"We look at the person and see..."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear's POV:

So, we're outside and there's this strange woman dressed in red and black with a sword. And... the sword has blood on the end.

OK, this is definitely the Sword Swallower and I'm guessing that blood came from ramming the sword down her throat like she was chugging a beer.

Then, Oli runs towards the arcade again.
Is he alright?

"Oli, what are you doing, you coward!?" Zach explodes.

OK, buddy, calm down! He might just be getting something.

"OK, A) Don't yell or this sword swallower is gonna start chasing us faster than you can say 'I'm gonna die tonight' and B) There was this note on the arcade door, so I went to go get it." Oli contends, showing us it.

He gives the note to Lizzie, and she reads it.

It reads:

'The Sword Swallower was always disgusted by the way the inventor treated his children and she always wanted to help them. So, she hid a box covered in a million hands in the shop with a lock pick inside of it, hoping the twins would find it and run away from town. Be wary, though; the Sword Swallower is onto you.'

"I'm not scared of this bitch; she's just a kid, it's not like she can hurt us." Zach scoffs, folding his arms and rolling his eyes.

You. Fucking. Idiot.

Have you never seen a horror movie? Like, ever!?

Insulting the killer or the monster or the demon or whatever the fuck is causing chaos is going to get you killed! 

Gear: 'So, Zach is cussing this sword swallower out and I'm just in shock about this whole situation. Like, there's three ways you talk about a monster; you beg them not to kill you, you try to calm them down or you cuss them out. Zach cussing this girl out is just gonna get us all killed! Like, if you don't get a hold of yourself, I will drop-kick you. I'm not even kidding.'

And now... this bitch is screaming like a banshee and chasing us. And we're screaming and running.

For at least the 500th time tonight.

"Being dead for three hours is not helping my body right now!" Lizzie pants, running as fast as she can. 

Zach's just speed-walking and not actually running and honestly, I'm going to actually drop-kick him if he isn't careful.

"The door better be open this time!" Zach grumbles, still speed-walking. 

Val ends up kicking the door open as we all race inside and block the door with a plank, the Sword Swallower pounding on it.

This isn't even our house; go away!

Sorry for that horrible joke.

So, now, we need to find a box covered in hands. 

And we're not having much luck because Zach keeps holding up stray hands that are lying around all over the place and saying that it's what the note was talking about.

No, it isn't! It's a box covered in them, not a single hand!

"Zach, I swear to God, if you hold another hand up, I'll slap you with it." Lana expresses, pointing at Zach. 

Everyone starts laughing and I just couldn't help but start smiling.

I don't fucking care if I blow my cover at this point; I love Lana and nothing's gonna change that.

"God, I love that girl." I mutter.

And then I saw Lia...

Crap, I think she heard me.

Lia: 'Wait, Gear's still dating Lana? *Cue long silence as Lia gets increasingly angry.* Oh, that little CUNT! I knew I shouldn't have trusted him. That's it, fuck Lana, I'm killing Gear now.'

"Gear, you better be fucking with me when you just said that! I heard you!" Lia screams, turning around and pointing at me.

OK, calm down!

"OK, I just wanna get this whole..... shenanigans over with for Lizzie. So Lia tried to seduce Gear, and he was having none of it, so he's still dating Lana, and Lia's now a Yandere. Now, Lia, please shut up; we have work to do and I don't wanna have to kill you." Val effuses, trying to calm the situation down.

Lizzie just nods and we all begin looking again.

The whole animosity lingers until Oli finally finds something.

"Wait, I got a box... JESUS!" Oli screams, dropping the box.

Thankfully, Lizzie catches it.

Thank God it doesn't need a code- that was just cause more of a nightmare- but inside, there's a lock pick.

But, we have 2 problems:

1. Nobody knows how to work it, myself included.
2. We don't know which lock to pick.

And then, I find this lock on a cabinet.

"Guys, could this be it? Like, who keeps this kind of lock on a cabinet?" I request, pointing to it.

OK, when I said nobody knew how to work the lock pick, Zach did, so we just let him do it.

