Blake's POV
We spent a long time in the library, but once we got out, me, Damien, Soola, Sabri, Charlotte and Pneudonna ventured to Midnight forest to see if we could find anything. We made a pit stop at my house first to grab all the food, water, and needed materials which the book specified and were ready to begin our journey. If this didn't work out, we could always risk the magic taxi. I sat as far away from Soola as possible, because this boyfriend-girlfriend bs was basically for show, in my opinion. I wished I could have brought Lolivia with me, because she was the girl I really loved, but we would just have to wait until we got back from our journey, and I was texting her all the time, making sure her and I were in constant contact with each other.
That war between my father and the father of Soola and Sabri that I mentioned earlier? Yes, our families go way back, but that is a story for another time. My brain was too occupied at the current moment to get lost in nostalgic thought. We spent several hours looking around Midnight forest, hoping to find something but everywhere we went was a dead end. We were all about to give up, because of how many times we went on different paths which led to the same place, reached dead ends, and found ourselves going in circles.
Calling a magic taxi was extremely dangerous, and was recommending to only be used in emergencies. Of course, because I was so brave and noble and fearless, this didn't scare me one bit. I kept trying to convince my allies to call it, but they insisted that we kept trying, even when all hope was lost, which I found so corny. Why overcomplicate things when the simple answer is always better? I sometimes found them so retarded, but they were the only people in the school I could actually tolerate.
Just then, we found a massive hole in the ground that we hadn't noticed before, somehow. Even though we were preoccupied and trying desperately to look for some sort of odd path or obvious sign, how we missed something so plain in sight will forever be a mystery to me. Perhaps we noticed it and overlooked it, but a massive hole in the ground should have been apparent to anyone.
It looked pitch black, like it went on forever. Perhaps it led to some cave or underground tunnel?
Even so, there was no guarantee that it would lead somewhere magical; we'd all probably get lost and starve to death in there, at best, and at worse, become a meal for whatever unhinged wild animal which was probably lurking down there somewhere.
"I think the magic taxi is better and more logical. Going down here is too dangerous especially if we don't have landmarks or a way to find our way back. This was fun but we all need to get real here. Calling a taxi from that strange site is pretty dangerous too because anyone shady most likely would be willing to kidnap us, and it would worry our parents sick at best, and at worse we would actually be kidnapped.
"It's fun to daydream and roleplay or whatever, but safety should come first. It's not even like we have some wilderness guide with us and even then our well-being wouldn't be guaranteed."
"He makes a good point dudes," Damien said with a yawn. "Fantasy is fun and all, but without the guarantee of our safety, there isn't a sure fire way to find out whether or not this stuff is real without the potential of getting murdered, abducted, or malled by some wild animal. Let's head back, okay loves?"
Pneudonna gave him the side eye while starting to walk out of the woods, taking my advice to heart.
"Damien, you genuinely do have really gay mannerisms. I'm going home now, it was fun hanging out, and anyone who stays here and gets hurt is not my responsibility. Ta-ta! See you all tomorrow... I hope..."
With that, she left us in the dust, without notifying our parents or warning anyone in school. She was so self-absorbed but at least she was honest and practical. I was aware she had a massive crush on me and was trying to help me any way she could, but I did not reciprocate her feelings, because Lolivia was the one I was truly in love with.
"Me and Dame are out," Charlotte said wearily. "Be safe okay? Dames, you wanna go out sometime?"
"Sure, Charles, let's start dating."
The two of them walked out of the forest linking arms and just like that, they were dating from the most out-of-the-blue, uncomplicated, over simplified most random romantic confession in existence of all confessions, but hey, if it worked then it worked.
The remaining three people were me and the nightmare sisters I had to put up with for only a little bit longer now. Perhaps if this magic really did exist, they would get lost in a Dimension or something, which would totally be worth the risk in my opinion.
Or maybe just in the cave. It was worth a shot.
"Let's just call the taxi guys, okay? I'll bring a weapon in case they try anything, and I will protect you guys.
"We'd be much more likely to get through dimensions that way than following this risky cave."
Reverse psychology was absolutely my forte. I knew Soola was stubborn; the more I convinced her to do one thing, the more likely she would be to try the opposite.
"Let's just try it for 20 minutes and if it doesn't lead anywhere we can go back out. I brought chalk to use as a trail marker, and a flashlight so we can see where we are going.
"You can protect us here too, right?"
"I'm better with people than I am with wild animals," I said diplomatically. In other words, I could aim a gun better than I could wrestle, because of my lack of arm strength.
That was putting it nicely.
"If we do get malled by a bear or coyote or wolf or something, just tell Sabri, if I don't make it, or, I will tell her myself, I love her, and I used her toothbrush one time to scrub the toilet seat."
"WHAT!?!?" she fumed. "You know I'm right here and I can hear you, right?!"
Even though I hated her guts, me and Soola burst out laughing, probably for different reasons but nonetheless it was in unison.
"Let's go before you get malled by your sister."
I didn't touch Soola at all, because in my mind, we weren't really dating. It was just a title. It wasn't real. I was doing the bare minimum to keep up a temporary appearance, but ready to ditch her the first chance I get. I was going to finish this family rivalry, and finish what my dad started once and for all.
"Soola," Sabri said through gritted teeth. "Do you want to elaborate on the story of how you used my toothbrush to scrub the toilet seat?"
