Chapter 11.5 ~ The Underworld Part 1

  As we stood still just on the other side of the portal, we did nothing buy take a look at our surroundings and taking in the smells. The stench around us made us all want to be sick and it just got worse the longer we stood in place. The fog was beginning to roll in thicker and there was nothing but dead trees as far as we could see. Off in the distance there was a faint glow of lights shining around a small "city" but everything else surrounding the "city" was run down and enclosed by chicken wire.

  We slowly walked forward about 40 yards or so before stopping at a wide, red river bank. The stench of decay had gotten worse and after staring at the river longer I realized that the river was not just red it was...blood! Nick quietly informed us that they called this river Styx, the river of blood but also known as the river of hate.

  Nick led us to a boat that was waiting to take us across, the boat was being operated by some creature, who did not turn to face us at all. Our journey across the river of hate was particularly slow and every moment that passed brought us something new to hear and/or see. We suddenly heard the low growls of animals far off in the distance.

"They are called Hellhounds and you better pray we never come across them. The consequences an and will be fatal," Nick whispered, as we came to a stop.

  The operator of the boat whipped around, pointing for us to get out, and the appearance caused me to scream and nearly faint.

  Nick hurriedly ushered us out of the boat before the man could do anything. As we walked down the small dirt path we were quickly stopped by a very tall, very gorgeous woman. The woman completely ignored Nick and concentrated on Mika.

"Perché sei qui?" The woman said, in a demanding tone.

"Pardon?"

"Why are you here?" The woman said again, lowering her weapon close to Mika's throat.

"We....uh....we caught him feeding off civilians in a town where vampires are illegal. In exchange for our lives we agreed to be his slaves," Mika said in a rush, trying to get his lie out quickly.

  With that the woman reluctantly let us through.

"Do NOT look at anyone...if we even see anyone," Nick said, as we began looking around, not seeing a single person...or creature. "Oh and so you know, that lady is what they call a Guardian. A high ruler of the Underworld, they are here to keep the peace."

  We slowly and quietly made our way around the slums that surrounded the "city" until we found an abandoned house....well more of a shack, to take cover in for a little while. It was time to regroup and discuss what we needed to do next.

"We need to get a grasp on how the slums and city are laid out," Nick said, as we all got settled in, "We also have to figure out where Ricardos house is and what the security is like."

"So lets go, what are we waiting for?" Mika said, quickly jumping up.

"No Mika, I have to go alone. Slaves are not permitted to be out at this time, it will be to suspicious if you guys come with me. You all need to stay here and be quiet. No fires, no nothing, you don't want to attract any unwanted attention to yourselves. Please, I want us all to make it out of here safely," Nick said quietly, before slowly sneaking out, making sure to stick to the shadows.

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  As I headed toward the city, I made sure to steer clear of the Anubis and Hellhounds that patrol the area at night, looking for trouble makers and slaves trying to escape. I saw many people and creatures in front of the slums starving, hurt, and sleeping everywhere. I felt bad for them and wished I could help but right now I needed to concentrate on what was most important to the people who had become my family.

  As I looked around the city I noticed how nice it was, it was the only area that had growing plants. The city here looked like any normal city, with the tall skyscrapers, until you saw the very odd people walking around. 

The Underworld was home to every kind of supernatural creature around. While looking around I accidentally bumped into someone, I turned to apologize but then stopped and froze. It was an accident but now it was a bit tricky.

"Watch it! Vampir prost ce o rușine! (Stupid vampire, what a disgrace!)" The werewolf said in Romanian, before shoving me back.

"Scuzați-mă? (excuse me?)" I challenged back.

"You heard me," The werewolf said, becoming even more angry "Got a problem with that? Not like you can do anything about it since I can easily kill you."

 "Yes I do actually, that was an accident. I'm not looking for trouble but you're going to get mad over an accident anyways? Stupid puppy." I said, turning away, knowing that I was pushing my luck too far. The creatures here are nothing like the ones in the mortal world, they never back down.

  Luckily my senses had intensified after becoming a vampire because I sensed the werewolf moving and stepped to the side before his fangs hit me. Within seconds we were throwing each other around, exchanging punches, and breaking almost everything in sight.

  As he lunged at me again, I grabbed his head, twisted as hard as I could, and then tossed him to the side.

Doing this was a major mistake, random killings were illegal here. Unless it was a slave, deaths only happened at the hands of the higher powers and guardians. The sirens went off immediately and the sound of the Anubis became overpowering. I saw movement in the shadows across the dirt path and took off right away before anyone could catch me and punish me.

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*Back at the shack*

  We were all huddled together in the shack. Scared to move, listening to the noises and "critters" scurrying around. The shack smelled as bad as outside along with all kinds of other rotting smells. We did not want to find out why or from what.

  We tried to sleep but couldn't, everything woke us up and we were all worried about Colton, Ando, and our friends. Suddenly we heard rustling and loud footsteps, causing us to slink further into the shadows.

"Guys....guys, where are you?" Nick whispered, panicking.

"Nick, finally!" Mika and Mira said, jumping up.

