Chasing Darkness Part I

Chapter Four

Dawn suddenly broke in the early morning. Alisia awoke from the rays of sunlight burning through the windows. She sat up on her bed which had quite a thin mattress. Alisia then gathered all her things which didn't take much time and headed down the stairs. Once she got down to the pub it was pretty much empty. Alice wasn't even at the bar. Alisia felt somewhat relieved as she didn't have to listen to her insulting comments.

"Alisia, kid, I caught just in time!" said a husky and familiar voice from behind Alisia. She turned around quickly. It was Sir standing behind her with a huge smile on his face. Alisia smiled back, she was happy to see his smiling face before she left. "I heard you were leaving today," began Sir. "And I was worried I wasn't going to be able to catch you in time. Luckily I did, and now that I have I wanted you to have something before you left," said Sir with his usual big smile. Alisia looked at him confused hoping to receive more information. "a big breakfast from the pub, completely free!" announced Sir happily. Alisia didn't know how to take this. She needed to get going if she wanted to get to the next town by nightfall and not have to sleep in another forest which she had been doing for a while.

"That's very kind of you, Sir, but I need to get going very soon," explained Alisia and it didn't help much that as she was explaining her stomach grumbled for food. The last time she ate was the other night when she had one of her jam tarts.

"Your stomach is even telling you that you need to eat, come on, sit down and your food will be here in a moment. Alice! Alice?" called Sir. Alisia looked over her shoulder there was only one man at the bar. Sir went over to the bar and talked to the other man at the bar. Sir came back a minute later. "Your food will be here in five minutes," assured Sir. "I have to go now but Jason will bring your food," said Sir smiling. And he left. Alisia was left in the pub waiting for her breakfast. She could hear noises of her breakfast being prepared from the kitchen.

All of a sudden, there was a loud thud, and outside an enormous gust of wind. Then everything just stopped. Everything became normal. It was almost as if Alisia was the only one who experienced that.

Alisia's thoughts on the wind and thud went away for a moment as her food had arrived. The man who Sir had previously referred to as Jason placed the plate in front of her. The plate had a fried egg, two buttered toasts, and two sausages. Alisia immediately dived into her food just knowing that it was all for her. She instantly went for the sausages, within minutes they were gone. The egg and toasts were next. All the food had soon disappeared and some was around Alisia's mouth. She hadn't had a proper meal like that in years.  Jason had just come by to take Alisia's plate and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. Alisia got up and was just about to leave for the door.

"Could you please thank Sir for everything from me," said Alisia to Jason. Jason nodded as he cleaned the glasses. As Alisia was about to open the door to walk out David and Crispin came running down the stairs. Alisia was so happy to see them, but at the same time concerned as she noticed the look on their faces. "David, Crispin, what happened?" asked Alisia walking away from the door and towards her friends. David and Crispin walked quickly to Alisia.

"Thank goodness you're still here Alisia," said David breathing heavily.

"What happened?" Alisia asked again, a bit more concerned this time.

"It's Alice," began Crispin. Alisia looked at them both.

"Well what happened was I went to see Alice and it was weird we couldn't met each other, it was like there was some kind of wall between us, I was shouting her name, that was when Crispin came, he was going to see you and heard me," began David, his eyes drowning in tears. "Then a dark figure or something came and just took her!" wept David rubbing his eyes dry.

"But before the figure left with her it said, 'she will help us,' then it left with her," clarified Crispin. Alisia wasn't sure how to feel, Alice wasn't there to annoy her but David was unhappy.

"We were kind of hoping you could help us," said David looking at his feet. Alisia looked at him. "You've travelled around and we thought you might know where she was taken. Alisia thought for a moment. Alisia directed to a small corner of the pub where nobody could hear them.

"Well, it was probably a spirit that took her. And they would have taken her to the Spirit World," said Alisia waiting for the reaction of the May twins. David and Crispin exchanged looks.

"Can we get to the Spirit World?" David asked straight away. Crispin's mouth opened at that question.

"Yes but from here it's quite a long journey. At least a week," said Alisia. She noticed the face of David trying to think.

"Please help Crispin and I find Alice," begged David.

"Hey, don't drag me into this and nobody will let us leave the village. Plus Alisia has her own journey to be getting on with," said Crispin making one or two points and getting a little irritated at his brother.

"My journey goes past the way to the way to the Spirit World; I could take you there and be on my way from there," David liked the sound of this.

"Who's going to stop us Crispin? We lost our mother to an anonymous person and we don't know where our father is," said David putting his arm on his brother's shoulder. "Alice is our only family at the moment,"

"I guess. Come on, let's pack some things then," said Crispin in agreement to the decision of finding Alice. David and Alisia smiled at Crispin. They all stood up and ran up to David and Crispin's room to gather some things.

Once they were in the room David and Crispin scattered around the room looking for things to take on their search for Alice. They opened a cupboard and found two old ragged backpacks. They were taking out a few pairs of clothes and other essentials and stuffing them into the backpacks. They put in maps and money and soon enough they were finished packing. They grabbed their cloaks and headed for the door.

Once they were down stairs they were nearly o the start of their journey but it was interrupted by Sir who had deliberately walked in their path.

"Alisia, I'm glad you enjoyed your meal and you two where do you think you're going?" demanded Sir with his husky voice.

"We are just looking for Alice, Sir, she's gone missing," explained Alisia. "We think she might have been kidnapped,"

"Well don't be too long you have to start your shift at three o'clock Crispin, and same goes for you David," said Sir warning them.

"Don't worry Sir we will be as quick as we can," assured Alisia. And with that they left North on their quest in the direction of the Ice Cap Mountains.

"We are defiantly going to get fired," pointed out Crispin.

"What's more important to you, saving Alice or having a job at a pub?" asked Alisia. Crispin looked at her.

"Fine," said Crispin. "I just hope we don't have to walk up hill too much,"