Clash Of The Words: A Story Unfolds

Chapter 3

"So who do you guys think is lying?" "How do we know we can all be trusted? Maybe it's one of us." "I think it's Joey and Michael." "It's not them." "How do you know?" "Shut up, all of you." Calliope pulls the map down from the wall. Fat Man Slims is new on the map. "Beware the snakes. The Serpent's Eyes lie in wait." All of a sudden, a woman eavesdrops on the group. Everyone notices, and the woman takes off. The group chases after her into the Arcade, and they tie her up in a chair. "Listen, honey. What were you doing?'

"I'm looking for the same thing you're looking for. The Serpent's Eyes. The snake woman bit me! She stole my husband!" The woman told. "Do you know anything about an artifact?" "I don't know, look for suits in the lounge." "Why don't you guys go on? I'll stay and watch her, Calliope said. The rest run back into the lounge trying to see if there's anything that they haven't seen before to help them solve this clue. "Guys, I got a bunch of playing cards!" "Suits must mean the suits in the deck of cards. Hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs. We gotta find 'em." 

They find the suits and open a compartment. Inside are the Serpent's Eyes and a note. "This is the second of the wicked artifacts. To cleanse the Serpent's Eyes you must find the head of a great snake, place the eye inside and bathe it in the blood of a serpent's heart. "Okay, we got the eyes. Then, they hear screams coming from the arcade. They head to the arcade, and the woman is dead. Calliope finds a note. "It says: meet me at 7:30, Cindy."

A snake woman appears out of nowhere and snatches Roi like a wig off a drag queen. "You've been poisoned. And in twenty minutes, it's gonna eat through your organs. You have to create an antidote to save him. I know there's a drug store over there. Let's go!" Mortimer explained. Matthew, Colleen, and Ro go to the drug store.  Meanwhile, the other group made their way to Fat Man Slims to try and see if there will be a clue.

Roi and Calliope head back into the arcade to rest. Inside the drug store, there are potions everywhere, jars full of pills. "This is an old recipe for anti-venom that will stop even a cobra's bite." One of the pamphlets tells the exact steps to create an anti-venom. After the ingredients are gathered, they have to be combined in a centrifuge. If done correctly, the liquid will be yellow. "You can demonstrate hydrophobia is to add calcium carbonate to water. When the calcium carbonate touches the water the resulting process leads to carbon dioxide. Which means it's gonna bubble. We need calcium carbonate." "Whatever it is you guys got to find it and mix 'em together, all right? Roi doesn't have time," Mortimer said. 

Meanwhile, in Fat Man Slims, the group looks for any clues. "Manny, go check upstairs." "Oh, my God!" "What?" "I see someone's eyes looking at me." "Do you want the package? Well, then you've got to give me the password," The man said. Manny goes downstairs. Joey finds a gold box. There's a lockbox and it has three numbers. JC enters seven, three, zero, and the gold box opens. Inside are a series of photos that seemed to have been taken in different parts of the bar, and it says password phrase. "Do we need to recreate those moments?" "I think that we should look in these places."

"Yeah, that's it! It says 'grass.'" Nikita suggests recreating the photos exactly. "I'll be the man with the money!" They head to the pole and Nikita spins around on it. "That's what I like to see, Nikita! Yes!" JC gets taken by the snake woman.  "Great, there it is! Let's just double-check. Make sure that calcium carbonate makes the water bubble. Bill Nye the Science Guy, eat your heart out!" MatPat said. "So here's our calcium carbonate. Here's our moon lily, great. Snake venom." They finally get the antidote, and run to Roi and JC. They drink it. "Why does it taste like Capri-Sun?" "I know right!" They laugh. 

"Cold. I have something that says cold." "There's this cigarette pack that says green." "Wait you guys it says under here, it says snakes."  They put the photos in order from one to five. And then put their corresponding clues on top of each photo. Green, snakes, blank, cold, grass. JC, Roi, Mortimer, Colleen, and Ro make their way into Fat Man Slims. "It's green snakes in cold grass." Michael heads up the stairs to give the password to the guy behind the door. "Green snakes in cold grass." "Head downstairs. I'll meet you shortly." 

Michael and the man head downstairs.  "Well, well, look at this lot. Each of yous take a card." Rodrigo and his friend come into Fat Man Slims.  The cover comes off and it is a snake tabletop game. Everyone takes a card. "It's time to play the serpent's game, where the ante is your life. Inside this tower, there's a golden brick and it's up to you to find it, and place it on the pedestal right there. You topple over the tower, you go onto the final death challenge. No vote. Flip your cards over." The group flips their cards over. "Game on!" The game starts, and everyone starts taking out bricks and puts them on top. 

"Here's the thing. One of these that actually provides structural integrity could be the one with the gold. Right, so it could be a suicide mission. You saved my life though, you saved my life, Matt. I can do this for you." "You are a daredevil. You could jump across this table and stop me as I do this." "How are you literally the daredevil and you're not going to take a chance for all of us? Why don't you step up, sir?" "You want me to do it?" "I want you to do it. If you are the daredevil of this group then prove it." "Alright. Check this out then." 

Roi pushes himself into the tower, and it collapses.  JC grabs the golden brick and places it on the pedestal next to the chest. Inside is the serpent's head and a note. "To finish cleansing the artifact, two must be selected by vote and search the innards of a serpent to claim its heart." The group heads back into the lounge. "The first person to be in the challenge is the Daredevil. Understood?" Everyone nods. 

"Calliope, we-we don't have to keep doing this," Mortimer said. "It must be done," Calliope replied. After they voted, Calliope shuffled and drew a card. The person going into the challenge with the Daredevil is...The Troublemaker." Roi, Nikita, and Mortimer head outside for the challenge. Here are the rules of the challenge. Search the intestines of the great serpent to find the missing pieces of your mosaic. A completed image is at the end of the snake to guide you. The first to do so will be able to retrieve the heart and the other will be poisoned by the snake woman.

There is a map opposite from the mosaic. Roi and Nikita start looking for pieces. A few minutes pass, and they're almost done. "I just need two more pieces, but I can't even find... Red on the bottom. Red on the bottom!" "Oh, my God. I actually did it. I'm coming out as the winner!" Nikita said, finishing the challenge. Roi dies by the snake-woman. Mortimer holds the head and Nikita pours the blood over it. 

Nikita and Mortimer head back to the lounge. "Whichever of you bitches voted for me... I'm coming for you next," Nikita remarked. "There's only a few hours and there's a whole lot of artifacts to find, and if we don't cleanse them all by sunrise, then we're all done for," Matthew "We found this together and we haven't figured it out yet." It says "Place me on the horizon." "There's a picture of a horizon right over there." Samantha places it onto the horizon painting, and a compartment in the wall opens up. There's a box. 

"Inside lies the harp of Lazarus. However, the box can only be opened by finding two brass coins that are hidden throughout Everlock and require an additional task to obtain." "At this rate, the guys are dropping like flies." "I'm one of the girls, don't look at me," Manny said. So you guys see these slots where the coins go? That's the same design that was on Joey's bag at the very beginning..."