EXIII: Audition: Some Kind of Adventure

    I scratched my head before I went back to writing in my composition notebook. The ending to this story was getting more and more confusing every time Jared tried to explain it to me. I heard him sigh in frustration inside my head.

    We’ll just try again later. He said.

    Yeah sure. I was tired anyways. I needed to get some homework done.

    “Everything okay?” Steven asked floating down next to me.

    I just shrugged at him.

    I was home alone for the day since both of my parents were at work. I stayed on my usual spot on my couch, sitting sideways and facing my laptop. My books were on the coffee table next to me and the TV was running away mindless in the background.

    But it was even quieter than usual today. Most of my characters were out and about, either in their own universe or somewhere else. It wasn’t uncommon but still felt strange without the commotion.

    Right now it was just Lenore, since Leoleu was out, Koba, Ingen, Riune, and of course Steven.

    “When are you going to hang with Lester again?” I nudged him.

    “Wh-when I can I mean... g-gosh stop.” He covered his face.

    I giggled. He was the most adorable blood covered ghost around.

    “Okay time to get to work.” I clapped my hands together.

    “What are you working on today?” Ingen sprung out of the kitchen.

    “Well I have some lame geography homework, then I’ve gotta work on those refs for Oria and Halvard.”

    “That sounds fantastic.” He put his hands together.

    “Where have the others gone?”

    “Koba and Lenore are reading right now. I think Riune is in the garage?” He glanced back.

    Lenore is reading? I thought.

    Well I have to do something in my downtime. She snapped back at me.

    If you’d like to know she’s reading The Hobbit. Koba spoke up.

    Shut-up at least it’s not another Nora Roberts repeat. Lenore spat back.

    I could practically hear Koba snort from the other room.

    What about you, Riune? What are you working on? I thought.

    But I didn’t hear anything in response. I frowned. Riune?

    “He was out there.” Ingen turned. “Maybe he’s just caught up, I’ll go check on him.” He sprung into the kitchen and I heard him open the door before shutting it behind him.

    I finally just shrugged and pulled out my notebook. It wasn’t the first time I couldn’t get in touch with them after all. He probably was just caught up on his work.

    Suddenly the air turned frigid. Steven was much closer to me now, blood floating up from his limbs.

    “Huh? What’s wro-”

    There was a man in my house.

    A tall, sorta muscular, tan man was in my house.

    How the hell did he even get in? Why didn’t the dogs do anything. Wait they were outside, shit.

    “Howdy,” He smiled though I couldn’t see his eyes.

    I screamed.

    I tossed my notebook at him before making a break for it. I tried to open the front door but when I realized it was jammed I ran upstairs instead. My dad was remodeling the guest room so there were plenty of tools I could use as weapons right? Steven was right behind me the whole time and I snatched up a hammer as well as the balancer.

    “Something’s wrong.” Steven said.

    “Yeah there’s a weird guy in my house.”

    “No, I mean he came out of nowhere. Not only that he looked directly at me.”

    “But... but he’s not from another universe like you?” It was a roundabout way of asking if he was another character.

    “No... well sort off... hard to say. But I don’t like him.”

    “Well hopefully I can beat him over the head and call the cops.”

    “I don’t think that’s going to work.” The man stood at the entrance to the room.

    Steven immediately created a blood cloud around him.

    “What do you want?” I hoped at least I could get some answers before something bad happened. Or maybe I could jump out the window and run down the street.

    “I’m Death.”

    “Oh hell no, I am not dying today.”

    “I didn’t say that.”

    “Why else would you be here then?”

    “Need some help down under.” He smiled. “But I can’t really get dead people to do it.”

    “Well, you could have at least knocked.”

    He shrugged.

    “And besides, go to the underworld-”

    “Nothing.”

    “Whatever you call it. I’d kind of need to be back by dinner. Plus I have school and shit. Why the hell would I go down there?”

    “That’s another thing.” He rubbed his chin. “May as well inform you there’s no promise you’ll even make it down there.”

    Steven’s blood cloud started to shoot across the room before I grabbed him and pulled him back. I had no idea what this Death was capable of and I didn’t want Steven to get hurt.

    “Nice body guard there. He’s more prepared than the others were.”

    “What?” I glared.
    
    “Your other four brain children.”

    “What did you do?” I shouted, tempted to throw the hammer at him.

    “I’m actually not sure. The Coroner mentioned them for something but... well I’m just interested in you.”

    “So they’re in Nothing then.”

