Magic Madness™️

Chapter Four: Stuck.

WORD COUNT: 1,828

It was dark. The stars couldn't be seen through the foliage, though a few slivers of moonlight seemed to slip through, here and there.

"Is that...water? Running water? Like a creek? I hear, like, a waterfall or something," Alex observed.
"I'm impressed you heard it before I did, I'm usually the first one to pick up on that," Joan confirmed, "It's a river. It means we're getting close."
"Finally!" Eli exclaimed, slouching a little bit with relief.
"Is he always this much of a drama queen?" Amber asked Alex, who, in turn, laughed and nodded.

Did Eli hear the comment? Yes. Did he pretend not to? Maybe.

"We have a creek near our house," Eli said, instead, kicking pebbles and twigs around as he walked.
"Wait, there's a creek near your house, too? You never told me that," Alex asked curiously.
"Well...there's one near your house, and I'm always there and—I mean, like obviously it's not our house, it's your house, but-"
"Dude, chill. I was just curious," Alex replied, smiling at Eli when he nodded his response. He could practically hear Amber's eyeroll when Eli smiled back.

Within the next hour, they had arrived at a minuscule clearing in the large trees. In the middle of the uneven patch of grass and twigs, a tall daisy grew. Joan bent down to pick it.

"Are you serious?" Eli groaned inwardly, "Do we really have time for this?"
"Elijah, you are driving me up the wall. Please, for even just a few minutes, shut up," Joan snapped, pulling the flower up. The stem didn't break, but rather, grew longer and longer until it was nearly Joan's height. Then something clicked, and a patch in the grass lifted. There wasn't dirt underneath it, like there was under every other patch of grass; there was a wooden staircase leading downward into a place too dark to see clearly.

Surprisingly enough, Eli shut up pretty quickly after that.

Amber was the first to enter, and Joan was the last, making sure that no one was following them in before pulling the flower stem back down from the roof and watching the trapdoor close.

"It's dark in—oh, hey! I didn't think there'd be electricity down here." Alex commented, looking up in wonder at the dim lamps that all seemed to have flickered awake.
"There's not," Joan replied, clapping his hands like he was dusting himself off.
"Wait, did you do that? With your hands? Like I know you have lightning or whatever, but can you, like, power electrical stuff?" Alex asked, fascinated.
"Yes," Joan said simply, standing a little straighter and suppressing a smile. It was nice to be admired once in awhile. Once a player was used to magic, it was easy to forget just how amazing it was. To be 'special' again felt sort of uplifting, especially to someone who was so accustomed to 'special' things.

"That. Is so. Cool," Alex gawked, touching one of the lamps lightly with one finger. It got zapped in a way that one gets zapped on a playground slide or a balloon with too much static electrical charge. Although it hurt a little, it only made Alex's smile grow. Joan had to turn away to hide whatever sort of laugh was trying to escape him.

"Goodnight, everyone!" Eva said suddenly from her place in the hallway, just across the room from Joan. She was already in pajamas (Alex noted that her sleep clothes were the exact same colors of her last outfit), and she looked quite tired. She ducked into the first room on the left, closing the door behind her.

"So you guys all live here?" Alex asked Joan, "Like you were all programmed to share a house? Or is this some sort of headquarters?"

"A mix of both," Joan said, shrugging off his robe with a happy sigh. It flashed a couple times when it hit the floor before disappearing.