In the weeks that followed clearing the first floor two things happened. Firstly, Alex and Ethan completely stopped talking and tried to do their best to ignore each other. Neither acknowledged the other’s presence when they were both in the dorm room at the same time and for Ethan’s part he tried to avoid it as much as humanly possible.

Secondly, Quin became the organizer of “Diving Club” as she called it. It was a pun that she seemed to be quite proud of. She would make sure that the rest of them went back into the dungeon about once a week, usually on Sunday afternoons even though neither Bella or Ethan wanted anything to do with the place and Alex didn’t want anything to do with the rest of them. Still Quin was stubborn and persistent in making them go. She’d tell Ethan during their runs who in turn would have to tell Bella while Quin herself must have texted Alex when they were going because both of them had cell phones and Ethan never saw them meet in person outside of the dungeon.

Still despite all of Quin’s persistence they made between little and no progress on the second floor of the dungeon. The rest of them just weren’t motivated to clear it. Alex spent his time in the dungeon on replying to Quin and pretending like Ethan and Bella didn’t exist, while Ethan and Bella mostly hung back and let Quin make all the decisions.

This certaintanly had to be frustrating for Quin, but she never showed it. Instead she just took more and more responsibility for “the club” on her shoulders. Ethan guessed that she must be used to relying on herself instead of others and wondered what she was like before Hinan Academy.

The second floor of the dungeon itself was nothing like the first floor. Where the first floor was expansive with trees, mountains, and open skies, the second floor was a labyrinth of endless concrete tunnels and bunkers with flickering fluorescent lights.

Personally Ethan hated the second floor of the dungeon and always felt like he was in some sort of post-apocalyptic bomb shelter while Quin walked them around it. The light messed with his eyes and gave him a headache. Also he just hated how confined it felt down there. It probably didn’t help that Quin usually managed to get them lost everytime she made them come down there. Inevitably after a few hours she’d stumble back on the elevator and they’d return to the real world irritated and feeling like they wasted an afternoon.

One good thing about the second floor compared to the first was that their appeared to be no animals or monsters in it. They all summoned their armor and weapons every time they went, just in case but he’d yet to see anything down there that seemed remotely dangerous.

Regardless it was still the worst part of Ethan’s week as he couldn’t stand being around Alex or in the dungeon. For that matter he still wasn’t a big fan of Quin’s. Something about her still rubbed him the wrong way. It was like she was just constantly trying to be rude to him and everyone else or something.

Compared to dungeon days the rest of his weeks were getting better. His classes were all improving, well except for Drawing and Painting. Ms. Phelen seemed to have made it her personal mission to flunk Ethan and it didn’t really help that he had absolutely zero talent for it. If he somehow didn’t go home with an F on his report card over Christmas break he would consider it a miracle.

Still his other classes were going well. He was pretty sure he was even carrying an A in History, which was a rare grade for him in a class that wasn’t P.E.. Mr. Darnell was just an amazing teacher and Ethan loved learning all the little secret tidbits of U.S. History he’d never heard before Darnell would point them out during lectures.

He was also carrying an A in P.E. but that hardly counted as P.E. was really like a more structured version of recess. Quin still ran laps around him and everyone else but it was much more competitive since they switched to sports besides soccer. That apparently was her specialty and she was very good at it. In fact from the rumors he’d heard, she’d led the women’s varsity team to a perfect record so far, which was unheard of for Hinan Academy.

His own JV team was more of a mixed bag. After the first game draw they’d won a couple and lost a couple of matches. Unfortunately one of the losses was to Carmel which was an especially bitter result for Mr. Thorton who’d made them all run extra laps at the next practice after that one. Ethan actually handled that better than most as apparently his morning workouts with Quin were paying off.

Math was still a struggle for Ethan but Bella, being the saint she was, was helping him enough to scrape through it though he had no idea how she had the patience. Bio, English, and Health were going well enough and he was pretty sure he’d end up with a solid B in all of those.

Computer Science was more of a mixed bag, mostly because of who was in the class. Stewart was always a jerk to him in that class though he found that Gavin and Tony were friendly towards him, though Gavin was friendly with everyone. That kid could turn an enemy into a friend with only a few jokes. Even Ms. Rockfort who disapproved of his complete lack of effort in P.E. laughed along with everyone else at his quips.

