We Must Get Out

Chapter 8: Down Below

"I wonder who they chose." Jobe said. "I just hope Ella survives." Ava said. The power stone flew up from the pit and that meant that Cerberus was dead, but it also meant Ella was dead."Thank you, I owe you for putting my dog out of his misery." Hades said. "We must start the next part of the death challenge." He said again. "I think they should be done by now, it's been like 10 minutes." Ava said. "I'm so scared, when we walk into the Cerberus' death challenge room, there will be one less person." Jobe said. They walked over to Hades' in fear of who had died. Ava wished that Ella would survive, but Jobe was sad either way, no matter who died, he still loved everyone who was in this horrible museum. They were his family, Ella wasn't, but to him she was. They walked into the room. Nene, and Bella looking guiltier than ever. Nene was picking at her red acrylic nails and some of the paint on them was chipping off. They saw that Ella wasn't there. Ava dropped to the floor. Her mind went blank for a few moments. Then it hit her. Her best friend was dead, gone forever. Lost by the fate of the Cerberus. She was weeping. Jobe had never heard her like this before, well once but we won't talk about that now. That is for another time. "I hate you guys!" She said. She meant it. She was mad. This was the last straw. First her cousin, then her twin brother, then her best friend. She ran off and Bella and nene felt terrible for what they had done. They had almost wished that they would have killed themselves than to have made Ava feel like this. They both looked at each other as Ava took off. "I feel so bad for her. We might have lost people we love tonight, but I think Ava has suffered the most." Jobe said. "Do you want to start the next part of the death challenge or do you want to wait?" Hades said. "I'm gonna go find Ava and then we can come back and start it." Jobe said. "Can you give me the power stone nene, I'll put it into the door when I'm in the Base." He said. "Okay." Nene said. She tossed him the power stone and he went to the base. He arrived at the base, and Ava was crying on one of the couches. "Ava it's okay we're gonna get revenge on Cryptious." He said. She peaked her head up and responded: " I know we are, and I'm gonna be the one who kills him." "Okay are you good?" Jobe asked. Ava wiped her tears and sniffled. "No, but I think I can get till morning." "Okay, do you want to put the power stone into the door?" He said, reaching the hand with the power stone in it out. "Yeah." She grabbed it and put it into the door. "Let's go meet with the others." Jobe said. "I'm so sorry Ava, we feel terrible." Bella said. Ava ignored her. "Now that everyone is here. I will start the next challenge." Hades said. "There are 2 gems in my exhibit, we will head there now." He said again. He snapped his fingers and they were now in The underworld exhibit. "Find the gems. If you find one step out of the exhibit and wait for the last one to be found, you may not get 2 and if you do that will be counted as cheating and you will be killed. The 2 people who don't find gems will be the ones who have to go into the death challenge." He continued. "You may now... START!" There were flower pots all along the lake of souls and they all started smashing them because they thought that a gem might be inside one of them. Ava broke open the last pot and in it was a gem. "YES!" She said. She went to wait outside in front of the exhibit. There was a painting next to the skull pole leading up to his throne, and on that painting was a string. She pulled it and a patch of the painting came off with a gem attached to the back of it. "YES! I don't have to go into the death challenge!" Bella said. She walked outside and stood next to Ava. Nene and Jobe looked at each other, knowing one of them was gonna die. Nene and Jobe were best friends. This whole night they stayed together and helped each other, but not anymore. Now they were fighting for their lives. "Nene and Jobe, you will go into the death challenge." Hades said. A gondola pulled up in the river and they sat inside of it. It was paddling itself and went up to a door. The door opened and led to the death challenge room. Hades was inside of it. "I will give directions to do tasks. Only listen to my directions when I say 'Hades says'. If you do not follow my directions or do a task that I did not say 'hades says' before, the person who listened to the directions and didn't move, or followed the directions will have to push the loser into my lake of souls. It will melt them as if they were dipped into acid. "In exchange for one of your lives, you will get the power stone." He said. "Do you want to do it?" He said again. "We have to, or else all of us will die." Jobe replied. He went down to them and stuck his hand out. "Is that a yes?" Hades asked. "I guess." Jobe said. He shook Hades hand and after Hades flew back up to where he was before. "Stand in the middle of the right side of the room next to each other and then we will begin." They moved to the right side of the room together. "Nene no matter what happens I will still love you, but we both have to go into this with our all. I do not care if I die or you die, what matters is that we don't have resentment for whoever wins because we both love each other. Please don't haunt me if you die." Jobe said. He laughed when he said that last part of his speech to nene. "You don't haunt me either, deal?" Nene said. They both hugged. "YOU CAN START NOW!" Jobe yelled at Hades from the ground. "Okay. Hades says... walk forward." They walked forward slowly. "STOP!" He said. They kept going. "Looks like you two are smart..." "Hades says... run in place!" They started running in place. "Go back to where you started!" "Finally I hate running." Nene said. She stopped running and walked to the start. "NENE!" Jobe said. "He didn't say Hades says!" He finished. Nene froze and looked at Jobe. "You know what to do..." Hades said. "You can either push nene in, or you jump in." Hades said. Nene ran to go jump into the lake so Jobe wouldn't have to. He grabbed her and pushed her back running towards the river of souls. He was about to jump into the river but Nene pushed him and jumped in. "NO!" He screamed. A brick glowed in the wall and he walked to it, weeping. He pulled the loose glowing brick out of the wall, and the power stone was behind it. He grabbed it and was about to kill Hades when Hades screamed, "WAIT! Spare my life please! I can make you a deal!" "What are you talking about?" Jobe asked. "I can bring one of your friends back to life." "Okay then bring back nene." Job said "I can't go against the deal we made in my death challenge." Hades said. "Why?" "Because in my death challenge the deal was for the power stone one of you would die. I cannot go back on a deal or else I will die. And that was the whole point of this conversation. So pick another person who dies tonight." "Okay I guess I'll bring it back..."
"Hey Ava, did you drop something?" Bella asked Ava. They were still right outside of the exhibit waiting for the survivor of the death challenge to come back. "No?" Ava replied. "What do you mean?" She said again. "I was just wondering because there's a bottle of red stuff next to you." Bella said. "Oh." Ava looked down and picked up the bottle. "I'll keep it, we might need it for something later on." She slid it into the pocket on her shirt.