Chapter Ten-The Keybearer's Tomb
As the darkness surrounded them their thoughts seemed to intertwine. "What's happening to us? We're falling apart at the seams." Lance thought spoke to Brooke. "I really don't know. I hope that we find Brick soon." She thought spoke back. It seemed that their minds were melding together as they continued to fall. A voice called to them from the distance. "Brooke? Lance?" Both Brooke and Lance started to slip away from each other. "Lance!" Brooke called reaching out her hand. "Brooke!" Lance called back to her trying to take her hand but they grew further and further apart. "Come back!" Brooke said trying her best to reach Lance. "I can't! It won't let me!"
And then silence. The scenery from Brick's little episode started to materialize as Brooke and Lance were separated and sent to different parts of the city still asleep. Brooke was placed at the edge of the beach where Brick previously was while Lance was placed in a building on the other side of the city. "Brooke?" A voice said echoing. "Where are you Brooke?" the voice said. Brooke slowly opened her eyes. "Where am I?" she asked herself sitting up. She heard her name being called and looked around. "Brick? Is that you? Brick?" she said getting up off the sandy beach and looking around. A dark figure appeared in the distance walking towards her. "You?"
Brooke backed up slowly but her peaceful little dream started to turn into a nightmare. As the dark figure drew closer to her she started to sink into the sand. "I don't believe it. You can't be here. You're dead!" Brooke said as she started to sink deeper into the sand. "Looks can be deceiving. But you know all about that…don't you?" the dark figure said once it was near enough. "Get away from me!" Brooke said squirming to no avail. "Awww. It hurts that you didn't miss me. I missed you!" The figure said laughing evilly as it started to shove her deeper into the sand with its foot. "No!" Brooke screamed but her entire head being sunk in sand muffled it.
"Lance? Are you there?" a voice called to him. Lance slowly opened his eyes and looked about his surroundings. "Where am I?" he thought. He appeared to be in a hotel room of some sort. He got off the bed and brushed himself off. "Lance? Can you hear me?" the voice called to him still. "Who's there?" Lance said but the voice didn't answer. He opened his room door and looked down the hall. "Hello?" he called out but no one answered. "Lance, help me." The voice called to him once again. He walked ran down the hall trying to find out where the voice was coming from. "Brooke? Brick? Is that you?" Lance asked still running down the hallway. "Help us!"
As he ran down the hallway that seemed to have no end his mind raced. "Where are you guys?" he asked. "We're right here!" the voices called to him as he finally neared the end of the hall. The dark figure stood there at the end where the voices were coming from. "We're right…here." The dark figure said using both Brick and Brooke's voices. "No! No! You can't be real! You're dead! You hear me…dead!" Lance shouted surprised to see the dark figure. "What's the matter? You look like you've seen…a ghost." The dark figure said laughing evilly. "AHHHHH!" Lance screamed and ran back down the hallway. "You can run. But you can't hide, I'll find you anyway." The figure said evilly. "I'll ALWAYS find you." He added with a chuckle.
"No! You're not real! You can't be real! We saw you die!" Lance said taking glances behind him as he ran down the hall. He found the room he had awoken in and ran inside quickly. He locked the door and started to back away. "This isn't real. It's not. It can't be." He kept repeating to himself. There was a loud bang on the door. "All the around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel…" The voice sang eerily. Lance shook his head worriedly. "No. No. No. No. No." Lance said as his heart began fill with fear. "You're not real! I have to be dreaming!" Lance screamed at the door. "Aw. C'mon Lance. You remember how we used to play, don't you?" the voice said with a hint of evil and jest.
The more Lance backed away, the more fearful he became. He began to cower in the corner and cry. "Somebody please wake me up!" he shouted. A shadow slid under the door and began to materialize into the dark figure. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Lance screamed scrambling. He tried to summon his Kama w/chain but his fear paralyzed him so much that he couldn't. "C'mon! C'mon!" Lance said frantically trying to summon his Kama w/chain. "Don't do this to me. Not now." He added taking glances at the dark figure as he started to walk towards him. "You know…I remember when you wanted to be like me. Always following me around like a puppy."
The floor underneath Lance started to liquefy and he started to sink. "What are you doing? NO! NO!" Lance tried to struggle but it didn't seem to work. As he sank lower and lower into the floor the dark figure stood over him. "I've come to find out that people have a funny way of doing things. They tell you one thing but do another." The figure said smiling darkly. "What are you talking about?" Lance asked fearfully. "Oh..don't worry. I'll show you." The figure said with an evil laugh and put his foot on Lance's head. He then started to shove Lance down with his foot. "NO! NO!" Lance shouted but it was drowned out him sinking into the floor. "Ahhh. It's great to be back."
The liquefied floor seemed to have water underneath it because after Lance was shoved through the floor he appeared in water. He swam aimlessly trying to find an exit. He saw a female body floating in the distance and swam to it. "Brooke!" Lance shouted in his mind and grabbed her. He looked around until he saw a door at the bottom of the floor. He grabbed hold of Brooke's hand and swam to the door. He kicked at the door until it broke open and he and Brooke along with lots of water fell through. Brooke started to cough up water. "Cough! Cough! Ugh!" she said trying to catch her breath. "Brooke! Are you alright?" Lance asked as he hurried to her.
She shook her head and continued to cough. "You saw him didn't you?" Lance said as he helped her off the floor. She nodded and said, "Yeah. I saw him. I don't know why he's here. It's freaking me out!" They looked around and realized that they were inside a house. A really old and dilapidated house. "This place looks familiar doesn't it?" Lance asked as they walked around the room. "Yeah it does. It looks just like…" Brooke started but trailed off. Her eyes got wide when she saw what was in front of her. She yelped and backed up. Lance went over to her and she pointed at the thing in front of her. Lance turned his head in that direction and then yelped himself.
They soon realized that they weren't in a normal house. It was more of an inside cemetery. Coffins seemed to pop up out of nowhere. "What the hell is this place?" Brooke whispered as she and Lance made their way through the room. "Maybe this is exactly what it seems like…hell." Lance whispered back to her. They reached the doorway and ran through as quickly as possible. "What's he trying to pull?" Lance said starting to get angry. "I don't know but he's making it seem like it's our fault that it happened to him." Brooke said. The walls of the house were filled with rotted wood. "I hate this place. I wanna find Brick and leave now!" Brooke added scaredily.
Lance nodded and grabbed Brooke's hand. They started to walk around the house and check doors for an answer. They went to the kitchen and saw a basement door. They slowly opened the door and were greeted by winding steps. "I don't like this." Brooke said as she and Lance headed down the steps. They reached the bottom step and looked around. "This place gets weirder and weirder." Lance muttered. The whole basement was filled with strange objects and an open doorway. A figure ran past them and they jumped. "Brick?" Brooke said and the figure ran through the doorway. "Wait!" Brooke said as she started to go after him but Lance stopped her.
"I don't trust this place enough." He said taking her hand again and looking around the basement. An evil laugh rang through the basement and gave them chills. "Oh no! He's back!" Brooke whispered and tried to run to the steps but the steps were no more. "Where are the steps!" she shouted. In the place where the steps were was now a wall. "All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel…" the creepy voice said. "We have to get out of here!" Brooke half shouted and half whispered to Lance. "Don't run. I wanna play like we used to play." The dark figured appeared before them. He snapped his fingers and coffins rose out of the ground. "You remember watching me die right? News flash…I'm back. And you both are mine!"