44

44.
“Charles? Is that you?” Alice’s voice traveled towards us.
I scrunched up my nose in disgust, shielding my eyes from the flashlight directed at my face. “Do I look like Charlie to you?”
“A little to the left,” Charlie instructed, and Alice shifted the light towards him.
He jumped on the sudden onslaught of light, and my friends and I let out a loud snort at that.
“Power cut at exactly 2:30 am, as you asked me to,” Alice said, walking towards Charles.
What the hell?
Charlie cast wary look towards us in the darkness, then, turned to Alice. “Keep your voice down, Alice,” he hissed, “we have audience.”
“Oh, I know,” Alice muttered, shining the flashlight on all of us in turns, “but, no one is going to believe them anyway. We caught them sneaking in the queen’s chamber, after all.”
“Dude,” Caleb exclaimed, incredulously, “if we were sneaking, then, what were you two doing, huh? Just taking a midnight walk in the queen’s chambers?”
“And, I am also witness the fact that Chloe tried to assassinate Charles,” Alice continued, stupidly.
What the actual hell? I was about to assassinate him with what? A vase?
“And, we will click a picture right now as a proof,” Charles said, reaching for the phone in Alice’s hand.
My friends and I gazed at each other in the darkness. From whatever I could make out of their expressions in the dark, I knew that they were thinking the same thing.
Charles, most probably didn’t have his phone on him, since he was going for Alice’s phone and since, he hadn’t fished out his own phone until now, even to rat us out.
So, that left us with only one choice…
As soon as Soph gave me a nod, I made a run for it- for Alice’s phone. Before she could register what was happening, I snatched the phone from her hands dropped it on the floor, hearing a satisfying crack and then, kicked it with my foot, to some dark corner of the lounge.
The room had plunged into darkness again, and had gone utterly silent. That is, until Alice opened her mouth, no doubt, to scream like a banshee. But, we couldn’t risk waking up the queen, so, we had a plan for that too.
Caleb stuffed a muffin in her mouth, just at the right moment, before she could make a sound, so that she was left making noises like a dying creature.
“What a waste of my precious muffin,” Caleb muttered, dusting his hands off and fishing out his own phone to turn on the flashlight.
All the while, Charlie was watching us with his mouth agape.
Perfect.
I nodded in Soph and Mia’s direction. Both of them leaped forward with their hankies in hand, and while Charlie was distracted, we reached behind him. Before he could react, Soph had tied the hanky around his open mouth while Mia and I had bound his wrists behind his back with Mia’s hanky.
Alice’s eyes went wide and she started making inhuman noises, trying to gobble up the muffin.
I quickly leaped towards Caleb and reached into the pocket of his sweats. Sure enough, the napkins he had stolen from the dining table were there. I wasted no time in tying two napkins together and then, binding Alice’s hand behind her back.
It was a real struggle. Alice didn’t go down without a fight, but one glare from Soph had her going still.
At last, I dusted off my hands and blew out a breath.
“Oh, how the tables have turned,” Caleb said, looking at Soph, Mia and me, “I didn’t know you all were such pros at tying and shutting up people.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” I huffed, glancing around to see what could be done next.
“Can we just get rid of them?” Soph asked, “Let’s chop off their hair and throw them in a ditch. No one will even recognize them, if they are stupid enough to come back.”
We cast a worried glance in Soph’s direction.
“Soph…you are taking this too seriously…” Mia mumbled, “we are not professional kidnappers or killers.”
“Our first job is to find out what they were up to,” I said, glancing warily at Alice and Charlie, “what they were doing here.”
“And, then, we need to make sure that they don’t expose us,” Caleb added.
Alice and Charlie started trashing and twisting, with Alice still making those inhuman sounds.
“Caleb! Another muffin, now! She has almost finished that one,” Soph ordered, jerking her chin in Alice’s direction.
Caleb placed another muffin in Alice’s mouth with a grunt.
Soph started tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. “How do we make them spill their deeds?”
Before I could reply, my phone started vibrating in my pocket.
The_real_prince_charming
There’s a power cut.
Chloe_awesome_scott
I know.
The_real_prince_charming
So, you are awake too.
Chloe_awesome_scott
Um…yeah, I just woke up.
I swallowed my guilt as I glanced at my friends, who were giving me questioning looks.
The_real_prince_charming
Wanna watch a horror movie?
I glanced at Alice and Charlie, before typing my reply.
Chloe_awesome_scott
I am already watching one.
The_real_prince_charming
What? Damn! You brave thing! Watching a horror movie alone in the dark.
Too bad I am already on my way to join you.
Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!
Chloe_awesome_scott
NO! NOAH, STOP!
The_real_prince_charming
…
Chloe_awesome_scott
JUST STAY WHERE YOU ARE! DO. NOT. COME. TO. ME.
The_real_prince_charming
TOO LATE, MATE.
I had to bite my knuckles to keep from screaming in frustration. Oh God! Noah will find out that I was lying to him…
The_real_prince_charming
…
WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU?
Chloe_awesome_scott
UH, RESTROOM! I AM IN THE RESTROOM.
NOW, GO AWAY.
The_real_prince_charming
WHY? I WILL WAIT HERE IN YOUR ROOM.
Chloe_awesome_scott
NO, GO AWAY!
The_real_prince_charming
-_-
CHLOE, WHERE ARE YOU?
ARE YOU- ARE YOU IN TROUBLE?
Oh, you have no idea, noah…
I looked at my friends for help, but they were busy tormenting Alice and Charlie (by tormenting, I mean, roasting them). I took two minutes to think and reply, and those two minutes did the damage.
The power came on at the exact same time as the door opened to reveal Noah. And, that was not the end of it, the door of the queen’s bedroom opened too, and none other than the queen was standing there with her lips pressed in a thin line.
I could imagine how it all looked…Caleb, Mia, Soph and I standing over a gagged and tied Charlie and Alice…nothing short of professional kidnappers…
Caleb raised his hands in the air. “I didn’t steal the muffins, if that’s what you are thinking.”
A/N: EEH, SURPRISE UPDATE! I SKIPPED CLASSES TODAY, SO…I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!