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Despite having been in Castle Ravenloft for what felt like an eternity at this point, Terry Jr. still couldn’t get used to it. He and the other Doodlers had a set of chambers that the Omega Daddies (eugh, that still felt weird to call them) put them in. The chambers were…spacious? Definitely bigger than a bedroom, at least. There were technically three rooms, a sleeping area with two big bunk beds and a chest for the paltry things they were allowed, a room only separated from the sleeping area by three large columns that held only a large dining table with chairs, and then a bathroom off the dining room. The bathroom was small, and with five middle schoolers using it, Terry was afraid that it would become a health hazard.
The castle was cold, too. Their chambers had two fireplaces, but the large windows still let the chill in. Terry Jr. begged Willy for more blankets the first night he arrived, and he was thankful that Willy caved and finally handed out some extra blankets. That was probably the last ‘nice’ thing he ever did, though.
Terry Jr. developed somewhat of a routine with Nick, Lark, and Sparrow at night when it was coldest. After the Omega Daddies told them to go to bed, they lit the fire in their bedroom fireplace, gathered up all the blankets and pillows off their beds, and made a little nest in front of the fire. Then the four of them cuddled up together, and one of them turned on their phone to use as an alarm. Since they needed to get into their beds before one of the Omega Daddies woke them up in the morning, they needed an alarm to make sure they woke up first.
Then Grant arrived, and Terry worried that he wouldn’t join the routine. He seemed so very different, so…distant. Grant didn’t seem to care about the cold, nor did he care to join the cuddle pile that Nick refused to call a cuddle pile. Terry worried, a lot.
“Hey, I think we’re gonna go to bed soon,” Terry said, plopping down on Grant’s bed. He took the bunk right underneath Terry, and he stared at the slats of Terry’s bunk rather than Terry himself.
“Yeah, I’m tired, so…” Grant mumbled, and he shrugged.
“Do you want to join us? It’s a little easier to sleep by the fire,” Terry asked. He pretended he couldn’t hear Lark and Sparrow playing in the fire.
Grant shrugged again, though. Terry wanted to grab him by the hand and yank him into the pile, but he knew that wouldn’t accomplish what he wanted. He needed to go at Grant’s pace.
“Hey, I just thought of something…” Terry said. He grinned as Grant finally looked at him. “The two of us are the oldest here.”
“Yeah…?” Grant sat up a little, confused.
“Does that mean we’re in charge?” Terry asked, grin growing wider. A small grin came over Grant’s face, too, and he nodded.
“I think that we’ve always been in charge,” he said.
“What’re you two talking about over there?” Sparrow asked, looking up from the fireplace.
“Me and Terry are in charge,” Grant said.
“What!” Nick and Lark yelped in unison. The two glared at each other, and Lark pushed Nick back.
“I think since Sparrow and I are clearly the strongest and most capable—we did, after all, start a cult and have people worship us—we should be in charge. We’re very good at it!” Lark reasoned.
“Yeah, no,” Grant said as he rolled his eyes. “Sorry, but the sixth-graders are not in charge.”
“We are more capable than you give us credit for!” Sparrow fussed.
“Well, even if you two were in charge, which you’re not,” Nick started. He got to his feet and crossed his arms. “I don’t recognize your authority, so I’m not gonna listen to you. So you might as well not be in charge!”
Terry groaned, and he got to his feet. “I just mean that since Grant and I are the oldest, we have the most life experience, which means we should be in charge because we know what we’re doing. We can keep you guys safe.”
“We don’t need your protection!” Lark insisted.
“We need anarchy! Fuck the man!” Nick yelled with him. Then, unfortunately, Nick’s belly growled. As a blush came over his face, Sparrow’s belly growled too, and he wrapped his arms around himself.
“When’s the last time you guys ate?” Grant asked. As he thought about it, he didn’t remember eating all day, and the last thing he had was breakfast the morning he saw his dad… His stomach ached, but it didn’t growl.
“We had dinner yesterday, didn’t we?” Sparrow tried to recall.
“We had lunch yesterday…” Nick groaned. “They forgot to feed us, I think.”
Terry winced. He felt so bad for his friends, and he tried to hide his own hunger pains. They needed to do something…
“Hey lights out, kids,” Willy said as he threw open their door. Four of five kids jumped at the sound of his voice. “I don’t want to hear anymore yelling or whining in here, got it? Go to bed.”
“Yessir,” Terry Jr. said just to get him to leave. Willy looked pleased as he nodded, and he dragged the door shut. The kids listened as he locked the door from the outside, and they listened as heavy boots made their way down the stone hallway. Once Terry was sure he was gone, he opened his mouth to speak, then—
“Let’s break out of here,” Grant said.
“What?” Terry hissed. “We’re going to get caught, and then who knows what they’ll do!”
