The Dormant Chronicles

Part Two- Museum After Dark

It seemed like a normal day to Laura Xavier, daughter of James Xavier. She rode on her hoverboard home from school to find none other than her best friend to greet her. Elsie was her name, Elsie Ellen. They had been friends for many years and had grown ever closer. It was December 12, 2031 and many technological advances had been made. The museum that Laura's father built was thriving on the haunted ground of Basilica. Laura heard the story Of "The Gate" when she was three years younger almost nine years old. It happened when James pulled out a book called Dormant-The Gate and Laura was fascinated. This doesn't mean that Laura just lives happily ever after. No, she had quite the tale to add to Dormant called Museum After Dark. Laura woke up on the twelfth in a pretty chipper mood. Her friend Elsie was coming after school and later they would go to the museum to unveil the new exhibit. Laura went to her school only to find that her story had been plagiarized. Her story, Over the Wall, another student had copied her great story and got an A+. This angered Laura and she went to pout in the girls restroom to cry. Her good friend Elsie just couldn't let this happen so she told her to lighten up and wait until after school to cry in the safety of her bedroom. So she did and came back to class with a smiling face, ready to learn. The day went on as normal and Laura came home. Elsie was there and they played and had a great time until James came home to tell them to come on down. They reluctantly went down but James was fairly annoyed, "I thought you would be dressed and ready, but know we have to delay."

Laura got into her wondrous white gown, while Elsie had a flowing pink dress and wonderful makeup for the both of them. They left in a limousine and reached the museum within ten minutes. The exhibit was a permanent exhibit for the Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States period of Japan. The night was good until the power went out, It went on within five seconds but no one was in the room except Laura and Elsie. They looked at the new exhibit in awe because of its enormity. It spanned two floors and had multiple artifacts representing the Sengoku Jidai. Laura felt that something was watching her and it seemed something was. The bones at the front who James lovingly nicknamed Beora were staring down at Elsie. Elsie screamed and went into panic but the bones reformed into their natural form. The once subdued beast Beora was once again unleashed. The ancient creature Beora broke through the roof of the building as it was hundreds of feet tall. The museum was once again plunged into darkness. Laura found that she had a bit of courage. she leaped up Beora's tale and began to ride it like a great rodeo star. Elsie began to climb up onto the ribs and started throwing them to the ground. Eventually, the creature that devastated Beverly and James so long ago was defeated. Laura and Elsie sighed and began to walk to the museum doors. The doors locked and there was no way out. They felt cool air pass through them. They then saw wispy figures floating about them. "Why couldn't I be sick today." Elsie moaned.

