Four Thirteens1: The Haunted Cottage - Part Two

     "I dunno! I'm going in, come on!" I answered with shock as I ran towards the cottage. Ronny followed in behind me with a flashlight he got from his SDB.

     I creaked the door open and Ronny held it for me. As soon as the two of us stepped into the cottage and Ronny let go of the door, the door swung shut. Ronny tried to pull it open, but the door wouldn't budge.

     The place was incredibly dim, besides the places where Ronny shone his flashlight. It was very creepy, and it wasn't because of the possibility of ghosts and other spooky stuff, but it was just plain creepy. With frills and sheet covered furniture, it was almost as if a group of detectives were investigating a dead cat lady's house, but they never finished.

      We looked around, and we were shivering down to our shoes. I looked plainly at darkness, while Ronny was shining at random areas of the room with his flashlight.

     "Hey, Marine! Check THIS out!"

     I walked over to Ronny; the only way that I knew where he was was the shine of his flashlight.

     The beam of light pointed at a wall that was covered with pictures of Kadoaties. These framed photos of the Kads had names at the bottom. They were all laid out and read the names:

     WARNER HALEY YOSHI PRECIOUS IRIS TIMOTHY CELIA

      EZEKIEL VERN URSULA NEIL HERMAN LARS

     "What do you think it means?" I asked Ronny, who was also reading the names.

     "I don't think it means anything," Ronny answered with a shrug. "Besides the fact the people that lived here were total nutcases, naming their Kads Ezekiel and Ursula. Whatever happened to them anyway? Did the paddy wagon pick them up?"

     "No Ronny," I sighed. "The couple that lived here died years ago."

     Ronny's face went pale and he gulped.

     "Let's... let's j-just keep on going," the Kougra stuttered.

     And so we did.

     We walked around the room where all of the pictures of the Kads were, which was the living room.

     "I really think that there is something up with those pictures on the wall, Ronny," I whispered to him.

     "Well, believe what you want. But I still don't think that there's something up with---"but before Ronny could finish, another scream echoed in the air.

     "Come on, Ronny," I muttered. "Let's keep on going."

     I was beginning to wonder what happened to Margo and Miko. I was having terrible fantasies of both of them getting eaten in one huge gulp by two elderly ghosts. But it was only a fantasy, right? I mean, it really wasn't gonna happen and Margo and Miko may have just been scared... right?

     That's what I kept on telling myself when I had those thoughts, anyway.

     I was also trying to think of what the Kadoaties' names meant. They we hanging perfectly on the wall where we could see them, they looked like they were in some specific order, and I know that the elderly couple had more than thirteen Kads, so why would they have only thirteen pictures? There was just something suspicious about the whole thing.

     Ronny shone his flashlight at different areas of the living rooms, and this place sure was dusty.

     There was dust everywhere. Dust, dust, dust. The drapes, (or what was left of them), were eaten away by moths and decay, and they were frilly and old altogether. There were other pictures hung on the wall and framed pictures placed on the side tables and the fire place mantel, which were also for the most part wait for it... wait for it... dusty.

     I blew the dust off of one long picture and held it with both of my paws.

     "Hey, Ronny," I called over to him. "Come shine your light over here."

     Ronny walked over to me with our only light source. He shone it on the picture, and the two of us observed the framed photograph.

     The photo's color was faded; it almost looked like an old western Sepia picture with blotches of color here and there. The image was of the Neopet couple, which was a pair of elderly Blumaroos, surrounded by the infinite amount of Kadoaties they had.

     "Who the heck are these people?" Ronny whispered to me as he held his flashlight and observed the photo.

     "The couple that lived here years back. They had a lot of Kadoaties...," and I just trailed off. "Wow. I guess those rumors WERE true after all."

     "How could they maintain so many Petpets?" the Kougra asked me.

     "Beats me. The rest of the rumor was that their Kads ate them because they forgot to feed them. I don't think that's true, though."

     Ronny gulped and grew pale again.

     "I'm beginning to reconsider buying a Petpet," Ronny stuttered.

     "Again, Ronny. I don't think it's..." but Ronny stumbled on ahead of me. I just followed him.

     We were silent for the longest time. We walked around the kitchen, the bedroom that was shared by the couple, and the bathroom.

