The Dormant Chronicles

Part Three- Last Stand

Laura stepped into Casitior Palace, panning the amazing foyer. Large chandeliers hung everywhere, with lush, soft carpets covering every surface. Then a swarm of dasle charged them. Laura was cutting down dasle after dasle, Jorpian after Jorpian until they all had been slain. Then a torrent, blew them into the courtyard, with sudden, powerful force. James was looking solemn until he whispers, "He knows the Aryic, an ancient native language of Nebraska."

"Well, do you know it?" Laura questioned.

"Yes, I'm afraid so...."

James slowly stood up, with Laura following. Then Laura dropped to the ground, clutching her arm. James was immediately to her side. Laura was crying, with her limp arm she grabbed her sword. She dropped it and it hit the ground with a CLANK! Then she thought about Elsie, and weeped even more.

Then James shouted Aryic, "Gossa, Rumeria, Tohfa!"

Laura's arm slowly mended into it's normal form. She stood up and grabbed her broadsword and said, "Let's go, dad!"

So they started back to the gate, this time with a new challenge. The whole palace was thirty feet in the air. They began to climb the rickety ladder to the courtyard. Then it snapped. James was still on the ladder, falling thirty feet, to what would be his utter demise. "Yttrium, Volkite, Sorbes!"

James floated to the courtyard, but looked weak. He slowly muttered, "Using Aryic hurts me, as it does to Ricker."

Laura started into a small cellar, which had a lantern burning with ancient oil. Laura grabbed this lantern and started sneaking up the flight of stairs into Casitior Palace, James was slowly walking behind her, slowly rejuvenating. They began to walk in the main gate, but dasles swarmed them, so they went into the courtyard to strategize. Laura suggested they wait until morning to strike, but James shot this down. He told Laura that they would be scaling the far wall and slipping into Ricker's chambers. Laura began to argue, but relented after James gave her a "If you want to eat when we get home, clamp up" face. Laura clamped up for good reason. James grabbed a grappling hook out of his backpack. "When did you have the time to pack a grappling hook?" Laura questioned.

"Because I thought we might need it." James said excitedly.

So James started to walk up the brick and mortar wall, but unfortunately slipped on a wet section of the wall. He was dangling ten feet in the air. Laura tried to get him to leap down, but he objected while he found his footing climbing back up the wall and into the balcony. James threw down the rope and Laura caught it, beginning to scale the wall. Laura slipped but quickly caught her footing. She slowly stepped into the balcony perspiring from the difficult, vertical climb. Laura sat down and began to weep, for everything that had happened. Then disaster, a terrible crack rang through the air, and lo and behold a flash of lightning blows through the balcony splitting it in half. James with great haste ran to the edge and saw nothing, just a black abyss. Laura clutched the handholds and closed her eyes. She fell into an unnatural sleep and floated away, somewhere... James took the grappling hook and threw onto a tree above the black smog Ricker created to protect his castle. Elsie woke up in a swirling world of pain, high above the mess below, in the misty Ricker's "kingdom". Elsie could see the strange castle floating thirty feet above the ground, just still there. Elsie could see something, a fuzzy cloud with a dim orange lantern illuminating the sky like a shooting star. Elsie squinted to see what was on the wispy cloud, and could see a person bound by chains going towards the swirling storm of the Basilica Tower structured into Casitior Palace. Elsie felt for her broadsword, but then realized it could be used elsewhere. James barged into the clock tower to see a hanger of sorts with dasles and Jorpians operating gadgets and allowing clouds of gas to come in and out. Then a light and fast cloud came into view, it had just a lantern until James looked closer, and saw a child chained and asleep on the swirl. Then James was spotted, taking volley after volley of dasle , and protecting himself from the powerful Jorpians. Then Laura awoke from her hazy sleep-like-state. She felt queasy and had a strange tingling feeling on her head. The only thing she could remember was falling deep into the black mist. "Laura look at me, and tell me you're alright!"

