Kylie shuddered. “Now that we’re out of that house, to imagine going back inside, even if just for one second, makes my insides twist around themselves!”

“Same,” Frankie agreed. “Never, ever again.”

Matt couldn’t agree more.

“Whoa, check out this snack spread!” Danny said from behind them, and when Matt turned he was greeted by the sight of a table that held a variety of delicious-looking snacks: gummy worms, little individual cups of dirt cake, and paper cups filled with orange juice. Their victory snacks from the Game Master, no doubt.

“Yum!” Without thinking, Matt rushed forward and grabbed a cup of dirt cake, taking a big chocolatey bite that was so good it made him close his eyes. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he’d become; his stomach had been too busy fighting the discomfort of being locked inside the house to notice before. Grateful, he took a big swig of juice, before turning back to the group and offering another dirt cake cup to Frankie.

“I . . . think I’ve had enough dirt cake for today, thanks,” Frankie said with a laugh, walking over to the table beside Matt. “I’ll totally take some gummy worms, though.”

“I want cake!” Kylie cried as she rushed over, digging in just like Matt had. “Mmm, this is delicious!”

“I will also be choosing worms over cake,” Becca said, going for the orange juice first.

The group ate their snacks for a few moments of silence. Matt was relieved that his clothes had mostly dried from the mud-water incident. Regardless, he couldn’t wait to get home.

“No way,” Miguel said, suddenly moving over to one of the windows carved out of the side of the treehouse. “Becca and Danny and Frankie—didn’t you say one of your clues had something to do with webs in trees?”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Why?”

“Because there are wood worms living in this tree,” Miguel said, amused as he pointed out a patch of webbing spread over the bark. “Just like the clue said.”

“Wow,” Frankie said. “It all made sense in the end, then.”

Matt couldn’t help but be impressed at the complexity of it all. “Dang,” he said. “The Game Master really went all out for this game, didn’t they? I wonder how long it’d take to plan something like that?”

It would take a long time, he realized. Maybe even up to two months or more—just about the same amount of time that had passed since the first round of games.

“Seriously,” Becca said. “That was way more intense than summer school. I’m so glad whoever it is decided to give Elephant and Nacho back for real and didn’t drag it on any longer.”

Matt tried to imagine how he would have felt if instead of finding Elephant and Nacho in the treehouse, they’d found another clue from the Game Master. Thank goodness that hadn’t been the case!