     There was dirt and grime everywhere. There was even still some Kad litter that trailed around the house.

     And there was one important detail that I noticed that proved the rumor that made the rumor even more suspicious: when Ronny and I went into the kitchen, we saw the Kadoaties' food bowl. And the food bowl had the right amount of food in it instead of no food at all.

     I kept on thinking of the pictures of the wall. I was scrambling and unscrambling the names and the order of the letters. I wished I was one of those people who carried around a mini notebook and a pen and tracked everything they wanted to down.

     I then stopped in my tracks. I solved the pictures' little puzzle.

     "Eureka!" I rasped in excitement.

     Ronny turned towards me, unintentionally shining his light in my face.

     "What is it, Marine?"

     "Well, if my eyes weren't burning like the fire of Moltara I'd tell you," I whispered as I was covering my eyes.

     Ronny pointed down the flashlight and I pulled him over to the pictures, with him still pointing the flashlight in our direction. I pointed at the thirteen names of the Kadoaties as I explained its order to him.

     "You see, as you look at the names from top to bottom, the purpose is to look at the beginnings of each word in the hidden phrase." I began, but Ronny interrupted me.

     "What hidden phrase?" he questioned.

     "Just let me finish," I stated, and I continued with my explanation. "Now, each pair of names have a certain beginning. These beginnings make up a word in a phrase. The beginnings are half and half, making a whole word. "

     Get it? In case if you don't, let me show you the names again:

     WARNER HALEY YOSHI PRECIOUS IRIS TIMOTHY CELIA

      EZEKIEL VERN URSULA NEIL HERMAN LARS

     Do you see it now? The names are made to make a phrase!

     "So as you can see," I concluded. "The hidden phrase is: We have your precious in the cellar!"

     "Meaning that Margo and Miko are in the cellar!" Ronny exclaimed.

     "Right! We just need to find the cellar! Now...," I trailed off as I looked around the dark and creepy scene. "Where's the cellar?"

     We looked around, until Ronny stopped moving his beam of light and focused it on one thing that boggled our minds: a trail of Kad food.

     We followed the trail of Kad food, and it made me wonder of the rumors that spread of the starving Kads. Why was there Kad food on the floor if the Kadoaties didn't have any?

     When the trail ended, there was indeed a door on the floor. I knelt down and opened the door with the small loop handle, and it lead down to a gloomy stairway.

     "Should we go down?" Ronny asked to me.

     I silently nodded, gulped, and Ronny went in front of me to lead the way.

     We walked down the stairs, and every stepped creaked. The creaks echoed down the steps, so there was no use trying to be quiet. But as soon as we went down the steps, not only did we hear the echo of our steps, but we heard the meows of... Kadoaties.

     "I don't like this," Ronny stuttered while holding the flashlight shakily. "I don't like this at all."

     "Neither do I Ronny, neither do---" but before I was able to finish, I saw something that caught my concentration. "Hey! What's that?"

     A small glow came from the side of my view. I headed towards it, and Ronny hesitantly followed me.

     The glow became clearer and clearer, until it led to a room lit only by the glow. The glow came from an out of the ordinary thing you would probably never find in a cellar.

     "An oven," I gasped. "A Neopet-sized oven!"

     "You could fit three Skeiths in here and STILL have some room for a Chia or two!" Ronny remarked with the same amount of shock.

     Then we heard a faint voice... more like a muffle really. We were looking around frantically to see where it was coming from, but we couldn't find anything. That is, until we found a door where we knew the muffles were coming from.

     Ronny slowly stepped over to the door and creaked it open. I followed him in, and we slowly looked around. It didn't take us long, however, to find what we were looking for.

     "Margo! Miko!" I exclaimed.

     Yes, we found both Margo and Miko, but not in the way we wanted. They were tied together with their mouths muffled with a sock they were forced to bite. They were trying to speak to us, even though they knew we couldn't understand them. I could see the fear, especially in Margo's eyes.

     I never saw Margo that scared ever since she saw a Double Cheeseburger for the first time.

     Margo suddenly let out what was a muffled scream, but again, I couldn't understand her.

     "Margo, what are you trying to---" but right when I figured out that she was gesturing to look behind me, it was too late.

     All I saw was a blue flash, and then suddenly and just as quickly flashed to darkness.

To be continued...