The Dark Entity

Chapter 7: Golly

They walked for almost an hour longer, taking breaks as usual. Ignacia and Ariston had stopped arguing half way because of their stubbornness, and gave each other the silent treatment for the next thirty minutes. The other three followed wherever Iggy was leading them- who was still being led by the necklace. Now, the group were coming up to a small cave. It wasn't the one Baldassare was hiding out in though, just an ordinary cave.

"So... what're we doing now?" Ariston asked the others, making a point to avert his gaze from where Ignacia was standing.

She rolled her eyes, knowing she was the only one who could answer that question, "I guess we'll take a break, if you guys want to," she answered.

Mizu didn't say anything in response, or even look at her, but he took that as an excuse to sit down on a nearby rock. Astrid followed his actions and sat on a rock on the opposite side of him, Clover soon joining her friend, sitting right next to them.

"Wait, we're not going in the cave?" Ariston whined, hanging his arms loosely in front of himself to show everyone how terribly disappointed he was.

"I mean, you can go ahead if you want," Ignacia told him, crossing her arms. "I just don't expect you to come back, that's all."

He shot her a look, "You don't really think something dangerous is in there, do you?" he asked.

"It's a cave, who knows what kind of things are in there."

Ariston huffed, "Not all caves are bad, ma'am," he responded, pointing a finger in her direction.

"This isn't some political debate. Just go in the cave- or don't- we don't care," Mizu lamely said, joining the conversation for once.

"Fine then," the boy replied, beginning to stalk off to the cave. "I'm going- I'll be back."

"Please don't be," Iggy muttered under her breath, taking a seat on a rock just as the others had done.

"I heard that!" Ariston shouted, a good distance away now.

They watched him make his way closer to the cave in the distance. He looked like he was about to walk inside, but just then a large black wisp of smoke shot out of it, startling him. The group that was watching him didn't have any clue why that had just happened, or what it was. Ariston shrugged and, being the fairly stupid person he was, headed inside the cave.

Ignacia abruptly slapped her thigh and stood up, "Look at that idiot! Did he not just see that?" she burst out, pointing her whole hand towards the cave where the electric boy was.

"You wanna go find him?" Mizu asked, glancing at the girl.

She nodded, "Yep, but I'm not saving his ass anymore if he gets out of there alive," she grumbled.

They followed after her, climbing the short hill and entering the cave. She slowly entered, not really knowing what to expect. Before any of them could walk any further, a very panicked and shocked-looking Ariston sped past them and back to the entrance of the cave.

"Hey, lion boy- wait," Clover called, turning to run after him.

They ran out of the cave and back into the light of the day, searching for the panicked boy. Astrid spotted him first, he was standing far away and gesturing for them to join him where he was. They ran up to Ariston, all having some version of the same confused or questioning look on their face.

"In the cave- there's this big, dark... thing," he rushed out, making motions with his hands to describe it. "It was surrounded by that stuff, you know? That black mist that sprayed out of the entrance? Yeah, that- I went inside and it was around one of the corners and it saw me- somehow, I don't know how. So, it might- it might come out here to chase me or-"