They saw ghosts of many sorts, some were samurai, others soldiers, and worst of all hundreds and thousands of random people floating about. They were chatting and overall ignoring Laura and Elsie for good reason. One knight however was very annoyed at Laura and Elsie. He began to call a horse and ride at breakneck speed, right at them! Other ghosts joined in and a ghost mob was charging right at them! Laura and Elsie began to run at full haste, up and down floors running in and out of rooms, it was chaos. Then the Basilica Clock Tower that James saved from demolition. It rang nine times and the ghosts were sucked into a great orb. The orb was at least five feet around and flashes of light that gleamed in color, with red, blue, and even green. Then a flash of lightning hit the orb and it condensed into a bright green crystal. Laura remembered a fairy tale when she was a little girl, named the Time Stone. Elsie had never heard however and justed looked in awe at it. Laura dropped the stone and it shattered into a hundred different pieces. The two felt a strange tingling and then they were in the Sengoku Jidai. Laur felt a hard, rocky bed while Elsie was standing on a balcony looking out at the mountains of Japan. Laura came out with her but she was quite alarmed when she saw hundreds of soldiers pouring into the castle. These soldiers were led by none other than Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a great general of Japan. They were very, very alarmed when they saw fire pour out. Soldiers took Laura and Elsie and put them in a small cage together. At that moment they realized their dresses were gone. They were wearing traditional Japanese garments and were very confused. Soldiers were garrisoning the castle they took and therefore, now controlled the new province. Laura began to cry quietly. Elsie looked out and kicked the side of the cage with all her might. The small, wooden cage faltered and broke into three pieces. One with Laura, one with Elsie, and one with a Japanese guard's head. Laura and Elsie ran and unluckily ran into the daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa was quite annoyed but saw two little children and couldn't be mad at the little ones. He turned around and then the crystal threw them back into through the portal which had the deepest of blues and the brightest of reds. They were dazzled, but alas they were in the museum again. They had headache from the travel but were now quite excited by this new knowledge. It seemed to them that to survive they needed to band together. Then the unthinkable happened, lightning struck the museum floor and separated Laura and Elsie in time. Laura flew back in time to 2015 in the Basilica lot, in fact it was October 30. Elsie had been blasted into the museum wall, but luckily was not in a different time. Laura saw flashes of light coming from a movie theater and then a ear piercing sound followed by dreadful silence. Laura waited quietly for something to happen and it mostly definitely did! James and Beverly returned from the time adventure within twenty minutes and soon enough the museum roof collapsed. In suite, the walls came down accordingly. These two catastrophic events left a dust cloud that blew out eventually reaching Laura. She coughed and gagged until finally the dust cloud seceded. Elsie was not faring much better as another great creature was awoken, Felca. Felca was a much more elusive creature as it can become a wisp of vapor. Felca was a air renegade as it is made of water, changing state constantly. Laura ran from house to house to get closer to the rubble. She reached it and started to dart in and out to find James. He found him lying on a pile of rubble with a girl next to him. The girl turns her head because she heard a noise. Luckily, Laura went out of view fast enough so Beverly would not see her. She then saw James wake up from afar and later to her surprise the girl getting stolen by small bone creatures clasping her legs and dragging her away into the shadows. Elsie began to try to find a way to stop Felca. She tried to slice her with a Sengoku Jidai sword. She even tried shooting it with an arquebus, or early musket. Felca continued to evade Elsie just as Laura intervened James, but luckily he thought she was a ghost. Elsie had minor success when it began to cool down and Felca slowed. Elsie began to run to the cafeteria, and into the kitchen throwing pots and pans. Elsie ran into the