Army Of Darkness - Part 3

This is the third part of Army Of Darkness.

## Plot

### Previously...

Finding themselves in an unknown land, Lucilla and Johnny are soon making themselves at home in the Dwarf village of Stonebridge.

Lucilla and Johnny meet with the castle's wiseman, a Dwarf called Mystic Gimmiyinn - a small Dwarf with a long grey beard and a strong lisp. He tells them there is a way back home by using a book called the Necronomicon. It's in the misty forest where an ancient and powerful force also resides.

Lucilla and Johnny head to the forest but encounter a scary mist and escape uncertain of which direction they are going, as trees crack apart behind them, and the mist gets closer and closer. Soon they are leaving the forest and back into the sunlight. They see something large up ahead. A windmill. They dive inside.

Johnny casts a glance over to Lucilla and see's the manic grin of the shadowy figure standing right next to her! They realise that the evil figure is some kind of reflection. There's a mirror hanging on the wall...however this isn't a normal reflection. The other-Johnny has an evil looking face.

The mirror comes loose from the wall and shatters on the ground. Tiny evil reflections start stepping out of the mirror! There is a fight and they kill all of the tiny clones apart from one who hurls himself into Johnny's mouth.

As Johnny looks around he idly scratches his right shoulder. From this itching shoulder grows a full-size evil Johnny clone, which Lucilla decapitates.

Eventually they head back to the cemetery gate and find an altar with something completely unexpected: three books.
3 books lay on the altar, each identical. A strange and evil looking face glares back from the front of each cover...almost as if they are bound in human flesh.

Lucilla recites the words "Thpingle Thpangle Thpoogle" (as told to her by Gimmiyinn) over one of the books. As she picks it up the book, lightning streaks across the sky and the grounds starts to shake. The grounds shakes more and more, then all of a sudden gravestones are flying out of the ground all around them and shooting into the air on clouds of white smoke. More and more come careering into the skies, and the lightning flashes with more frequency as the thunder booms all around them. She says the words and picks up the second book as chaos continues to rage all about her. It hasn't made a difference and they are running out of time. Looking around she can see that hands are pushing their way up out of the graves.

She tries again on the third book. It bites her and tightly grips onto her hand. The dead are still clawing their way out of their graves all around them. They don't have time for this! Johnny slices his sword through the air towards the book. Pieces of pages drift to the ground as the book is knocked backwards, landing back on the table.

Lucilla runs a sword through the first book she picked up. Nothing happens. Lucilla picks up the first two books (not the third book which tried to kill her) and they both run for the gate. Lucilla stows the books in her rucksack and she and Johnny mount their horse and ride as fast as they can through the night, back to the castle.

### Now...

After a long ride they are back inside the castle grounds, surrounded by cheers of "They've got the Necronomicon!".
They both head to the tower containing Mystic Gimmiyinn's quarters. Once there, Gimmiyinn approaches them with a worried look on his face.

Gimmiyinn: The Necronomicon, quicklth. Did you bringth the Necronomicon?

Lucilla gets the books out.

Lucilla: Which one is it?

Gimmiyinn: Oh no no no. There'th only thuppothed to be one book. Let me thee.

He opens one of the books and Lucilla, Johnny and Gimmiyinn all feel a powerful force pulling them towards the book...there's a portal inside the book, a whirling vortex!

Gimmiyinn is the first to fall foul of the book, seemingly shrinking as he shoots off into the book, next goes Johnny.

Johnny finds himself walking through a red curtain into a hallway. Gimmiyinn follows behind him.

You are standing in a hallway. The floor has a zig-zag pattern which alternates between black and white and there are red curtains all around instead of walls.

To your left is a large greek style statue of a half naked woman.

You look around, but can't see anything other than the curtains, the floor, and the statue.

As you both cautiously approach the statue, you spot a gap in the curtain, just to the right of the statue.

Peaking your head through you can see that this room is darker than the previous. It's still surrounded by red curtains and has the stripy zig zag black and white flooring but is larger and filled with a few chairs, a small table and another statue. The light inside flickers on and off and you realise that the previous room appeared to have no possible source of light and yet was well lit.

Gimmiyinn: What is this place?...Wait! IS!...IS THIS PLACE! My lisp, it's gone!

Do you know where we are Gimmiyinn?

Gimmiyinn: No...but if I were to hazzard a guess...It feels like we're between worlds somehow. Maybe we're not technically inside the book, but on some other plane of existance.

He looks through the gap, left to right, before heading in.

Gimmiyinn: Let's go.