While Stewart was Ethan’s constant nemesis, he was pleased that a side effect of his and Alex’s standoff was that Alex didn’t get in on it in the classes they shared. Alex for his part just pretended that Ethan didn’t exist which made dealing with Stewart easier as he wouldn’t have to worry about it coming from multiple sides at once.

Still one great thing about Computer Science was that he got to sit near Jenny because he always sat next to Bella who in turn sat next to Jenny. He’d even had a couple of good conversations with her though keeping a conversation going with the girl was tough, he just never knew was to talk about with her and he didn’t think that telling her that she was pretty was going to cut it.

Bella for her part, figured out Ethan had a crush on her roommate way to quickly for his comfort. Still she was extremely supportive and always tried to give him ideas of what to talk about with Jenny though whenever Ethan attempted this he usually messed it up.

Fall in Misty Oaks came on slowly but it did come and by mid October the trees around town were displaying a beautiful assortment of colors. The temperatures were dropping, but not enough that Ethan needed a sweater yet. Still he knew he was going to be struggling come November and December. He thought about charging a sweater to wear over his shirt at the bookstore as an emergency, but didn’t really want to stick his mom with that bill.

It was against this backdrop that the rivalry football game against Carmel approached. If Ethan was being honest, he'd have to admit that he had no idea how the school football team was doing and that he hadn’t watched a single game, however in the days leading up to the game excitement and school spirit was running rampant through school and he found himself getting swept up in it along with everyone else. Well everyone except Gavin, who seemed to have some kind of immunity built up to sports and fandom. “Sportyball” as he called it, and every other sport for that matter, was a waste of time and he wouldn’t be getting himself all worked up over it.

On the morning of the game, Ethan found himself bouncing out of bed easily where usually he struggled getting up, especially on mornings that he had to run with Quin. As if that wasn’t surprising enough, when he met up with Quin, the girl had painted little Hinan H’s on her cheeks. This was Quin, for God’s sake, she never did anything remotely girlish, and here she was decorating her face with cute little H’s like she was just another one of the girls. He would have expected it of Jenny, but not the tomboyish Quin.

“What?” she demanded after he’d stared at her a little too long with his mouth slightly agape.

“I just didn’t expect you to be wearing makeup or care about school spirit,” Ethan muttered feeling like it was the wrong thing to say to a girl.

“Oh,” Quin replied. “I wanted to get decked out for the big game today. Did I go overboard?”

“No, it looks fine,” Ethan replied quickly wishing he had better control of his facial reactions. “It’s, uh very tasteful and works.”

“Thanks,” Quin replied with a small smile which was a bit unusual for her. “Now let’s get moving.”

Following his run with Quin he headed to his Biology class with Thorton, who while hard on Ethan, seemed to like him. It probably didn’t hurt that he played on Thorton’s soccer team and a key player at that. Did Thorton go easy on him? No, but the man did seem to spend a little bit of extra time with Ethan everytime he struggled with a topic in class.

After he finished Biology, P.E. went by slowly with Ethan, Ms. Rockfort and most of the class preoccupied with the upcoming game. For once she didn’t even pester Gavin about trying to participate more in the game they were playing. Today it was dodgeball and everyone was hardly trying as they clustered around in groups and chatted excitedly at the prospects of Hinan Academy beating Carmel.

From what he was overhearing, Hinan had a real shot at winning this year. Apparently it was the school’s best football team in years and while Carmel was always good many of his more informed peers thought that now was the time. Of course, Ethan, like the fair-weather fan he was, had no idea if they were correct as he couldn’t name a single player on the team or tell you how they’d done in their season up to this point.

“Don’t you dare hit me with that Xena,” Gavin yelled at Quin who was charging towards the center-line with a ball clutched in her hand.

She didn’t listen and a second later Gavin was smoked in the stomach with the bright yellow dodgeball.

“Oh no,” Gavin said loudly in mock outrage. “I’m out. I guess I’ll have to go relax in the bleachers and think about how truly awful I’m at this game.”

He looked anything but upset and made his way over to the section of bleachers that was being used as the out area with a grin on his face and struck up a conversation at once with the students there who were soon laughing at something Ethan couldn’t hear.