freezer and grabbed a block of ice and threw it at Felca. Felca froze into a block of ice and shattering into thousands of tiny pieces, but unluckily it reformed immediately a bat-like creature that flew about the lobby crashing into the great chandelier from medieval France throwing onto Elsie pinning her. Laura kept watching the madness from afar, she kept interfering in minor ways. She ran into Beora distracting it for multiple minutes chasing Laura, while she was screaming for our life. Elsie was not faring much better being trapped under a chandelier while Felca raced about destroying everything in it's path. Laura ran into a cave made of rubble, but it was unfortunate timing as just as Laura lept into the cave Beora stomped on it destroying the cave and injuring Laura. Laura felt a strange tingling in her head and in an instant she was gone. Laura awoke leaning against a water fountain crumpled from Felca's wrath. Laura saw Elsie crippled, laying on the floor in defeat. Laura ran to Elsie and started to pry off the chandelier, but sadly Felca was growing wise and smashed into Laura leaving her on the ground with an iced spike in the arm. It looked hopeless, but just as Felca slammed into the museum door, it fell into a puddle. The chandelier hovered off of Elsie and strangely floated to its place on the ceiling. Elsie got up and then felt a jabbing pain in her back and reached for the searing pain. Laura was in no better position as she had a bleeding arm and found a small piece of fabric and put it on her arm. They thought they defeated Felca, but they were definitely wrong. Felca slithered and unbeknownst to them teetered Tokugawa's Sword, whacking the suit of armour that so triumphantly stood, now it fell into a heap of metal and leather. Laura met Elsie and began to chat, although the words were lost. Laura began to pace about the room but sadly a small sliver of Felca snagged her leg and pulled her into the depths of the now dark museum. Felca then slithered into the pile of bones and began to control the heap until Beora awoke again as hundreds of small creatures to catch Elsie who was hiding in the ladies restroom, in a stall. Beora roamed about the museum smashing anything moving into a pile of sludge and dust. When the contingent of Beora, the spy and scout forces reached the bathroom they were at a loss, the couldn't open a door! So they waited until the heavy piles of bones smashed into the door breaking into both the bathrooms. They lurked, but they didn't find Elsie. The Beorites left the bathroom and began to search on the second floor. Laura was trapped in a cage made of ice, razor sharp and if she moved she would be killed. The great beast, Felca was creating a prison of ice, with small Beorites creating a second cage for Elsie, made out of ribs that still had dried blood. Then the Beorites had two mummies with icicles through the center of their chest. They looked lifeless until one of them unwrapped and slithered throughout the museum, flaming and ruined until the mummy found a safe spot to reform. The other soon did the same, and soon enough there were two mummies rushing about destroying every bone, icicle and blob of water in sight and so the great resurgence of effort against Beora and Felca. Elsie still hid in the stall but when she heard a collapse she knew to go out. Elsie ran into the main foyer and saw chaos. The two mummies were wrapping around Beora and destroying each and every bone. Elsie then ran and grabbed the suit of armour and put on the helmet and took the sword, running toward Felca who currently was a frozen alligator with razor sharp teeth and a spiked tail. Then randomly Elsie felt a random pain in her toe, then she realized that she had stubbed it! She hobbled around like a lunatic and grabbed an ancient sword slicing and dicing through icicle after icicle, each shattering into hundreds of tiny pieces. Laura was shaking every icicle to try to find a loose, but was proving unsuccessful. Laur then fell into oblivion, from a soaring Beorite that cut her loose. Laura fell twenty feet, and onto an unsuspecting mummy. The mummy then fell into a heap of ice creatures, the remains of Felca, smashing it into random shards of sharp ice. Then a man walked into the museum. The man was wearing all black with a bright flashlight. The man had a clean shaven face, and gray glasses. The man called out to Elsie and Laura, "Laura, Elsie I can help!" the man said.

