Chris Exists

13 'Under Market' part 2

---Chris POV---

I'm tied to a chair, with a blindfold over my face. All I can see is black, and I woke up about five minutes ago.

Someone puts a Squeezy Applesauce (TM) pouch into my mouth and I taste apple sauce. What is this form of torture? I spit it out and hear an indignant squawk in a New Jersey accent. 

I recognized it immediately.

----Bruno POV-----

Several hours had passed since Chris went missing. I had searched every inch of the circus tent, and the show was ending.  I wasn't sure how much time I had before someone found me and kicked me out. I couldn't fine Chris anywhere. He could have gone outside the tent and gotten lost in the Under Market, which was probably the biggest, and most worrying, possibility. Either that or he had a) gotten kidnapped, b) fallen into a ditch and died, c) fallen asleep behind a stall, d) DIED,  e) gotten into some sort of situation that I couldn't even imagine to put on this list.

I had also tried getting into contact with anyone in the  main city, but to no avail. 

I was just starting to go into panic mode when Tess, the siren Chris and I had met earlier, swam up to me in her water bubble. 

"Hey kid," She greeted, "where's  your friend?"

Que panic mode. "Hewenttothebathroomanddidn'tcomebackandIdon'TknowwhaerehewentsoIlookedaroundforhimand I CAN'T FIND HIM."

She swam backward slightly "Whoa, whoa, calm  down. Annie, Kaiti, people- we've got a fit of terror in isle thirty-four."

Annie bounded from seat to seat, and stopped a few steps away from us. "Welp," she muttered, "I'm not touching that with a ten foot-"

Then Kaiti came over, cutting her off. "You okay?"

I took a deep breath. "I lost my friend during the show,  he went to the bathroom and didn't come back."

"Did he fall in the toilet?" Annie said before breaking into hysterical laughter  and  falling off the back of the seat she was perched atop. Tess sighed.

"I don't think so. As far as I can tell, he isn't anywhere in the tent. I've looked all over."

"We'll help you find him!" Annie exclaimed as she hopped up from the floor, giving me a sharp, yellow toothed grin.

"Yeah," Tess agreed, "we'll check around the tent one more time, and if we don't find  him or any clues to where he could be, we can look around the rest of the Under Market."

The four of us scoured the entire tent, and Annie found a cursed toilet plunger, a lot of trash, a boomerang that liked to discuss controversial politics, and a very patriotic empty can of beans. However, we didn't find anything until about an hour or so later, when Kaiti called us over to her.

"You guys," she began, "I've found a trace of a curse, left over from a WormHole spell. Someone cast it here, probably to lure in a specific target."

"Chris," I muttered. "Do you know where it could have led?"

"Of course," Kaiti chuckled, "what do you take me for kid? This'll be easier than turning a cat into a carrot. What I'm worried about is whoever took him, it would take some serious magic to entrance a demon like your little friend."

"We did meet this one kiwi bird from Jersey," I mused.

"Well that's not good," Tess said. "That's where all the most powerful ones are from."

"I'm from Florida," Annie said.

"Of course you are," I muttered.

---Chris POV---

My head hurt, and the world smelled of mothballs. The weird kiwi demon had injected me with something and told me to skip count by sevens. I had gotten the blindfold off, but everything had gone tinted red a little bit ago, and that was very worrying. 

I had the biggest craving for undercooked meat. That time I had mauled the park ranger was suddenly my fondest memory,and my mouth was watering just thinking about it. I stopped skip counting in favor of thinking about cannibalism. 

My finger twitched, and my ears perked up.  All of a sudden, I felt my senses heightened. Everything was too loud,  too bright, and it felt like the smell of the room around be was stabbing into my nose like an angry seamstress was attempting to carve out my nasal cavity.  

I curled into myself as best as I could while tied to the chair. A growl escaped my throat, and my claws gouged into the wooded chair.

I wish Bruno was here.

--Bruno POV--  

Kaiti had managed to trace the spell, and according to her, it had led all the way across the country to New Jersey. 

"Jersey?" I cried, "We're in Oregon! How are we supposed to get all the way to New  Jersey in time to find Chris, much less save him?"

"I'm going to assume that was not a rhetorical question,"Kaiti said, "and explain that  we, can create a special  jump to a location close to where this spell was conducted."

"That's actually better than I thought your solution would be,"  Isaid.

"See," Tess said, patting my shoulder, "it's not so bad."

"Except," Annie jumped in, "for the fact that a spatial jump that  big would require a ton of power-up, and we still need to form a plan of attack for when we all get there."

"That does sound less good," Tess said, "but still good, right?"

I take a deep breath. "Okay," I start, and everyone looks at me. "I'm going to go back up to the main city and contact the Queen Bee to ask for additional backup when we do the spacial jump to Jersey. We'll need as many hands on deck as possible if we end up having to raid the entirety of New Jersey."

Tess nods slowly, Annie bites her lip worriedly, and Kaiti's disembodied glove scratches the back of her neck. 

I continue talking. "We can meet up back at this circus tent, and work on the spatial jump spell. When we get to Jersey, we can scout out the area and the place that they've got Chris locked up, and formulate a good plan. Sound good?"

"Just one problem," the invisible ringmaster speaks up, "we're wanted criminals in several different countries and states, both under human and Creature laws. That... includes the Hive City and the human government of Oregon. That's why we're performing in the Under Market instead of the main city. The Queen will arrest us as soon as you bring the 'back up' to this tent."

"That-that is a problem," I mutter, my cheeks puffing as I try to breathe slowly. "I'll have to talk it out with her I guess-maybe we can form a short truce? Yeah, we can try that. That'll work. I'll make that work."

"C-calm down-" Annie said patting my shoulder apprehensively. 

"I'm going to do that right now," I mutter, "and it is going to go well. See you guys when I get back. You can start up on that spell."

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You have reached the end of the chapter! This one took me a while to write, and I really hope you enjoy it! 

Happy reading, stay awesome, stay strong. ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾🌈🏳‍🌈

And happy holidays! 🕎🎄🎅❄❄

Love, HoleGremlin19