TinyNightmares

-The Miserable Masquerade-

"Well, can we have some help finding the first gem? A clue maybe?" Sierra asked. "Well, lucky for you guys, you've already won your first gem." Tiffany said positively. We all half smiled, but still had the image of Jake's shrivelled corpse still in the back of our minds. "Really?" I asked hopefully. "Yep, if we just head back out of here and back to the garden, it should be somewhere in the bushes." Tiffany said. We all nodded and climbed out of the bunker, while we were climbing, I realised something that could have been the death of us all.

"Wait, aren't we gonna get contaminated by like, the deathly disease?" I asked plainly. "Well, you would but you found the cure and killed the evil. So it's all gone. We're perfectly safe to leave the bunker." Tiffany said while climbing the ladder. We all sighed with relief but still stayed hesitant when we got out from the hatch. We walked out of the house and went back to the garden, the graveyard only just visible over a hill. "It should be somewhere in this bush. Everyone start looking!" Tiffany shouted. We all dig our hands into the bush and began to search wildly.

"Found it!" Ben shouted waving his hand in the air. "That's not where the gem's meant to be-" Tiffany said getting cut off. "Well it's here now and that's all that matters!" Ben said still holding up the gem. The gem was an almost aqua colour and shimmered brightly, it looked like it could be worth millions. "Uh, what's up with Ben?" Sierra asked me leaning over while Ben studied our first gem. "I think this whole 'game' is getting to his head. Both of his only friends are gone, first James, then Jake. Now he's all alone. He's pretty much just given up. He thinks he'll be voted into the next challenge because he has no alliance and hasn't been in one yet." I replied. Sierra shrugged.

After bragging for long enough, Ben walked back to the group. "Now, where can we keep these things?" Chris asked. "Well, I have just the thing for you. It's a book. Each chapter containing a hole for each gem to be put in. Each chapter counts as a gem and an evil. Each chapter will contain clues and information on how to kill the evil. If you thought the other ones were bad, you haven't seen anything yet." Tiffany said handing me the book.

The cover of it was beautiful, it was coated in hundreds of patterns and had an image of the crown in the middle of it. The crown had five unlit lights on it which presumably represented the gems. I opened it and was treated first with the picture of a bottle filled with a black liquid. I turned the page and saw a little box stuck to the page and opened it. Inside was almost like a keyhole. "Hey Ben, can you pass me the gem please?" I asked him. Ben nodded and handed me the gem.

Everyone huddled over me while I slowly placed the gem in. As the gem was locked into place we heard a click noise and turned the book over to see the first light in the crown was lit up. "Woohoo! One down, four to go." Bridgette said. I turned over to the next page and saw an image of a mask covered in blood and was also followed by another box. The next page contained a picture of a clown mask also followed by a box. The next page showed a picture of a grave with a hand shooting out of the ground and a box was also on the next page. In the last chapter there was a picture of a spider web and had the final box on the next page. I discovered one final page with another picture of the crown this time with eight picture frames under it.

The first frame showed a picture of James holding his dagger smothered in blood. The next frame had an image of Bentham, half of his face turned to dust. The third frame had a picture of Laura with her eyes flaming and with a long plank of wood lodged into her head. The fourth frame had a picture of Jake, his body shrivelled up and lifeless. The other four frames remained empty but my guess was that they would soon all be filled. At the bottom of the page it had almost a riddle but not quite that said: "Eight little kids, all died today, but the survivor has the power to save seven of them today. One must stay dead and never be spoke of, but who will it be?" I shivered after reading it.