Chapter Seven

The trio ventured deep into the countryside, where they ended up in the woods. Rook was all by himself when he's in the woods. When he turned back, he realized he's all alone. He got so worried, he looked around and thought he might have lost them.

"Guys?" he called in a panic. "Patrick? Buzz?! Guys, where are ya?!"

Then Patrick showed up from behind the trees and said "What? I was taking a piss."

"Jesus, man." relaxed Rook. "Don't you scare me like that."

"Rook, we're only in a quiet forest. How bad can it really be to-"

Suddenly, Buzz emerged from a hedgerow, knocking Patrick down. The two were agonized a bit, but then they got back up one by one.

"Patrick," he said. "Sorry, man. I didn't see you."

"Buzz," said Rook, "where'd you go? A piss too?"

"No. Lunch." Buzz offered his friends a huge bundle of vegetables.

"Wow," said Patrick, "they all look good."

However, Rook asked "But… where'd you get all this stuff from?"

Then there was a barking noise. Someone was rushing through the hedgerow with a scythe blade raised up, going after the gang. Patrick and Rook scolded at Buzz, realizing he stole those crops from someone else. Seeking to avoid the crisis, they rushed away from the angered man deeper into the woods where no one can find them. Rook was way ahead; he saw a patch of briars and he recoiled.

"WHOA!" After skidding extensively, Rook managed to stop just above the brambles. He heaved in relief "Phew."

Then Patrick and Buzz ran into him, propelling them all off a cliff and into the bushes. "Yeow!" screamed the boys in pain which echoed everywhere. They all got out of the bushes with so many thorns on them.

"Goddamn son of a bitch!" agonized Patrick.

Once he picked out some thorns off his butt, Rook scorned "What the fuck, Buzz?!"

"Sorry guys," said Buzz, "that barn house looked abandoned, so I helped myself with some vegetables."

"What, you thought there'd be fresh crops near a haunted house, cactus dick?!"

Patrick removed all the thorns off him and moaned "This is not what our first adventure would be."

"Well, what I tell ya?" said Rook. "People like us are not fit to do this kind of thing."

"Says the guy who spends 24/7 on a computer."

"Hey, you go on the laptop too." enraged Rook. "You better watch your fucking mouth."

Then Buzz saw a blue finger twitching on Rook's shoe laces. "Oh my God," he said pointing at it, "what's that?"

Rook looked down to find the twitching finger. Freaked out, he shook it off and it went flying off to a rock, where it no longer twitched. "How the fuck did that get on me?!"

"Is that a finger from those flying demons?" asked Patrick.

"I think so."

Buzz looked closer and asked "Wasn't it twitching before? Cause it looked like it was twitching."

"Maybe," joked Rook, "it was twitching because it's trying to get Patrick for stealing the sword."

"Not funny, Rook." angered Patrick, which actually caused the finger to twitch and grow a bit. "If it was after me, it wouldn't be on your shoe."

"It was a joke. Why're you always so negative?"

"I've always been negative, no thanks to your lies from middle school, and your disagreement with me."

But then, they all noticed the finger was twitching and it got a little bigger, until it stopped. That got the gang boggled. Curious, they sat on the floor in a circle around the claw, puzzling and pausing for a response.

"Is it just me," asked Buzz, "or did it just get bigger?"

"It has gotten bigger." Rook replied. "It must've… responded to our conversation. Feeding on what we say."

Patrick leaned over for a closer look and said "It's not moving anymore. Maybe we have to say something that it replies to."

"Here, let me try." Rook cleared his throat and said to the finger "Top of the morning." The finger was still not moving. "Nothing. Must be broken."

"My turn." said Buzz raising his hand up. He paused for a few seconds, then he yelled in an angry tone "YO! YOU GODDAMN PIECE OF SHIT!"

Then the finger finally twitched, startling the boys a bit. Amazed, they stifled laughter about their discovery and they tried to do it again.

