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'If your talking about my emotional crying then it's just allergies'
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The Darklands was creepier then I had imagined. Everything was made of stone with green crystals layered around the place. It was dark, like it was always night time here, like you were stuck in a never ending nightmare.
Creatures snarling in the distant was enough to give you goosebumps as we all stand on the edge of the stone rock we're on and look around at our surroundings.
"U-uh, let's not stay one minute longer than we need to, huh?" Toby stuttered as we all nod in agreement.
"I agree. Chompsky? Do you know where we can find Jim?" I ask as I look to the gnome sitting on my shoulder, still hiding behind my hair.
Chompsky chitters softly before jumping off my shoulder and running down a bridge like rock formation quickly.
"Guess we're playing follow the leader now" I mumble as we all run after the quick gnome.
The path was longer then expected and it got to the point where we were wondering if we were going the right way.
"Perhaps I'm meant to use the flare" Blinky suggests as we walk.
"Kanjigar said you use it to save your life" Claire points out.
"Yeah, I don't think this is a very life threatening situation right now Blinky" I say as I kick a rock in front of me with a bored look on my face.
"Why do the Darklands have to be so dark man? I cant see a thing" Toby whines as he goes to jump off a rock and ends up falling, Aaarrrgghh quickly catching him before he plunges to his death.
"Toby, it's called the Darklands for a reason. That's like saying why is my pink lemonade pink" I point out as I jump down to Toby's level.
"How am I to discern when my life depends on it? Such infernal instructions. They're both cryptic and oblique!" Blinky exclaims as he continues to rant on about indecisiveness and what not.
I zone out as I walk, my mind completely unfocused until I feel a hand touch my shoulder making me jump, only to sigh in relief when I see Claire.
"You alright? You've been acting weird today. Weirder then usual" Claire says as we walk alongside each other.
"If your talking about my emotional crying then it's just allergies" I say as I look at my feet.
"Y/n, I'm not stupid. You can talk to me you know?" Claire says softly as she nudges her shoulder with mine.
"Yeah I know. It's just...today is the day my father left. Usually I don't cry like this I guess-I guess seeing Draal and his father act so...father-son with each other triggered some weird emotional water that dropped through my eyeballs" I say with a shrug as I continue to walk.
I feel horrible about thinking that when Draal's the one with a dead father but I can't help but feel jealous of him. At least he had a loving father right? Maybe I am acting selfish.
Claire just sighs and throws her arm around my shoulders, squeezing my body into hers in a hug.
"I'm sorry about your dad. If you ever need to talk, you can talk to me...even if we're in the middle of the Darklands!" Claire laughs as she throws her arms up to emphasise her point.
"Thanks...I appreciate that" I say with a laugh as she nods her head with a smile.
"Of course, that's what best friends are for" Claire says as I nod my head with a large smile.
"Ahhh! Cragglesnacks!" We suddenly hear Blinky curse as we look down and watch as his flare goes falling down into the abyss.
"Nice one Blinky" I say with a sigh as we all look down.
"I know. You would think four hands would be more helpful" Blinky sighs in frustration. "Oh, but alas, my accursed butter digits!"
"Blinky, you needed that! Your going to die without it!" Toby exclaims as Blinky growls and grabs onto Toby's shoulders.
"I'm aware of that!" Blinky yells as he shakes Toby around. "Okay, no one panic. Don't panic. Everyone, stop panicking!"
Blinky starts to pant loudly as he looks around crazily before spotting the rope on Aaarrrgghh's shoulder.
"Your rope! Yes, we can retrieve it. Kanjigar thought of everything" Blinky says as he climbs onto Aaarrrgghh's shoulders.
"Guys this is going to take too long. Jim is running out of time here!" I exclaim as I start to freak out.
Why does everything go wrong as soon as everything starts to feel like it's going right? It's seriously messing with my emotions!
"Yes, you four go ahead! Aaarrrgghh will help me retrieve the flare. We'll be right behind you" Blinky says as we nod and run off.
