Chapter Six

Not long before the girls enter the castle, they encounter an other worldy creature.  They are soon separated in groups of two; Jade and Asha,  Tygra and Rose...

    As the group made their way towards the castle, they could see that the structure was made of stone with huge wooden doors in the front. Thousands of windows lined the castle walls, each having metal bars placed within the openings. Each bar was placed apart so to be barely wide enough for even the smallest of birds to fly between. There were a set of steps leading onto a platform just before the set doors.

    “Something doesn’t feel right…” Jade said as she came up the steps. She took a quick look around the castle walls before turning back towards the others. “If this is suppose to be a hideout of an army with the intent on taking over the world, don’t you think there would be a little more coverage over the area?”

    “You’re right,” Tygra began as she took a step forward. “It’s as if they are inviting us in.”

Jade looked to the handles of the doors, placing her hands on the smooth metal. “Wait!” She felt a firm hand land on her shoulder as Rose haltered her movements. “Jade, we don’t know what exactly is beyond this door…What if this was all set up and the one behind this is waiting for us? We’ll be killed for sure!”

    “She has a point.” Tygra said, looking up to the two of them from the bottom of the steps. “We don’t know what's going on for sure,” she placed a hand to her choker, “or how to even use our powers for that matter. Should we really go in there, blindsided like this?”

    Jade looked down to her hand wrapped around the handle of the door. “We don’t have a choice Tygra, whether we know what we are doing or not.” She turned to the others, a thoughtful expression falling upon her features. “I know everyone is scared-”

    “Speak for yourself!” Asha yelled turning her head to the side as she crossed her arms before her. “I’m not afraid of anything!”

    Jade smirked, lowering her hand from the handle. “You are the most scared.” She raised her hand out towards her before she could comment. “Hell, I am too Asha. We all are. We were just sucked into something that is probably way bigger then what we can handle…but we need to do this. Drake is waiting for us.”

    “Jade,” Tygra began as she walked up the steps, “We don’t even know what these people are capable of-”

    “Then we just have to be careful.” She commented, placing an ear to the side of the door. After a few moments, she turned back to the rest of them. “I don’t hear anything. If someone is waiting for us, they are certainly being quiet about it.” She looked to them once again. “I’m not going to make any of you come in with me-”

    “You’re not making us do anything,” Tygra said placing a hand to her shoulder. “We are all here in order to find Drake…If we have more obstacles in our way then, we’ll just have to find a way around them.”

    “Yeah, we’ll be just fine as long as the enemy doesn’t come along.” Asha said with a huff of air. “You are making it sound too easy.”

    Tygra took a step toward her, her eyes cold as ice. “We will make due. We were all entrusted with these powers and will find a way to use them if necessary.” She turned back to Jade, a warm smile on her face. “I’m ready if you are.”

    Jade looked to each of them before turning back to the doors, placing her hand back onto the handle taking a deep breath before pulling her arm back, opening the door. It creaked loudly as it swung upon. Asha quickly ran up the steps as they all looked into the castle.

    Inside, there was the main hall with stairs on both side of the room leading to the second floor. The stairways each came to a stop at a balcony which was covered with vines, from years of unwatched growth. There were a set of double doors on the upper and lower levels. The only light that shown down came from the barred windows, making the lower level shadowed in an eerie light. And as Jade had predicted, no one was there waiting for them.

    “Wow.” Rose said as she took a step inside. “This place seems ancient.”

    “We’re not here for sight seeing remember.” Jade said as the others followed Rose into the castle.

    They took another quick look around before the door slammed shut behind them. “What the hell?” Asha cried, running over towards the doors, tugging on both of the handles. “They won’t open!”

    “It doesn’t matter if it’ll open or not. We can worry about that later.” Jade stated as she walked over towards the lower set of doors. “We should start looking around.”

Asha tugged at the door once more before placing her forehead down onto the wood. “This can not be happening.”

    “A-Asha…get away from the door.” Rose said swallowing as she backed away from the entrance, her gaze set up above to the ceiling.

    Asha looked back towards her, a questioning look upon her face. “Why? What’s wrong?”

    “Because there is a big, hairy spider coming down from the ceiling!” Her voice was shrill as she pointed toward the ceiling, causing both Tygra and Jade to turn back toward them.

“Oh Rose!” Asha said, turning back to the door. She slowly looked up to see the spider. “It’s only a little-oh my god!” She cried backing away in quick jumps. “What the hell is that?”

    Coming down from the ceiling, now covering the entire length of the two doors was the spider. It looked to them with its blackish eyes, its hairy body moving slightly as it took deep breaths in and out. But what caught their eyes the most was its long oozing fangs.

    Tygra’s eyes grew wide. “Little spider my a*s!”

Jade quickly ran to the set of doors, praying for them to open. Once they had, she began to wave the girls through. “Hurry! This way!”

    They quickly rushed towards the opening as the spider jumped down from the wall, chasing after them. Jade slammed the doors shut behind her, leaning against the door as the girls watched her, breathing heavy from their sprint. As they looked down the hallway it seemed to be endless with several doors leading to different sections of the castle.

    Behind Jade, the door suddenly began to rattle as the spider tried to ram its way through. She looked to them, her eyes wide. “We can’t stop here! Keep going!”

    As the girls began to run the spider crashed through the door, pursuing them once again. They heard the steady thumps of the spider’s quick pace across the ceiling. “If anyone has a good idea, please say so now!” Rose hollered as they continued to run.

    Tygra looked back to Asha; the spider was only a few feet away from her. “Asha! Try using your powers!”

    “But-”

    “Use them or die! Those are your only options now!”

    Asha looked back behind her, pointing her hands out towards the spider. She urged her powers to come, but received nothing in return. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t call upon her power to save them.

    She looked back out before her, breathing heavy. “I can’t! Nothing’s coming!”

    “We have no choice!” Jade said as the girls came towards a spit in the hall. “We have to split up!” She looked back towards the girls. “Asha you come with me! Tygra, you and Rose go left!”

    “But-” Tygra began ready to disagree with her choices.

    “We have no time! Just do it!” The girls quickly split up into two groups, with Jade and Asha going right while Tygra and Rose went left.

    Jade and Asha remained running down their hall realizing something was different. They could no longer hear the sound of the spider following them any more. Jade stopped as she turned back to look down the hall; Asha stopping a few feet behind her. “Damn it.” She said her teeth set tight together. “I was hopping it would follow us.”

    “We should go after them-”

    Jade grabbed her by the arm as she began to run after Tygra and Rose. “No! That’s why we split up so we have a better chance of escaping.” She released Asha’s arm as she looked back to her. “They’ll be alright-”

    “How do you know that for sure?” She questioned angrily. “For all we know they could-”

    “They’ll be alright!” Jade snapped as she turned away from her. Down the hall she saw a single door leading into another section of the castle. “Let’s keep going.”

    “But-” Asha stopped short as she watched Jade continue to walk down the hall. She quickly followed after her.

    “They’ll be alright.” Jade repeated once more in a calmer tone once Asha came to her side. “I can feel it. They’ll make it back to us.”