It was actually annoying how easily Gavin did that. Ethan made a joke here or there but most people including himself wouldn’t consider him to be the funniest person around. He certainly couldn’t do it as naturally as Gavin seemed to. Was that something he could practice or did it just come to the other boy naturally? Either way he could admit to himself that he was a bit jealous of Gavin. Ethan never got along with people that well and it always took both him and them time to warm up to one another.

“What are you staring at?” Bella asked him walking up next to him.

“Nothing,” Ethan said turning to her. “I was just thinking.”

“Why, is something bothering you? Bella as and then grinning she lowered her voice and added, “or have you changed your mind about asking Jenny to the homecoming dance tonight like I suggested?”

“No, I haven’t changed my mind on that,” Ethan said scowling, annoyed that she’d brought this up again. “I’ve already told you, I’m not going, and it’s really a moot point anyways. I can’t afford to buy a suit or rent a tux.”

This was a conversation that had come of several times over the last few weeks and one that Bella just refused to let go. He was so sick of reminding her that couldn’t afford to go. Of all people, she should know that, as she was one of the other shippers at this school.

“It just seems like you really like her, and I think you’d enjoy getting to spend some time with her like that,” Bella said undeterred.

She meant well so Ethan couldn’t get that mad at her, which in itself was very frustrating. It was really hard having a best friend that was always sooo nice to everyone because when he got irritated with her like he was now he couldn’t snap at her without feeling like a complete jerk.

“How do you know she’d even want to go with me?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t know, but she seems to enjoy chatting with you so I just thought it might be an opportunity for you,” Bella said shrugging.

“See, she’d probably rather go with someone who has mon-E-ouch!” he retorted as a ball smacked him right in the face.

Turning he caught sight of a slightly embarrassed but laughing Quin standing near the middle of the gym floor looking right at him.

“Phillips you’re out,” Ms. Rockfort yelled. “No aiming for the head. Russell, Tavarez, stop standing around and pay attention.”

“I think she did that on purpose,” Ethan muttered scowling at Quin while she walked over to the bleachers still laughing.

“Maybe,” Bella replied. “I know you don’t like her, but I think we’re some of the only people she likes and that’s probably just her way of showing that.”

“Oh wow, smacking me in the face, I’m so happy she likes me,” Ethan spat sarcastically rolling his eyes.”

“You should really give her a chance,” Bella said. “She’s a nice person if maybe a little aloof about how to interact with others, but I’ve never seen her treat anyone poorly.”

“She’s a slave driver, and she just rubs me the wrong way,” Ethan replied. “I don’t think either one of us wants to go back into the stupid dungeon and she drags us there every Sunday just to have us get lost for hours in those stupid tunnels.”

“Yes, well I don’t want to go back,” Bella said sheepishly, “but if she didn’t drag us back down there every Sunday what are the odds of that winged dog attacking us again? I’d guess pretty good. So she’s probably keeping that from happening again.”

That’s probably true, Ethan thought annoyed that Bella was trying again to get him to be friends with Quin. The truth was that he didn’t hate Quin, he just didn’t really like her all that much either. She was just so self-centered and he really didn’t like that she never considered other’s feelings when she did something. She just did it.

A second ball smacked him in the face right as he was about to respond to Bella causing his blood to start boiling.

“Johnson you’re out,” an annoyed Ms. Rockfort snapped. “Russell, Taverez do I need to come over there and force you to move?”

“No, Ms. Rockfort,” Ethan said between gritted teeth. “We’re moving and paying attention.”

As he said this he caught the sound of Quin and Gavin’s raucous laughter over on the bleachers. Scratch that, he might just hate her.

Blessedly P.E. didn’t last a whole lot longer and soon Bella and him were back in their regular clothes and following the long procession of Hinan Academy students as they made their way from the Quad and the main part of campus past the library, the soccer field, and over to where the football field was with it’s identical set of bleachers on both sides of the field.

The side closest to campus was for parents, teachers, town folks, traveling fans, and anyone else that chose to pay to watch the game. The side opposite that nearly butted up against the mountains was the student section where Ethan and the other students were allowed to sit for free at the games. This section was first come first serve when it came to seats with the exception that the school band took up a large portion right in the center of the bleachers.

The two of them ended up in the very top row of the bleachers near the back, which wasn’t ideal, but none of the seats were really bad so Ethan couldn’t complain. He would still easily be able to make out the action on the field which was all that really mattered.

