Liam felt like something was watching him, but he ignored the feeling because he saw how the earthquake damaged the front of his house, windows were cracked, wood was torn off, and Liam needed to make sure that nothing of value got destroyed.
Liam stepped inside and saw that some of the living room floorboards were creaky and that a window had a large hole in it.
Liam got out his notebook and proceeded to write down the damage and how much it would cost to fix it. Maybe writing could help get his mind off of that weird spiral.
Liam went upstairs and saw that his bedroom door had fallen off and a hole in his window; Liam wrote about the damage in his notebook.
Liam checked the guest room and saw some cracks in the windows and that a couple of pictures had fallen.
Liam went over to his father's study, but he didn't open it. Liam went to his room and opened a drawer, and he picked up a key. Liam went back to his father's study, and he locked the door.
Meanwhile, Flain woke up, his memory was blurry, but when he saw his surroundings, Flain's memories rushed back: getting knocked out by a muscle nixel, waking up in the bag, getting sucked into a portal, falling out of the sky.
Flain saw that his tribemates weren't with him and panicked. "Guys, where are you?!" Flain said. "Over here!" Flain heard Vulk yell.
Flain ran over to see that Zorch had a nasty bruise on his leg, and Vulk had a scratch on his hand. "What happened to you two?!" Flain asked, worried.
"I got scratched. trying to stop Zorch from going upstairs." Vulk said meekly. "I got bruised falling off the stairs because someone tried to get me to stop by hugging me," Zorch said, glaring at Vulk. "Now, I can't get up without my leg feeling like frostbite!" Zorch complained.
"Don't worry, guys. I'll go upstairs to look for bandages." Flain said, trying not to panic. Flain was about to go upstairs, but he heard footsteps coming.
Liam went downstairs, and he saw that the basement door had fallen off.
"There's probably a lot of damage down there." Liam sighed and walked down, and there was a large hole covered with rocks.
"Darn it." Liam checked the numerous boxes down there; luckily, almost all items were okay except a family photo of his dad and mom on their honeymoon with a gigantic rainbow in the background; it had a giant crack going down the middle of his father's face.
Liam threw that picture back in the box, not wanting to be reminded of who he called his father and the spiral that got stuck in his head. Liam walked upstairs, unaware of the five eyes watching his every step.
Flain couldn't believe his eyes.
A weird smooth pink creature with blonde fur and pink clothes opened the door, walked downstairs, and wrote something down while muttering something, and it went back upstairs.
Flain knew he wasn't on Mixia anymore. Flain noticed that the world looked weird too, it was so smooth, and nothing had the edges from Mixia. "Flain, where are we?" Vulk asked, having the same realization. "We're not home."
Liam walked upstairs and to the kitchen. Luckily it was okay, except a few cups fell and broke, and there were a few cracks in the floor. Liam swept up the glass, and he noticed a note on the fridge.
"Dear Liam, sorry I can't make lunch. An earthquake happened, and they needed some firefighters to clear the area. Love, mom." Liam read the note, swiftly put it back on the fridge, and put the broken glass in the garbage.
"Looks like I'm making myself lunch today," Liam said and swiftly put a pan on the burner covering it in butter and letting it sizzle.
Liam then got two fresh slices of white bread from the pantry and put them on the pan, the whiteness slowly turning into a toasty brown.
Liam flipped the pieces of toast, constantly trying to get the spiral out of his head.
He then sprinkled some cheese strips onto the slice, making the cheese slowly melt into a gooey sauce, and he flipped one brown slice onto the other with a spatula.
Liam put the grilled cheese on a small white plate, and he turned off the stove and went over to the living room and sat down on the couch.
Liam turned on the TV, and the only thing on it was the news talking about the spiral.
Liam turned it off, not wanting to be reminded of it. And instead, he just ate his grilled cheese while leaning on the window listening to the tapping of the rain. The rain had always calmed Liam, even when he was a little kid.
