Zee and Todd

The next day, Todd found himself wandering down the board walk next to the beach with Zee and Ben with him. Zee was humming some song from the Wizard of Oz while Ben was busy looking around with wide excited eyes at the shops and street dancers that they passed. Jack was nowhere to seen since that morning when they woke up. His bed had been made and his phone and wallet were gone with no note explaining where he was. So Ben was stuck with them while they went to explore the area.

“Could you hum anything else, like Wicked perhaps? The musical was so much better you know.” Todd said once he heard his cousin finish the first song and go to another one.

“Only if you play Elphaba’s part,” Zee replied as Todd just rolled his eyes and shook his head. “OOOOOOOH, we’re off to see the wizard the…”

“Alright alright, you’re such a pain.” Zee smiled in triumph and took a deep breath before starting to sing.

“Hey look at that!” Ben cried cutting Zee off from the first note. They all looked to what he was pointing at and saw an arcade.

Todd smiled and bumped fists with his little brother at distracting Zee from singing Wicked as they crossed the street to the arcade. There was flashing lights coming from the open doors of the arcade and loud noises. Ben ran ahead as he entered the shop and looked around like a kid in the candy shop as he tried to think of what to play first.

“Todd! Look can we play this one first!?” Ben asked as Todd fished in his pockets for some money. When he got change he split it with his little brother and told him to stay close before turning to his cousin with a evil grin.

“Hey Repunzel! You, me, DDR machine now.” He gave a evil look to her as she squinted her eyes and glared at him.

“You are going down!” Zee replied as she passed him and headed toward a open DDR machine. “I wonder if there are any Wizard of Oz songs.”

Todd stood next to her on his own dance pad and put the tokens in and the game started up. Zee started to scroll through the songs picking the most girly songs ever just to annoy Todd before he took over and picked a random song so she wouldn’t over think every single song on the list. The first few steps started and the stared talking to each other to distract them and get their score lower.

After three grueling stages, the game was over and Todd won with Zee close behind him. Ben was still playing the same game he had been when they had first gotten there. They went up to watch him until he ended the game and then Todd and him started up a new game battling each other. Todd picked up the plastic gun after the machine took the coins and started to shoot at the plush pink teddy bears with the bloody faces as they attacked helpless children on the screen.

“Wow, let’s please leave before more pink teddy bears melt my brain.” Zee said as they followed her out of the store. “What is with guys and shooting games? That was the weirdest game ever, just because it has plastic guns makes it manly even if you are shooting pink teddy bears.”

“Girls don’t get it,” Ben mumbled as they walked down the board walk further. It was around eleven in the morning and the walk was really busy and hot.

“Cupcakes get your freshly made cupcakes!” Someone called as the three of them looked down the walk to see two girls dressed in circus costumes with a cart that was brightly decorated. The one that was shouting had a large hat with a oversized cupcake on the top and the other girl wore a top hat with a coat and pants.

“Todd lets get one!” Ben said as he ran up to the girl with the huge cupcake hat and started to talk to her. Zee and Todd followed behind him just as the girl was beginning to tell Ben the different flavors they had.

“Hello there, welcome to Alex and Mel’s fantastical cupcake cart!” The girl said as she pointed to the menu and began to go through what she had just told Ben. Todd saw all the beautiful decorated cupcakes and his stomach began to growl as Ben asked him if they could get one.

When they decided and ordered, the girl with the top hat smiled as she took their money and the other girl got the cupcakes ready. They gave the cupcakes to them in beautiful boxes with the business logo on it and a little bow on top. Thanking them, they found a place to sit and started to eat the amazing cupcakes.

Getting back on the walk after they ate, they began to get father down the board walk where the people began to get fewer. Then none at all.

Zee looked to Todd with her famous excited/waiting for trouble look and Todd shot one right back. He loved finding places where hardly anyone ever went and his cousin so happened to also. That’s what made them the infamous duo that got in trouble for trespassing or sneaking off somewhere where they weren’t supposed to be. Somehow the cousins always happened to find trouble together.

The area they were in at the moment seemed like a ghost town and even if the sun was still shining brightly above them, the place seemed dimmer. There were old buildings that looked like they would crumble if a fly landed on the dark cracked brick would collapse. Zee crossed the deserted street with Todd behind her and Ben almost glued to his side and stopped in front of one of the buildings.

“Wait, Zee what are you doing?” Ben asked nervously as she reached for the dirty metal doorknob of the old apartment building. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.”

“Chill Ben, there’s no one here. It’s not like we’re going to be arrested for being curious.” Todd replied as he nodded to Zee and she turned the knob and the door opened with a creak. She walked in first and then Todd followed behind her.

“Wa-wait.” Ben said as they both looked back to see him planted to the spot where he had been with a freaked out look.

“Ben c’mon the boogey monster isn’t going to pop out behind a corner.” Todd said as he walked back over to Ben and grabbed his arm pulling him inside.

“Oh please, I’m almost 15 I don’t believe in the boogey monster. But I do believe in trespassing which by the way is illegal.”

“Ok Mr. Future-Lawyer relax, we’ve done this plenty of times before.”

“Oh that’s comforting.” Ben mumbled as Zee and Todd began to walk further into the building. The room they entered in was large with old wooden flooring and furniture that was covered in white sheets.

Todd went over and lifted the sheet on one of the large pieces and found a desk with old papers covering it and a dried up pen. Shuffling through the papers, he saw that they seemed to be information on different people on medical things. Then searching further, he saw that it was patient information on their dental work.

A bang came and Todd looked up to see Ben with a stunned expression and dust floating around him from the box he had just dropped. He shot his brother a look before going back to the papers and reading them.

“What’d you find!?” Zee asked as Todd looked up to see his cousin next to a filing cabinet with a curious look on her face.

“A bunch of dental patient information, I bet the examination room is still here!” Todd said with a grin growing on his face. He put the papers he had been reading down and walked to the door which seemed to lead further into the building and found a hallway with broken tilted picture frames.

There were doors on either side of the hallway walls and Todd picked a door at random and pulled it open. His smile grew more as he saw that it was an examination room and walked in with Zee close behind him. There was a dental chair in the middle of the room with a broken head rest and dust covering all of it. Next to the chair was a little rolling tray with some dental instruments on it.

Zee started to rummage through the tray as Todd went to the counter and started to rummage through that. Ben must have come in at some point since as they were in middle of the search another bang came and they turned to see Ben messing around with something again.

“Ben I swear to God,” Todd stared as Ben cut him off.

“Wait look at this.” He pointed to the wall he was facing and pushed the wall and it swung to the side. Todd and Zee shared a look before walking over to the boy and peering inside the dark hallway that Ben had found.

Todd pulled out his phone and the light brightened the hallway. All Todd saw was a long hallway made in concrete covered in cobwebs and never seemed to end. Zee eagerly nodded when he looked to her again and he took the first step into the passage as someone grabbed his arm.

“Wait, no let’s just leave.” Ben pleaded.

“It’ll be fine Ben, stay here if you want. We’ll be right back.” Todd replied as he pulled his arm from his brother and continued to walk down the hallway with Zee next to him. He heard a sigh as Ben mumbled something under his breath that sounded something like he owes him and then footsteps following behind the cousins.

They saw light coming a ways down the passage and soon Todd shoved his phone back in his pocket when the light was bright enough. As they got closer, Zee grabbed Todd’s arm and put her finger to her lip the shush him. He suddenly heard two voices coming from somewhere down the passage who seemed to be fighting.