It's back. WHAT.
Have some fun, all of ya, and thanks for reading. (Also I'm having trouble with separating my sections in this? There was once upon a time a nifty button that I could press and it would provide a line. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Meh. Either way. *thumbs up*) EDIT: I found it, nevermind.
"Why not?" Jackson questioned, as if the answer weren't already plain as day.
You know, because when one of your best friends tells you that they found a file in an apparently "dangerous" man's office (at least according to your geology teacher) that leads to some questionable caverns in the woods with the oh-so-bright idea to trek on and find it, you would so want a part in it, no matter how unsafe and potentially hazardous it sounds.
Right?
Wrong. Oh. So so wrong.
Tooth's eyes widened and she held her hands out, like they offered the answer themselves. "It's dangerous!"
"You know, if you're so concerned you could go with us." The brown-haired boy suggested.
Tooth let out a short, humorless laugh, keeping her eyes on Jackson. "Ha! No! Jeez, am I the only one with any sense of self-preservation here?"
"Tooth, something serious happened out there. And I wanna find out what it is." Aster told her.
Tooth pouted, crossing her arms and looking at all of her friends. "You guys are going out there no matter what, aren't you?"
Sandy, Nic, Aster, and Jackson all exchanged looks before facing Tooth.
"Yes." Nic answered as the others shrugged and nodded.
Tooth knew she couldn't let her best friends go into the woods alone. If they got hurt, she'd never be able to forgive herself. She really didn't want to go with them, but if it meant she would be able to keep an eye on them, then she would do it. She sighed in defeat, looking at the white surface of the lunch table they sat at. "Fine. I'm going." Her violet eyes snapped up to Aster's bright green ones. "When do we do this?"
Aster looked at all of his friends, his eyebrows raised. "Tonight sound good?"
It didn't sound good.
But still, she went.
They didn't leave until after everyone was able to. Nic and Sandy just went to Nic's house and waited until everyone was ready to go. Jackson had to wait until his mother got home so that his sister would have someone to look out for her. Aster had to get off of work. Toothiana had to help her parents with closing the office.
After all was said and done, the sun was just beginning to set, but the world wouldn't become dark until another couple of hours. Fall was approaching, but it would be awhile until the daylight was stolen from the afternoon.
"I can't believe you guys are doing this." Tooth grumbled as she yanked her falling sock back up her leg. She was wearing a pair of lace-up boots she thought were appropriate for the occasion.
"I can't believe you're coming with us." Jackson remarked from her left side.
She was sitting in the middle of the backseat, right between Jackson and Sandy as Aster helped to guide Nic in the front. They all mutually decided that Nic's red truck would be the best for trekking out into the woods. It was pretty comfortable too, and as Tooth leaned her head back on the seat, she found herself drifting off, dreaming that she wasn't on her way to the woods and instead on her way to her home, her warm bed, a nice cup of tea…
"Tooth? Hey, Tooth, we're here." a gentle voice told her.
Tooth blinked a bit before finally opening her eyes. She rubbed at them as she sat up and found that the front doors of the truck were open and the rest of the seats were vacated aside from her own.
Except for one other.
Jackson peered into her face, watching her as she stirred awake. He smirked as she furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"How long was I asleep?" she asked.
He shrugged, making a funny face as he thought. "Oh, like… half an hour? Maybe? It wasn't too long of a drive out here."
"Half an hour?" Tooth asked. Now that she was more awake, she could hear other voices outside of the truck. She heard Nic laugh and something that sounded like someone smacking someone else. Aster, probably, for Nic laughing at whatever joke he just made.
"Yeah, you might wanna get out now." He told her, turning around to open his own door. Once he turned back around he took her hand and began to pull her out of the truck, leading the way outside.
Tooth glanced down at the hand he was holding and blushed. That's nice…
When she realized how Jackson holding her hand made her react, she tried to push it down by blurting, "I think I'm good." and slipping her hand out of his.
He glanced back at her and Tooth worried for a moment that she might've offended him. But then he smiled and said, "Suit yourself!" before hopping out of the truck.
He waited for Tooth to get out before shutting the door and turning to Nic. "Sleeping Beauty's up! Let's get going!"
Tooth playfully hit his arm at the nickname as Nic and Aster moved back to shut their doors.
Sandy signed, "Does any of this look familiar, Aster?" and gestured to the surrounding woods.
