•Sweet Like Lead Acetate•

•Chapter 5: The Button•

Henry rubs the back of his head and turns himself around to face the hole in the wall.

Inside the dry wall he sees rainbow striped wallpaper and a purple cardboard box.

He reaches his hand inside and feels at the box.

He tries to pick it up one handed, but it's slightly heavy, meaning something is inside.

He lifts it to the hole in the wall to try to take it out, but the box is far too big for the hole he placed in the wall.

Henry drops the box, the others in the group stirring at the noise.

The boy looks at them, but nobody seems to awake.

So, he shrugs and attempts one more thing.

He's too far gone in curiosity now. The blonde haired boy reaches to the edges of the hole and pries off more pieces of the dry wall, effectively making the whole in the wall much bigger.

Once the hole is about 20 inches wide, he reaches his hands inside and pulls out the purple box.

He isn't even bothered that he's making quite a bit of noise, he's going to need to get up the group anyways.

Bridget stirs in her sleep, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Henry?" She mumbled, trying to get used to the bright light in the room again.

He jumps slightly before turning.

"Hey, sorry to wake you," he says in a half apology.

"It's okay. What's that?" she says, gripping the bean bag under her and pulling it closer to the boy.

He points to the giant hole in the wall before opening up the purple box.

Bridget shakes her head in confusion, but is attentive anyways.

Both Henry and Bridget peer into the container to see a purple button that seems battery operated (Aka: not attached to anything) and a purple wax sealed envelope.

Henry reaches into the box and pulls out the envelope, ripping open the seal and pulling out a scribbled letter on purple card stock.

His eyes fly across the pages, his breaths becoming ragged and his face pulling into worry.

"We need to get up the group," he says, dropping the letter and rushing over to Harrison and Sandra.

Bridget picks up the letter and quickly skims it, her brows pulling up in concern.

She goes over to Keegan.

"Get up. Harrison! Get up!" Henry says, shaking the boy's shoulder.

Harrison groggily opens his eyes and looks at Henry.

His shifting causes Sandra to awaken too.

"Is someone here?" Asks Sandra yawning.

"That's the issue!" Henry yells, going to wake Lexi and Weimin.

Once everyone is awake, Henry runs over to the fallen note and begins to read it, facing the group.

"Congratulations on finding what has been placed here for you to find. Whether you have found it by accident or on purpose, I applaud you. You're probably curious as to why breaking a single shadow box has led the store to enter lockdown. Well, it is just one of my special experiments. To make candy that can curse someone to enter a horrible challenge. If my plan has worked, I should have entrapped a handful of people in my candy shop. All of which without an employee due to my engineering skills in making an automatic register. Now here's the deal. Each piece of candy is laced with a curse that will glaze over one's eyes and send them into a challenge. If you complete the challenge, bravo. If you do not, you shall die. It's that simple. You're probably curious as to why you should eat the candy? Well, one piece will open the door to the candy shop and free all those who remain. If the candy that opens the door is not found, the door will remain closed forever and you all will die of starvation. I wish you luck. Oh, this is going to be so SWEET!" Henry reads aloud.