Everything was calm. Liam listened to the rustles of the leaves and the quiver of the wind weakly howling and the insects trying to hide from the downpour. Liam finished his sandwich and went to clean his plate until he heard murmurs from the basement.
Liam tensed up and slowly got the broom from the closet and quietly walked to the basement door and put his ear on it. "What was that?" "I don't know." Liam slowly opened the door and peered in, and he was shocked to the core.
Right at the bottom of the staircase were three red creatures. One with one eye and hands that looked like someone heated them with a flamethrower.
Another one had a flame on his head and a beak, and two eyes. The last one had a giant jaw with three teeth and two eyes with dark red skin.
Liam and the creatures had a short staring contest before everyone started screaming.
Liam ran down there, swinging his broom wildly, but the creatures dodged. Liam used his stage combat skills, and he slammed the broom on the big jawed creature.
Liam didn't notice the flaming creature sneak up behind him, and Liam turned around, and it slammed a Bible into Liam's head, knocking him to the ground. Liam saw the creatures escaping upstairs. "NO!" Liam screamed and ran up there, but the door was locked.
Flain locked the door and leaned against it, sweating harder than ever. He felt like Seismo trampled him and threw him in the frosticon's land.
Zorch was sitting in one of the oversized chairs rubbing his new bruise, and Vulk was rapidly breathing in and out. "Guys, are you two okay?!" Flain asked, anxiety rising.
"Yeah, but now I have a damn headache!" Zorch growled. "I wanna go home," Vulk said he was cooling down from his hyperventilating.
Flain nodded.
"Don't worry, guys, I'll find a way home! I'll investigate the place to find some bandages and a way home." Flain said. "Can I come with you?" Vulk said.
Flain nodded and started investigating the house by looking all around the rooms until flain found some stairs. "Okay, Vulk, stay here. I'll go ahead to make sure there are no more of those creatures," Flain said.
Vulk gave Flain a thumbs up, and they started to go up the stairs slowly.
Liam slammed his body against the door until it fell, and Liam ran out, but he was tripped by the creature he attacked.
"Take that sucker!" The creature said confidently. "You can speak!?" Liam was shocked.
"Yeah, so?" The creature said. "Wait, weren't there two more of you?" Liam said.
The monster nodded, and Liam quickly sprinted off, not wanting his house to be burned to the ground. Liam ran back. "Stay here, beast!" Liam said and ran off again.
Liam looked around for the creatures and slowly crept upstairs and looked in his room. Liam saw the creatures looking around.
The cyclops found an old map of Carolina that Liam had when he was little. "Flain, I found a map!" The creature said as the other creature huddled around the map. "We can use it to find out where we are!" The creature with a beak recommended.
The creatures were too busy trying to figure out how to get home to notice Liam sneaking up behind them.
Liam tried to whack the flaming creature with his broom, but it noticed Liam and swiped the broom burning it to a crisp.
The flaming creature walked towards Liam with an angry look on its face. "Vulk, stay back. I'll deal with this thing." The blazing creature said.
Liam searched frantically for a weapon, but then Liam remembered the cube. Liam swiftly pulled the cube out of his pocket and pointed it at the creatures.
"Stay back, or I'll clobber you with this cube!" Liam said, pointing the cube at the creatures. Liam made sure to put on his most intimidating voice from when he acted as a villain for theater.
"But you have no one to mix with!" Vulk said, pointing at the cube with one of his three fingers. "What do you mean? What are you!?" Liam said, questions swarming his mind. The spiral came up again, but Liam pushed it to the back of his mind.
The one with his head on fire stepped forward. "We'll only tell you if you tell us where we are and why you attacked us." The one with its head on fire said. Vulk stayed behind the phoenix-like creature.
"Okay, but if you try anything, I will- wait, this is a dream, isn't it," Liam said.
This whole day has been an incomprehensible mess, so this must be a dream, and Liam was probably oversleeping.