"I'm glad you guys are all safe," Nick said, as he placed scrapes of food and a bottle of liquer that looked like liquid diamonds on a rickety table. He quickly explained that all supernatural creatures drank it, it would help keep our strength up before adding, "We are going to have to lay low for a couple days."

"Why, what's wrong?" I asked, becoming concerned.

"The creatures here are becoming suspicious as to why I brought all four of you at the same time. Also, we need to wait out a search that is going on for the killer of a werewolf. I think someone may have seen me but I disappeared as quickly as I could when I saw them. I also saw them turn and run to the Coven house.

"Did anyone follow you here," Calypso asked, as she noticed all the scrapes on Nick that would give him away.

"No but that doesn't mean..."

"Oh no...oh no...what do we do?" Mira asked, beginning to panic. "What will they do to daddy...and Ando??"

"Easy, easy, lets not worry too much, that will only threaten our plans. We will figure this out," Calypso said, trying her hardest to calm us all down.

"Yes please, lets all just relax and regroup," Nick said, in a soothing voice, taking a drink of the liquid diamonds.

  We all gathered around each other, slowly eating the food, and began finalizing our plans.

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  Once again Colton awoke in a great deal of pain, after enduring another long day as a Coven slave. He had been ordered around all day, tortured, beaten, and forced to allow the Coven members to feed off of him and not complain. He was feeling strange lately and his mouth was always hurting. He didn't know why but he didn't dare try to speak because it hurt too much.

  They were not allowed to have anything except for the ripped clothes they were forced to wear every single day. They weren't allowed to even have a mirror so there was no way for Colton to what was wrong with his mouth. Ino and Loka were in the same condition as Colton. They were being used as "target" practice instead of being bitten, since they were vampires. They were extremely weak and were being used as slaves as well. They didn't even have real rooms. They were pretty much in cells that were in the middle of a room that resembled a living room.

  Each cell had slabs of stone that they had to sleep on and a ratty little table and chair. Books were a privilege they had yet to earn. Clocks and calendars were forbidden as well as televisions and radios. It had been like this since the day they had gotten here and it didn't seem like it would get any better. Kayla and Anika promised that they would be freed but they had not been allowed to see them. Ando had been forbidden to even speak about Colton, Ino and Loka.

  It was then that a group of vampires came in, sitting on the couch that surrounded us, with deep hunger in their eyes. Once again it was feeding and training time, with us on the menu. As Colton was being drank from he overheard another vampire talking to Ricardo. He pretended not to hear them but he heard everything. Wondering why he could hear so well when the vampire was whispering.

"Ricardo, we have a situation. Someone has seen the male vampire that helped the Abruzzis. He disappeared after spotting our informant."

"Go find him! That bitch is probably with him, find her too!" Ricardo said, throwing his glass across the room.

 

5,000 Views!

  Woo! So the Abruzzi Legacy has finally gotten 5,000 views. Thank you so much to my awesome followers/readers.

  I plan on making something for you guys as my thanx, I will try to have something out by next week. :D

Chapter 11.4 ~ The Demon Gate

 (Authors Note: I want to apologize ahead of time, my characters will look different starting now because I lost all of my legacy sims. I hope you still enjoy the Abruzzi's though. :) )
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 It was a long, draining drive to Moonlight Falls and we were thrilled to finally get out of the cars and stretch our legs. Just looking around this place it was a lot different than Starlight Shores. No white sandy beaches that went on for miles and our house defiantly stood out from the rest of the neighborhood. We just might have to reconsider all the plans we had for this house.

  Since Mika was still grounded, Mira drove the both of them to the school to register and get their class schedules. They would have two and half months off from school since they kids in town just started their summer break 2 weeks ago.

 Then they headed over to the spa and grocery store to check in, their former bosses were more than willing to send out the transfer papers since they were such hard workers. They were both scheduled to start work in two weeks since the current work schedules were already full. After taking Mika back home, Mira headed back to town to get some shopping done. It was still pretty early so there weren't to many people out, but the stores were already open. We needed a lot of groceries since we had no food at all and Mira needed to pick up all of the magic supplies that Calypso had asked her to get. Mira was surprised at how easy it was to find everything Calypso needed, unlike back home were it was hard to come across most everything they needed.

  Mira and Mika were very busy as soon as Mira got back home. They first had to set up all of the magic supplies in a newly added room, making sure everything was there and that they still had enough room to work.

  After putting the groceries away, Mika and Colton went outside to set up the broom arena and Mira began working on a new garden. I never imagined Mira getting her hands dirty with anything but she seemed to enjoy gardening.

  Aside from Mira and Mika running errands they day after we moved in, none of us had gotten the chance to meet anyone or explore our new, unfamiliar town.

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"It's almost time, I still need to get some potions ready," Calypso said, a couple days after Miras shopping trip "I need you guys to get Nick and the others here."

"Already here," Nick said, scaring Calypso as he walked in.

"Nick! You scared the shit out of me!" Calypso exclaimed, with a small grin as she playfully shoved Nick. "Is everything ready on your end?"

"Yes, we found a way in and hopefully we will be able to get out the same way."

