A Random Thought

Chapter 2

 Griffin woke up late. He peered through the windows, squinting his eyes as the bright orange light slowly drifted into the hills. Griffin checked his clock. The time said 5:34. He got out of bed and stretched, then got dressed into some clean clothes and pulled on a hoodie.

 Yesterday was a weird day. He had stayed up til 1 in the morning looking for his friend, Ivy. They had been doing the same things as they always do, go to school, do homework, then take a walk in the woods. But, when Ivy fell down the steep hill next to the great oak, everything changed. She wasn't there. She wasn't hiding. No locals had seen anyone come out of the woods but us and nobody claimed to see anything. He had been going on little sleep for the last day while his friend was missing. He had been looking up phone numbers late last night but his mom and step dad had told him to go to bed. He protested, but he gave up the fight after a few minutes because he was so tired his limbs wanted to fall off. So, reluctantly he got into bed still in his muddy clothes.

 Griffin walked downstairs with his dirty sheets and clothes then put them into the laundry room. He got some new sheets and went back upstairs to make his bed. When he was finished, he came back downstairs and asked his parents if anything had changed. They quickly told him that Ivy came back, and she was okay. Filled with relief, he rushed outside and hopped onto his bike before his parents could say anything else. Griffin sped down the road towards Ivy's house. When he got there he knocked on the door. It opened almost immediately, and he rushed inside. Ivy was sitting on the couch in the living room, looking slightly overwhelmed and a little tired. She had a few cuts, but she always had some scrapes from running in the woods. Ivy stood up as she saw Griffin enter the room.

Griffin ran over to her and hugged her. He fought back tears of relief as he hugged her. He quickly straitened up and coughed. Ivy was now blushing and looked confused but happy. Griffin asked Ivy what happened, and why she had disappeared for so long. Ivy looked more solemn when he asked and said "I'm afraid we'll have to talk in private, and I need to show you something." They waited til Ivy's mom was out of the room and sneaked outside and into the woods. After they were back at the place where they had the race, Griffin burst out. "Where were you?! I was so worried- and I kept looking for you everywhere!!" Once again, he felt the heat rise in his throat and his vision started to get blurry. But he couldn't stop the tears from falling this time. He covered up his face in embarrassment with his long sleeves. He crouched on the ground and wiped his face with his sleeve. He stood back up, and tried to redeem himself. Ivy was looking at him with a guilty yet regretful expression on her face.

"Well, when I fell down the hill I got eaten by the ground when I tried to come back up the hill. I fell into a cave, and it was terrifying. I couldn't get out, and everything was so monotone. There was no light and no shadows... It was so weird and scary!  The walls felt like crumpled paper, and everything smelled like dead leaves. But, there was a stone in the cave. It was such a strange stone, and there was nothing else I could do so I went over to the stone and touched it." Ivy paused for a moment, and Griffin's eyes widened. "What happened after that?" he asked. "Well, everything went dark. It was so quiet and cold. I couldn't breath, I couldn't move. Then, something hit me and I blacked out. I woke up and it was 2 in the morning. I was back outside at the bottom of the hill where I had fallen. But, when I woke up there was a girl next to me. Except, it wasn't a girl.. It- it was a demon."

Ivy's voice went quiet when she said 'demon' and Griffin's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Yo-your just making this up, right? Like, how would a demon come to earth?? They were sealed in a faraway dimension! There is no way they could get here! Right?" Griffin stated to panic. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Ivy shook her head. "I don't know how, and I don't know why, but a demon was there next to me when I was back on the hill." Griffin looked worried, but then his expression turned to one of horror. "Wait, where is it?? Is it on the loose?!?" Griffin looked around wildly like a monster might jump out at them any moment. "No! I took her to the fort." Griffin froze. The fort was where they had most of their best childhood memories. They loved the fort, almost like it was a second home. "Why would you take it to the fort?" Griffin felt a little panicked and hurt that she took it to one of his favorite places. Ivy sighed and said "Well, where else could I have taken her? I mean, I couldn't take her home. My mom and dad would freak out. So I took her to the fort because I thought that it would be the best place. Speaking of which, I need to check on her." Griffin cocked his head. "It's a her? What does she look like?" Ivy smiled weakly. "I guess you'll have to wait and see. Oh! One last thing, Splink is the demon's name, I guess." Griffin shrugged and nervously followed Ivy in the direction of the fort.

They walked in silence to the fort, then opened the latch and climbed in. Splink was sitting on the ceiling, holding a terrified looking squirrel. She was squealing and petting the squirrel until it looked like a brown ball of fluff. Then Splink looked down. "Oh hey! Who's that?" Splink put the squirrel on a nearby branch where it scurried away, squeaking like crazy. Splink flipped right-side up and stood on the floor. Bewildered, Griffin shakily said "Hi-" in a squeaky voice. Splink giggled and said "What's your name? I'm Splink!" Looking confused, Griffin responded with "Er- I'm Griffin. Nice to meet you?" "Griffin... I knew a guy with that name. But he died from making illegal clothes." Splink said thoughtfully. Griffin and Ivy stood there in awkward silence.

"Well uh, now that we have introduced ourselves, I think we should get to business on how to get you back." Splink froze. "What?! But, I just got here! I don't want to leave!! I can't go back!" Splink's monotone skin turned a dark grey. Tears started forming at her tired eyes. Griffin looked nervously at Ivy. Before either of them could say anything, Splink's desperate and sad expression on her face changed into one of sheer rage. "If you want to make me go back, then you'll have the fight of your life." And just like that, Splink jumped out the window and sprinted through the woods. Now panicked and severely shocked, Ivy and Griffin looked out the window, calling for her to stop. But, Splink was already gone.

Ivy slid to the floor, hopelessly looking out the window. "What will we do now?" Griffin said, looking exasperated. "It looks like we'll have to tell the rest of the group and try to round her up." At this point, both friends were sitting on the floor, wondering how on earth they were supposed to catch a demon. Then they got up and went out of the fort and started heading towards Basil's house. Basil was the brains of the group. He would know what to do. Just as they were coming out of the woods, a girl was running around screaming. As the two came close to the girl to ask what was wrong, a huge and painful slap made them go flying into a near by tree. Dazed, Griffin looked around but didn't move. Ivy was unconscious, and a huge lizard was in the street. It looked like one of the lizards that would crawl around houses eating spiders and other unwanted guests. It was called a Kinkiwyan, but Griffin didn't recall them getting to a size of 13 feet. The lizard, looking confused, kept turning around to look at everything. But, its long tail was slapping and wrecking everything nearby. After a few moments of watching the ginormous creature destroy things, Griffin realized that this must have been the work of Splink. Groaning, he stood up. "Looks like we'll have to get Splink sooner than later."