Muri’s briefing ended and the blue sphere at the end of his staff then turned a blood red color, giving the room a darker vibe. Another sphere, in front of the guillotine, lit up a bright yellow color, lighting up what was to be the first death, death by guillotine.
The cell-keeper unlocked the cage in front of the guillotine, two cages away from Charlie’s.
The first victim was a slimy greenish-colored monster that almost resembled a hairless gorilla. The monster used its fists as it tried to break free of the chains holding him down in his cage.
The cage was then slowly raised up from the ground by a pulley system, until it stopped in front of the guillotine.
The difference between this guillotine and a regular one was the fact that instead of slicing the victim straight down, it was from front to back. The blade part of the guillotine was tied back to a heavy stake in the ground in the front left side of it, holding it from closing shut. Once the rope is cut, it will slam forward like a pair of giant scissors, slicing the victim’s head off.
The monster let out a roar of fear as the first round was about to begin.
“Now, our first contestant we have here will be put to death by guillotine,” Muri told the audience.
The audience of red-cloaked figures let out a roar of applause, some in high shrieks, their sounds almost demonic in a way... they had to be Dultona’s followers.
“This beast has betrayed Underground orders,” spoke Muri. “He tried to kill one of his brothers.”
The first cage was then lifted up, and the gorilla-like monster let out another roar for help.
“Now, let’s begin the countdown,” said Muri. “Five, four, three...two...one.”
A creepy-looking monster with horns and armor then stepped up and cut the rope supporting the guillotine blades from joining together.
The bigger blade then flew forward, driving itself through the monster’s neck. Its head was still in place for a moment, then it slowly slid off the beast’s body, and its body collapsed forward to the ground.
The audience of demons applauded again.
“Well done,” spoke Dultona in the darkness of the throne in the back of the balcony quietly to himself.
Soon after another quick speech, the next monster was up.
From his cage, Charlie looked around out at the formation of the Rock Army, and noticed that Rocky’s spot was empty in the back. He must be up to something, he thought. Hurry, Rocky.
Charlie watched in terror as the second torture victim, the winged beast that almost resembled a giant bat with horns on its head, the one who was shot with the sleeping drug, was then lifted up in its cage into the air.
In front of the cage was the hole filled with lava.
The monster’s cage was eventually lifted all the way up, then one big chain supporting it was cut, and the cage went down a rope at a 90 degree angle into the hot pool of lava.
Dultona’s followers applauded with their demonic roars.
“Now, the final victim,” spoke Muri aloud.
It was Charlie’s turn. Where was Rocky?!
“This boy we have brought here today is who we have all been dying to see,” spoke Muri. “He will suffer a slow and painful death. May I present you our last victim.”
The red light then lit up the room with an evil glow once again, and the yellow sphere in front of Charlie’s cage lit up a bright yellow color.
This is it, he thought. I’m going to die a slow and painful death….
The cell-keeper and two monsters wearing armor stepped up to his cage.
Please… please don’t kill me, thought Charlie.
The cell-keeper then unlocked the cage door.
“Please-NO!” cried Charlie.
All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, Rocky
stepped out of the dark area surrounding the cage where the light didn’t hit it, jumped down from the top of Charlie’s cage, and landed with a thud on top of the cell-keeper and two armored monsters, body- slamming them all to the ground. He let out a loud roar-like cry.
“NO!” roared Dultona in anger.
“Rocky!” responded Charlie in relief.
Rocky then pushed one of the armored monsters aside as it tried to get back up again, and it was pummeled to the ground again. He then swung Charlie over his right shoulder in a fireman carry and leaped back up on top of the cage.
“Stop him, he’s getting away with the boy!” demanded Muri.
The crowd went wild.
Rocky grabbed one of the thick poles supporting the guillotine and swung a full 360 degree spin, kicking his legs out at the enemies around them, knocking them out.
“Get back here, boy!” ordered Muri.
“You coward!” yelled Bouldan to Rocky.
“Oh, he will not escape,” whispered Dultona to himself evilly from the shadow-cloaked throne.
“We need to get out of here now!” cried Charlie.
Rocky flew to the exit doors of the room with Charlie over his shoulder and kept running down the halls of what was a dark castle, down the empty halls.
He then slid down the guard rail of a steep stairway and came to another room.
The enemies all stayed behind.
Eventually, Rocky came to an exit. Charlie looked up at what appeared to be a giant black castle. It was very evil-looking in appearance. But they were in a hurry.
In front of them was a forest...also very dark- looking. Rocky headed into the dark forest with Charlie....
Meanwhile, at school, Will and Lauren sat in their seats in English class, reading their fiction books with the rest of the students. Mrs. Guanty sat at her desk chewing on a fresh red apple, reading the newspaper, her face hidden behind the paper as the class read their books.
Lauren looked back at Will, who was looking worried.
“Will, psst,” she whispered to him. He looked up in response. “What?”
She then made out the words “where’s Charlie?” quietly.
Will shrugged his shoulders.
After class was out, Will met up with Lauren in the hallway.
“Hey, Lauren. So I need to ask you something.”
“Yeah?” she replied.
“I uh, talked to Charlie’s mother earlier and she said he’s been gone since last night.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She thought he was with you. And the strange thing is, he left his car and his cell phone at home.”
“What? No way. Where would he have gone to?”
