A Daring Mission

Chapter V

SAM

Music: Hellraiser from Nemesis 3 MSX

Ow... my head... wait, where am I? were my thoughts upon waking up. Groaning softly from pain, I sat up and took a look at my surroundings. I appeared to be inside some sort of mansion. All around me were my friends, laying down on this weird carpet (which, believe it or not, was pretty comfortable).

I couldn't tell if they were knocked out or just sleeping, so I left everyone alone for the time being. Then a man walked in. He had a handlebar mustache and a goatee on him, and he had a slight French look to his face.

"Ah! You're awake! Glad to see that," the man said, smiling.

"Uh... who are you?" I asked, glaring at him suspiciously.

"The name's Golgaku."

I eyed him for a few more seconds, with one eyebrow raised at him. "Now, where are we, and why?"

Golgaku told me, "Well, I found you all unconscious on the side of the road. So I decided to bring you to my place. Lucky that I did. Who knows what would've happened if I left you guys there for any longer."

I kept an eyebrow raised at him, and then finally, I shrugged it off. "Eh... I guess you're being reasonable." Then Golgaku stepped aside and sat quietly on a nearby couch.

The first one to wake up after me was Elle, followed immediately by Ariana, Heath, and Sean. "Where are we?" Elle moaned, rubbing her head.

"In the mansion of some French guy named Golgaku," I answered.

Shanna was the next to woke up, and when she came to her senses, she muttered, "Oh crap... we should probably leave, guys."

"No..." Ariana said. "According to my GPS, Luke is in this mansion."

"But why?" Heath asked.

"Hell if I know. Maybe he was found unconscious like we were."

Abbey, Isabelle, Joseph, and Quavando were awake by now, and when Golgaku saw this he suggested, "Hey... it's 8 in the morning. Why don't you stay for breakfast? It's all-you-can-eat at this mansion!"

"Um, we actually need to get going here pretty quickly-" I started to say, but Elle shook her head no.

"Sam, he's fine. I checked his feelings, and from what I can tell, he's trustworthy," she whispered to me. Now it was her turn to receive a raised eyebrow from me, and she simply shrugged in reply.

"Well... I guess we'll stay."

ARIANA

Music: Cosmic Heroes from Nemesis 3 MSX

Golgaku's chefs had cooked us up a buffet to have while we were here. We basically ate in awkward silence, for the most part. Our eyes occasionally darted to each other, with no real meaning.

"Well... the food's good," Isabelle said, nodding while eating a small pancake she had.

"You bet it is! I hired only the best chefs around here to work at my mansion. Such talented workers, they are," Golgaku sighed, almost a bit too dreamily.

"Do you have children? Or a wife?" Heath asked.

Golgaku shook his head no. "Unfortunately, no. Been single since the day I was born," he laughed.

I quickly glared at Elle and hissed at her, "Are you sure this man's trustworthy?"

"I can't sense anything wrong with him, so yeah."