And then, the cabinets pops open and inside the green jewel- the Sword Swallower's disgust, apparently- which we put it in the sword's handle.

There's also this note, which Val quickly grabs.

The note reads:

'The Sword Swallower's biggest fear was being forced into a place where she knew she didn't belong. She knew she didn't belong to the side of Delamont that worshipped Dynamo, the goddess of the town. Because of this, they buried her sister alive to force her to join the religion. Her grave in the cemetery has the key to where the next gem lies.'

Oli: 'Really? I've already buried somebody alive before and I hated every second. Well, we're not burying someone alive, but we might have to dig a dead person up and I ain't having that.'

"Yeah... Even though Gear dumped me, I'm just gonna give up on all of this shit." Lia admits, facepalming.

Wait, I dumped you now!? Lia, we weren't even dating!

"Bitch, I wasn't even dating you! You were the one trying to seduce me and you caused this mess!" I shout, throwing my arms out.

"OK, you seduced me, though!" She rebuts.

"OK, Gear, for once, we can agree to disagree, but Lia, seducing somebody's boyfriend is not cool. So, I'm sorry, I'm ending our alliance." Zach hisses, folding his arms and literally turning his back on Lia.

OK, that's... harsh, but glad we got along for once.

"Can we just get this gem already?" Lizzie mouths, perplexed.

We leave the Inventor's Shoppe through the back door and try to be quiet.

Since, you know, we have an imminent threat of death on our backs.

But as soon as we get to the front of the shop, the Sword Swallower starts to chase us.

Me, Val, Lana, Oli, Lizzie and Zach get to the cemetery, but since Lia's given up and didn't even run with us anyway, the Sword Swallower captures her and drags her away somewhere.

Next thing ya know, there's a note on the cemetery floor. Lana grabs it and reads it.

It reads:

'You have made it to the cemetery, but one of your friends has been captured in the process. So, I have twisted the plot even more. Your captured friend is now automatically in the final death challenge, leaving only one slot remaining for the voting soon. If anybody else is captured from this point forward, your name will go into the deck of tarot cards.'

Lizzie: 'This is crazy. I literally just came back from the dead, found out Lia tried to seduce Gear, Lia just got captured and is in the death challenge now. Like... WHAT?!'

"Well, at least they didn't capture any of the helpful people?" Zach shares, shrugging.

Oh, so you're gonna use us now?

Well, that's just great...
Once again, more sarcasm; using people is a horrible idea, don't do it.

"OK, for once, you're actually being reasonable. But keep in mind, this doesn't mean we still don't hate you." Val reckons, immediately looking at the graves for the name of the Sword Swallower's sister.

We all end up having to do this, with little to no luck because it's so fucking dark out here.

"Wait, guys, I've just remembered something," Oli predicts, all of us running towards him. 

Well, I say running, I mean more like jogging; we don't wanna disturb the dead.

"Isn't that Sword Swallower's name 'Sword Swallowing Sally' or something?"

"Yeah, it's her nickname. Why?" Heidi passes on, bending down next to Victor to look at the grave closer.

"Then maybe 'Fire Juggling Flora' is her sister? I mean, makes sense." Oli continues, motioning to the letters on the grave.

Suddenly, Val lifts the cover off of the top of the grave and there's this stone crucifix. 

And inside of it is the purple jewel. 

The problem is the cross doesn't either slide off or break open to let us reach it.

Hell, I tried fucking kicking the thing before Lizzie stepped in.

"Great; first, you guys can't even figure to move the couch to get a harp box, and now, you can't even get this thing open?" Lizzie chuckles, approaching the grave.

She snaps the cross back to reveal this a hidden compartment containing the box with the jewel and yet another note inside

Valentina: 'Lizzie definitely gets the award for initiative tonight; I wouldn't have even thought that we needed to snap the cross back to get it!'

We get the jewel out and put it in the handle as I read the next note. 

This one says:

'The Sword Swallower was rarely sad, but when she was, it was for a devastating reason. After her mother died in an explosion at the pump station, she could never find the courage to perform another show. Perhaps setting alight her mother's ashes so she can fly free is the best course of action to claim the jewel.'