Then Laura realized, it was James her father! She sliced through bone after bone to reach him. James climbed onto Beora and struck Beora in the "weak point", in between the eyes. The great creature Beora fell for hopefully the last time. Felca had been defeated, but a looming disaster was imminent. James looked out into the museum courtyard and saw a grave danger. It was a sandwich. An old sandwich, the kind of sandwich that no one likes, it has avocados on it. This sandwich was from when the museum opened, three years ago. It also had moldy, green cheese, and solid, gray, mayonnaise. It flew right into the museum revolving doors and knocked Laura to the ground. She stood up, grabbed the sandwich and threw into the trash bin. James then broke the strange and awkward silence, "In my day, sandwiches did not fly into people's faces,what a strange world we now live in."

There was a bit of laughter, but nothing could break the stress that was placed on the three, as the old gate that was the museum swung shut, locking them in. They felt a great tremor in the earth and James had a wild look on his face, confused and worried. Then he said to them finally, "It seems that the inevitable happened early."

Elsie and Laura were confused, but rushed out of the ruins of the museum. They saw nothing at first, but then houses were being rebuilt with the rubble of their demise. The great clock tower once again rang for the first time in sixteen years. Then a flash of light startled the three and there he was, the legend himself, the so called, "Lord of Basilica", Ricker Loverno, the great Italian that built Basilica. James was then struck with courage and began to charge toward the man, but alas it was only an illusion. James knew that they would have to survive until morning. Elsie ran towards a small glowing orb and then disappeared. James and Laura ran to the orb and also were transported to the world of popular board games. They appeared on Monopoly and ice rained down and soon after a token, only recognizable as a thimble moved seven spaces. They ran to the thimble, but the dice once again came down, barring their path. A car then overtook the thimble by moving twelve spaces. Then in a flurry of snow, they appeared in a time long past. James had always had a knack with history and in an instant he knew where they were. A city, ruined with fire and many soldiers marching up and down streets was Stalingrad, the important city in World War II. Laura was also pondering the location until she saw tanks driving through the city, and soldiers marching about. Elsie jumped into the snow to dodge a stray artillery shell. Laura then realized that they would have to go into the city to get out of this world. Laura, Elsie, and James began the long trek into the winter city of Stalingrad. They began to hike, each having to dodge bullets and artillery shells. They were cold and wet by the time they reached the city gate, which was a sad pile of wrought iron and bullet holes. They walked through to see chaos, soldiers running, tanks rolling about, and buildings crumbling by the minute. Laura looked in awe at the sight, while Elsie was confused because history was her worst subject. James had a solemn look on his face, he knew what would happen next. James took a small piece of rubble from the ground at threw it at a nearby building's window. Laura ran when she saw what her father had done. Elsie still was really confused. A Soviet soldier poked his head out of the now broken window and saw three people, James, Laura, and Elsie. Elsie bolted to a nearby service panel, but slipped on ice making her an easy target. Laura stood still, and then with extreme velocity onto the snowy ground. James did the same and eventually the soldier just walked away. They ran from house to house, building to building. They finally reached a train station which was under heavy Nazi siege. The walls were useless and hundreds, maybe thousands of German soldiers poured into the station, where a handful of Soviet soldiers were held up. They soldiers were slaughtered and Laura and Elsie were weeping on the ground. James still had a solemn face. Elsie finally figured out what was going on and took charge, by grabbing the gun from a Soviet corpse and shot, shot after shot killing five men, two Soviet and three German. Then a sandwich flew through the air, it however had fresh tomatoes, fresh lettuce, and slightly moldy cheese. It flew straight into Elsie's face and into her very talkative mouth. "Seriously, what is it with sandwiches." James joked.

Elsie looked at James with a sour look. Laura was quite confused when a little girl walked up to her, she said, "Hiya, my name is Lauren, Lauren Welsh."

Lauren was energetic, to say the least. Lauren had a big smile when they walked into a little room, and within ten minutes was bouncing off the walls. Lauren was then running up and down the inhabited office building stairs and then brings back a jar of pickles. Laura looked at the jar and her mouth began to water, but she knew that none of them knew that she secretly loves pickles. Lauren then looked around and saw a little piece of paper on the wall and pulled it down and stuck into her mouth. Then she saw the label on the pickle jar and wolfed it down. Elsie then turned an eye on the pickle jar and walked toward it. Laura then ran towards the jar and began to eat pickle after pickle. James and Elsie looked strangely at Laura, and then Lauren piped up, "You ate my pickles, you meanie little girl."

Lauren cried and cried, and sadly threw the glass jar at the wall. James then folded a small piece of paper and threw. The little airplane flew straight into Lauren's mouth. Lauren jerked and then chewed softly. She had a pleased look on her face. Laura and Elsie were disgusted, but luckily James still had a smile on his face. James and Laura then both had an idea, "How about we find the time crystal, well maybe not."

"To get out we have to overcome a difficult challenge, that is how it works."

Lauren was still just sitting on the ground, eating paper. Elsie soon ran out of the door and straight into the back of a Nazi soldier. The soldier turned around to see Elsie who just go out, "Sorry..."

The soldier began to scream and shout at Elsie, who know was on the ground crying softly in the white, crisp blanket of snow. Laura came to her as the soldier walked off. Elsie then stood up and walked toward the center of Stalingrad. Laura and James tried to stop her, but sadly a bullet went into her arm. Lauren ran up to Elsie and said, "You have boo-boo, friend?"

Elsie said in a ragged voice, "Yes Lauren, I have a big boo-boo."

Elsie then laughed in a wispy, sad way. Laura came to her side, while James pulled out a bullet wound kit! Laura looked at him funny, then James whispered to her quietly, "I was shot once, so I bought this kit just in case it happens again."

James immediately began to clean the wound and pulled the small, metal ball from Elsie's arm. Then a great volley of bullets came towards them. James and Laura quickly jumped to the ground, but Lauren was hit. Lauren fell to the ground, and was bleeding quickly. Then James said with great emotion, "I'm afraid she was hit in the heart."

They all began to cry and mourn the cheerful little Lauren, who liked eating paper. They grabbed a small scrap of paper and threw at Lauren's cool little feet. Lauren sat up and saw the paper and immediately scarfed it down. All three of them were pleasantly shocked and Laura helped her to her feet. Elsie then wiped the tears off her face and stretched her bloody, scarred, and swollen arm. She then grabbed her arm as a clean, sharp pain seared in her arm. Laura came to her and put a small piece of cloth on her bullet wound.

