Something rustling in the leaves behind you made you jump and tighten your grip on the bat you still held. Whirling around, you lifted the bat with white knuckles. You remembered something Charley told you when he was in the Boy Scouts and let out the loudest, wildest yell you could muster. The figure stumbling through the underbrush let out a girly scream and flung a wig in your general direction. "Mr. Vincent?" you asked. After realizing who you were and straightening out his leather jacket, Peter Vincent responded with, "Just Peter will do." "Where are we? And why are you here? And where is Charley?" He glanced at you, scratched his head, and mumbled, "Well… I got drunk and attempted a banishing spell. I think I messed up on some of the Latin and included me, you, and your little bro instead of just your vampire." You groaned and turned on your heel to go searching for your brother. Peter jogged after you. "You aren't going to leave me here all alone are you?" You shrugged and released the branch you had moved out of your path. It smacked Peter in the face. "Okay, I probably deserved that." He admitted behind his hands covering his face. You grinned a little at the satisfaction that gave you, then the smile slid from you face as you thought of your brother. "Charley is probably having a panic attack right now. We need to find him as soon as possible."
After trudging through the dense forest until dawn, you and Peter emerged into a clearing. Both of you were huffing and puffing from the trek. The longer it took for you to find Charley, the higher your anxiety climbed. On the other side of the clearing was a river. You nudged Peter and went to the water's edge. After drinking a few handfuls of water you noticed the ambient sounds of the forest were quieting down. Panic rising in your chest, your grabbed Peter by his leather jacket and dragged him behind a fallen log. "What the bloody hell are yo-" You clapped a hand over his mouth and shushed him. On the other side of the river you could see movement and heard loud men making their way on a well-worn trail. There were three of them, but all were dressed like pirates. Ignoring your confusion, you focused on what they were carrying. An unconscious lump of flannel was flung over the largest of the pirate's backs. "Peter! It's Charley! We have to do something!"
Without waiting for his response, you dashed from behind the log and around the back of the pirate trio. As quietly as you could you sneaked closer to them. Peter hopped up onto the log and whooped at the pirates, making them turn towards him and giving you an opportunity to whack the biggest pirate in the side of the head with your bat. Both he and Charley crumpled to the ground in a pile. The other two pirates noticed you and drew their swords. You mentally thanked your mom for keeping the metal bat and not the wooden one in the front closet. The pirate closest to you swung wildly in your direction with his cutlass. You ducked under it and checked him in the gut with the barrel of the bat. As he doubled over, you knocked him flat on his back with a swing that would have made even Babe Ruth proud. He groaned, but remained motionless. The remaining pirate glanced at his crewmates, then to you, and finally backs to his crewmates before turning on his heel and sprinting away from you and Peter.
Peter had finally made his way to where you were. You rolled your eyes at him, "Thanks for all the help." "Hey! I distracted them enough for you to surprise them!" You grabbed Charley's arms and nodded your head to his feet. Peter reluctantly grabbed his ankles and together you carried him closer to the log you were hiding behind and away from the unconscious pirates. Thankfully the river was only a foot or so deep where you crossed and only the back of Charley's flannel got wet. After you set him down on the other side, you jogged to the edge of the water and dipped your hands in it. You splashed some cold water on Charley's face and he sputtered awake. "Nice of you to join us, Sleeping Beauty!" Peter snorted. Charley glanced around in a panic until he saw you and he visibly relaxed. He addressed you, "What the hell happened? Where are we? And what is he doing here?" You offered him your hand and pulled him to stand. "As best I can figure, Houdini over there butchered a banishing spell and now we are in some alternate universe with pirates and I would assume an angry vampire. You haven't seen Jerry yet have you?" He shook his head. "Fortunately, No. I just ran into those stupid pirates." Charley patted himself down looking for what you assumed was his phone; instead he pulled out two stakes from his back pockets. "Charley! Are you crazy! If you fall the wrong way you could impale yourself!" He sighed at you going full-blown older sibling.
"Aren't you glad I had them though?" He asked while tossing one to Peter. You ran a hand through your hair and huffed. You picked up your bat and motioned for the guys to follow you. "If we want to get back home we are going to have to figure out exactly where we are first." Charley was close behind you and Peter trailed behind him a few feet. Wandering aimlessly at first, you decided to head in the direction of the rising sun, especially since it seemed to be the opposite direction that the pirates had been traveling. The last thing you needed was to run into any more pirates.
Along the way you all found different kinds of fruit to munch on. You could identify most of it and what none of you could identify was left alone. Around midday you were all drenched in sweat and exhausted. Peter suggested finding somewhere shady to take a nap. He mentioned that Jerry was currently either dust or biding his time until sundown. Charley agreed, so you set out to find a well-shaded grove. After finding something semi-suitable and padding it with as many leaves as you could find, you settled in and noticed both Charley and Peter were asleep. Before you knew it, you were dozing as well.