Plagium (Keepers Book 1)

Chapter 24 - In Which Tracey Higgenbottom Hits Rock Bottom

"I wonder where Mr. Porter is?" she finally said. "Oh, yes. Charlie. Where are they...?"

She frowned, trying to piece together her jumbled memories. "Maybe I'm...where they are...?" She looked to the walls again. "But I have to...get out...first? Ugh," Tracey vigorously rubbed and patted her face, trying to will the heavy drowsiness away. "Focus, Tracey!"

She took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"This is just another puzzle...clue. It's not like I haven't done any of those before!" Tracey said, carefully examining each wall. "Perhaps if I can find a groove..."

She stumbled to her feet, steadying herself against the sway.

"There's nothing I can use here...," she said as she looked at the bare floors and walls, "but I have this!" Tracey whipped out a hairpin, putting its tip against the wall and continuing her rounds about the room, feeling for any sort of bump in the wall.

Sure enough, the pin's narrow head fell into a groove. "What do we have here?" she said, pausing. Sliding the pin up and down, she found it fit snugly inside, making what seemed to be the side of a door. "Aha!" she yelled with a grin. She winced. I should talk a little quieter, my head still hurts... she thought as she began to dig deeper into the wall. The groove deepened to reveal embedded door hinges.

"Good, good," she muttered, moving further down the wall. The tip snagged into another groove, and she repeated the steps, this time revealing the door's striking plate. Maybe if I wedge this pin in... There was a small, audible click. It's not locked! "Jon must've thought I wouldn't be able to find the door," she chuckled to herself. "Now, let's lever this open..."

The door slowly creaked inward, before fully swinging open. The force of its swing threw Tracey off balance, causing her to take a stumbling seat onto the ground. Dazedly, she looked into the hall.

It was a dark, short hall, and it appeared that the room in which she had woken in was at the end of it. On the other end was an adjacent hallway, modestly wallpapered, but otherwise understated. "That wasn't too impossible...," she said, slowly scrambling back to her feet. The floor's swaying intensified, and Tracey stumbled forward into the doorway. "Right. The deck," she grimly said, beginning her shaky steps into the hallway.

After she took a quick listen to the area, Tracey was able to determine that there was no one in the immediate vicinity. Leaning on the walls, Tracey slowly walked through the hall and rounded a corner. "Oh...," she groaned, squinting her eyes against the brighter lighting. Something's wrong, she thought as she held one hand to her throbbing head.

Around the corner, she heard a muffled shuffling noise. Tracey froze. "Oh no," she whispered.

Much to her confusion, however, there was the absence of footsteps. Only shuffling? Slowly, Tracey peeked. It was a dark hall, similar to the one she had just come from, with a solitary door at the end of the hall. Nobody was in the hallway. She continued her path to the door, her fingers brushing against the soft wallpaper and her eyes adjusting to the darker lighting. "Good...," she muttered as she felt the headache subside.

Tracey reached the door. Cautiously, she leaned her ear against it. "Singing...?" she quietly said, listening closer.

Inside, she could hear a voice singing:

Get a gear for me lady

And a gear for me baby

And a gear for me...no, wait that's not the right words.

"Charlie?" Tracey quietly said, her eyes widening. She stopped herself from wildly swinging the door open. "Wait," she said to herself. "Let's be careful, Tracey."