    “Most likely. Be a shame if all your characters got stuck down there.”

    I actually snorted and laughed a bit. As if those were my only characters, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

    “If you came with me, you could help them.”

    As if! I would die wouldn’t I?

    But I couldn’t just leave them down there, right now I couldn’t even hear their thoughts. Is that why Riune went quiet? God damn he took us all by surprise.

    “I have a bad feeling if I said no you’d kidnap me anyways.” I rolled the hammer around in my hand.

    He just shrugged.

    “If you’re going then I’m going to.” Steven glared at me.

    “He can do that right?” I looked at Death.

    “Sure can.”

    “Fine then, I’ll give it a shot-”

    Suddenly the ground was gone.

    I was falling, very fast it seemed, but I couldn’t see anything. I closed my eyes, not sure if I should wait for my body to slam into something or not. Surely he wouldn’t just let me die, right?

    But before I hit anything everything went black.

------------------------------

    It smelled like gasoline but not. A mixture of gasoline and those bags of outdated cole slaw we sometimes found in the fridge at work. Either way it was awful and it was the first thing I woke up to.

    I was sitting on something hard, rusty even? I felt around a bit and realized it was the bed of a truck. I assumed it wasn’t my dads.

    Either way my hands were tied and my eyes were covered, which sucked a lot.

    But blind or not I wasn’t about to stay in this truck, especially with how quiet it was.

    I nudged over in my seat, trying to reach for the tailgate. It was shut, of course. I carefully stood, reaching for it again to steady myself. My leg went over easily, but putting my foot down on the running board was another challenge. After a few minutes of flailing I thought I found it before I fell. I screamed a bit, and my roped hands somehow managed to catch onto something leaving me dangling. Man if someone drove off in this right now that would suck.

    But I decided to use this to my advantage by wiggling and pulling on my hands. I could feel the rope giving way before it finally snapped. My hands were free.

    I ripped the blind fold off and jumped when I saw where I was. It was the middle of a city, looking just how I always imagined them, grey, dingy, and awful. I glanced up and down a few buildings but I couldn’t see anyone around right now. I wasn’t sure if the city was just empty or I was in an empty part of town.

    Sound seemed to echo as I made my way down the street. Where was I exactly? Why would he ditch me here?

    God damn it, I had no idea where to go.

    Hello? Can anyone here me? I shouted in my head.

    H-hello? Came Steven’s voice.

    Steven? Where are you?

    I don’t know, some kind of containment center. The others are here too, but we’re working on busting out.

    Containment center? Why did they put Steven in there damn it. I thought he was supposed to be with me.

    Everything about this situation was crooked.

    Okay I’m going to try and find you so-

    Hello? I can barely hear you-

    His voice cut off and I cursed. I tried a few more times but there were no replies at all.

    This place was screwing up my connection somehow.

    Well, all I could do now was walk around. Maybe, just maybe, the residents would be willing to help with some directions.

    I already hated cities in general but this topped the cake. Considering how dingy and awful the sky was it made me feel like I was trapped in a three star apocalypse film. Now all it needed was some badly CGI’d monsters and a few explosions. I was sure there were already zombies, somewhere.

    “At least one of you didn’t wander off.”

    I spun around to see Death standing there, leaning against the building.

    “One of me?”

    “You think you’re the only one we brought down here? There were a good number of you in that truck. Maybe you’re just the heavy sleeper.”

    I snorted and bit at my nails. “Look, where are my characters? And what am I supposed to be doing?”

    “About tha-”

    When I blinked he vanished and before I could yell I saw ton of blood slam into the wall and splatter everywhere.

    I turned to see Steven floating only a little ways away. Blood was all around him, some of it taking the form of skulls.

    Death reappeared and the blood spun through the air again.

    “Steven wait.” I called out and ran over to him. “Calm down. I’m fine okay?”

    “It’s not fine.” His voice was deep and echoed in the back of my mind. “Why lock us up? Why even bring you here?”

    “Well we won’t get any answers if you keep trying to waste him.” I held my hands up before lightly taking his. “Just calm down please?”

    Steven kept glaring but the blood evaporated around him.

    “A lot more dangerous than he looks, isn’t he?” Death tapped the cover of his hat.

    I snorted. “Now, tell me what’s going on.”

    “Well, got in a spot of trouble for bringing you all down here, however...”

    “What?”

    “I can’t take you back.” He shrugged.

    “What?” I said a lot more firmly. I squeezed my hands into fists. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

    “Wish I was, it would keep me out of trouble. But don’t you worry, there’s a solution.” He smiled.

