Back at home, Sharon was outside the house with Tara at her side. “Charlie?” she called out.
That’s strange, she thought. His car’s still here. He usually takes it.
She then went back in the house. In Charlie’s room, she found his cell phone. She picked it up to discover four new messages. She read the first two.
One was from Will. It read ‘Sup bro. Did you get your car runnin yet?’
The second one was an unknown number. It said ‘Hey Charlie, this is Lauren. I got your number from Will. Just wondering if you’re doing anything later?’
He’s off on a date with his girl, thought Sharon. She placed Charlie’s cell phone on his desk next to his bed, turning the bedroom light off as she left her son’s empty room.
In Charlie’s cell, he awoke in the middle of the night to the big sad rock monster in the cell next to him snoring away. The gargoyle a few cells away let out a screeching cry and the rock monster stopped snoring.
Everything went quiet. Charlie was awake. I just want out of here, thought Charlie. He suddenly felt a heavy tap on his left shoulder. It made him jump. He looked over to find the rock monster staring at him through the cell wall.
“What do you want?!”
The monster looked down, depressed. He then looked back up at Charlie. “Help,” the monster replied.
“Help?” questioned Charlie. “If I’m not mistaken I need out of here more than you do.”
“The Dark Master is going to kill me,” said the friendly rock monster.
“Well, sounds like we’re in the same boat,” said Charlie kindly.
This thing needs help?
“So uh, my name’s Charlie by the way, do you have a name?” he asked the monster.
The monster shook his head.
“No name?” questioned Charlie. “Well then… I’ll have to find a name for you.” He paused for a second to think... then he thought of just the right name. “How about Rocky?” he asked.
The monster looked up at Charlie with a smile.
“You like that name? Rocky?”
The monster kept the smile.
“Okay then, Rocky it is.”
It was now the time to ask questions about the Dark Master and his plans.
“So uh, why did they put you here?” asked Charlie.
Rocky’s eyes went back to the floor for a moment. He then looked back up at Charlie. “I’ve disobeyed Bouldan’s orders,” he replied.
“Bouldan?”
“The Rock Army Commander.”
“So you’re saying, you weren’t following his orders...what are they planning?”
“Destruction of the human race.”
Rocky had answers Charlie needed in order to figure out what was going on.
“Why do they need to do this?” responded Charlie. “I don’t understand.”
“In order to become stronger, we must destroy the human race.”
Maybe it was time to ask about the book.
“Do you know about the Book of the Underground?” asked Charlie.
Rocky nodded his head.
“What are they going to do to me?”
Rocky looked up at Charlie in sadness.
“What?” asked Charlie. “Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“You can escape.”
“How?”
“The Portal.”
“Well obviously some sort of portal, but how do I get to it?”
“You must master a sword... the sword is a key. For humans.”
“But where can I find this sword?” asked Charlie in frustration.
Rocky looked down in disappointment.
“So you don’t know.”
Charlie threw his fists against the cell wall. Rocky didn’t have much information to give him other than the fact that he must own this so-called sword-key to be able to get back home.
The gargoyle let out another loud cry. I have to get out of here, thought Charlie. I have to find this sword. It’s the only way out.
The following morning, Charlie’s mother woke up for work while Tara got up to get ready for school. “Tara honey, I’m taking you to school today,” said Sharon. “Your brother still hasn’t come home.”
“Charlie’s gone?” questioned Tara.
Charlie’s cell phone then went off in his room. A ring tone from the band Decimate the Masses was playing.
Sharon went to answer it. “Hello?” she answered.
“Hey, uh, is Charlie around?”
“This is his mother, Sharon.”
“Oh, hey. This is Will. Where’s Charlie?”
“Hey Will, I don’t know, I was just about to ask you,” she replied.
“Oh, well I thought maybe he was home.”
“No. He’s out with his girl, I’m guessing.”
“Lauren? They’re not dating. I talked to her and she told me she couldn’t reach him last night. Is his car still there?”
“It is.” Sharon looked out the window to see Charlie’s car, which was still parked in the driveway.
“Hey, can I call you back?” asked Will. “I’ll ask Lauren if she’s seen Charlie.”
“Sure, why not.”
