[IC] Find the blender, damn it! {Always Open}

[SpookySquid]

The woman that was sleeping in the sand woke up, and seemed as confused as William was. The blond whispered something into her ear and she nodded.

"I'm Jessica, and this is Emily," said the blond, "I don't know what door you're talking about, but you're at the beach, obviously," she giggled.

Emily seemed a tad more concerned. "Do you guys need help? Do you want to go down to the pier?" she asked. Emily looked at Sandra, who was still too shocked by the door's disappearance to speak. "Is this your daughter?" she asked, pointing at Sandra.

[xChrome]

"She's not my daughter, but I suppose she's under my care now that there's just the two of us left." said William as he shifted his eyes between the ladies and where the door used to be. "And yes, we do need help. We woke up in this room with this dead guy and there's this bloody blender we got..." William's voice started to fade and he stopped, he realised how absurd he sounded to Jessica and Emily, how absurd everything is really. "Look, the point is Sandra here lost his brother and we just wanna find him and go home. I suppose the pier is as good a place as any to start now that the door is no longer there. Mind leading the way?"

[SpookySquid]

"Sure, we'll take you to the pier," said Jessica, enthusiastically. She crammed the two towels into their bag and then walked towards the pier. It didn't take too long to get there, but the whole time, Sandra seemed extremely worried about her brother. Jessica led them to the pier as Sandra stayed behind with Emily, who was comforting her.

The pier had a few people walking around, laughing and talking. There was a ferris wheel and a roller coaster and a few other, similar attractions. The edge of the pier offered a magnificent view of the sunset. "So? What do you want to do?" Jessica asked William. "We could ride the ferris wheel, go to the ring toss, watch the magic show, get some funnel cakes..." Jessica offered as she twirled her beautiful blond hair around her finger. William noticed that Emily, who was wearing a sun dress now, had brought Sandra over to get some ice cream at a little stand.

[DriveEMOut]

Jesper laughed. "I don't fucking buy your story. Can you care to explain the scratching? And don't you dare even fucking say that it's a dog, because that sounds way too big to be one." He said, his face emotionless. "And the door has no lock, so you should be able to get in, if your thumbs work with you."

[SpookySquid]

"It's magically sealed... and it's not a dog..." said the voice. Jesper heard a low growling sound. "It's a bear..."

Something slammed against the door. It cracked. There was another slam on the door. Suddenly, the door splintered, sending bits of wood everywhere.

On the other side of the door was five figures. They all stood on their hind legs, but none of them were human. They were wearing jackets, as if they were a part of some motorcycle gang. They one at the front looked like he was half man, half bear- polar bear, to be specific. Three of the others looked like they were half wolf, half man. The final member of the group stood near the back, and seemed half tiger.

Jesper realized that the five half-men motorcycle gang members were standing in what appeared to be a library. He also realized that the humming sound he had heard earlier had been an AC unit, and was the same thing that had used to get the door open.

The small library, with the exception of a few books was empty... then Jesper saw the librarian... or what was left of her. She had been ripped to shreds as if she had been mauled by a bear... oh... what a coincidence. The person that had bashed the door open also had bear-like features.

"So he survived long enough to preform the ritual... Ha! Barely! He only managed to get three of you in here! I'll tell you what. Why don't you just hand the kid over, and we'll make your death nice and short? At least it won't be like his," the bear gestured at the man in the purple jacket's corpse. The bear-man grinned, "or his fiancee's."

[DriveEMOut]

Jesper got into a fighting stance. "Well, you blokes aren't going to take this kid from me." He whipped out his small knife, and he realized how pitiful it was. He quickly grabbed Eddie's hand and tried to dart past the group, wanting to hide in the library. Who is he? And what is the ritual? I have to go along with what they think. If they don't know about William and Sandra, they have a fighting chance.

[SpookySquid]

The Bear Man swept a claw towards Jesper and Eddie. Eddie cried out in pain, but kept running behind Jesper. It seemed as though Eddie's arm had been scratched. The five half beasts ran after Jesper. If it hadn't been for Jesper's experience running from the law, they may have been caught.

Jesper continued to run through the empty library, but it's small size didn't give him many places to hide. In addition, the five half beasts had inhuman like speed.

As Jesper got to the end of a hallway, he saw a door. The door was suddenly flung open, and a well dressed fifteen year old boy stood on the other side.

He seemed surprised to see them, and even more surprised to see the half tiger that was right on their heels.

"OH SH-" the boy was cut off by the sound of a might roar from the bear man.

"Through here!" the boy held the door open for them to enter. On the other side of the door was a stone walled area with a small bridge. A mysterious green liquid ran under the bridge.

Could Jesper trust this boy? Did he even have a choice?

