh...she doesn't want to talk to us anymore." Patricia told her awkwardly.

Mara was absolutely baffled, but they all quickly took off before she could ask anymore questions.

~~~

During school Nina and Fabian had run off somewhere and Patricia was still convinced they should trust the teachers. Max went to one of the main hang out rooms of the school to relax while she could, besides it's not like they had leads anyways.

She was shocked to find Mara and Jerome playing chess. "You know how to play chess?" She asked curiously.

Jerome seemed startled that she took notice of them and coughed awkwardly. "Yeah well...sometimes there's more to a person than meets the eye." He gave her a look.

Max smirked. "Of course. Enjoy your game." She sat in one of the chairs next to them and took out her phone.

But that's when Alfie got on the stage with his skateboard, asking Jerome to go with him to have fun, but Jerome declined to stay and play with Mara.

But then Alfie did a skateboard trick on the stage and sent the skateboard flying, knocking out the chess more and smacking Max in the leg. "OW!" She exclaimed, jaw dropping from the pain.

"Oh my God!" Mara gasped. "Max, are you alright?" She was kneeling down to check Max's leg in an instant.

Max winced. "Yeah, just gonna be a harsh bruise."

Mara seemed unconvinced and continued to fret over it, but paused when she noticed Max's wrist as she was stroking the injured spot. "What happened to your arm?" She held it up delicately. Jerome's eyes widened at the bruising.

Sweating a little, Max smiled awkwardly. "Um...Fabian and I were wrestling, I guess we got a bit too aggressive." She laughed.

"Well if you can shake off that, then you can shake off this right? No harm, no foul." Alfie grinned nervously.

Max sighed. "It's fine Alfie, it was an accident."

Jerome frowned, staring down at the bruising Max had.

~~~

"So wait, the elixir was just an herbal concoction, Victor's aged normally and the photographs and the voice on the recording were of his father?" Amber questioned when they all met up again.

Nina and Fabian had gone to the house and went through Victor's office for the toxicology report, and ended up finding a photo of him and his father, they also found strange metal discs with their names on them.

"So there is no mystery." Patricia beamed, looking relieved.

Max scowled. "That's ridiculous. What about my great uncle who hasn't aged? Can you explain that?"