Laura started running with a strange irrational primal rage, and found herself out of control with a light sword, charging toward James. James drew his katana and blocked strike after strike, and then saw the black orb, and then he also realized that Laura's eyes had no pupils. So he changed his motive and sliced the orb clean off her head, leaving Laura lying on the floor, in disarray. Laura felt has if a heavy weight has fallen off her back. She wobbled to her feet, and saw her father staring down at her. Laura scrambled to her feet, and mumbled about apology and worms. James just stated, "It's not your fault, but now they know where we are,"

So Laura took up her blade and rushed into the swarm. Laura was battle-hardened and fought with distinction, pitting hordes of dasle against Jorpian , and killing them quickly. James however was not as fortunate, getting pitted against a hundred dasle at once. Then suddenly, Laura jumped into the fray, and sliced a dasle into ribbons, another looked like it went through a trash compactor. Soon enough, James was safe, and then jumped out of the tower into the darkness. "Teratas,Wercian, Yuer!" James whispered into the night. Then eagles swooped from their perch, and picked them up carrying them to a nearby hill. Elsie was hiding when the eagle landed. Elsie looked at the dark figures from a mere meter away, and saw her friend, Laura worse for ware. Elsie ran to her, but sadly was not greeted with a warm welcome. James turned around to see a tall girl look at her with her piercing blue eyes. "Laura, it's you, I can't believe it?!"

Laura was stunned, but recognized Elsie's soft, bubbly voice. "Elsie, you're alive!"

James was puzzling over something, but then spoke, "It seems as if Ricker has changed the landscape."

Laura nodded, and Elsie was just confused how they got here. They were on the Norse Outlook, previously Norse Park. Ricker was banging the table while looking at the Aryic bubble. Ricker then started a meeting with the highest Jorpian leaders. They devised a devious plan to stop James, Laura, and Elsie once and for all. James ran towards the edge of the fog, only to find an explosive barrier of deep black. Then James took out a battered book from his pocket and began to read from a tattered, worn page. Laura and Elsie sat on a rock until James whispered something into Laura's ear. It shot through her and then she whispered into Elsie's ear. They grabbed a long stick and poked it through the barrier, creating a sparkling explosion opening a small portion of the barrier. They walked out into the sunlight to see it was almost evening of December 13, nearly a day after this whole calamity started. Then a small little girl with light gray eyes and pale skin wearing a dull red dress, walked straight to them. What a strange sight it would have been if she wasn't Ricker's puppet to trick them. "Hello m-my name is Jane!"

Laura and Elsie greeted Jane as expected, but James looked with distrust over her. Jane led them to a crowd of people looking into the great dark sphere. A great abyss surrounded Casitior Palace and the ruins of the museum. Then a great strike of lightning hit the sphere turning it transparent for a mere five seconds. Everyone gasped when they saw the swirling haze of gas in a blanket over the museum picking bricks and other rubble up into a giant bubble which floated off to a building site packed with dasle. Then as quick as it came, the sphere turned opaque again. James and Laura wandered back into the sphere through the ever shrinking hole made by them. By the time Elsie saw them go in, it was too late, it had closed seconds prior. Jane had failed, and now Elsie was trapped in the outside world. James and Laura were already inside when they realized Elsie was trapped outside. James grabbed a long stick and stabbed it into the wall, as it crackled and shuttered, sparkled and shined, and then exploded. The whole shield wall shrank to around just Casitior Palace. Elsie ran to where Laura and James were crouching low to the ground. Elsie ran up to them, and gave them a bear hug. Then a rumbling crowd ran into the now freed area, and immediately fell to the ground, unconscious. Then as quick as it had came, the giant dark sphere encircled the whole ruin again. James and Elsie began trading items to resupply everyone in the group. Then a great howl of Aryic rang through the electric air. Then a black, searing bullet pierced James's skin leaving an oozing, bleeding wound. James looked weak, his eyes glazed, mouthing open, and pale skin. Laura and Elsie ran to his side, and crouched to his side. Then Laura did some of the unthinkable speaking gibberish to Elsie, "Tairen, Qweris."

James's wounds started mending on word, and slowly healed into a stitched battle scar.

Ricker was watching, and Ricker Loverno was mad. He was furious at "Jane", and most furious at Laura who was an Aryic adept!

James stood up shaken from the traumatizing experience that was getting hit with a twenty pound Aryic bullet, straight into his chest. Laura was pale from her first use of Aryic. Elsie took her spear and began to stab it into a tree, mad for everything that happened. Then James just made a remark, "Well, I think we should get over to Casitior Palace and fight, fight for what we have lost, fight for our freedom to escape this wretched place, escape it for good!"

Then a serious calamity happened, the wind blew into a gale, the gale into a tornado that blew trees down, and was pouring rain. Laura suggested they find refuge under a fallen tree, Elsie guessed a pavilion would be good, then James just said, "Seriously, there's a cave twenty feet away."

