In the days following the attack Ethan was true to his word, or at least the word he gave himself and avoided returning to the dungeon. Instead he spent a great deal of time in the bathtub or in his bed trying to loosen up his stiff muscles.

By Monday he was halfway mobile again which caused Quin upon seeing him to say they should return to the dungeon as soon as possible. Ethan naturally blew her off saying he would bring it up with Bella and Alex when they weren’t busy.

Of course he avoided Alex, which wasn’t all that hard as the other boy also seemed to want little to do with Ethan and Bella, bless her, seemed to understand that he didn’t want to return to the dungeon. She didn’t bring it up or ask about it at least not to him. Out of the three people that the dungeon chose, she was the only one that Ethan even liked.

There was a big surprise waiting for him on the outside of the gym, when he found out that he made the soccer team. He questioned what Thorton saw in him that he liked, surely it wasn’t the limping around or relatively small size.

Of course this meant that he had practice now three days a week on top of all of his homework and everything else. Naturally this was a great excuse to ignore Quin’s requests, but it also meant that he was sore almost constantly now.

It got so bad after one particularly grueling Saturday practice that Thorton finally snapped at him and upon seeing Quin running her laps around the athletic fields ordered him to run with her every time she ran. Under Thorton’s watchful glare Ethan set off after her seeing no way to avoid it without making his coach even more angry.

Upon catching up to her Quin glanced over at him and stopped while asking, “Don’t you have practice right now?”

“Thorton ordered me to run with you from now on,” Ethan said feeling embarrassed. “He seems to be getting fed up with my general lack of stamina.”

“Well I’ve typically been running on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday because my practices are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” Quin said looking thoughtful.

“Great, I’ll just tell him that it won’t work because you only run during our practice,” Ethan replied starting to move away from her.

“Hold up,” Quin said. “This could actually give us a good excuse to discuss things.”

“Things?” he asked dreading where this was headed.

“Dungeon things,” she whispered smiling at him. “I’ll change my running schedule so that both of us can make it at the same time. Let’s do Sunday morning, Tuesday morning, and Thursday morning.”

Great Ethan thought irritated. Now I’ve got to get up early, run, and spend time with Quin. What did I do to deserve this.

“Sure,” Ethan responded sighing resigned to his fate.

“I’m glad that’s settled,” Quin stated. “Thorton is right, you need to get into better shape. Besides, if were going to go diving into that dungeon you’ll need much better stamina for that too.”

“It’s not like Bella or Alex are in great shape either,” Ethan snapped at her.

“Perhaps we should invite them to run with us?” Quin said thoughtfully.

Oh yeah as if running with one person I don’t like isn’t bad enough, let’s invite Alex along too for fun Ethan thought gritting his teeth. That way he can call me poor the whole way and make jokes about how I’ve had a lot of practice running from the police.

“Bella has Model UN so I don’t think she will,” Ethan said.

“At six in the morning?” Quin asked surprised.

“Well no,” he admitted, “but let's just say she isn’t the running type. I think it’s just us.”

“Whatever, just try to keep up,” Quin said before taking off once again.

Ethan did a really poor job of keeping up which seemed to greatly annoy Quin as she had to keep slowing down for him. He didn’t really care though. With the state his legs were in he could only go so fast and the fast run she was going at was impossible for him to keep up with.

They ran around the soccer field, the tennis courts, the baseball field, and the football stadium four times before Quin finally called it a day. Ethan wanted to collapse and die. He wasn’t too picky about what order that happened in. Unfortunately soccer practice was still going on and Thorton could see him from where Quin stopped the run.

“We’ll skip the run tomorrow, since we ran today so meet me at the statue on the Quad at five fourty-five on Tuesday morning,” she said.

Too tired to speak Ethan simply nodded his head in reply to her. Five forty-five, he thought. If the running didn’t kill him the sleep deprivation was certainly going too.

“I’ll give you a break this weekend, since you look like you’re about to collapse,” Quin continued, “but next week we really should head back into that dungeon. I’ve started hearing that voice in my head like you described and I don’t really want to wait until I get attacked in the middle of the day.”