    “There is?”

    “Sure.”

    There was a silence for a while. Steven was muttering something but I ignored him at the moment.

    “Well?” I asked.

    “Sorry, I don’t know what it is. You’ll have to find the way out on your own.”

    I growled at him, even going as far as showing my teeth. “Fine, you know what? I will. And man when I bust out of here I’ll send my Death to kick your pansy ass.”

    Death just laughed. “Sure, sure. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have a lot more writers to find and inform.”

    Before I could say anything else he was gone.

    “Well shit.” I shouted. “You know when I fucking asked to go on an adventure this is not what I had in mind at all.”

    “Ro-”

    “No.” I pointed at Steven. “Don’t call me that down here. I don’t want anyone knowing my real name. It’s either Rose, Scribs or... Sibilla.” I remembered the word while looking up synonyms. Some archaic word meaning a prophet. I figured it suited well between me and my characters.

    “Um, okay, Sibilla then... well there’s a problem.”

    “You mean besides the fact we have to claw our way out of here?”

    “As I said before we were all being contained.”

    “Oh yeah, how did you get out so damn fast?” I put my hands on my hips.

    “Well I c-couldn’t hear you. I thought something bad happened.” He ran his fingers together. “So I powered out of it. It wasn’t easy, was built for a ghost. The others have cells built for them too. Riune was able to slowly break his do-”

    “Wait, cells? All of you were?” My heart suddenly stopped when I realized what he was saying.

    “Y-yes.”

    “So Ingen-”

    “Y-yes...”

    “Oh my gods we have to get there now.” I stomped my foot. “Where is it?”

    “Um...” Steven looked back. “Hard to remember, I flew here so fast...”

    “Steven.” I didn’t mean to shout.

    “S-sorry. I’m s-sorry.”

    “No, it’s fine.” I paced around for a moment.

    What did we do now? We had to find that place as soon as possible. I couldn’t imagine what was happening to Ingen if he was locked up in a box. I didn’t want to imagine it. Even then I could already hear him screaming and sobbing in the back of my mind.

    “Hey!”

    I turned at the familiar voice to see Riune running over. He was breathing heavily and had to take a minute when he stopped.

    “Are you okay?” I asked him. “Did you escape?”

    “Yeah,” He took a deep breath. “I absorbed some energy from machinery and used the energy to heat the bars so I could move them. It took a while but-”

    “Where were you? Can you take us there?”
    
    “Oh yeah, we have to. Koba couldn’t figure hers out and Lenore is going to make her knuckles bleed if she keeps doing what she was doing.”

    “What about Ingen?”

    Riune just stared at me.

    “Damn it. We’re going. Right now.” I said.

    “Ro-”

    “Rose, Scribs, or Sibilla.” I told him.

    “Whatever, I don’t like it here, at all.” Riune said. His breathing was still heavy.

    “It... feels dead here doesn’t it?”

    “More than dead. Like I’m being pulled at from all angles. It’s exhausting, but I can get used to it.” He took a deep breath and stood up straight.

    God, first Ingen’s locked in a box and now an energy cord like Riune was trapped in a place where there pretty much was none. He probably felt like he was laying under a ton of bricks right now.

    But he could manage, he was a tough kid. We had a huge job ahead of us now and I needed them all to bare with me. There was no telling what was down here, or whether the people we met were friend or foe. Steven was strong, but I knew he wouldn’t fight unless the situation was drastic. I could really use Lenore’s help right now, but we had to save her first.

    “Was there anyone else there? Like, in charge of the place?” I bit my thumbnail.

    “There was when we first got there.” Riune took a deep breathe. “But he left by the time Steven arrived. He may have returned I don’t know.”

    “Do you know what he was?”

    “I don’t know some kind of... reminded me of F.B.M.’s horse brother.”

    I snorted and had to hold back my laugh. While the image that popped into my head was funny I knew that didn’t mean there wasn’t a possible threat.

    “Okay, so probably not human.” I said. “We’ll try and sneak in for now. If not possible well... We’ll figure it out I’m sure.”

    Steven nodded. Riune rolled his eyes.

    “Both of you take notes.” I said. “Take notes of your surroundings, don’t leave my side, and don’t trust anyone around here. At least not right away. I don’t know what kinds of people live here.”

    They both nodded.

    “Good, now let’s go.”

    I let Riune run on ahead before I followed.

    This was not the kind of adventure I wanted, but it was the one I was stuck with.