"I'm so afraid!" Toby yells as we run.
"Don't worry Tobes. You have two girls to protect you" Claire yells back as I let out a laugh.
We suddenly stop as we look around at the jagged stone sticking out of the walls, sharp enough to impale you.
"Ugh, it's like an Escher painting threw up in here" Claire comments as we look around.
"That's a lovely analogy Claire" I say as she smiles.
Chompsky suddenly stops and makes a turn as we quickly run after him and lean our backs against the wall.
We all lean over a bit and watch as guards seem to be walking on one of the stone bridges...but they were walking upside down? This place really messes with your brain.
"Are those Gumm-Gumms?" Toby asks as we watch them walk.
"And goblins as well" I mutter.
When the coast is clear we quickly run off again. This place is a lot scarier then I thought.
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We follow Chompsky until he runs down a ton of stairs very quickly. I feel my heart beat out of my chest as I realise Jim may be down there. What would I even say if I see him? Would I hug him? Punch him? Both?
"Y/n! Toby! Claire! I'm down here! I'm over here!" I hear a very familiar voice yell.
I immediately quicken my pace and all but run down the stairs completely leaving Toby and Claire in my dust. I come to a stop at the end of the staircase and make eye contact with a pair of eyes I haven't seen in ages.
A huge smile appears on my face as I feel my eyes start to tear up again (I have been crying way too much lately). Of course I had hope that we would find him, but I still feel completely stunned that we actually did find him, that's he's actually here.
"Y/n" Jim whispers softly as I laugh and run over to the cage he's in.
"Your alive" I whisper softly as I throw my arms around his neck through the jagged yellow crystals, hugging him tightly.
"I'm alive" Jim whispers with a smile as I pull away and reach my hand through the cage and softly cup his face in my hand, Jim laying his hand over mine as we smile widely at each other.
"Jimbo? Oh my gosh!" I hear Toby yell as I look away from Jim and watch as Toby and Claire come running down the stairs.
"Jim! Your not dead!" Claire says happily as they run to the cage and Toby embraces Jim through the gap.
"It's you! It's you, Tobes!" Jim says happily as they jump around excitedly as Claire and I smile.
"Jimbo! I'm so glad your okay! You are okay right? Are you? Are you okay?" Toby starts to freak out.
"Tobes, I'm-im fine" Jim laughs before he looks around his surroundings. "Well, I've been better yeah, but I'm keeping it crispy!"
"Do not bring 'crispy' back I swear to Merlin" I laugh as I reach my hand through the cage again and grab Jim's hand, squeezing it tightly for the reassurance that he's actually here. Or maybe he needs the reassurance that we're actually here.
"You don't like it?" Jim laughs as I just shake my head with a smile. "I got your message by the way!"
"See? I told you he'd get it Claire" Toby says as Claire laughs and walks forward to give Jim a hug. Toby and Claire both look at each other before walking a bit away, maybe trying to subtly give us space but we both noticed it as we quietly laugh.
"I can't believe your actually here" Jim says softly as he keeps a strong hold of my hand. I laugh and reach forward as I move some of his hair away from his face with a smile.
"Someone needs a hairbrush" I laugh quietly as Jim continues to stare at me with that same dorky smile he always does.
"I've really missed you" Jim mumbles as I smile.
"I missed you too" I whisper quietly as I lean my forehead against his as we both close our eyes.
I then remember why I missed him so much in the first place and quickly lean my head away and roughly punch him in the arm as Jim let's out a groan and quickly moves away from me with wide eyes.
"What was that for?" Jim exclaims as he rubs the spot where I hit him.
"For scaring me you idiot! Do you know how hard it was to get here?!" I exclaim with wide eyes.
"Yeah. Wait...H-how did you even-" Jim starts to ask as he looks at me before Toby cuts him off, clearly him and Claire had both been eavesdropping on our conversation.
"Oh, it's a long story. But I'm glad you asked" Toby says as I take a step back to stand next to Toby and Claire.