He nodded again to her before she bid him goodbye and jogged away, presumably heading back to her dorm. If Ethan thought that Thorton was going to go easier on him for the rest of the day since he just ran a ton he was sadly mistaken. If anything Thorton pushed him even harder and kept harping on the whole team about how their first game was a week away and that they better work harder if they didn’t want to get embarrassed.

On Sunday Ethan went to the library with Bella to do homework, but instead he promptly fell asleep waking up hours later with her backpack under his head and a light jacket thrown over him. Apparently Bella realized that he desperately needed his rest and decided to help make him a little more comfortable.

This was nice of her but unfortunately he ended up spending the rest of the day in a mad dash to finish all of his homework before Monday. The teachers at Hinan Academy really piled it on like nothing he’d ever seen before. It was like they assumed if any students got free time they would inevitably get into trouble or something.

Classes at least at this point were falling into a routine with Mr. Darnell and History being the high point with Drawing and Computer Science being the low points. Drawing because the teacher, Ms. Phelan seemed to think it was her personal duty to make his life hell and Computer Science because he had to put up with both Stewart and Alex in that class. An absolutely terrible combination.

More than once he almost hit Stewart for making fat jokes about Bella. Sure the girl was bigger, but it’s not like she didn’t know it better than anyone else, and she certain didn’t need a jerk like Stewert reminding her every two seconds.

Running with Quin in the mornings, just like Ethan predicted sucked. It really sucked. First of all he was late, which put Quin in a bad mood, and he was half asleep and exhausted which put him in a bad mood.

They ended up doing the run without doing much more than grumble at each other. Unlike Bella who always seemed to put others first and was a very considerate person, Quin only seemed to care about how things affected her. She couldn’t care less that Ethan was tired, sore, disliked her, and generally had no desire to run with her. No she only cared that he was late and that she had to wait a whole five minutes to get started. She should try to get up at five thirty after being kept up by your roommate blasting aliens until two in the morning.

The good thing about both of them butting heads is that she didn’t even bring up going back into the dungeon after the run on Tuesday morning. In fact she didn’t say anything to him at the end of it. She just walked away back across the quad. This suited Ethan just fine as he really didn’t want to discuss the stupid dungeon one more time or deal with her lousy attitude.

Thursday morning he wasn’t so lucky. First of all he made the mistake of being on time which kept Quin from ignoring him. Secondly she was very direct when he showed up that morning.

“I’m going back in the dungeon,” Quin said as soon as he walked up to where she was standing near the statue.

“Good morning to you too,” Ethan said wishing he was a little more awake for this conversation.

“It’s obvious you’re avoiding it, and I’m tired of waiting,” Quin stated. “Not only that but I’ve been hearing that voice in my head you described. I’m done waiting for you to stop being a coward. I’m going back in. I just thought I would tell you.”

“I’m not being a coward,” Ethan replied automatically feeling heat rise in his cheeks. “My legs have been sore, you know that.”

She gave a derisive laugh and said, “you’re legs will be sore until the end of the year at this rate. For a boy you’re kind of a wuss. I figured after all those clashes in P.E. you’d have had a bit more spine, but I guess not.”

He could feel the steam coming off of his head and he snapped, “I’m not a wuss. I really have just been waiting for my legs to feel better. As soon as that happened I was going to suggest we go back in.”

This was a lie of course, but Ethan was not about to admit it to this stuck-up, whole foods eating, rich girl. The truth was that the dungeon terrified him and he felt that it would terrify her too once she got out and realized how dangerous it was. Once thing was certain, even if he disliked her, he couldn’t in good conscience let her go in alone.

“I was thinking we could all go back on Sunday,” he said thinking quickly. “I was going to mention it to you but you attacked me before I could even great you.”

“Hmm,” Quin said. “You’re braver than I thought you were. Alright let’s go after our run Sunday morning.”

“Actually, I was thinking after lunch,” Ethan replied. “We’ll probably be down there for hours and I don’t particularly want to miss out on a meal.”

“Sure, after lunch,” Quin agreed, “but if you or the others get cold feet I’m going with or without you.”

“I’m not going to get cold feet,” he muttered. “I guess I’ll let Bella and Alex know about the plan then.”

“Yeah, I mean she’s your friend and he’s your roommate,” Quin said giving him a look like it was obvious. “Come on, let's get moving or we’ll end up being late for homeroom.”

