Chase was slowly drifting away into the emptiness of his consciousness. Surrounded by water, it felt like he was drowning and by every passing second, he sunk deeper into emptiness and the deeper he sunk, the closer he was to his death.
Now the light above the sea had disappeared leading him towards the endless darkness of the sea inside his consciousness which meant that there was no way for him to be saved as the light of life was no longer visible causing his physical body to give him all the pain he could possibly get. He hit something solid and realised that he had reached the bottom of the sea.
He brought himself to his feet and looked around for a bit, trying to take in his surroundings and saw that he could no longer see the light above the sea and although it was impossible to see anything at the bottom, Chase's consciousness could make sense of this situation not being the physical realm.
His body hit the sea ground, making him wonder why he had stopped drowning. He stood up and looked around, noticing a steel gate at the far left side and decided to go investigate. Knowing that he had little to no time left he accelerated his pace and if this was the last thing that he'll be able to do, he wanted to at least see it through.
He was starting to feel his physical body weakening at a faster pace, probably because of the hole in his chest but luckily, he had arrived in front of the gate. Studying it, he realised that the gate must have been at least 50 feet tall and 30 metres in width but he had no idea of what could have been in there.
Looking closely at the gate, he realised that there was a red seal with writing that seemed to not be of this world preventing whatever was inside to come out or preventing anyone from going in without the seal being lifted. Since he had no idea how to get rid of the seal, he sighed in defeat and laid down on the cold sea bed awaiting the warmth of his body to turn cold which would highlight the end of it all.
Just then, a slight rumbling occurred and a sound of a heavy door opening was heard. Chase, with full awareness, arose from his spot and anxiously concentrated his look into the gate. He shivered as the gates fully opened, lifting up the seal, exposing a dark room. Chase gathered the most courage he had ever gathered in his whole life and stepped inside the room, cautiously looking out for anything suspicious. About five metres inside the room, the gates automatically closed without a warning and so here he was, trapped inside the dark waiting for his whatever was coming.
He looked at the gate and wished he had never entered the room before feeling petrified out of his life as a pair of red eyes stared at him. That was the only noticeable thing as the complete darkness of the room made it impossible to notice other things but, the eyes illuminated the room to just be able to see a figure sitting on some kind of elevated throne.
Even though the eyes illuminated the room, the figure was just dark and by the looks of it, it was not a real person.
The figure was supposed to have a full body but it looked like it was replaced by some kind of armour making it look weird but intriguing. The figure supported its head with a hand as if it was bored but that soon changed as he saw who was in front of him.
The figure moved, sending Chase into a fright and a deep voice boomed throughout the room, inserting a sense of power and fearlessness.
"You're finally here." The voice steadily said.
"D-d-do you know me?" Chase wearily asked as he did not know who, or what that thing was or, what he was able to do.
"Yes I do, you sure took a long time getting here."
"Who are you?"
"I am- " Before the figure could answer him, Chase felt himself slowly fading away, not hearing anything else that was being said, and he collapsed on the ground, slowly closing his eyes.
*****
"It's been a full day!" Lily shouted, feeling frustrated with everyone else as well as herself. Maria said nothing as she also was quite angry at her performance.
Lily groaned and laid down on the couch of their house as she buried her face in the living room pillows trying her best not to cry.
"I have no idea where he could have went." Maria said, feeling very guilty about her incompetence. "I've searched all over town and still no sign of him!"
"Say Lazuli, " Lily started as she sat up to face her sister, "You were the last person with him, are you sure that you don't know where he went?"
"I already told you that he had forgotten to buy something and returned to the supermarket." She replied as she flicked through the TV channels trying to find something interesting to watch. She had no idea why she lied, maybe it was to defend Lucas and his friends or maybe it was simply because she finally wanted a way to get rid of Chase.
"But why didn't you go with him?!" Lily angrily replied. "The older siblings' job is to take care of the younger ones, not just leave them in the cold!"
"So why didn't you go with your dear brother then?" Lazuli retorqued as she folded her arms with an annoyed expression. Lily had no comeback for it but Maria stepped in once she saw that it might potentially turn into a fight.
"Alright girls!" Maria said as she put her hand on Lily's shoulder. "You can come with me and Lazuli... Just do what you want, I'll update your mother on the situation." Lazuli shrugged and went back to her shows as the others headed out again for the third time today, trying to look for Chase.