“So, why aren’t you going to the dance tonight?” Ethan asked.

“Because I don’t dance,” Bella replied quickly. “Besides I could use the time to get some school work done.”

This was a lie and Ethan knew it, but he didn’t call her out on that. He knew perfectly well that she wasn’t going for similar reasons as his, he just wanted to turn the tables on her from earlier a little bit. There was also a part of him that wanted to hear out loud that he wasn’t going to be the only student missing out. He wasn’t proud of that, but he could at least admit it to himself.

Players from both teams were busy warming up on the field while students still filled into the bleachers are mulled around on the walkway behind the stands. Across the field the opposite stand looked to be full and nearly evenly split between Carmel supports and those for Hinan Academy.

“Do you think we’ll clear floor two anytime soon?” Bella asked.

Why the hell was she bringing up the stupid dungeon right now Ethan thought annoyed. Even when he wasn’t in that place he could never really get away from it.

“I doubt it, why?” he answered.

“Oh,” Bella said looking disappointed. “I’m just feeling a bit claustrophobic everytime we go down there. I almost miss the open skies of floor one.”

“You nearly drowned on floor one,” Ethan retorted with a snort.

“Yeah, and that wasn’t very pleasant, but I’m just sick of grey walls and tunnels,” Bella muttered.

“Well, if you beg Quin maybe we can skip a few weeks,” he said smiling over at her, “I doubt it though. She so stubborn.”

She tried to reply but whatever she said was drowned out by the announcer coming on and welcoming them all to the game which in turn brought out a jubilant cheers from the crowd. Ethan even found himself joining in. Anything to not discuss the dungeon.

The game started rather faster than he expected not that he really was familiar with how these games usually got going. Hinan kicked off first with Carmel receiving the ball. Their returner didn’t get far though and that in turn made the loud student section yell even louder.

On the first drive Carmel got to close to the fifty yard line before they had to punt. The returner for Hinan brought the ball back almost all the way to the line of scrimmage which got the entire student section on its feet.

There was an electricity in the air that was infectious and Ethan could help but grin. This was exciting. Every play caused the crowd to scream, groan, or cheer. It was entertainment like he’d never experienced before.

For the rest of the half and into the second he allowed himself to get completely sucked into the game. At halftime Hinan was winning by a score of ten to seven and in the third quarter they were threatening to score again driving the ball deep into Carmel’s end of the field.

Ethan turned to Bella to tell her that there was no way they’d be able to stop Hinan’s running back who already had one hundred and six yards rushing in the game when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye that made his blood run cold.

Directly in front of him Bella’s face was flushed with excitement and her eyes, like everyone else’s were enraptured by the action on the field, but down below on the walkway behind the stands a figure was walking swiftly away from the stadium in the direction of Misty Oaks Point and the towns docks.

Normally Ethan wouldn’t have cared about a person walking away, except that this figure was covered completely in black armor. It was unmistakably the same spirit armor that Ethan, Bella, Alex, and Quin received when they were marked by the dungeon. From his vantage point he couldn’t make out a weapon in the figure’s hand but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one because this person unmistakably had been in the dungeon.

The game suddenly seemed insignificant in comparison to this new development and Ethan whispered, “I’ll be back,” in Bella’s direction.

“Wha?” Bella asked turning towards him and looking confused. Her face got further confused and she added “Ethan?” when she spotted him climbing down the back of the bleachers.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be right back,” Ethan said dropping the final few feet to the ground and taking off at a small jog after the retreating figure.

Misty Oaks Point was a small curving peninsula that jutted out and the northwest part of town and formed a small natural harbor where several boats were docked. It butted up against the mountains on the north end of town and was only a short way away from the football stadium.

Ethan was just breaking into a run upon reaching Seaside drive when he heard a colossal roar from the stadium behind him. Hinan must have scored, but that wasn’t important now. Now he needed to find out who this person was, and what he knew about the dungeon. Maybe he could help break them free of its grip.

Running diagonally across the empty Seaside Drive he moved across the small parking lot for the docks and the small walking trail that led to the point. The figure was climbing up the steps leading the the walking train and now Ethan was close enough he could make out a black knife clutched in its left hand.