Gritting his teeth he followed after her wishing that she wasn’t so stubborn or at least understood the dangers of the place a little more. Now on top of going back into the dungeon, which he didn’t want to do, he had to speak to Alex about it which was almost worse. That was going to be a miserable conversation, but at least Bella would be easy to talk with.

Bella was easy to talk with and he told her that night as they ate dinner together in the dining hall.

“You don’t sound like you really want to go back in,” Bella said looking at him concerned.

“I don’t,” Ethan muttered chewing on some crust, “but Quin has made it clear she is going back in regardless and even if I can’t stand the girl I’m not about to let her get killed because she doesn’t understand what she’s walking into.”

“Well she’s telling the truth about the voices,” Bella said. “I’ve heard them myself.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said remembering how it was when he was first marked by the dungeon. “Look you don’t have to come. It will be extremely dangerous and likely an unpleasant experience.”

“No, I’ll go,” Bella said. “I was chosen just like you were and besides what kind of friend would I be if I let you go down there all alone.”

Laughing Ethan said, “I’ll hardly be alone. I have Quin with her charming personality for company.”

“You really should give her more credit,” Bella said. “She’s a lot better than most of the people at this school. She’s never once looked down on me for being poor.”

“She’s still a rich kid,” he shot back sourly.

“So is almost everyone else here,” Bella said calmly. “They all aren’t bad. It’s not their fault that we grew up without money. Besides I think Quin is remarkable. She’s got this kind of I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me attitude and does things her own way.”

Raising his eyebrows at her in response to this Ethan then rolled his eyes. It was obvious Bella saw Quin as this strong independent woman when in reality Quin was just a self-centered brat. She’d come around to his side on that. It just might take a little time.

“What are you going to do about Alex?” Quin asked hesitantly.

Sighing Ethan ran his hand through his hair and said, “I’ll tell him like I told Quin I would. I just might wait until Saturday night to do it. Hopefully he already has plans Sunday afternoon.”

“He certainly isn’t the most pleasant person to be around,” Bella said diplomatically, “but maybe if we treat him nicely he’ll come around and start treating the two of us better.”

This was Bella’s problem Ethan thought. She always tried to see the best in people, when sometimes people were just who they were. She seemed to take the phrase kill them with kindness as some sort of philosophy to live by when it just wasn’t realistic. Sometimes some people were just jerks and no matter what you did, they would always be jerks.

“So you’ve got your first game on Saturday?” Bella asked changing the subject after seeing the look on Ethan’s face.

“Yeah, we’re playing Soledad, at Soledad,” he answered. “Thorton keeps yelling about how much they’re going to kill us if we don’t get our act together.”

“I’d come root you on, but they don’t allow us to travel with the different teams,” Bella said.

“It’s fine,” Ethan replied. “Thanks for the support still. When do you have your first uh Model UN thingy?”

“Conference,” Bella corrected him, “and not for awhile. I still am learning how it works. You wouldn’t believe how many procedures you have to know. It’s really quite fascinating.”

That’s one word for it, Ethan thought sarcastically. I would have used a different one personally.

“Well we better head out before we are late for class,” Ethan said standing up and picking up his tray.

Bella followed after him and the two of them carried their trays over to where they were cleaned and then exited the dining hall.

The next couple of days flew by with Ethan busy with school work and contemplating the best way to inform Alex about their plan. So far all he figured late at night when the kid was playing video games with the volume way up with the best option but it was still up in the air.

Saturday after lunch he boarded the bus with Lee and his other teammates dressed in his brand new soccer uniform. The jersey was sky blue with the Hinan H emblazoned over his left breast and the number eleven on his back. Navy blue shorts, white socks, and cleats completed the look. Honestly it looked pretty nice and he hated that he liked it.

The bus rolled down the streets of Misty Oaks until they reached the tunnel through the mountains. This would be the first time Ethan left the place since he’d came in on the train almost a month ago now.

Ethan Russell…

Snapping his head he looked to his left and spotted the giant fox right before the sunlight vanished as they entered the tunnel. He thought that he might feel something leaving town but when they exited the tunnel on the other side he felt nothing and checking his wrist the symbol was still there as clear as ever.