Liam tried to wake up, and he pinched himself. Liam gave a quick yelp in pain. Then Liam realized that this wasn't a dream that cartoon characters were right in front of him.
"H how-how are you real? How are you here?!" Liam said, his voice was shaking. "We don't know we woke up, and we were falling," Vulk said while Flain was giving an untrustworthy glare at Liam.
"So you guys won't hurt me?" Liam said, lowering the cubit. "We won't hurt you, but you have to tell us where we are, what you are, and why in the mix did you attack us?" The flaming creature said.
"My name is Liam Jacklin Botch. I am a human from Earth. You are in Riverway, South Carolina, specifically my house. I attacked you because I thought you were hostile, and I thought you would burn my house down.
Okay, I told you everything now; get that big jawed thing that tripped; me and get out." Liam said.
"I'm not a thing, I'm a mixel." Liam heard a voice from behind him, and Liam whipped around and saw the big-jawed mixel.
"Zorch, you were supposed to be downstairs. I don't want you walking on your injured leg!" The flaming mixel said to Zorch.
"Yeah, but I had to see what the idiot would try to do to you with that dinky little broom. I wish I could've seen the guy's face when you burned it up, Flain!" Zorch laughed. Liam and Flain were not amused. "Again, I answered your questions. You need to leave." Liam said.
Zorch Laughed. "Ha! Oh really? What would you do if we didn't leave? Try and throw another broom at us? Dude, we're infernites. We control fire! Your just a humwhatever." Zorch said.
Flain lightly smacked Zorch while Liam's mind went blank, scanning for a way to defend himself possibly. Liam spotted a cup of water. Liam quickly grabbed it and held it towards the mixels.
"They're centered around the fire, so water must be their weakness!" Liam thought. "I'll splash water on you!" Liam said as the mixels gasped.
"Okay, okay, we'll leave!" Zorch said as Vulk hid behind an angry Flain. "Good, I'll show you to the front door," Liam said.
Liam was about to show the mixels the way, but he heard honking, and Liam looked out the window.
Liam saw a black car driving into the driveway. "Oh no, my mom's home!" In a panic, Liam pushed the mixels into a closet, much to their displeasure.
Soon Liam's mom, who was in a black tank top and jeans with a messy blonde hair bun, entered Liam's bedroom.
"Hey, sweetie, sorry I'm late. Some idiots keep trying to get into the areas we recently restricted because of the spiral." Mrs botch sighed as Liam leaned against the closet.
"So, how has your day been?" Mrs botch said, sipping some coffee from her mug. "We had to leave school early because of the spiral." Said Liam grabbing the cup of water from earlier and drinking it to seem casual.
"Oh, that's a shame. Hopefully, it didn't damage the school." Mrs. Botch worried. "Hopefully not. Speaking of damages, I wrote down the cost to repair the house," Liam said, getting out his notebook.
"Aw sweetie, you didn't have to do that. I don't want you worrying about this kind of stuff, remember?" Mrs. Botch said, smoothing Liam's hair down.
"Yeah, but I don't want you to have to do all of the work in the house because of my biological father," Liam said; a mix of venom and anxiety dripped out of his voice when he mentioned his dad.
"Hey Liam, what's that?" Mrs botch pointed at the cube. "Oh, that's just a gift John gave me," Liam said, smiling.
"Okay, sweetie, I'm ordering pizza for dinner. What would you like on it?" Mrs botch said, pulling her phone. Liam felt the closet heating up.
"Meat lovers." Said Zorch, muffled by the closet door. "Who was that?" His mom said, confused. "Oh, that was me! I'm doing voice impressions for theater!" Liam said as his mom gave him a confused look.
"Okay, then I guess we're having meat lovers pizza for dinner." Mrs botch said, dialing the number for pizza hack.
Liam let out a sigh of relief as his mom ordered their pizza. "Hey, honey, I need to go be there for our pizzas since all their delivery vehicles have broken down." Mrs botch kissed Liam's head and went outside.