[xChrome]

The pier seemed like a fun place that William would have enjoyed any other day, if not for him being kidnapped in the middle of his sleep. "Hey Jessica, I'm probably gonna regret this but as much as I would like to hang out with a beautiful lady such as you, my priority right now is to find Sandra's brother and get us home safely. Plus I have no idea where exactly are we." said William while keeping an eye on Sandra by the ice cream stand. He wanted to look for help, but there's no way of telling someone what exactly happened without sounding like a nutjob.

[SpookySquid]

"Oh, come on... who wouldn't want to stay here? It's calm. Relaxing. You don't need to worry about anything. In fact, Emily has been staying here for years. It's like a paradise. Wouldn't you want to stay here with me and not have to worry about Jesper and that boy? I can even get your spell book back for you..." as Jessica spoke, she reached out and grabbed William's hand seductively, pulling him towards the roller coaster.

The sun remained in the same spot, but something about it's beauty intensified, as if someone had turned up the beaut-o-meter. In fact... they had been walking around for about an hour... why hadn't the sun set yet?

[DriveEMOut]

Jesper ran through the door, pulling Eddie with him. He whipped out his small knife. The other boy was only a year younger than him, so he wanted to be safe. "Where are we? And who are you?" Jesper asked, keeping Eddie behind him, and away from the other boy.

[xChrome]

William was surprised to hear what Jessica said and thought to himself, "Wait what the fuck? Pretty sure neither of us mentioned Jesper by name, and most importantly, how the hell did she know about my spellbook!?". At first William felt that something was off but maybe it was because he was in shock, but right now he was certain that there's something wrong about this place. He tried to remain calm as not to throw Jessica off. "Wait, how did you know about my spellbook? And mind telling me what exactly is this place? But first, let's bring Sandra along." said William as he released his hand from her grasp and grabbed hers instead, then walked back to the ice cream stand where he last saw Sandra.

[SpookySquid]

William, Sandra, Emily, and Jessica all met up. Jessica giggled, "of course I know about your spell book. Everything you ever need is here, so of course the spell book is. You love that little book don't you? Isn't that sweet, Emily?"

Emily nodded and pulled out a camera. She began to snap pictures of the pier. "See? Emily has her camera. That's all she needs- to capture the beauty of this place, and now she can share it with you! Don't you love it here? Don't you want to stay forever?"

Jessica fiercely grabbed his arm and smiled warmly at him. Sandra nervously ate the ice cream, and glanced at you and Jessica wearily.

---------

The boy Jesper had run into didn't seem at all intimidated by the knife.

"What's up?" he asked, nonchalantly. He threw the door closed just as the bear man arrived. Jesper heard the heavy creature slam into it.

After the boy secured the door, he turned around and faced Jesper. "Be careful with that knife, you might hurt someone," said the boy. He extended a hand to Eddie. Eddie shook it. "The name is... erm..." he considered this for a moment, "you may call me...'That Boy,'" he said, simply. "I already know you two. Eddie and Jesper, correct? You've both got sizable bounties. The Great Imperials, the Winter Clan of Wrath, the Five Fingered Alliance, the Seven Headed Cheese Monsters, the Ancient Roots and the Unfortunate Knights want you both. Thankfully, only the Great Imperials and the Ancient Roots know that Sandra and William are in here."

They heard another pounding sound on the door. "We're going to kill you!" angrily shouted the half-bear. "And that would be the Five Fingered Alliance. Well, a part of it, obviously. Thankfully, I'm part of the only group that doesn't want you dead or captured- The Independent Electric Marshmallow Bellybutton Resistance. Look, I didn't name it. Anyways, we're going to need to get out of here."

That Boy led them to the bridge, "Good news- most of the groups only want to capture Eddie. Bad News- They all want to kill you Jesper... for some reason you have the highest bounty... Anyways- not important!"

That Boy crossed the bridge and quickly opened the door that led them to the next room. Suddenly, a man appeared on the other side, holding a revolver. "Don't move," he said, aiming the gun at the three of them. He smirked. "So those five buffoons from the Five Fingered Alliance didn't kill you, huh? I suppose the Great Imperials could use the money from the bounty..."

[DriveEMOut]

Jesper threw his knife at the man's chest, and threw himself and Eddie to the ground. He prayed that the blade would hit its mark, and continued to keep Eddie under him in, so that he could act as a human shield. He looked up, scared to see what he could find: The man about to pull the trigger at him, grinning.

[SpookySquid]

Jesper looked back to see the man's smiling face. He had caught the knife in midair, right before it had hit his purple cloak, and then snapped it effortlessly with his hand. "You moronic thief," he said to Jesper. "You think you can kill me? Val'ichbal? Duke of-" he began smugly, but then was interrupted mid sentence as That Boy tackled him to the ground. The two began wrestling on the ground.

"Go! Go! Get out! Find the blender!" said That Boy, "My motorized unicycle is outside! It has a page of William's spell book under the radio!"

