Hi guys! I'm back with a new chapter for the Runaway.I have a question for you guys. I was rereading my own first chapter and I was cringing at how bad my writing was. Granted it was from when I was writing for the first time. Anyways, I'm considering rewriting that entire first chapter, and I wanted to know if you guys would like me to do it. I have no problem rewriting it, but if it's not that important for you guys I can leave and keep writing the plot.
I also wanted to thank my friend Wilson for writing the scene with the Tatas, those are characters that belong to her. She wrote the entire scene with them in it. I don't either the characters or the scene itself. They belong to Uncharted_Constellations
Thank you everybody for the reviews, faves and follows. Enjoy the next chapter!
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By the time morning rolled around I felt completely recovered from my flight from home. I sat up in bed and stretched before standing. I headed over to the closet to see if there were any clothes I could wear today.
I gasped as I opened the closet door, it was huge! The closet looked bigger than my old room back at home. The floor was covered in a cream covered carpet and the walls were made of mahogany wood, on the right wall was a door that I figured led to the bathroom. The walls to my left and my right had clothes racks. Against the opposite wall of where I stood looked to be shoe holders. On the wall where the door I was standing in was, were drawers and some sort of hooks for holding belts or ties.
Unfortunately the closet was completely empty. There was nothing on the clothes rack and the drawers were empty. I gave up looking for clothes and decided to head down to breakfast in just my pajamas. I would have to ask Vlad about clothes when I saw him again.
I made my way down to the dining room, already becoming use to the path. When I got to the dining room there was already a servant waiting for me. As I walked over to her she pulled out a seat at the table for me. I happily took the seat and thanked her as she pushed the seat in, she moved over to my side and asked what I would like for breakfast.
"I'm really not picky, whatever the chef's making I'm sure I'll eat it." I answered her.
The servant gave me a smile and said, "I don't think you understand dear. He makes the meal specifically for each person most of the time. So whatever you want, he'll make it for you."
"Oh, okay. Umm, how about some pancakes with scrambled eggs and some bacon. Can I also get some orange juice."
"Of course sir, coming right up." She said before heading to the kitchen.
I looked around the room as I waited for her to come back with my drink. I heard the door to the rest of the house open and saw Vlad come in. He looked a little surprise to see me here before him. He was already dressed and looked ready to go out.
He smiled politely at one of the servants as they pulled out the chair across from me before sitting down. He quickly ordered his breakfast before turning back to me. "Good morning Daniel, did you sleep well?"
"I did, thanks. Umm, Vlad, can I ask you for something?" I asked.
"Of course Daniel, you can have anything you want."
"W-well, when I came here, I didn't exactly bring any clothes with me. The only ones I have are the ones I was wearing when I got here and the pajamas I'm wearing. I was wondering if, maybe we could go and get me some more clothes for me today?"
"Ah, yes, I was wondering when you'd bring that up. Of course we'll go get you clothes, we'll be going to my tailors later. We'll get you fitted and they'll make you your clothes."
"Okay, are we going to go into town after breakfast, or later?" I asked, wondering when I should start getting ready. The servants came in and placed our breakfast down in front of us. I started to eat.
"After breakfast, but we're not going in town Daniel."
"Well, then where are we going to go? Are we going to fly somewhere outside of state or-"
"We'll be going into the Ghost Zone." I nearly choked on my food when I heard that. I coughed a bit to clear my throat and looked at him in disbelief.
"Y-you-re kidding right?" I asked, completely in shock. Vlad looked at me confused.
"Why would I be kidding about this Daniel?" He asked as he took a slice out of his french toast and ate it.
"It's the Ghost Zone Vlad, my parents told me all about it. It's where all the ghosts live and it's super dangerous. They had made the portal so that they could explore the Ghost Zone but they were always warning us about how dangerous it is. There are powerful ghosts living there and they could kill us in a heartbeat." I had been ready to go on one of the rants my parents were always going on about when I heard Vlad start to laugh. I looked up at him, confused.
