Six

As Red and the many other contestants were making their way to the manor, Sadie and George could finally admit they had the last preparations in control.

Sadie had the list of candidates and place cards, whereas George had been dragging a crate of trays. He hoped he'd counted enough trays for all of the candidates, although they didn't have any final numbers regarding the number of people who would be there.

"I guess this is it then, sis,"

Sadie nodded sleepily, "I would have thought after this preparation was over I could finally sleep, but between you and me..."

Her voice dropped into a stage whisper, "I don't think we're done babysitting Keanu yet,"

George gasped, "Sadie! That's Keanu you're talking about!"

Guilty, she frowned, "Yeah, but I wish he'd started preparing ahead of time, it's worse than this is all new to us,"

"Don't worry, I get you," George nodded, and he stopped pulling the crate to catch his breath, "We're twins--Of course I understand how you feel! Telepathy, right?"

"Thanks, George,"

He smiled, and the two of them continued making their way to the competitors' quarters.

However, as they made their way there, neither of them could shake the feeling that they were being followed. Normally, a passing staff member or tv producer wouldn't have aroused this much suspicion, since although the two of them, Darcy and Keanu included, were used to the manor being empty, they had grown used to other people being around such as the challenge contestants and the staff involved in its production.

However, the presence that they had felt following them could not be a staff member nor contestant--the latter wasn't allowed in this part of the castle, and most of all, their pursuer had an unmistakably menacing aura about them.

George wanted to face whoever it was instantly, to assure himself it was nothing, and that it was just his imagination. If that wasn't the case, he liked to think he was capable enough to take whoever it was on.

Sadie could tell what was running through his head and didn't dare look back, instead, she calculated different ways this could turn out.

Unfortunately, before she could think up a situation in which the two of them handle things civilly and without using too much energy, George turned around.

"George!"

He didn't answer, he seemed to be transfixed by something, in the heat of the moment, she took hold of him and they jumped out of the way.

At least that's what she hoped it would look like, it was more like she dragged him to the wall where they hid behind a stack of crates.

Cowardly? Possibly, but at least she could evaluate the situation from a vantage point. She slowly tried to peek from behind the crates.

"You guys forgot something." a gruff voice from behind them growled .

Behind us?!

Sadie spun to face whatever it was, she was sure there had been a wall behind them but...

George was looking at the wall in stupified shock, speechlessness, then Sadie saw what was causing it.

A man was quite literally coming out of the wall, 'submerged' might be the right word. His lower half must have been inside the wall, much like if you were in a pool. As for this man, his appearance was slightly haunting, as neither her nor George could see his face. The man could have been wearing a long coat and wore a fez and a mask which obscured the vast majority of his face.

"W-what did we forget?" George stammered, having just got his speech back. Sadie died a little inside, remembering how George used to struggle with his own speech in the past. At some point, she remembered there was a period of time when he didn't speak at all. She hoped his hard work at trying to overcome his difficulty wouldn't come undone because of some stupid guy in the wall.

Said stupid guy in the wall merely smirked, "You thought you could hide, but you left something behind," he pointed with a clover hand to the wheeled crate and the box Sadie had been carrying. The place cards had spilt out onto the floor. She felt stupid.

"Well, what the hell are you doing here?! You're practically intruding!" Sadie rose to her feet in anger, at this point, she couldn't pretend to be smart, she could only rely on her inherent brashness. She had to admit, George was the source of brainpower, although it did seem like the two of them shared two brain cells sometimes.

George also stood up, "Out with it, then, explain yourselves,"

The man in the wall sighed and Sadie imagined he'd be rolling his eyes, but before she could entertain that thought, the two of them were backed into the corner as many others surrounded them. These people donned the same garb as the man in the wall who, before the twins could react, reached out and dragged them into the wall with them. The others then followed, simply jumping in as you would into a body of water.

I don't think I could explain how these physics would work in real life, as I could imagine it isn't possible at all. Don't try this at home.

It had probably been twenty-five minutes after this happened, and now Darcy came walking down the same hallway. Her father had sent her mother and uncle to deliver those items to the kitchen where the contestants would work, so she was confused to find them unattended in the hallway.

"What happened here?" She thought aloud, whilst tidying up the place cards and putting them back in the box. She looked around and walked further down the hallway searchingly, and drew no results.

She was admittedly weirded out, as there were no doors in that hallway, and you had a long way to go until you found one, so what would the reason be for leaving all the supplies like this?

"Whatever it is, it will have to wait," she decided, "I've gotta get this stuff to the kitchen fast,"

And so, as she was unable to reach the top of the wheeled crate, she moved a crate she'd found by the wall and used it as a stool. She then put Sadie's box on top of the wheeled crate of trays and moved the stray crate back to the wall where she found it. Then she embarked on her mission to deliver the supplies to the kitchen.

It appeared that she'd forgotten one of the place cards, but as she dragged the wheeled crate along with her, the misplaced place card flew up and landed in the box atop the crate.

I can tell you, I don't have a logical explanation for that either.