Death and Hallas had decided that instead of them sleeping in two different rooms, that we were going to share one instead. Hallas had moved everything into Death's room and was currently sleeping in Death's bed. Since Hallas had been extremely sleepy anyway they figured that it would be best if Death took first watch.
Death sat on a chair that was in front of the foot of the bed directed towards the bedroom door. He just sat there thinking very hard about the case.
A part of him was furious about someone taking his cell phone, while another part of him wondered if he had just left it somewhere else and didn't remember about it. But of course Death did do a throughout searching job once Hallas had fallen asleep. At first during his search Death tried to be as quiet as he could possibly be, until he realized that no matter how much noise he made, Hallas wasn't likely to wake up. He was dead asleep and snoring very loudly.
Though Death had checked everywhere very carefully, he still hadn't found his missing cell phone. It was very frustrating to him so he sat in his chair sulking.
A lot of time passed by and Death didn't even realize how many hours had gone by. The thought hadn't even occurred to him that De Tanga should have been back a long time ago. It wasn't till he checked his watch did he realize how much time had gone by.
"Hallas wake up!" Death said nudging Hallas on the shoulder.
Hallas just mumbled in his sleepy state.
Death rolled his eyes and stole Hallas sheets from him. Hallas grumbled and rolled up into a tight ball, but still didn't wake up.
"WAKE UP!" Death screamed in his ear.
That got Hallas up with a start. "WHA?!"
"It's time for your watch Hallas."
Hallas blinked in confusion having not processed Death's words completely. "Oh."
"So it's my turn to sleep. Make sure you don't fall asleep. Detective Tealson should be back soon since he's been gone for such a long time. So let him know that we're going to be in here okay Hallas?"
Though Hallas was standing and seemed to be awake, his mind was still asleep.
"Hallas?!"
"Yes, okay, okay..." Hallas mumbled as he sat himself down on the chair while Death went to sleep in the bed.
Gotta stay awake... Hallas mentally told himself as his head started to droop and his eyelids started to feel heavy. Within seconds Hallas was asleep in his chair.
De Tanga cursed as he sat down in his dark tunnel prison. He had been stuck there for quite some time now and was getting very anxious. He would have thought by now Death and Hallas might have realized that there was something wrong because he hadn't returned yet, but still no one seemed to know he was there.
De Tanga had no doubt in his mind that someone had purposely trapped him in the secret passage. It seemed to make too much sense with everything that had happened tonight.
They really must be scared about what Colonel Mustard knows. De Tanga mused as he sat there on the cold stone/dirt floor. He had earlier fished through his coat to see if he had anything on him that could help him. But all that he had was his cell phone, hi gun, his brief case full of all the case information and the knife that Luna had forced him to pack. He had decided to keep it on him once he got into his car for the ride back to the manor. But there was very little use for any of the items in this situation. True the cell phone would be helpful if the battery hadn't been dead, but the knife really had no practical use. Unless he knew of a way to trigger the passage opening mechanism from in side using the knife then it might be helpful. Only De Tanga had already tried that and he had been fruitless in his labors. And then there was his gun. He had already tried fire off a few rounds but realized that was a bad idea once the bullets started deflecting off the walls. And even though the gun made all that noise no one seemed to hear it. But that could be because he was underground and all the rooms in the manor are soundproof. So at this point he had given up. He still had a little ray of hope that Death and Hallas would actually find him and get him out, but even that was fading out.
Oh well, I guess it's back to trying the damn passageway door again. Maybe I'll get lucky this time.
Outside De Tanga's room a person wearing all black slipped a key into the door lock. With a few clicks the door was unlocked and opened. The unknown person quietly crept around the detective's room search through his stuff. The intruder grunted in frustration. The case file, which the black clad person had been looking for, wasn't among De Tanga's stuff.
Damnit! He must have it on him... The intruder thought while shaking their head while putting everything back in its place.
