Chapter 180 - Janitor's Room

"Where's the collar? Did you get it?" the fake Petunia suddenly shouted across the hallway full of brainwashed female guards from the checkpoint.

"Uhmm," the female guards looked at each other in uncertainty.

"You don't have it?" Petunia said with a threatening tone.

"The Commander is currently in interrogation, Ma'am." One of the serious-looking ones stepped forward and said.

"Where?" the fake Petunia said and stepped on one of the guards who offered their hands as transport for her.

"Inside the interrogation room, Ma'am," the female guard said.

"Take me there immediately," the fake Petunia said to the guard holding her who immediately complied.

***

"Did we lost them?" Fily whispered to Lei who was keeping them safe and away from the four female guards who went after them.

"Shh," Lei said and peeked cautiously at the corner of their hiding place.

When Fily put her back on the wall once again, she noticed Venedette looking worried and undecided about something as if she wanted to tell them something.

"What is it?" Fily asked while still staying alert.

"The Commander is not in his office, what if something bad happened to him?" Venedette said without holding back to Fily.

"Don't worry, we'll find him once we find the real Petunia," Fily said and was ready to leave when a question suddenly popped inside her brain.

"What made you so sure that the Petunia we saw earlier wasn't the real Petunia anyway?" Fily asked even though she had a hint of why Venedette did that in the first place.

Before Venedette could answer, Fily noticed Lei's look at her as if she just asked Venedette something stupid.

"What?" Fily said, provoking Lei to spill it out but Lei only rolled his eyes and stepped outside of their hiding place, indicating they're safe to go and there's no one around them anymore.

"Petunia shouldn't have any memories of who we are right now, and besides, the mere fact that she was able to manipulate all those people and make them bend at her wishes isn't just something that Petunia would normally do, even if she lost all her memories about us," Venedette said.

"Right. That's why we're looking for the collar, right?" Fily asked again just to make sure.

"Yes. Having that collar in the wrong Petunia would make things more confusing for us since she will have access to the real Petunia's memories with us and even pretend that she's the real Petunia just by doing so. I don't know how I could differentiate them anymore if that happens," Venedette said and was cut by Fily's sudden thought.

"But if that happens then shouldn't we be able to recognize the real Petunia if the one without the collar just… forgets everything?" 

"The fake Petunia could also pretend to not know anything if we managed to give the real Petunia the collar," Lei suddenly said and placed his pointer finger in front of his lips to signal them to quiet down while making their way carefully along the hallway.

"I just wish we have something else aside from their memories and look that could tell us which one is the real Petunia," Venedette whispered to herself sincerely.

"Show us the way, Fily," Lei said after sensing two guards coming to their location.

"There are four areas in this place where they keep criminals detained and the closest one near us is the one near the interrogation room where hanged in yesterday," Fily said.

"And the way to there is?"

"Go straight and then take two lefts."

"We have a problem, there are two guards coming that way," Lei said and pulled the two back to their hiding place earlier inside the janitor's room.

"I could just knock them both out," Venedette said and held the doorknob but Fily quickly grabbed her hand to stop her.

"We can't do that. We don't know what kind of glamor that fake Petunia did to the female guards of this place to keep them in check and under her orders but I'm sure it's something that could track her people and if we knock the two of them out they will quickly notice something wrong."

"And besides, we have been avoiding the surveillance cameras for these past few minutes but are most likely monitoring the whole place right now, and even if there's no glamour in these two guards passing by, they could still see something wrong with the surveillance cameras," Lei said with caution.

"Oh, about that…" Fily said and suddenly paused as if her soul just left her body for a minute.

"What?" Lei said and even waved his hands in front of Fily's eyes to see if she was still there but no matter his distraction, she was still empty and very focused on something that she seemed like she did not even see Lei waving her hands in front of her.

"Done!" Fily suddenly said with a cheerful voice which made Lei and Venedette's heart jump from the shock of it all, especially since there were two guards currently passing by the hallway just outside their hiding place.

"Lock the door!" Venedette whispered to Lei aggressively which Lei immediately did with his ninja skills by tumbling across the worn-out couch until the door that turned out to be already locked by Fily earlier when she removed Venedette's hands from it.

"Sorry," Fily whispered with a peace sign while avoiding Lei's glare at her.

"What did you do?" Venedette asked Fily after realizing that she must have been in her mind palace earlier when her eyes suddenly became empty.

"I hacked the surveillance system and disconnected all signals in their control room," Fily said and even smiled with a proud face for what she just did.

But then suddenly, in the most unexpected timing, Lei turned the lights off and placed all his weight to keep the door closed when three knocks suddenly banged on the door of their hiding place.

"Oh no, they heard me!" Fily whispered aggressively with her heart rising up her throat as if it wanted to jump out of her already.

"I got this," Venedette said and stepped forward but Lei quickly raised his arms to her level to stop her.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" a deep male voice said while still knocking on their door which made Fily, Venedette, and Lei look at each other instinctively even across the darkness with their slight night visions.

[Fily: Should we let them in? They're not affected by the glamour that the fake Petunia used]

[Lei: How can we be so sure about that?]

[Venedette: We can't let them in. If they don't have the glamour then shouldn't they be in that jail along with the other guys?]

[Fily: What? Where did you get that information? Even I don't know what's happening out there.]

[Venedette: Just a hunch. When we heard about the real Petunia being in jail and seeing the Commander in chief out of his office and this place deserted of male guards, I just got the idea that they must have been in the jail with either the Commander or Petunia.] Venedette explained calmly even though the banging on the door was getting louder now.

"Please open the door! There are three females coming this way and we have to hide immediately!" the guy pleaded which made Venedette and the kids inside the janitor's room more confused.

"How are they so sure that we're inside this particular room when there's a lot of open and locked rooms out there?" Venedette said and stood properly as if her patience was running out already.

She even warmed up her knuckles to get ready for a fight that Lei was trying his best to prevent from happening.

"Please! We saw you come in this door-" the first guy pleaded but was interrupted when his companion talked.

"Shh, we're not even sure if they're also hiding like us," his companion said, seemingly convincing the other guy to just hide in another place to not get caught by those female guards on the lookout for more of them out there.

"No, why else would they lock the door on us if they're not hiding?" the first guy said stubbornly and knocked on the door again which made Lei put down his defenses and convinced that they were not glamoured just like the others.

"Just let them in and I will make sure they stay quiet until those two female guards pass by," Venedette said and was met with a nod by both Fily and Lei in favor of her decision.

"Here, wrap this around their faces after you open the door," Fily said while handing two face towels to each of them after finding those lying around the cleaner's closets.

"I'll open the door but you've got to stay quiet, alright?" Lei said and quickly opened the door without even giving the two guys to think and agree with him.

Once Lei opened the door and the two guys who were leaning on it fell on the floor inside the dark janitor's room, Venedette and Lei quickly moved to cover their faces with the long and thick face towels that Fily told them to use earlier.

"See, I told you they're also hiding like us-" the first guard said which made Venedette tighten the wrap around his face to keep him from talking too much.