The Hade Chronicles: Into the Shadows

Chapter 20

  They walked up to the door, and Marcus pressed the button. As the doors opened, they all readied their weapons. Nothing came at them. They cautiously walked into the dark hallway. The doors closed behind them, and lights came on.

  The lights were big and bright, and hanging from the ceiling a little bit. They lit up the entire hallway, which sloped downwards. The carpet on the floor was red, and rolled out neatly. The walls were curved like arches on either side. The ceiling was high, about 12 feet from the ground, and was too an arch. The walls were a metallic white color, and  the ceiling was the same. Every few feet, there was a black stripe going from the base of one wall, up the ceiling and back down to the base of the opposite wall.

  Marcus took a few steps forward, and looked around. Nothing happened.

  "Seems all right guys!" he said, "Let's go."

  They all walked forward, and as they did they noticed that every few yards or so there was a tunnel to the right or left.

  "We must be real deep underground." Michael said, "Let's check the map to see where we have to go."

  Rachel pulled it out of her pocket, where she had safely kept it.

  They all looked at it closely. There were labels everywhere to different passages and rooms everywhere.

  "Wow," Michael said, "This is complex."

  Pointing to one label, Michael said, "Here's Marci's room." The label was next to a room bigger than all of the others, and was labelled as 'Lord Wenill's Grand Hall.'

  "Yeah." Rachel added, "And here's the prison." She pointed to a different label, near to Marci's room.

  The prison was tiny compared to Marci's room. It was small, and seemed to be hidden among lots of other passages. Only one really windy passage led to the prison.

  "They've made a maze around the prison to try and make people get lost." Marcus said, "If it wasn't for this map, we wouldn't ever find Mom and Dad. Thank you Gose."

  "Let's go." Rachel suggested, "I don't think it'll be hard. Marci's scared of us now." 

  Using the map, they made for the prisons to rescue their parents. The tunnels were confusing, but the map showed them the way. They eventually found their way to the door of the prison, where their mother was sitting with her back to them. She was in a cell, surrounded by iron bars going vertically and horizantally.

  "Mom." Marcus whispered, "Guys, cover me."

  Rachel and Michael turned around, and watched for anything that might come at them.

  "Mom." Marcus repeated, "Mom, we're here."

  Sarah turned, and stared at Marcus. She had been expecting them, but it was still a shock to see them there, in person.

  "Marcus?" she said, "Is that you?"

  "Yes Mom." he replied, "It's me. We're here to rescue you."

  "Yeah Mom," Rachel said, still with her back turned, "We've got to hurry. We don't have much time."

  "Come on," Michael said urgently, "Marcus, get her out of there."

  "Right." Marcus said. He drew Lavantir, and hoped that his idea would work. The bars looked so solid, it looked like nothing could cut through them. As he sliced through the bars, the bars simply melted into molten rock. The sword could literally melt solid metal, because the blade could melt into lava itself, while still mantaining its shape.

  "That is so cool." Micahel said, "It's awesome!"

  "Watch!" Marcus instructed, pointing at the door.  Michael quicly turned back around.

  "Thank you honey!" Sarah said, "You're so grown up now." She hugged Marcus. Marcus gladly embraced his mother.

  When they were done hugging, Sarah hugged Rachel and Michael. "I'm so proud of both of you." she said.

  "Now," Marcus said, "To free Dad."

  He walked to the cell that was on the right side of his mom's cell.

  "Empty?" he exclaimed. He walked to the other cell on the other side of Sarah's cell.

  "This one's also empty!" he yelled, "There aren't any other cells here. Is there another prison somewhere? Another hidden cell? Where's Dad?"

  "I thought he was with you." Sarah said, "Wasn't he with you?"

  "No," Rachel said, "He's in here with you, isn't he?"

  "No," Sarah explained, "Some Arru, Gaius was his name, said he was taking Bryan because Marci had given up, and that you three had requested your parents immediately. That was about two minutes ago. I expected he was going to back and get me, but then I heard you three come in. I don't know what happened."

  "I say we go find Marci." Michael suggested.

  "Good idea." Rachel agreed.

  They all rushed out of the prison, and using the map, found their way to Marci's room within a few minutes.

  They broked down the door, and rushed inside.

  Marci was sitting in a chair, chained to her ankles.

  "What happened?" Marcus demanded. He held Lavantir up to her throat.

  "I- I don't know." Marci replied, "Gaius rushed in here with his knife, dragging something with him. It looked humanoid. He said we were outnumbered, and that we should run away. I told him 'Just a moment, I've got to grab something.' But, while I was getting my father's knives out of my drawers, I felt a sharp pain, and saw nothing but black. Next thing I know, I'm chained to this cursed chair."

  "That was Gaius," MIchael said, "That fool. He kidnapped our Dad, then knocked you out. He no doubt took the remaining Arrus with him. Coward."

  "How could he dare betray me! The bleeding coward! He should be-" Marcus held his hand tightly to her mouth, "Well," Rachel said, "I guess we haven't finished what we've set out to do yet."

  "Sure," Sarah said, "But you've gone so far, done so much. If your father were here, he would be so proud. You've rescued me-"

  "Yeah," Marci snickered, wrenching away from his hand, "Blah, Blah, Blah. Thanks for rescuing me! I'm so proud of you!"

  "Marci," Marcus said, "I'm afraid I don't know what to do with you. You pretended to be my girlfriend, then you kidnapped my parents. Then, once we try to save them, you send an army of Arrus to try and kill us. Not exactly you're best positive arguments."

  "Marcus," Rachel said, "Just leave her be. Let's see what those Arrus do for her now. She thought she was so powerful, but who's currently chained to the chair?"

  "Yeah Marcus," Michael said, "Your girlfriend really worked for ya. But, unfortunately, we can't do anything to her right now. We've gotta save Dad now."

  So, dragging Marci in chains with them, the three Hade children walked out of the room. With their mother in tow, they set out to save their father from Gaius.