Jesper saw the unicycle outside. The room lacked the stone walls present in the other rooms he had been in. Instead, it had three long hallways. One blue, one red, and one yellow (sort of an off, dark yellow. You know, like it's not the vibrant yellow. But not too dark. Like, just a bit darker than the regular yellow that often accompanies red and blue). Eddie began to run towards the unicycle. It seemed that, in order to ride it, Jesper would have to put Eddie on his shoulders. Thankfully, the Gyroscopic engineering of the motorized unicycle would support their weight if needed.

[DriveEMOut]

Jesper cursed. He had hoped to get the man's gun. He ran after Eddie, and scooped him up in his arms, hopping onto the unicycle. He positioned Eddie on his shoulders. "Hold tight buddy." Jesper began to ride the unicycle. It was wobbly at first, but he got the hang of it. He looked down the road he was on what felt like an hour later and looked for civilization.

[xChrome]

William was creeped out by how Jessica spoke but he continued on with his facade. "Hmm well... this is a nice place... and if you could hand me my spellbook then I might consider staying." As he spoke, he placed his other free arm behind him and summoned a small fly with a snap of his fingers. It was the only spell he could cast without any verbal incantations and right now he had to work with whatever he has. Using his thoughts, he ordered the fly to scout around the pier, hoping to spot something of interest.

[SpookySquid]

Jessica smiled happily, and led William to one of the tents. "It's right this way. My friend has it," she said, still smiling. She led him towards a mysterious, dark purple tent.

The fly reported back. "Yo," it said in fly-speak, which of course only William, with years of experience, could understand, "ran into some magical barrier off of the edge of the pier. Also, there seems to be some sort of door underneath of the water, facing up at the sky." (Obviously, this is a rough translation, as most fly-speak to English translations often are.

[xChrome]

"Wow, really!?" said William trying to sound enthusiastic, but it wasn't hard as a part of him was actually excited to see his spellbook after all these years, even if it may be false hope. He followed Jessica towards the tent, all the while keeping an eye on Sandra, making sure she was close in case anything happens. It wasn't long before William's fly on the wall reported back and evaporated as soon as it was done. William thought to himself, "Hmm... a magic barrier and a door, the door sounds like our way out. Let's just hope I'm not walking into a trap.". William ended his thought as he stepped into the purple tent.

[SpookySquid]

A hooded man was sitting, alone, inside of the tent. The room was candle lit. There was a small radio playing gentle music in one corner of the room and a table in between William and Jessica and the hooded man. "Hello," said the hooded man, "I am Jared, of the Ancient Root Clan." Jared blinked. His eyes became a bright purple momentarily, and then returned to a dull gray state.

He smiled fondly at William, as if they were old friends. "Ah, Sandra! It's so nice to see you here. We want to let you know that your brother will be safe. And you're all safe here, too. I'm of a rare sort- an oracle. One of the very few in this... erm... well, I'm the only one in this... room. But I am of the very few in this... dungeon."

Jared smiled, "I suppose you want your book back, William. And, unfortunately, I don't have it. But I have so much more." Jared stood up and went to the back of the tent and pulled out a large wooden chest, painted bright red with a purple horse painted onto the side. "The Bosnians that used to live here called this place the 'Kreator Lažne Nade' or the 'Creator of Dreams.'"

Jared put the chest on the table. "The Bosnians were foolish. They didn't realize that this was the happiest place in all of the Earth. They tried to improve it, or left. Now, the Ancient Root Clan has taken leadership of this section of the dungeon, among some others. Nearly anyone can live here, happily, for their whole life. There is no need to leave this wonderful place."

Jared opened the chest. The chest was full of books. Hundreds of books. "Your book isn't in here, William, but you won't need it with these. This has all you could possibly want to make your own magical spells. You could do whatever you like."

Sandra spoke up, "sorry to interrupt... I'm not really sure about all this magic stuff but when will Eddie and Jesper be getting here?"

"Eddie will get here soon," said Jared.

"And Jesper?" Sandra asked.

"Jesper's a thief. There is no place for him in places like this," said Jared. "But don't worry. We'll kill him soon enough."

----------

Jesper unicycled down the red hallway, Eddie on his shoulders. The hallway seemed to go on for miles. Finally, there was a sudden change. The red hallway, although still present, was interrupted by an odd sight to the side. A gas station. The gas station seemed empty, but Jesper couldn't see anyone inside. In addition to the gas station, the gas in the motorized unicycle also seemed to be just about empty. Jesper would likely need to refill it soon.

"Jesper," said Eddie, suddenly, "I've gotta pee. Really bad. Really, really, bad."

[DriveEMOut]

Jesper gently set Eddie to the ground, and started to walk him into the gas station. When they got to the bathroom, Jesper left Eddie to do his business while he searched for anything of use. Jesper knew exactly why his bounty was higher. He had been stealing all his life. It was no suprise.