"You don't really think that the doll did something to them right?" Arthur asked Katherine as he followed behind her.
"What are you talking about?" Katherine just kept walking without caring if he was following her or not.
"That doll that they mentioned earlier. It's not the real deal, right? The real one is still under the church, right?"
That finally made Katherine turn to him, looking annoyed. "Don't tell me that you're talking about Satan's doll? Are you a kid? You still believe in that thing? It's just a movie! A figment of someone's imagination!"
Arthur's face went pale and his entire body became rigid. "R-real. It's r-real."
"What's wrong with you? This is not the time to be goofing around. I thought you're worried about Zee?" She turned around and froze as well when she figured out the reason why Arthur was stuttering.
A few meters from where they were, there was a small figure that looked like a child except that it's face looked so menacing. They didn't move for a while and had a staring contest with the creepy doll in front of them. And Arthur jumped in surprise when Katherine suddenly took his stick from him and charged towards the doll. She grabbed the doll and stabbed the stick in its eye before turning to him with a glare.
Arthur almost ran away from Katherine because for a moment she looked like she's been possessed by something evil. "Kath?"
"Are you happy now?" She asked in a grave tone.
Arthur unconsciously took a step back. "Huh?"
She picked up the doll and walked towards him. She lifted the doll in front of him and it was dangling lifelessly. "I got rid of this doll. Does that ease your mind? Can we concentrate on looking for Zee now?"
Arthur blinked a couple of times and nodded.
"I'm starting to regret coming here without a solid plan." Katherine muttered under her breath. And just when she was about to start complaining about how jumping into a search and rescue mission without bringing even a dog with them was crazy, her phone rang. "Hello?"
"It's me." Craige's voice sounded a little static. "I found them. I need Arthur's help over here."
"Ok. We're coming."
"Copy."
Arthur looked up as well. "Was that Craige? Did he find them?"
Katherine opened the application that they agreed to use to find each other. "Yeah. He said he needs your help. Maybe one of them or both have been injured."
He scowled and his heart started beating fast. "Is Zee okay?"
"He didn't say. Can you help me with this?" Katherine passed her phone to Arthur.
Arthur clicked his tongue when he saw that she did not turn on her GPS. "You're really bad when it comes to these things. Does it not frustrate you?"
"It does. That's why they should improve technology a lot more so that I'll just have to tell my device to do these things for me." She took back her phone and followed the direction on the application.
A couple of minutes later, they found Craige with Joshua and Zeanne. Joshua had his arm over Craige's shoulder and was limping. He was looking at Katherine with horror. But that was the least of Katherine's concern. She looked at Zeanne who was also looking at her strangely. 'What's going on?'
Katherine scanned Zeanne from head to toe and rushed to hug her. Then she pulled away to see Zeanne with a shocked expression on her face. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine. But…" Zeanne pointed at the luggage that she's been carrying without much thought. "... why do you have that doll with you? And why does it look like that?"
"Ah." Katherine remembered that she still had the skewered doll with her. "Arthur was worried that you got killed by this doll so I stabbed it as soon as I saw it to shut him up. You can't imagine how annoying he was. I almost stabbed him with this stick."
"You stabbed it? In the eye?" Joshua asked incredulously and Arthur went to his other side to help Craige support him.
"I did." Katherine dropped the doll on the ground which earned shrieks in response from three people.
Joshua: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Arthur: "Pick it up!"
Zeanne: "No!"
Katherine looked at Zeanne then at Arthur and Joshua. They all have the same horrified expression on their faces. "What?"
The three of them didn't answer so she turned to Craige who seemed to be the only sane person other than her at the moment. He shrugged. "Don't ask me. I haven't watched the movie."
Arthur put a hand on his mouth as he turned to Craige. "Ignorance is a bliss."
"Ignorant people die first in horror movies." Joshua pointed out. "I suggest you pick that thing up and get rid of it properly just to be safe."
Zeanne quickly nodded in agreement. "It's better to be safe than sorry."
Katherine rolled her eyes and picked the doll up again. "What a bunch of kids. No wonder you get lost easily."
Arthur slapped his hand against his thigh. "That's right, Craige! How did you manage to find them so fast?"
Craige smiled and shrugged again. "Telepathy."
'And here's another kid.' Katherine let out a deep sigh then pulled Zeanne with her. "Let's go back. Being around these people will just make your 8th grade syndrome worse."
They walked back in silence and reached their accommodation with Katherine on the lead. Joshua was immediately taken to the nearest hospital by Teacher Beshy who was really distressed upon seeing his condition. Joshua kept his expression controlled and tried his best to not show that he's suffering from great pain. But his ankle was so swollen that the slightest sudden movement made him wince with pain. In the end, he got reprimanded for being reckless.
Most of the other kids already retired to their rooms around 11 in the evening but a few of them decided to stay in the main hall and play more games.
"Aren't you guys tired yet?" Trixie asked as she hesitated about going upstairs to sleep.
Zeanne smiled at her. "I had a power nap earlier."
Arthur looked at Zeanne with surprise. "You did? In that situation?"
Trixie quietly walked back and sat down on the carpeted floor with a shake of her head. Then Katherine pinched Zeanne's cheeks with gritted teeth. "You're really unbelievable. We were all worried about you and what? You were napping?"
Zeanne rubbed her cheeks with a pout. "What else was there for me to do? Have a staring contest with Joshua?"
"That is an idea." Mia clapped her hands. "Let's do that!"
Katherine looked at her wearily. She felt like she was about to pass out any minute but she didn't want to go back to their room by herself. "Do what again? Can't we just eat and talk without having to play ridiculous games?"
"That's no fun. Let's have a staring contest. Whoever loses will have to do the penalty." Mia suggested with gusto. Nobody except Katherine raised an objection so Mia started preparing the game. And just as she finished preparing the ladder which will decide who will be against who, Arthur raised his hand to suggest a different game.
"Rather than having a staring contest, why don't we just spin a bottle and let it decide our fate?" He wiggled his eyebrow which made Mia throw the paper that she was working on with a groan.
"That's less hassle. Let's go with that." Brian agreed with Arthur and took the paper that Mia discarded to fold it into a paper boat.
Zeanne placed a bottle of water in front of her and the rest adjusted their positions to form a circle around it. Then she looked at Arthur. "What will be the punishment?"
He shrugged and smiled at her. "Let's go with the classic Truth or Dare."
Ameera then leaned on her elbow. "And who will ask the questions or decide the dare?"
Jake raised his hand with a smile. "Like this. First come first serve."
Zeanne looked around. From her left sat Katherine, Arthur, Ameera, Craige, Trixie, Jake, Brian, and Mia on her right. She looked down and her eyes lingered on two people's knees that were almost touching. As if sensing her stare, the other knee moved away and she smiled with shameless satisfaction.
Zeanne immediately suppressed that smile and cleared her throat. "Shall I spin it first?"
"Go for it." Trixie answered with a sigh. She really wasn't up for another game but she didn't want to miss all the fun.
Zeanne spun the bottle with a twist of her wrist and everyone watched it turn in place as the tension in the room rose higher and higher. It began to slow down and every single person that it pointed at was kept on their toes.
When it finally came to a stop with its cap pointing directly at Arthur, everyone cheered enthusiastically except for Arthur who rose to his knees with a loud shout. "NOOOOOOO!"