by Cody Hyde
Charlie was tempted to look for his family and Will. Just when he thought everything was going to be a relief now that he had escaped the Underground, he’s got to take care of his town now.
“Charlie, Rocky and I are going to handle this for now, go find your family,” Sheila told him.
Charlie nodded. “Thanks. You’ll catch up to me later, though, right?”
“Of course, I won’t be too far behind.”
With that being said, Charlie stepped out onto the undead-infested main street of East River, sword raised, and began to fight his way through town in hopes to find Will or his mother and sister before something bad happens to them.
Rocky had already made his way into the middle of the chaos. He began fist-pounding the undead crazily.
He slammed an arm straight down on one of the entities. The creature disintegrated momentarily.
He then swiped a group of three or four of them out of his way with one move.
Sheila had taken off into the sky and disappeared about a mile away already, and had landed next to a nearby bar, where she turned into full form and began slashing the undead with her claws from her beastly hands.
Charlie threw his first swing at one of the creatures, slicing it in half. The smoky black substance exited the center of its body and its mouth opened wide as it disintegrated. He then made his next swing, slicing three at a time.
Across the street, parked on a corner, was Sheriff Wesley in his police car. He was witnessing all of this. He watched from his vehicle as Charlie continued to destroy the undead creatures with his sword.
“Well, I found your son, Ms. James,” he said aloud. He then backed his car away from the corner and turned around. He was on his way to the James’ house.
The town of East River was a complete catastrophe. Nightwing the evil dragon continued to stomp its way down the main street of town, crushing cars, while the army of undead continued to attack the people of the town….
It wasn’t long before Mrs. Guanty was turned into one of them at the doorstep of her home. As soon as she stepped outside, she was immediately attacked by one of the creatures.
The black substance exited its mouth and entered through the teacher’s pointy nose. She passed out.
A second later she jumped back to life, now an undead entity. She followed the one that had attacked her into the street….
At home, a couple of teenagers were playing a video-game in their basement. It involved a knight battling a dragon.
“How do you like me now, you stupid dragon!” one of them said as he hit a few random buttons on his controller.
On the screen, the knight swung at the dragon repeatedly.
His friend turned to him. “If only dragons actually existed.”
“I know, right?”
A mighty roar was then heard outside their window. They turned to each other, eyes wide.
A minute later the two teenagers were outside the house in their front yard.
From around the corner of the street next to them came the dragon.
“No way,” one said.
“Awesome.”
And Nightwing spit fire at them....
A group of dudes all dressed in black with tattoos, piercings, and dyed-black hair arrived to the scene of the chaos in a van. It was Charlie’s favorite metal band, Decimate the Masses.
The metal musicians rolled down their windows and stared out. They looked up at the crazy scene as cars were being blown up, people were running, and there were multiple undead entities standing in the middle of all of it.
“This is so legit,” said the drummer, who was the driver, the reflection of the rampage showing through his sunglasses….
Not far from the center of town, Will was still driving Greg’s really nice Camaro with Starr, both still with the Power of Victor in them. Will continued to crush the undead crazily while driving super fast, the heavy rock music still pounding through the speaker system.
It wasn’t long before Starr realized that something was wrong. “Crap, we’re getting low on gas!” she said as she eyed the gas meter.
“So what do we do now?!” replied Will.
“There’s a gas station up ahead, it’s only a couple of blocks, and it looks pretty safe.”
“Alright, well let’s go!”
They arrived at the gas station. Starr got out and ran to the doors.
“Hurry!” ordered Will.
“Okay, I’m hurrying!” Starr immediately headed inside. Then she realized that she really had to use the restroom.
Outside, Will waited impatiently. “Come on, come on, we need to hurry,” he said aloud, tapping his fingers on the window.
From out of nowhere, the horrible smell from before then returned. He still hasn’t figured out where it was coming from yet. “Seriously, what is that smell?”
He decided he needed to get out and check the trunk of the car, because it sure wasn’t anything in the backseat, but it was coming from that direction. So he got out of the car and walked up to the trunk.
He opened the trunk... and he wished he wouldn’t have. An undead entity leaped out, throwing him to the ground. It threw him to the ground?? The power has worn off!
“Ahh!!” cried Will.
The entity then spoke. “You wouldn’t hurt me, Will, would you?” it said to him, laughing evilly.
That’s when Will realized who it was, judging by the bright blue eyes and her facial structure... and the clothes she had on. It was Becca!
“Noo! I’m sorry that I don’t like your boyfriend!” He threw a punch at her. But it didn’t affect her. “My power’s worn off...”
Out of nowhere, a long pointy blade came stabbing through Evil Becca from behind. A sword. Charlie was back!
“Charlie?” responded Will.
“I told you she was out of your league, Will,” he replied.
Together they watched as evil Becca disintegrated to nothing.
A big smile then spread across both faces as they turned to each other.
“Haha, you’re back!” exclaimed Will, giving Charlie a brotherly hug. “I knew you’d come back!”
“Yeah, it’s about time I got out of that place.”
“Where’ve you been? The Underground?”
“Uh, yeah, Will.”
“Oh. Well, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about any of this in the first place. You’re not crazy.”
“Oh, so now you believe me.”
“Sorry,” said Will again, who appeared to staring down at Charlie’s sword. “Nice sword by the way.”
“Thanks,” he replied. He then noticed Charlie’s ring. “Nice ring, too.”
“Ha, thanks.”
“Did you get those from the Underground?” Charlie laughed.
There was no time to explain, though. “Look, I’ll explain later. We need to find somewhere to hide for now.”
“Agreed.”
Will then looked up at the gas station. “Well, we had to stop to get gas, we were running low.”
