Escape the Night (S1): "It All Comes Crashing Down"

Mermaid Tails Part 1

"Bloody hell!" Oli does not want to get on Lele Pons's bad side. Tim cheers. Lele looks extremely proud of herself. There's nothing in that one, either. 

"We're doing this wrong," frets Oli, flipping through the pages of the priest's worn-out journal. 

"The key to the room is on the first floor."

Joey looks confused. "This is the first floor!"

"This is the ground floor," Oli explains.

"No!" Eva slams her hands against the table, frustration flickering across her face. "We're not in London!"

"Stop talking crazy English talk!" says Tim dismissively. Matt, who's spent the last several minutes doing absolutely nothing, makes a barely-audible suggestion about "other rooms." The group follows him, but not before Tim mutters "poppycock" under his breath. 

Five minutes later, they've smashed two more globes, ripped apart a map of the world, and still haven't found the key. Tim's beginning to get a bit antsy about all this property damage.

"We just made that demon extra angry," he remarks as Joey throws the ruined map aside. 

"We broke some, like, really nice globes." Matt  continues. 

"There's so many," moans Joey.

"There's so many worlds!" Eva complains. Tim scratches his nose. 

"The spirit's gonna be pissed." he says.  But it's not just the possibility of vengeful ghost housekeepers that's messing with my mind. There's also Matt. Since Sierra died, the Professor's been moping around the parlor, going on and on about how they're all screwed, and putting the least possible amount of effort into their search for the key. Whatever happened down there must've really screwed him up. Maybe it was inevitable. After all, his paranoid vendetta against Lele, this thing between us, our hate-love relationship. Maybe it was only a matter of time before the poor guy reached his breaking point.

Speaking of which, where is he?Oh. He's over there, examining a statuette, a questioning look on his face. And the statuette—wait.

"Is that...?" It's a guy with bulging biceps, holding up what appears to be the world. I rush to Matt's side, put my hands on our newly acquired prize, and begins to shake it. This is it. It has to be.

"I don't know," murmurs Eva. 

"That looks dangerous." Matt clutches the statuette's base for dear life. 

"It looks like he's holding—" Before he can finish, the world falls apart. The upper half topples into my hand, revealing a gaping hole in the center. And inside that hole is the key they're looking for.

"Oh!"

Tim snatches up the key from me, grinning like a madman, glad they don't have to wreck any more globes. Matt, too, has managed to slap on a smile, which is a good sign. Give us a few more victories, and he'll be himself again in no time flat.

The number two is engraved on the side of the key. 

"Second floor," Tim assumes.

The survivors practically stampede their way up the steps. Especially Lele, whose high heels somehow survive her frenzied sprint. Matt, on the other hand, is trudging along at the back of the pack, so I figure now would be a good time to give him a good old-fashioned pep talk.

"Hey." I turn to face my friend. 

"Lighten up, will you?" i smile.

"y/n—"