Chapter Forty-two

Save One Another

The Lake House was a massive mess. Everything was all over the place, from beer bottles, to leftovers, to cracked chips, to plastic cups, to bras hanging on some edges, and everything that you could see in the aftermath of a teenage party. Louis Lockwood, Claire Summers, and Richard Grayson went back to investigate.

"What a mess," Louis complained.

"We shouldn't be here," Claire said.

No one was left inside the Lake House, but they were wrong. As they looked around, Richard noticed a dark skin tone arm lying on the ground behind the music booth. Richard and the others rushed to the booth and found a man lying on the floor. It was like he had been attacked or something. He looked really helpless. But he was not dead.

"Furon!" Richard raced towards him. He and Louis lifted him up.

Furon woke up from his unconscious state. He could barely opened his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Louis asked.

"Someone punched me in the face," Furon responded. He looked haggard. "I think I hit my head."

"Who did?" Richard asked as they carried Furon to a nearby couch.

"I—I don't know," Furon answered. He clutched his head feeling the pain. "I think it was a man. His face was covered with black ski mask wearing a hoodie."

Louis and Richard exchanged looks. They understood each other's stare. E was in the building and it sure got their attention.

"Help!"

The call came from the bathroom. The voice was very familiar.

"Help!"

There it was again.

"Who's that?" Claire asked Louis.

"Come on," Louis recognized who it was. It was Ismail Ambani. His voice echoed from the bathroom.

Louis and Claire raced their way to the bathroom leaving Richard and Furon on the couch. As they reached the bathroom, Claire screamed in horror when she saw Jade's corpse covered in crimson. Ismail was next to his girlfriend's body. His hands were covered with blood. He looked so angry.

"Bloody hell!" Louis exclaimed.

Claire was traumatized with what she saw and could not move a muscle.

"I will fucking kill who this E is!" Ismail growled. Tears were cascading from his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, man," Louis extended his hand. Claire hugged him while she was crying.

"We need to call for help," Claire suggested. "We couldn't just leave her here."

Suddenly, someone screamed from upstairs. Louis, Ismail, and Claire went to Richard and Furon who was also stunned after hearing a scream coming from upstairs.

"Who's that?" Furon said.

Suddenly, out came Jude rushing his way down the stairs. He seemed to be attacked by someone for he was clutching his left shoulders. "The killer is freaking inside my Lake House! He attacked me!"

"Are you okay?" Claire touched his shoulders.

"Do I look okay?" Jude answered showing his obvious pain to Claire. He noticed Claire got embarrassed for her concern to him. "Look, I'm sorry. But I just can't believe that we got gatecrashed by the killer."

"Jude, where is he now?" Richard asked.

"I think the killer is gone now," Jude responded. "I might have scared him away."

"We have to get out in here now," Furon suggested.

"I agree," Claire said.

"No!" Jude interrupted. "We can't just leave my Lake house like this!" Then, he noticed Ismail. "Wo, whose blood is that?"

"Jade's," Louis answered for Ismail.

"Jade Anderson?" Jude clarified.

"I didn't do anything to protect Jade," Ismail was still on the floor crying. He was punching the floor.

"What's happened?" Jude asked.

"His girlfriend was murdered in your bathroom," Claire answered.

"What?" Jude said in horror.

"You see!" Furon croaked. "We need to get out of here!"

Suddenly, Richard erected like he remembered something. "Brittany!"

"Brittany?" Furon asked.

"She's in trouble," Richard was ready to go.

"What happened?" Jude asked. "Where is she?"

"Your cabin," Richard answered. "The killer brought her there."

"My Cabin? How'd you know?" Jude wrinkled his bushy eyebrows.

Richard tentatively shook his head thinking that he could not spill anything about E.

"Maybe, I could give you a ride," Jude offered.

Richard's face lightened up. He was somehow hesitant. He gave Louis a should-I-go-with-Jude look. Louis swallowed and looked away. But Richard accepted the offer.

Jude quickly grabbed his jacket from the umbrella stand beside the front door. "I cannot let someone trash another property of mine!

"Hold on!" Furon yelled. "Y'all leaving us here?"

"Please, bro, stay here," Jude begged. "My parents might get mad if they find out about this! Please, fix everything here. I'll pay you. We will be back as soon as possible. Call the cops for the dead bodies."

"No!" Claire said.

"Why not let us go with you?" Furon asked.

"I'm coming with you," Ismail had a determined face.

"Richard said that the killer is in my cabin, right?" Jude looked at Richard who agreed with him.

"Yeah?" Louis said.

"Then, you should all be safe here," Jude insisted.

Richard was just looking. He was ready to go.

"Jude, it's five against one," Louis said.

Jude shrugged. He agreed with Louis. "Rich, Harry Potter is right. But it's your call."

"I should go alone," Richard gave Louis a look. Another look in which Louis understood.

"What? That's my cabin. I'm not leaving you alone," Jude sure was persistent.

Richard agreed. Claire and Furon had mixed feelings, but agreed in the end. Then, Richard and Jude left.

"I can't believe this," Claire said.

Suddenly...

"AHHH!"

The maddening scream came from downstairs. It was a man. It sounded like he was being butchered.

Claire held Louis tightly on her arm. Ismail stood from his sit. Furon called the attention of the screaming man but no one responded.

"Are we gonna look for who that is?" Claire asked. She was really shaking.

