Arc II, Chapter 33: The Secret Staircase

Once Doctor Halle was gone, we went Off-Screen.

Willis started to clap. “Things are moving right along. Been a while since I had to change my shorts in a story before,” he said with a grin. “Speaking of, you guys know what’s next?”

We somberly looked around at each other and nodded.

“You’re going to be First Blood,” Kimberly said.

“Right you are,” he said. “And then what happens?”

We had all been through this before. We know what happened next.

“We regroup and try to survive, continue solving the mystery without you,” Antoine said.

“True enough. But what else happens after my apparent death?” he asked. His trope would not cause him to actually die but he would be taken out of the story until the finale.

I knew what he was getting at.

“Then they come after me,” I said.

Willis pointed at me to confirm I was correct. “Since we know that we can make a plan based around it. Of course, as a combat build, I should not be the one making the plans. Just note that it is pitch black down there.”

Then he and everyone else looked at me.

I had watched every storyline we had run through over and over again on the red wallpaper using my Director’s Monitor trope. Every victory and every lesson learned had been burned into my mind. I combined that with every movie I had ever seen and quickly came up with a plan.

“It looks like they opened up a tunnel and I’m guessing based on context clues that tunnel goes into the sewers,” I said. “So we take our First Blood sacrifice and the high PA characters and send them down into the sewers under some pretense of following Doctor Halle. You have to be resistant to the idea because you can’t suddenly act gung ho. Antoine will insist and tempt you into following Halle. Dina will rush down there first to force your hand. We leave the lower PA characters at the entrance–that’s me, Cassie, and Isaac.

“After a little bit, I break away and go down into the sewers looking for you—presumably because my character got bored. My character wouldn’t know anything about what’s up yet so I might be able to get a little use out of Oblivious Bystander before the firefight starts. Since we can see each other on the red wallpaper even in the dark, Cassie and Isaac should stand at the bottom of the stairs so that we can see our way out. Dina can leave a message at every intersection telling us which direction you guys went using her Pen Pal trope.

“After First Blood, the enemy will come to find me and hopefully give Kimberly, Antoine, and Dina a chance to get back to the exit. Then I shake my followers and meet them back at the exit so we can try and move forward in the story. We collect all of the information we have and then make another plan.”

Willis looked at me with an amused grin. “Not bad, kid. We’ll see how that works out. Thinking about your character motivations is important.”

Well shucks.

Willis took a deep breath. “Gun,” he said, showing where his gun was on his belt. “Extra magazines—because I am a very well-prepared cop. Pepper spray. Taser. Flashlight. Baton,” he gestured at Antoine,” “Radio—won’t work down there, but you still have to try to use it cause Carousel will like it. My belt will come loose in the fight. I have a spare firearm in my boot along with a knife so I’ll be fine. When First Blood happens, make sure you get the belt and use it wisely. There are more rounds here than Carousel will let you keep so the story won’t kick into gear until you start running low. You all ready?”

Antoine nodded firmly, “Let’s do it.”

“Wait,” Isaac said, “I’ve been thinking. If we’re saying this out loud… doesn’t that mean you-know-who is listening?”

Willis laughed. “Oh yeah. Carousel is right here in the huddle,” he said. “And it’ll have notes. That’s the fun part.”

We took off in the direction of the fountain that we had seen Doctor Halle and Cecilia hovering around before they disappeared.

The water in the fountain had not yet stopped sloshing back and forth when we arrived.

On-Screen.

“Did they…” I asked. “Did that thing just open up?”

Kimberly stepped forward and started touching the various carvings in the stone of the fountain. “They were standing right here and then I heard a loud noise,” she said.

“We need to get out of here,” Willis said. “We shouldn’t be messing around in here. You were supposed to be investigating a murder not trespassing in a hospital.”

Just as he finished speaking Antoine reached out and found a small button on the side of the fountain that would have been hard to see unless you were looking for it. He pressed it and held it.

Soon enough the fountain started to move to the right with the whir of a motor and the splashing of water. There were dim lights strung up revealing stone steps that led down into the ground. Down below there was a sound like a river running.

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“This leads to the sewer system,” Antoine said. “You don’t need a warrant to go down into the sewers.”

“Why in the world would they need a direct passage down there?” Willis asked.

“Must be a pretty good reason if they’re willing to put up with the smell,” Isaac said.

Truthfully, it didn’t smell bad at all. It was a movie sewer. Sewers in movies had rats and trash and leaves and sticks and occasionally monsters but they never seemed to have anything grosser than that. The sewers in movies were just for storm drains. No sewage.

“This is not the type of thing that this exploratory committee was designed to look into,” Willis said.

“What are you talking about?” Antoine asked. “This is exactly the type of thing we should be looking into. Doesn’t it make you the least bit curious? Remember that woman saying that her husband had called her from the hospital but then Doctor Halle says that he’s nowhere in the hospital. We have to check this out. It could very easily be related to Geist’s murder.”

“This wing didn’t exist at the time of Geist’s murder,” Willis said. “Look I’m putting my foot down we are not going down into the sewer system to chase a suspect. That is not the type of thing that I can allow a group of civi—”

He stopped talking as Dina walked past him and started descending the staircase.

“What are you doing?” Willis asked harshly.

Antoine and Kimberly were quick to follow.

Willis turned to me, Cassie, and Isaac and said, “You three stay up here; do not go anywhere. You had better not follow us down there. I’m going to arrest them. That’s what I’ll do, I’ll arrest them… and if I don’t come back call for help.”

The three of us waited at the top of the stairs as the needle on the Plot Cycle moved closer and closer to First Blood. The longer I waited, the more nervous I got. If there was a flaw in my plan, Willis would not have told me. He couldn’t without spoilers.

I stood there Off-Screen and thought of all the ways that my plan could go wrong while Cassie and Isaac were too afraid to talk.

On-Screen.

I waited a few moments. I then walked back and forth.

“That’s it,” I said. “I’m going in after them. This is ridiculous. They probably found a whole opioid smuggling operation or something. If I’m not back soon, call for help.”

I then took a breath and plunged into the sewers.

By the time I had gotten to the bottom of the stairs, I couldn’t even see much more than a green light reflecting in the water. The light from the stairway was useless.

Willis had a flashlight so their group was likely completely unbothered by the darkness.