Chapter 2: SCORCHED

Mike wakes up in what feels like slow-motion. He looks around the... CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL. He glances at the calendar. It’s march, last thing he remembered was that it was a cold, gloomy November night. Suddenly he senses the world spinning faster. As fast as he could ,he glances at the clock and relizes its 5:00 in the morning.
Just then, a surge of pain runs through his arm; panicked he looks up to find a nurse asking, “Are you okay?”
He speaks up, “Where am I and who are you--”
With a million more questions racing through Mike’s mind,the nurse interrupts shouting, “SHUT UP, AND GIVE ME THREE DEEP BREATHS!” Astonished at the tone the nurse used, he makes his breaths extremely obvious.
He says,“There! Happy? Now could you go and take some anger management classes before you break a vase over my head!?”

Then, they walk in.  Just the three of them, and the dog. His Dad, Angel, Jack, and Mallory. The crazed puppy cuddles up right next to him, for a few seconds it was a nice feeling. That is, until Angel starting peeing everywhere once again. Mike screams in horror, “Get this pee bag off me!” 
Jack yelled, “ GET THE MOP!” After they clean up, Mike’s Dad explained to him that he had been in a coma for four months. As they loaded up, Mike put on his clothes, neatly washed, and grabbed his stuff. Blowtorch, a sharp dagger, a screwdriver, and a backpack to store them in.

On the way home, Mike asked a lot of  questions and relized he missed a lot. Jack screamed as loud as he possibly could about the dreaded, horrible news: “DUDE. YOU MISSED CHRISTMAS! And we got you a life sized chocolate rabbit. Mike asked “So do I get something” .His Dad just said “You get this”. He handed the box to Mike. It was quite small wrapped in his favorite color a Light Purple. He opened the box there was a very rough piece of paper of something that almost put him RIGHT BACK INTO A COMA. That very LAST photo of his mom. He might’ve just thought nothing of it but, he'd had gone through SO MUCH. He didn't know what to say. He choked a bit but managed to say " Thank you so much. This is the best present that I could wish for."
On the way home Mike  started fumbling with the picture and every once in a while jack attempted to catch a tear that came from Mikes face.
As Mike gets out of the car with the picture and Angel in his hands, Angel started to lick the picture.
Finally Mike stands up and shouts to his dad “Whats for dinner dad?”
Dad shouts“ Steak!”
After Mike sits down to eat its 7:38. He runs straight to his room to find a microscope! Mike sat down and without hesitation he examined the scorching tattoo that had put him in a coma. It looked deep as if it was PART of his skin, he took a scalpel and cut a bit off. There was 10 layers, the seventh layer seemed to be the core. He zoomed in closer. His vision was a bit off but just then. BZZT. Mike felt a surge of pain running through his hand and mind. He quickly got back up to examine the tattoo again but it had changed! This time it was an eye. He looked back through the microscope and he examined the change, now the tattoo was more clear. He sat there for hours puzzled  and taking notes. As Mikes dad walks in he notices the tattoo “Since when did you get a tattoo??
Mike glances at his dad then looks at the bowl of ice cream in wonder how long has it been expired but he briefly answers “I don’t know I just found it on my hand!”
As dad watches Mike examine it some more he chuckles “ Yeah someone snuck into our home and gave you a tattoo that would have cost you…”
“By the way want some ice cream?”
Mike scrunched up his nose and made a face at the smelly ice cream “ No thanks I don't want any ice cream. ”After Mike had set up an appointment with the doctor he went to bed hoping that he will wake up and  find that this was all a dream.

