The Dark Entity

Chapter 10: Kaploosh

The bright morning sun shone in through the tiny sliver of the open tent zipper.

It beamed directly on Ariston's face, "Ugh, shut up, sun! We get it- you're bright," he groaned, grabbing his pillow from underneath his head and shoving it into his face.

Hs peeked his eye out from under the pillow and saw that he was alone, "Again?" he spoke to himself. "Those dum-dums always leave me," 

"We can hear you!" Iggy shouted from outside of the tent.

"Kiss my booty!" Ariston yelled back.

He lazily sat up, eyes closed slightly and his hair messed up- as usual.

"Oh, good morning, handsome," Iggy greeted sarcastically, coming into the tent. "Aren't you just a beautiful lovely burst of light this morning?"

"Ha. Ha. So funny," he responded, standing up and not bothering to fix his hair.

He exited the tent, leaving Ignacia inside alone to grab food for the others.

"Astrid, my main kaploosh! What is up?" Ariston greeted Astrid, who was sitting down on the grass with Clover glued to their side.

"Kaploosh? What even- nevermind, I like it," Astrid replied, as the enthusiastic boy sat down beside them.

"Good. You, from now on, are kaploosh," he said, only now starting to fix his hair.

"For Miss Clover, we have a... granola bar," Iggy spoke up, as she came out of the tent, passing her the food.

She continued to do this until everybody had something to eat for breakfast. Astrid got the remaining crackers, and Ariston was given the Goldfish- of course, he had practically begged for them. Sterling was also given a granola bar- although his was a different kind- and Mizu was given two medium-sized blueberry muffins to eat.

"So, which way do we go now?" Mizu asked them, sitting down next to Ignacia, who was seated across from Clover and the others.

"I tried asking the Imperium Necklace where the cave is and it did show me something, so I think we go that way," she told them, pointing over Clover, Astrid, and Ariston's heads.

"Ah yes- over yonder," Ariston responded, with dramatic jazz hands.

"You are being weirder than usual," Iggy remarked.

"Hey, where's Sterling?" Clover questioned, changing the subject and looking around for the boy.

"I'm right over here," he called from behind the tent.

"Well what're you doin' back there, mate?" Ariston asked in an awful attempt at a posh English accent.

"Is that supposed to be Australian?" Ignacia asked.

"No love, I'm British, love" he replied.

"Wasn't very clear. I'm pretty sure they say lad- not mate," she told him, rolling her eyes as if that was obvious.

"Anyways," Mizu interrupted. "Sterling, what are you doing over there?"

"I'm with Phoebe and Koki'o," he told him, leaning around the tent to see them.

He then stood up and walked over to the others, the playful little animals following behind him.

"So where are we going now?" he asked when he joined them again

Clover pointed her thumb behind her, in the direction Iggy had showed them a few minutes earlier.

• • •

"This is really boring," Ariston complained, hanging his arms in mental exhaustion.

They had begun to walk down the path the necklace had advised them to follow, and they could agree with the statement the electric boy had made. For once, something he whined about was correct.

"Yeah, but I guess it could be worse," Ignacia replied, looking down at the necklace she wore around her neck.

"Worse? It's like our entire lives have been turned into walking," he said, groaning.

"Oh shut up, would y-"

"Did you hear that?" Sterling asked, interrupting them.

They all stopped walking and took a look around them.

"Hear what?" Mizu questioned, placing his hand on the other boy's shoulder in comfort.

"I'm pretty sure I heard something... from over there," he told them, pointing to an area on the group's left.

"It's probably just an animal, Ster. Let's keep going," Iggy said, brushing it off and continuing to walk down the pathway.

What the six of them couldn't see, was the figure in the distance that was watching from afar.

• • •

"Do you think we're close?" Mizu asked the others.

"Not sure," Iggy answered.

"You're necklace doesn't have a map by any chance, does it?" Ariston asked sarcastically.

Ignacia snorted and laughed a little.

"Damn, I got her to laugh," he said, laughing with her.

"What was that?" Sterling suddenly spoke, with worry flooding his voice, once again

"Ster, come on. There's nothing there," Astrid insisted.

"No, I'm serious. Something seriously feels wrong here," he said, glancing around with caution.

"Where?" Clover asked, walking up beside Sterling.

"Over there," he replied, pointed out in front of him.

The rest of them looked to the place he was referring to, seeing nothing but trees and grass.

"Ster... Nothing's there," Mizu told him, looking at him with concern in his eyes,

"No, look," he insisted, pointing to place above the area he'd been pointing to before.

In that spot there was a black mist, flowing and spreading in a way that made it look like a swarm of flies.

"Oh... my God," Ignacia said, her eyes opening in shock.

"I told you something was following us," Sterling said.

Just then, the black mist darted towards them, "We don't have time for an I-told-you-so," Ariston responded, speaking quickly. "Run!"

He pushed the others forward and away from whatever the mist was that was now chasing after them. The six teens ran as fast as their legs could carry them, but the dark mist was catching up.

"What is that thing?" Mizu shouted, looking back at it.

"I don't know- and I don't care to find out!" Ariston replied, panicking and pushing Mizu to run faster.

At that moment, Clover tripped over a tree root and fell. The others were now many feet ahead of her, and too focused on running away to notice. That is, everyone except for her best friend, Astrid.

"Clover!" Astrid yelled, turning back to see Clover and her foot caught under the root.

The other five turned around and began to run towards her, but by that time it was too late. The black mist had come and swept her up, disappearing into thin air and taking Clover along with it.