"When can we leave?" I asked him, wanting to get this scary journey over with.

"Tomorrow, early in the morning. We have a pretty long drive," Nick said, before looking at Calypso "Will the potions be ready by then?"

"What should the rest of us do?" Colton asked.

"Pack one small bag a piece and I mean the smallest bag you can," Nick answered "One change of clothes and necessities, ONLY necessities. We leave at 4 a.m."

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  The next morning we went over the maps once more and circled the two areas where the portals should be located. After packing our things into the cars, we headed out on our very long road trip.

  Ino, Loka, Kayla, Anika, and Colton went into one car. It was hard for me to be separated from Colton in this situation but Nick had said it was for the best. They were on their way to the Mictlan Gate, once inside this would be the quickest way to the coven house. Kayla and Anika would be pretending to want back into the coven, even though that was going to be very difficult. Ino and Loka would be coming in as new recruits and Colton would be a new servant.

  Mira, Mika, Calypso, Nick, and I went together in the second car. We would be entering through the Demon Gate, this was not close to the coven house by any means, but it would be a lot easier for us to sneak our way to the coven house without Ricardo noticing me. Nick had not explained what our role was yet and this had us all very nervous.

  As we got closer the deep fog began rolling in until it engulfed the entire car. We drove for another hour before Nick pulled over and we all got out. He went to the back of the car, opened the trunk, and pulled out a couple of bigger bags that he had packed.

"What is all of that?" I asked him "I thought we could only bring a tiny bag?"

"Well, you guys are not going to like this at all," Nick began slowly, as he began taking clothes out of the bag. Clothes that were very distasteful and not something any of us would be seen in. "But you will all have to do it no matter what."

"Ummm, what do we have to do?" Mira asked, becoming very unsure as she studied the clothes with disgust.

"You all have to pretend to be my slaves and act like I am your master," Nick said, with a look that showed that he hated even the idea of doing this to us.

"NO! Absolutely not! There has to be another way Nick!" I yelled, becoming pissed off.

"Do you want to save Ando or not?" Nick yelled, taking me by surprise. I have never seen him so angry before. "We can easily just go back home and forget about your boy. I can just pretend to not care about the little selfish brat who decided he had to go wake up the devil that can kill us all."

"There has to be something different," Mika said, trying to calm us down.

"I'm sorry but there isn't," Nick said "Not for humans anyway."

"Well, three of us aren't normal humans," Calypso said, in a matter of fact tone.

"Yea and that makes this journey even more dangerous for you three," Nick said, trying his hardest to make us understand "You have to pretend to be normal humans, one little slip up will mean fatal consequences. No matter how I treat you guys or act towards you guys you have got to keep pretending. I will be the whole time."

  After the four of us just sat there staring at each other, we all finally agreed on doing this even though we were not thrilled about it. We changed into the clothes without any more protest and then stood there very uncomfortable while Nick put the bags back into the car.

  As we walked the last 40 yards to the Demon Gate we tried to not think about things to much. It was a very creepy walk, with all of the dead trees, intense fog, and Watcher only knows what kind of slimy, disgusting creatures were slithering on the ground past our feet.

  Nick slowed down a bit before he began whispering without even passing a glance at us.

"You guys have everything hidden still right?" Nick asked quietly, yet still serious "Please remember the number one rule, NO slip ups. NONE!"

  We all nodded as we slowly walked into the mouth of the cave into a very small, dark room. Aside from the door we walked through there was no other doors or windows. There were weird looking weeds growing through the dirt floor, there were mounds of rocks all over the place, and a single light hanging from above. The deep growl from an unseen animal sent shivers down my spine. As we walked further into we noticed a man standing against the back wall. He was very mean looking, husky, standing perfectly still, hygiene obviously not a priority, and he kept his arms crossed.

"Passaggio per cinque (passage for five)," Nick said sternly to the man, in perfect Italian.

"Quattro gli esseri umani senza valore in una sola volta? Questo è molto insolito in questo momento, ci sono solo stati sempre pochi al mese (Four worthless humans at once? That is very unusual right now, we have only been getting a few a month)." The man said, very skeptical.

"Sì, tutto è in ordine, non sono stati acquistati illegalmente (Yes, everything is in order, they were not obtained illegally)." Nick said, before turning towards us and spat in our direction. "Down, now!"

  We immediately dropped down to our knees, we had to listen to him. The consequences were to severe and scary to think about if we did not listen to him.

"Va bene, il passaggio per cinque (Alright, passage for five)." The man said, as he pulled the lever on the wall next to him. "È meglio non causa alcun problema ed è meglio a pregare tutto è legale con quegli umani disgustosi (You better not cause any problems and you better pray everything is legal with those disgusting humans)."

  Nick nudged us and motioned for us to get up. Suddenly we were blinded by the beautiful shades of blues, purples, and pinks swirling around on the wall that the man had just been standing against.

  Nick entered the portal first and then we slowly, shakily followed him, unsure what to expect when we stepped into the strange world. Within seconds we emerged into the Underworld, which looked more like a wasteland.