The Watcher and The Hunter
Part 4: Stine’s Lair
As worried as I was for Sarah. My horse and I took off after I packed the supplies; The journey had taken us on the dirt roads that navigated this land through forests and hills; there was no resistance to the swamp. We stopped when we got to the stream that led to the wetland and followed it down.
The sun started to set as I entered the woods. I knew I was getting close to the swamp when the mangrove trees started showing up, and mosquitos began feasting on my blood. I traveled backward from the swampy area to set up my campsite for the night.
The sun had entirely set at this point, and the fire was friendly and keeping me warm. I began cooking my dinner when I heard a sound from the brush behind me. I stood up with my hunting spear, ready for whatever would come out. It was utterly quiet as I investigated the dark nothingness for what was there.
Suddenly, I was jumped from my left by a ferocious saber-toothed tiger. We rolled on the floor until I could kick it in its face to get it off me. I sent the tiger about 7 feet away and grabbed my spear, ready for its next attack. But the next move caught me off guard. The familiar laughter came out of its mouth. Slowly it began transforming into a human and confirmed the identity I knew it to be.
“Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha. Rotos! I knew I smelt you around here somewhere.” She shouted while wiping the blood from her nose.
“Hey Nayonu,” I said. I dropped my spear and returned to the log before the fire.
Nayonu was part of my group, along with Stalin, during the Druid Trials. Nayonu bounded close to me with a series of skips in her step.
“Rotos,” she shouted as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “I haven’t seen you since the druid trials. You said you weren’t going to leave me, remember?”
O jeez. She was my closest friend during the Druid Trials. She was 23 years old, and I had always joked that she evaded mental maturity like the plague.
“Ahh, come on, Nayonu, you’re getting your blood all over me,” I said as she pressed her cheek to mine.
“You shouldn’t have kicked me then.”
“I thought I was getting jumped by something dangerous.”
“Oh, little Rotos, did I scare you?” she said in a voice like a mom talking to a toddler” Next time, I’ll try not to be so scary. Also, you were getting jumped by something dangerous,” she emphasized the word were. I just went easy on you. You’re lucky I like you.”
“Yeah, okay, Nayonu, you’re about as intimidating as a pack of kittens.”
“I’m going to ignore that… for now. What are you doing out here” Nayonu asked again.
“I’m looking for an old friend who is now missing.”
“Maybe I’ve seen him; what’s his name.”
“It’s a girl, Sarah. We grew up together. Short girl, about 5'4. Short brown hair, brown eyes, pale, average healthy build, may have been seen her with a creepy doctor.”
“I may have seen her. Who is she? Is she your girlfriend? She better not be your girlfriend.” She warned me.
“No, she’s Rue’s girlfriend.”
“Who is Rue” Nayonu asked.
“Sarah’s girlfriend”
I had some jokes too.
I laughed, and Nayonu cocked her fist at me.
“I don’t know!” I admitted. “I just met Rue at the Inn in town. She’s some elf Watcher. Can you help me find Sarah or not?”
“I’ll help you under two conditions: one; you must let me help you save her!
"And two?" I asked reluctantly.
"I didn't come out here with a tent. So, I need a place to sleep. We can share yours, or you can sleep out here with the mosquitos. Which will probably eat you alive after this fire goes out."
The tent was tiny enough space for one person; two could squeeze in, but it'd be tight. We had to do it during the Druid Trials, but that was out of necessity.
"Come on, Nayonu; you don't even need a tent. You know I need my space!"
" I don't like entering the spectral realm asking ghosts for help, but we all must make sacrifices."
"Fine, do it," I continued reluctantly. "I thought cats were solitude animals."
"Not this one," she said, smiling at me. "Okay, Okay, Okay! Let me get ready.
Nayonu ran inside the tent with her stuff, getting ready to take over my tent for the night and get prepared for the ritual.
Nayonu came out of the tent with a tribal headband and a yellow gemstone necklace.
"Hey, you kept that necklace.”
"Of course, Rotos, you made it for me. It’s easier to keep myself grounded when I go into the spectral realm if I have items from loved ones. Now let's start the ritual. Sit close to me." she asked," I don't want to be left alone when I go in."
I scooched in closer to her before she began her ritual. The fire was cracking before us, and she said she was ready. Nayonu began her ritual. Slowly her brown and blond stripped hair began covering her body. Her human ears retreated into her head and returned like cat ears. Her tail came back, and she grew whiskers. At this point, she was in the form of a cat and a human.
"Remember, Rotos. Don't leave me."
Nayonu closed her eyes, and the forest became quiet again. Suddenly the light of the moon shined down on Nayonu. She opened her eyes again, except this time, her vision had a blue spectral glow. She was officially in the spectral realm.
The Spectral Realm
The orange glow of the fire went away, and the space of the forest turned blue. The trees turned black with a spectral white glow around them.
Ugh, I hate coming here. Rotos better love me for this.