“You and who?” asked Charlie, then it just hit him that Will was standing outside of a really awesome car. “You managed to steal Greg’s car?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Nice!”
Yep.”
“So who’s this other person you’re with?” Starr then stepped out of the gas station with a gas carton.
“Got it,” she said.
“Good,” responded Will.
“Starr?” questioned Charlie.
“Oh, Charlie James, you’re back,” she said, noticing him as she went to go fill the gas tank.
“Uh, yeah, hello,” he replied as he watched her fill the gas. “N
o offense, but I never would have expected the high school goth queen to be hanging out with you, Will.”
“Ha, well you thought wrong,” responded Starr. “You didn’t think I would ever talk to you guys, is that it?”
“Well, yeah, sorta,” replied Charlie. He then turned to Will. “Anyway, good match, Will.”
Will’s face turned as red as a tomato. Starr looked away, embarrassed as well.
“Well, let’s head inside,” said Charlie, changing the subject and beginning to walk inside.
“Wait, hold on a second, Charlie. I’ve got something for you.”
Charlie stopped.
Will then reached inside the car and pulled out the Book of the Underground. “You’ve got the book!” replied Charlie. “Nice work, Will.”
Unexpectedly, a startling Sheila then dropped to her feet in between the three. She was back to normal girl-with-wings form. “Hi, I take it you’re one of Charlie’s friends,” she said, turning to Will.
“Uh, hello,” he replied nervously, staring at her wings and appearance. “Best friend, actually.”
“Oh, nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“And this is Starr,” Will told her, introducing her.
“Hi, I love your wings,” she commented.
“Why, thank you,” replied Sheila. “You should see me while I’m in full form.”
Starr swallowed her breath.
“Well don’t intimidate her already,” said Charlie.
“I’m kidding,” replied Sheila. She then spotted Starr’s pentagram necklace. “I like your necklace.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, now that our introductions are over, a plan needs to be made,” said Charlie.
“Right,” agreed Sheila. “I say we go in there, this area looks pretty clear for now.”
“Good idea,” replied Charlie. “Let’s go.”
Once inside the gas station, Charlie began to scan the area to make sure the coast was clear.
“I’ve already checked, we’re safe here,” interrupted Starr.
“Oh, sorry,” replied Charlie. He turned to Sheila. “Um, where’s Rocky?”
The sound of glass breaking broke their attention. The four turned to notice a group of undead entities being thrown through the window behind them where they had entered. The bodies startled them, but disintegrated momentarily.
Rocky then stepped in through the window from outside.
“Whoa,” responded Will and Starr in unison, staring up at Rocky’s size and rock-like structure.
“Okay, well now that we’re all here,” began Charlie, “let’s make this short and sweet. Guys, this is Rocky.”
“Uh, hello,” said Will, still staring up at Rocky.
“Well, we have the Book of the Underground,” started Charlie. “So what’s next, Sheila?”
“First thing we need to do is head back to the library,” she replied.
“Right.”
“Then we’ll have to use the book to close the portal to the Underground. Everything out of the ordinary will disappear as soon as its closed. Sound simple enough?”
“Perfect,” replied Charlie. “But how about this, Sheila, you can fly back to the portal with the book and I’ll stay here.” He turned to Will. “I can’t lose you, Will.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me… because you have no idea, Charlie,” he replied.
“Huh?”
“We’ll be alright on our own. We’ve been slaying those things all night, haven’t we, Starr?”
“No lie,” she replied.
“You’re joking,” said Charlie.
“No,” replied Will.
“Let’s show him, Starr.”
Starr grew a look of satisfaction across her face. “Can I see the Book of the Underground?” she asked.
A few minutes later Charlie watched as Will and Starr sat around the Book of the Underground regaining the Power of Victor. “Provide us the Power of Victor, provide us the Power of Victor...”
Outside, Sheila lit a cigarette from a stolen pack she got from behind the now-unoccupied gas station counter. “Ah, it’s been a while since I’ve had one of these,” she said aloud.
In the distance she could see a few buildings on fire, probably because of the dragon, and she could hear Nightwing’s roar, multiple car alarms going off, and the screams of the citizens falling as victims of the undead.
But there was no hurry. As long as they had the book in their hands now, Sheila knew a way to put an end to all of the chaos.
Will and Starr continued with the spell that made them invincible. “Provide us the Power of Victor, provide us the Power of Victor….”
Rocky was wandering around the shelves of the store inside, munching down on some random food items. “Ice cream?” he read aloud when he noticed the big sign above the tub of ice cream cones, sandwiches, and bars. He picked up an ice cream cone and removed the wrapper.
“Provide us the Power of Victor!” Will and Starr said together one last time.
Just as Rocky was about to eat the ice cream cone, a wave of energy shot the ice cream completely off of the cone. Multiple items went flying off of the shelves, and Will came crashing through one of them as a result of the Power of Victor.
Charlie and Starr were shot back against the wall on the other side of the room as well.
Rocky stared dumbfounded at the empty ice cream cone, holding it upside down, not realizing what had actually just happened.
Will, Starr, and Charlie all recovered, getting to their feet.
“It hit us a lot stronger this time,” commented Will.
“Yeah, and we didn’t even use the candles either,” said Starr.
Charlie was confused.
“Wait, that was supposed to happen?!”
“Yeah,” replied Will and Starr.
“It’s a good thing you weren’t part of it, Charlie, or you would’ve probably turned into a--”
All of a sudden a winged creature came crashing through the window. But this wasn’t Sheila. This creature had horns on its head and was very evil- looking in appearance... Lauren has returned!
Chapter 31