Abyss Adventures Chapter 2

Hello, This is HCHH, Thank you for checking this out. The second chapter is told from the perspective of one of the main characters, Aaryn.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had started the morning like most other mornings, waking up a bit late, catching up to Cal, teasing Drew. It had been like every other morning until “that” had happened. I’m not sure what sort of situation I was in right now, but all I could think of right now, was how to get away from the small goblin(!?) that was chasing after me, running on all fours.

I am truly wondering why this is happening right now, and the best reason that I, myself, could think of is that I was in one of those games that I often see Cal play, but honestly, I have no idea. I was being chased by a goblin,  I was completely disheveled, my hair was all over the place, my heart thumping heavily in my chest. It seemed like I was running in circles, and after running around for nearly ten minutes, I reached the math classroom again. This proved my fears: I was running in circles.

Running into the math classroom, I saw all my classmates and our teacher, all frozen in place. They looked like lifeless statues, and I was scared at how my energetic classmates and enthusiastic teacher had all become inanimate; like mere arts of work.

“Aaryn!”

It must have been my imagination, with the feeling of death looming up on me from behind. I thought that my brother, Cal had called out my name in my last moments.

“Aaryn! Are you okay?”

I really was hallucinating. I just hallucinated that my brother, Cal killed the goblin in one fluid motion, then came in asking about my well-being with my best friend, Elissa. There was no way that this could be happening, that this unreal, unimaginable thing could be occurring.

“Hey, Aaryn? Are you okay? Why won’t you answer me?”

My vision was getting black, and I passed out out of exhaustion.

I blinked back into existence, and I saw the sky in front of me.

“Am I alive?” I question.

“Yes, you are. Cal saved you.”

“Elissa!? Did that also happen to you? Are you okay?”

“Calm down, we’re safe. Cal saved us. Besides that, did time also stop for you?”

“Yeah… What was that?”
“Speaking honestly, we have no clue either, but we don’t know if anyone else was also trapped in that place.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah, cause there are already 3 people, so why won’t there be more?”

“True.”

I saw Cal, sitting on the lawn a few feet away. Then, I realized that I had been lying on the school’s lawn up until just now. Did he carry me over here? Was it over yet? I had many questions I wanted to ask, but I felt that I shouldn’t ask the questions I had in mind, as it felt that the time to ask them wasn’t now.

I walked over to Cal, and saw that he looked a bit aloof. It reminded me of what I saw before I passed out. His features were quite distinct. He had short, brown hair, unkempt and spotted with purple goblin hair, creating patches of hair, adding to his unkempt look. He was usually messy, bit this really took it to the next level. The purple blood splattered on his face sum up to a scary look, added to his bloodshot eyes, made him, a middle school student, look like a war veteran who was in the middle of a battlefield.

“Has time re-started yet?”

“... No, not yet. If it had, we would be in trouble for being out here during class,” he spoke coldly, while staring aloofly off into the distance.

He was colder than usual, but I guess anyone would be, after what he, no, we, experienced just then. I was also scared. Not only of the goblins, but Cal as well.

“AAAAAAAHH!”

We flinched at the shriek that pierced the sky. Cal instinctively grabbed his metal pole, and started charging towards where the sound originated from. I started following after him, but Elissa stopped me, shaking her head. I understood what she meant. Seeing as I will be with him everyday, unless I run away from home, she doesn’t want me to be scared of him. I perceived her thoughts, and stopped, deciding instead to just wish him good luck.

“Good luck and return safely!”

He slowed down, raised up his right hand with the metal pole, then ran off, killing a couple more goblins along the way. While he was running off, Elissa waved me over to her.

“We should also see if we can find someone else inside the school, and maybe something to protect ourselves with.”

“Yeah… I heard that there’s a couple of martial arts clubs at our school, with some good equipment in there,” I informed Elissa, “I think we can get some gear to protect ourselves there.”

I saw Elissa start walking towards the 3rd gym, or the martial arts gym, and I started walking aside her towards the gym. Walking alongside her, I saw her shivering. I’m sure she was scared, just like me. It was too fantastical to be true: the fantastical appearance of Goblins, time stopping, all this was way too much for me to process.

Finally reaching the entrance to the third gym, we walked in through the doors, with me leading and Elissa behind me. Inside the gym, there was nobody frozen in time, but in the middle, there was a ferocious wolf, drooling from the corners of it’s mouth, with a goblin, small and bloodthirsty, riding on top of the tamed dire wolf. It looked a bit like a field boss from one of those fantasy games.

We paused for a moment, then I decided to run forwards, and charge into the equipment room, remembering to pull Elissa along behind me. Finding a spear with a cloth spear-head in the equipment room, I picked it up, and I ran out of the equipment room and stood en garde with the spear. Seeing the dire wolf snarl, I tried not to be intimidated, and charged forward with the cloth-tipped spear. My spear was pushed away half-charge by the goblin’s dagger: one which I previously couldn’t see due to adrenaline. I only just realized my misjudgement as my spear was broken in a single swipe of the dire wolf’s paw. I cried out as I prepared myself for the impact that I was sure would reach me, but it never happened.

I heard a large crashing sound, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the Dire Wolf collapsed on the ground, with Drew looming over it, baseball bat in hand. I wonder why I keep getting saved by others nowadays, but I can’t seem to find an answer. Questions keep popping up in my head, and I just can’t seem to find answers to any of them. First Cal saves me from a monster, and now Drew?

“You’re also here, Drew?”

“Yeah, I was off to English, but then this happened, and I think you can guess the rest.”

Elissa walked over after seeing that the goblin was defeated, and walked up to us.

“Are you two okay?”

“Ah… yea,” we both responded simultaneously.

“I’ve got some bandages for you two.”

“Thanks Elissa.”

“Is Cal here as well?”

“Yes, he went off to the second campus when he heard a scream.”

“By himself? Isn’t that bad?”

“I think we should go catch up to him now.”

“True… but isn’t the second Campus across the plaza? Won’t there be enemies?”

“Well, weren’t you the one who didn’t want him going by himself, Drew?”

“Stop Arguing!!!” Elissa cried out.

I think she must’ve been quite angry at how Drew and I were arguing, even in this time of danger, without any care for whether or not there were any enemies, or the safety of my brother, Cal. Elissa was, and still is, someone who cares a lot for others, and she is very kind. She reminded Drew and I about our priorities during this time of crisis.

Learning from Cal’s example, I took a metal pole from the equipment room to use as a weapon, and I followed after Drew and Elissa, as we headed off to the Second Campus in order to go and meet up with Cal. We ran out the main doors, seeing as it would be the shortest path to the second campus. I was running behind Drew, with Elissa in tow behind me, we passed by the fountain area, noticing a strange light coming from the main campus area. Seeing Drew slow down, I decided to slow down as well. We just stared at the light for a moment, captivated by it, until Elissa broke the silence.

“What do you think that light is? Do you reckon that there is a strong glowy goblin in there or something?”

“Well, whatever it is, it sure does glow, for us to be able to see it here.”

“Yeah”

All I could do was agree with them, as I was completely blown away by this weird light coming from the middle of nowhere. Feeling like I had to tell Cal about this light, or else something bad would happen, I started running as fast as I could to the second campus. Seeing that Drew and Elissa were following me, I started easing back into a job, going back to the line job that we were doing earlier. Reaching the second campus, we slowed down, breaking our jog, and walked inside cautiously.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please comment and follow my blog.

Thanks!

-HCHH