"I don't think you understand our situation Daniel. Normally, yes, the Ghost Zone is dangerous, especially to powerless humans. However, you forgot, we're not powerless humans. We are also half ghost which makes us just as powerful as them, and in many cases, much more powerful. I have already proven myself to most of the ghosts residing there. If they know what is good for them, they will not bother us. Now finish your breakfast so we can go."
I quickly finished my breakfast before heading back upstairs. I found my outfit from yesterday laid out on my bed and grabbed it before heading into the bathroom. My clothes smelled cleaned so I assumed that the servants had washed it overnight. I quickly changed before I brushed my hair and my teeth.
By the time I got downstairs Vlad was already waiting for me. "Come on Daniel, we have much to do today and I want to get this done as quickly as possible." He started walking towards his study and I followed.
When we got to the study Vlad walked over to the fireplace and looked at one of the football trophies on the mantelpiece. "Daniel, we're going to be heading down to my lab where I have my own Ghost Portal set up. Nobody knows about this lab except myself and the ghosts I have employed. I want to know that I can trust you with this secret before I show you how to get in there."
"Of course Vlad, I won't tell anyone about it." I quickly responded.
Vlad nodded before turning back to the trophy he put his hand on top of it and pulled it down. I stared as the fireplace split down the middle and slowly started to move apart. In a matter of seconds the entire fireplace had moved and there was now a staircase in its place. "Follow me Daniel." Vlad said as he started walking down the stairs. I jogged to catch up with him and we quickly reached the bottom.
I gasped as I looked around his secret lab. It reminded me a lot of my parents lab back at the house, but a lot cleaner. The walls were lined with cabinets and tables, which were covered in all kinds of lab equipment. Unlike my parents' lab, everything was neatly organized and nothing looked out of place.
As I stood at the bottom of the stairs looking at the lab, Vlad walked over to a machine on the wall opposite of me. He typed a few commands into it and the portal next to it opened, revealing a swirling green vortex. I gasped and walked over to it, mesmerized by the vortex, something about it was drawing me to it.
"Daniel, while we're in here, I want you to stay by my side no matter what, understand?"' I nodded as I continued to stare into the vortex. I snapped out of the trance like state when Vlad put his hand on my shoulder. "Let's go Daniel." Together we walked through the portal.
The moment we stepped through I felt all the air being pushed out of my lungs. I tried to breathe in again but panicked when I couldn't get enough air. I tried to take a few breaths but nothing seemed to be helping.
"Daniel, Daniel you need to relax. Look at me Daniel." I snapped out of my panic for a few seconds to look up at Vlad, "Take one deep breathe, hold it, and slowly let it out." I nodded and tried doing what he said.
After a few seconds I was able to breathe regularly again. I looked back up at Vlad and said, "What just happened?"
"The Ghost Zone is very different from our world, but at the same time very similar. Like the living world it has oxygen, however it's much harder to breathe here as there is less oxygen than in the living world. There is enough oxygen leaking in from naturally occurring portals for us to be able to function, but it's much more difficult than where oxygen is in constant supply. Thankfully your body will adjust to the changes, but the first time is usually the hardest since you have to trigger it on consciously."
I nodded as I listened to him, picking up a few things here or there. After I had finally adjusted I decided to look at our surroundings. I was surprised to see we were floating in midair. The whole place had a weird sort of green hue, and everything seemed to be floating. There were purple doors in random areas hovering in midair and large air itself seem to have a sense of stillness. I gasped as I saw some sort of green octopus making its way towards us.
Vlad growled upon spotting the creature and moved to shield me from it. He transformed into his ghost half and blasted the ghost with some sort of pink ray. The octopus squealed as it was struck before flying the other way. "Let's go Daniel before we attract more unwanted attention." He grabbed my arm before he started flying.
I gasped as we sped off, it felt a lot like when I was flying the first time, yet at the same time, nothing like it. There was absolutely no wind resistance, we were gliding through the air with ease. I watched our surroundings as Vlad flew. We passed several ghosts who glanced at us but didn't even bother us. I was curious about a certain island we passed, it was covered in all sorts of vegetation and had a huge mountain that looked like a skull.