"How does that even work? I mean, I'm assuming it's a metaphor, but you can actually set somebody's ashes on fire?" Lana ponders.

Babe, stop; you're confusing me, now.

We conclude that it's probably just a metaphor and make our way to the pump station.

When we arrive, we find an urn, a lighter and a note all on a table, the note being stuck to the table.

It reads:

'Use the lighter on the rim of the urn to find the code to the safe. Inside of the safe will be a riddle and a Jefferson disk with the jewel of sadness inside of it. However, be wary; for every wrong guess to solve the riddle, your name will go into the voting pile.'

And, of course, everybody's cautious about the situation since, as I've said before, we're in a death game.

But now, we need to figure out who's gonna use the lighter on this urn.

"OK, is anybody here a pyromaniac or an arsonist? If you are, you're not doing it." Zach considers, waving his arms everywhere.

He's being dramatic, but he has a point.

But I think another we need to take into account is who's the most likely to set themselves on fire; I don't want that happening, either.

After we sort out.... that, Val ends up using the lighter on the urn so Oli can put the code into the safe and solve the riddle. 

After a hot second- no pun intended- of her doing this, her face lit up.

Once again, no pun intended.

"Oli, try 4925!" She calls out, putting the lighter back down as we all huddle around him. 

It works and inside, as promised, is a riddle and a Jefferson disk.

Oli reads the riddle to us. The riddle is:

'What is something you can never break, even if you can't pick it up or touch it?'

What the fuck is this shit supposed to mean?

"How many letters are in the answer?" I ponder, confused.

"There's seven." Oli concedes, showing us.

And now, we need to think.

"Oli, try 'Promise.' I'm sure I saw that riddle somewhere growing up." Lana confides, pointing to Oli.

Hm, that was quick.

He enters it into the Jefferson disk and it pops open, revealing another note and the gem we needed.

Who knew my girlfriend was hot as fuck and pretty damn smart?

OK, I'll stop with the fire jokes now.

"Lana, that was so smart." Lizzie praises, hugging Lana.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Oli puts the jewel into the handle and reads the note that would lead us to the second to last gem. 

The note reads:

'The Sword Swallower loved to be generous, especially towards the children in town. She would make them gingerbread houses to take home and enjoy whether they were just there to visit, or if they lived there. There are 10 gingerbread houses lined up on the market stall facing the arcade; one contains the jewel, one contains a nasty treat, and the others are empty. Choose wisely and be careful; the nasty treat will scare you.'

We race over to the market stalls and see the 10 gingerbread houses perfectly lined up.

This reminds me of a white picket fence and it's kinda scaring me.

I don't know why, but it is.

"OK, this is gonna sound really, really, really stupid." Val begins,

"But... why don't we all stick our hands into the gingerbread houses and just hope for the best? Saves time from going into each individual house."

"OK, I gotta agree; everybody, just stick your hand in." Lana chimes in.

"OK, this thing's coming off!" Zach yells, taking off his blazer and throwing it on the ground.

"I ain't wearing that again; it's a little heavy on the shoulders. Anyway, let's just get started."

We end up doing that, and we got nothing at first.

Then, I decide to reach all the way into the back of the house, grabbing something that was stuck to the back.

I pull my arm so fast, I end up falling over.

And then, I look at my hand.

"Guys, I got it! I got the jewel!" I call out, waving my hand in the air, a note attached to it.

No, the note's attached to the jewel, not my hand.

Zach puts the fourth jewel into its space as I read the note that was attached to the jewel. 

It reads:

'To cleanse the Sword Swallower's Sword, you must claim one last jewel and emotion; her need for death and murder. To do so, two of you must be chosen by vote to face her deadly game tables and be willing to get their hands dirty to do what needs to be done.'

"Oh, not this again!" Lizzie mopes, devastation in her face and voice. 

"Well... lounge it out, guys?" Zach sighs, shrugging.

We all nod and run back to the arcade and into the lounge.

This is gonna be a nightmare to explain to Lia...