Follow Gimmiyinn

Johnny: So this is like being in Limbo a weird place that has some kind of mystical effect that's actually amazing having that effect on everyone

As you walk in you are stunned to see a small man (by your world's standards, a Dwarf, though not in the sense of Stonebridge's Dwarfs) doing a strange jolting dance into the room from behind one of the curtains, as a mysterious jazz-like music drifts through the air.

The man dances past you both and takes a seat in one of the chairs.
Suddenly you hear singing and turn to see a man holding a microphone at the edge of the room.

Singer: And I'll see you
And you'll see me
And I'll see you in the branches that blow
In the breeze
I'll see you in the trees
I'll see you in the trees
Under the sycamore trees

Then the man slowly fades away.

Is this place all an illusion that man just faded away like he wasn't real either that or this place messes with your head

The small man beckons you both to take seats facing him.

You both sit. The man pauses for a long moment and then speaks. His voice sounds strange, almost as if he's talking backwards and yet you can clearly discern the English language from it.

Man: When you see me again it won't be me.

He stands and taps his right foot on the floor once, then sits down again.

Man: This is the waiting room. Would you like some coffee?

Yes please thank you

Suddenly an old bald man with a moustache, wearing a white shirt with a red bow tie, appears sitting in the chair next to the small man. He is holding a cup of coffee.

Bald Man: oo. oooooo. Hallelujah.

His voice has the same odd backwards sounds as everyones in this place apart from you and Gimmiyinn.

The small man turns to the Bald man and smiles.

Small Man: Hallelujah.

The Bald Man stands up and slowly walks towards you.

Bald Man: Coffee.

He continues to repeat the word as he brings the cup closer and closer to you.

He puts the cup down on the table next to you.

You bring the cup to your lips and find that the coffee is solid like plastic. It's not a liquid.

You look up as you put the cup back down. The man standing in front of you isn't the same one who was there a moment ago. He's taller, younger, with no moustache and his clothes look slightly different.

Tall Man: One and the same.

He sits back down in the previous mans place.

The tall man vanishes.

The small man starts to get a malicious look on his face as he stares into space, rubbing his hands. The he stops and says, seemingly to someone unseen:

Small Man: Wow, Bob, wow.

He turns to look at you.

Small Man: Fire walk with me.

You have a sudden vision of flames. Then when you can see the room again, and see by Gimmiyinn's face that he's experienced the same vision, everything goes dark and you hear a woman scream. The light flickers. The small man is gone.

You wander around and find a gap in the curtain. It looks very much like the area you were in before the big room. A statue stands at the other end of the hallway.

You walk down the hallway and find a gap in the curtain to the right of the statue.

You find a room identical to the room where you met the small man.

Gimmiyinn: This place is so strange. This seems to be the same room we've already been in. Maybe we should turn back, but I really don't know.

You both enter. Your hands suddenly feel warm and wet.

Gimmiyinn: Oh no.

You look at Gimmiyinn and then at yourself. You are both bleeding at the stomach. Somehow you've sustained nasty wounds.

I think this is a trick let's carry on

Gimmiyinn: It doesn't feel like a trick.

He's right, it really hurts.

You carry on anyway.

As you slowly walk towards the sofa, you see what looks like a hand sticking out from behind the sofa. As you get close you can see that there is two bodies on the floor behind the sofa.

Gimmiyinn: I don't like this place. Should we peer behind the sofa? I'm getting more and more frightened.

Look behind the sofa

You aren't quite prepared for what you find. Surrounded by a pool of blood, you see yourself and Gimmiyinn lying dead on the floor.

The light dims and flickers. The bodies disappear. As the light comes back to normal, you look up to see yourself standing at the other end of the room in a gap in the curtains. No, not you. More like the evil Johnny that Lucilla killed. He's completely focused on you as he grins evilly.

Close my eyes thinking this is all some illusion

You hear Gimmiyinn scream and hands around your neck. Then the feeling and the sound of screaming starts to fade away.

Then you hear a familiar voice shout.

Voice: Hide the book! Save Stonebridge!

Then what sounds like metal being scraped on metal.

Voice: You'll never take me alive!

Open my eyes

A scene of chaos surrounds you. You are in the throne room lying on the floor next to Gimmiyinn. Your wounds have vanished.

In front of you both is Lucilla, smoke is rising from her bag (which is presumably where she is keeping the book you were trapped in). She doesn't seem to notice though as she is currently focused on the winged demon that is hovering above her, Gillibran, and a couple of Royal Guards.

Gillibran is waving his sword in the air defiantly. It's his voice you heard as you arrived.

Before you can react. Lucilla draws her sword and flees the room followed by the Royal Guards.

Follow them.

## Navigation

* Next Part -
* Previous Episode -
* Next Episode -