Dodge Mason // Mystery Boy

21

crash

—

As Dodge opens the door, flashlight in hand, I follow right behind him. The inside is dark and covered in cobwebs that send shivers down my spine. Where there are cobwebs there are spiders, and where there are spiders, I am gone. Heather must have noticed this from me and put her hand on my shoulder from behind me. "I got you," she smiles at me. I flash her a smile back and at this point we are all in the house. The group of teens begin looking around with their lights at old pictures and furniture as the ground creaks under our feet.

"There's the blood," Dodge shines the light on it following it to the wall.

"Anyone else creeped out by the random blood?" Drew, a fellow competitor, asks.

"Part of the riddle?" Dodge asks referring to the words written in blood near the bottom of the wall.

"Must be," Heather says.

"Well... yeah," I remark.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock," Nat scoffs. We all gather round and some of us squat to get a closer look as Shawna begins to read it aloud.

"Dorothy lost her ruby shoes, the wizard lost his head, the king was counting reasons for clues inside the dead." We all look around trying to piece it together. "Wizard," Shawna continues. "'Jimmy Wizard' was Jim's nickname. When Abby started dating him some of us started calling her 'Dorothy'," she explains.

"Clues inside the dead," Dodge repeats. "Guess we have to find the bodies?" He suggests.

"Maybe it's a- a warning," Heather offers.

"Let's see what else we can find," I cut in.

"Why don't we go that way?" Nat starts toward the hall. "We should stick together," she states fearfully. We all silently agree and walk together. Other plays begin breaking up to explore the rest of the house in the kitchen, upstairs, and other halls.

"Let's go the other way," I steer us away from where others begin going. Heather and Nat continue down the hall while Dodge and I enter a room. He heads toward a window and I go inspect a fireplace. I turn to face him but am instead met with a mannequin hanging. This receives a small jump and yelp from me to which Dodge quickly reacts to.

"Are you okay?" He shines the light at me.

"Yeah just made a new friend," I joke. He flashes the light to see what is holding the mannequin up and groans at the noose. I stand and watch as he grabs a chair in the corner, brings it over, and stands on it to cut the rope causing the mannequin to drop onto an old chandelier on the ground with a loud crash. He gets down and gently rubs my arm and gives me a small peck on the forehead.

"Hey guys," Heather calls for us.

"Come check this out," Nat follows up. We head towards their voices just down the hall and squat down to see what they're looking at.

"Check out the bloody riddle," Heather smirks.

I begin to read, "One flew over a rooftop, one flew into the moon. Track down the clue inside the who, whose end Ed mirrors soon." I pause. "The hell is this? A nursery rhyme?"

"Maybe we should be looking for books?" a fellow competitor chimes in. She looks at her friend and they walk away wishing us luck. After they walk away, Dodge looks around ensuring they are gone then turns to me.

"The noose. Mirror. If you look at the message in the mirror, 'soon' spelled backwards is 'noose'," he explains.

"That's the 'who'— the noosed man." I swiftly walk back into the room and shine my light onto the mannequin. I kneel next to it and search around its neck to find a note. I bring it back to show the others and I read aloud, "the Cook and the five to dinner; make six to tally late; the final count's the winner behind the hands that wait."

"'Cook' is capitalized," Dodge says peering over my shoulder.

"Maybe the clue is in the kitchen?" Nat queries.

"Let's check it out," Heather says letting Dodge lead the way.

"I'm gonna go find Shawna," Nat announces suddenly.

"Are you sure?" I ask. "I can go with you."

"No it's okay, I'll be just a sec."

I nod and follow Dodge into the kitchen. We begin to investigate different parts of the kitchen briefly with our lights. "Do you see any clues?"

"Nothing on the walls," he replies as we continue to look around. I start to look in cupboards being as careful as possible as to not disturb any spiders or bugs that could crawl out at me. "Hey Delilah?"

"Yeah?" I turn around. Hmm, "Delilah?" since when does he use my name. My thought is interrupted by his light on a crystal doorknob on a brown door. I walk over and open the lock at the top and start to push. It's a little heavier than expected so Dodge helps me out from behind me. While I am afraid for my life right now, I cannot disregard that detail because it was kind of hot. We push the door open enough to go in and look around. It's a small, white room with shelves covered in dust and webs. The light above us flickers and as I turn around and look up we are chest to chest and face to face. "Well that outta get us in the mood," I joke.

"Aren't you afraid of the curse?" he teases.

"What, are you falling in love with me?" I flirt looking up at him.

"Maybe," he whispers just under his breath.

"I thought we were just partners in this game," I say flatly. "Andrew Dodge Mason." He just stares back down at me and we are locked in a match of poker faces waiting to see who breaks first. He does. He walks away.