Chapter Sixteen
The Plan
"You are about to witness something that does not even begin to scratch the surface of anything you have faced before".
Megan reaches behind her and reveals the bottle of fine yellow powder that they had received from Misako earlier. It was a great struggle for her to conceal what she was feeling; it felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest.
"A place so dark, that it was not even meant to exist," she breathed heavily, "and we're heading there".
Jay gasped, "You mean- we're going there?".
The energy suddenly changed in the room as the ninjas exchanged looks of silent exasperation. Jay's face suddenly flushed to a sickly, pale color when the words escaped his lips, and Kai's dark eyes widened with shock as he stood to argue.
"There's gotta be another way," he projected.
"The only way we're going to know where to start and how to go about fighting this is by investigating the source," Rachel intervened.
"What if something happens to us?!" Cole exclaimed. "You just said this wasn't going to be like anything we've fought before. What if something happens while there's this serious threat heading everyone's way?"
Uncrossing her arms, Rachel takes the bottle from Megan and holds it up to everyone, "This powder is what's going to get us there, and as for keeping us safe, God will make a way".
"She's telling the truth," said Zane. "I do not detect any deception. We cannot waste any more time".
Lloyd makes his way to Rachel and investigates the bottle in her hands, "How does it work?".
Rachel removes the black cork from the bottle and begins to move across the room. Tipping the bottle, she takes a bit in between her thumb and pointer finger, then tilts her head back and sprinkles the substance on her forehead. Everyone watches in silence as the powder flows down her temple and rolls in a mini cloud of dust before it disappears into the still air.
Rachel explains, "Everyone is going to get a sprinkle on the top of their foreheads. Once we've all taken our turn, we have to join hands to ensure that we all stay together".
The bottle is then passed to Megan, and she repeats the process before passing it on to Amari, who does the same, and then reaches for Megan's hand. Megan has already interlaced her fingers with Rachel's, who is to her right, and now with Amari's, to her left.
"When we get there: Don't. Touch. Anything," Rachel continued, "and don't separate from each other".
"Maybe one of us should stay behind?" Jay commented nervously. His own hands gave off a tremble as he spoke. "'Ya know? Just in case something comes up?".
Kai reaches over and grabs Jay's hair to pull back his head. He sprinkles the yellow powder over his forehead, then takes a pinch for himself and sprinkles the dust on his forehead. He joins hands with Cole as Jay whacks his hands against his face repeatedly in an attempt to smear off the powder, but it's already too late. A look of shock was displayed on his face as he stared at the translucent cloud of leftover dust sifting in front of the breath he released, his eyes wide and full of worry.
"Ugh!" Jay whines.
"If we're going 'down, you're coming with us," Cole snapped.
As Jay continued to argue and mutter complaints to himself, the rest of the ninjas finished up the procedure, then joined hands, ready to go. They looked at one another, yet said no words. Thoughts plagued each of their minds: What would they see? Why couldn't they touch anything? No one dared to speak or make a sound. Nya closed her eyes and tried her best to keep from trembling out of fear. To her dismay, the only one able to sense her worry was Jay. He sensed her palm give a shake and peered over at her, giving her hand a small squeeze and flashing a smirk. She returned it with a small smile, and let out a slow sigh, almost instantly relaxing by just a little.
"We're ready to go," Megan stated.
A tingling sensation surged through their bodies, through every joint and limb, until the feeling faded and turned into a hot, boiling sensation. A vibration that shot out from their fingers and toes, so inexplicable that any fear of their destination was replaced with the fear of collapsing from such an electric vibration. The worst, however, was yet to come for no one could have prepared them for what they were about to witness.
A place so dark that it was not even meant to exist. Where there is the gnashing of teeth and the wails of the wicked filling the darkness for all of eternity. The cries of many souls calling for mercy to no end echo in the minds of madness, clanking against the chains of regret, destruction, and chaos. No one would be able to save them.