Tommy and Antonio followed Maggie as she led the way to the next floor, where yet another door awaited. This time, upon entering the room, there lied a podium with three dark green bowls laying on top. There didn’t seem to be anything else in the area, not even another door.
They walked toward the bowls to inspect them more closely, feeling there’d be a catch. Shouldn’t the room be harder to solve since they were on a higher level?
Tommy leaned over to check the contents of the bowl, inhaled a whiff, but then darted back in disgust.
“Ugh, this smells awful!” Tommy exclaimed.
“Whatever it could be, will we have to eat it?” Antonio guessed.
“Maybe they can help us with something,” Maggie wondered. “Or maybe they’re supposed to look like that, but they end up tasting good...”
She walked over to the bowl, picked it up, and gulped the contents inside. By the time she put the pot back down, her stomach lurched violently, and hunched over, looking like she'll lose her lunch.
“Never mind, forget what I said; this tastes awful.”
“Are you ok?” Tommy and Antonio asked, concerned by her appearance.
Maggie rubbed her head and groaned in pain, shutting her eyes as tight as she could. When she opened them again, her eyes shot out an array of purple lights. The other two stepped back in shock and noticed that her eyes were now purple instead of blue.
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Maggie looked around, mesmerized by her new talent, while Tommy and Antonio looked at her in confusion. That was, until her glance came to a stop on a nearby wall, and she pointed.
“Hey, I can see a secret passage over there!”
“Wait, you do?” Tommy tilted his head, bewildered. “But I see nothing over there.”
Antonio pondered her situation for a moment before going back to check on the three bowls, one empty and two still left untouched.
“I think whatever this bowl’s contents are, must have given Maggie some inspector vision. But how could—?”
“Eh, who cares?” Tommy interrupted, and shrugged. “Let’s just follow her out of here.”
“All right, then.” Antonio’s words hung in the air as he sauntered away from the bowls; his eyes lingered on the strange liquid inside them.
Antonio and Tommy followed Maggie to where she saw the secret passage. However, as they got closer, Maggie phased through the wall and disappeared.
Antonio and Tommy could still hear Maggie’s voice from behind the wall, telling them she’s perfectly fine. Antonio wondered if they had to eat the contents of the bowl as well to advance to the next room. Maggie mentioned that for her to do it, she consumed the entire dish.
The two boys gulped and gave each other worried glances before slowly heading toward the dishes and picking them up with their hands. Tommy closed his eyes and imagined that the stuff he was having was Lime and Nutmeg flavored ice cream, while Antonio took a deep breath and muttered that he pretended he ate ginger pudding.
The two gulped down the weird contents and felt similar reactions to what Maggie had experienced, including achieving the same purple lights out of their eyes.
They looked around the room and discovered that there were many more objects visible to them now. Tommy and Antonio saw Maggie behind the secret wall and ran toward it to catch up with her.
Within a few minutes of passing through the secret wall, the purple power ran out. They pressed on, hoping to find the gem in time.