One Last Dance

Chapter 17

They placed the platters in front of the two, followed by two plates and cutlery. Nancy mentally drooled at the sight. The dishes looked exquisite, and she was already three days hungry.

"Oh my goodness." She murmured while her eyes fixated on the food in front of her.

Master Nicholas laughed. "Let's eat, shall we?"

Nancy nodded vigorously. She took a plate and a pair of cutlery and begin to dig in. As she wolfed down whatever was on the dish, Master Nicholas couldn't help but stare in awe of this eating machine. Damn, he thought. Nancy noticed his staring and turned to look at him.

"What?"

"Oh, n-nothing," he replied as he looked away and started eating. Nancy could've swore she'd saw him blush for a moment. After watching him for a while, she shrugged it off and continued with her food.

He's a sicko, Nancy. Forget about him.

A couple of dishes later, she leaned back in her chair. That was awesome. She patted her tummy, smiling. There was one more dish left, a steak. Not full yet, she took it with her spoon and fork and gently placed it on her plate.

"You're still hungry?" Master Nicholas asked, eyes wide.

"Try going without food for three days."

"Actually, that's pretty easy. I'm already a dead man, remember?" He said as he smirked.

"..You know what I mean. By the way, how come you seem so human..aren't you a ghost?"

"Just because ghosts in movies can past through things and float around, doesn't mean it's true, detective. Though yes, ghosts don't actually have to eat, but I see no harm in doing so. Now excuse me, I have to use the washroom."

Cool.

After he left the room, Nancy proceeded to cut her steak. It was extremely hard. "What the.."

She used her fork to poke at it. It was too damn hard to be steak, that's for sure. Nancy poked harder. At last, the fork pierced through something. When she lifted it, she was horribly disgusted.

"Cardboard?!"

Yes, cardboard. Cardboard in ketchup and barbeque sauce. Nancy was about to fling it away when she noticed something inscribed on the back. (The back didn't have the sauce.) It was a very very long chunk of words. At first she assumed it was just an old piece of cardboard that had those little inscriptions of ingredients or whatever, but when she glanced over it, it seemed more like instructions. She also saw her name on it somewhere.

The cardboard having piqued her curiosity, she began to properly read it. It read:

"Dear, Miss Nancy

Randy and Jenn here. We know what kind of fate lies before us now, so you must hurry. If you're able to read it this far, it means Master Nicholas isn't with you, which is good. Now, turn around. See that big carpet over there?  Lift it up and you will find a number pad. Type in 7356 and you will see a long corridor being revealed. Now I want you to run through it. Run as fast as you can."

Once Nancy had read the first set of instructions, she stopped reading. She couldn't risk wasting anymore time. She needed to act now.

Clutching the cardboard firmly in her sweaty palms, she carried out the instructions carefully.

Once her shaky fingers typed out the number pin, the wall in front of her parted like the Red Sea, and indeed revealed a long corridor.

"Woah. I guess a big house has its advantages."

Suddenly remembering she might not have a chance to see Randy and Jenn anymore made Nancy's heart sink. Thank you both so much, I wish you all the best.

After a big sigh, she placed the carpet back to its original spot and ran for dear life, never once looking back.