Yay, an update! I'm back from vacation so hopefully I'll be better with the new chapters now that I can put some actual thought and spend some time on them. Enjoy Chapter 5~
Finally we caught up to her, panting and huffing. Magenta had just kept on walking, focused on finding the escaped creature, not paying any mind to the missing groupie and daughter.
"Where the hell have you two been?" she questioned, without a glance back at us. Columbia and I exchanged glances.
"We got tired so we had to stop and take a rest. We thought you wouldn't mind," I lied. I was getting good at this. "Sorry if we alarmed you."
"You didn't alarm me, just give me more notice. I almost got mauled by a kid that thought I was their mother."
"Who's mom would dress like that?" Columbia laughed.
I decided to quickly change the subject. "So do you have any idea where Rocky might be?"
"Nothing's changed since you asked me back at the castle." I let it drop after that. We continued silently on in the dimly lit streets. The kids and parents had thinned out on this side of town; either that or it was later than I thought. We had to hurry up and find the missing creation soon or else Riffraff, Magenta, and Columbia aren't the only ones that are going to get killed.
Suddenly a high-pitched voice broke out into song. "Ninety-nine bottles of pop on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of pop…"
"Columbia," a thick voice growled out a warning, stopping the song immediately. "Don't ever do that again."
"Sorry," Columbia sighed, hanging her head. Suddenly, she perked up, looking off next to a house, gasping.
"What is it?" I inquired, truthfully a bit startled by her sudden change in attitude.
"Over there! I saw him!"
"Saw who?"
"Rocky!"
Magenta and I looked at each other, interested. "Where did he go?" she spoke up first.
"Over there!" Columbia bolted down between two houses, both shaded by the other in the pitch black. I couldn't see anything there, I wondered how Columbia could as I took a step closer.
"Where?" I called. "I don't see anything."
"No, no, he's here!" she was standing there looking around. As she hung her head and started to trudge back to us with a stunning lack of a Rocky, her face brightened with the thought of a new idea. "Maybe he's in the back!" She turned around and hit a dark brown wooden fence with so much force it made a sound that even caused Magenta to glance around with slight concern.
Without a sound Columbia returned to us, angrily replacing her top hat on her head.
"Did you find Rocky?" I teased, laughing slightly.
"Did you?" she snapped, obviously unable to find a better comeback.
"Not yet."
"Well me either!"
"Shut up, you two." Magenta growled, stopping our conversation immediately. Something told me Magenta wasn't in the best of moods tonight. She definitely was better this summer.
I think. I have the memory of a goldfish.
I blame my dad.
We kept walking on in silence, even Columbia not saying anything. After what seemed like forever (although in reality it was about six minutes or so), we hit a dead end with what seemed like nothing but woods.
"We're at the end of the road? No!" Columbia squealed. "Now how will we find Rocky?"
"Calm down, moron, we'll just turn around and look down another road."
"No," I interjected. "Look here." I crossed over to the woods and looked at a large rock that had been pushed aside revealing a pathway into the woods. It was familiar, well known. I had been here plenty of times before. But something was different now.
"What's that?" Columbia trotted over and looked at the path with me.
"Kelly, a boy from our neighborhood and I have walked down this road so many times before. It's been established as our woods."
"That sounds idiotic."
"No, Magenta she might be on to something!" Columbia looked at me with interest. "Continue?"
"Well when we were younger, Jack's dad and Kelly's dad built us a treehouse out there. We go there when we're bored or whatever. Sometimes we sleep out there."
"Is this story going anywhere?" Magenta asked.
"Hang on, I'm getting to it. So when we got here, the rock was pushed aside. That means someone's in our woods on our paths. Granted it could be anybody but there's a possibility it might be Rocky."
"Really? Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Columbia sped into the woods leaving Magenta and I after her.
The woods were even creepier at night. During the day you don't notice how the trees form a canopy over you. The moon's not shining during the day, therefore you don't know how creepy it is at night when the tree canopy filters the night glow casting an eerie shadow over everyone there. And it doesn't help Columbia is made up of 90% sequins.
Yes sir, the woods are much more different at night.
We reached a familiar fork in the paths, one to the left and one in a sharp angle to the right. Columbia stopped and looked at me.
"Which way do we go?"
"Well we could go two ways," I explained, examining the two paths. "The path to the left leads to the tree house, the path to the right leads to a small pond."
"What's at the pond?"
"Not much, really," I said. "There's a really old dock, some fish, I think a frog lives there, and a turtle family, and some ducks-"
"Not that I don't care about cute wildlife," Magenta interrupted. "But what is down there that could help us?"
"Well the dock has a pretty good view of the entire pond. In other words, if Rocky's at any part of the pond, then we'll be able to see him."
"And the treehouse?"
"Well the treehouse itself doesn't have anything particularly interesting," I thought out loud, finding out just after I said it I was not confident in that statement. "But there are some more paths around it we could look at."
"Well we aren't going to find him just standing here." Magenta started down a path with a stride in her step, Columbia and I putting along right after her.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we've entered the audience participation portion of our show! Please tell me which path you think that the girls should go down first!
The Left Path- To the Treehouse
Or
The Right Path- To the Pond
Also, feedback is still loved~