Sorry I dropped off FFN for two weeks, but I had too much homework, constant headaches and the dreaded writer's block. Nonetheless, please enjoy and review, because this chapter took a lot out of me, again. (Longest Chapter on record for me: 3k+ words, excluding A/N's.)
Chapter 7: Split Apart
Day 3: Wound up in Rougeport again, under less than pleasant circumstances. Apparently the entire town, and I think even the entire world has been trapped in darkness. Me and some others have been cursed by a group of demons, which I think is what allows us to stay awake. We supposedly have a role to play for the demons and their plot, but we have to stop them. We just don't know how. Everything is so vague I want to cause a tornado out of frustration. I just don't know what to do.
Sky shut his journal and it instantly vanished into the air, wisps blowing away in the wind. He, Jane and Sharp had taken the far east side of Rougeport, and as Sky recounted, the east side was still as shanty as ever. Clusters of old and run-down houses filled the area, a mix of small streets all looking the same, with various, dark canals cutting through the streets every once in a while, with bridges hung over them.
"So Sky, you were saying you live somewhere on the west side?" Sharp asked.
"Only on occasion." Sky answered. "I move around a lot, and I do a lot of mining. You guys may not know of it, but there's a tunnel quite deep in the sewers that serves as a passage to Minecraftia, the world of Minecraft. I do quite a bit of work there, especially with my pal Spike." Sky sighed. Spike would have been much better at solving the problem ahead, and he was more suited for combat. Sky was also worried that his friends would discover his weakness, something he couldn't show anyone, it felt too horrible. "We were great mining pals." Sky muttered sadly. "I remember when he found a cavern of diamonds, I could almost see the dollar signs behing his sunglasses." Jane and Sharp each gave out a light laugh, mostly to lift Sky's spirit. "What about you, Sharp?" Sky asked as they walked over a canal, the wooden planks of the bridge creaking below their weight. "No one just stumbles into Rougeport without a reason."
"Oh, I had to get away from Sarasaland for a while." Sharp said. "I was originally going to visit Poshley Heights, but that's not going to happen now."
Sky nodded.
"So what are we here to look for?" Jane asked. She had kept quiet for most of the conversation. She looked at Sky, her blue eyes shining in the hazy moonlight.
Sky concentrated, relaxing his body, as he channelled the wind. A curl of wind solidified in his hand, turning into a map of Rougeport, slightly weathered but very much intact.
Jane's eyes widened. "That's an ancient map of Rougeport!" She gasped. "In this condition, it should be a museum piece."
"I agree." Sky said. "But we need it." He pointed to a drawing on the map. " I have had an experience with some demons before, and apparently, they like to meet and keep some information in religious places."
Jane coughed in surprise. "What?!"
"Yeah, demons like to mock religion." Sky explained. "Supposedly to tell believers that their god won't spare them, or other things like that."
"Pretty disrespectful." Sharp noted.
"At any rate, there was one spot here in the east, the ancient Rougeport Cathedral."
Sharp frowned (as much as a Pokey could). "I thought it was just a myth."
"It's much more than that." Jane said. "It's like the Thousand-Year Door that Mario discovered a few years ago."
"Heard that story." Sky muttered.
"Anyways, it's said to have been demolished five centuries ago, but many people have been convinced that at least part of it has survived." Jane continued.
Sharp laughed nervously. "Like what? It moved underground?"
Sky stopped in his tracks. "Did you just say underground?" He said, turning to Sharp.
"Yeah, but isn't that sort of fantastical?" Sharp asked.
"Not unless you've lived like me." Sky said. "I've seen stuff you and even myself would not believe."
"It does make sense, somehow." Jane said. "But where could it be?"
No one knew how to answer that. They continued walking.
"At least we have a clue on where to start looking." Sharp said, trying to be optimistic.
Sky scoffed. "Have you seen the underground of Rougeport before? It's a bloody rat's maze."
Suddenly, Sky stopped and tensed.