"Vlad, what is that place?" I asked, pointing to the island.
"That Daniel, is a ghost's lair. It's very much like their home, it is where they reside when they're not in the living ghost that resides in that particular lair is one you have already encountered. He goes by the name of Skulker and he claims to be the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter."
I scrunched my eyebrows as I tried to remember ever meeting a ghost claiming to be a hunter. "I don't remember meeting him before."
"Of course you do Daniel, do you remember the ghost that attacked you in my study?" I nodded, there was no way I was forgetting that any time soon. "Well, that was Skulker. He is one of my associates and I occasionally require his assistance."
"Oh, can we not go there today? I really don't want to see that ghost again." I said nervously.
"Of course Daniel." He was silent as we flew through the Ghost Zone. Soon we passed a rock that looked like a man picking his nose. A few minutes later I saw a bunch of flashing lights coming from ahead. All of a sudden there was this floating street filled with kinds of shops. There was a small booth that sold stamps, a rec center, some fancy restaurant that didn't look to appetizing to humans and finally some sort of clothes shop. Vlad headed right for the clothes shop and we hovered in front of the door.
As Vlad rose his hand to knock on the door, he suddenly stopped short and lowered his arm slightly before turning to me, "Daniel…"
"Yeah?" I asked, as Vlad seemed to suddenly regret his decision to bring me here, giving me a look of resentment usually saved for English teachers or annoying aunts.
"Just be warned, the Tata's are a bit… Eccentric… " Vlad groaned before pinching the bridge of his nose, "But honestly, they're quick and efficient and some of the only people I would let touch any of my suits… Just beware of the orange one… He's quite flirty," Vlad said as he finally rapped his knuckle on the door in a precise beat of four.
"Wait, what?" I asked as the door instantly slammed open and a man with purple hair pulled me into a hug and dragged me into the shop away from Vlad. The entire room was lined with different kinds of fabrics and threads. Paper lanterns hung from the ceiling by clothing hangers.
"Vlad how many times do we have to tell you, you can't just take people's children and make them your sons," He snickered as another man with orange hair clicked his tongue and waved his finger.
"What are you prattling on about?" Vlad asked folding his arms.
"Nothing… Nothing…" The purple one mumbled as he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "You can sneak out the back door and escape if you want."
"What are you talking about?" I asked as he finally let go of me.
"Nooothiiing, notthing… So what does the fruitloop want today?" He asked, grinning like The Cheshire Cat as he leaned against the counter, and his legs floated off the ground and became a spectral tail
.
"I'M NOT A-" Vlad shouted before realizing that I was starting to laugh and his shoulders started to un-tense. "… Ahem… We're actually here to get suits for Daniel."
"Ooh good we don't have to look at you, no offense but old people don't really turn me on," the orange one said flirtatiously as he leaned to the left of his brother.
"I'm 40…" Vlad mumbled under his breath.
"Uhhh do you guys have names orrr do I just keep calling you by the color of your hair?" I asked as the red one groaned.
"Oh yeah duh, I'm Joey," the orange one said in a half curtsy, pulling on his suspenders in a mock curtsey.
"I'm Subby, I think I'm the only one who doesn't act semi psychotic," the red one groaned looking at his brothers who were both leaning against the counter grinning weirdly.
"I'm Barry, and I… I don't have anything else to talk about…" The purple one mumbled rubbing his arm awkwardly. "Alright Vlad we need you to fill out all of these forms," he said slamming a large pile of papers in his arms.
"What are all these for? I've never had to fill out anything before," Vlad said angrily as he placed the large pile of papers on the counter.
"Yeah but you BROUGHT your suits, this is completely different," Joey said flipping his hair dramatically to the other side of his head.
"He's totally lying we just don't wanna talk to him while we work," Barry chuckled in my ear, as he started wrapping various colors of fabric around his body.
"What are you doing?" I asked as he shoved a pair of scissors into his curly hair.