“I can pick locks!” Lark said, and he held up a broken piece from the fireplace tongs. “We can get out!”
“I’ll help, brother,” Sparrow said. Before Terry could stop them, the twins ran to the door to begin their work.
“Nick,” Terry started, looking at him desperately. He could see the fear in his eyes, see them wide with worry, but then Nick’s stomach rumbled again.
Nick covered his belly, a blush on his face as he looked up at Terry. “I think we can do it…we’ll just have to be sneaky, yeah?”
Terry sighed in defeat. He was hungry, the others were hungry, and maybe they could even find a way out of the castle…! “Okay, fine, but we all have to stick together. No one can run off on their own!” Terry made a point to look the twins in the eye as he spoke.
“Me thinks Terry does not trust us, brother,” Sparrow said to Lark.
“We shall have to prove ourselves as the rightful leaders of this group, in that case,” Lark said. He cheered triumphantly as the lock finally came undone, and they were free.
Grant got to his feet, and he made his way to the front of the group. “Okay, if we’re sneaking around and hiding, I’m in charge. Got it?”
“What makes you think you’re the leader!” Lark fussed.
“I just am,” Grant said. He made eye contact with Terry, who nodded in approval. “Let’s go. I think the kitchen is just on the floor below us.”
None of them spent much time out of their chambers, really. Terry didn’t know where anything in the castle was; he hardly knew where in the castle they even were. He knew Grant didn’t have any better clue what the layout of the castle was, but he decided to trust him rather than argue.
Terry felt Nick grab his hand in the darkness, and he had to squash down the little grin on his face. He was probably the only person who knew Nick was afraid of the dark. He was pretty sure Nick’s dad didn’t even know he was afraid. Nick kept his cool-guy demeanor and did his best to seem like he didn’t care about anything, but Terry knew better.
“Is there even gonna be any food down there?” Nick hissed into the darkness.
“We’re gonna find out,” Grant whispered back.
Terry felt Nick squeeze his hand tighter.
The five of them froze when they heard footsteps, and Grant cursed.
“Here, under the window!” Sparrow hissed. He grabbed the end of a curtain and tossed it over himself and Lark. Terry, Nick, and Grant managed to join them, and they listened to clanging as two skeleton guards made their way down the hall.
As footsteps faded, Terry poked his head out. “I think the coast is clear, guys.”
Grant nodded, and he pushed back the curtain. The five of them made it to the stairs, but that only made Terry more nervous. The staircase hugged the rounded walls, spiraling down to the ground. Braziers lined the wall going down, though only a few were lit. Shadows danced on the rock walls in horrible shapes that planted a seed of dread in Terry’s belly. If Nick’s grip on him was any indication, he didn’t like the shadows either.
“Let’s go,” Grant said, unbothered. He kept one hand on the wall as he led the way down. Sparrow and Lark copied, and Terry kept a hand on the wall for Nick. He prayed to whatever gods ruled this world that they didn’t get caught.
They made it to the bottom of the stairs, and Terry sighed in relief when he saw no guards or Omega Daddies.
“I think the kitchen’s this way,” Grant said, and he nodded toward the left.
“It’s gotta be this way, don’t be stupid!” Lark said, pointing to the right.
“Who’s been through here the most recently?” Grant challenged.
“I have a photographic memory and I know more than you!” Lark argued.
“Okay, okay, let’s just…let’s try going to the left first, and if it’s wrong, Grant can apologize?” Terry suggested.
“Those words will taste so sweet. Sweeter than the candy that I will steal from these assholes,” Lark said, satisfied.
“I never said anything about apo—whatever,” Grant grumbled. He led the way to the left, and Terry could have cried in relief when he saw the kitchen. Lark grumbled, and Sparrow patted his shoulder to comfort his brother. “Let’s just grab some food and get out of here,” Grant said.
A few candles were lit on the walls, and unlit ones littered the counters. Terry grabbed one of the candles off the wall to light more, and Nick sighed in relief.
“D’you wanna hold one of them?” Terry asked.
“Uh, no, I- Do you think they have, like, potato bags or something?”
“Potato bags?” Terry questioned. “How many potatoes are you gonna eat?”
“No! Just—move, I’ve got an idea,” Nick groaned. He shoved his way passed Terry and darted for a pantry door. Sparrow followed after him spouting off all the different foods he wanted to steal.
Inside the pantry was a wide array of all the different foods they could imagine. Meats, cheeses, vegetables, and even cereal and grains filled the room. Nick dove for a bag of potatoes, and he dumped all the potatoes out onto the floor.
“Fill the bag!” he hissed into the darkness. Nick grabbed a stick of dried pork and shoved it into the bag. Sparrow and Lark gasped, and they went around the room grabbing whatever they could, shoving in cheese, fruit, cookies, bread, and a few Earth snacks like mini boxes of cereal and chips.
