The Accident

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

David's cries break up some of the tension in the room.

"Guess it's time I was on my way," Burke says. "Maggie, you want to come back with me, or stay here and help your friend with the kid?"

[SunlessNick]

"I should stay," Maggie says. "I promised Vix some girl time, and it looks like she's going to need it more than ever."

OOC:   Earlier on, I had Maggie call Victoria Vicki, but I changed it to Vix here so it's not so ambiguous when I do this:

Spoiler:

Maggie will keep a surruptitious eye on where Burke goes when he leaves, just in case he goes looking for the wrench. She's really hoping he didn't cause the accident - she wants to be on his side - but she needs to know.

[Mr. Handy]

"You mean your mother?" asks Victoria. "Where did she go?"

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"I should stay," Maggie says. "I promised Vix some girl time, and it looks like she's going to need it more than ever."

Spoiler:

Looking out the large windows in the drawing room, you can see Burke's car pull away, down the steep, curving road that leads to Collinsport. Where he might be headed in town is impossible to say, but he doesn't stop anywhere on the estate grounds, anyway.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"You mean your mother?" asks Victoria. "Where did she go?"

"She was right here, just a second ago," he replies, pointing at the ball.

By this time, Roger has made his way upstairs to check on his son. Overhearing this remark, he says "That will be quite enough of your nonsense, young man. Go back to sleep before I take that silly toy away from you for good."

David reluctantly agrees, muttering "Nobody ever believes me." When he father leaves, he goes on to say, softly enough so that Victoria can barely hear him as she gets ready to shut the door of his room, "He can't take it from me. I'll hide it real good, just like the other stuff."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Spoiler:

Continue in this thread if you want to do anything else in the house during this night. Otherwise, stayed tuned for the next exciting chapter.

[SunlessNick]

Maggie tells Victoria that Burke didn't seem to anywhere else on the estate when he left. She's still willing to help search for the wrench if Victoria wants.

[Mr. Handy]

"I've no idea where it is," says Victoria, "but we may as well start searching for it now."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Spoiler:

Unexplained die rolls[dice]0[/dice]

A complete search of all the obvious areas by the two women fails to locate anything.

Spoiler:

There is that secret panel you discovered; but wouldn't it be a dark, enclosed area behind there, just the kind you don't like? Should you tell Victoria about it, or would that reveal that you've been poking your nose around?

[SunlessNick]

Spoiler:

There is that secret panel you discovered; but wouldn't it be a dark, enclosed area behind there, just the kind you don't like? Should you tell Victoria about it, or would that reveal that you've been poking your nose around?

Thanks for the reminder .



Making sure the she and Victoria are alone, she says, "Check this out," and shows her the place where the wall is out of true. "I think there's something behind there, but I haven't tried opening it up. I-uh- don't like small spaces much."

[Mr. Handy]

"Oh, is it a secret passage?" asks Victoria, examining the section of wall that Maggie indicated. "These old houses did sometimes have them. I love that sort of thing! This is like something out of a Nancy Drew book."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Spoiler:

Unexplained die roll[dice]0[/dice]

Exploring the passageway requires the use of a flashlight and bending over to make one's way through it. The secret corridor is dusty and full of spiderwebs. Small footprints are visible throughout. This is not terribly surprising, once one discovers that a branch of the maze-like passage leads to David's room. This must be how he disappears when he wants to. There is also a branch which apparently leads to the West Wing, which has been sealed off for about half a century. There is a third branch; where this one leads is not immediately apparent.

[SunlessNick]

Maggie's hella curious about all these branches, but doesn't really want to go in there.

[Mr. Handy]

Victoria's curiosity gets the better of her. Taking the flashlight, she slips down the passage, unraveling a spool of thread behind her so she can find her way back. Most interested in the unknown, she follows the third branch.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

After a while, the path slopes downward at a fairly steep angle. It twists and turns frequently, allowing no real preview of its destination. Some distance later, the floor becomes slick with moisture.

Spoiler:

dex = 9[dice]0[/dice]

So steep and slick, in fact, that Victoria goes sliding on her back, managing to halt her descent just before the path leads to a sea cave. The crashing waves echo throughout the cave deafeningly. It may take some effort to climb back up.

[Mr. Handy]

Realizing that she has gone too far, Victoria tries to climb back up the slope, wishing that she had used a rope instead of thread.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Spoiler:

die roll[dice]0[/dice]

It proves to be much more difficult to climb up rather than to slide down. (Perhaps this secret passage was meant to transport cargo into a waiting boat; Prohibition, perhaps?) In any case, Victoria faces the choice of calling for help, or exiting the sea cave and trying to find her way back along the coast.

[Mr. Handy]

"Maggie!" Victoria calls up the slope. "I slid down a slope into a sea cave and can't get back up! Fetch some rope and another flashlight, and follow the thread I unrolled to find me! Watch your step so you don't slide down too!"

[SunlessNick]

"Oh, crud." Maggie really doesn't want to go in there, but she can't leave Vix there, especially when Maggie was the one to point it out anyway. She runs off in search of a shed where she might find rope and flashlight, then crawls into the passage, taking it very very slow.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Spoiler:

Unexplained die rolls[dice]0[/dice]

There is plenty of rope, and a powerful flashlight, in the garage. Proceeding with extreme caution, Maggie manages to send the rope down the passage to Victoria, but freezes up when it comes to going down any further herself. She hates enclosed places! It's up to Victoria to climb up the rope herself, which Maggie has tied securely to a heavy piece of furniture in the drawing room.

Spoiler:

Unexplained die rolls[dice]1[/dice]

Straining with the effort, Victoria is barely able to make her way back up to where she started, no wiser but a lot sweatier and dirtier.

After putting everything back where it belongs, changing clothes, and taking a good, hot bath, Victoria is ready to call it a day.

The next morning, during his tutoring, David interrupts his geography lesson by saying "Have a nice trip? See you next fall!" and then snickering.

Later that day, he vanishes for a while -- nothing new there -- and returns with a stash of badly torn old comic books, which Victoria hasn't seen in the collection in his room before.

Meanwhile, after yet another day of hard work at the diner, Maggie comes home to find that her father has completed the painting.