Then the storm slowed to a drizzle, and then to a dark night of a fierce wind. James walked out of the cave from a short sleep. Laura and Elsie soon did the same, walking to see the havoc that had occurred to the forests of Norse and Saxon Outlook. The trees had fallen down creating walls of wood that created a safe haven for James, Laura, and Elsie to hide from Ricker and the Aryans, or creatures made from Aryic. James began to walk towards the impregnable Casitior Palace, the floating city that had thwarted James and Laura too many times. The walk was harsh, and for seven hours the unrelenting terrain gave way until the mist rolled in from the centerpiece: Casitior Palace.

The wind once again picked up its pace blowing in hard, clean gusts. Once again the Palace lowered itself to the ground opening its gates, setting a trap for an unsuspecting James, Laura, or Elsie to fall into its clutches. at that same moment, Elsie noticed the open gate on the ground and whispered about it into Laura's unsuspecting ear, then Laura fussed up about it to James, who pondered it for a good ten minutes. Then he said, "We should go around to avoid capture."

"How would we do that, dad it doesn't seem very likely that we could do that."

"Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I'll think of something, maybe..." James said sheepishly in reply to her question. Elsie just smiled and laughed out, "Yeah, let's grapple up the wall, that'll work!" Elsie said jokingly.

Then James nodded and agreed, "Let's try it!"

Laura's eyes were missing their usual luster, normally appearing to look deep green, only have a weak green flare to their lifeless gray surroundings. Again Ricker tried to control her, and again he failed, because just at the moment he hijacked her brain, a small scroll poked out of a fallen log. Laura picked up this document aloud to the group, 'Let there be light where dark has risen, let a fallen soul be lifted up, and you march towards the challenge, where one of you will live again...' It was smudged after that but Laura could make out one more word which seemed to be a name, it looked like Jonah Blunt, but she couldn't be sure. Elsie sat on the rock pondered over the document, James close at her side. Then the disaster happened again, a snowstorm blew through covering every surface with a foot of snow, but this time it was orchestrated by Laura's subconscious, linked to Ricker's Aryic conscious mind. The wind blew snow everywhere, and james and Elsie went into a cave and piled logs and rocks to create a barrier. Laura was in the storm, being controlled by Ricker, who was blowing more wind and snow to trap the beleaguered Elsie and James. Laura once green eyes became a light white that shows Ricker's control had overtaken her mind. Laura wasn't under complete control however, as Laura's conscious mind was fighting an uphill battle to retake her sentience. Elsie pushed against the wall of wood and stone, plus a surplus of snow piled from Laura's storm of anger and confusion. James was also pushing against the barrier, and having a mild success, loosening the rocks, making it easier for one strong push to break it up, and to allow a way out. Laura felt as if a blender was turned on in her head, making rash, strange decisions without any of her consent, like shooting ice through a squirrel's head, not the nicest thing to do... and yet Laura overtook the much stronger Ricker with the "battle of the minds", so to speak. Elsie broke the wall to see Laura lying on the ground, red cheeks, eyes closed, and cold skin from the cold. James ran to her side and gave her a tight hug, and snuggled her in his warm arms. Inside her head however it was bleak for Laura, all but one of her plans to thwart Ricker had failed, leaving her conscious and subconscious weak, ready for an unsuspecting blow from Ricker, wiping her out forever, leaving only a puppet and a shadow of Laura. James and Elsie couldn't let that happened and once again, they entered the battlefield. It was grey all around Laura and she was fading, little specks of her floating away into the black of nightfall. James ran to her side, and began to Aryic heal, and yet it didn't work then he remembered a clause from 'Aryic, the Ancient Language' which stated, 'If you are in a mind Aryic is null unless you have control of your outside body...' James realized that he had to leave and try to counteract Ricker's control. James found himself with a large headache, and a great dilemma. He could let Laura fall and betray her and he would live, or he could save her and most likely die. He thinks about it and decides, but then he remembered something, something that changes everything. "I have to go, if I don't she will toil in death and destruction..." He stopped there.

He took his little child and hugged her, and wished her the best, as all he could think about was when he read her a story, not long ago, with a valiant knight saving a princess in trouble, from a giant creature, except he lived that story, he knew that story, because it was "The Gate", and in his heart he had made a vow to protect her from this wretched place, and he would do that, even if it meant he would die in the process. Elsie was not faring well, with Ricker's might sweeping Laura away. Then a great flash overtook the room, and James was ready, ready to battle. Ricker's white flow rushed toward James, but he fazed out and back into the room, yet he still got hit, but he wasn't done yet. James began a long Aryic chant which began to push back the white streak controlling Laura's mind, and yet it was just too late, the image of Laura was all but gone, and he still pushed them back, not afraid to die to save both of them. Soon, the battle had come to a stalemate, each side not giving ground, until James used another Aryic phrase, this time it was a powerful stunning blow to Ricker, which defeated the streak. Laura awoke to James cradling her in his arms. Laura was quite startled, but then felt the searing pain in her head. "Wh-What happened?"

