New Generation

The Castle

((Max's POV)) 

        "Max, Max wake the fuck up already!" I jump, and hit my head on something behind me. Road, road in front of me, I hear horses.... oh. How exactly did I manage to fall asleep here?

        "Y-yeah I'm up. I hit my head-" Alice snorts. 

        "Yeah, I heard. The carriages ahead are stopping, we need to go before we're caught!" I twist around a bit and get a better look at what's going on. Night has fallen, but it's cloudy, so there's no moonlight for us to get spotted in. Ahead, I see the stopped horses, but the soldiers aren't getting off. 

        "I think I see a lake... I think we backtracked. Isn't that the lake Indy freaked out about on our way to the castle?" I ask. Alice frowns, and manages to stand up on the ledge we're on. I stand up as well, catching my cloak on something and getting a rip in the process. 

        "I think it is... Why are they stopping there? I wish Indy had told us what was up with this place, that could have made things a lot- look at that!" Alice stops, staring at the strange occurrence. The water in the lake seems to have vanished, well, some of it at least. A pathway of wet sand and dirt now stretches under the water. The carriages start moving again. 

        "Magic... Bad magic. I might be sick." I mutter. Alice looks at me and frowns. I am exaggerating slightly, but my head is starting to hurt a bit. I've never actually come in contact with dark magic before, but dad says that the more light magic you have the worse it is to be around dark. 

        "There's a difference?" Alice asks. I nod, then pull myself up a bit, peeking over the top of our ride. Perfect. 

        "Yeah, one isn't real. Dark magic is called that because usually it's some power hungry wacko trying to take over the world with magic. They arn't born able to use magic, though, so they go through way to much trouble to find a way to do it." Alice nods, and then grabs my arm as I nearly fall off. 

        "We're picking up speed. We need to go now." She says. She jumps up, managing to get her upper body onto the roof. From there, it's easy. I follow with a bit less grace. I swear, it's like she's been doing stunts like this forever. Training must have been helpful for her. 

        We move so we're lying next to each other on our stomachs. I start to worry as we get closer to the  passage in the water. We're so close, but even if everything goes as planned, nothing will be the same. Planned... do we even have a plan? We sorta just went for it. 

        "WHat's the plan exactly?" I ask. She shrugs. 

        "I have a knife, and you have magic. We save our parents, we let their experience get us out. Oh, and try not to get killed by the literal army in there." I nod, trying to see how this could possibly go well. 

        "We're getting close to the gates, I'll try to turn us invisible again." I whisper. It hits me how stupid this is, and how little of a chance there is we'll survive. Well, you only live once, right? Seems like things won't get much better if we don't try... besides, we can't go back now. I say the spell and we enter the castle. 

((Alice's POV))

        I swear, my heart is beating so fast it's gonna burst. Out of all the ways to die right now, that's not one I'd prefer. I need to calm down, calm down. I see the gates close behind us, then look around. To my surprise (and relief) the place looks a lot like the castle we've been living in for the past while. 

        I grasp Max's hand. I don't want to loose the only person here that I don't think would kill me. I frown slightly when our ride stops. We are in what seems like the hall, just inside the doors. Why would they bring the horses in here unless- 

        "Lock the door! Find them, and bring them the the prisons!" Someone yells. Calm is not happening. They know we're here. Nothing can be easy, can it?

        "I might be able to cast an illusion spell." Max whispers, "If the illusion gets caught, we can follow it, then attack the guard and find our parents." That might work, and it might be our only chance. 

        "Go for it." I whisper back. Instantly, I see myself and Max appear in front of us. Weird. "We" get attacked instantly, and put up a feeble fight. Suddenly, I feel Max's grip on my hand tighten. 

        "I think I just saw... Follow the guards, I need to check something..." What? Okay, he's lost it. I thought maybe he had it again, but he's lost it. 

        "Max you're crazy!" I hiss. I feel his hand get pulled away and hear a light thud as he jumps to the ground. He just ditched me. He. Just. Ditched. Me. He's gonna get himself killed! 

        "Max you're a crazy son of a bitch." I whisper. There's no other option now, I need to go alone. So I jump down and run a quietly as possible after the guards and the illusions.