BatIM Five Trials

Chapter Twenty Seven

After a minute of tense silence, Allison finally spoke up. "I think that's all of them. . . but you never know where they'll crawl out of next." She walked over to a gate Jade hadn't noticed before and sliced the chains keeping it closed with her sword. A poke on the shoulder revealed that Tom wanted to check out her shoulder injury, the once seemingly scary wolf looking concerned.

"Sure, you can look at it, but please don't touch it. It really hurts." She warned. Tom took a second to look it over, even giving it a bit of a sniff.

"It looks a bit serious, best if you try to avoid using it." The wolf signed, making a bit more noise than her old friend since he used his metal hand.

Allison looked back at the two. "It's probably best if we stick together from now on. Jade? You think you could lead the way?"

Though Jade had no idea where she would be going, she nodded. "Alright." Since she had an axe now, she figured it would be a safe bet to leave the pipe behind. She put the seeing tool's handle in her other pocket and continued forward, holding the axe in her right hand. The way through the gate lead to a hall with a collapsed floor, a few planks serving as the only bridge.

"Looks like we're going to have to be careful through here, our best bet with how old this place could be is that if one of us is on a plank at a time." She looked back at her two new friends for approval. They nodded, Allison taking the rear. Jade stepped on the first plank, making her way across. She looked down, seeing nothing but darkness down below.

She safely made it across the first plank, Tom starting to follow her lead. Looking back at the two of them and making sure they were okay, she then proceeded onto the second board. About halfway across, the board suddenly snapped. She cried out as she started falling, arms shooting upwards.

"Jade!" Allison yelled out. Acting quickly, Tom lunged forward and snagged the axe Jade was holding on to. She hissed from the sudden pain in her right shoulder as she then went to hold on with her left side as well. Tom was starting to pull her back up as she noticed her grip starting to slip. Before Tom was able to get her back onto the plank, however, her grip finally gave out and she fell down into the darkness, shutting her eyes as she did so. She didn't want to see where she was going now.

She landed in a shallow ink puddle with a splash, pain surging through her legs as she opened her eyes once more. Looking down at the ink for a second, Trial One flashed in her eyes as she remembered she had fallen there as well. She shook her head and looked around at her new surroundings before looking up. It was too dark, she couldn't see where she had come from.

It's a wonder I didn't just break my legs. . . geez. Jade thought to herself as she made her way out of the shallow ink and into the doorway forward that she saw. Music kicked on as she did so. It sounded a bit familiar, she practically beamed when she heard the sound of a clarinet, the instrument she knew well, starting to play the melody of the tune. She walked by a couple of wooden benches, looking at the administrative doorway up ahead, which was blocked by a metal gate. A Bendy head decoration loomed over it.

Suddenly, a loud roar pierced the air, sounding like it came from around where she had fallen down. She started shaking, her breath becoming just as shaky. The roar sounded like it was expressing the agony of grief, the grief of losing a close friend. It took all she had in her to not let out a wail of grief herself, the thoughts of Boris surging to the front of her mind at full force.

She finally shook it away after a few tears had forced themselves out. She walked forward, looking around the area. Going to the right first proved to not make much progress other than seeing an ink printer and a locked door, so she went left instead, toward the door with the label of Film Vault over it. When she entered the door, she saw an area on the wall with a network of pipes, but there were gaps.