Liam quickly opened the closet as the mixels fell out. Zorch was holding an old pizza menu. "Guys, we almost got caught!" Flain said, angered as Zorch zipped out of the closet. "Hey, I was hungry!" Zorch said as Flain motioned for Liam to talk to him.
"Hey, sorry about Zorch. He can be a jerk now we'll be leaving, so can you please show us the front door?" Flain said to Liam. "Sure, just don't break anything," Liam said as he grabbed the cubit, he set on the counter.
"There's the door, now please get out. Liam said as the Infernites opened the door to rain. The infernites gasped.
"Dude, that's a death trap!" Zorch said. "Can we please stay until the rain passes? Once the rains gone, we'll be gone." Vulk said.
"This could be my chance to study them and make sure they're not evil or anything worse." A small voice in Liam's head said. "okay, but don't burn or break anything." Liam said.
Liam went over and sat in the kitchen, watching the infernites from a distance. Liam made sure he had water on hand just in case.
The infernites looked around. Zorch was getting comfortable on the couch, Flain was looking out the window at a stray cat, and Vulk was looking through the few video games Liam had.
"What's this?" Vulk asked, holding up super jump man space. "Oh, that's just a video game I played when I was little," Liam said as he walked back upstairs, and the infernites followed.
"Now, since we're here, I like to introduce some rules, my mom's bedroom is off limits and my bedroom is also off-limits okay. Don't burn or break anything, and God forbid if you go into the study.
Also, don't get caught by my mom," Liam said, pointing to his mother's bedroom and his bedroom.
"Wait, where are we sleeping in case the rain only stops in the morning?" Flain asked, looking around. Liam's mind came to a blank until he remembered the guest room.
"You guys could stay in the guest room," Liam said, opening the door to a light blue room with six beds, each with soft grey sheets and pillows.
"Remember the rules, and this is only until the rain goes away. also, lock the door, so mom doesn't catch you."
Liam said. Zorch immediately started jumping on a bed. At the same time, Vulk checked out the pictures on the wall.
"Hey, Liam, who's the guy with your mom?" Vulk pointed at a picture of him and his mom playing in a pool while his father watched with a smile on his face.
"No one important," Liam said with a monotone voice while taking the picture down.
"Did we say something wrong?" Flain said, confused at Liam's sternness." Nothing's wrong." Liam sighed but then heard a car driving in the driveway.
"Looks like mom's home. Okay, guys, stay up here. I'm going downstairs." Liam shut the door and went downstairs, where his mom put the pizza on the coffee table, and Mrs botch put on the tiny fish-woman, and the two sat together.
Upstairs the infernites were hiding out in the guestroom with the door locked. " Are we gonna go after the rain ends?" Zorch said. "Yes, Zorch, we can't trust Liam. He might try to trick us," Flain said. " I don't think, so he seems nice," Vulk said.
"Flain, we can take Liam down if he tries anything." Flain smacked Zorch on the arm. "Yes, but we don't fully know about this weird world and its inhabitants! It could be incredibly dangerous!" Flain said. "Eh, fine, but I'mma investigate this place," Zorch said.
"Oh no, you don't! You're staying right here where it's safe!" Flain said. Flain and Zorch began to argue. Vulk looked at them and sighed. "Sorry, guys," Vulk whispered as he snuck out of the room.
Thirty minutes later, they were halfway through the movie with his mom asleep on the couch. Liam got three slices of pizza and went upstairs and into the guest room to check on the mixels but was shocked that it was empty.
"Maybe it was all just my mind playing tricks with him. Maybe the mixels weren't real." Liam thought, but that thought vanished when he saw Zorch and Flain arguing.
"We still don't know anything! These guys could be a subspecies of nixel or a species that eat mixels!" Flain said. "Dude, why are you so jumpy? You're never like this!" Zorch yelled.
