It was pouring like cats and dogs the night a single officer walked up to the doors of an unmarked hideout. In any other scenario, Bumble would have been considered completely insane trusting the word of a random caller to rendezvous under their terms. Who would even dream of meeting someone they met over anonymous means under the false belief of knowing them? However, these were dark times for the city of Salem, and anything was better than nothing to complete the job.Hough scanned the surrounding area before knocking on the door. Like every other criminal hideout, the door had an eye-level opening for the guard inside to ask for a password. Whether it's trolls or bulking security personnel, the world sometimes never changes. "Ay, Billy! We gotz us one of them female heat! Ya want 'ah or should I geddin on---"
"I made a deal to come here," Bumble interjected, hand on her pistol. "Don't make me regret it."
The door guard paused for a moment and then gazed at Bumble with a look of admiration. "I like 'em feisty! Forbidden fruit, we use to call 'em in Italia..." All of the guard's buddies started to laugh hysterically at the remark as he opened the door.
"Cahman, bay BEE!" he yelled, walking over to Bumble with open arms.
Bumble glared at him and gave him a warning to back away. After his lack of acknowledgement, she managed to do a double flip from the street to where the guard stood, grabbing his head on the way down from the final one. The guard let out a grunt as she pulled him down to the ground and kicked him in the face while spinning back into standing position.
"Che paccato..."
Everyone went silent as a single figure in a white Mafia outfit gracefully strolled from a backroom to the street smoking a cigar. Bumble felt the temptation to fight this one, but curiosity took priority.
"I apologize, amore mio. Sometimes these jamooks put their mouth in front of their brains and end up eating the dirt."
"May I ask who you are?"
The man checked around and glanced back at Bumble. "These men call me Il Liberatore, but you may know me...as GHOST. Let us discuss more in my office."
"Gladly," Bumble responded, kicking the door guard below the belt on her way inside.
The office of Il Liberatore had to be about the size of a classroom. Angel statues decorated the freshly painted walls holding watering cans that poured into sumptuous fountains. Carpets adorned with art of the Basilica of Santa Croce, and other religious structures, amazed Bumble on her way over to the closest seat.
"Benvenuta, officer. I am pleased to see you agreed to my terms and came alone."
"Who was the guard at the door?"
"Oh, Bolly? He's a weird one...didn't think he'd tryta pick a fight when he could tell by the way ya look ya could beatim up! I'll have him killed later."
Bumble shuffled a little in her seat uncomfortably. "Why did you decide to work with us?"
"I feel our organizations can have ahselves a wonderful relationship. We share a common goal...eliminate the Old Bosses."
"Are you not a part of the Mafia yourself?"
"We are Mafia, but to the Old Bosses, we are nothing but trash. A new generation of organized crime is on the horizon, amore mio, but one where our people and yar people can act separately without the need for violence. The Old Bosses caused the death of yah partner, Wimi. How can you say there will not be anymore unnecessary death under the regime of these old fools?"
"I see...where is the information you promised us, then?"
"Yes, the information...where did I put that..." Liberatore shuffled for a document among the mess on his desk. "Ah, here it is!" He reached for a buzzer on his desk and looked back at Bumble with a smile. "Guards?"
Two massive security guards blocked the entrance of the office and glared at their boss. "Thank you."
Bumble stood up in disgust and pulled out her pistol. "YOU SET ME UP, YOU BASTARD!"
"Put the gun away, Hough. We do not want to be violent. At least, not yet."
One of the guards grabbed Bumble's pistol, picked her up, and put her back into her seat. "Now, you know as well as me that we cannot entirely trust each other to keep our arrangement from going public. I needed to find a way to prove that you really do wish to work with the Liberatori."
"By doing what?"
"Antonio?"
The last sound Bumble heard was a tranquilizer going off.
~~~~
When Bumble awoke, an unconscious man fell down next to her. She looked up and saw a group of Liberatori surrounding a prisoner whose face was covered by a burlap sack. The prisoner growled at their captors and started to unleash a rage-induced fury of fists and kicks that resulted in all of the men being knocked out in under a minute.
Bumble looked at her side and saw a note that appeared to be from Liberatore.
"If you wish to work for our people, you must kill for our people."
Suddenly, the prisoner noticed the sound of Bumble picking up the note and raced over in her direction. With no weapons in sight, it appeared a fistacuffs was about to ensue.
Bumble curled up into a ball and then kicked the prisoner down once they ran over. As the prisoner recovered from the fall, Hough grabbed for the sack on their face and ripped it off, revealing who it was.
----
This week, the Mafia experienced their first loss, meaning that their Bottom 2 consisted of Shannon and Damon. Similar to last week's elimination challenge, these fierce competitors had to face each other in a word competition called "Cornucopia". After about 20 minutes of coming up with as many words as possible in 20 second sections, a victor was decided.
With a total of 56 words thought up under pressure, Damon was able to beat Shannon's 30 word run and become the safe Mafia this week. It chokes me up just thinking of what is next.
----
It took Shanerys a moment to take in her surroundings after hours of being in "Maskland". While walking home, she had been grabbed by a group of criminals and thrown into a van. Now, she was in a white and blue room forced to fight to the death against anyone they threw against her. They didn't call her the Mafia Queen for nothing.
Bumble spaced herself from Shanerys and started to hold up her fists.
"You were that one who fired at us at the parking lot..."
"You are criminal scum and deserved it."
"We just want money, we didn't want trouble."
Bumble lunged at Shanerys and started to repeatedly punch her in the face. Shanerys grabbed onto Bumble's hair and used it to whip her off.
"The Mafia will fall, blondie."
"At what cost? You have fallen lower than us."
Bumble tackled Shanerys and started to wrap her hands around her neck. She normally didn't feel this much rage, but this was her career, her entire objective being attacked here.
"SKOOL IS THE SAVIOR OF SALEM!"
"IS IT?!?"
Shanerys could not fight Bumble's strong grip and stopped resisting. Within a few seconds, the Queen had lost consciousness. One cop was dead, and with them a Mafia.
Il Liberatore opened the door to the room and smiled.
"Ya really were serious. Let's get down to business."
----
Thank you, Shannon, for being a part of Skool of Salem. You have always been a strong competitor as shown by your previous victories in CP College and Xerxes Apprentice. Sadly, you were not able to make your reign as champion in this gameshow.
I hope that you continue to follow along and remember the fun times you had being a contestant of the gameshow. We'll need you one day, possibly.
The Challenge 3 post will be up tonight at midnight PST. Until then, I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend and I'll see you soon. Thank you for helping us ensure another week of Skool of Salem went smoothly.
-Matt
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