Nine Lives Aren’t Enough
Chapter Four: Darkness Awakening
Mike gets out of the shower, and gets dressed. He leans his head slowly out his door, and, not seeing Ryker, slowly walks downstairs, tiptoeing to keep anyone from hearing him. He sees Josh sitting at the table, and quickly heads over to him. “Why did Ryker do that? What kind of monster is he?”
“Don’t take it personally, and stop cringing. When he’s angry, he often eats me like that. He always makes sure to keep us from dying from it, so don’t worry about it.” Josh sighs, and continues eating the ramen sitting in front of him. Mike’s eyes dart around the room, cautiously scanning for any sign of Ryker.
“You sure? He seemed to like it. How can we know he won’t just eat us again? “Mike sits at the table, and hides himself behind a newspaper. Josh sighs, and takes the newspaper away. He looks at Mike for a second, as if debating whether or not to tell him something. He sighs again, and then looks Mike in the eyes.
“He only does it when he is angry or incredibly hungry, neither of which is he currently.” Josh looks at him for another second, and then goes back to his ramen. Ryker walks in, and Mike struggles to keep himself from jumping up from the chair and running outside. Ryker looks at him for a second, then walks past him and gets himself some ramen.
“Sigh… guess you’re right. I’m going to head to my house for a bit until I’m not quite as scared.” Josh nods, and Mike heads across the street. He goes up to his room, and gets in his bed. For hours, he just stares at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Finally, after what seemed like a century to him, Mike falls asleep.
Mike finds himself in the middle of a field. It seems like a flat expansion of grass and sky. It seems to go forever, with no end in sight. He looks to the horizon, but all he can see is more grass. He turns, and something catches his eye. On the horizon, a distant black speck of something. It seemed to be getting bigger, as if it was growing, or getting closer. Mike strained to try and see what it was, and as it got bigger, he realized it was a wolf. As it got closer, he saw it normal sized, and realized it looked a lot like Ryker.
But something was wrong. He looked normal sized, but he was still a long distance away. As he got closer, he kept getting larger. Growing and growing, he didn’t seem to end. Finally he got close enough for Mike to hear, and feel, his massive paw steps. Mike started to run, but he could tell the Ryker beast was much faster than him. Soon, the gigantic beast grabbed him, and brought him to his mouth.
Mike woke in a cold sweat, his heart beating faster than he could think possible. He furtively glanced around the familiar room. The bed, the walls, the floor, all of it confining him in a small oasis of calm. His heart beat slowed down to normal, and he saw it was late in the day, even possibly as late as seven at night.
He thought about what Ryker had done, and what might again happen. He carefully stood up, and slowly walked down the stairs. It made sense, Ryker was a wolf, and wolves eat smaller animals. Yet, if that was the case, why did Mike feel so scared? He had claws to defend himself, and magic if he needed to. Not to mention Ryker was one of Josh’s friends.
But did any of that matter?
Josh sighed, and groaned in pain. Making orbs was hard work, and he was running out of supplies. Why the hell did magic orbs require his bloodstones to be made? He stood up, and staggered, realizing just how weak he is. He cursed himself for not remembering to have enough blood stones so he doesn’t have to make them himself. He muttered to himself under his breath.
He looked back at the orbs and realized one was odd. It… was glowing red. But that couldn’t be. “Damn, damn damn damn!” He staggered upstairs. “Ryker! Where the hell are you?!?” No answer. He staggered again, nearly falling down the stairs.
“Damn, if I don’t get some blood in me soon…” He finally made it to Ryker’s room. He quickly opened the door to find… Ryker missing. “Damn!” He quickly teleported to Mike’s house. “Mike! You have to help me! Ryker’s gone missing, and I have a pretty good idea where he went!”
“Then why do you need my help? And more importantly, why should I help him at all?” Mike looked angrily away, and went back to the book he was writing. Josh stared at him dumbfounded, surprised Mike felt this way. He thought for a moment. Was Mike really that angry because Ryker ate him?
“I need to make a magic orb, but if I try myself, it will fail. I don’t have enough blood or bloodstones to make it, and if we don’t, Ryker could be in serious trouble!” Josh tried to stand again, and fell over, too weak to keep his balance.
“So, I’m supposed to give you my blood to save HIM?” Mike shot him a dirty look, and looked away again, to afraid that if he said something else, it would ruin their friendship.
“No, just heal me so I have enough, and get rid of that attitude! I don’t want to have to redo the spell to make the orb just because you’re angry!” Mike looked at him angrily for a second, and finally sighed, calming down.
“Fine, I’ll heal you, but don’t blame me when you find Ryker and he eats us again.” Mike waves his hands over Josh, causing him to glow green, and then stops. Josh quickly jumps up, and teleports the blood stone cup back here. Mike then helps him make at least twenty bloodstones, and Josh starts staggering again.
