Chapter 4. The Beast Before Them
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The light of the moon once more shone, but now dimly into the Loft. All was in disarray. The wonderous spread of food now covered the floors and walls which in the darkness of night looked quite grotesque.
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Though no one noticed the mess. All attention was on the monstrous dark entity hovering in menace above the group of friends.
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They had thrown all they could at it, with little sense or sight of victory.
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There they stood from the front silhouetted by the dim light of the moon. From the back seemingly swallowed up in the darkness facing them.
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Though they were all exhausted and drenched in sweat, they felt no warmth. It was as if all had gone dark and cold. Toad closed his eyes in the moment thinking back to the days past duking it out in boss fights with that same group of friends. But back then it was all a game. It was simple enough to turn out the console and return to normal life.
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But now seemingly, this was normal life.
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As normal as, a ‘who knows how tall’ demon of darkness’ standing in your family room could be anyway.
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They had fought hard, but now all had gone eerily silent, the beast just stood there as if it had forgotten its reason for being there.
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The friends all remained silent as well hoping to not set off or trigger the intruder in any way.
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Toast broke the silence pushing up his VR visor, though while still holding fast to his D20, lest the monster strike,
“So what’s the plan?
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(panting)
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“We just going to sit here till it takes us out like a happy meal?”
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—
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Toad is brought back to the present moment and shudders with the dark entity looming before him.
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The entity breathed deeply, slowly, each breath filling the room with cold.
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Ice who kept his eyes set on the beast as his guitar rested on his back, breathed in slowly,
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(in a whisper)
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“We need some way to send it back to wherever it came from, or at least get it away from where it can do any harm.”
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Meph exhaled in exhaustion,
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“Yeah cos they ain’t no way we’re taking this behemoth out.”
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Fox was next to join the rousing discussion whilst watching the certain death that loomed before them,
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“But how do we pacify this thing or even move it anywhere?”
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All were silent, the end seemed eminent
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—
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Meanwhile…
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Bacon ran as fast as he could.
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Tears began to stream down his face.
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He expected the worse.
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He thought back. The way the other-worldly light shot across the sky and landed right where his friends stood, the way it smashed into the Loft then all went dark.
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It couldn’t be. They couldn’t be gone. Gone.
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Why wasn’t I there to help them Bacon thought, an endless stream of thought bombarding his mind.
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But now wasn’t the time to panic. Now was the time to go. To run.
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In the rush to get there Bacon had scarcely grabbed his bag from beside the door and followed suit running past Wilbur on his way out.
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As his feet hit the cold hard ground, adrenaline pumped hard.
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—
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His mind began to spiral, but he grasped on to the thought that all was not lost and held to that as tightly as he could.
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It began to rain as Bacon neared the corner that the Loft stood on. The rain pounded hard. Almost as much as his heart.
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It was much too dark to see the state of the Loft, only the dark moonlight silhouetting it in silence.
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Bacon plunged through the front door alone into the darkness of the building. Silence.
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Fear shot through him.
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He ran up the stairs to see what remained.
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—
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Back in the Loft.
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Cheese looked to his brother Grape to make sure he was okay.
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They had been sitting in silence for what seemed like and eternity. All that broke the silence was the deep breathing and grunting of the beast before them.
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Though spirits were low everyone was still okay, they had set up camp, so to say, to stay awake and alive.
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Grape was sitting silently sipping from a juice pouch. It didn’t seem to bother the beast so everyone had agreed it was okay.
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The door to the rooftop was blocked by a bookcase.
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They had tried to move it, but feared it would set the beast off.
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Nope no way out, no exit.
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And the door into the Loft though usually open, yep, it was blocked quite perfectly by the dark entity.
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Cheese sighed in frustration.
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No way out.
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NEXT CHAPTER >>
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