"Well, basically Ricker invaded your mind, stole your conscious, and overall making a mess of things, but then me and Elsie came and drove him off, so yeah..."

"Okay, then... Let's go!" Laura shouted.

Elsie and Laura ran ahead while James slowly trekked onward. The wind was calm, and all was silent until Casitior Palace floated into the sky again. The thundering noise of a giant castle floating into the sky was pretty startling to the trio sitting on a large rock, mapping their battle plan into the dirt. All was set to go, the first domino was set, and all was ready.

The night was clear, but every part of the day seemed like twilight because of the blanket of fog and lack of sunlight. A shadow lurked in the trees high above the well-worn trail James, Laura, and Elsie. Julius was born to die, and he would if James was defeated by Ricker. He knew not of Aryic, but was lethal with the blade. The world lay in wait for Julius to die for his father, the partner of Ricker, who had been killed long ago. The world of Julius revolved around avenging the loss of his loved ones and battle. Julius jumped from tree to tree in silence as the group below moved slowly forward. Then Julius remembers something, something from his past long forgotten, a song, a song his mother sang him when he was a little infant,

The sun beams down on your face

It rises to keep you safe...

Even when I'm g-one

Fear Not,

For I am there

To protect you

Fear Not,

As you are my child

And Father will look over you

And I am your mother, t-o-o

Fear Not,

The moon smiles at you

Over the Nighttime

Fear Not,

My child...

My little Julius

You will be safe....

Julius cringed at the final phrase, he had been in mortal danger half his life, and he knew his mother wouldn't be coming back. Julius had seen his mother die, and knew he wouldn't see her again. He was just three years old, and the fire was burning everywhere. His mother's cool, light hands pulled forward as Julius rushed behind his mother. The hot burning smoke burned his eyes as he kept walking. Alas, a chunk of rubble fell off the crumbling building straight upon Julius's mother, and she began to sing, "Fear Not, I am there to protect you, Fear Not I-I am there..."

Julius weeped at his mother's limp body, and knew he would not see her again in this life.

James heard a rustling trees, as did Elsie, and they looked upward to see a small boy, no more than twelve rushing along the treeline, making quick, fast noises. James seems to recognize the man in the trees and calls out to him, "Julius is that you, I haven't seen you since well your father died three years ago, and you disappeared into the ruins of Basilica ."

Julius smiled and laughed, but still had a solemn look on his face. He knew he had to get help, but he didn't want to ask and look desperate and started to rush off again, until he softly squeaked, "I guess I could come."

Elsie rumpled his hair, and they began to walk again. The path was clear to Casitior Palace, and soon enough they arrived. Ricker saw Julius and cringed, he knew he would destroy him, because of the Aryic prophecy, 'The Prophecy of the Sword:'

Fear Dark Aryic One,

You are the one to fall

A bladesman shall slay you

Fear Dark Aryic One,

Your nemesis shall fall

at your hand,

But don't grin

Things look grim

For you...

James rushed towards the castle, feet ablaze, he knew if they didn't get there in time, all would be lost. Julius surged ahead of James, light, quick feet racing forward. Laura and Elsie were slowly jogging, and by the time the temperature dropped, they were there just seventy feet from where Casitior Palace normally sits. Then they had to climb. Scaling the walls was tricky as they were smooth and structured. Yet Julius made it up in a mere two minutes. It took a while longer for the rest of the squad to make it up to the top. They were on the highest balcony hundreds of feet in the air, and it looked as it was unstable. It began to crack, and they jumped into the empty room inside. The balcony crumbled and fell, and the mist covered it, wisping it away. The coast was clear, and they began to infiltrate the impenetrable fortress.

Ricker knew not of them slipping in, but did hear about the balcony, "Refigure, and replace, it was unstable anyway."