Sharon then went out to Charlie’s car and checked under the hood to see if he ever refilled the fluid. It was still empty. Hmm, strange, she thought.
Will called Charlie’s phone again.
Sharon answered. “Hi.”
“Hey, I talked to Lauren and she said she’s not with him.”
“Okay, well, I’ll wait and see if he comes back tonight. Let me know if you see him in school, I’m starting to get a little worried.”
“Okay, Mrs. James.”
“Ms.,” Sharon corrected him, trying not to break down.
“Oh, sorry, Ms. James.”
“No worries,” she lied. “You can also just address me as Sharon.”
“Well, if I see Charlie I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
In the Underground, Charlie awoke in his cell to discover that Rocky’s was empty. Rocky, where’d you go? He thought.
He got up and shook the cell door, screaming in frustration. “Let me out of here!”
The striped monster with its eyeballs missing a few cells away then spoke to Charlie, almost as if it could see him in a psychic sense by the way he met contact with his empty eye sockets. “You cannot escape,” it said in a demonic whisper.
Everything went quiet. Charlie sat back down in his cell.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard from the end of the hall. Two rock monsters and the cell-keeper entered the room.
The cell-keeper unlocked Charlie’s cell. The rock monsters then grabbed Charlie by his arms like last time and drug him away.
“Now where are you taking me?!” cried Charlie. “Let me go!!”
On his way out, Charlie witnessed the cell-keeper injecting some sort of sleeping drug into a winged bat- like creature, almost human in form, but with horns on its head. He watched it collapse to its cell floor.
They then left the room, doors slamming behind them, with the voices of the monsters behind him speaking with each other.
“He’s the one,” said a boar-like beast in a deep tone as it watched its fellow monster, the bat-like creature, being taken away by the Rock Army.
The gargoyle let out a mighty cry once again.
The two rock soldiers brought Charlie into a giant room slightly bigger than the room with Dultona’s throne.
In this room, an audience of red-cloaked figures gathered in what seemed to be somewhat similar to blea
chers, but were actually wide and stairway-like, built out of the ground where they all stood, filling up each row.
In the center of the room were what appeared to be torture devices. There were three. In the very middle of the room a circular section was cut out of the floor, a small pit of lava filling in the space. Above that was a cage, chained to a pulley. On the left side of the cage was a giant guillotine. On the right side of the cage was bed of nails, with a rotating wall with straps next to it.
The Rock Army stood in front of the audience of red-cloaked figures. Up in the top of the room was a balcony-like spot where Muri stood at the end of it, looking out at the whole crowd. Behind Muri was a throne-like chair, a little different than the other one. In the throne, hidden in a dark shadow, the Dark Master Dultona sat.
Muri stood there holding what was a staff with an orb-like sphere at the end of it, a bright blue color. The sphere lit up the room.
Muri began his speech. “We gather here this early day to bring you our next round of termination of those who have betrayed our fellow brothers, disobeyed Underground orders, and one individual we have here today is a very special individual.” He stared down at Charlie, who was locked up in a cage next to a few other cages, all occupied by monsters, the victims of what was the highlight of the show that was about to begin.
Charlie stared out in fright at the giant audience of red-cloaked entities, which were staring down at him and the other victims. He also noticed that Rocky was back in his formation of the Rock Army.
Rocky was staring back at Charlie.
Muri continued with his speech. “This special contestant we have here today is one who has brought us a feeling of weakness, hopelessness, and disappointment to the grounds we live in. He has lost one of the most powerful relics known to the Underground.”
Charlie put his face up to the front of the cage, peeking out at the balcony-like spot where Muri stood speaking.
“This relic, known to us as the ancient and most powerful Book of the Underground, has yet again been lost,” Muri went on. “Without this book, we will only slowly become powerful enough for war.”
Charlie was frustrated. He really wished he could figure out an escape plan quickly, but it was only minutes to a possible hour away before his life would be taken from him.
“Due to his actions that have increased the suffering we live in, our last victim must die.”
These words struck Charlie in intense fear as he stared up at the three different torture devices in the center of the room in front of him. His cage was right in front of the bed of nails.
Muri then finished his briefing with these final words... “Now, let the show begin.”
Chapter 7