Everyone had been ushered out of the bathroom by Margaery and Rumpled, so Helter was now standing, staring at the door, waiting for the two to come out.
Amanda, from behind him, spoke up, “it was Tarquin who said to not let every death affect us.”
“How?” Derek sounded as though he was on the verge of tears, “how can we? We don't know who's doing this! We don't-” there was a pause, “we don't know who's going to be next.”
“We need to reconvene,” Esmeralda decided for the group, “I was told that you all went looking for clues when I was.. out.”
Helter turned around to face the others, “yes, we do.” He sighed. He twisted and faced the door again, knocking on it twice. There were muffled voices, and the door to the bathroom opened. Helter could still spy the drowned sailor on the floor, but his attention was fully on Margaery, “Esmeralda suggested that we all get together, and discuss what we all found.”
Margaery nodded, and Rumpled appeared next to her, “Tracey and I- well, no, actually just I found a set of numbers - 0518. I'm not sure what it could be for, however. Maybe it's for a safe, or one of those door do-hickeys?.”
“Keypads, Rumpled,” Margaery informed him, as she stepped into the corridor.
“Right, yes, thank you, M. What did everyone else find?” He followed Margaery, closing the door behind him, blocking the view of the body.
“Me and, uh, Tarquin found something quite curious,” John's voice was wavering slightly, “there seemed to be a light coming from the bottom of a grandfather clock? Tarquin said that it was unusual, even for this time. He also tried to push the clock, but it didnae budge.”
Margaery nodded, “it could be a secret door? You'll have to show me later, kid.”
John smiled.
Helter reached into his pocket, “I found this, in the ballroom,” he pulled out the screw, Rumpled taking it, “I was thinking that it could be from the chandelier?”
Rumpled nodded, “if that's the case, then the young boy's death was definitely a murder. How else would the screw end up all the way in the ballroom?”
“On the other side of the manor, I might add,” Margaery said, “me and Derek did find a secret room, and what the log-in was used for. Turns out that Wayne knew he was going to die - or at least, that his death day was important enough to write down in his notes, two days prior.”
“Time!” Ethel's voice was loud in Helter's ears, it made him jump, “time is very important, or it might not be, I forget.”
“Right,” Rumpled squinted at the older lady, “so if Wayne knew-”
“Time is precious, and we all have a limited amount of time. Time is malleable, you know?” Ethel continued her rant, Helter had to hold back a groan, “it can be turned backwards, or it can be turned forwards! Just ask the beetroot guy, he knows.”
“‘The beetroot guy’? As in André Beetroot?” Tracey asked, her attention, previously elsewhere (for some reason) was now suddenly solely on the group, “like the guy from the phone?”
“Yes,” Margaery added, “and, I hate to say it, but Ethel's sort-of right, André is a time traveller. He, however, uses that ability to just waltz around and host competitions, which is stupid if you ask me. But, that's not the point. We already knew that time travel was involved somehow,” she gestured towards Rumpled and John, “but the question is, and the question we should be asking ourselves, what else is time travel involved with?”
"Wayne knew he was going to die," Esmeralda thought aloud, "two days before he did. André could've told him."
"But isn't rule number one of time travel to not interfere?" Helter asked, he'd seen enough time travel movies.
"To not interfere with your own lives," Margaery said, "there's nothing in the time travel handbook about interfering with others."
"So.. What does that mean for us?" Derek asked, tentatively.
Margaery didn't look at anyone when she said her next sentence, "that there's a chance that he knew we were going to die here, too."
"Do you think you'll feel the same way a year from now" the future is fake, the only thing that matters is the present because it's happening NOW. If someone on the street told me that they were gonna break every single bone in my body but that I'll be a multi-billionaire 2 weeks from then, awesome, cool, you're still breaking every bone in my body NOW
if u've seen the amount of outlast doodles i have in my laptop you'd be shocked bc of how many i have do you think i should make a separate outlast art/ask blog BECAUSE DANG more than half of my laptop disk storage is basically my outlast doodles personally idk if i should start one because my level of art = not that good