Finished with De Tanga's room, the unknown person headed for Hallas' room with the same key in hand. And like the previous door it unlocked Hallas' door too. The intruder snuck into Hallas' room only to find that the klutzy officer was nowhere in sight. With a quick check around the person left Hallas' room and headed for Death's.
Death's room had been locked as well since both Hallas and him figured it be a better. If the person who took Death's cell phone came back then they could figure out who it was when they unlocked the door. But when the person did unlock the door and came in neither Death or Hallas was awake too see them. The intruder evilly grinned.
Gourry grumbled in his sleep as he felt something cold on his face. He blinked in confusion as he woke up. He found himself sprawled out on the cold wood floor in his room.
Oh I must have fallen off my bed last night when I went to sleep. Oh well it's morning, so that means... breakfast! Gourry was immediately up and out his bedroom door. He hummed softly as he happily skipped downstairs towards the kitchen.
On the way he passed by Mr. Boddy's famous laboratory and he stopped in the hallway when he heard something coming from the room. A big part of Gourry wanted to ignore the sound and continue straight for the kitchen but instead against his better judgment Gourry went in to investigate.
When he went inside the room he saw that there wasn't anyone in the room and that everything seemed to look fine.
Gourry was about to leave when he heard that noise again. It sounded like a loud banging noise and it was coming from the laboratory wall. Now what is going on here?
He walked up to the wall and noticed that the sounds were coming from behind a large filing cabinet which was pushed up against the door. Hmm... maybe if I move this I can figure out what's going on here.
Gourry pushed the cabinet out of the way and then all of a sudden the wall swung open and De Tanga came rushing out.
"AT LAST! I'M FREE!!!" De Tanga yells out in happiness. And then he looks over to the person who had freed him. "Colonel Mustard?! And where the hell have you been?!" De Tanga exclaimed.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You disappeared last night right before or after the power outage. We looked all over for you and we couldn't find you anywhere."
Gourry thought really hard for a moment. "I did wake up this morning in my room laying on the floor. But I do remember talking to Sylphiel last night."
"Yes that's right you were talking to her. You left because you remembered the reason why you came the manor and you went off to tell me or the other two officers. Do you remember what happened after that?"
"Um...." Gourry thought for a few moments. "I don't remember anything at all." Gourry rubbed the back of his neck and laughed with a sheepish grin.
De Tanga his face in his hands and shook his head. "Okay fine you don't remember what happen then, you might have been knocked unconscious. But do you remember the reason why you came to the manor that you were going to tell me?"
"Well let's see.... Nope, don't remember it at all."
De Tanga facefaulted. I bet this was his kidnappers intent. Keep him locked up some place till he forgot the reason again. It's amazing how some people have so much trouble remembering things. "Oh well... so how did you find me and get me out of there?"
"I heard some noises so I came in to investigate. They were coming from the wall so I moved the filing cabinet that up against the wall and the wall moved on its' own."
De Tanga mentally sighed. Looks like now we're going to have to make sure we have someone outside the passage at all times when someone is inside to make sure no one gets stuck in there. "Alright thank you Colonel, why don't you go back to what you were going to do before came into this room."
"Okay." And Gourry skipped back off towards the kitchen.
Interesting that he can easily get himself lost in the manor, but he has no trouble finding the kitchen. De Tanga sighed and decided to go up to his room. He was planning on giving Hallas and Death hell for not finding him and getting him out of that secret passage.
Because of Hallas and Death, De Tanga didn't get a wink of sleep and he was tired. He had spent the whole night trying to somehow pry the passageway door open with his knife. He was not only tried, but sleepy, sore and very dirty.
De Tanga stormed up the stairs not caring on how much noise he was making. First he went to his room. He unlocked it and went in and gave the room a quick look around. Everything seemed to be in order and nothing seemed to be missing. He locked the door on the way out and went over to Hallas' room. The door was locked and he couldn't hear anything inside the quiet room. De Tanga tried knocking but he got no answer.
