The narrative of Miss Courtney Chetwynde
Courtney Chetwynde woke up at eleven thirty-nine on a dark and mysterious night. Outside, a wolf howled and a full moon lit up the pitch black skies. Something didn't feel right in the pit of her stomach. Something she couldn't place. Courtney pounded for a long while, until she finally decided to talk a little walk.
Courtney put on a light coat and stepped outside. There was a small breeze that Courtney ignored as she walked through the city, lured seductively by a mute voice. Courtney found herself being pulled by an invisible string through the town, passing by places she would normal stop at. Finally, she arrived at her destination, the Sherwood House. She stepped down the stairs and into the basement, where the flume was located. A distant memory of the first time she had came here with Mark floated into Courtney's mind, but she ignored it as she stepped closer to the flume.
Mark...Mark was in that place that she vaguely remembered from before. He was there, smiling, wearing a white cloak. All the boys wore white cloaks, and the girls all wore white dresses like Courtney wore. What a happy place that place was...Courtney longed to return there, but she couldn't. She was stuck on Second Earth now, and she didn't know how to come back.
Courtney heard a strange clicking noise, and suddenly there was a humongous explosion and a blast of blinding white light, followed by a high pitched scream. The screamed died quickly, but the blinding light continued for many minutes. As soon as it died, Courtney stared into the flume and saw...nothing.
There was only rocks left in there now. She tried calling out Third Earth, but nothing happened.
The flume was destroyed. Courtney gasped loudly, but it was cut off instantly. She felt herself being called again by that force...by that place. They wanted her back...the voice was calling her...
Courtney...Courtney...the voice was no longer mute, but now a calling male voice. Courtney found herself being pulled again, like a dog on a leash, deeper and deeper inside the destroyed flume...
The Narrative of Saangi
"Go," Bobby said to me. "Leave. I care about your safety too much." And so, I turned around, faced the flume, yelled "Second Earth!" and the craggy rocks turned into crystal and I was lifted off my feet and into the flume. There's something about the flume ride that calms me. No matter how angry, or mad, or depressed I get, if I take a ride on the flume, something about the music and the peacefulness of everything calms me. But something was different this time. The soft music played for about thirty seconds, and were then muted out by a loud roaring noise.
I was a bit frightened, but knew that I would make it out of the flume safely. The roaring became louder, and louder until I had to cover my ears with my hands. The roaring died as quickly as it had appeared, and I heard a tick of a clock in the silence. The music had died along with the roaring, and I was left in total silence as I heard the tick of a clock. It was followed by a small being noise, and then a horrible explosion. The roar returned, and everything was beginning to set on fire. The crystal wall was shattering, leaving numerous cuts on my skin as the explosion came closer to me. I knew this was my end. This was it. At least I had lived my life to the fullest, I suppose. Helping the Travelers defeat Saint Dane is a worthy cause to die for.
The roaring was becoming closer, and my ears popped. This was it; this was my death. A shattered piece of crystal brushed across my face, leaving a deep cut. It didn't matter though, I was going to die anyways. Blood dripped down my body, and finally the roaring was right before me.
"Goodbye, Bobby," I said. "Goodbye, everyone." The explosion neared me, and as a burst of flame scorched my legs, I let out a blood curling final scream before the flames and shattered crystal engulfed me.
Bobby's Point Of View
With those last final words, Raux threw the S.Bomb into the flume.
Bobby watched the bomb being thrown like a vulture watching its prey. He watched as the bomb counter turned to 00:00, and as it exploded in flames, shattering the crystal tunnel. Bits of crystal flew everywhere as the flume exploded, cutting Bobby's face, arms, and chest. Raux was blown backwards by the recoil of the bomb. He picked himself up off the ground and laughed evilly.
"What now, Pendragon, what now?" he grinned. "You come to Ibara to destroy it, but instead your precious flume gets destroyed instead! What are you planning on doing now, huh?" Bobby whipped around and pointed the knife clutched in his right hand at Raux.
"I'm planning on knocking your lights out," he said through clenched teeth. "You've had this coming for a pretty long time, you backstabbing bastard!" Bobby started to run, but Emel grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Leave him be, Bobby." she said. "I have a plan." she turned around to him, and whispered the plan to him. When she was finished Bobby turned back to Raux, only to discover he had disappeared.
"Damn that Saint Dane!" Bobby screamed. "I swear, I'm going to kill him once and for all when we find him next! Nobody is going to hold me back!"
"There's going to be no stopping him now, mates," Spader said. "He's determined, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants now."
"Yeah, okay," Emel said. "But for now, come with me everyone." Emel, followed by Bobby right on her heels, and Cid, Spader, and the girls followed Emel closer and closer to the flume.
"What are you doing, Emel?" Cid asked as they neared the destroyed flume.
"You'll see," Emel said with a small smile. "Just follow me for now."
Closer and closer they went, until finally, they were walking into the flume.
"We're walking into the flume?" Spader said. "Isn't this like...against the Traveler rules or something? It's got to be..."
"I don't think it is, actually." Bobby said. "Press never told me never to walk in the flume, just never to mix territories."
"It's allowed," Emel said. "Trust me on this one." Deeper and deeper they went into the flume, seeing the destruction. Some of the walls had collapsed, and some small fires were still lit. The flume was dark without the crystal walls, but everyone found that they could see. Must be a Traveler power, thought Bobby. Deeper and deeper they trudged...until a cold feeling swept over them. "We're getting closer now," Emel said. She then suddenly stepped on something, and in fear, jumped backwards with a scream. "What the hell was that?" Bobby stepped closer to observe what Emel had stepped on, saw something he had never wanted to see.
Lying on the ground was Saangi's dead body. Most of her clothes had been burned off, and horrible burns darkened her tan body. Numerous deep cuts lined her back, and Bobby feared what was on the other side. Hesitantly he flipped Saangi's corpse over, to reveal a small puddle of blood on the ground. On Saangi's cheek was a horribly deep cut, still bleeding fresh blood. Bobby wiped the blood off her face as Emel applied pressure to the cut. Even though everyone knew she was already dead, Emel continued on anyways. It was better for her body to stop bleeding.
After the bleeding had stopped, Bobby wiped the dry blood off of Emel's face as tears streamed down my face.
"I was too late..." he said sadly. "Too damn late..."
"Bobby," Emel said, coming up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "It's okay. Her death will not go in vain. We can have a proper burial for her when this is all over. But for now, we need to keep going." Bobby wiped the tears from his eyes.
"You're right, Emel." he said. Bobby stood up and stared at everyone. "We need to go on."
Emel continued to lead them until the cold became unbearable. Then Bobby finally saw it. A familiar tunnel in the flume. "This place?" he said. "What is this place, anyway?" Emel chuckled.
"You'll see in a minute. For now, hold on." They continued into the tunnel, walking in a line. Bobby noticed that the walls around him were still crystal. Up the crystal staircase they went, and into the room with the cliff and the writing on the walls. Bobby remembered the writing perfectly: Exem. Footsteps then filled Bobby's ears. Wasn't everyone in the room?
"Bobby!" Bobby heard Courtney shout as she appeared on the cliff in her white gown.
"Courtney?" Bobby said. "What are you doing here?"
"I...don't know." she said seriously. "I think somebody brought me here."
"Weird..." Bobby said, but Emel cut him off mid-sentence.
"Okay, everyone, here we are. The flume to the hidden territory, Exem."
To be continued...
A/N: Ok guys, please review! Thank you for Lady Pendragon and Uchiha James for reviewing last chapter! Final word count: 1645. It's an improvement…