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'Damn, you guys have a death grip'
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"We brought everything you asked" Jim says as he opens the door to Claire's bedroom, Toby and I walking in behind him.
"And some tacos! You didn't ask for those, but-" Toby starts to say as I roll my eyes and nudge him in the ribs to shut up.
"Did you bring the emotional anchor?" Strickler asks, ignoring Toby's antics.
I nod as I hold out Suzy Snooze, Enrique's bunny that used to be Claire's (she's very attached to it).
"Right here" I say as I throw the bunny from hand to hand. "This teddy is practically her best friend...after me of course"
"Perfect, it will lead you to her" Strickler nods happily. "Now remember, when you cross over, speak the incantation Modus Occul-Takh"
"Moody-Modus Occultahm" Toby attempts to say with a confused look on his face.
"Modus Occul-Takh" Jim and I chorus as we fist bump eachother with cocky smirks.
"Perfect. Once you get Claire to return, use the rabbit again and say the incantation in reverse" Strickler explains as Jim and I's cocky smirks disappear and are replaced by Toby's confused face.
We all start stuttering over each other as we attempt to say the words, none of us getting very far as I even catch Blinkys eye roll.
"Hkat-Lucco Sudom" Blinky says as if it was the easiest thing to work out.
"Hkat-Lucco Sudom" We chorus together with nervous smiles.
"Totally got it" Toby says confidently.
"Does anyone have a pen? I need to write this on my hand" I say with a nervous chuckle as Strickler rolls his eyes at me but hands me a pen from in his pocket (very organised that man is).
"We haven't much time. We must act now, or she may be lost forever" Strickler explains as I quickly finish writing the last incantation on my hand. "The staff!"
Strickler suddenly whips out the staff and moves towards the other side of the room. He holds the staff out and starts to grunt as a portal starts to appear.
"Claire always made it look so easy" Toby says nervously as we watch Strickler struggle to open the portal.
"Claire made everything look easy" I say with a fond smile.
"Remember master Jim-" Blinky placed his hand upon Jim's shoulder with a serious look on his face. "-the shadow realm is a place of chaos, devoid of light or reason. Spare no time"
Jim does a simple nod before he walks over to Toby and I, watching as I put Suzy in a bag and securing the strap on my shoulder, before taking my hand.
"Let's bring her home" Jim says as he squeezes my hand.
"We're coming for you Claire" I say before the three of us walk through the portal, unsure of what's to come on the other side.
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Falling. That's what was to come.
As soon as we walked through the portal, we all went plummeting into the darkness, attempting to dodge the weird flying rocks everywhere.
We all scream loudly as we attempt to regain some sense of authority of our bodies, only to fail as we continue to plummet.
"Oh shit!" I yell loudly as I start to head towards a large rock.
I attempt to breaststroke away in the air but it clearly doesn't work.
I guess that stuff only happens in movies.
"I got ya!" Jim yells as he pushes off a rock and dives straight into me, both of us flying away at an intense speed before slowing down as we pant.
"Thanks" I mumble as he nods and removes his hands from my waist to instead grab my hand again.
It was then that we noticed Toby still floating around everywhere, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Toby!" I yell as I let go of Jim's hand and push off a rock like Jim did, flying towards Toby with Jim close behind.
When we make it to him, his body is upside down. Jim and I grab onto his legs and turn him the right side up, sighing in relief before realising the boy was holding his breath like he is underwater.
"Tobes, you can breathe" Jim says as he places his hands on Toby's shoulder.
Toby gasps and pants as he finally starts to breathe normally as I softly pat his back to calm the stressed out boy.
"This is nuts guys!" Toby screams in terror before we hear a weird rumbling noise and notice a huge rock flying towards us.
We all yell as Jim flys off towards one side while I push Toby and I towards the other, narrowly missing the ginormous rock.
"You okay Tobes?" I ask the boy, before suddenly realising that Suzy isn't in my bag anymore as the strap of it is open.
I wildly look around before seeing Jim floating towards us with Suzy in hand.
"You might wanna hold onto Suzy Snooze instead" Jim says as I nod with a thankful smile, taking it out of his hand and holding up the bunny.
I quickly glance to my hand where I wrote the incantation, before looking to Suzy.
"Modus Occul-Takh" I say clearly, only for nothing to happen as I share a confused look with Toby and Jim.
I tap the bunny on the head as a squeaking sound echos around the place, before Suzys eyes suddenly glow purple. I gasp as the bunny's head starts spinning around and around in an almost horror movie like way before it stops with the head backwards, pointing to the direction infront of us.
I lean closely towards the bunny, thinking it was done before the head suddenly turns back towards us as we all gasp.
The bunny's whole body starts to glow purple as it's arms start to wiggle, before it freezes altogether.
"What?" Toby mumbles confused.
Then before I can speak, the bunny goes plummeting downwards, taking me with it as Jim and Toby manage to grab onto one of my legs each and go plummeting after me.
We all scream bloody murder as the creepy squeaking loudly echos through the place. We go flying past all the rocks, the bunny dodging all of them before a small rock structure starts to appear infront of us.
The closer we get, the more I start to see the structure of a house sitting upon the large rock island, and the more I start to realise how familiar the house looks.
"Is that...?" Toby starts to ask as the bunny slows down.
"Claire's house" I nod as I look behind me to find both of them holding onto my ankles for dear life.
The bunny finally comes to a stop at the rock island as I feel Jim and Toby finally let go of my ankles as we land softly on the ground.
"Damn, you guys have a death grip" I groan as I massage my ankles with a glare.