Will had a slight idea about where he was. He was beginning to accept that Charlie wasn’t lying to him about the strange things that have been going on with him after he discovered the book.
“Well, I have a slight idea where he might be,” said Will. “But first, I have to contact Charlie’s mother and let her know Charlie’s absent from school.”
“Okay...” responded Lauren in confusion. “Well, I’ll see you later, Will.”
“Alright, later.”
Lauren then walked off down the hall to her next class.
Will sent a quick text to Charlie’s phone for his mother to read. He thought to himself, Maybe he wasn’t going crazy after all.
Charlie let out a sigh of relief as Rocky set him down in the middle of the dark forest outside of Dultona’s castle. Trees as tall as skyscrapers blocked out the sun from coming through, leaving them in a dark gloomy forest.
Charlie looked up at the tall trees in distraction, as small bat-like creatures flew above them. This place was infested with strange creatures of odd sorts.
“Where are we?” asked Charlie.
Rocky pointed to a sign in the distance, grunting.
Charlie went to read the sign aloud. ??
?The Unfortunate Forest.”
A few descriptions were written underneath in different languages. One was in English.
“Those who trespass through this forest will pay the consequences of an unfortunate event,” he read. “We need to leave here.”
But Rocky then said to him, “We cannot leave, we must keep going.”
The two continued deeper into the forest. As they journeyed on, the trees began to get smaller. The sunlight soon started to show… their sun and sky appeared to be pretty normal-looking.
Rocky then abruptly came to a stop at a thick mushy swamp blocking their path.
“Now what?” asked Charlie.
Charlie stared into the swamp in front of him and Rocky in disgust. Strange insects of all sorts infested the big pool of mush.
Rocky scratched his head.
I’m not going in there, thought Charlie.
About five minutes later...
“My life sucks,” said an irritated Charlie in frustration as Rocky lead him deeper and deeper through the swamp.
Rocky kept quiet.
“How much longer do we have to be in this?”
“Not long,” replied Rocky.
“You know, you don’t like to talk much, do you?” he asked him, avoiding the thought of walking through the thick, bug-infested swamp.
Rocky grunted then went completely silent.
“Come on guy, you saved my life...well…so far. What do you like to talk about?”
Still silent.
“Do they have music where you come from?” asked Charlie curiously.
“Music?” replied Rocky in confusion.
“Oh, forget it,” said Charlie in disappointment.
Back on the civilian side of things, Sharon soon arrived home from picking up Tara from school. She was anxious to head inside and check to see if Charlie was home yet.
As soon as she was inside the warmth of her home, she checked Charlie’s room. When she realized he still was gone, she went to pick up the house phone and dialed the police office.
“Good afternoon, this is Sheriff Wesley,” the sheriff answered.
“Hi, Sheriff, this is Sharon James calling. I’m not sure if you remember me or not but-”
“Oh yeah, I remember you,” he replied. “How are things going for you?”
“Good,” she replied. “But this isn’t about my… husband.”
“Oh.”
“It’s about my son, Charlie. He’s been missing. He was supposed to be in school today and-”
“Ma’am, how old is your son?” he interrupted.
“Seventeen,” she replied. “But-” “Does he own a vehicle?”
“He has a car, but it’s still here at home.” “How long has he been missing?”
“Just a couple of days, but I’ve contacted his best friend and he doesn’t even know where he is. And his cell phone is still here at home.”
“Hmm. Were there any recent arguments that may have led up to your son’s disappearance?” Sharon took this the wrong way.
“No!” she replied in anger.
“Ma’am, relax, I’m just asking.”
“Sorry.”
“Okay, well what I can do for you is get a few of my officers together and have them start a lookout for your son, and I’m going to need a recent picture if you have one so we know exactly who we’re looking for.”
“Thank you so much,” replied Sharon in relief.
“At any time tonight you may stop in with your son’s photo and I’ll make a copy of it so I can start the search tonight,” the sheriff told her.
“Okay, that sounds great. I’ll be over there shortly.” She then hung up the phone and quickly grabbed a school photo of Charlie off of the kitchen table and shoved it in her purse. “Tara, we’ve gotta go, Sweetie,” she ordered her daughter.
But there was no reply.
“Tara?” She went to Tara’s room to find her reading a thick brown book....
“Tara, what book is that, Sweetie?” asked Sharon.
Tara’s eyes appeared to be watering. “Oh Sweetie, that’s adorable,” she said, not knowing the fear Tara felt. “I wish I had a camera on me.”
Sharon sat down next to her daughter for a second and looked at her but not at the book.
Then Tara dropped the book.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
Tara went quiet.
“What book is this?” asked Sharon as she picked up the book to read the title.
But there was no title on the cover. Just the ugly, stitched-together material made out of some sort of skin.
She was shocked to see such a horrifying book that was only just seconds ago in her daughter’s hands.
“Book of the Underground,” read Sharon aloud as she opened up to the first page with the title. She flipped through the pages and stopped on one titled “Master of the Undead”. Below the title was a picture of a gray-skinned human-like creature with horns.
“Tara, you don’t need to be reading this!” she said to her daughter as she quickly set the book down, leaving it on the page with the undead image. “Let’s go!” She grabbed Tara by her arms so that she’d get up and together they left the bedroom.
The ghostly figure of Joe James then appeared out of nowhere inside the room, his eyes on the page in the book that read “Master of the Undead”. He was up to something.