Pulled In

8

(I changed Gray's, Ghost's, and Elizabeth's ages a little to eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty)[in that order])
Johnny Toast

When I got up the next morning, I found Miss Elizabeth still asleep, and Sir and Grayson in the kitchen chatting in the dark and smelling so strongly of coffee that I could only assume they had been there a few hours.

Neither must have heard me come in because they both jumped as I turned on the light. Sir smiled at me tiredly.
"Morning Johnny."

Grayson just waved and got up to pour himself more coffee.

"How long have you two been awake?"

"Midnight," Sir remarked.

"I was never asleep."

"Oh, so you can berate my sleeping habits but it's fine for you to not sleep."

Now it was my turn to jump as I turned to see Miss Elizabeth behind me. She rolled her eyes and poured some coffee of her own. Grayson just shrugged.
"I'm a senior in high school, I practically run on coffee."

He sipped his coffee again and  then I noticed his hands, each fingertip was wrapped in a bandage the way I used to wrap Sir's when he bit his nails really badly. Did Sir do that for him?

"Well," I began, "now that we're all awake, we should talk strategy, and maybe training as I assume neither of you fights with weapons very often."

"Only on stage, and a little yesterday," quipped Grayson.

I ignored him.
"So this morning we will discuss where Venturian and his siblings may be, then
after lunch will be weapons training."

Nods all around so I made some toast, Sir called me a cannibal, and we sat down to talk business.

"So," began Grayson with a sinister smile, "Who kidnapped my favorite YouTubers?"

Miss Elizabeth gave him a confused sideways glance.
"What makes you think it was a kidnapping?"

Grayson smiled in an unsettling way.
"Because no one just gets 'stuck' in another dimension. Especially not around here when half the population is demons, villains, and murderous ghosts."

Sir seemed to consider his words.
"Makes sense. But who hates them that much?"

I ran through a list in my mind, putting together reasons that someone might do something so terrible.
"Well, both Amiee and CBF only had two appearances each, that could make them mad."

"What's CBF?"

Sir shook his head as a way of saying not to talk about it, Grayson did the same, but I wasn't sure if that was his own reaction or if he was feeling Jimmy's.
"Bad, that's what."

I moved on with my list.
"Maxwell is resentful of Accachalla betraying him and letting him be killed, so maybe since he can't permanently kill him, he's taking his anger out on the next closest thing."

Nods from Sir and Grayson, more confusion from Miss Elizabeth. I was starting to see an issue with half the rescuers not knowing who they were saving.

Grayson apparently had an idea.
"Wait a second! Jimmy!"

We all looked at him.
"Are you accusing Jimmy of kidnapping them?"

He shook his head, his smile getting bigger than humanly possible.
"No, I'm saying him, and me, can find them!"

Miss Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.
"Does that make sense to you guys or are you just as confused as me?"

"Just as confused as you," replied Sir.

Grayson rolled his eyes.
"No listen, Jimmy's fist official appearance wasn't in a PIE video."

"No," I agreed. "His first appearance was-"

"The Siblings Play Murder in GMod," finished Sir.

"But what does that have to do with anything?"

"In that game, the murderer could follow the other players footprints."

"But can Jimmy do that?"

Sir shrugged, he didn't know.

"Well yesterday while Jimmy and I were... doing stuff, I noticed all these glowing footprints on the ground, but only if I concentrated hard enough. Most were just grey, but I remember seeing some that were different, and they all lead in the same direction. One set was black, one was green, one was purple, and one was blue."

I understood where he was going with this.
"You mean you could see where they went? Why didn't you follow them?"

He shrugged.
"We were on our way back, it was raining, Jimmy was about to pass out. We didn't have time."

I groaned.
"Very well. After lunch we'll give a quick crash course in weapons, then we have hunting to do."