Shivering cold

From people you know

Holly woke up with a yawn and saw Flare and Remi already awake. She smiled at her slugs before getting up and changing into her slinging gear. She gathered her slugs that were awake and snuck out the cabin. "Some early morning training will help...I hope." She muttered. She loaded up Ember and fired her, the Firenzar flying around in the air with a trail of flames before returning to protoform and hopping back to Holly. She smiled as she felt Ember still warm from velocimorphing and lifted the Firenzar up to her bag so she could go back in. She then loaded up Marina and went to fire, but was startled when someone spoke behind her. "Out for some early morning training I see." Eli said. Holly had turned around with her blaster pointed at him but immediately lowered it. "Don't sneak up on me like that! I almost slugged you!" She exclaimed. "Hehe, sorry...but I was kinda wondering if you wanted to duel?" He asked. Holly rolled her eyes and took notice of everyone watching from a window inside the cabin and smirked. "Sure, just let me get the rest of my slugs, yea?" She responded. Eli nodded and she went back to the cabin for the rest of her slugs. When she walked in, she saw everyone had hidden and held in a laugh. She went up to her room and gathered he rest of her slugs. When she came back down, she called out through the cabin. "I know you all were watching me and Eli chat, if you want to watch our duel, you can just come outside and watch!" She said. She then walked out before she got a response. "I'm ready when you are." Holly said as she walked up to Eli. "I'm ready too." He responded.

Holly didn't give him a moment after that, she fired off her Hop Rock at him before running for cover behind a nearby tree. He managed to dodge and fired his Thresher at the tree Holly was behind, cutting it down. She ran out while firing her Frightgeist at him, not giving him a chance to attack her. Eli countered the Frightgeist with his Polero as Holly managed to get behind another tree. She climbed up a few branches with the help of her Arachnet and Smirked as she saw Eli below trying to find her. She fired off her Vinedrill at him and it managed to grab him. As Holly hopped down from the tree, Eli managed to fire off his Infurnus and burn out of the vines. As soon as he was free, rushed to take cover while he fired his Frostcrawler at her, to which she countered with her Firenzar. She used her Arachnet again to pull her a distances away from Eli and she fired off her Narwhaddle for cover. She fired her Rammstone at him, but the second she had peeked from her cover, Eli had shot her with his Arachnet, tying her up. As Eli countered the Rammstone with his Armashelt, Holly got Flare and Ember to burn the webs off of her. She loaded up Flare and Vi into her double barrel as Eli loaded up his Infurnus and Tazerling into his. They both fired at the same time, but Flare and Vi dodged the plasmabolt fusion shot, hitting Eli. Holly rushed out the way of his fusion shot just in time and quickly shot him with her Arachnet. She held her blaster up to him and smirked. "I win." She said. "Yea, you win. Now, can you help me out of this?" He asked. Holly did and held Flare and Ember up to the webs as Burpy returned and helped as well. She offered a hand up to Eli and he gladly took it. As she helped him up, she had a weird tingly feeling but brushed it off. She saw everyone else nearby and she smiled. "I actually beat Eli!" She exclaimed, realization finally setting in.

Everyone was inside the cabin, trying to find hints on where the goon and Blakk were. Holly sighed as she leaned back in her chair by the holodesk. "It's like they just vanished...nothing from them for a whole week..." She muttered. "Holly, you've been working overdrive all day, go take a break." Eli said as he put a hand on her shoulder. She shivered at the contact and shook her head. "These are my caverns, I'm the protector, so I can't take a break." She responded while typing away. "Plus, you guys already did a whole weeks worth of work for me, it's my turn to help." She added. Holly could feel the disappointment radiating off of Eli and felt bad, but she continued to try and find either the goon or Blakk.

As it got later into the day, she felt herself become more drowsy and yawned. Almost everyone had gone to sleep by this point, the only one left awake other than Holly was Eli. He walked up to her as she turned around and he paused for a second before speaking. "Holly, you need sleep." He said. She just rolled her eyes, figuring she probably had some bad eye bags right then. "And what gave that away?" She said sarcastically as she turned back to face the screen of the holodesk. "Seriously, you can keep going in the morning, but don't wear yourself out now." He said. Holly groaned in annoyance at him. "Listen, even if I went to my bed, I probably won't be able to sleep for the next half an hour at least. It's a magical thing called insomnia." She said. She felt Eli glaring at her but payed no mind to it as she continued searching through the slug net. "So what, you're just not gonna sleep at all?" He asked sarcastically. Holly turned to face him again with a small smirk. "That was the plan, but you're ruinin it." She replied. She noticed how concerned he looked and sighed. "...fine, I'll go to bed, but make sure you do too, got it?" She said. Eli nodded and Holly shut down the holodesk before heading to her room. She saw a few of her slugs still awake and gave them some pets. "...That dumbass is forcin me to go to bed, but I can't really be mad at him for it, he's only makin sure I'm okay..."

'GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD YOU DUMBASS GHOUL! I KNOW THIS IS JUST SOME DUMBASS NIGHTMARE!'

'Is it? Cause if it really was a nightmare, you'd be able to end it right here.'

'...I-It's probably just apart of your stupid powers!'

'But it's not, everything right now is real.'

'NO ITS NOT!'

Holly jolted awake from her nightmare and started to tear up, but calmed down where she saw Flare nuzzling her. She pet Flare and smiled before getting out of bed. She peeked at the time and saw she had slept in until 9am and sighed. As she made her way downstairs, she saw everyone gathered together. "Hey guys, what's up?" She asked. "We think we have a lead on where Blakk and the goon are, but we're not 100% sure." Eli said. Holly smiled because of that. "We're finally getting somewhere with the search!" She exclaimed. "I say we'll go check it out-" but she was cut off when there was an explosion and the cabin started to shake. Alarms started going off and everyone readied themselves for a fight. When they all got outside, they saw Blakk and the goon, now controlling someone else, firing ghouls at the cabin. Holly fired off her Narwhaddle and covered the cabin while also creating cover for everyone. "I knew you'd attack the cabin sooner or later!" She yelled. She fired off her Tazerling at the goon. He easily dodged and Holly hissed in annoyance. He fired a Hop Jack at Holly as she hid behind her cover. She loaded Flare and Vi into her double barrel but before she fired, she heard cries of pain and looked over to see who it came from. She saw Trixie and Pronto had been impaled by Dark Urchin spikes in fatal places and she froze. Tears formed in her eyes as she saw Kord get hit hard by a Grimmstone before being burned by a Pyringo. Will and Junjie were both hit by Amperlings and she started to cry. Now it was just her and Eli, and he looked at her with sadness in his eyes. "E-Eli, we need to go..!" She urged. He nodded and they both ran from cover, booking it for the forest, but Eli was hit by a Hop Jack. Holly rushed back to him and tried to help him up but was faced by the goon aiming his blaster at her. She dropped her blaster and cried. "You lost." The goon said. He then pointed his blaster at Eli and fired. A Thrasher megamorphed and sliced him.

As Holly actually woke up this time, she was sobbing in fear and panicking. She faintly heard Eli's voice but was too scared to process anything until she started calming down. "Deep breaths Holly, in and out." He said. Once Holly calmed down, she glanced at Eli with confusion. "When did you get in my room?" She asked. "Well, I heard you yelling and crying so I came to help..." He said. Holly smirked at that. "Aweee the southern boy cares for meeeee!" She teased. Eli rolled his eyes as he went to leave, but Holly stopped him for a second. "Hey uh...seriously though, thanks."