Chapter 7:
Screams filled the air as the group continued to fall through the floor. Henry snapped out of his panic and grabbed the two teens closest to him, Alya and Nino, and angling his body so he would take the impact rather than them. Adrian followed Henry's example and grabbed Marinette to protect her as well. But instead of the hard floor, they were expecting, they splashed into a large pool of ink below, cushioning their fall.
"Is everyone alright?" Henry asked as he realized the teens he had been protecting and stood up.
"Yeah," Alya nodded, wiping ink from her glasses. "But I'm going to need a serious bath when we're out of here."
"We're fine here as well," Adrian added as he helped Marinette up. "But we should get going before that monster catches up with us."
"Right," Henry nodded, looking around. "First let's see if we can find a way to drain this ink."
Henry spotted a wheel on a nearby pipe and waded his way towards it. Henry grunted a bit as he forced the wheel to turn, but he eventually got it moving. With a clank, the ink began to drain away to reveal a stairway. The group made their way down the stairs before Henry had to drain the ink again. This process repeated a few more times before the ink was finally gone completely and they came to a small room. The group looked around, taking in the boarded up hallway and writing that said 'The Creator Lied to Us' across the wall.
"Well that's not a good sign," Alya commented when she read the writing. "I wonder what happened to inspire that."
"Whatever it is, led to a monster chasing after us," Nino summarized, glaring briefly at the writing. "So let's forget about it."
"But maybe if we figure out what happened," Marinette said thoughtfully. "then we can figure out how to stop that monster."
"Well we can't do anything from down here," Adrian replied, studying the boarded up hallway. "So how about we get out of here first and then figure out what to do."
"Exactly Adrian," Henry agreed, spotting an axe on the wall. "I need to get you kids out of here and to safety, then we can have the police handle this place. And this will defiantly come in handy."
Henry took the axe and went over to the boards and began clearing a path. Thankfully, the boards were pretty old and rotted, letting Henry clear them away pretty easily. The group followed behind Henry, carefully stepping around the broken boards. Adrian was right behind Henry and therefore ran into him when Henry stopped suddenly. Fortunately, both Henry and Adrian managed to keep their balance.
"Uncle Henry, why'd you…" Adrian began only to trail off as he took in the room. Painted on the center of the floor was a pentagram with coffins propped up on the wall behind it.
"Oh my gosh…" Alya stared at the room in shock, covering her mouth with her hands. "You… you don't think they are real do you?"
"I don't know," Henry grimaced. "And it's probably best if we don't find out. Let's go."
Henry began to carefully make his way around the pentagram when the room began to shake, causing the hallway behind them to collapse. The group tried to keep their best to stay upright, but they all soon fell to the floor. Adrian started falling towards the pentagram when Henry pulled him back in time. Unfortunately, this caused Henry step into the pentagram and was assaulted by a series of images. The pain of the invasion caused him to pass out across the pentagram just as the room stopped shaking.
"Uncle Henry?" Adrian asked in worry, carefully checking on his uncle without stepping into the pentagram himself.
"Is he alright?" Marinette asked, coming up next to Adrian.
"I think so," Adrain confirmed. "He's just passed out for some reason. Help me get him out of this thing."
Marinette and the others helped Adrian carefully grab Henry and pull him out of the pentagram. Once he was out, they propped him up against the wall and looked around for anything that might help him, but there was nothing useful.
"What should we do now?" Nino wondered, looking at the others.
"We need to get out of here," Marinette said, gaining confidence and pacing slightly. "but we can't leave Henry here, but we aren't able to take him with us either… so I guess we'll just have to rest in here for now."
"But won't that monster be able to find us?" Alya asked in worry.
"I don't think it can get through all that," Adrian said, pointing to the collapsed hallway behind them. "And even if it did attempt to break through, we would be able to hear it long before it got to us. Let's just wait until Uncle Henry wakes up and then we'll keep getting out of here."
With no other ideas, the group settled down to wait for Henry to wake up.
"Being in some place that's actually haunted isn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be," Nino commented, trying to come up with conversation to pass the time.
"Hey, it'll be fine," Alya replied confidently, nudging Nino. "Sure there's a giant ink monster out there after us, but all of us together are no match for it. We'll be out of here in no time."
What if it isn't that easy," Marinette spoke up, resting her head on her knees as she expressed her worries. "This isn't like back home where there's just an Akuma that needs to be rid of. This is a real monster. We're in over our heads and what if we never get out."
"We will get out of this Marinette," Adrian assured, putting his arm around Marinette. "Sure, this isn't like home, but I know we can handle this. Plus, Uncle Henry has been here before and he'll be able to get us out once he wakes up. You'll see."
"Thanks, Adrain," Marinette murmured, blushing slightly. Alya laughed slightly at the two and the conversation took a more light-hearted turn from there.