Lauren wearily walked about, in a daze. She tripped and fell, but then caught her footing. James ran up to her and helped her walk. Then Laura was knocked out, minutes later Elsie was too. Both were taken away to a prison. Within an hour James was struck on the back on the head, taking the limp and weak Lauren conscious. Laura awoke in a cold, damp cell. She could see two other cells. One had Elsie, while the other held Lauren and James, both of which were sleeping. Elsie must have woken up earlier as she was running around her cell, over and over. Now, the thing you need to know, is that Elsie loved track. She would run for hours in place and had multiple first place medals in the 100, 400, and 800 meter dash. Lauren then crashed onto the floor toppling the small cot that she once laid on. James woke to the crash and placed Lauren back on the cot, which was now quite wet from the multiple drips in that cell. Elsie soon noticed Laura and said frightfully to Laura, "Laura, what do you think they will do to us?"

"I don't know Elsie, but I'm worried." Laura moaned softly.

Then two drunkards, the guards overlooking them, barged into the room. They looked at Laura and Elsie and then glazed eyes at James and Lauren. The began to pull out their guns and were about to shoot, until their supervisor stopped both of them. He began to yell at them, but Laura and Elsie were too jumpy to remember the exact words. Lauren awoke again, and again James put her back to sleep. Elsie then pounded the bars, and snapped one of them, she slipped through. Laura then looked at Elsie quietly, which was a sign to get me out of here! Lauren then woke without James knowing and squeezed through the bars, meeting with much larger Elsie. Elsie pulled the loose bar and SNAP, the bar came loose. Laura slipped through the tiny gap, taking a deep breath. James had been shaking and turning, and soon enough he woke up in a pool of sweat. James saw all three of them outside the cell, and panicked. Elsie walked up to the cell and pulled off the bar. "Cool, now I have three bars!"

James pushed through the small hole and then they were out. Elsie handed the bars, each weighing twenty pound to Laura and James. She kept one for herself. They pushed through the door to see madness. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Soviet soldiers were marching, training, some eating. James, who was carrying the three year old Lauren on her back. Then she realized that Lauren had a small bulge in her pocket. Then a Soviet soldier saw them and had a gunpoint on them. "How do you know that's a real gun." Elsie said hopefully.

"I know a real gun when I see one." James sneered.

The Soviet soldier laughed and then shot his small pistol. The bullet pierced Lauren's small bandage, going straight through her heart, killing her for certain. They all felt a strange tingling in their feet and soon it was traveling, fast. It went up their legs onto her chest, around their neck, and finally, they were gone.They all slept for a long time, until James awoke with Lauren's corpse in his arms. He felt a twinge of guilt, but shook it off as he said cheerfully to the tired, sleepy children, " We must go bury Lauren in her rightful place, and then I have a story to tell."

Laura and Elsie looked at each other, and rolled their eyes. James led them deep into the ruins of Basilica where they saw a small hole, dug just for the right size. A coffin lay in the hole, James placed little Lauren into it, and shut the door, closing her off forever. In some way, and somehow the wind blew a great hole of dirt onto the hole, covering it in just the right amount of dirt. Then all of them looked to the strange cloud overhead. It had strange flashes of red, blue, and green light. Then all together the cloud disappeared. Then James began the story he promised he would tell.

"I first heard this story, when I was a little boy, no more than nine. It was titled the Curse of Lauren, this is how it goes." James spoke quieter now, "There was a little girl named Lauren, Lauren Freya. She was a naughty girl, always getting into trouble, then one day she angered a spirit. The spirit placed a curse on all Laurens, in the past and into the future. He stated the curse would be lifted if a Lauren died by an arrogant foe."

"So the curse has been lifted?" Elsie said confused.