“There’s some water in here, too,” Grant said, and he grabbed a couple of water skins off the wall.
“Hey, look, powdered milk?” Terry questioned, grabbing the packets off the shelves. “If we’re having cereal, yeah?”
“In the bag,” Nick said, shaking around the increasingly heavy bag. Terry added a few of the packets.
“We need some bowls and silverware…” Terry looked around, and he spotted some wooden bowls, spoons, and forks. He grabbed them and tucked them under his arms. “Let’s get out of here…”
“Do you think we have enough?” Grant asked Nick.
“I don’t think I can carry more,” he whined.
“We can help!” Sparrow said, taking the bottom of the bag.
Lark grabbed some more cookies, and he grabbed a bag of marshmallows. “I think we’ve got it!” he said, struggling with his own armfuls.
“Let’s go, then,” Grant said. He led the way back up to their room, and the five of them shuffled back into the room as quickly as they could.
“We can keep the bag in the chest,” Nick said. He darted over to the chest and opened the lid to plop the bag inside. “Willy’s never checked in here, so we should be good.”
“What do we want to eat, then?” Terry said. “We’ve got just about everything we could think of.”
“I want bread!” Lark said. He grabbed the loaf from the bag and held it up triumphantly.
“Should we just make sandwiches for tonight, then?” Terry asked.
“Works for me,” Grant said with a shrug. He scooted out of the way so the twins could grab whatever they wanted first.
“How do you make grilled cheese?” Nick asked.
“You don’t know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich?” Terry asked, brow quirked.
“Me and Dad don’t really…cook. We order a lot of stuff. But, my mom used to make grilled cheese, and that was really good…” Nick said. Terry sighed, and he cut off a few slices of bread before Lark could protest. He grabbed some cheese, but he didn’t know how well it would melt. He didn’t even really know what kind of cheese it was. Terry grabbed some mayo and slathered it on the bread as he assembled the sandwich.
“C’mere, I’ll show you,” Terry said. Nick trailed after him.
There was a little metal tray on the inside of the fireplace, so Terry laid the sandwich down on that. He showed Nick how to tell when it was ready to flip, and he flipped it over with the fireplace tongs. Once the sandwich was done, he dropped it in a bowl since they had no plates.
“Bon appetit, and all that,” Terry said. Nick said his thanks, and Terry fixed his own grilled cheese sandwich.
Grant made himself a ham and beef jerky sandwich, and he held it above his head when Lark tried to take it from him. He shoved Lark away with his hand on his face while he ate, which Lark cried out injustice over.
“Shhhh!” Terry fussed. “Don’t be so loud! We’re supposed to be asleep.”
“This isn’t fair…” Lark whined, plopping down on his bed.
“Should we get the nest made?” Sparrow asked. “I'm getting sleepy…”
“Yeah, let’s get everything set…” Terry said. He took a swig of water from the skin, and he passed it to Sparrow while he stripped his bed. Nick hopped up onto the other top bunk and grabbed his blankets and pillow, and Lark and Sparrow grabbed all of theirs. The twins looked at Grant expectantly, so he took his blankets and pillow to the fire.
“How does this work?” he asked as he dropped everything on the ground.
“We put two layers of blankets on the floor since it’s kind of hard, and then we just use the remaining blankets for our covers…and you can put your pillow wherever you want,” Terry said.
Grant nodded, and he helped Sparrow spread out the blankets. They arranged the pillows so that the five of them had their feet toward the hearth. Nick tossed another log onto the fire, and he stirred the wood around to make sure the flames wouldn’t die before he ran back to his bed.
“What’s he doing?” Grant asked Terry.
“Don’t acknowledge it, it’s fine,” Terry said. He laid down, Lark and Sparrow at his left, and Grant laid down on the twins’ other side. Nick came back over, and he laid down beside Terry. “All good?” Terry asked quietly. Nick nodded, and he laid down with his head on his pillow. Terry barely caught sight of the raggedy stuffed bunny in Nick’s arms, but it made him smile. He was glad he remembered to text Nick before they left for the soccer game to pack for a sleepover.
“Who’s turn is it to set an alarm?” Nick asked.
“It’s Grant’s first night, so it’s his turn!” Lark insisted.
“Sure, whatever,” Grant said as he pulled out his phone. He powered it on and turned his brightness completely down. He set an alarm and placed his phone by his head. “Everyone all set?”
Sparrow rolled over to face Terry, a little grin on his face. Terry groaned, but he complied.
“You only get one story, got it?” he said. Sparrow nodded, so Terry sat up. “Once upon a time, there were three frogs who lived in a castle…”
Terry liked being in charge. He liked taking care of the others, even if it they were annoying, and he liked helping. Sure, their situation sucked majorly, but at least they had full bellies and a warm fire. None of them knew what the next morning might bring, but Terry knew they could handle it so long as they all stuck together.