I wasn't able to sleep for the remainder of the night. I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, and formulating my plan.
As soon as the bell rang for breakfast I bolted out of bed and as soon as everyone had eaten, I called an emergency meeting in my room.
"BloodLust has asked me to meet him today at sunset."
Everyone stared at me, blinking. I reflected on how Lorraine had mentioned that she always believed Pietro had some good in him. BloodLust must still have a spark of Pietro Hernandez somewhere deep inside.
"There is still good in him," he declared.
Jared shook his head remorsefully. "Look, Gabe, we also thought he could be turned. It's impossible. He's twisted and evil."
I explained to them everything that he had told me about the Blood Orb, but I refrained from telling them about the vision. I shivered as I recalled it. The gloomy, vacant landscape. The colossal red sun in the sky.
"Look, I think the Blood Orb is corrupting him. Everything he does, he kills, and tortures, it isn't him."
Everyone exchanged odd glances except for Lorraine, who was gazing at the floor.
I continued "He's asked me to join him. I have a plan though, and if everything goes smoothly, we have nothing to worry about."
By afternoon, we split up and set out from the hotel to buy supplies.
By the time we all arrived back at the hotel, it was 5:00 PM.
Nakia was sitting on the bed sticking nails into a wooden baseball bat. I chuckled as I dropped the heavy shopping bag onto the carpet.
She looked up at me and raised her eyebrows. "So I'm assuming you have something better, huh?" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
I grinned and pulled out a chainsaw from the bag.
Nakia's jaw dropped.
"How did they even allow that inside the hotel?" she asked, grinning.
"You're forgetting that Jared works here..." I said.
At sunset, everyone gathered into Lorraine's room, and we discussed the plan.
"So, I'll approach BloodLust alone, and when I give the signal" I said. My voice trailed off.
"And then what?" Jared asked.
"And then... you'll see."
"Why can't you tell us?" Nakia sighed.
"If I tell you, It won't work" I replied. "Now, we need a way to get to Scream Park without being seen, and a place for the rest of you to hide."
Lorraine looked up. "I know just the thing," she smiled.
She led us out the room and to the top floor, in front of the elevator doors. A long rope was coiled up in her hand. We stood next to the door, as Jared pressed one of the elevator buttons. "You might have noticed... on this floor, there are two elevators. But on every other floor, there's only one."
Me, Ryan and Nakia exchanged confused looks.
"My father built this passageway from the elevator to Scream Park." explained Lorraine.
With a quiet, slithery sound, the sliding doors opened, and we leaned carefully into the doorway, and gasped.
As we stood in the doorway and peered into the elevator shaft, it was as if we were standing on the edge of an vertiginous cliff, looking down at the dizzying abyss below us. The shaft was more like a pit than a passageway, leading straight down into a blackness the likes of which was darker than a moonless night.
Lorraine tied one end of the rope to one of the nearest doorknobs.
"I think this should hold us," she said. "I just hope it's long enough."
"Wait, drop the rope down the shaft," Ryan suggested, "and we'll hear if it hits the bottom? Then we'll know for sure."
"Good idea," Lorraine replied, and walked to the edge of the passageway. She threw down the other end of the rope, and the rest of us watched as it disappeared into the darkness, dragging the rest of the line with it. The coils of rope unwound quickly, like a long snake waking up and slithering down into the shaft. We leaned forward as far as possible and listened as hard as we could.
Finally, we heard a faint clink!, as the rope hit a piece of metal.
"Let's go." said Lorraine
She tugged one last time on the rope, and carefully lowered herself down the passageway. We watched her drown into the darkness.
"Come on," we heard her whisper, from the gloom. "It's okay."
We followed Lorraine into the utter darkness of the elevator shaft, only to discover she hadn't told the truth. It was not okay.
The climb down the shadowy passageway felt like falling into a deep hole at the bottom of an abyss on the bottom floor of a dungeon that was deep underground.
My hands gripping the line was the only thing I saw, because even as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I was scared to look anywhere else, especially down. The distant clink! at the bottom of the line was the only sound I heard, because everyone was too scared to speak. And the only thing I felt was sheer terror, as deep and as dark as the passageway itself.
As we reached the bottom, our eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and the outline of a trapdoor was visible on the side of the wall.
"Ah, shit!" exclaimed Jared, "I forgot my flashlight.
"It's fine," said Nakia,"we can use our phones."
We all took out our phones and shone the light through the passageway.
The entire expanse of the hallway was very dark, and over our heads we could hear a variety of noises that told us what was going underneath us. After the first few curves, we heard the muted voice of the doorman of the hotel, and his footsteps as he walked overhead. After a few more curves, we heard two men discussing business, and the sounds of cars passing over our heads. On and on the hallway curved, and we heard a variety of suburban sounds; lawn mowers, door bells, the sound of cars as people drove home from work for the evening.
Before long, Lorraine stopped walking.
"We're here."
She pressed her fingers on the roof of the hallway and the lid of the trapdoor opened.
The sinking sun was almost below the horizon with a thin orange thread of light merging with the darkness of the night.
We were standing inside Scream Park. The bright lights, screams, laughter, the whooshing of air brakes, people calling out to each other, the sound of corn popping, fries and donuts sizzling in vats of oil whirled around us.
"Okay," said Jared. "Let's split up. Lorraine, you go with Ryan towards the roller coaster. Nakia and Gabe, you go towards the Mirror Mansion. And I'll go towards the Ferris Wheel."
I walked with Nakia and towards the place where Jared gestured. We wandered through a pathway lit with lamps and lined with leafy bushes and benches. In front of us stood a large building with a sign labeled "The Mirror Mansion."
"This is where..." started Nakia, grimacing.
"Yeah, all those people..."
Suddenly Nakia stopped dead in her tracks. Her jaw dropped as she stared at something behind me.
"Er... Nakia ... are you okay?" I said, waving my hand in front of her. "Hello?"
She grabbed my shoulders and turned me around
She spoke with an angry voice.
"What is she doing here?" she said shakily.
Dressed in denim jeans, and with an overpriced-looking Gucci bag swung over her shoulder, Lila Crosby walked towards us.
"Well...well..well." she started, sneering "If it isn't the terrorist herself."
Nakia straightened. She seemed to regain some confidence.
"I would have thought you'd have learnt your lesson, after that little incident at the camp." Nakia said, "And who do you think you are, coming at me with that 'well, well, well'?"
We turned around to go.
"Don't move, both of you." Lila said, snarling.
Something in the tone of her voice made us halt and glance back over at her. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small red orb.
"Don't try anything, both of you. I'm not afraid to use this," Lila said, brandishing the Orb at me dramatically.
"Where on earth did you get that?" I asked, trying my best to stay calm.
Lila simply smiled, a wicked, all-knowing look on her face.
"I know all about you, Gabriel." she said. "He told me everything."
"Who's he?" Nakia asked, but we both already knew the answer.
I lurched forward and tried to snatch the orb out of Lila's fingers.
"Hey" she screamed. "Let go!"
People in the crowd stared at us.
"You don't know what this thing can do!" I yelled. At last, I pried the orb out of her hands and handed it to Nakia.
Shocked, the last thing Nakia and I saw was Lila's smirking, triumphant face before we were swept away from everything.