"Yes, Elsie, the curse has been lifted." James whispered with tears in his eyes. Then a great tremor shook the ground. A bolt of lightning struck a piece of a rubble, about a mile away from their small, but cozy "campsite." It had a blazing bonfire, made by James, small tents that were made of large sheets from a standing house. Then another tremor occurred, this time from a source unknown. Then a great flare of light, green, gleamed through all. Then they saw a great building, ten times the size of the humble, yet popular museum. It had a sign, thirty feet by thirty seven feet, it read, 'Fuller's Films. James trembled in fright and just mumbled, "Oh great goodness, it seems that the Lord has tried to unearth it."

Elsie whispered in a near silence into the air, "I think we will die here."

Laura found herself in a difficult situation, fight or flight? Laura chose fight, she picked up her metal rod from Stalingrad and charged towards the theater. Then Ricker, the Lord in his ghostly state, chuckled in an exaggerated way. He slowly realized that James, his supposed archenemy. It was a standoff between the two. Finally, Ricker backed off. He withered into the darkness, still chuckling. Laura threw the metal rod onto the ground, and stormed off. Elsie tried grabbing her arm, but Laura threw Elsie onto the ground. Laura reached the gate, slowly picking the lock until the heavy, wrought iron gate swings open. She races out, but trips and falls unconscious. She is whisked away into the heart of Basilica. Elsie sees her disappears and then runs, but trips on a rock and falls flat on her face. James sees her mishap, and helps her scraped body up.

Laura awoke with a throbbing pain in her head and feels weak. She tries to stand up, but is in such a state that is excruciating pain. Laura begins to fall asleep again, when a screeching sound jolts her up. She looks around to see that a small cat was scratching his claws on a chalkboard. Laura stands up to find books strewn on the floor, desks flipped, and bloody handprints all about. Laura then wonders, where she is. Even now, her arms were limp, legs dragging on the floor, and head heavy.

Elsie looks to the stars, and asks herself, where is Laura? James sits on a large rock near her and talks hopefully, "I'm sure Laura is somewhere, somewhere"...

... Elsie again looked at the stars, but this time worried about herself.

Laura began to turn the doorknob when a searing, burning pain in her side. She looks around to see nothing, but the little cat, with small orange spots all over, with the rest a light, soft gray. Laura never fond of cats, shunned her at first until she realized that she needed a companion. She turned the doorknob, it opening with a creaking SCREEK! Laura walked out with a heavy heart. She saw a staircase and began to stumble stair after stair, flight after flight until she finally reached the top.

Elsie saw a strange light in the distance , and began to walk wearily towards it. She had glazed eyes from lack of rest, as she touched the bright, glowing, white light. She felt all need of life crumble, and she fell into a vast sleep.

Laura opened the door, only to find a mirror. She saw herself and began to cry for Elsie. The tears however were sliding down the mirror. Then she realized she was trapped in her mind!

Elsie felt her feet thumping down, but had no control over them. She could see and hear, yet it was meaningless to her. Elsie then felt a CRASH, as she fell asleep. Elsie awoke in complete darkness until a candle lit. It was a figment of her imagination, as she was trapped within her mind.

Laura saw Elsie and candlelight, but yet told herself she was imaging it. Then Elsie saw Laura and had the same reaction, disbelief. They began to walk towards each other, both in darkness.

James looked at the beacon of light, and knew to be wary of it. He told himself over and over, "Ricker, where have you taken them?"

Each time, the wind answered him by blowing softly into his light brown hair. James was thirty and already he could see his little girl, Laura grow up. She was eleven now, and know he knew he had to find her.

Laura slammed into something, as did Elsie. They saw a light above and then looked at each other. "Laura is that you?" Elsie said surprised. "Elsie, why are you here?" Laura whispered softly.

They looked over each other and knew what to do. They began to imagine a way out, and soon enough they had a staircase leading to the light above. Laura blazed the trail, with Elsie walking slowly behind. When they finally reached the light, they could only see a theater. They walked out of the light, back into the real world. Laura awoke in a hard, black chair chained.

James saw a small flash of light occur and took notice. He began to trek the rubble of Basilica towards the looming disaster.

Elsie sat up in a pool of sweat. Her clothes were rags now, as she stood up. She was in a field of grass and bush. Elsie ran towards a man with a flashlight.