Most of the other boys on the boy chatted excitedly about the game on their way to Soledad. If Ethan wasn’t so preoccupied with Alex, Quin, and the stupid dungeon he might have even joined in, but currently the match just seemed so insignificant in comparison.

It took a little over two hours to reach Soledad high school and for the entire ride he was quite content to sit and stare out the window and the California countryside. It was actually kind of strange, but after all of the bizarre happenings in Misty Oaks it looked like a different world.

When they arrived at the school Thorton immediately set them to warming up on half of the soccer field. The other half of the field was already occupied by the Aztecs of Soledad in their white jerseys. From the look of it they were bigger and stronger than Ethan’s team.

“Russell, you’re starting at right center-mid,” Thorton said to Ethan as he started jogging toward the field. “For both our sakes, I hope you’ve kept up with your running.”

“I’ve been working on it with Quin,” Ethan replied.

“Good, pay attention to her, she could teach you a lot,” Thorton said with a smile. “From what I’ve heard, that girl is starting for varsity as a freshman. With her leading the attack our women’s varsity team might go places this year, unlike our men’s JV team which will be lucky if they don’t get blown out today.”

Thanks for the vote of confidence coach Ethan thought sarcastically. You really know how to inspire.

“You’ll be partnering up with Samson who will be acting as captain and playing from the left side,” Thorton continued. “Listen to him. He was on JV last year and has faced this Soledad team before.”

“Will do,” Ethan answered moving to join the rest of his teammates on the field before Thorton could lecture him anymore.

Why was he always getting singled out? It’s not like everyone else on his team was amazing or in incredible shape, but somehow Thorton always seemed to think that Ethan was some kind of idiot or something.

As he ran through the drills with Lee, Samson, and the rest of his teammates he finally began to feel the thrill that always came on before a game. He’d almost forgotten about it with everything else that was going on, but now that he was here and a couple hours away from Misty Oaks the thrill was rising inside of him.

“Hey Ethan, coach told me that you’ll be in the midfield with me,” Samson said coming over to talk with him. “I’m Chris by the way.”

“Yeah that’s what he told me a moment ago,” Ethan answered looking at the older boy.

“We’ll be sitting back most of the game, defending in numbers and trying to hit them on the counter when we get the chance,” Chris said.

“We’re parking the bus?” Ethan asked surprised.

“Trust me if we try to take them on head on, they’ll destroy us,” Chris retorted. “This is our best chance at getting a result out of this game.”

“Okay, I believe you,” Ethan said shrugging.

“Lee is going to be playing as a lone attacker for this game and since you and him already have pretty good chemistry make sure you look for him on the break,” Chris continued. “He’ll be our only attacking outlet so keep that in mind.”

“I got it, let’s do this,” Ethan replied smiling over at the other boy.

“That’s the attitude,” Chris said slapping Ethan, who was much smaller than him, on the back.

They warmed up for a few more minutes before Thorton called them all into a huddle and went over the starting lineup and the game plan one more time. By now Ethan was tired of talk and just wanted to play. Both Chris and Thorton had already told him what he was doing and what their strategy was. Now was the time for action in his mind.

After the captains met for a coinflip to determine who got the ball first the two teams lined up with the Aztecs getting the ball first. The referee blew the whistle and the ball was kicked starting the game.

Adrenaline surged through Ethan as he slowly tried to ease into the game only to have the opposing Soledad player blow right past him. Holy hell, but that kid was fast he thought stumbling for a moment and then tearing after him. Chris and Thorton weren’t kidding when they said these kids were good.

Luckily for Ethan and the rest of his team one of the Soledad players got over ambitious and shot the ball from a good thirty yards out and sent it flying way over the bar. Still it was a huge wake up call for him and several other teammates that the Aztecs were able to penetrate their defense like it was made of swiss cheese.

“Come on, stay organized,” Chris barked at the rest of the team while clapping his hands for emphasis. “Defend in numbers and help each other out.”

He was actually a pretty good captain, Ethan thought or at least one that was good at implementing the coach’s game plan and encouraging his teammates.