The dasle quickly replaced slipping right past Elsie, inches from Julius, and bumped into Laura. They were unresponsive and walked right past. The squad creeped across the bare white room, a useless waste of space. Others were like this white walls, bare floors, cold chills. The epicenter of the grand palace was the courtyard, in the middle of the castle. Yet, it was overgrown, nothing like it should be. The trees had no leaves and were collapsing, the bushes snaked into the plaza in the center, and most of all the weeds. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them, all just growing, taking up every last space in the courtyard. A flash of light through the dark world shone through. It was a beam of sunlight from the outside world. The tear from outside stretched onward making cracks, and soon enough the whole thing was gone, in just a few seconds. The glaring sunlight whipped away the mist, and the fog all but vanished, leaving a wispy wind to blow it away. The glaring sun began to melt the dark castle. Empty rooms washed into dust, leaving remnants of their former glory. In the middle the center spire held, along with the floating. Julius rushed out of the courtyard, and began up the stairs, moving like lightning, he knew the whole would crash down, and he had to defeat Ricker. James grabbed him by the arm, and told him to wait. Laura followed suit,a and quickly rushed to his side, Elsie following. James could feel the tower rumbling, as could everyone else. Ricker saw the liberation party and laughed, "There no match for me."

There were three rooms, two of them were dasle barracks, where hundreds of soldiers would pour out, slaughtering them instantaneously. One was the conference room, which James knew was the only way to Ricker's quarters. They guessed the room straight ahead, and they were wrong. Dasle poured out of the room, but the rebels were well armed. James used his light and quick katana, Julius with his heavy broadsword, Elsie had her sharp spear, and Laura blasted wave after wave with Aryic commands, using a small knife to kill stragglers. The group held their own, until a Jorpian elite, broke the line, and order broke down. They were split up, Julius and James back to back defending from oncoming blows from the swarms of dasle, with Jorpians backing them. Laura had found the conference room, and defended her better position there, making dasle swarm into the door, making them easy targets. Elsie soon stabbed her way, and helped her by getting Jorpians undefended, while Laura repeats the simple word 'Deus', which in Aryic means push. James broke the horde, and soon enough the dasle scattered or were killed by Julius. Corpses were lined up on the walls, evaporating into dust leaving a dusty room in its wake. James rushed into the conference room, and saw a small brick hanging a couple inches out of the wall. He pulled it out, and yet nothing happened. He realized a bookshelf was on the edge of the room. He began to pull books, soon enough all of them were on the floor, still nothing. Then Elsie saw a small panel, and pulled it open, it had one small switch, she decided to flip it, and voila! The wall shook and rumbled, and a small green door appeared, when Laura opened, a set of stairs lay open. The creaking, cracking stairs gave away their position by the time they set foot on them. When James stepped out into the well-managed room, it reminded him of his sister, Beverly who had gone missing years ago. It was organised and well-kept. Ricker hadn't even realized they were there until he turned around, and saw four people, all bearing weapons, staring down at him. "So it'll be like that huh." Ricker sneered.

"It will, and I will die to protect them." James stoically said.

Ricker pulled out a gem-adorned violet blade, bearing silver and gold, glowing a bright purple. Ricker was wearing a robe, masking his face, as he always did, but he was in full battle gear, robe flowing behind him. James whispered a short Aryic phrase, and soon enough the katana he bore, stretched and grew into a similar blade, glowing a bright, blazing blue. James knew it wouldn't be an easy fight, but he would do it. He stood there waiting, waiting for Ricker to strike, waiting for him to slip up. Ricker just stood there eyes glowing, a gray glean that James had never seen before. Julius ended up making the pre-emptive strike, trying to cut deep into the gleaming armour. Ricker began to shift his weight as to say, 'Let's go.' All was silent until Elsie chuckled and said, "Get a move on, I've got a life to get back too."

Then the tension peaked and the battle began. The blades chimed in a rhythm, that no one guessed, clank, clank, clink, clank, clank, clink. Over and Over, each time one of them tries to use a superior strategy, and time and time again, the other blocks it. The floating fortress begins to fall, piece after piece falling crashing into the ground, making a bigger and bigger hole. The battle raged on inside, and Julius struck multiple times only to be stopped by a 'Deus!' by Ricker. Then Ricker just smiled and said, "You're doing fine... brother."

James stopped moving, "Beverly, how could you!" James shouted. "You disappear six years ago, and you expect me to trust you!"

He was screaming now. "I'm fighting for some rivalry that isn't even real. If you want then I shall destroy you." His words were fueled with rage.