Aster squinted his eyes against the fading sunlight, turning and turning as he observed his surroundings. They were in a clearing off the highway. Nic had to do a bit of offroading the make it there, so it was definitely off the map. He glanced down at the paper in his hands, a quickly drawn copy of the map he'd seen in Dr. Pitchiner's office. He'd told the main office he needed to drop off a file, even showed them a random file he'd grabbed out of Dr. Henders's office, and they gave him a key. He used the opportunity to snag the map again so he could draw the very map he held in his hands.
"Not… really." Aster said as he checked the trees again.
"Well, where do we start?" Jackson asked, shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets.
Aster walked over the edge of the woods, checking and re-checking his map before finally pointed off to the left. "There."
It wasn't daylight anymore, and Tooth was beginning to get worried.
Okay, maybe she wasn't beginning to get worried.
She was worried the moment the guys all decided to go out here.
Now it was just getting worse.
"We should go back." Tooth said.
"No, no, no, we're close." Aster assured her as he lead the group through the woods. "We're close." he repeated, quieter this time.
"Aster, friend, it is late. Parents will be worried." Nic told him.
"It's okay, North." Aster told him, gazing up at the trees.
The group exchanged nervous looks behind Aster's back.
"We need to head back." Sandy told the others.
Tooth nodded, trying not to speak out loud about her doubts again. She didn't want to annoy Aster. After all, it was Jackson's job to do that.
"Aster-" Nic started.
"Just a few more minutes." Aster cut him off, turning back and looking at him. "If I don't find anything, we leave. Just give me more time."
Jackson huffed out in frustration. "Look, I'm about to leave. With or without you, Kangaroo."
Aster's eyes switched over to Jackson as he gave him a fiery glare. "Don't call me that."
"We need to leave." Jackson snapped. He stormed ahead of Aster, yanking the map out of his hands as he did.
Aster clenched his teeth together and went after Jackson, spitting out, "Jackson, give me the map."
"No, I'm about to prove to you that there's nothing out here. Dr. Pitchiner is some crazy ding-bat who has some serious attitude issues." Jackson said, flinging the map around as he walked through the trees. He almost ran into one as he mocked Aster.
Man, it really is getting dark out here.
"You didn't say that back at the school! You wanted to come out here too! Maybe you shouldn't have agreed to go if you thought it was all fake!" Aster yelled after him.
"Here we go." Nic sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, that was before I knew you were going to be a tight-wad about it! Aster, there's nothing here-"
And suddenly Jackson was gone.
It looked like he tripped, but he was nowhere to be found.
Tooth gasped, "Jackson?"
Nothing.
Even Aster stared wide-eyed at where Jackson had been standing just moments before.
"Where did he go?" Nic asked.
Sandy shrugged, looking just as bewildered as the rest of them.
Tooth stepped forward, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Jackson!" She called out again.
The only sound was from the various insects chirping in the woods and maybe a few stray bird calls.
And then, "Hey!"
Everyone froze.
"Hey! I'm down here!"
Tooth and Aster looked at each other for a moment before running over to where Jackson had disappeared.
There, in the ground, was a hole. Something was glowing and the two of them could see a faint outline of Jackson's body as he stared up.
"What the hell…" Aster muttered, getting on his knees.
"Don't just gawk!" Jackson yelled to the Australian, holding his arms up. "Get me out of here!"
"How- What- Jackson, hold on!" Tooth looked back at Nic, a desperate look in her eyes. "What do we do?"
"You idiot!" Aster yelled, leaning farther into the hole. He stretched out an arm. "Come on now, take my hand." He grunted.
Just barely, Aster was able to make out the mischievous look in Jackson's eyes right before he reached up and grabbed Aster's hand.
"Don't mind if I do!" Jackson yanked as hard as he could and suddenly the Australian was tumbling down after him. Jackson replayed the startled look in Aster's eyes over and over again as he burst into a loud and obnoxious fit of laughter. "You should've seen your face!" He managed to choke out as he snorted.
Aster groaned as he stood up. The fall wasn't much, considering there was nothing but soft earth below. The air was stuffy and he coughed as he wiped some dirt off of his right arm- the side he'd fallen on.
He'd fallen.
Because of Jackson.
As soon as Aster collected himself enough to realize the culprit responsible for his fall was within arms reach, he grabbed their collar. Jackson's hands immediately wrapped around Aster's wrists in defense and he tried to stifle his laughing. He brought Jackson close to his face, towering over the shorter teenage boy, and the words he spat out rivaled that of hell fire. "You think this is funny?"
Jackson rolled his eyes, unfazed by what Aster said. "Obviously not."
Now, Aster tossed Jackson against the wall of the hole they'd fallen in. He wasn't playing around. Not this time. This was serious. "How stupid are you, Jackson? This isn't okay. Well, hold on. Maybe you get stuck down here; that was completely fine. But me? Not. Okay."