“Wait,” Ethan yelled after it feeling he was now far enough away from the stadium that he wouldn’t draw unwanted attention.

The figure stopped and turned quickly looking down at Ethan. At least that’s what it looked like it was doing, but he couldn’t tell for sure because the black, unlike the other colors, completely hide the person’s facial features underneath.

Slowly it pointed its knife and Ethan and then to the football stadium before shaking its head. Was he telling Ethan to head back to the game? The hell with that. He was going to get some answers from whoever this was.

Suddenly the person turned and sprinted up the steps and down the trail towards the point faster than Ethan would have thought was possible. Ethan ran after him, but was falling way behind as he just could move up the stairs nearly as fast as the other person. Still he wasn’t too worried about it as there was only one path leading too and from the point so this person couldn’t exactly get away from him.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase he still couldn’t find the figure. There were far too many trees lining to trail to make it easy to see. Gritting his teeth he ran down the trail as it climbed and curved. He could see the ocean now out the sides of the peninsula but still the figure was nowhere to be found.

Breathing hard, he finally made it all the way to the top where the trees disappeared and you could see a fantastic view of the ocean on three sides. A small plaque embedded in concrete sat to one side while a bench with boy sitting on it was on the other side.

“There you are,” Ethan said staring at the dark haired boy who had his head down. “Why did you run from me?”

Looking up the boy’s face lolled weakly and he looked shocking pale. Blood was oozing out of a wound coming from the area between the right side of his neck and shoulder.

“What?” the boy asked looking like he might be sick.

“Oh my god,” Ethan exclaimed rushing over to him. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t feel very well,” the boy said touching his wound and staring at the blood on his fingers. “He just stabbed me. Why?”

What do I do, Ethan thought trying to remember anything he learned about first aid. Uh first you’ve got to stop the bleeding right, but I’ve got no bandages on me. Smacking his own head in frustration he screamed in his own head to think.

Finally he pulled his white school shirt off over his head and bunched it up, pressing it against the wound on the other boy. The boy gave a yell of pain and pulled away.

“I know it probably hurts but you need to keep pressure on the wound,” Ethan said repeating something he thought he remembered learning about first aid. “Here if you want you can hold it yourself, but keep the pressure on.

The boy took the shirt in his left hand and did as he was instructed. The shirt rapidly turned red as it soaked up blood as if it were a sponge. Well that’s ruined, Ethan thought bitterly. Mom is going to kill me for ruining one of those.

“What happened?” Ethan asked.

“This guy dressed all in black came out of nowhere and startled me,” The boy said between deep breaths. “He was sprinting at a full run and I knew the land ends after only a few feet up here so I moved out into the middle of the path yelling for him to stop before he accidently fell off the cliff into the ocean. He yelled something I couldn’t understand so I repeated for him to stop and then he was on top of me and stabbing me with this dark knife. I staggered sideways and ended up on the bench somehow. I’ve never been stabbed before, it really hurts.”

“What happened to the guy?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t know,” the boy admitted. “I thought I heard a splash so maybe he jumped off the cliff, but I was so out of it after he stabbed me I might have imagined that.”

No he must have, Ethan thought staring around the point. He didn’t come back down the path because I would have seen him and he’s not here anymore so he must have.

“What were you doing all alone out here anyways?” Ethan asked studying the boy’s face.

Something about it looked familiar but he just couldn’t place it.

“I was praying,” he wheezed. “I like to come up here to pray. It’s peaceful, and with the football game going on I knew it would deserted which is perfect for trying to get closer to God.”

“Praying,” Ethan said letting the word roll around his mouth.

There was something familiar about that too, it was right at the tip of his tongue. He strained his mind for a second and then he had it.

“Oh my God, you’re Alex’s brother,” Ethan said as it dawned on him where he’d seen this boy before.

It was in the dining hall on his first day at Hinan Academy. He’d told Alex to stop picking on him and Bella. Now that he realized it the resemblance between the two was uncanny.

“Yeah, I’m James,” the boy said.

“I’m Ethan, nice to meet you,” Ethan replied and added, “Let me help you up. We should get you to the nurse right way before you pass out up here because there’s no way I’m strong enough to carry you.”

“Sounds good to me,” James said while lazily putting one arm over Ethan’s shoulders and allowing Ethan to help him to his feet.