Escape from Doom! (Mr. Tophat)

Chapter 4

Graham sat in the auditorium, waiting for his friends to show up, so he could show them what he had found in the trash, after the new girl threw it in there before she rushed out of the classroom.

Graham didn't have to wait too long as his friends walked in making their way over to where he was sitting waiting for them.

"Alright Gaham, this better be good because I have better things to do right now, rather than hang around the auditorium acting like I don't have more important matters to worry about," Akiko said.

"I agree with Akiko. I told my fellow cheerleaders that we had to meet up, so we can come up with a new cheer routine and start practicing it before the next game. We want everything to be perfect. That and we don't have room for a single mess up," Louise said.

"Louise, Akiko, don't you guys think you are being a bit harsh? Graham wouldn't have texted us to come to the auditorium if it wasn't so important. So give him a chance to speak will you," Gavin said before turning his attention to Graham. "Alright Graham, what is it that you wanted to tell us about?"

"I'm sure you guys know about the new girl that we have in school, right," Graham asked.

"Yeah, we all know about her. Word travels fast. Besides how do you think word started going around about her so quickly," Akiko said.

"You were the one who started all the talk about her," Graham asked.

"I'm practicing to be the best journalist around. Besides that, a good journalist knows when there is a good scoop, and never passes it up. Besides the fact that she's never attended our school before, I tried to do a little digging around on her background. I couldn't find anything," Akiko explained earning a stern look from Gavin. "Enough about my amazing journalist skills, why don't you proceed with explaining why you summoned us together?"

"The new girl was in my class this morning. She kind of seemed to have zoned out a bit, while she was sitting in class. Only she was extremely focused on her notebook throughout all of class," Graham began.

"What's the big deal about that? She was most likely focused on taking notes from the lesson. We all do it. Doesn't mean we're all zoned out and not paying any attention to the lecture," Louise pointed out.

"I thought the same thing at first. But when the bell rang, she was snapped out of her daze. She had a horrified look on her face, before she ripped the page out of her notebook, and was quick to put all of her things in her bag, before she jumped out of her seat and rushed out the door; after she threw a piece of paper away in the trash. Curiosity got the best f me, so I walked over to the trash bin, grabbing the crumpled-up page, uncrumpling it and found something that really impressed me," Graham said, while reaching into his bag, grabbing the drawing out and passing it around to show all of his friends.

Louise took the paper looking at it, before passing it around ot the rest of her friends to see it, with Akiko being the last one that had looked at the picture in her hands, before turning her gaze to Graham. "Glad to see that you took up a hobby. But drawing a picture of some random person in a top hat who you may or may not have made up, is not going to convince me that the new girl did this. Did you draw this to gain attention?"

"I can assure you that I didn't draw this. This was drawn by the new girl who is in my class," Graham defended himself.

"If this is true, then bring her to the meeting spot at our normal time tonight. You know the drill on how to do this. Don't speak, don't let her see your face, wear your robes to keep your identity hidden. Oh and don't let her see the way to the meeting spot. Only members of the midnight society are allowed to know the location of where we hold our meetings," Akiko said.

"I know the rules. Does this mean that we are going to be willing to give the new girl a chance to join the midnight society," Graham asked.

"We have to test and see if the new girl has what it takes to become part of the midnight society. If she manages to impress all of us, then there is a good chance that she will be welcome. But if the story she chooses to tell us is boring, then there is no way the new girl will be welcomed into the midnight society," Akiko replied.

"Alright, who is going to get her to meet us, so we can cover her head and bring her to the meeting area," Graham asked.

"Since you were the one who found this drawing, and you want to give her a chance to join our midnight society so bad, you can tell her where to meet you. Then you can bring her to us," Akiko said.

"I can do it Akiko. The new girl is my next-door neighbor. Besides, it would give me an excuse to go over to her house ad talk to her, and get to know her a bit," Gavin said.

"I agree with Akiko Gav. Graham is the one who wants to see if the new girl has any potential in telling a good story, then he should be the one to extend the invitation to her; unless Graham changed her mind about wanting the new girl to join the midnight society," Louise said.

"I didn't change my mind. And I'm not chickening out on this. I'll go and look for the new girl right now, and see if she would like to meet up with us tonight," Graham said.

"Good luck in finding the new girl and extending the invitation. If you don't find her before the lunch period ends, you could always try looking for her after school," Louise suggested.

"Thanks for the suggestions, Louise. If you guys will excuse me, I have someone whom I need to find," Graham said before getting up and walking away from his friends.

Gavin waited until Graham was out of the auditorium, before turning to look at his friends. "Why did you guys make Graham go and do that? I could have easily passed the invitation on to the new girl. She is my new next-door neighbor. It would have been easy for me to approach her."

"Look, Graham is the one who is determined to give this new girl a chance, to see if she has what it takes to be part of the midnight society; all because of a picture she drew and threw away. Since Graham wants to see if the girl has what it takes to join our group, then he should be the one who goes and extends the invitation to her," Akiko said. "And before you say anything else, my mind is made up about this."

Rachel sat on the front steps of the school, getting lost in sketching again. When she was done sketching, she was shocked to see that she drew Mr. Tophat again. Only this time, she drew a young woman standing next to him.

Why on earth do I keep drawing pictures of the ringleader from my dream...as well as the woman who looks sad? I wonder what reason you have to be sad. Is it because you are part of the carnival of doom, working alongside Mr. Tophat, Rachel thought to herself before looking around feeling eyes on her. Rachel looked all around, getting ready to give up on finding the source of the eyes, when she glanced across the street, spotting the same woman with the sad eyes, that Rachel sketched.

Rachel got up, getting ready to make her way over to the sad looking woman; but stopped when the young woman shook her head no at Rachel.

Rachel was about to call out to the woman, when she heard her name being called, causing Rachel looking away. When she did, she spotted the boy from her first period class.

"Rachel Carpenter," the boy asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry but, who are you," Rachel asked.

"Oh yeah sorry. I'm Graham, Graham Raimi. We have first period together," Graham said.

"Right," Rachel said before remembering the woman. Rachel turned around and was disappointed to find the young woman was no longer standing there.

Graham looked at Rachel's notebook, and found the sketch of the same ringleader as before, only this one had a woman standing next to him. "Hey, that's pretty good. I hope you don't mind me asking this but, who are they?"

Rachel looked down at the drawing before closing the notebook. "You weren't supposed to see that."