Strength ~Jack Wilder FanFic~

Chapter 2

*Edited*

One by one, we each enter the dark room. A cold breeze of air hitting my skin as I walked inside, giving me goose bumps. The apartment was empty, apart from a few pieces of old furniture in some of the rooms that were starting to rot, giving off a very disgusting smell.

"What is this place?" Henley mumbles as we all walk around the room, admiring and questioning it.

"Wow." Merritt laughs, "And I thought my apartment was nasty."

 "Man, it's freezing in here." Jack mumbles, shivering as well.

 "What's that?" Henley asks, going over to the center of the room, where a piece of paper and a rose in a glass vase sat.

"I don't know." I mumble, standing next to her. Soon the five of us stood in a circle around the items.

 "What's it say?" Merritt asks, referring to the note.

"Now you don't." Daniel reads from the paper, picking it up, and putting it in his pocket.

Henley laughs and picks up the vase. "A rose by any other name..." She quotes, as water starts to flow from the vase and filling up a pattern that had been carved into the wooden floor, right in the center of the room. Once it is all filled, smoke begins to fill up the room, coming from all corners of the room.

"Guys, what's happening?" I ask backing up nervously.

 "It's gas!" Jack yells franticly.

 "Relax." Merritt tells the two of us, "Just dry ice."

"Cool." Henley gasps, playing in the smoke.

"Wait. What do you think this is all about?" Daniel asks, being to control freak he is, wanting to know everything.

"Hang on. Hang on." Merritt says, raising his hand to his forehead. The four of us stare at him patiently, waiting for him to say something, "I got nothin'." He says finally.

"Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the delay." Daniel says, obviously ticked off at Merritt's joke.

"I'm just trying to create the space for wisdom." He says, making me laugh.

"Okay, so you're like Buddha," I laugh, playing along with his joke.

"Yeah," Daniel mumbles, "If he wasn't so enlightened."

"And you're like Jesus," Henley laughs talking to Daniel, "If he was arrogant and all of his miracles were fake." She finishes, making me laugh even harder.

 Daniel just glares at Henley, still very annoyed with us for having fun, then continues to look around the room for some sort of explanation.

"Danny, be honest. Did you do this?" Henley asks him.

He turns around to look at her, "No." He says defensively, "Wait, did you?" He asks, pointing to Jack.

"I wish." Jack mumbles. "What about you?" He asks me.

"I wouldn't even know how." I say honestly. We then all look around silently, trying to think a person who could have done this.

"Why didn't anyone ask me if I did it?" Merritt asks, breaking the silence. The four of us look at each other, trying to hold back laughs. "Oh, great." Merritt mumbles sarcastically.

 "Electricity is out." Jack says, flipping the light switch up and down, trying to get some light in the room.

"Well, let's check." Merritt says, reaching up to the light bulb in the ceiling, being the only one tall enough the reach it, and twists it until the light flashes on. Then, beams of blue light flash from the corners of the room towards the center, reveling some sort of hologram.

"Whoa." The five of us mumble together, reforming are circle around the center, admiring the hologram.

 "Blueprints." Henley laughs.

 "They're incredible." Daniel says, totally fan girling on the inside.

 "Who do you think did this?" Jack asks us.

"I don't know," I say, "But I really want to meet them.

 It gets awkwardly silent again, as the five of us don't know what to do next. Then, Daniel suggest we all split up and look around the apartment, for more information on what we are supposed to be doing, so we each take a room and look around in them.

I walk into the bedroom, only to find a vintage queen size bed, with stain covered sheets and a rotting headboard and a matching night table.  It smelt disgusting. I go over to the night table and slowly pull open the door, nervous some sort of creature will crawl out. Once I'm sure nothing is in the drawer, I reach my hand in only to find a few pieces of paper.

I smooth out the wrinkles on the pages and read through them quickly. "It's a show." I gasp, once I read through all of the papers. "Guys!" I yell out into the apartment and go back to the main room, where the others meet me. "It's a show." I tell them.

"Let me see." Control freak says, snatching the papers from my hand so he can read them himself. Jack and Henley peeking over his shoulders so they can see as well.

"Outstanding!" Daniel says, shoving the pieces of paper into his pocket then claps, "we are going to rob a bank in Paris!" He repeats from the papers.

"Did I just hear what I think I heard?" Merritt asks looking confused.

"Yeah," I tell him smiling widely, excited for the trick I would get to be a part of.

"Why Paris?" Jack asks.

"Who knows, it didn't say." Daniel says, pulling out his cell phone, "But there has got to be a method behind the madness! So I will book myself a flight to Paris as soon as possible and work out all the details, this is going to be fantastic."  

"Wait." I say, "Why don't the rest of us get to go to Paris?" I ask.

Daniel laughs, not looking up from his phone, "I don't need you guys' help."

Henley huffs and takes his phone from his hand, "No Danny," She tells him sternly, "We got called into this mess together we are going to do it together. All of it."

"I agree with the ladies on this one Danny Boy." Merritt says.

"I want to go to Paris." Jack mumbles.

"Fine!" Daniel surrenders, after moments of silence. "We can go together." He says taking his phone back from Henley, who is now smiling with excitement. "I'll book 5 tickets to Paris for tomorrow morning. Does that work for everyone?" He asks us looking around.

"Yeah," The three others say, then looking to me for my answer.

"Yeah sounds good." I say hesitantly, not knowing how I will manage to sneak out of my apartment for that long.

"Then it's all set!" Daniel says shoving his phone back into his pocket, "I will see you guys tomorrow." He says, then walks out of the apartment.

"What a dick." Merritt mumbles once he is sure Daniel is far enough away not to hear.

"Tell me about it." Henley agrees, laughing.

~