"What is it?" Jane asked.
Sky could sense it in the wind. "We're being followed by someone."
"Demon?" Sharp asked.
"Definitely." Sky replied, drawing his rod, which turned into a five-foot spear. Jane and Sharp backed up to his side, tensing for battle.
A scraping foot drew their attention. They turned to one of the alleyways, where another demon emerged from the shadows.
"Hello there, Sky, Jane and Sharp." He said in a wheezing, raspy voice. He didn't sound evil, but he didn't look friendly either, covered in black robes that shrouded his face and body, two swords with blackened blades in his hands.
"Looking for the cathedral? Pah. It's nothing but a myth." He said.
"Says you!" Sharp retorted.
Sky tensed, shifting his center of balance. Something about this demon seemed familiar to him.
"Who are you?" He asked.
The demon didn't show any sign of surprise or mockery. "I believe I've seen you somewhere before, Sky Yoshi, and I think you know my name." He said simply.
Sky hesitated, trying to grip his spear even tighter. The name came back to him, along with the memories.
"The demon of summoning, Klicanje." Sky said.
The demon nodded. "It's nice to see someone who remembers me. Sadly, I have orders to kill you." Klicanje raised his blades upwards, and a tremor went through the ground.
"What the-?"Sharp shouted.
Twelve shadowy figures emerged from the ground, slowly forming into shape. Sky's eyes widened as the figures took shape. They were humanoid, with lifeless gray skin splattered with blood, empty, glassy eyes, agape mouths, extended arms, torn clothing and an incoherent moaning escaping their throats.
"Z...Zombies!" Jane cried.
"Why are all these myths coming to life?!" Sharp shouted.
The dozen zombies turned towards the trio, their necks snapping and their moan growing deeper and angrier, sensing prey.
Sky stepped back a few paces, sweat dripping down his forehead. He whirled his spear over his head and stabbed at the nearest zombie, impaling it through the throat. Sky cursed. He had aimed for the eye, which would have let straight into the zombie's brain, the only way to kill a zombie.
The impaled zombie grabbed the spear's hilt and pulled it, pulling Sky closer to it's outstretched arms. It's fingers were inches from Sky's arms when Sharp threw himself at the zombie, slamming his spiky head into the side of the zombie's head, killing it instantly.
"Run, you guys!" He ordered. "They can't sense me, but they're going to come after you!" He slammed himself into another zombie, bring it down as a bloodless, dead corpse. "I'll catch up, I promise!"
"We can't leave you! You'll be at the mercy of the demon!" Jane shouted.
Sky scanned the area, but Klicanje had mysteriously disappeared. More zombies started to form from the ground, equally hideous to the others. Klicanje had slipped off, leaving Sky nervous and confused.
"Sky! Go!" Sharp shouted, swinging into two zombie simultaneously, killing them both at once. "I'll be able to hold these guys off, but their numbers are growing!" More zombies kept shambling forwards, but only seemed to be targeting Sky and Jane.
The increasing moans snapped Sky to his senses. He nodded firmly at Sharp, then grabbed Jane's arm and ran, heading back west.
Plenty of thoughts ran through Jane's mind as she ran behind Sky, struggling to keep up with him. How had Sky known about the demon? How had he heard of the Rougeport Cathedral? And did the cathedral even exist? Could it be possible that Sky was an outsider?
She was also worried about Sharp. They'd left him alone with an ever growing number of zombies, even though he claimed they weren't going to attack him.
Sky skidded down one street, Jane following. Puddles splashed under their feet and litter caused them to sidestep once in a while, but they kept running.
"Jane, hurry up!" Sky called.
Jane put in a burst of speed, and caught up to Sky, who suddenly stopped, arm outstretched to stop her. They were on the edge of a canal, but the water had receded to just a few puddles and a shallow stream below them, remnants of slime and sewage lining the walls and the floor of the canal.
"What is it?" Jane asked, looking at Sky's nervous expression.