"Sorry" They grimace.
We start to venture across the rock island and towards Claire's house (that looks 20x creepier than normal).
The shadow realm seemed to hold this darkness that could turn even the prettiest things into something dull and droopy.
Claire's once lively house now looked dull and creepy. The trees outside their house now dead and droopy unlike their usual bright green colour and the light that the sun once provided was now gone, only leaving the dark somber atmosphere of the shadow realm.
We soon make it to the front door of Claire's house. Jim quietly opens the door, the creaking of the door echoing through the house, followed by Toby's frightened whimpers.
"This place needs some serious cleaning" I mumble as I can see every dust particle flying in the air.
Jim and I follow after Toby as the boy walks into Claire's living room. I walk towards the light switch and flick it on, only for nothing to happen.
The sudden buzz of the tv gains my attention as I quickly turn around to find that Toby has turned on the tv, the static echoing through the empty house.
The screen suddenly starts to play Claire's memories.
It starts with Jim pulling Claire and I through the woods with the gremlins chasing us. I never noticed until now how terrified Claire looked in that moment as she tightly gripped onto my arm. I watch as both of us scream as a gremlin jumped in front of us, the camera changing scenes as the gremlin jumps forward.
"That's our stone! We need that to save my brother!" Claire yells as she jumps forward and grabs onto Angor Rot.
I remember this well. I watch as I yell out and grab onto Claire and Angor, all of us falling into the shadow realm, fighting for the stone.
The camera than switches to when Claire, NotEnrique and I were stuck in the shipping container, water flooding fast.
I grimace as the camera switches to my terrified face. I have never been very good with small spaces, especially when those small spaces are filling up with water.
Claire attempts to use her staff but inevitably gives up with a frustrated groan as she looks helplessly to NotEnrique and I.
"I can't! It won't work!" Claire yells helplessly before the scene switches again.
It changes to when we were in the Darklands. It was when I was hanging off the edge of the cliff, fighting Angor Rot off with my powers as the troll tried to advance towards Jim and I.
It switched to Claire and Toby as they yell helplessly towards us, not being able to do anything as they hold onto a familiar pink troll.
The scene changed again to Claire and I holding onto her shadow staff, clearly struggling as tears start to appear in our eyes. Black lines start to appear on our faces as Claire's eyes go black and my usual F/c eyes go darker.
"It's killing them!" Jim yells as he desperately tries to get towards us.
I look away as Toby turns it off quickly, clearly having seen enough.
"Merlin's balls" I mumble in shock as I feel Jim reach for my hand, grabbing it and holding it tightly.
"I got a bad feeling about this place guys" Toby says nervously as the screen started to turn into another memory with Gunmar, but we clearly have had enough as we make it out of the room.
We slowly walk around the house, staying close together for safety. A bang suddenly echoed through the house as I share a look with Toby and Jim before we slowly make our way towards the stairs.
I start to hear a baby crying from the top level as I grab onto the railing and make my way up the stairs, Jim and Toby following closely behind me.
"Claire? Are you up here?" I call, my voice echoing around me.
The baby's crying gets louder as I continue to follow the sound, letting go of Jim's hand as I go. I stop infront of Enrique's room, leaning against the wall and bring a finger to my mouth to shush Toby and Jim.
They both nod and lean against the wall as well, Toby's whimpering only getting louder as he leaps forward and grabs onto Jim's arm in fright, the boy only rolling his eyes and shrugging Toby off.
I roll my eyes at both of the boys and open the door to the bedroom, the crying coming from the crib near the middle of the room.
"Enrique?" I ask confused as I quickly look inside the crib, only for nothing to be there.
Jim and Toby both yell out as I quickly shush them, rolling my eyes once again at their dramatics.
"Enrique!" A voice suddenly yelled out as I let out a short scream before covering my mouth with my hands.
I turn around with wide eyes to see a purple see through ghost of Claire rush into the room, grabbing an invisible Enrique and shushing the nonexistent baby.
"Your seeing this too right?" Toby whimpers as Jim and I numbly nod our heads.
"Claire are you okay?" Jim asks, but the ghost like Claire doesn't seem to be able to hear or see us.
"-so much to do. Calculus homework, band practice. Mum and dad will be so mad if I don't finish it all" Ghost Claire starts to ramble as I watch the girl sadly. "I gotta be the best daughter. Mum needs me to be good. Cant cause trouble for the campaign"
I knew Claire always felt stressed, but I didn't realise how much pressure the girl must've felt. She has so many expectations on her shoulders, placed there by her parents and the girl seemed to be slipping.
"Claire! Claire! We're in the bizarro zone! Wake up!" Toby yells to the girl as he attempts to shake her shoulders, but his hands just go straight through her.
Claire's purple spirit walks towards the window and looks out. I follow the girl and stand next to her as I look from her to the window.
A spiral of all Claire's likes float around in a circle outside as I let a small smile appear on my face, before it disappears as I look to the girl again.
"Claire" I mumble sadly as I look to the girl who can't even see me.
I feel tears start to appear in my eyes but I quickly blink them down.
We will save Claire, we have to.
"Guys, what are we going to do?" I ask as I look towards Toby and Jim who seemed to be watching me sadly.
"I don't know! How are we supposed to get her back, if she doesn't even know she's gone?" Toby yells in terror as I look back towards Claire.
This is gonna be a lot harder than I originally thought.
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Authors note:
Wassup readers
Poor Y/n, alone without her Claire
I changed the memories a bit in the tv if you didn't realise already, thought it would fit better lol
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!