Infinite Gravity (Zero Rises)

FF (4)

After a long conversation with Ford, Bill and Will were sweeping the floor of the museum as their first chore around.

"I'm starting to regret this." Bill said.

"Stop being lazy." Will told him.

"I'm not being lazy!" Bill said, in a defensive tone. "I'm just tired, we already cleaned seven rooms!"

"The sooner we finish the sooner we can explore." Will said.

"Explore?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, I mean, Ford did mention a forest with many creatures, didn't he?" Will reminded his brother.

"You're right!" Bill affirmed.

He started to sweep the floor faster, Will noticed this and let out a small sigh, going back to sweeping as well. Bill did it so quickly that not even Will managed to catch up with him, the dust started to fly towards Will, who coughed a bit.

"Bill, slow down!" Will said, still coughing. "You're supposed to clean, not throw the dust at me!"

Bill noticed his brother covered in dust and smiled nervously. "Ops, got too excited." he said.

"Oh really? I didn't even notice." Will said. As a response Bill let out a small laugh, now slowing down with the sweeping to not get his brother even dirtier with the dust.

Once the two were done they put their brooms away and sat down on their beds. "I'll take a shower, you covered me with dust."

"Why bother now? You'll get dirty later again." Bill said.

"Huh—? What do you mean?" Will asked.

"We're going to the forest!" Bill said in an exciting tone, closing his fists and putting them in the air.

"Oh— right. . ." Will mumbled.

"You can take a shower when we come back home." Bill said.

"Alright, I guess.." Will said.

Bill grabbed his brother's wrist and left the museum, running in a speed that forced Will to follow him.

"Woah— Chill out!" Will told.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so excited!" Bill said, still running. "We discovered entities and the paranormal are real, imagine how much is there to know?! We could be heroes marked in history!"

Will felt a bit concerned with that statement. "Don't heroes die in a painful way during a combat with a monster?" he asked.

"Most of them, but the tragic death is just an extra detail. Mostly, an honourable death!" Bill affirmed.

"How about not dying, huh?" Will asked. "Sounds like a nice option, don't you agree?"

The two ran so far that neither of them knew where they were anymore, as soon as Bill noticed that he stopped running and looked around.

"Uuuh, creepy fog ahead." Bill said.

Will shivered at seeing the fog. "That's the signal to retreat."

"That's the signal to go ahead!" Bill affirmed.

"Why?" Will asked. "Why do you hate me so much?"

At the blink of an eye, Bill was already inside of the fog, Will ran after him to not stay behind. The two could barely see anything in that place, mostly of what they saw were the big trees, mostly because they ended up hitting them.

"What is your problem?!" someone shouted.

The shout seemed to come a bit ahead on the fog, Will pulled his brother to retreat but Bill just kept going. To not stay alone, Will followed his brother, sweating nervously in fear.

"I'm sorry, okay? I just thought that—"

"Did I ask your opinion?"

Looks like the person that shouted was a white haired man dressed like a Roman emperor, he had a staff with a bright red gem in his hand.

"No sir. . ." a girl said.

"Find that beast, right now." the guy demanded. "And don't let the Pines know, they're already in a bad mood."

"You mean Mabel is in a bad mood." the girl mumbled.

"Quiet down! They'll hear you, stupid nymph." the guy affirmed.

"Nymph?" Will whispered.

"Nature entities from Greek mythology, something like that." Bill whispered.

"Wait— those are real?" Will asked in a whisper.

"Also, leave Robbie out of this as well." the guy made a second demand. "You know he would be the first to contact the two."

"But he's the forest itself. . ." the nymph said.

"What about— fiddlesticks. . ." he let out, going away from the nymph. "Keep an eye on that creature, don't forget it!"

"Yes, sir!" the nymph said, turning into a fox and leaving.

"Woah!" Bill exclaimed.

Will covered his mouth and pulled him back. "Let's get out of here. Right. Now."

"Okay, okay, yeesh." Bill said.

The two left the forest and tried to go back to the museum, soon they heard the sound of ticking, one that reminded a clock.

"Ticking?" Bill thought.

"I thought your clock was broken. . ." Will said.

"It is." Bill stated, looking around.

"Nice chance to— Of course you'd follow the sound." Will said, going with his brother.

They followed the sound, it got louder as they approached, soon they found what looked like a ritual, with stone pedestals around a circle of stones, in one of the pedestals was a clock. Bill approached it and picked it up, broken.

"Okay, that's scary." Bill said.

"You're scared of a broken clock?" Will asked.

"Not the clock itself." Bill answered. "But the fact that there is something ticking, and this clock is broken. So what is ticking?"

Will gulped, knowing his brother was right. "Now that you've mentioned.. this doesn't look like a clock." Will affirmed, he looked around, his expression covered in panic. "It seems to be big. . . bigger than a grown man!"

"But why put a broken clock here?" Bill asked.

An idea came to Will's mind. "Maybe because of that Robbie guy. . . he's the forest, which means he could be watching anytime he wanted." Will suggested.

"Yes, but how long has this been here?" Bill asked. "This Robbie guy doesn't seem to be really clever, because if a thing that ticked put a broken clock here and he didn't notice that this is broken and thought this was the origin of the ticking sounds. . . then I can doubt on the intelligence of the guy."

"But what is that?" Will asked.

"If you were a thing that ticked hiding in a forest than you'd surely would try to find something to use as your cover, a broken clock, because if it worked than it would be suspicious." Bill said.

"You're right. . ." Will gulped. "But where is the thing hiding?"

"Somewhere around here." Bill answered. "Maybe down below."