I Blame My Evil Clone

Chapter 6: An Attempt to Rescue

"I'm not saying you would, I'm just thinking that maybe Sky might freak out a bit when he sees you. He might think you're Evil-Ty. So maybe you shouldn't come on the rescue mission...?"

I stop walking. "N-No. I'm g-going. He's my b-best friend."

Mitch sighs. "Fine... I guess."

"Seto!" Jason calls, knocking on the door.

I step to the front of the group and grab a lever from a chest under the doormat. Then I place it next to the iron door and walk inside. "Seto's probably downstairs. Anyways, he knows we're coming."

"Seto!" Jason calls again.

"I'm in the basement!" Seto shouts. We all stomp downstairs, trying to make the house shake. "Agh!" Seto yells as we hear the sound of glass breaking. "Guys! Stop that!" I laugh as we enter the basement. Seto rolls his eyes as he glances from us, to a shattered bottle on the ground with a purple liquid pooling beneath it, back to us. "Guess what?" he finally asks.

"What?" Jerome asks.

"I made a portal to the other dimension!"

I cheer with the others. "When can we go?" I ask.

"Whenever you're ready," he replies. "Oh, and I made you guys Swiftness and Strength potions." He hands us all one of each potion.

"C'mon, let's go!" I shout.

"Okay, the portal is in that room on the left. Good luck, guys," Seto says.

"Thanks," I respond. Then I drink both potions and sprint toward the portal room. I shove open the door to find a floating 2-D oval. The outline is blue, and the middle is a sparkling black. I cautiously reach out a hand to touch it. It feels slimy and wrong. I take a deep breath. "Okay," I say softly. "For Sky."

"LEZZGO!" Mitch shouts. I step through the portal. In this dimension, it's night time. To my left is a theater, and to my right is a large building made of iron. I was sort of expecting this place to be a replica of our dimension with a few small changes, but... obviously not. "Whoa," Mitch breathes as he steps into the new dimension.

This place is creepy.

We wait for Jason and Jerome and then head toward the iron building. Gotta start somewhere. Once we get inside, we are overwhelmed by the many doors. We decide to split up. Mitch goes with Jerome, and Jason comes with me. We check eight rooms before we finally find something of interest. "A staircase!" I whisper/yell.

Jason and I creep down the stairs to find a short hallway with a couple of iron doors. I hear soft breathing coming from one of the rooms, so I decide to check it out while Jason explores the rest of the basement. The iron door creaks loudly and I wince. Thank goodness most people in this dimension are asleep.

"Hello?" I call softly. I sneak into the room and find a small shelf on the wall near the door. I feel around in the semi-darkness for a light switch, but I can't seem to find one. Eventually, I give up and just wait for my eyes to adjust. When they do, I see that there's a whip and a budder ingot on the shelf. I can also make out a figure huddled in the corner of the room. I recognize him instantly. "Sky?" I ask, just to make sure. Without letting him answer, I run over to him, and he does something I didn't expect.

He shields his face with his arms and tenses up, as if preparing to be hit.

Now that my eyes are fully adjusted, I can see that his ankles are chained to the wall, and his face and wrists, the only parts of him uncovered by his tattered suit, are bruised and bloody. "Sky? It's me, Ty."

"No dip," he sneers, but his voice is weak, and he doesn't relax at all.

I frown. "Sky, it's the real Ty. Not the one that hurt you."

"Liar. Anyway, the real Ty hates me too, wishes I was dead."

I shake my head. "No, Sky. You're my best friend. Could I-" I put up a hand to remove his slightly cracked sunglasses.

He yanks back and holds the glasses to his head. "Don't you even dare," he hisses. "I know what you're doing. You're gonna try to make me feel all safe, and then you'll get me to take off the glasses, and then you'll beat me 'till I'm begging for death, just like you promised you would."

"No. No, I won't hurt you, I'm here to take you home," I say. I use the extra strength from the potion Seto gave me to break Sky's chains. Then I hold out a hand to help him up. But he refuses to move.

"Uh-uh, you're probably going to take me to a room filled with stupid squids, and-" he stops abruptly and his eyes widen in fear. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to insult the squids, it just slipped out! Please don't hurt me!"

I just stare at him. What the heck has he been through? "Sky, I promise I won't hurt you. I promise. Now please come with me!"

He glares at me. I sigh and leave to go get Jason. "I found Sky!" I call, and Jason comes running. "But he sort of hates me."

Jason gives me a curious look and goes through the door I'm pointing to. "Sky!" I hear him yell. I enter the room. Sky stands up, now that the chains are gone, and backs away from Jason. "Sky?" he questions.

"I think he's kind of traumatized. And he's convinced that we hate him and want to cause him pain," I say.

Jason sighs. "Too bad. We're getting you out of here," Jason says to Sky. Sky shakes his head. Jason rolls his eyes and grabs Sky's arm. Normally Sky would overpower Jason, but right now he's too weak, so he just winces and tugs back a bit. Jason ignores him and drags him to the staircase.

"Mitch! Jerome!" I yell. "We found him!"