They all stood around Cepheus' unconscious body, if he could pretend to be Cancer what else could he do? Leo and Capricorn exchanged a glance before grabbing ropes and tying the man they once trusted to know everything they needed to, binding him to a chair. Pisces let out a tired sigh when they had finished roping around the hefty man. They stood before a king who was being shamed for many of his terrible deeds, their first thought was that when he ran to tell them that Ophiuchus was still alive and well and that the other Zodiacs were okay, they figured those were lies. What else did he lie about?
Cepheus' eyes fluttered open, the Zodiacs all grimacing down at him. Cepheus shot up, realizing what had just happened
"Where the fuck is Sagittarius?" Scorpio roared, in response the man let out a soft chuckle
"You're main priority is a girl you just met?" Cepheus taunted, a smile lingering on his face "What about what I've done? Why you should be scared of me?"
Scorpio slapped the man in return, his rings digging into his cheek and a small ounce of blood dripping out of the cut.
"Tell me." Scorpio's darkened eyes looked deep into Cepheus' soul, ignoring the other Zodiacs who were stood behind him just as curious
"She's not dead," Cepheus grinned "just stuck on the puzzle..." (second alex turner reference of this book gasp)
"Answer the question, where is she?" Scorpio demanded, it was more of a statement than a question.
"You really wanna know?" Scorpio grabbed the mans chin in his hand and forced him to look him in the eyes
"Yes."
"She's escaping, you'll find her soon."
"Why are you telling us this?" Aries chimed in, curiosity laced his tone
"Because someone you know will die, maybe not a Zodiac but maybe someone important. I've already set out the hit, you can't stop it," Cepheus laughed "also; good luck stopping the apocalypse"
"I've had it up to here" Libra sneered, "did you or did you not kill your wife?"
The man looked down and looked back at Libra, her words filled his eyes with anger and he smashed apart the ropes, grabbing her by the neck
"What makes you feel so entitled to ask me that?"
•••
Aquarius, Taurus, Sagittarius and Cancer were all trapped in an identical asylum room. It was very compact and the odds were not in their favour. To get out of the room, they would need to retrieve the key and that would also mean that they would have to cross through the room that lead them there. For Sagittarius, it would simply be tiring to go through all of those tricks again, for Cancer there was a prison guard after him and he didn't know if he had the strength to take him on again, for Taurus she was practically scarred from the butcher's shop and Aquarius didn't really have to worry.
They all, after a lot of searching and cracking codes, got out and found eachother in a room that was designed for all of them to solve together. It was enormous and each of them ran to eachother, just happy to have someone near to them. There were four corners . of the room so each of them took one.
Cancer turned the doorknob and walked into a bedroom like area. It seemed normal but the air made him uneasy, it was a child's bedroom. Posters lining the wall and plush animals littered on the bed, small toys scattered along the floor and lego buildings strewn on the shelfs. He saw the decorations as patterns and saw two locks and one big case, with two padlocks, a key visable inside, supposedly one of the four for the big box. He glanced at the first padlock, it was hooked on a toy box so he thought to count the amount of toys. There were four red plush animals, six green cars and six blue action figure type things. He sat for a while, thinking about the possible order when it hit him. RGB is a hue slider for technological art.
466
The lock clicked open and he grabbed one of the two keys.
He ran over to the next box, on it was a note that read 'do your homework'. He looked around the room, and on the desk was a small book with three pages. He groaned as he saw three calculus questions and 'find x' titled on each page just below the equation.
"no kid this age does calculus" he muttered to himself, referencing the very child like room.
After a long time of working away at the mathematical problem, he solved them to be 921.
He set the numbers in that order, clicked the lock open and quickly lodged the two keys into their respective aperture.
•••
Taurus walked into her room, scared of having to repeat the trauma that she experienced in the butcher's shop. She closed her eyes in hopes that it wouldn't be as terrifying. She uncovered her eyes to reveal a cabin in the woods-esque area, she let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. She grasped a sense of where she was and rummaged for a clue. There were two boxes with two number padlocks, the first one read 'sort the toolshed'. She sorted through equipment, maps, compasses and axes. She decided that she would enter the quantity of each item from smallest to biggest.
327
the lock clicked but didn't open
723
the lock repeated it's last action
her breath started to pick up, worry filled her senses, she quickly regained herself and re entered
237
the lock flew open and a soft lament escaped her plush lips.
She grabbed the key and ran to the second lock, the words that were scratched violently read 'the bookshelf'
She pranced over to the old wooden shelf, it was rickety and any small gust of air would have sent it tumbling down. Taurus tediously inspected the books, all of them were attached but one; animal farm by george orwell (tehe my favourite book). She picked the book out, flipped through the pages to see one of the numbers scratched out on three pages, she looked at the unscathed numbers '267', she punched in the code and retrieved the second key. She threw open the box, and grabbed the master key.
•••
Everyone stood in shock as Cepheus, a man they once looked to as a mentor, was holding Libra's neck, grazing her jawline with his sullied nails. He wasn't applying pressure, or at least not enough that she would experience pain. She maintained a cool appearance but it didn't take a genius to see she was truly frightened by the man. Aries was on the verge of tackling the man down but his adrenaline was pumping and he simply held himself back. Panic had a hold on all eight of them. Everything seemed to go in slow motion.
"Answer my question, bitch" Cepheus' language sent anger coursing through Leo's veins, but before Leo could act, Scorpio froze the hand holding the girls neck. Leo pulled Libra back without hesitation and Aries threw a gust of fire at his feet, leaving him crying in agony. Cepheus smirked and shapeshifted into a small mouse and scurried away.
"Can someone please call an exterminator?" Gemini joked, leaving everyone annoyed because of her witty comment in a time of such despair, Pisces especially.
don't forget to vote!
i actually really need criticism right now because i don't know how to make this better because sure the story line is good but everything else is bad and i don't understand how to make the chapters good but still provide the same cilffhangers i want.
tldr; yell at me in the comments please and thank you <3
YOU ARE READING
Nightlight | A Zodiac Story
Fantasy"Well what do you think? That you can do, control me?" "That's precisely what I know I can do" "You think too highly of yourself," her lip was quivering as she confidently spurred out those words, she was afraid of the man with the dagger and knew...