As Mike woke up he smelled pancakes! He jumped off his bed and landed face first on the floor. He stood up running towards the pancakes like he was the predator and they were the victims! Before Mike knew what he had done he had killed them all. The soft ones, the crunchy ones, the dry ones, and the soggy ones. He couldn’t believe they were already gone. Mikes mind was racing  at the fact that he needed more pancakes!
Then mike suddenly felt a surge of pain again and he quickly learned that pain is when it changes! When mike looked at it, it had uncomfortably turned into a pancake shape! He looked at the clock 30 seconds till 9 AM. He quickly ate some more pancakes and looked back. 27 seconds till 9 AM. He thought strangely of it. Later Jack and Mike took a cab to the hospital.  When they got to the hospital they grabbed the rock and went back. They went past where the cursed cave was.  It was gone, Mike went to where the entrance was supposed to be. He attempted to see if there was just a barrier but he couldn’t go through. Mike sat there for a while in disbelief  that  it was gone just like that. When mike got back home he examined the rock. When he had compared it to a normal rock he saw nothing different. Not a single molecule showed that it wasn't a rock. He examined it one more time and found that it was too perfect. He knew something was off about the rock because when he opened it, it had crystals inside of it and they weren’t any kind of crystals that have been discovered before! Just then Angel walked in and jumped up on Mike's lap.
The next day he had found himself sleeping on the job and when he looked around he found Angel sleeping directly on his lap peacefully.  Then he also found that the rock was gone. Mike was in shock, so he stood up and that sent the little fur ball flying across the room and it left angel stuck on top of the door.  While she was up there Mike tried to get her down all she dead was cackle and puke. In the puke was the rock. How could something so little eat something so big!?Mike took some gloves and grabbed the rock to wash it off but it instantly SCORCHED him! Mike dropped the rock and blacked out…

Mike woke up to find himself in the exact same cave he was from before. He stood up and saw that Jack and Mallory were at his side. Mike asks “What happened?”
Jack comments “ Well you're the one that brought us here!”
“ Then you justs fainted and woke up again I do admit its a little strange!”
Mike looks around frantically and BAM he gets hit in the back by something VERY HARD.
Mike fell to the ground and felt as if he got impaled by multiple spears, but nothing had hit him! The pain was getting stronger as mike struggled to get up, and when he got up it stopped! Mike had tasted, smelled, and felt the gooey and icky texture of the cave floor.
When mallory walked up to Mike and took his hand to examine the Scorched imprint of three circles on his hand she asked him where he got this. Mike answers with a sigh “Well like I said to my dad, I have no idea what it is or where it came from.”
“Now explain exactly how we got here!”
Mike just then asked them to tell him exactly how they got here!
“ Well you came to my home and then time flew and we were already at Mallories house!“ Jack said rubbing the burn.
“ When I opened my door I told you I was busy and then I found myself here which brings us to now!!! “
“Well how is that possible?”Mike said holding Angel towards the darkness in case something tried to come out and eat them.
“ Hey I’ve seen that kind of tattoo in LOL “ Jack said in happiness.
“ Laugh out Loud??”
“ NO LOL, you know League of Laughing!”
“ It’s the picture used for teleporting its awesome my guy goes underground and--”
“ Okay I am sorry but I don’t care about your game I just wanted to know about the tattoo!”
“Meanie” Jack said while pouting
Meanwhile Mike was trying to figure out how and what was happening, Jack sat in a corner making faces and playing on his laptop. Mike had asked Mallory for the location of this place so when Mallory said it was across from the amusement park on purpleshire Avenue Mike burst into disbelief because that was 13 miles away from their homes.
Even Angel showed disbelief because she starting bouncing off the walls and constantly bouncing off Jack. When Mike had caught Angel finally he started going deeper into the caves till he came to a small room. This room had millions of keys in a box and a lock on a giant adamantine door. But all the keys had different  symbols. The box was named Bernard S. T.  Mike hollered for Jack to get to the box.
“Coming!” Jack screamed.  As Jack was waddling over to the box with his arms still on the laptop Mike sat down and started trying to fit keys into the lock. He went through twenty by the time Jack got there. “ What are those keys for?” asked Jack.
“I dont know ask yourself!” Mike exclaimed!
(This part is in Jack’s head) “OOOH, there’s a bunny on one of them. Looky, Mike is screaming at me while pretending to stab with keys” (Now back to normal)
“JACK ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING I WILL BITE YOUR ARM AND EAT IT IF YOU DON'T STOP IGNORING ME!!!!” Mike screamed.
“ That was harsh” Jack said putting on his sad mask.
Mallory interrupts Mike just as he started again and said “LADIES, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF BEING QUIET????”
Mike shuts up and whispers under his breath “Have you heard of not screaming?” Mike just then fell in pain and he was home. He looked at his hand and when he reanalyzed it he found that a part was missing. When he got up from his chair it was 9:57, WAY past his bedtime! Mike scrambled to get into bed hoping that his dad would never find out about what happened. He had to keep this to himself. Not even the doctor could explain what was happening to him.