The land of the wicked

My 8th grade teacher once said ,"when it comes to friends,choose wisely".On this particular day,I wasn't paying attention.

I'll never forget the night it started. Mom and dad were out of town and I had the house to myself. I had my whole night planned out. A bowl of popcorn,three cans of soda and a night of endless movies. I laid back on the couch and enjoyed the luxury of being alone but unfortunately,just like Geoffrey Chaucer said ,"all good things must come to an end ". I was halfway through my first movie before being interrupted by a thundering loud knock on the door.

"Who's there?",I asked out loud.

" Its me Noah!"

"I need your help right now dude",he said.

I made no rush to get to the door. Knowing Noah, "Right Now" could mean anything from a party across the street to some interesting news he just heard.

"What's up",I asked.

"Its Alex,he went in".

"Wait what,why?",I asked with a frightened voice.

"I don't know okay it just happened".

"Okay where is he?"

"At my place".

"Alone?"

"No,Seth is watching him".

I grabbed my coat and we stormed out.

We arrived at Noahs house only to find Alex passed out on the chair with Seth nervously watching over him.

"How long has it been?" I asked.

"Fifteen minutes".

"Okay hand me the box".

Noah aggressively interrupted "there's no time for that,let's just go in and fetch him!"

"No!" I replied.

" If we going to do this we need to be extra careful."

"Whats it say?", Seth asked.

"I'll read it out loud".

"Once upon a time,there was a knight who challenged the most powerful witch in order to save his family. The witch gladly excepted.

She then created an alternate universe and filled it with the scariest creatures known to man. The evil dead who do not sleep and crave human flesh zombies,the night scaring blood sucking vampires,the huge strong and full moon howling werewolves and every kind of dark scary monster of the night.

The rules were simple, all the night had to do was make it to the witches den within an hour. If he did the witch would then hand him a card that will grant any wish he desired and he'd be free to leave. However, if he didn't,he would be stuck in the alternate universe forever,left to the mercy of those ruthless,hungry fiends . To make things interesting she gave him a potion that would make him invisible to the monsters,but only for thirty minutes,that way it would give him an opportunity to roam without being noticed,and time to devise a strategy. Unfortunately the knight got eaten alive within eighteen minutes and was unable to save his family. If you ever had a wish you been longing for, this might be your chance to have it come true,but thats only if you dare to step into The land of the wicked."

"Okay now how do we enter?"

"You serious?we just saw Alex do it now it now!"

"It says,roll the dice on six and pick up the dare card. Place the plastic sword over your shoulders then say say these words three times"Cassandra Cassandra".

"Okay,y'all ready?",asked Noah.

"Wait,there's only two swords left". Seth replied.

"Okay, one of us has to stay behind anyway. We gonna need someone to explain this to our parents if we don't make it back in time".

"Seth I think you should you should stay" I added.

"Okay you ready?"

"Cassandra Cassandra.Cassander Cassandra.Cassandra Cassandra"

And down we went,into the land of the wicked as our physical bodies dropped to the ground like mindless zombies.

"Take me back, he screamed I don't wanna be here."

I don't blame him. There was a shadow beast with piecing red eyes right above us. It hovered over the trees like an eagle looking for it's next meal. It's wings could envelope a bus. All you could hear was the loud roars of people getting tormented followed by the huge wings flapping over us.

"Get it together,I replied. There's no turning back now. We have thirty minutes to come up with some type of plan because I guarantee you once those thirty minutes are up,we won't have time to think at all."

I raised the the shining sword over my shoulders. It had been transformed into a real sword. At least we have something to defend ourselves with. We started searching and analyzing the dark mysterious environment as the screeching noises grew closer and closer. You couldn't take five steps without being interrupted by a sudden shadow or movement. Each one felt as if you'd be captured within a second. Only God knows what we'll see next,I thought to myself.

The place was like a mixture of the deepest darkest woods and an abandoned graveyard. There was jumps and holes at every turn. Just walking through it felt like a mission,I didn't want to imagine how running would feel.

"ALEX", we yelled, but still no sight of him. Not even a sign that he was here,no footprints,breadcrumbs nothing.

"Ahhhgg,I give up! It feels like we going nowhere."

Or at least that's what I thought before coming face to face with what looked like the decaying corpse of serial killer. It's breath smelt like the soup at the bottom of the trash can. It seemed like its eyes were fixed on me and I couldn't stop staring at the sharp salty and metallic blood coming from it's mouth. Even though we knew it couldn't see us we were still paralyzed with fear. It started coming closure. I gently took a step back before feeling a wet and slimy hand wrap around my ankle from behind.

"Noah help!"I screamed as I found myself in a tug of war between the two. I still couldn't see what it was, all I remember was the painful sounding moans as it hissed and snapped at my lower leg.

"Kill it with your sword! I screamed before he accurately pierced it's chest.

I got up and started running,only looked back once. It was spine-chilling to look at. It had maggot filled chunks of bloody flesh and you could see the pain invoked hunger on its face. I almost felt sorry for it.

"How can it see us! yelled Noah. It's only been fifteen minutes. He was still in absolute shock. How he managed to slice the zombie I still don't know.

And then it finally hit me.

"The witch! She lied to the knight,the potion only lasts fifteen minutes,and we've just waisted ours."

We retreated to a safe space.

That's it, we need to get out of here now,he said.

Wait,what's that? I asked.

Whats what?

"That shining thing."

We took afew steps closure. It was a shining sword,just like ours.

Must belong to Alex,I said,that means he could be somewhere around here.

"That sword could belong to anyone,If we stay here any longer we going to get killed."

"Look we both know you'd never forgive yourself if you just left Alex out here,as scary as it is we gotta find him before it's too late."

And just like that we fled back into the darkness of the woods,silently moving before falling into a ditch the size of a grave. The unexpected fall caused us to panic and scream which only made things worse. I can still remember the blood thirsty faces circling around us like pray. Although they couldn't reach us because we were too deep down,time was running out and eventually we'd be stuck there forever.

I tried not too look up because every time I did I deeply regretted it. The mere image of these beings was excruciating.

"You remember Keisha's birthday party?"Asked Noah. He was obviously trying to disract us from our reality.

"Yeah,you and Alex nearly drown in the pool."

He laughed."In my defence it was my first time drinking".

Maybe that's why alcohol says eighteen and over, I joked. A Few minutes later and we were going on a long trip down memory lane. For a moment it felt like the situation was non existent and we were sitting on the porch just like old times. I'm sure going to miss all of this, I can only imagine how my family will feel.

Moments later the most miraculous thing happened,we were transformed back to Noahs basement. I woke up and found Alex and Seth standing over me. They gave me a hand up,then Noah.

"What,how?"

"I used my wish to save y'all dude,luckily Seth was here when I woke up or I would've wished for a million dollars,he joked."

"How did you get to the den?"

"I figured out that the witch lied about the spell,and I also figured out that the monsters don't have very good eyesight in the dark,the only reason they could see me was because of the shining sword. I gotta say,that witch really outsmarted the knight."