Liam was about to let the two mixels know of his presence, but he heard muttering coming from his room.
Liam sighed, now knowing someone broke a rule, and went into his bedroom and saw Vulk looking in Liam's notebook on his bed with a worried look on his face. Liam coughed, letting the mixel know that he was here.
"Oh um, hi Liam. sorry for breaking a rule, but Flain and Zorch can be scary when they argue." Vulk said with a shy smile. Liam sighed and sat down next to Vulk.
"So why exactly do you have my notebook?" Liam asked.
"I saw that you were writing something down, and when I heard you say that it was for writing down the cost of damages, I thought I could look through it and see if I can fix any of it as thanks for letting us stay here," Vulk said.
Liam was surprised that Vulk wanted to help him."Oh, uh, I can fix it myself, but it's nice of you to fix it. How about we check on your friends?" Liam said. Vulk nodded and left the room.
Vulk went to leave the room. but he turned to Liam. "Also I'm sorry about Zorch. I know you don't trust us but you seem like a good guy, and I've been wondering what you're planning to do after we leave." Vulk said.
"I'm just going to try and forget about you guys after this. It'll be hard but I'll manage. I'll probably be distracted by my other problems but that's okay." Liam said. Vulk's ears tilted up at this.
"What kind of problems? Maybe I can help with that instead of the house as a thank you for helping us?" Vulk asked. "It's nothing important. You need to be with the others; they're probably worried about you." Liam gestured for Vulk to go.
Vulk nodded and went to walk out of the room. Liam stopped Vulk and gave him the pizza slices. "Here, I don't want you guys to starve," Liam said. Vulk looked up at Liam with a big smile.
"Thank you!" Vulk said.
"Hey, guys, Liam got us some pizza!" Vulk said, setting down the plate.
Vulk noticed something was wrong when he saw Zorch sitting under the sheets and Flain sitting on the other side of the room with a sour look on his face.
"Guys, what happened?" Vulk said, and Zorch only mumbled a few curses and grabbed a slice of pizza. Vulk went over to flain to help figure out what happened.
"Hey Flain, what happened? You haven't been acting like yourself ever since we landed here." Vulk said. Flain looked at Vulk with a sad look on his face. "I'm fine, Vulk," Flain mumbled. "Please don't lie to me, big bro. I'm worried about you, and so is Zorch," Vulk said, patting Flain's back.
Flain sighed.
"Fine, I'll tell you. I'm worried about this being a repeat of the nixed party Incident. Back then, I failed at being a leader and couldn't save you guys from being nixed. I don't want to lose you guys again! You guys mean the world to me, and if you get nixed again or get lost in this possibly dangerous world, it would confirm my stupid fear that I'm a terrible tribe leader!" Flain yelled out, trying to block the tears from coming out of his eyes. Vulk said nothing and hugged flain. The hug lasted a while.
There was silence until Vulk interrupted the silence. "Hey, big bro?" Vulk said. "Yeah?" Flain responded.
"Can you tell us when you're scared? It worries me when you hurt yourself by covering up your emotions, and I can empathize with your anxiety about this place, but I talked with Liam, and I think we can truly trust him. Maybe he can show us a good hiding place when the rain is over." Vulk said.
Zorch nodded from his corner, still silent. "Okay, but I'm still not too sure about Liam, but if you're comfortable around him, I won't stop you from hanging out with him," Flain said with happy tears in his eyes.
Meanwhile, outside the guest room door, Liam was listening in to make sure that no fights were happening.
Liam thought about what the mixels said. "Maybe they aren't as weird as I thought," Liam said, a slight pang of guilt appearing within him for some reason.
Liam shook off the guilt, and he went back into his bedroom and changed into his white tank top and blue pajama pants. Liam looked up at the night sky, and he saw a shooting star.
"I wish I could understand this weird situation more." Liam wished. Liam went back to sleep while a small black square with pointy ears looked through his window smiling.