The rest of the first half went okay for Hinan Academy though they still found themselves trailing one to nothing when the halftime whistle blew. For the most part they were able to absorb the pressure and clear the ball when they needed to. Still the entire half was played in their end and Soledad found a way threw when a defender slipped. The worst part was that Hinan didn’t manage to get a single shot on goal. Actually Ethan was pretty sure than neither Lee nor the opposing keep touched the ball at all.

Gulping down water and sucking on an orange slice he was determined to make something happen in the second half. He just wasn’t quite sure how he was going to do it. Whenever Hinan actually managed to get the ball Soledad pressed and won it back quickly. It was almost impossible for them to hold it for more than a few seconds.

“Keep it up,” Thorton said to his players actually sounding encouraging for once. “I know this is a tough game but you’re doing well out there. You’re putting up a hell of a fight and if you continue this for another half you’ll have a lot to be proud of on the way back to Misty Oaks.”

In the second half Hinan started with the ball, not that it did them much good. They lost it almost immediately and fell back into the same pattern as the first half. Falling back and defending in numbers around the box. It was a lot of work and for the first time since he’d been ordered to, Ethan was actually glad that he’d been keeping up with his running.

As the half dragged on he became more and more sure that they would have to settle for a one to nothing loss. It wasn’t the worst result in the world. Certainly it was better than getting blown out, but they wouldn’t get any points out of it.

Ethan Russell…

Huh he thought turning and trying to find who called him and spotting a large winged dog in the distance on a hill staring down at the soccer field. What the hell? How was it here? He’d thought that since he left town the weird things couldn’t follow him. Apparently he was wrong.

What do you want Ethan asked mentally narrowing his eyes at it. It didn’t answer, but then he wasn’t sure if it could hear his thoughts. It simply just stared back at him. Hopefully it wouldn’t attack him in the middle of this game with all of these other kids around.

“Damn it Russell,” Thorton yelled from somewhere to his left. “Quit daydreaming about girls and wake up!”

Ethan’s head snapped towards the sidelines where he saw a very red-faced Thorton guestering emphatically past him. Turning he saw that the opposing Aztecs player had easily dribbled around him and was making his way towards the goal.

Oh crap Ethan thought sprinting after him. Not this time. I’m not going to let you score and have it be my fault. He closed the gap between them and just as the kid looked like he was going to shoot Ethan slid cleanly knocking the ball away from the startled opposition player.

Quickly bouncing up to his feet he dribbled it away seeing five other Aztec players bearing down on him. This is not going to end well he thought desperately looking for a way out of the situation.

Way up near the halfline he spotted Lee standing alone and looking completely bored. Screw it, it’s worth a shot he thought as he hammered the ball with his right foot trying to give it as much lift and distance as possible. If he missed the ball would sail out of bounds or end up back in Soledad’s possession.

It didn’t. Instead it sailed over a surprised Lee who took a moment to register what was going on before he ran after it gathering it up in the empty opposing half and dribbling quickly towards the now grim faced Aztec keeper.

Three Aztec players collided into Ethan knocking him to the ground in a painful thump. His ribs hurt where they were smashed and he couldn’t see what was going on with Lee but he heard it a moment later when his teammates erupted into cheers and several players on Soledad swore.

Chris ran over and helped him to his feet hugging him and saying, “That was brilliant Ethan.”

“Ow,” he muttered feeling dazed.

“Oh sorry,” Chris said smiling at him. “Yeah they hit you pretty hard, but the ref played advantage and Lee dribbled around the keeper and tucked the ball into the back of the net. We’re all tied up.”

“We are?” Ethan asked trying to locate the winged dog.

He found the hill but the animal was nowhere to be seen anymore.

“Yeah, as I said that was brilliant to send the long ball while they thought they had you cornered,” Chris said. “Now let’s go out and finish this off.”

They did finish it off, or at least held on for the tie and a single point though Soledad pushed harder in the last ten minutes of the game than the previous eighty, they just couldn’t manage to break through Hinan’s defense.

Thorton was thrilled, Chris was ecstatic, and Ethan was honestly pretty happy himself though he couldn’t quite shake the feeling of dread as he rode the bus back to Misty Oaks. Not only did he have to go back into the Dungeon tomorrow, but now he knew that the creatures and the voice could reach him outside of the town.