The Two Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia Book One: Just the Beginning

Chapter 28: Escape from the Darklands

Downstairs in the living room of the Lake household, Barbara woke up with a jolt as her alarm began to blare loudly right next to her face. She groaned as she turned over on the soft cushions of the couch, dragging a hand down her tired face.

She reached over to the coffee table and grasped the TV remote and clicked off the screen that had been glaring down at her all night long.

"Kids?" She called up the stairs, expecting to hear the telltale clamoring of all three teenagers getting ready for school, only to be met with an eerie silence, "Jim? Jim, honey, are you guys up?"

She started to climb the stairs to approach Jim's bedroom when she noticed a piece of paper tacked to the outside of the door.

Late night last night, sleeping in.

– Jim

P.s. don't wake Raelynn up either, not a fun week.

She chuckled softly at the last line before she knocked on the door tentatively, "Honey, are..." She looked around the room after she slowly opened the door only to see Jim wasn't there, "-are you here?"

"Jim?"

She left the room quickly and slowly pulled open the door to the guest room and found Alexa standing in front of a rather disheveled-looking version of me as I struggled to fit my headband on my head the right way while my bangs were hanging in my eyes.

"Oh, hey!" Jim's voice nervously echoed from the doorway of his room, "Sorry Mom," he chuckled, "putting on these socks today is so easy!"

She frowned, placing her hands on her hips while glancing between the three unpredictable teens.

"You kids scared me, I was worried you'd run off or-"

"Pfft," I cut in, waving my hand around aimlessly, "run-off? Where would we run off to? Some scary underground world?"

Jim cut eyes at me, swiping his hand across his throat in a stop motion, "No- no, no, we've been here the whole time!" he paused after he finally situated his shoe the right way, "Oh- shit, your breakfast, I almost forgot!" He sputtered, rushing down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"James Lake Junior, watch your language!" Barbara shouted after him as she followed.

Alexa was shooting me an incorrigible look as I pursed my lips, eyes wide with a shrug. Something was definitely off here, the real Jim and I were still in the Darklands, and it had been weeks since we vanished into the portal at Killahead. So who were these two knuckleheads in our places?

For one, the fake Jim was now down in the kitchen making an absolute wreck out of breakfast. He threw an entire egg and apple into a bowl before he topped it off with a splash of milk.

Alexa and the replacement Raelynn made it downstairs to catch sight of Jim attempting to cook something on the stove. But the entire pan was smoking.

Barbara glanced at it uncertainly as she approached him from behind, "Looks like you've been taking cooking lessons from me, Kiddo."

"Doctor said, after that concussion and loss of memory, you'd need all the nourishment you can get," the boy remarked matter-of-factly, "And voila, omelet a la Jimbo!"

He flipped the burnt omelet out onto a plate and both Alexa and the fake Raelynn smacked their palms onto their foreheads.

Barbara went to take a bite good-naturedly and promptly gagged as the foul taste hit her tongue.

"Ehem, thank you, Jim." She casually pushed the plate away from herself and went to look at me and Alexa, "Must've been some concussion, I still can't remember when we redecorated the house."