Pandemonium

Stage Two

This room is barren with weird designs lining the floor. Arrows of some sort. I look around but nothing of interest catches my eye. Except, a ledge on the other side of the room. "Look, up there," a beautiful lady points to the ceiling. There are dangling pots with loose chains connecting them to the roof. I could barely look at them, my eyes kept wandering back to her. A gentleman stood beside her, nearly identical in appearance. She caught me staring and smiled in my direction. "Hendrix, was it?" I nod. "My name is Odette and this is my older twin brother, Lucien." He nods in my general direction. "If anyone could get that bow and arrow from up on that ledge, I can knock the pots down," she points to the other side of the room. How can she see up onto that ledge from over here? Are her eyes just that good? I squint but I can't make anything out. Perhaps I should've taken up my mother's request to get my eyes checked. 

"I've got it," another lady by the name of Rose rushes over to the ledge. She skillfully avoids the numerous amounts of random traps that appear. Gears out of the floor. Swinging pendulums of death. They appeared as quickly as they disappeared. I could barely keep up with her movements. All I could do was stand, mystified. We have two very talented women on our side. Or at least, I hope each of them is on my side. I don't think I would last in a fight with any of these people. Faust especially. That one is a box of mysteries. 

"She... is a talented ninja warrior sent to protect us all," Gilbert places his hands over his heart. I don't need to see behind his long bangs to know that he is completely mystified by Rose. Although, for him, I think it might be something like love at first sight.  

"Hah!" Fonso scoffs. "She is just lucky." 

"Is that so, Fonso dear," Faust sneaks up behind him and places their hands on his shoulders. They give him a gentle nudge towards the center of the room. "Why don't you show us how skilled you are then?" 

"What!?" Fonso leaps backward. "Absolutely not!" 

"So, is it really luck? Or are you just too much of a man to admit you're impressed by the actions of a woman?" Faust chuckles and leans up against the wall. They cross their arms and smirk. It must be their solemnly sworn duty to get on everyone's nerves. 

"Listen here, you...you...whatever the hell you are..." he grumbles, pointing at Faust. Only for Faust to place a hand to their forehead in that oh-so-dramatic fashion. 

"Am I a woman? Am I a man? The answer is neither! I'm just what I am." 

"I am going to strangle you in your sleep the moment we get off of this floor," Fonso promises. 

"How do you know that isn't my kink?" Faust raises an eyebrow. Fonso is left speechless, grumbling in silence. My mother is horrified by the language used and covers my ears. As if that will stop me from hearing the words already spoken. But, she is just that type of mother that refuses to believe her child has grown up. 

"Here," Rose shoves the bow and quiver into Odette's hands. She smiles, putting the quiver on her back and taking the bow in hand, she pulls the string to her cheek and with quick precision, knocks each of the buckets down one by one. Never missing. Always hitting her mark dead on. I'm speechless at the sight. I've been getting speechless quite often on this floor. Maybe it's something in the air. 

"She kind of looks like an angel, don't you think?" Hector whispers to me. My focus on the beautiful sight alters when I hear a scream. Ah, that must be Pandora waking up. Fonso stomps over to him and shoves his hand over his mouth. Pandora's gloved hands scraping at Fonso's, his eyes pleading for him to remove it. 

"There is no need for you to scream like an idiot. You passed out but, sorry to break it to you, it wasn't a dream." Fonso removes his hand and crosses his arms. 

"I'm covered in dirt. So much dirt. So much..." Pandora mutters as his head makes a sort of clockwise rotation. His entire body starts swaying from side to side. He looks as if he is going to fall over again. Fonso gives him a good slap on the face. 

"Snap out of it, will you? At least save the panicking for when we are in the elevator. You know? With food and a blanket or something." 

Pandora's eyes begin to water. "I can't believe you hit a guy with glasses," he sniffles, taking off his frames to make sure they are okay. "I can't see a thing without these please don't break them. If you're going to hit me could you please hit me in a different place?" 

Faust whistles, "We've got quite the array of kinks in this little gang." 

My mother frowns in Faust's general direction. "Language, please."

"It looks like the buckets contain keys," Lucien calls to us as he digs around in the remains of the bucket. "Search through the other piles of dirt the buckets left behind. See if you can find the other two," he points. Pandora immediately goes pale, shaking his head wildly, and Fonso sighs. He rolls up his sleeves and goes to the second bucket location. 

"You stay here," I say to Hector. "I wouldn't want you to get caught in any of those traps if they come back..." 

"But I don't want you to get caught either!"  Hector frowns. 

"Y'all are a bunch of pansies," Rose shakes her head and goes back out to the center of the room towards the third and final bucket. 

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Gilbert scratches his arm. "Isn't pansy a type of flower? An insult from a rose... I'm not sure how to feel about that." A flying piece of molded dirt hits Gilbert in the face. 

"Don't make stupid jokes!" Rose yells, frowning before going back to searching. The tall and somewhat lanky male rubs his face. Because of the dirtball messing up his hair, I can now see that his eyes are a brilliant shade of blue. He flinches when he notices me staring and moves his bangs to cover his face once again. Aw, but you're actually quite cute. In fact, everyone is cute here. The only person that's ugly is Claude. Try to prove me wrong. He is ugly on the inside and out. 

"Stop being so infatuated with everyone you see," Faust slaps me on the back. "We should look for where to put those keys." 

"Right, uh," I look around the room. Would they be hidden in the wall like the 'or not to be' weapons? Unfortunately, I can't think about any of this. I'm distracted by the beauty of the other people here. 

Hector grabs my shoulder and points at the arrows on the ground. "The bucket shards have markings identical to the floor," he points to one of the bucket pieces and then to its corresponding arrow. Aw, Hector, so smart. I swoon over my darling Hector when Fonso's voice cuts off my train of thought. 

"I found one too," Fonso holds up a different arrow. Rose does the same. 

"The bucket shards match the floor so go to those tiles and see if you can find a keyhole," Hector suggests. 

"You are a genius," I smile.

"W-what? No, I'm not..." Hector blushes. Adorable. 

"I feel so awful just standing here and watching. I'm so sorry I'm not of any use," my mother apologizes. 

"It's not like you could do anything anyway. You aren't fit like these young ones," Claude says. Hector and I both shoot him a glare. 

"Did you just call me old?" my mother gasps. 

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Faust shakes their head. They take a step towards my mother and grab her hand. "He does not know of your true radiance, my dear. Don't heed his words." They kiss her hand. 

"Oh my," she blushes. Claude doesn't say another word. 

A loud clicking noise grasps all of our attention. We each turn our heads in the direction of the noise and a gear appears, turning and turning until it stops and splits in half. "The elevator?" Hector raises an eyebrow. 

Faust claps their hands and marches forward towards the splitting gear. They slip right through it and, sure enough, that was the elevator. Our first rest stop, but hopefully not our last one.