The Dark Entity

Chapter 12: The Battle

"Guys, wake up. We have to keep walking," Astrid shouted at the others, waking them.

Astrid could barely sleep last night. They made a few star shows for themself that night, which only reminded them of Clover. That probably wasn't the best idea, since it left them crying. Astrid could admit that they loved Clover. They couldn't even imagine their life without the girl.

"Come on, get up!" they shouted again, pulling a few of the others to their feet.

"Okay, okay. Let's go," Iggy said. "Imperium Necklace, please show us where our friend Clover is."

She looked into the marble shape of the necklace. It showed colours ranging from dark reds to light blues, all swirled together. When it finally settled on a solid image, it showed a cave.

Baldassare's cave.

Ignacia quietly gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"What? What is it?" Astrid asked with worry.

"She's in that thing's cave," she told them, looking up at Astrid.

Their face dropped, "Well... I guess we'd better get going then," they said. "Which way?"

"That way," she said and pointed over Astrid's head.

They picked up their bag and started heading in that direction, Ignacia following and walking beside them.

"Do you think they're okay?" Sterling asked the other two boys.

"Hell to the no. Did you see them? That creepy look on their face? Definitely not okay," Ariston replied.

Mizu gave each of them a worried look, which they both returned, and the three of them joined Astrid, walking behind them and Iggy.

• • •

Clover had been walking around the cave carefully, trying to find a way out, while also trying not to get caught by whatever those things were. She had been in every part of the cave that she could find. She was terrified that the others would get here before she could get out. She didn't want them getting to Baldassare without her. They needed everybody or else they had no chance fighting against it.

She walked through the dark cave, shivering slightly from the cold. She had been seeing small lights around corners, but whenever she would run up, excited that she'd finally found an exit, there would be another dead end. This had happened to her a few times before she'd lost hope. She was walking around the cave, humming the song that she had hummed a while ago- the one she'd heard her sister listening to. She then turned the corner to see one of those black mist beings. She gasped a little, covering her mouth to cover it, and hide around the corner she had come from. The mist came closer towards her until it was almost directly beside her. The only thing that was separating them was the corner of the cave. The mist went up and turned the opposite way from where she was standing, somehow not noticing her.

It was impossible to tell where one was looking, which only made them more difficult to successfully hide from. Once the dark mist was out of her sight, she sighed and turned the corner again. She walked and walked, taking lefts and rights and trying to find a way out, hoping to get out before her friends found her.

• • •

Astrid was still ahead of the others, although they weren't too far behind. They were all very eager to find Clover, becoming impatient, but no one nearly as desperate as much as Astrid was.

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

"Not sure. Whatever took her may be able to teleport or something. This could take us days and we've already been walking for so long," she responded, losing hope.