Josh then starts making the orb, using the bloodstones as a base, and sending in a large amount of magic into it, causing it to glow with a strange bluish light. Josh then turns to Mike, and wheezes “Now break this over my head. It won’t work if I do it, and it needs to be done.” Josh hands him the orb, and waits.
“That’s all? Quite frankly, I’m glad. You deserve something to be broken on your head after letting Ryker eat me.” Mike lifts the orb, and swiftly brings it down. It shatters, Josh nods a quick thanks, then the both of them teleport to a strange dark room. “You have got to be kidding me. This place just reeks of dark magic.”
Josh frantically looks around. “Where is he?” He starts taking a few steps, but not one thing changes. Mike looks again, and finds they aren’t really in a room, more like his dream. A dark floor and a ceiling above them, that extends forever. When Josh takes another step, Mike notices that his foot doesn’t make a sound, and that the floor gently gives, as if they were stepping on a giant mattress.
“Where is who? Ryker? I can’t see him, but this place seems to go for miles. Besides, how would I know? It’s your spell...” Mike takes a few steps himself, feeling the odd sponge like floor. No, not sponge like, more like a cloud that had congealed to a point that it became solid enough to walk on.
“It’s not a spell; it’s a warp to him. He is here somewhere, we just can’t see him.” Josh starts running. “He must be hiding.”
“Don’t blame him,” Mike mutters to himself.
“What?” Josh turns to Mike.
“Nothing… So how do we find him? Walk around until we can see him, or he can see us?” Mike thinks about this, and finds this plan futile. The place they were in extends for too long to just walk and find him. If they head in the wrong direction, they might never find him.
“No, we wait for him to attack us…” Mike didn’t quite know who he was talking about. Ryker would eat them, but would he really attack them? It seemed unlikely. He shrugged, and grinned evilly, causing Josh to take a few steps back.
“Then I’ll make that easy.” Mike snaps, and Josh is thoroughly covered in a fox flavored ramen. Ryker seemed to like ramen, and foxes, so this should be the perfect bait. Josh looks at him like one would look at an idiot, and starts to clean himself off.
“Who do you think we are waiting for?” Josh furiously snaps. As more of the ramen falls off, it disappears into the cloud floor, as if falling through, or being eaten. Soon, all of the ramen is off, but Josh’s fur remains a wet matted mess.
“Someone who likes Fox ramen. Who else?” Josh again looked at him with the ‘You are such and idiot it isn’t even funny’ look, then uses his own magic to dry himself off, causing his fur to stand on end.
“No, not someone who likes Fox Ramen. All we can do is wait until he attacks. Nothing else we can…” Josh is cut off as a scythe seems to erupt from under him, cutting off a few hairs as he dodges it. Josh lands from his jump and slides slightly.
“W-wow… I didn’t think Ryker could do this.” More scythes fly at Josh, who barely dodges them, losing a few hairs in the process. Oddly enough, not a single one comes close to hitting Mike.
“Feel free to help anytime!” Mike, still angry, jokingly makes a shield of bubble soap around him, which instantly pops as a scythe comes in contact with it. Josh glances at him angrily, and Mike flashes him a ‘You deserve it, so just shut up’ look. “MIKE! IM NOT FUCKING KIDDING HE…” A hand reaches out of the darkness and grabs him by his throat.
“There, we found him. Now get him, and let’s go.” Josh looks at Mike with a look that could wilt plants, and Mike sighs, and goes over, and tries to pry Josh from the hand’s grasp. The hand doesn’t let go, and Josh starts to turn blue. Mike steps back. “Don’t kill him Ryker; he didn’t do anything that would make it worth it.”
“IT’S NOT RYKER! IT’S…” A scythe appears and cuts into his side. Mike reels back in horror, and then teleports Josh next to him. Josh falls to the ground, bleeding badly, and holding his throat.
“Why am I not getting attacked?” Mike looks around, and there are a few flashes of light, as if the metal of the scythes quickly reflected some unknown light, but none get close to either of them.
“He… isn’t after you. But he may change his mind if you get in the way. Just try and find Ryker.” Josh’s hand glows green, and the deep wound in his side starts to close up. Mike snaps, and the wound finishes. He uses a blue flame to quickly cauterize it, and then stands up. “Thanks. MIKE! LOOK OUT!”
Mike looks to the ground a little too late, and a hand reaches up and grabs his leg. Mike tries to break free, but the hand doesn’t let go. Josh tries to get up and help, but the pain in his side and neck keep him from standing. The arm twists, and the sickening crack of Mike’s leg breaking, and a spray of crimson blood follows.
“MIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!!!!!!!”
