After taking a quick stroll through the graveyard, Glenda, Clause, and Sebastian made it to the cave in no time at all. Sebastian could not believe such a place existed, and that he did not know of it sooner.
“So, is that the cave you guys were talking about?” Sebastian pointed toward the small opening on the side of the hill. It looked like a giant gopher hole to him, and he realized he would have never noticed the opening had someone not pointed it out to him.
“Yes, the one very few people know about.” Clause explained to the boy. “And it’s open too. Shall we head inside?” He asked, while motioning his hands to let them go first.
Each of them crawled on hands and knees through the dirt-rimmed opening onto the stairs, landing made of stone. Before their eyes laid hundreds of steps leading downwards towards a bottom that wasn’t visible from their vantage point, Sebastian could feel the sweat building on the back of his neck as he contemplated walking down all those stairs. Glenda and Clause had other ideas for a quick descent, however. They summoned an advanced flying spell so the group can traverse down the stairs faster.
Glenda reached out and held Sebastian’s hand, warning him not to let go. For if he did, she cautioned, he would plummet into a world of darkness and end up somewhere else entirely, with no certainty if he’d make it back to his world. Sebastian gripped her hands tightly and tried not to look down as they floated to the bottom of the stairway. When they reached the end of the stairs, they found the Howler Coaster disappeared!
“Oh no, where could it have gone?” Glenda turned to look at Clause and saw the same worried look on his face. “If what you said was right Clause, then that must mean someone else has already been here!”
“Hopefully, it wasn’t one of our students that got down here, or we’ll have a problem.” Clause shuddered at the thought.
“So... I guess that means we’re pressing forward then?” Sebastian questioned.
He had zero clues on what they meant by Howler coaster or whatever the problem was. He never heard of this place, even with all his connections at the school. What made them think that any other student would have been able to find this place, much less steal the coaster in the process?
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They eventually found the coaster parked up next to a pathway leading to a pedestal where a bunch of doors floated around. Clause explained to them that the place was called the Abstract Bizarre Colorful Dimensions or ABCD, which Sebastian chuckled under his breath, thinking to himself how dumb that sounded. He got back his composure soon after though; this thing is dangerous to the teachers, so there must be more to the story than told. Best to keep his emotions in check and treat it seriously too, but what a stupid name for such a cool place.
As the light from the torches reached the doors, they noticed that most of the entries were now colorless, like someone or something had sucked the life out of them. They got to the center to further investigate the situation when Clause found a door that still had some color left. He flew over to open it, but the door was locked. These doors shouldn’t have locks on them.
“Hmm, I wonder what’s going on here.” He tried it again, puzzled by the inability to open it.
Realizing that Clause couldn't open the door, Glenda felt the room swirl around her. She had a feeling she would faint and quickly rested her hand on Sebastian’s shoulder to steady herself.
“Oh no, it’s worse than I thought!”
“What’s wrong, Glenda?” Sebastian looked at her, concerned with her pale appearance.
“What if the one person who got here is trying to destroy our very ecosystem and school? Or worse...?” She whispered the last part of the sentence. “That’s always a possibility here.”
“What can we do, though?” Clause returned to her side and grabbed her hands in his.
“Clause will stay here and make sure no one else enters here beside us,” Glenda said out loud, regaining her strength and focus. “I'll investigate how to get in the door and find out more info about its existence at the school.” She turned toward Sebastian. “You find out who the traitor is; it will save us a lot of time if you can do that.” Without taking her eyes off Sebastian, she added: “One more thing. Tell no one about this, especially the Mist- I-I mean Principal. Can I trust you with this important task I’m giving to you?”
“Yeah, sure. You can count on me!” Adrenaline rushed through Sebastian; excitement filled his body. He got to be on a mission to save his school and further his agenda with the teachers.
“Good luck, my grandson, and you too, Clause.” Glenda smiled weakly. “If any of you find out anything, let’s call each other from our hologram phones, ok?” She handed Sebastian and Clause hologram phones.
“Ok!” They both replied.
However, Glenda, Clause, and Sebastian weren’t the only ones privy to the plan. Standing beside the abandoned coaster was a small figure of a girl. In the shadows, you could barely make out the dark sunglasses and red hair.
Lauren smiled as she gripped the neck of the Howler coaster. It’s sizeable duck-like beak and black jeweled eyes staring down at her as if it awaited her next command. She wouldn’t tell anyone either, she whispered to the coaster, no one at all.