Laura began to shake the chair, but alas it was bolted to the ground. She could see very little, but still could see an antique movie screen. Then a movie began to play, it was the building of Basilica as a time lapse? It was slowed as James looked her over , until it reached October 30, 2015 when it stopped and showed video of the collapse of Fuller's Film.

James saw the field and started to walk toward it. Then he saw a small girl lying on the ground. He rushed toward Elsie, who stood and ran toward him. James questioned Elsie by asking, "What is your name, little girl."

Elsie stuttered by saying, "My name i-is E-Elsie, E-E-Elsie S-Smith."

Laura then broke the chains on her wrist, and threw them on the ground. Laura barged out of the theater, and then saw madness. Ricker was rebuilding Basilica, piece by piece, all rubble that had been lost in the fire of 2021 was reformed, as was all the destroyed things from years past. Houses were rebuilt by the minute and Fuller's Films was almost completed. The town of Silver Creek, Nebraska would not see the light of day. A great tremor shook the ground as the final piece of Basilica was placed, the clock tower, in it's entirety.

James and Elsie began to hike into the "reconstruction" zone in awe as large boulders floated, magically it seemed. James knew what was going on however, and called out for Ricker on the edge of the former Norse Park, "Ricker I daresay, you have gone too far, stop this madhouse or I will stop this whole catastrophe, with all my might, along with my comrades."

The wind greeted him with a different tune however, "If you want to fight me, little James I would gladly destroy you, I'm watching your every step, beware."

Laura ran blindly into a forested trail, in the aforementioned, Norse Park. She brushed against tree after tree only using the light of the full moon to guide her through the dark and winding trail.

James slid down the small valley-like ditch, followed by Elsie. They slowly trudged through the drainage ditch until they reached the gate, where the museum entrance lay. The museum was in ruins, walls crumbling, even roof collapsing. James rushed into the ruins and grabbed multiple weapons, including a katana and a suit of japanese armour. Elsie questioned his selection, "Why not take a gun?"

"Because Ricker expects me do that." James replies.

Laura ran through the trail hoping, just hoping that she would find Elsie and James in one piece. She ran out of the park and began the slow hike up the ditch, dodging flares, and even battling the ghosts for right-of-passage. She finally reaches the museum where she expects to find nothing but rubble, a sort-of place of solitude for Laura.

James rushes out of the museum with all haste with katana in hand.

"Ricker Loverno, I accept your offer, I will duel." James yelled into the night.

Laura heard the statement and ran up the hillside, only to be greeted by Elsie, who rushed her to James. "Laura, suit up we are going to battle Ricker."

Elsie grabbed her broadsword, while Laura picked up a spear, made of crucible iron. They jogged down the hillside until they reached a small grove. It was a grove of mangled apple trees, each being stripped bare by our heroes. They continued to hike the treacherous trail ahead of them. When they reached Fuller's Film, on the hill of Saxon Trail, they saw a great challenge ahead of them. James slid down the hill, unnoticed by the sentries guarding the castle. Soon, Laura and Elsie followed. They began the dangerous battle to the door. James sliced through dasle after dasle, a type of living ghost. Laura held his right flank, with Elsie on the left. Then a dasle caught Elsie off guard and cut her side, leaving her crumpled on the ground, defenseless. James threw her on his back and fought on, with more dasle pushing on the right to take out Laura. "We need to retreat." James mustered frantically.

So they did leaving Elsie in a small grove, with James bandaging her wounds. "Take the sword, Laura it will prove useful."

"Okay dad, but I don't know how to use it."

James slowly taught Laura basic stances and movements with the blade. Soon enough, Laura was fluent enough to hold her own against James. They began the slow jog to Casitior Palace, otherwise known as Fuller's Films. When they reached Casitior, they saw utter chaos. Dasles were everywhere along with their leaders, Jorpians, another type of living ghost. They charged into the fray, fighting to the last dasle and Jorpian, slowly they reached the gate, where a new set of challenges faced them. They saw the gatemaster, and he saw them. He fought with honour, but sadly the gate master fell with an ill-fated blow to the chest, delivered by Laura. Finally, the gate was open to Casitior Palace, to take on Ricker...