Chapter 17
As if on instinct, Rose burst into the room.
"Jack!" she called.
"Rose," he said weakly.
"Don't go Jack!"
"Don't worry about me, Rose. Save yourself. Rose, make me a promise. Promise me you'll stay alive through this, and never let go of that promise."
"I'll never let go, Jack. Never let go."
Then Jack fell over and closed his eyes. Rose ran out of the room crying.
"I still say that's from some movie," I said.
"Nat, you're crazy," said Lance.
~*~*~
After we found the passage, Natalie and I took a nap in her room until lunch since we hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. We didn't actually do anything, but neither of us was used to sleeping in the same bed with someone else, and that made it hard to fall asleep. Since neither of us could sleep, we had spent most of the night talking. For our nap we again slept in the same bed, but nothing happened.
We woke up and went to lunch. After getting our food, we found the table where Sydney and the other models were sitting.
"Sydney, can we talk?" I asked.
"Later, Lance, I'm in the middle of an important conversation," said Sydney.
"Yea," said Darya. "We're discussing the pros and cons of foundation."
"And I thought all models were shallow," said Natalie sarcastically.
"Most people sterotype us like that," said Darya seriously, not understanding Natalie's joke.
"Sydney, it really is important," I said.
"Well, okay, but not too long," said Sydney standing up and taking her tray of mineral water and yogurt with her. We walked to an empty table in the corner.
"What?" asked Sydney.
"We need you to help us catch the murderer," said Nat.
"How?"
"Well, the murderer has a huge crush on you. There's a secret passage in this mansion, and he likes to just walk around in there. We were thinking if you could just like go in there for a couple minutes tonight at the masquerade, sing or something so he'd hear your voice and come, then like talk to him and get him to confess. Then we'll turn him in and it will be all over," said Natalie.
"Well, okay," said Sydney. "He's not gonna try to kiss me or anything, is he?"
"Not if you play your cards right."
"Okay then, I'll do it."
"Good. Meet me and Nat at the entrance to the ballroom when you get to the masquerade," I said.
"Sure. Can I ask you something?" Sydney said.
"Anything."
"Who is the murderer?"
I whispered it in her ear so no one else would hear.
"Oh my gosh! I'd have never thought it was him!"
~*~*~
On Friday afternoon I was still at the hospital with Josh. I had been there for nearly two full days. Josh and I had built every puzzle in his wing's waiting room, and borrowed a couple from another. Needless to say, we were bored. Finally, a nurse came with good news.
"Josh? Are you here?" she called knocking on the door.
"Yea, I'm here. Where else would I be?" asked Josh.
"Good news, Josh. You're being released today. You can leave whenever you're ready."
"Thank you, nurse. Did you hear that, Nadine? We can leave!" said Josh and started leaving.
"Josh, you might want to get out of that hospital gown," I said.
Josh looked down and saw what he was wearing. "Oh, thanks, Nadine," he said and grabbed his clothes off of a chair and went in the bathroom to change.
"Do I get to go too?" asked JC. He was propped up in bed with a few pillows behind him. Nicki was still sitting by his side. She had stayed the two nights like I had. When the nurses first saw her in here, they had told her to leave because she wasn't family or a close friend, but JC had taken a liking to her, so he lied and said that she was his sister.
"I'm sorry, JC," said the nurse. "The doctor still thinks that you need more time to recover. You can preform another concert if you want." Last night they had set up a piano in one of the lounges, and JC had preformed a concert of his jazz versions for about 200 patients.
"That's okay. I'm not up for it," said JC. He was pretty dissappointed about not being able to leave.
"Oh, JC, you'll be out soon," I said in an encouraging voice.
"I guess it won't be long," said JC trying to be positive.
"I'm ready, let's go, Nadine," said Josh emerging from the bathroom.
"Bye everyone," I said. "Nicki, when JC gets out, come to the mansion for awhile with him."
"Okay, sure!" said Nicki. Over the two days, we had gotten to know Nicki pretty well too.
"Bye guys," said Josh and I and we walked out of the room, down the hall, took the elevator down, and walked out the door to the parking garage. We got in Natalie's car which was parked on level F, section moss, row 3.
"How did you ever remember that?" Josh asked me.
"I made up the word fmossthree. Like Kevin did on the episode of Daria where they went to the mall."
"Oh, that was a funny episode."
"They all are."
I started the car and drove to the mansion. When we got there, it was close to eight o'clock. When we walked in the lobby, we found Lance, Natalie, and Erica standing around.
"Isn't this a nice welcome?" I said.
"It's not for you. Justin and Alyse went out to dinner last night and still aren't back. We got a call from them that said to meet them here at eight o'clock because they had major news," said Natalie.
Just then Justin and Alyse walked in.
"What is it? What is it?" asked Erica.
"Guess," said Justin.
"Just tell us!"
"Well, okay," said Alyse. "Guys, we're getting married tomorrow."
Erica fainted.
Chapter 18
The Dying Game
Megan's FanFic Oblivion
E~Mail Megan