I walked deeper into the blue-lit forest until I got to the swamp. Okay, this could be better. At the center of the swamp was a horde of decrepit ghosts glowing white, walking in and out of the white-illuminated pond. There must be a lot of dead creatures in that pond, I thought, for it to be glowing that bright. They were all walking in a line to and from a singular point further into the forest.
"O god, I must be careful," I kept thinking; these ghosts don't look friendly. All of them will cling to any warmth they can to be alive again. If I can’t return to my body, I may die here.
I stealthily followed the convoy of ghosts until I reached the bottom of a monolith.
"What. What is this?" I felt a bit defeated, mainly because I couldn't help Rotos.
"Hey," a voice called.
"AHHH!" I jumped into an aggressive stance with my claws, ready to attack.
"It's okay! I've passed, but my girl is still there with the Scientist. I can show you how to get in and out, but you must save her," she wept.
I put my guard down and moved in closer to the ghost. "What's your name? I'll help."
"Sandranette. Let's go now, hurry; there is a way in over here.”
I followed Sandranette about 300 feet to another dead end.
“It's a dead end again; I can't walk through this.”
"It's hollow here. You can walk through it. When you get to the living world again, there is a 2-person switch; you'll see it."
I followed Sandra as she phased through a solid wall. We are now in Dr. Stine's Lair. Water dripped from stalactites. The dark cave had been flooded in some sections, with several dead-end caverns in others.
"A series of 2-person switches will get you to Stine from here," Sandra told me. "But we're ghosts now; just follow me through.
Sandra and I walked to Stine's experiment room from cavern to cavern.
Walking past a sleeping giant, I gasped, "What is that?"
"It's one of His creations; it killed me when I tried to escape. It can't see you now."
We walked past it and finally made our way into the experiment room.
The monsters in the room were terrifying, deformed humans, animal, and plant hybrids locked in cages for Stine's experiments.
"I'm looking for someone named Sarah here. Do you see her?”
"Hmm, last I knew, she was in there," she pointed toward a flooded cavern." She's his new Fish Experiment, but I must show you my girl Julianna."
We walked into one more cavern, where I finally saw Dr. Stine.
"You are going to be my greatest creation yet!" Stine shouted to a small girl covered in mushrooms and flowers." You will be unstoppable."
"CONDUCTING TEST 7!" Stine announced, reaching for his cattle prod. "This will only hurt for a second, my beautiful experiment."
Stine Charges the prod and prepares it to electrocute Julianna.
There was a Buzz! And a scream before Julianna burst into dust.
"NO!" I screamed. I wanted to shred Stine, but they couldn’t hear me now, but I was a ghost. How could a man be that evil to electrocute a girl like that?
Sandra was unmoved. "I've seen this seven times now," Sandra told me calmly.
Slowly the dust started fusing back together, morphing back into Julianna.
“Beautiful,” Stine said. “The governor has paid me to create weapons out of the homeless people in Latif. But the truth is, I love doing this. I believe he’ll love you just as much as I do. You want to know what he told me today?”
Juliana stayed mute, holding back her pain or emotions.
“He said people came around questioning him about me, looking for you. And he led them straight to me so that I could test the lethality of all my beautiful creations. There’s no point in keeping you if you can’t fight.”
Suddenly the sound of a silver bell rang in the cave.
“Looks like one of your friends is already here,” Stine says to Julianna.
“What is that?” I asked Sandra.
“Nothing good”
Stine’s soul jailers emerged, phasing through a cave wall and ringing a small silver bell.
“Can they see us?” I asked Sandra.
“This is new to me.”
The hooded jailers floated closer to Sandra and me, with a chain in one hand and an enormous cage in the other.
“We better not stay around to find out.”
A large chain was thrown by another jailer, knocking me to the ground “OWWW.”
As I got up, ready to attack, the jailers let out a psychic scream. The cave became wholly blurry, and I couldn’t move.
When my senses returned, the jailer was 5 feet away, with his chain ready to attack. Before the jailer could put the chain around me, Sandra pushed me out of the way and got captured instead.
“Go!” she shouted. “Get help! save Julie.”
She sacrificed her soul for me to save Julie.
“Nayonu,” I heard Roto’s voice shout my name through my living body.
I sprinted out of that cave faster than I had ever run, scared for my life, humiliated that I was defeated so quickly, and enraged that a soul was lost to protect me. That psychic scream hurt a lot. It caught me off guard, but next time I’ll be prepared. I ignored all the ghosts pleading for help while sprinting through the woods until I reached my living body.
"ROTOS!" I shouted," I found them, Sarah, Juliana, Stine, the whole lair; we're going in the morning." I got up and ran to the tent to sleep.
“Nayonu, wait!” Rotos shouted as I ran to the tent, but I didn’t want him to see me in my emotional state.
Rotos was relieved I was back safe and found Sarah, but I knew he wouldn’t be tomorrow.