Next he went over to Death's room and to his surprise the door was hanging agar. It was unlocked and he gave the door a slight push and it swung open. Inside the room he saw Death sleeping his bed and Hallas sleeping in a chair facing the door.
De Tanga sighed before he woke the two of them up. "WAKE UP!!!!" De Tanga yelled very loudly.
The two younger officers woke up with a start. Death got out of the bed while Hallas fell of his chair and crashed onto the ground.
"Detective Tealson, you're back! What time is it?" Death asked rubbing his eyes. "And why are you so dirty?"
"It's well after 9 am. And why am I dirty?! I'll tell you why! I've been stuck in that damn laboratory passage the whole night!!!!" De Tanga yelled in frustration.
"Why were you in there?"
"Because I thought that Colonel Mustard might have been hidden in there. And when I went in someone locked me in." De Tanga plopped down on a nearby chair and massaged his temples.
"Oh man! How did you get out?"
"Colonel Mustard moved the filing cabinet that was blocking the wall passage this morning only a few minutes ago."
"Oh that's good.... WHAT?!?!? Colonel Mustard?!"
"Yeah I know I was surprised too. He doesn't remember what happened to him, nor does he remember what he was going to tell us. The last thing he remembers was talking to Sylphiel and then waking up in his room on the floor."
Both Hallas and Death were quiet in thought.
De Tanga glared at the two of them. "Would you mind telling me why neither of you decided to go and check to see why I was gone for so long, why you were both asleep when I came in, and why your door was unlocked and hanging open?!"
"Well I took first watch and figured that you were just being throughout so that's why you were taking so long. So I figured that you'd be coming back soon anyway when I went off my watch so I told Hallas to be on the look out for you when he went on his watch."
Both De Tanga and Death's eyes turned to Hallas whom was staring at the floor.
"Hallas, did you fall asleep during you watch?"
Hallas mumbled something that wasn't audible.
"Hallas?!"
"I'm sorry, I did fall asleep..." Hallas said still staring at the ground.
Both De Tanga and Death shook their heads.
"Well I couldn't help it! I was very, very tired last night!" Hallas protested.
"Okay fine whatever, you fell asleep that's okay. But why by the gods did you guys leave your room unlocked and hanging open for?!"
Both Death and Hallas blinked in confusion. "We didn't."
Everyone was silent for a few moments. And then they all proceeded to do a mad search of all three rooms to see what might be missing. At the end of the search they found out that three things that were missing.
"They took my gun!" Death cried out hysterically.
"They took mine too!" Hallas exclaimed but as dramatically as Death. In fact Death was now curled up in a little ball sitting on the ground with his lower lip quivering and a waterfall of tears threatening to pour down his cheeks.
"Well I had my gun on me, but they took my cell phone charger. So now I can't charge my damn cell phone." De Tanga sighed. "I don't suppose either of you would have a charger that would work on my cell phone?"
Hallas shook his head while Death ignored him, still whimpering about his lost gun.
De Tanga grabbed Death by the collar. "Death get a hold of yourself!" He slapped Death a couple of times on the face and that got the whimpering officer back to reality.
"Thanks Detective, I needed that..."
"Well we have a problem here. Unless the phones are working again in the manor, we're going to need to go and drive out to notify the station." De Tanga observed. "Let's go try one of the phones."
The three of them once dressed in clean clothes, started going through the manor in search of a working phone. But their search was futile, none of phones worked in the manor.
"They should have gotten the phone lines back up by now! I'm going to report to this to the city services!" Hallas exclaimed.
"I don't think they are at fault when chances are someone in the manor cut all the phone lines. So that leaves us having to drive out to contact the station. Let's go out the front."
The day was reasonably nicer the night before. Though it was cold and windy, there were a few blue spots in the sheet of white clouds in the sky.
The cars were right where they had parked them, only there was a problem with the three cars. On each of the three cars all the tires had been slashed. And it was the same with all the cars that were parked in front of the manor.
"Looks like someone wants to make sure that none of us leave..."