Doorway to Darkness || 5 Seconds of Summer

2:14

Rose stands, staring in awe at the beauty of this gigantic room. The layout was like everything she could've imagined her living in a mansion. Arthur looks at her expectantly to see her reaction, and he was not let down. Her reaction is priceless, he chuckles. 'Does this suit your fancy?'

'Are you fucking kidding me?!' Rose turns to him, so full of excitement and so much emotion all at once. She's had her fair share of hormones as a teenager, but this was like nothing she'd ever experienced. She laughs at herself, 'Why do I feel like crying about it?'

Arthur laughs again, 'All those heightened emotions. It does that to you sometimes, which isn't always a good thing.' As he finishes speaking, he notices how sunny and bright it had become outside. He stares at the window for a moment, confused. It had just been cloudy and dull all day and the weather forecast hadn't mentioned the sky clearing up. He shakes his head, not concentrating on it for now. The main thing was that Rose felt happy and secure.

'I'm sorry but how do you guys afford it?' Rose blurts, realising afterward how invasive a question it was.

'Well... we don't particularly need to pay for it,' Arthur shrugs, 'Think of it as an inheritance from ancestors.'

Rose nods slowly, 'Right, yeah. Sorry for asking.'

'No, no, 'Arthur smiles, 'ask away. You have the right. I've never trained a girl - a woman, sorry - before...' 

'Well, do you think it will be entirely different?' Rose asks, intrigued.

'I don't think so, but I guess we'll find out tomorrow when you're really settled in,' Arthur shrugs.

There's an aggressive knock at the door and Eric enters, clearly distressed. 'There was a package delivered at the front door, you need to see what it was,' he rambles, swallowing harshly and panting in a panic.

'Do you know who sent it?' Arthur asks, growing concerned and attempting to calm Eric, who frantically shakes his head.

'I-I... yes. No. I don't know, really,' Eric stutters, 'But, look, it says my name on it and "I'll see you somewhere over the rainbow on it", right?' He looks between Arthur and Rose as they stand and stare at him. He knows he must appear crazy but the panic he felt was like nothing else. 'And, look, inside.'

He looks down at the small box in his hand. He begins to open it as Arthur moves to get a closer look. It is a beautiful golden necklace with a locket. Arthur looks back at Eric, not understanding the significance. Eric tuts.

'Don't you get it? This was... it is... Lucia's. I gave her it. She would never send it back... not like this,' the more Eric thought about it, the more anxious he felt, 'This is too weird. Something's happened or is happening to her. I-I can feel it. There's something not right about this situation.'

Arthur nods, 'We'll help you, Eric,' he thinks for a moment, 'we can get Chase to-' Just as Arthur says that, Chase had appeared at the door.

'Chase isn't doing shit,' he interrupts harshly. Eric glares at him and Chase sends him a sympathetic shrug, 'Sorry, pal.'

'Please, Chase, man. I need to know she's okay, I need to know where she is. You know how long it's been...' Eric finally feels himself choking up. He takes a deep breath.

Chase shakes his head, walking toward Eric and places a hand on his shoulder, 'I'm sure she's okay. Honestly. But I just can't be fiddling around with all of this again.'

'What if we could guarantee nothing would come back to you?' Arthur interrupts. He stares at Chase as he stubbornly finds a comeback.

Chase thinks for a second then shrugs again, 'That'd be truly magical, wouldn't it? But, a) you couldn't guarantee it because hello? Dark magic? And b) I still say "no". I would love to help guys, honestly, but you're putting me and everyone in great danger if you ask me to do this.'

Arthur slumps himself down on the edge of the bed, then remembers Rose is standing. He looks at her, and just as he does, an idea pops in his head. 'Why don't you help us, Rose?' Arthur asks. Chase snaps his head around to send him a glare, which Arthur returns.

'I'm sorry... what?!' Rose asks. She has no clue what they're talking about, never mind offering to help.

'Yeah, we'll help you every step of the way. Yes, there's risks. But I think you could do it,' Arthur sweetly smiles at her as she looks back at him. 'You see, we need to find someone. Her name's Lucia. She means a lot to Eric. All you need to do is take the locket, hold it in the palm of your hand like this,' he demonstrates, placing it in the middle of his palm then closing his fingers over it, 'and repeat her name until you see an image of her and I'll guide you through the rest of the steps when this happens.'

Rose looks back and forth between Arthur, who holds the locket for her to take, Eric who is biting his lip in anticipation, and Chase who is growling at her. 'This... will... never... work,' Chase sings sarcastically.

'How so?' Arthur snaps back.

'A lot of reasons, actually. She's inexperienced. She doesn't know what she's capable of. We don't know what she's capable of. Just because it works when I do it, doesn't mean it's automatically the same for her. If she says or does something wrong while we're on this little mission, the end results would be catastrophic and you know it.' Chase bites back. He turns to Eric, 'I know this is a desperate moment for you, but please don't blind yourselves to reality trying to bring that girl back.'

Arthur, Eric and Rose just stare at him. Chase goes to speak, as though he has an idea, then stops himself. 'What's wrong, Chase?' Arthur asks.

'N-Nothing,' he snaps. Arthur continues to stare at him and Chase gives in, 'Okay, well, if you're really certain about this insane death wish - which, by the looks of it, you are - and considering the only person here excluding me who has the gift for this is Rose... I was going to - maybe - suggest that I-I, I mean, we... help her? You know, train her and teach her the "do"s and "don't"s. Basically, in the form I trained myself, except she'll also have the support of you guys, who will teach her how to catch mice or whatever.'

Eric grunts, rolling his eyes, 'We don't catch mice, you idiot. What are we, cats?'

Chase tuts, 'Sorry, I meant to say "catch Bambi".' He smirks back at Eric.

'I'm sorry, did you just say "Bambi"?' Rose looks between them all, just as confused as ever. She wonders whether these guys will ever make sense to her.

Chase's eyes light up, a playful mocking tone in his voice as he chuckles, 'Oh yeah... did they not tell you? Every second weekend, Eric and Arthur here like to go "hunting" or so they call it. They believe that their method is much better than mine and Sidney's so that you don't rip on someone's arteries,' Chase is enjoying the fact that he's taunting Rose, and she's equally falling for it, 'What is their method, I hear you beg? I like to call it the "Bambi diet". They go all the way out to the nearest deepest woods and they hunt down Bambi and all of his little woodland friends to eat.'

Rose is stunned and feels slightly sick at the thought, 'Oh...' she pauses for a moment, then frowns, 'So, what's your strategy then?'

Chase smiles, 'Sidney and I get blood bags from hospitals and blood-drives. That type of thing.' Rose thinks to herself that would make sense, she wondered who the blood bags would have been for. Still, she doesn't support it - even if she had one earlier that day.

'Okay, so you mean you steal them? So, someone could be dying and in need of a donation of blood, or something. And you just take that away from them.' Rose tilts her head and crosses her arms. Game, set, match, she thinks to herself. Try and make me look like an idiot, she thought, two can play that game.

Chase, for the first time, goes silent. He stares at Rose for a long time, no clear expression on his face. Then he swiftly exits the room. Arthur chuckles under his breath, he had known that was coming. Chase always enjoys the mind games and scare-mongering but when anyone stands up to him and gives him a challenge, he can crack. And that is exactly what had happened.

Eric and Rose made eye contact and he smiles, 'Rose, can we talk for a moment alone?' Rose swallows.

'I'll leave you two,' Arthur stands to leave.

'Actually, some fresh air would be nice, if you don't mind.' Eric gestures to Rose. She smiles back at him.

'I could do with some fresh air, too.'