Tom wiped his hands clean of grease and got ready for Mike and Larry to show up. He decided his room is going to be his alone tonight, so he set up the living room and threw the extra blankets and pillows on the couch.
Before they got there Tom decided to Febreze bomb the house and hide the bong in case Mr schulz asked to come inside. After making sure everything looked right Tom went back to his jeep. Just as Tom closed the garage door Larry texted him saying they were pulling down his driveway.
Before Tom could get up to greet them he heard the car doors close and Mike saying goodbye to his father as the car left. "Tom you out here?" Larry shouted as he entered the garage. "Yeah man right here" Tom called from under the hood.
With the extra hands Tom was able to throw everything back together after cleaning up all the parts, he still couldn't find anything wrong with the engine so he just topped the oil off with some motor honey and prayed it would work.
After everything was put back together he cranked up the Jeep and let it idle for a few minutes to let the motor honey spread throughout the engine before revving the engine up. Luckily the rattling noise was gone.
"Alright! at least the beast won't blow up on me anytime soon" Tom said after cutting the car off. "You guys wanna troll Chelsea? I'll bet she's been playing since she got home" Mike asked as they went inside.
"You guys go ahead I'm gonna call Vic" Larry said as he grabbed a pillow and blanket before heading down stairs. "Well looks like it's just you Mike, I'm tired as Hell and need to catch some shut eye" Tom left Mike alone in the living room and went to shower before going to sleep.
As Tom laid in bed he could hear Mike talking smack to someone over the mic, it sounds like he found Chelsea. After a few minutes of listening in Tom decided to cut on some music to help him go to sleep. As system of the down played in the background he finally drifted off..
"Well hello again everybody.." Tom was back in the strange place with the pillars of light seemingly waiting there. "Welcome back Thomas.. you must have missed us to bee back so soon" The yellow pillar answered Tom first while the white and green pillars remained silent.
"So you guys know my name but I don't know yours.. feels kind of weird" Tom says while looking between the three pillars "Names are powerful here Thomas, so you shouldn't say ours.. but you may call me Cab" the yellow pillar seems to be the chatty one of the three.
"Well it's nice to meet you Cab and could you please call me Tom? I feel like I'm in trouble when people say my whole name.." Tom can hear a slight buzzing noise emanating from the pillar slightly similar to laughter. "Sure Tom but you should know most mortals would feel honored to have us speak there names.
The first pillar grows brighter and brighter as it's voices echoes across the darkness. "Silence! enough idle chatter, Why are we here Thomas I have more import.." Before he could finish speaking Cab interrupts him. "He asked to be called Tom, and I believe he does not wish to bee here anymore than you do."
At this point the third pillar speaks up. "I agree with 'Cab', it appears we are all trapped here together 'Dung beetle'.. A little civility amongst fellow prisoners may be in order.."
The first light grows even brighter almost blinding Tom as it surges. "I dare you to try and order me again!! Do not think I am against putting you in your place merely because you are a woman, if not for this 'Dung beetle' Your people would have never seen the light of day.."
Before the tirade could continue the green pillar swelled in size equal to the first pillar. "You forget yourself.. long since has passed the time of ancient Egypt at least there are still tribes in the recesses of Africa whom worship my name, you are only known in history books and pictures scrawled upon stone".
As the two pillars fought Cab spoke out, "Umm you're scaring the mortal, maybe you two should introduce yourselves and the four of us can figure out a way out of here?"
"She started it.. but fine, you may call me.. Sunny seeing as there is no word in your guttural language to properly address this will do." As Tom tried really hard not to laugh at the fact that the @$$hole of the group gave himself that name the third voice chimed in.
"You can call me Hotten if you wish, So tell me Tom is there anything special you can think of that caused you to come here?". Tom paused to think for a moment before replying "It's nice to meet you Hotten but I'm sorry I can't think of anything special happening before I came here, I just went to sleep Everytime I came here, I didn't do any ritual dance or eat anything special.."
Tom's voice trails off as he thought about his mom's necklace and reached for his chest just to find that the necklace was gone. Frantically he starts looking around before Cab Chimes in "Did you lose something?"
"My dad gave me a necklace that my mom used to wear all the time before she passed away.. the first night I fell asleep with it on was the first time I came here." Tom replied while trying to trace his steps back to where he first appeared.
"You can stop searching Tom there is nothing here that I cannot see and there is no necklace" Sunny says with a slightly softer voice than normal. "Hmm maybe it didn't cross over with me then.." Tom ponders before Hotten began laughing.
"It seems mortals do not remember how astral projecting works.. Tom you are not physically here, none of us are we are merely being forced to project our consciousness's onto this plane. You are only wearing clothes and in the shape of your body because that is how you view yourself".
"Oh.. that kind of makes sense, otherwise Larry couldn't have shook me awake last time, well anyways that necklace is the only thing different from any other time I fell asleep, but why did it bring you three here?".
"A necklace can't bring us here Tom, you have some kind of connection to us that brought us here. You might even bee able to bring others, But I wouldn't risk it not everyone is as polite about being 'Kidnapped' as we've beeeen."
"Ok I hate to but I have to agree with 'Sunny' the bee puns are getting rather old rather fast." Hotten says causing Cabs pillar to dim a little as if it had it's feelings hurt before he mumbles. "The Mayans had a better appreciation of humor.."