Ismail led the way as he split them in teams of two: Louis and Claire, and Ismail and Furon. Even though he hated Furon, he had no choice because Louis and Claire were obviously a couple and they all need to work with each other because it was now or never.

Meanwhile, Richard and Jude were on the way to rescue Richard's girlfriend. Jude was driving his BMW fast as Richard kept on dialing Brittany's number. He placed the fake diary on the dashboard. Before they had left the Lake House, Louis handed it to him.

In the middle of the road, Jude's iPhone suddenly beeped. He glanced on his phone and did not bother to look at it because they were on the road. He sure was following safety driving.

"Want me to read it?" Richard offered.

"Don't bother," Jude said as he speeded up the car.

Richard studied Jude. "Jude, thanks."

"Don't thank me yet," Jude replied. He pulled up to the stoplight hitting the red light. "Damn it!"

Suddenly, they heard sirens screaming. An ambulance and police vehicles came rushing in front of them.

"Do you think they're heading to your Lake House?" Richard said.

"I don't think so," Jude replied. "I don't think there's a way there to my Lake House. They're heading to different direction."

Jude took the opportunity while they were still in the queue to read his message. He grabbed his iPhone and tapped to read his text message. "It's Furon."

"What did he say?" Richard waited for the stoplight to turn green. He was really fired up to save Brittany.

"Furon said that they found..." Jude turned pale.

"What?" Richard was curious.

Jude looked at Richard in horror. "...Sebastian Petroff dead body".

"Oh man," Richard squeaked. He rested his back on the velvet cover of the car seat.

"I thought the police caught the killer?" Jude said. "The emo dude?" Jude's attention was caught with the object on the dashboard. It was the fake diary. He looked at the fake diary with "Edward's diary" written on the cover. Then, he scanned it for a second and saw writings of Mathematics inside. "Why do you have Edward's diary? He writes Math equations in his diary? What the hell? Edward loves Math?"

"Never mind about that," Richard snatched the book away from Jude. Then, the stoplight blinked green. "Come on, let's go!"

Richard got pushed back as Jude speeded up his BMW.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Richard said. "Nor implicate you."

"No worries, man." Jude answered. "I can handle my ass."

Back in the lake house, Louis and Claire headed upstairs bedroom. It had a different vibe. As they opened the room, both were instantly horrified. Sebastian Petroff's gutted body welcomed them. He was shirtless with his hands still tied up from both sides of the bed. His abdomen was slashed and intestines were in display. The white sheets had been covered with crimson.

"Holy crap," Louis gasped.

The pungent smell of a rotting corpse wafted around the room. Claire covered her nose and mouth in disgust.

"I had enough seeing dead bodies in one day," Claire cried.

Louis wrapped his comforting arms around. "I'm sorry, baby." He scanned his eyes around and saw an opened closet. He emerged to it.

"Wait," Claire stopped him. "Where are you going?"

"There," he points to the open closet and peeked inside. It was somehow dusty and empty. He saw a tiny opening at the side. He slowly pushed it and voila! It was a secret passage. He used his BlackBerry as his torch and shined the passage way. He was so amazed and was eager to see where it would lead them. "A secret passage."

"Really?" Claire said.

"Come on," Louis said. "Let's take a look inside."

"No way!" Claire opposed. She did not want to see the closet because she had a vibe that something bad will happen.

"Fine," Louis started to scare her. "If you're gonna stay here, the killer might appear and take you. Oh yeah, guard Sebastian."

With that, Claire didn't want to stake out. She was convinced.

Meanwhile, Ismail was still baffled, frustrated, and disoriented. He just lost his girlfriend; he was inside the house where the dead bodies were lying; he couldn't do anything about E; the police had not arrived yet; and he was teamed up with Furon Sylvester. He would never forget how cocky this guy was as well as the time where he stomped his foot which brought him in detention. When he saw that one bottle standing on the floor, he didn't give mercy to it: he kicked it hard.

"Sorry for your girl, man," Furon showed his sympathy.

Ismail just nodded.

Then, they headed to the game room in the basement. Just like the main room, the game room was way messier. Bottles of liquors and soda cans were scattered on the floor. Some liquids were spilled on the floor.

Ismail started picking up the empty bottles when he suddenly stepped on something. It screamed. A person screaming. A horror movie kind of scream.

"What the?!" Ismail yelped. He analyzed what it was. He picked it up and realized that he stepped on a voice app. Then, he clicked the play button and it screamed again.

It was the same scream that they have heard a while ago. Something sparked in his mind. They've been tricked. But who?

"Furon! Take a look at this." When he turned around, he did not know what was coming for him.

Everything happened so quickly. He felt his face in pain and everything was dark. He realized that someone had hit him with something hard. Then, he opened his eyes and he was on the ground. Then, he stood up only to be hit by someone with something again. This time, it was too hard, the force made him hit his head on the table before landing with his body. He felt blood streaming from his head.

Once he opened his eyes again, everything turned really blurry. Ismail couldn't understand why. The impact made him squirm in pain. Then, he once again, he opened his eyes. Someone was walking towards him. He recognized the hippy jeans and a Supra.

"You," Ismail said.

When the man's legs were near at him, Ismail extended his arms reaching for it. But he couldn't reach the mean.

"Me," the man pulled Ismail's hair and gave him a one final punch and everything went pitch black.

Bizarre!