"Calm down! We're fine." Jackson snapped. He pointed towards the opening of the hole. "In case you haven't noticed, we have friends up there that'll get us out of here."
"CLEAR THE WAY!" A familiar Russian voice called out.
Aster had just enough time to immediately flatten himself against the other side of the hole before a red blur fell in front of them.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
"North?" Aster called out. "What are you doing?"
"You get adventure all to selves?" Nic responded hoarsely as he struggled to clear his throat of the dirt he'd breathed in. He coughed a couple of times before going on. "Do not think so."
"HAVE ALL OF YOU LOST YOUR MINDS?"
All of the guys snapped their heads up at the shrill voice.
Tooth's head was poking over the edge of the hole, bewilderment clearly written all over her face. What were they thinking? Were they trying to have a party in the mysterious hole or something? "Get out of there!" she demanded, her hands clenching the soft grass beneath them.
All three guys looked to one another, silently trying to figure out how they were going to get out. They probably would've been able to get out just fine if Nic was out of the hole. He would have no problem hauling each of the other boys out of there.
But that wasn't exactly an option.
For very obvious reasons.
"You gumby, you were our only hope!" Aster swatted at him.
Tooth made a face. "You know, Sandy and I can help too!"
"How?" Jackson shouted up at her.
Tooth paused, going over what she could do in her head. She was shorter and much more petite that any of the hole-dwelling nitwits she called her best friends. She gave Sandy a questioning look, to which the boy held up his hands as if to say, "Don't look at me!"
Great.
Groaning, Tooth shifted her eyes back to her friends in the hole. "We'll- We'll figure something out, okay? Nic, can you climb up the side?"
"I will try!" Nic called out enthusiastically. Soon enough, he was digging his hands into the dirt and trying to heft himself up the side, but soon fell away as the dirt kept giving out beneath his hands. He frowned at his dirt covered palms and looked back at Jackson and Aster. "I cannot." he said simply.
"Let me try." Aster said, determined to find a way out.
He walked forward, to where Nic had tried to climb, and dug his hands into the soft earth. He managed to make it up a couple of feet, his fingers aching and friends watching, before the wall crumbled suddenly and betrayed him to the floor of the hole.
Did that really have to happen again?
Aster brushed himself off and scowled at Jackson. "This is your fault."
"We wouldn't be out here in the first place if you hadn't snuck around Dr. Pitchiner's office!"
"I didn't sneak!"
"Oh yeah, then how did you find those files, huh? Did they just magically appear and say, 'Oh, Aster don't worry about what you're actually supposed to be doing! Read us instead!' Is that really what you're telling me?"
Aster felt his face getting warmer and warmer by the second as his anger got the best of him. He opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by the strangest thing.
Something was glowing.
The ground was glowing.
"What the hell…" Aster mumbled, voice trailing off.
"What is that?" Toothiana's panicked voice came from above.
Jackson knelt down, one hand resting carefully on the dirt. He got close to the center, where the bright blue light was coming from. Where the source was, it was out of sight. It was below the ground.
"I think we found what Pitchiner did." Jackson whispered, staring in awe.
Tooth impatiently crossed her arms, biting her lip. She nervously peered further into the hole. "Don't mess with it!" She screeched when she saw Jackson reach out.
Before she knew it, Sandy was gone and climbing down the side.
"Sandy, no!" Tooth couldn't believe it. This was really happening. All of her friends were crazy.
Sandy gave her an apologetic look before disappearing over the side.
Nic helped make sure the smaller boy didn't fall as he descended. "Sandy, you see this?" He said, pointing to the light.
Sandy frowned, joining Jackson on the ground. Jackson looked at Sandy and the two of them shared a concerned look.
"Tooth, you've gotta see this." Jackson called out.
Tooth got down on her knees, sticking her head out over the side. "This isn't fun anymore, guys."
"Tooth, really, you've got to see this." Aster replied. He still stood safely off to the side, not nearing the glow.
"There's something under here, Aster. Something that's causing this. Any idea what it could be?" Jackson asked.
Aster shrugged, "No, I deal with plants all day. This is something a geologist should answer. Someone like Moon."
Jackson watched the glow before reaching out again. "I'm going to see."
Just as Jackson began to wipe away the dirt, Tooth cried out, "No, wait-!"
Her weight pitched her forward, and she let out a yelp. As she fell, the glow intensified and the only thing she could see was white.
Seriously, thanks for reading and I am apologetic to those of you that were waiting for this chapter and pretty much the story to continue. I'll try my best to keep up with it.