She Makes My Earth Quake

Down The Rabbit's Hole

Larrisa's POV

"Lannie, wake up!" Shiemi shook me from my sleep. I sat up with heavy eyes and my hair was frizzy, the static from it tingled all around my head.

"Wha- What is it? The demon?!" I grumbled forgetting for half a second where I was.

"Well no I don't think so." Shiemi murmured, "But I don't think it'll be hard to find now... Come out of the tent you'll see." She tugged my arm as she wiggled herself out from my tent. I flopped about trying to get to my feet and untangle myself out from the sleeping bag. The ground was hard to sleep on, I didn't notice it before but somehow it seemed there were a bunch of rocks in the spot I was sleeping, Or the ground turned cement over night, everything hurt and I didn't feel rested at all. As I stumbled out from the tent meeting Maximus and my friends outside I saw the clearing we chose stretched on and on for miles.

"Wow," I yawned, "Anyone else sleept on a rough spot?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you slept at all." Bon grumbled stretching out his back, "You and Rin."

"I might have slept but everything is killing me. I never wanna go camping again." Rin whined over Yukio's shoulder who was inspecting a trunk of a fallen tree.

"What happened here?" I asked finally more awake and saw Maximus looking nervous. He hadn't said a word, his head was bowed and he just watched me with his big cow like eyes. "What's wrong Max?" My hand reached out to pet his muzzle.

"It looks like everything here just withered and died." Yukio announced, "That's never been an anomaly noted to happen with the demon we're tracking."

"We should call for back up, this isn't right." Shura nodded taking out her phone.

"Yuki-chan Nee and I want to check the surrounding trees further out. Is that okay?" Shiemi asked.

"Don't go too far where we can't see you." Yukio answered and waited for Shura's next move as she held the phone to her ear.

"Max, you look so worried, what's wrong?" I asked again not getting his response the first time, "Don't tell me you're spooked speechless. What could scare a big thing like you?" I smiled trying to make him feel better and tugged at his ear. Only nothing seemed to help, a frown dragged down the corners of his snout and his eyes kept watching the perimeter. "Did you see something?"

"The demon, it came last night but it wouldn't come near because the trees began dying. And when they fell they didn't make a sound, as if they were feathers fluttering into a bed of grass." He finally explained.

"I was going to question that myself... If all these trees fell, why didn't any of us hear them? How is that possible?"

"I fear it's the Earth King Lannie."

"They're hollow!" Shiemi called waving from a few feet away, "The trees are hollow and the bark brittle and full of air pockets! I've never seen anything like this, Have you Nee-chan?"

"Nii..." the little Greenman shook its head with a shrug.

I suddenly felt a nervous rush over me, if this is Amaimon then it's all my fault. I didn't let him know that I wanted to keep things going with him, I didn't even try to get into contact with him, however, I could have done that... But if anything happens to anyone it's all on me!

"Hey are these claw marks?" Rin called searching the area as well. Everyone ran to inspect his findings including Max and I. Maximus sniffed the markings gouged from the flimsy bark of the weightless tree and sniffed the air.

"It's this way." He pointed, "The scent is strong."

"Wait for everyone" Yukio stepped in, "Shura is getting-"

"Alright, there's the creep we came out here looking for! Let's go!" Rin leaped up.

"No Rin!" Yukio reached out to yank him back, "Shura is calling for back up, whatever did this is not our demon that we're looking for, it's bigger. We can't handle it alone."

"C'mon Yukio, I have satanic powers, we can totally take him."

"That's not the point Rin!" they began to argue. But Maximus suddenly acted out on his own, he began to gallop through the fallen trees making them disintegrate under his weight running in the direction he pointed out.

"Max!? Where are you going!? Sit! Stay!? AHG STOP!" I ran after him, out of instinct I forgot all about the paper I could rip to send him away, Perhaps subconsciously I didn't want to and so I just ran after him.

"Larrisa!" Yukio gasped yelling at me, "Come back it's too dangerous!!" I saw him reach for the gun at his side. Was he planning to stop Max if I didn't!? I was able to catch up enough to grab his tail, which I used to climb onto his back and tugged his horns, "Max! Stop yer gonna get yerself killed!"

"It's him Lannie, I know it is. Thomas..."

The shouting behind me grew faint as the thud of his big paws hit the ground and the wind whistled in my ears, "M-my dad?"

"Yes." He suddenly stopped where the trees were blown down exposing a massive hole in the ground. "It's there."

Without another thought, I leapt down and darted into the hole.

"Lannie wait!" Max huffed reaching in and tugging me back, "That demon is down there as well."

"My dad is in there, I don't care what else is. Is he alive? You can only smell living scents right!?"

"Well, I can also smell the soul of anyone I can be passed down to in the family. If his soul is restless here then I will smell it, but a present soul doesn't mean a living vessel." He explained sadly.

"Yer sayin' he could be a ghost?!"

"So to speak, probably. I'm not about to send you in that death trap for a ghost, and if your father was any ghost who doesn't want his daughter to befall the same fate as him, he would show himself now and prevent you from going down there. Whatever this demon is, it doesn't keep it's catch alive for very long, how your father's scent is still around can only be explained as a restless spirit."

My eyes stung with tears, so many people close to me already dead. My mother and now to think my father as well, my grandparents are getting up in their age where they'll be leaving me soon. With them gone, who else will I have? I'll be alone... "I'll take the chance... what have I got to lose?" I wiped away the still falling tears and searched for my phone flipping on the flashlight to it and made a run for the hole again.

It was dark even with the flashlight and deeper than it actually looked from the ground.

"Dad??" I called through a sniffle and really regret it, the dirt and dust clogging up my nose and slid down my throat causing me to cough. "Daad?? It's Larrisa, yer daughter." After coming across some bones in piles caked into the ground I realized how stupid my emotional decisions were and I wanted out but the entrance way was too far up now!

"Max??!"

"I'm here Lannie."

"Can you get me out? This was a bad idea!"

"I'll reach in as far as I can try to grab my hand." He said and I saw his outstretched hand from the light. Quickly scrambling over the bones and dirt I reached out for it and barely made contact with his finger nail when claws wrapped around my ankle and dragged me back into the dark. I let out a scream before blacking out.