"First, we had to get the bridge from the bottom of the ocean" Claire says as I visibly grimace at the memory.
"Almost drowned and had to perform CPR on NotEnrique...he's fine now" I quickly say as I see the look on Jim's face.
"And we brought Aaarrrgghh back to life! Oh and he merged with ghost Kanjigar!" Toby exclaims happily as Jim's jaw practically dropped.
"Wait what? Aaarrrgghh's alive?" Jim says happily as I excitedly nod my head.
"Yeah! You missed a lot but it's fine, we can catch you up on everything later" I say as I start to look around for something to get him out of the cage.
"Yeah, we gotta get you outta here" Claire comments.
"Good idea. Okay, Tobes, hurry up and use your war hammer to bust me outta here" Jim says as we all awkwardly look at him with nervous smiles.
"Yeah...Toby can't do that" I say as Jim just looks at me confused.
"Yeah...we don't have our weapons" Tobey says with a nervous shrug.
"What! Why?" Jim exclaims as I give him an exasperated look.
"It's a long story alright!" I exclaim.
"Wait a minute" Claire interrupts as she had this look on her face like she just solved all our problems (she probably did).
"Kanjigar said I needed this thing for a key moment. This is a key!" Claire exclaims as I gasp and grab onto her shoulders, shaking her body around.
"Your a genius!" I exclaim as Claire just laughs.
Claire puts the key into the hold as she goes to turn it...but it doesn't turn. Toby quickly grabs onto the other side as I nervously watch them try and turn it to no prevail.
Suddenly Chompsky comes running over as he chitters nervously and sprints towards the stairs. The sound of footsteps pounding against the floor suddenly catch my attention as my eyes widen.
"Hurry up! They're coming for him!" I exclaim as I grab onto the key as well and try and turn it.
"You gotta get outta here" Jim says sadly as I just shake my head and attempt to turn the key.
"Why won't this bloody work!" I exclaim in frustration as I keep trying to turn it.
"Y/n! You all have to leave!" Jim says as I just shake my head.
"I am not leaving you!" I exclaim as I keep trying to pull it.
"Y/n come on" Claire says as Toby and Claire both grab my arms and pull me inside a little cave as I look at Jim in defeat. This cannot be happening...not now.
Suddenly the yellow spikes close in on us as I softly gasp, Claire quickly covering my mouth with her hand to keep me quiet as we hear footsteps get closer.
"Your time has come at last fleshbags" I hear a voice say as they are clearly talking to Jim.
"Uh, guys, I don't know. My stomach is feeling kinda off. You think maybe you could come back and-" The sound of Jim's voice is cut off with the sound of a whack and Jim groaning as i wince.
"How does your stomach feel now?" I hear the voice say as I get the sudden urge to choke whoever said that.
"No! Let me go! Wait! Stop!" I hear Jim yell before his voice gets so distant that I can't hear him anymore. Panic finally kicks in as I run towards the spikes trapping us in.
"Oh no, no, no-Ow!" I wince as I accidentally touch the yellow spikes.
"Are you kidding me? We're locked in? We're the rescue party!" Claire groans in frustration as she starts to pace around the cell.
I just flop onto the ground with my back against the wall in defeat. We had one job...and we couldn't even do that!
"The instructions were pretty vague!" Toby tries to justify as I just shake my head.
"Guys...we totally blew it" I sigh in defeat.
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Authors note:
Honestly very proud of the Jim and Y/n reunion! There will be more cute stuff happening and I have an idea of what to do with Y/n's gift from Kanjigar
Btw I'm trying to write Y/n with some faults bc obviously no one is perfect and I want to show that with Y/n's jealousy and obvious dad issues
And everyone can thank @CrescentGalaxy for Y/n punching Jim :)
Also does anyone here watch Stranger Things? Because I have a Lucas Sinclair book that I'm dying to publish but I don't know if anyone would read it
Hope you enjoyed this chapter