"I'm talking to you, ya piece of crap!" said Buzz to the twitching and growing finger.

Rook joined in "You're only a swollen bodiless dick head!"

"Mortimer, be quiet!"

"You're a penis without a hole to bladder!"

"I've seen Cartman from South Park did some crap in my time, but you are a mother-"

"Hey, hey, hey!" objected Patrick. "Calm down." The boys looked back at the now dormant finger which has grown another one. Patrick continued "This is something R.L. Stine would come up with in Goosebumps."

"Patrick," said Rook, "this is awesome. Maybe this is why they're called the Dreadful. Whatever this is, it responses to negative emotions. Like anger, sadness, fear, and a whole bunch of others. It becomes stronger by feeding on, um… negative energy. In fact, they might be negative energy itself."

"But… is it just emotions?" puzzled Buzz. With an idea, Rook slapped him on the face and Buzz yelled "OW! What the hell, Rook?!" Then the fingers twitched again, meaning it also responded to pain.

"Wow." awed Patrick. "It even works on reactions to pain. That's cool."

"Another thing," Rook added, "it must mean they feel no pain. Maybe that's why the dynamite couldn't kill them back in Japan."

No longer hurt on the face, Buzz asked "So this stuff actually feeds on negative emotions and agony."

"Like a dog in a compost bin."

Rook added "Back on the plane, a Dreadful with a saw got vapourized by the touch of an apple. So, if I'm correct, they can't be killed by those that cause bad things to other people and oneself. But the opposite? Like, perhaps, nutrients, music, joy for others, maybe even good magic? That could be their weakness."

"Hey hold on." said Buzz. "The sign back in the palace said 'Un-dreadful must defeat Dreadful'. Now I understand. That was a clue on telling us how to beat the punks."

"The devil probably made them," said Patrick pacing to a tree, "and we've exploited their kryptonite."

But Rook came over and objected "I don't think the devil made the Dreadful. I think we did. Every human on Earth. All of us. We didn't know it, but we all just made the demons emotionally without even realizing the consequences."

"Like Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol."

"Yeah. That's a good example. This is all about making our own demons."

Buzz, on the other hand, was keeping his eye on the demon claw, thinking about something. When he had a thought about something, he went all of a sudden into a panic and rushed to Patrick and Rook.

"Guys!" he said.

Patrick and Rook's attention were drawn to their worried friend. "Buzz," puzzled Rook, "what is it? Is it Akuma? He found us?"

"No, no, no! It's not that. It's the demon's claw."

"What about it?"

"It's off its body, that we know. We also know that it feeds on negative energy. So, I was thinking, maybe with that it could, uh… duplicate into another Dreadful. Or turn into a monster, like a giant scorpion, right?"

Thinking about it now, Patrick said "It could. That's what happened in Clash of the Titans. FUCK. You might be right."

"If that's true," added Rook, "then we could be on a bigger chase than what we're on right now. We gotta do something."

Patrick looked around himself, thinking of a way to solve the crisis. But what could he do? "What can we do?" he said. "We could, um…." And then, he got an idea. "We'll smash it!"

"Good idea." Rook agreed. "It's only a claw, so it'll be vulnerable."

Buzz added "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

"We gotta smash it!" Patrick rushed to find something on the floor. "Get a rock! Good thinking! Let's get started!"

Patrick and Rook found themselves their own rock and rushed to smash the claw. However, Buzz grabbed the claw before they could arrive and he threw it in between them and it nearly hit a tree.

"Whoa!" stunned Patrick. "The fuck was that?"

Buzz explained "I was trying to hit that tree but I missed."

"Wha- What tree?"

"That one." Buzz pointed at the first tree ahead of them.

"Why don't you just smash it with a rock," said Rook, "like a normal person?"

"Well," said Buzz, "how often do people smash things? I'm not as strong as you guys are."

"Oh man, did you at least see where it landed?"

"I don't know. But it probably won't turn into a monster."