"Oh yeah… it's kind of like a different time zone in here, it's only like an hours difference but, it's still pretty early here, we should actually be done by now… And Joey forgot to make the coffee until five minutes ago." He groaned sticking spools of thread over his fingers.
While I watched them all get ready to make the ridiculous amount of clothing that Vlad requested, I noticed the triplets actually looked very different from each other. Joey's hair was straighter and longer, he was taller and skinnier, and certainly had more energy than the other two. Barry had slightly shorter and curlier hair, and a more average build. Subby had butched, frizzy hair and a short stocky build. They were definitely far from identical.
"I'm sorry Sebastian but I don't understand why I have to fill this piece of paper with 350 smiley faces…" Vlad groaned angrily, looking up from the paperwork.
"It's Subby…" He groaned back angrily as he wrapped a bracelet of needles around his wrist.
"I don't use nicknames… And I still don't see the point of this…"
"Well Vladimir Fruitloop Masters… Clearly you don't know anything about business…" Subby sassed back, sticking his tongue out childishly.
"I'm a billionaire…" Vlad groaned pokerfaced.
"Sure you are… Alright kid I hope you aren't bashful," Subby said, slapping his hands on my shoulders.
"Why…?" I asked nervously as Joey held up a pair of scissors like a serial killer.
"Because you need to get into your boxers, don't worry we'll kick the old fart out," Barry said laughing as I blushed and Vlad handed him the large stack of paperwork. "Finally… what took you so long?"
"The last sheet asked me to draw a giraffe…" Vlad groaned angrily as Barry flipped to the last page.
"Wow you actually drew a pretty good giraffe…" Barry said, grabbing the first page of the paperwork and throwing the rest of it out of the open doorway. "Whoops."
"Argh… I'll be back in 5 minutes…" Vlad grumbled floating out of the room and slamming the door shut.
"5 minutes? Vlad asked you to make 6 suits, 15 dress shirts, and 8 pairs of pants!" I exclaimed as Joey seemingly chugged half of a coffee pot full of some weird greenish liquid without ever swallowing.
"Yeah I know, he gave us way too much time…" Joey said quickly as his aura started to light up brighter and brighter. "WHOO LETS DO THIS!" He shouted whipping his fists in the air before flipping around in about 500 circles in three seconds.
"How about you pass the coffee pot first you nut," Barry groaned snatching the pot away from Joey's flailing arms.
"That's coffee?" I asked curiously, glaring at the dark green liquid sloshing in the pot.
"No it's tofu…" Subby groaned sarcastically as Barry passed him the pot and he downed the rest of it in one gulp as Joey flew around the room in giant circles while screaming random nonsense.
All of a sudden they all rushed forward and suddenly the room was a swirl of color as waves of fabric flew around the room, the sound of fabric ripping filling the room as they cut through the fabric with their scissors.
"Uhhhh…." I mumbled as someone pulled my shirt off and I instantly folded my arms in the vain attempt of covering my body.
"Arms out, unless you want your sleeves sewn to your chest," Joey taunted waving his finger as I grudgingly stuck my arms out. Suddenly I was covered in a vest of fabric and Barry was wrapping more fabric around my arm while simultaneously sewing it.
"Sooooo how'd you guys get into tailoring…." I said awkwardly as they finished sewing on the buttons and pulled the light blue dress shirt off of me and threw it on the floor.
"Used to do it-" Joey started before Barry continued his sentence.
"In the 1900's-" This time Subby picked up Barry's sentence.
"Well until this idiot-"
"HEY!" Joey shouted offended as they threw the next shirt on the floor, getting faster and faster as they went.
Ignoring Joey's interruption, Barry continued talking. "…decided that-"
The way these guys talked was giving me a headache. This time Subby picked up where Barry left off. "'Hey guess what we should do!'"
"GUUYYSSSSS I THOUGHT WE AGREED NOT TO TALK ABOUT THIS!" Joey yelled angrily throwing the next shirt on the ground as Barry switched the fabric to pale green.
"Alright, alright…" Barry looked ready to drop it until Subby shouted out.
