Grains of dust and small stones trickled down as three hooded figures abseiled through the gap that had arisen in the robot fight in the mysterious mine and into the tunnel system below.
"Are you sure you really want to come with us?" Chester looked at Mandy sceptically and worried at the same time. After all, his sweetheart was afraid of the dark and they were about to find the bat monster that had been chasing them last time in that same darkness.
Mandy took a deep breath. Just like the other two, she was dressed all in black. She took her black scarf, which was supposed to ensure that she inhaled less dust, from her mouth and gave Chester her typical sour expression. Full of determination.
"I'm not going to let you go down there and fight a mad bat beast without me."
If Chester hadn't also been wearing a black cloth covering his mouth, Mandy would have seen him blush. Instead, she only heard Edgar's voice, who was already a few meters below her.
"If she's still here."
That was true. Colette was a master burglar who had even managed somehow to get into the snow-covered candy store. She would find her way out of here sooner or later. Definitely!
"During our escape I hit her once with something from my box," Chester replied guiltily. "I don't know where, I just heard her screaming. Maybe she's hurt, wounded, or..."
"She's alive!" Edgar interrupted him while looking up to him. He was the only one wearing his black and white striped scarf in addition to his black clothes. "Colette is a brawler and has survived far worse. She's fine." The last sentence didn't sound particularly convincing, though. In the light of the lamp, which his scarf held for him, his face was pale.
"Lousy licoricey, where are you?! I've found the slope we slid down!" Mandy was leaning against a rock wall, next to which a shaft was digging even deeper into the ground. From the tracks on the ground, you could see that two people must have slipped through here just a few days ago. This was the entrance to a dangerous labyrinth of tunnels leading into the unstable tunnels where they suspected Trixie Colette to be.
***
After Chester told him everything, Edgar immediately closed the gift shop and they set out to get through the hole in the Mysterious Mine before it was filled in. Also, the drag marks Mandy and Chester had left when they fell were still fresh, so hopefully they would lead the three of them into the right tunnel.
In the end they had left in such a hurry because Edgar couldn't be dissuaded. For a week he and his grandfather had been desperately looking for his girlfriend everywhere and now for the first time in days there was hope! A chance of finding her!
After they had changed into the black clothes and Chester had packed a few more mysterious things into his prank box, they were on their way. And here they were. On the verge of traversing the path that almost killed them once before.
"The walls are very smooth, there are a lot of sharp stones and the impact at the end is not easy either.", the prank master warned Edgar while he loosened his rope.
"That won't stop me," he replied curtly, before slipping through the shaft and being engulfed by the shadows.
"Ready?" Chester asked his sweetheart.
"If it's you!" she replied, crossing her fingers with his.
"Okay then let's go!", he replied witha grin and together they jumped after Edgar, hoping that they would find the righttunnel and that Colette was still there... and alive.