Then, Rook looked ticked from overhearing that statement. "You should've told us that before! You were really convincing back then!"

"Guys," Patrick interrupted, "whether it can do something or not, that thing still feeds on negative energy. We have to get it and smash it before it does some damage. Now c'mon."

The trio now began their search for the claw, hoping it won't do something disastrous at some point. With their flashlights on their phones, they luminated their path through the forest which had become darker and darker with the dull grey clouds blocking the sun. Fear was sipping their hearts; they didn't know where to find the claw anywhere.

"You see it?" whispered Patrick.

Buzz replied "See what?"

"The claw, you idiot!"

"Why are we here? This place looks so fucking scary."

Rook replied "We're here because you had no idea, so shut up."

"Fine. But I can't see it anywhere."

All of a sudden, Patrick heard a rattling noise from behind. He froze in shock and shushed "Shhh!"

"What?"

"What's that?"

"What?"

"What is that?"

"What?!"

"Shh-shh. I hear something; shush-shush-shush."

As the gang held their ground, Rook asked "What is it?"

"I told you to shush." whispered Patrick. "You guys hear that?"

"Dude, I hear nothing," said Buzz. There was a silent moment, then they heard a howling noise from a distance, and Buzz rushed away in a panic. "Oh, fuck!"

"Where're you going?!" objected Rook to the running Buzz. "Buzz, get back here!"

But fear was striking to all their hearts and they all screamed in terror and ran in different directions. They were all running in a panic so much, they don't even know where they're going.

"Get the fuck away!" panicked Rook.

"I'm scared of the woods!" panicked Patrick. "I surrender!"

"I'm a pacify-thingamajiggy!" panicked Buzz.

Eventually, they all collided into each other and they tumbled head over heels down a bank, onto a road. Patrick spat out some leaves in his mouth. A winded Rook noticed his face was inches away from a large pile of horse droppings.

"Whoa," he said, "that was close."

"Goddamn it." moaned Buzz. "Geez, why couldn't there be street lights?" He regained his bearings, but then he heard a crunch-like noise. Rook screamed so loud in agony just before Buzz realized he stepped on his fingers.

Once Buzz got off his fingers, Rook argued "Hey, look out, will ya?! That's my hand, moron!"

"Sorry, Rook." said Buzz. I didn't see the-"

"Shut up! You just- you just- shhh. You shut up, you-you idiot."

"It was an accident the way I stepped on-"

"No, I'm talking about your panic over a goddamn wolf that could be so far from here."

During the argument, Patrick patted on his pants, searching for the sword's hilt, but couldn't find it. Then he found it on the road. He reached to pick it up, but then the demon claw was enlarged and it grabbed onto his hand. He screamed in terror, trying to shake the claw off.

"Get it off!" he cried. "Get it the fuck off!"

Rook tried to yank the living hand off of Patrick's hand, but instead it turned on him. As Rook was in a panic with the hand on his face, an apple hit Buzz on the head and he got an idea. He picked the apple off the ground and aided Rook. With some other way, he pressed the fruit on the demon claw, and it was vaporized into thin air. Rook breathed heavily, relieved for the skirmish being over.

"Thank God." he said. "Thanks, man."

"Not a problem." smiled Buzz throwing the apple away. "Just say you can come watch Naruto with me when we're home and we can call it even."

Patrick had his eye on something. He said "Uh… guys, look."

The whole gang shared Patrick's view and they saw a city from afar. It was downtown London. They know now they're in England.

"That's London." said Rook. "Who would've thought I'd end up in England?"

"This is great, guys." said Patrick. "We've still got our wallets. We'll just grab a quick bite to eat before we continue our quest."

Buzz's stomach was growling, so he added "Yeah, please. I can't stand getting anymore hungry."

Now the gang ventured down the road where they can go to London. But high in the trees, a Dreadful was stalking them. After it snarled with a sneer, it disappeared without a trace.