"Please can you come?" Alice begged Mike. It was the day after the incident with the cat, and Mike was not having any of his friend's pleas.
"For the last time- no. I've already had enough these past few days. I just want one day to chill," Mike said.
"That's what Ben said when I asked him! But he wouldn't tell me what happened. What happened when you guys went to that picnic? Or that concert?"
Mike attempted to hold back a grimace as he tried to think of an excuse. He found that he couldn't think of anything that would make sense. Which basically meant that he had to accompany Alice to see the friend she recently met online. Until two minutes ago, he had no idea she even went on dating apps. Maybe at one point this would've surprised Mike but after the events of the past week, it didn't. He wasn't sure anything could surprise him after the vents of last week.
Alice broke out into a huge grin when she realized that Mike couldn't give an answer. "I'm gonna go pack. I'll meet you here in ten minutes."
Mike sighed. He was just going to have make do. Ten minutes later, both were packed and ready to teleport to the castle. With one spin of the device, they arrived at Alice's friend's castle. Mike had a feeling that device wouldn't work again until they found a way out of here.
Waiting at the gigantic doors of the castle was someone with dark, brown hair and brown eyes that appeared red in the lighting. There was another person standing right next to him.
"You said there was only one person!" Mike whispered.
Alice shrugged. "I didn't know. Bertrand! Who's with you?"
The guy Mike assumed was Bertrand grinned back. Mike was starting to get under the impression that Bertrand was watching him out of the corner of his eye. Other than that, Bertrand seemed harmless.
"That's my friend, Hugo. I had to find someone to take care of your friend." Mike was positive that was a threat. Nevertheless, he forced his mouth into a smile and held out his hand.
"I'm Mike," he said.
"Well nice to meet you Mike. I don't think Alice has mentioned you." Bertrand's smile was becoming more creepy than friendly. Mike was glad it was almost dinner. That meant it would soon be time to sleep which meant Mike would be out of that stare.
"Shall we go to dinner?" He winked at Alice, who giggled in response. Mike had never heard her giggle before. Were they flirting? He didn't want to answer that question.
Throughout dinner, Mike spent his time attempting to talk to Hugo but it wasn't going too well. Alice's strange behavior was unnerving. Not to mention Bertrand. While Mike was eating his hamburger- he noticed something odd. Bertrand didn't have a reflection. What kind of person doesn't have a reflection? Mike didn't want to know. All he knew was that whatever Bertrand was, Hugo was probably like him. He had to get Alice out of here.
He spent the rest of the night, coming up with various ways to get Alice out of the house without her suspecting anything. He decided to wait until at least midnight when he would pack up his backpack and go get Alice. Unfortunately he would have to leave some stuff behind to make the lie believable but Mike didn't care. He would rather live then die because of some flirting creep with no reflection.
Around midnight he started started packing. By one in the morning, he had finished and was knocking on Alice's bedroom door as quietly as he could.
"We need to go," he stated. She shut the door in his face.
"Alice listen! We need to go! There's a mission back in Cornet! Ben needs us back. You know we can't do missions without a co-leader."
The door opened a crack. "Listen I know you don't want to go but you know how important missions are. Now come on."
He could see Alice rolling her eyes at him. "I guess we can stay for one day instead of two days."
Mike caught the door this time. "No. We have to leave now! Pack your stuff and let's get out of here!"
He waited outside the door while Alice packed for what took the longest time. When she was done, he gestured towards the way out- which was through a long corridor and two sets of stairs.
"Can we at least tell Bertrand we're leaving?"
"You can tell him tomorrow, now come on. And be quiet."
They made their way to the exit without much trouble surprisingly. The hard part was when Alice decided she didn't want to leave. Right before they walked out the door to the car waiting for them.
"You know what? This whole thing is weird, I'm just gonna go back to sleep. Leave without me."
"No! Alice!" Mike exclaimed, grabbing her arm before she could get too far. She wrenched it out of his grip and put it on her hip.
"No! You know what? This entire time you've been acting weird. You just want to leave because you don't like Bertrand. I'm staying."
When Mike realized she was in fact going to stay with or without him, he had to think fast. That's when he noticed the glass bottle just sitting there on top of the red carpet. He sighed. "I'm sorry Alice." Then he grabbed the bottle and knocked her unconscious.
