23 Broken Stoned Josh
1449 Words
“I hope you’ll tell something else rather than all your complains to Josh,” Peter said honestly.
Zack rolled his eyes and walked to Peter and Ray, holding the cork and shattered pieces of glass in his palm.
“What are these?” Peter asked and lifted the cork with a ring of glass surrounding it. “Test tube?”
Zack nodded. “Do you guys remember before we went here for the first time? When we summoned the skeleton warrior, green goblin, and when you accidentally summoned the dream goblin?” he asked, pointing to Peter. “I found something while we’re cleaning.”
Memories of that day flashed into Peter’s memory.
Peter was just done closing the portal, and he noticed the mess around the basement room.
“Should we at least do something with the mess?” Peter asked, looking at the mess the flour had made.
Josh agreed. “I kinda feel bad leaving this place messy, too.”
Since there wasn’t much to do aside from disposing the bones of the skeleton warrior and sweeping the floor, Ray and Peter insisted to do it. Which left Zack and Josh to wait for them to finish.
“What do I do with the bones, though?” Ray asked, carrying the bones with a curtain, on his back while holding its corners together. “It doesn’t stink, but we can’t just put it here.”
Peter hummed as he thought. Burying it would cause a lot of trouble and time, but putting it in the basement won’t be appealing either. “Put it at the storage room first,” Peter said.
“Second floor?” Ray asked.
Peter only nodded. “Be careful, there are some bear traps there. Make sure you carefully step away from them,” Peter reminded Ray.
Ray only gave him a salute and walked upstairs.
Peter looked around and found that Zack looked like won’t voluntarily clean the place, although the mess was because of the green goblin he summoned. He rolled his eyes.
“I’ll go get some broom,” Peter said and started to walk to the stairs but Josh called him.
“Wait up, Peter!” he exclaimed and came running after Peter.
“What?” Peter asked.
“I’ll go with you,” he said and turned to Zack. “We’ll get back shortly,”
Peter glanced at Zack and turned around to walk upstairs. “He should be the one to sweep the floor,” he complained.
Josh laughed a little. “I’ll just help you,”
Zack ignored them and looked around the basement. The floor was messy because of the flour. He saw shining under the light of the basement, it was right beside the wooden table.
“What is that?” he asked himself and walked towards it. He knelt one knee down to see that it was some glass covered with flour. He lifted it and brushed off the flour with his fingers.
It was some test tube with a cork, and inside it was clear dense fluid. Before he could open and check what it was and what it does, Peter and Josh came back with a broom and dustpan.
To his surprise, he hid it in his pocket.
“And you didn’t tell us?” Peter asked.
“That’s right. Why didn’t you tell us?” Ray asked.
Peter saw how Zack raised them an eyebrow. “Because I thought I should know what it does before telling you.”
“Betrayer,” Ray commented.
Zack gave him a look. “Don’t be a hypocrite. It’s a secret. I know the three of you also have your secrets.” he said.
The two were silent. He was right. Ray had a secret. He didn’t tell them he learned sword technique and fighting skills through obtaining the spirit fire from the skeleton warrior. He also didn’t tell them he was now fluent in Latin because of it.
Peter was the same. He didn’t tell them that he was a dream lord and it was because of the dream goblin he summoned. He also didn’t tell them he summoned the sphinx in his dream, which was the real reason why he had the idea to summon the creature from the Kramer world.
Zack scoffed. “See? So don’t feel unfair that I’m hiding something from you. We’re all friends but we all had secrets kept to our selves.”
Peter only looked at him. “Fine, fine. What does that liquid do, anyway?”
“It’s from the green goblin. I think the goblin had been carrying it and we didn’t notice he left it,” Zack said and scratched the back of his head. “I tried testing a drop of it, but the toothpick I used became invisible. I mean, the tip of it.”
Peter nodded.
“So, the green goblin used it?” Ray asked.
“I’m not sure, but I have an idea that it was meant for the green goblin to drink it. Using it as serum would be insufficient,” Zack concluded.
“You’ve been carrying that since?” Peter asked.
Zack nodded. “After Josh decided to summon a mermaid, I was afraid it would fail so I brought it.”
“Then why did it even reach Josh? He was stoned, right?” Ray asked.
Peter agreed with a nod. “Did you apply it to him?” Peter asked in horror.
Zack grimaced at the idea. “No. Of course, I wouldn’t.”
Peter shrugged. “Well, we even forgot that we put Josh here. There’s a high chance it was that Ben Duke’s doing,” he said. He shook his thoughts away. “Then, you’re saying, that’s the thing that made Josh lose his head and arm?”
Zack gestured his hand to tell them to wait. “Look at this,” Zack said and Peter and Ray followed behind him. Zack crouched down and tilted one of the shattered glass and let a very small droplet of the liquid drop on an angel figurine on the living room table.
They saw how the head of the figurine started to disappear.
Peter watched as Zack ran to the coat hanger to get something hanging on there. A black, leather poncho.
Zack placed it on the couch and alone, he lifted Josh until he was standing up.
“Aye, be careful,” Ray said but Zack didn’t pay any attention to what he said.
He took the poncho and placed it on top of Josh as if to wear it on him and they saw how the hole of the poncho reacted as if it touched something round. As if it was sliding off on a person’s head. “See?” Zack said and even placed his hand on top of Josh’s head, and it visibly looked like he was holding on top of something.
Peter was speechless.
Zack threw the shattered pieces and the cork. They heard the crackling of fire above them, and slowly, the smoke was wild that it reached low on the first floor.
“I think we should leave Josh here. There’s a lot of accidents already,” Zack said.
Peter looked at him. “Here you go again, with your idea of leaving Josh behind,” Peter said. “I said, we’ll leave this place with Josh no matter what.”
“No, you don’t understand. Don’t you think it would be a good idea to unstone him?” Zack asked. “If you unstone him, would he be safely turned into his normal state?”
“That’s why we have to try!” Peter growled at Zack.
“If you revive Josh, he would be dead, because he has no head,” Zack pointing at Josh.
Ray interrupted. “Uh, should we at least run away from the mansion first?” Ray asked. “The mansion could crumble at any time.”
Peter sighed. “We’ll discuss this later,” he said.
He then looked outside the living room and saw that the hallway on the first floor has less smoke.
He walked back in and walked to Josh, removing the poncho over stoned Josh and carried him. Ray helped Peter and Zack followed.
They walked out of the mansion, only to see that the fire was serious. Few seconds after they got out, they saw how third and second floor was crumbled down to the ground, still covered with fire.
“Woah! We should’ve been dead if he stayed for longer,” Ray said.
Peter looked around and saw the indoor pavilion beside the mansion. “Let’s go in there first,”
The indoor pavilion was just beside the mansion, but it would take time for the fire to reach the pavilion.
When they arrived at the pavilion, they placed stoned Josh there and continued to discuss their plan.
“We should make up a plan as soon as possible. The fire is big and it could be seen even from the foot of the mountain. A vehicle driver could see it from there. If they report to the police, that will be a huge mess!” Ray said, frustrated.
Peter’s eyebrows creased. “I know. Let me think,” he said.
He saw the spears Zack took earlier and he then touched the invigorating blood on his pocket.
He only needed to know what to do with the invigorating blood. He was thinking of pouring it to Josh’s stoned body but it could be a waste if it wouldn’t work.
He needed to ask the sphinx.
A new plan has been made. Peter sighed. “We should summon again. We should summon the sphinx.”
- Writer