Sky gave her a look that clearly told her to stay quiet. He twisted his center of balance and aimed his spear at the nearest building, a collapsing, run-down house surrounded by similar counterparts. Jane could hear him breathe heavily.
"Something else is chasing us." He said.
"More demons?" Jane asked. When Sky kept silent, she scowled. "And how do you know so much about these demons or the cathedral? Are you with us or against us?"
"Don't jump to conclusions." Sky snapped, raising his arm and showing Jane his tattoo. "Does this tattoo not say enough?"
Before Jane could say anything, apology or not, eight shadow tentacles shot out from the nearest house and lunged at Sky and Jane. Completely off guard, Jane was propelled into the empty canal, hitting the slick concrete at the bottom back-first with a jolt of sheer pain. Through her blurry vision, she saw Sky struggle against five tentacles that wrapped around his arms and legs.
"Jane!" He called, his voice echoing in Jane's head. Jane's head was heavy and the world seemed fractured to her, but she shakily got up to her feet.
"Jane, find the cathedral! Now!" Sky yelled.
Jane couldn't leave Sky alone at the mercy of the tentacles, but she had no choice. Unarmed and dizzy, she ran to her right and hurried through the empty canal.
Jane had barely run a hundred metres when a massive explosion and a blast of white light flashed from behind her, right where Sky had been fighting the shadows.
"Sky!" She screamed desperately. Fearing the worst, Jane ran back, then stopped herself. Even if she went back, she had no weapons or clear plan. Reluctantly, she turned back, heading away from explosion.
"Find the cathedral." She repeated to herself, holding back her emotions. If she broke down now, she wouldn't be helping anyone, especially not Sky and Sharp.
Soon, she found herself right under an arched, stone bridge, dark shadows forming underneath it, repelling and dark.
"Seems like a place someone might hide something." She said. She took a step into the shadows, then pulled her foot back. Beyond her foot was no solid ground, just emptiness.
Rustling sounds came from behind her. Jane turned and saw six of the eight shadow tentacles snaking down the walls of the canal, trailing shadows and blood along with them. Jane took a breath and fled into the shadows, falling through empty air when she did. Jane felt herself go into free fall, then hit a concrete floor below her, buckling to her knees and falling to her stomach. She got up to her feet, her ankles and hands burning with pain. She was in a dark tunnel with an arched roof that was wide enough for three people. She could hardly make out the outline of the walls, but could see a flickering light in the distance.
Without a plan, she ran for the light.
Soon, she had found herself underneath a chain of old lights, each one flickering and creating ghostly shadows that kept vanishing and disappearing. She stopped suddenly. In front of her, the rest of the tunnel was blocked by a wooden barricade, a hastily constructed wall of wooden planks that were nailed in tightly by large nails.
Frantically, Jane searched her surrounding. Her eyes fixated on a red metal box hanging from the wall next to her left. She tore the box's cover open and looked inside. A long, steel axe, more of a farming tool than a weapon, lay inside, it's steel blade dull in color but still quite sharp.
"How convenient." She said, but hesitated to pick it up. If everything that had been going on was influenced by the demons, how did she know if this wasn't a trap?
She turned to face the tunnel she had come from, and could see the six tentacles trailing after her, appearing, disappearing then reappearing in the flickering lights, still trailing blood behind them, with puddles of the red liquid trickling across the floor towards Jane's feet.
Jane shoved aside her fears and grabbed the axe.
'Enough is enough.' She thought, staring at the closing tentacles. She stood tense, waiting for the tentacles to make the first strike.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" She snarled.
The tentacles lashed out at her. She swung the axe at every tentacles that struck at her, slashing the tips of the tentacles and letting them disintegrate into the shadows behind her. One tentacles wrapped around her ankle, while the others tried to grab at her arms.
