Encountering Darkness: The Great Pursuit (Book One)

Chapter Sixteen

It was a quarter to whenever Tom and Zach were suppose to come over. Pete was concerned he would be transported to the new world before either came over and was concerned because it seemed to happen when he fell asleep. The crazy thing was, when he went to bed last night, he didn't go to the other world.

He paced around the house. Looking at his watch every ten seconds; he was hopeful they would show up early.

When it was fifteen minutes before they should show up and their was still no sign of them, he looked out his window every few seconds, hopeful they were just around the corner.

Finally he heard a knock at the door. Pethaford sighed, being very thankful and walked over to the door and opened it.

There in front of him was Tom.

"Hey, so I was gonna bring flowers over for you, hoping that it would help you feel better."

Tom laughed at his own joke, but Pete was not that thrilled.

"I'm just glad you are here. Come in."

Tom continued to look at Pete.

"You know Pete, I don't think I will."

"What. Why?"

"Well, why would I when you are still asleep?"

"Tom, you're making no sense, and this isn't very funny."

"No man, I'm serious, look over there."

Pete looked over to where Tom pointed and sure enough, someone was on his chair, sleeping.

"I don't remember him being there."

Pete and Tom walked over to the chair to see who was there. When they got to the chair they were shocked at what they saw.

"Zach? But Tom, this doesn't make any sense at all."

Sure enough, Zach was on the chair sleeping away.

"This doesn't make any sense. Tom, I swear, he wasn't in here before you got here."

Tom looked at Pete in odd bewilderment.

"So, what's going on then? Wait, this is just a joke you are both playing. Happens all the time in movies."

Pete went over to Zach and shook him. Zach did not move. He once again began to shake Zach and started to yell in his face.

"Wake up Zach! What the heck are you trying to pull?"

At this point Pete was exhausted from not sleeping, and even when he did, it was not sound rest. Therefore, Pete was not sure if he was in a dream.

Around this point Pete was hitting and punching Zach, but Zach still did not move. Eventually, Tom stopped Pete and said to him, "He will not respond, can't you tell?"

"What the heck are you pulling Tom? A person does not just fall asleep and stay asleep like this. I don't know what's going on, but this is what I was talking about. There have been a lot of crazy things happening at this house."

Pete's nerve broke again, and he started to personally attack Tom. It began as yelling and having it out at each other. Then the argument escalated to fighting. They began to struggle with one another, and were bumping into things all over the room, breaking things. Tom got the upper hand on Pete and picked him up and threw him against the window. Pete landed against the window and hit the floor. He went unconscious, but this was not what got Tom's attention.

"What the heck?"

He walked over to the window. There was no way the window should be intact after that, thought Tom. Tom doesn't think much more about it, but instead walks over to the door.

He reached to open the door, but it would not budge.

"Now what's going on?"

Tom walked around the rest of the house and tried to open every door and window. He then proceeded to Pete to wake him. Pete woke up after a few moments and began staring right into Tom's face.

"Get up! Get up! Get up!"

Pete moved and shrugged his shoulders. He grabbed his right shoulder with his left hand and massaged it.

"I told you, I'm not playing a game." Pete said, as he was still on the ground, covering his eyes with his right hand.

Tom, still frustrated, squatted in front of Pete and said, "I cannot get out of the house. The doors are locked and nothing will open."

"Yeah, we are now going through what I went through a few days ago."

"Well, what do we do?" Tom sits down on the floor.

"Die..."

"Haha Tom," said Pete sarcastically, "no need to be funny."

Suddenly, Zach was right in front of both Pete and Tom. Zach then began to speak.

"Hey guys. How are you doing? What are you both doing over here? Why are you both on the floor? Are you okay Pete? What happened to you? Hey guys, I had the best sleep ever. Why are you looking at me like that? What is your problem?"

Tom spoke first, "Zach, you were completely asleep just a little bit ago."

"Hmm, what are you talking about?"

Pete and I found you asleep just a little bit ago. You were on the chair and you didn't respond to me at all.

"Oh? Well, that's odd."

"Yeah it is, so what do you remember?"

"Nothing."

"Really? So what happened before you got to the chair Zach?"

Both Tom and Pete were looking at the ground during most of the talk, but now Tom turned towards Zach, but Zach wasn't there.

"Wait, now where did he go?"

Pete, in pain, strained to look over at where Zach should have been and he didn't see him either. Pete's head felt like it was ready to explode and he blacked out.