"LETS GO AND TRY TO SMUGGLE ALCHOHOL FROM A SECRET BAR, THAT'LL GO WELL!"
"OH MY GOD IT WAS ONE TIME!" Joey shouted angrily throwing two shirts on the ground, and I awkwardly shrunk away from the shouting brothers, who seemed to get faster and faster with every insult slung. By the time they finished arguing they had already finished all of the pants and were almost done with the suits, and Vlad had finally come back.
"You aren't done yet? What did you sew yourselves to each other again?" Vlad asked annoyed looking up from a pamphlet he was reading.
"MAYBE, WHAT'S IT TO YA?" Joey asked angrily flapping his arm around and also flipping around Barry's waist while he finished sewing on the buttons on the jacket.
"I don't even know how you three function… " Vlad groaned as Subby started packing up the finished clothing in plastic wrap.
"With coffee, ectoplasm, and lots of alcohol…" Subby groaned as the other two somehow finished making the last two jackets, and I snuck behind the counter to put my clothes back on.
"SUBBY HELP! I'M TOO TALL FOR THIS!" Joey shouted as Barry dragged him around the shop while putting away the extra fabrics.
"Nnoooopeeee…" Subby said as Vlad pulled out his wallet and started putting strange colored coins on the counter.
"Hey Vlad, what are those… Coins?" I asked, popping out from the other side of the counter next to Subby.
"They're ghost zone currency, it goes from red, to purple, to blue, to orange,to white, to yellow, and then green is worth the most," Vlad mumbled as he lined up the various coins in rows and counted how many of each color he had.
"Who's on the coins?" I asked as Subby pulled out one coin from each of Vlad's rows.
"Well, on the purple coin we have Aragon, the ruler of Avalot-" Subby started as Joey ripped the arm off of his shirt and moseyed on over.
"Who's a jerk," Joey grumbled under his breath.
"…on the blue coin we have Dorathea, princess of Avalot," Subby continued, glaring icy daggers at his brother. "On the green coin we have an Observant… Why they didn't put all of them on there is beyond me but whatever… on the yellow coin we have Pandora, ruler of the Acropolis of Athens, on the orange coin we have Dairy King… He doesn't actually rule anything but we all like him…"
"I don't," Vlad grumbled as Joey started putting the other coins in the register.
"Well yeah, but he's haunting your house so I guess it makes sense… But seriously… Try the gouda," Joey said in a bad impression as he leaned against the counter next to me.
"On the red coin we have Pariah Dark... Who we'd rather not talk about… And on the white coin we have Frostbite, ruler of Far Frozen," Subby finished, putting the rest of the coins in the register.
"The coins will change automatically if someone else comes to rule the kingdoms but they don't change very often. Technically if you think about it, wouldn't Vlad become the next Dairy King if the current one moves on? He does live in his castle…" Joey contemplated, rubbing his chin while Barry loaded all the clothes into one tiny paper bag.
"How does all of that fit in a lunch bag?" I asked as he handed me the bag, which was surprisingly lightweight considering how much clothing there was in there.
"The mail chick, Rocket, made them," Joey said as he skipped around to the back of the shop.
"Come on Daniel, we should get going…" Vlad said, putting his wallet back in his pocket and walking towards the door.
"Alright… bye guys!" I shouted, sliding over the counter and towards the door with Vlad.
Subby and Joey both shouted bye while Barry decided to go for something else entirely.
"SERIOUSLY THOUGH IF YOU NEED TO ESCAPE FROM VLAD, WE HAVE OPEN ARMSSSS!" Barry shouted as we walked out of the building and Vlad slammed the door shut.
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Man that one was a bit of a doozy to write for me. I knew how I wanted the rest of the chapter to go, but I literally sat there, stuck on how to start it for two weeks. Eventually I decided to just go with something simple.
This is actually the longest chapter I've ever published, even if you take out Uncharted_Constellations part and I'm kind of proud I made it over the 2,000 word count on a chapter.
Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. Love it, hate it, just review it! Buh-bye!