Chapter 3

         We walked through the small town streets for what seemed to be hours. Everything was silent and abandoned. Almost dead. I noticed my father and I were the only two here. Where is everybody? I thought seamlessly along with everything else.

 

         “Hey, D-Dad?” I was unsure what to call him. It was slowly sinking in now- and the fact that this man may be my real father was more unsettling than the thought of him not being my father.

 

         “Yes Tievel?” He answered to me pleasantly. I think he was satisfied with me for the time being.

 

         “Where’d everybody go?” I wanted to get to the bottom of things.

 

         “Well, the Lost So- People,” He corrected himself before saying something wrong. “They are all sick, and they need me to make them better. I need to go to our house to help them.” He was carefully choosing his words. I don’t think he knows that it’s okay to curse around me, so I just played along.

 

         “So you’re a doctor?” I interrogated him.

 

         “Kind of. You see, I am the king of the Underworld, and that means everyone here is my loyal subject. They do what I say. But they are all gone right now because we haven’t been here for a long time. I need to wake them from their sleep. And to do that there must be a red- Oh well when you're older you will understand.” He was starting to confuse me now, but somehow… I understood.

 

         “Oh, so they are asleep. Okay.” I decided to end it there because I saw a hint of irritation in his voice.  We passed older looking stores and grand houses. There were no cars either. Did they just walk everywhere? Then it came to me.  

 

         In my nightmare, there was an army of Lost Souls. They looked like horribly mangled people. They were sentenced to the Underworld because they were rejected from Heaven. The Lost took the form of humans to fit into the Mortal world. In order to get into the Mortal world, they would have to be released on red moon.

 

         I realized my dream book was still in the Mortal world. In fear of his violent rage, I decided not to ask my father. I wanted to return so I could grab it. Knowing my luck it was probably burnt to a crisp at this point. I figured it was not needed anymore, and continued to replay the thoughts in my head again.

 

         I ignored the stinging cramps in my legs as we continued to walk down the vacant town. My father and I reached the end of the town that broke onto a dirt road. We entered an intimidating forest. I observed as we walked. Its trees were tall and long, they did not branch out very far, but they overshadowed me. I felt miniscule compared to them. I stuck close to my father’s side in fright of getting lost, but alas we made it out within a reasonable time. Up ahead lied our mansion- in all its menacing glory.