"Back off!" She shouted at the tentacles, a wild edge in her voice. She lashed out with her free foot and kicked at one of the tentacles, causing it to lose it's grip on her axe. The rest of the tentacles were unable to hold onto the axe's handle as jane grabbed it back and swung viciously at the other tentacles, cutting them in a perfectly straight line down the middle. She brought her axe down on the tentacles that wrapped around her foot with so much anger the axe went through the concrete floor. The tentacles squirmed in pain and then receded into the shadows.
Jane tried to calm herself down when they were gone, her breathing as rapid as the flickering of the lights. She pulled the axe from the ground and swung it at the wooden barricade. The blade cut easily through the old wood, but her arms were weak from the encounter with the tentacles. Not that the axe was the lightest object she had ever carried either. She swung the axe with one last effort, causing the remaining wood and sawdust to rain down. She dropped the axe and panted with exhaustion. It had seemed like just a matter of minutes since she had been split from Sharp, then Sky, then had found herself where she was now.
"What can go wrong now?" She thought out loud, too tired to hold back the thought. She walked past the broken barricade and further into the darkness.
After minutes that seemed endless in the darkness, Jane found herself in a circular room, with oil lamps hanging on the walls, and in front of her was a polished wooden staircase that spiralled upwards. The stair's railing was detailed with crosses, causing Jane to gasp.
"This is it." She breathed. "The Rougeport Cathedral." She quickly climbed the staircases, being light on her feet to stay silent. At the top of the staircase, she went through an old wooden door decorated with crosses and lined with bronze details and stopped, looking around in awe.
She was inside the cathedral,at the far end of it, the massive main hall's floor lined with wooden benches on her left and her right as she walked down the middle on a carpet of red velvet. The walls around her were a combination of polished concrete and marble, with beautiful statues and astonishing stained-glass windows drawing her eyes away. She passed private chapels and rows of benches, eventually stopping in the middle of the church, right below a massive dome forty feet above her, supported by ivory pillars that gleamed in the multicolored rays of light that shone through the stained glass. But when she turned right, her eyes were stolen again. In front of her was the high altar of the cathedral, beautifully detailed with gold lining and rising up towards the ceiling, with a life-sized crucifix at it's base.
"This is unbelievable." She said in awe. Despite her worries for Sharp and Sky, she couldn't help but marvel at the cathedral's architecture and beauty.
"But how could this have just disappeared?" She asked herself. "This is enormous, and I'm standing in it!"
"It's normally hidden from normal eyes." A cold voice said angrily from behind her, sending chills down her spine. "And that includes you, Jane."
Jane closed her eyes, willing herself from turning around. She had had enough of being pushed around by these demons.
"Then tell me." She said. "Why is it so important to you that this place stays hidden?"
The cold voice growled menacingly, but Jane shut her eyes tighter. "This place was built on forbidden grounds, built to honor some pathetic religion. Pah." The voice explained, anger clear in the tone. "No religion can protect the foolish souls who chose to follow it, for we are not bound by the beliefs of the weak. This building, this waste, was built over us, shunning my brethren and our powers below some lowly made-up belief. But since this was built on our land, we destroyed it, then hid it and resurrected it as a meeting point for us."
Jane tried to absorb all the information. The demons had torn this place down then rebuilt it as a hidden meeting place? It seemed mad, but Jane could believe it.
"So now what? What are you going to do with me? And what have you done with my friends?" Jane asked.
"The answer to that question is simple." The voice said. "You and your friends must die."
A cold wind blew across the open cathedral, and Jane felt the world fade, falling into the inky blackness of the dark. She didn't scream, nor resist, as she felt the darkness wrap around her body, pulling her into it's cold grasp.
End of Chapter 8.
A/N: I did not mean to offend anyone religiously, but this was an idea that I felt was too good to resist, and it helped to portray the demons in my opinion. The idea was a combination of the 'Devil In A Midnight Mass' music video and the rest was done with the help of Koopakevic, a Roman Catholic in his own right. However, I do respect other religions and again apologize, just in case.
Enough rambling. Until next time, -Zackovic.