Laura and Elsie stepped back while Julius intervened successfully, while Beverly took off her robe, showing a pale adult, with gray eyes. The second front of combat, for Beverly to take. She retaliated masterfully pulling a second blade, and pushing Julius away. The swords kept clashing, and larger and larger pieces falling to the ground. Laura could feel the sun burning her head, Elsie heard shouts of Aryic so obscure that they meant nothing to her, and yet the air still buzzed with Aryic energy, unlike anything they had felt before. James felt weak after fighting his sister for hours now, and for all he knew, Beverly wasn't even there. Julius felt the urge to strike, but didn't know if he should. He stood at the ready, watching and listening to the chime of blade on blade, and noticed it. Beverly always went low after three strikes high. He waited for the perfect moment. Now! He thought. He jumped broke the stalemate. James began to gain inches, then lose them. The swords were connected radiating so much energy, the floor was charred.The tower was now just a tiny room floating fifty feet off the ground, and shrinking by the second. Julius felt the urge to strike, and he knew soon enough the platform would collapse. He jumped and brought down the blade splitting the two, leaving Beverly and James, ready to retaliate. Then they clashed again, this time the heat, making the swords glow blue. Then the flash came. It was a searing weltering flash of light, crumbling the bit of ground left, leaving them all falling down, down into an abyss. The hole was deep, deeper than Laura ever imagined, when she kept falling, she knew she was to die. Elsie hit rock-bottom, with little force, air-resistance brought to the ground lightly. Laura soon followed hitting her shoes on the soft, wet mud. Julius was screaming as he fell, but sadly face planted into the ground, leaving a caked mask over his face. Laura looked for her father, but saw nothing. Then a sword fell from the sky, bearing the same emblem as James's blade. Soon enough Beverly's helmet, just then Laura realized what happened in the flash. She felt something, she just couldn't put her finger on it. She saw a glint of something in Beverly's shiny, black helmet, and she saw it a memory, from a life passed, minutes before. It was fuzzy, but she could see it there. A much-younger James was looking at a small bundle, with Beverly looking also. Then the face was shown, a small Laura, a good two months old. Laura's eyes began to water, then cry, giant tears just running down her face. She could not withhold them, and Elsie ran over to her, looking at the shifting helmet, and cried. Julius stood, and walked over to them, wiping the mud off his face, and said, "Let's get out of here."

Laura wiped the tears off her face, and stood up looking out at the helmet, and knew Beverly and James were dead.

Julius smiled and took out a rock from the sloped walls of the hole, somehow a small passage opened up. "I think it's the Basilica maintenance tunnels."

Laura and Elsie agreed, and began to walk through the damp, crusty tunnels, feeling their way around the passageway. Elsie tripped on a small lump, and picked it up, "I think it's a book!" She smiled proudly.

Elsie began to feel for a light switch, and with a miracle found one, another miracle it turned on. The dim light was barely enough to read in, and yet she did. She saw the journal of a Basilica employee, from nearly fifty years before, in 1982. It read:

July 24, 1982

Today I got my new job, at the fancy new Basilica gated community, I'm so excited! Even though, I'm a plumber in the dark tunnels, and in the houses. I hope to love it, mother is still sick, I worry about her.

July 27, 1982

I started the job today, went well, everyone is so nice! Although, Fuller's Films is a little creepy I have to admit. Mother is beginning to get better.

August 8, 1982

I have relieved I am allowed to live in the employee apartments, worried about Willis , my partner hasn't shown up in a week. Mother still sick.

A lot of the next pages were ripped.

December 25, 1982

Today is Christmas! Although me and Althea aren't going out tonight. Mother is starting to get better, I hope.

January 2, 1983

Yesterday was hectic I didn't get to write, but tommorow work starts again, maybe Mother will get better by then.

January 5, 1983

Something weird is going on, and all the employees are being fired. I have not yet, this is my last page in my journal, I hope someone will find it someday.

Sincerely,

Noah Lawson

Julius listened to the account of Noah's work there, and couldn't help but wonder, what happened? He kept the terrifying thought to himself. Elsie couldn't help her luck and smiled, "C'mon let's go!"

Laura nodded. The winding pathway of dark tunnels, and leaky holes took hours to navigate, but finally they reached the door that hopefully led to the real world. The pulled the cast-iron door, and it was thrown open, showing a beam of sunlight, and a wind of fresh air to the ragged group of beleaguered adventurers. The sun glared hot as they walked to a crowd of people and Laura asked, "Who are you?"

"We are out to find Laura Xavier and Elsie Smith."

"Well you found them..." Laura replied wearily.

Then Laura passed out...