I'm pleased to announce that this story is back and running yet again! I could barely do anything, let alone write, with an influx of homework and tests, and some various other factors, but I decided that I'm going to get back online with this thing, though I know I'm still volatile to trolls (There's a reason why I moderate reviews), but I'm going to finish this story before other projects so that I don't have a guilty conscience later on.

Enough talk. Now to reading.

Chapter 10: In The Abyss

Jane snapped awake, her body lurching forward, before being jerked back. Her mind was racked with the most horrible nightmare, but her body forced her to see her surroundings. Reluctantly, Jane slowly fought off her sluggishness and assessed her situation.
She was in a cavern, with jagged, rock walls around her and a low ceiling that was dotted with stalagmites. The cavern was lit with open lamps that blazed with a peculiar and unsettling blue flame.
As much as Jane wanted to explore the cave, she couldn't move. She was bound to a pole in the center of the cavern, her arms tied behind her and her legs shackled to the grounds, unable to move even the slightest.
"Hello?" She called, hearing her voice echo off the walls. She felt alone, but she knew it wasn't true. Whichever demon she had met in the cathedral had dragged her down here, for some unknown but definitely not pleasant reason.
Jane growled deep in her throat. She was tired of these demons and their plans. And especially after the nightmare, she hated them even more.
'I just hope the others are still okay...' She thought, despair sinking in her heart.

"Mowz?"
Something shifted and moaned.
"Mowz...get up."
A white mouse winced and got up, fighting back her dizziness as her eyes got used to a surprising lack of light.
Standing in front of her was a sky blue Yoshi armed with a long wooden pole that was surrounded by visible wind. He looked angry, but relieved at the same time.
Ms Mowz blinked as she registered who was in front of her.
"Sky?" She asked weakly.
The yoshi nodded. "Yeah, it's me."
"But..how? Sharp told us you were taken." Ms Mowz said.
Sky shrugged. "I don't get taken easily." He claimed. "I've cornered and threatened too many times, I got to learn how to take flight." He looked at Ms Mowz. "You were a badge thief before. You understand what I said, right."
Ms Mowz nodded. 'Flight' was the same as escape to the two of them.
Sky kicked out at the ground below him, striking out at the air in a combat rehearsal.
"You were lucky." He said, still fully focused on his routine, slicing through the air with lethal speed. "You were unconscious when the world above collapsed."
"Wha..what?!" Ms Mowz stuttered in shock.
Sky stopped. "Look around you." He said with closed eyes.
Ms Mowz took in the surroundings, and gasped. The sky was an empty void of darkness, so black it was nearly purple, rumbling with thunder. But it was the world on the ground that caught her attention. Rubble was strewn across the landscape, stretching almost infinitely, lit ominously by some unknown type of energy that wavered in the cracks of the uneven land, illuminating the destruction that had been caused. The earth was made out of a patchwork of substances, from gravel to coal to shattered glass. The rubble that suffocated the land consisted of destroyed houses, composts of litter and stray waste, burning fires that blazed freely along the land and waste, and the smell of decaying matter wafted almost visibly through the air.
Ms Mowz coughed, trying to hold back tears. Everything she had ever known was gone. Rougeport, The Mushroom Kingdom, the people she had known and loved. All gone. All taken away, obliterated, wiped from existence and sucked into this new world of nothingness. No fortune-tellers or the supposed 'future-viewers' could ever come close to imagining what lied before her.
"What...what is this place?" Ms Mowz asked weakly, feeling her eyes fill with tears.
Sky put an arm around her. "This...is what hell looks like." He said. "This place is sensing our existence, planning our deaths."

Elise struck out at the walls with all the anger she could muster, screaming in a state of near-rage.
"Let us out!" She yelled.
Riley, her inherited Chain-Chomp, barked in a similar fashion.
Elise lashed out one more time, recoiling as the wall seemed to reflect her attack. She stumbled backwards and fell, a horrible, numbing sensation creeping up her arm. She stared at the ceiling, feeling helpless. Her memory rewinded to the moment, the very ground beneath the Rougeport Inn shattered. Unable to comprehend what was suddenly happening, she plummeted into the endless abyss of darkness, along with the rest of her friends.
And...then the memory just ended. Elise blinked. How could she not remember what had happened? Had she blacked out? Had something wiped her memory of that moment? Why?
All she was sure of was that she had ended up in this place, which resembled a windowless prison cell, complete with a stone bed and a dimly glowing torch, was clearly the work of the demons. All part of some intricate plan that she was only vaguely knowledgeable of.
Elise growled, her eyes growing heavier. She didn't want to return into slumber, but her body was against her. Reluctantly, they closed.
'Rest.' A voice soothed as she drifted off. 'The last resort for the weary.'

End of Chapter 10.

Well, that's all for now. I hope this wasn't too terrible or too short after being gone for so long. :/
Yes, I promise there will be more next chapter.