Spooky Chocolates

     He gestured towards the abandoned chocolate factory on top of the hill. The building loomed above them, a dark shadow in the night.

     "My parents are at the Chocolate Ball. If we go home now, we can make as much hot chocolate as we want, without anyone telling us off."

     Ally rolled her eyes. "We can have hot chocolate at any time. But when do we ever get the chance to hunt down a crazy scientist?"

     "Are you sure you're not scared?" Kira asked, narrowing her eyes at Max.

     The brown Elephante sighed and took a step back. "Of course not. I'm just..." He trailed off, wondering what to say. Knowing the blue Usul sisters, there wasn't any correct answer to this question.

     "Sometimes, I wonder why I'm friends with you." A smile played on his lips as he said those words.

     Ally grinned and threw an arm around his shoulder. "Because we're the best adventurers in all of Neopia?"

     Kira joined her sister, hugging Max from the other side. Slowly, they shuffled him forward, along the trail leading up to the chocolate factory.

     Even wedged between the two Usuls, Max shivered in the wind. He pulled his T-shirt down, wishing he'd had the foresight to take a sweater. The crisp air, while welcome, felt unexpectedly cold after the heat spell of the last weeks.

     "So this Wazzle-" Max started.

     "Wizzle," Kira interrupted.

     "Wizzle, Wazzle, whatever. This Wizzle, was he a scientist or just a crazy chocolatier?" Max looked down as he spoke, careful not to trip on the uneven path he could barely see in the darkness.

     "I've heard that he was a confectioner," Ally said. "But he got lonely all by himself in his chocolate factory. So he decided to make himself a Jelly Chia as a friend."

     Kira jumped in. "And that was all good and well, but then, one day, he got hungry. And as he licked his lips, ready to eat the Jelly Chia-" Kira paused, releasing his arm from around Max's shoulder. They all stopped and watched as she waved her hands around wildly. "Boom. That's it. That was the last time anyone's ever seen Wizzle."

     Max shook his head and rolled his eyes. "So you're telling me that the Chia ate Wizzle? What's next? They made peace and ran off to Jelly World together?"

     Kira rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. Everyone knows that Jelly World doesn't exist."

     "Of course. Jelly World is ridiculous, but Wizzle and his Chia friend are not," Max muttered under his breath, just as they reached the abandoned chocolate factory.

     "Let's go in." Ally bounced up and down, her tail narrowly missing Max, who was searching his backpack for his torch.

     "Aha, found it." He pulled out his Blue Kacheek Torch, looked up, and groaned. "Please tell me this is a joke, Ally."

     The Usul grinned, waving her Ghostly Torch through the air. "I don't know what you mean. This is a perfectly working torch."

     "Which barely emits any light. Kira, do you at least have a better torch?"

     Kira rolled her eyes. "Of course, I do, Mister Always-worried. But I'm not going to use it. We don't want to scare Wizzle away, do we?"

     The rusty entrance door creaked as Kira pushed down the handle. She wiggled it a few times, then pushed against the door with her whole body. "It's a bit stu-"

     Before she could finish her sentence, the door swung open, and Kira disappeared into the dark corridor. Grinning, Ally followed her sister.

     Max sighed, shining his torch down the corridor. He could barely make out Ally's tail as she disappeared around a corner.

     "I bet this hasn't been cleaned in ages," he muttered, shining his light at the cobwebs above him. Taking a deep breath, he followed the sisters, turning into the corridor that Ally had disappeared into.

     It was empty. Great. Of course, he lost his friends not even five minutes into their exploration. A part of him was tempted to leave and wait outside, but then he heard a gasp that sounded suspiciously like Kira.

     "Kira? Ally? Are you okay?"

     Holding tightly onto his torch, he walked forward.

     "Max?" Kira called out to him. "Where are you? You'll never believe what we found."

     The voice echoed through the corridor. A shiver ran down Max's back that had nothing to do with the cold. He peeked into an open door on his left, where he thought Kira's voice might have come from. At the very end of the room, he noticed a faint, ghostly blue light.

     "There you are!" he exclaimed.

     The blue beam of light moved and bounced around the room until it shone directly into his face.

     "Max, this is amazing!"

     Max blinked, holding up an arm to protect his eyes. "It would be even more amazing if I could see."

     "Sorry." Ally pointed the torch away from him. "Look at this. We found his laboratory. This must be where Wizzle made his edible Chia friend."

     Max blinked a few times, waiting for his eyes to once again get accustomed to the darkness. When he shone his torch around the room, he could see what Ally was talking about.

     "This looks like a giant chemistry kit," he exclaimed, stepping forward to examine the array of beakers on a shelf next to him. "Look. Some of these vials still have liquid in them."

     "And there are still chocolates here!" Ally exclaimed, holding up a round chocolate ball. Before Max could say anything, she had put it into her mouth.

     "Ewww, Ally, you're disgusting. Who knows how long this has been lying around?"

     "I don't know, but it still tastes good."

     Max picked up one of the vials, shaking it slightly. "Look. Whatever is in here is almost like jelly. Lemon jelly, maybe? It's so yellow."

     "Look at this," Kira called out. "I think this chocolate is still liquid."

     Both Ally and Max joined her. Kira had one of her paws stuck in a large jar.

     "That's impossible. This factory has been abandoned for so long, any chocolate must have dried out ages ago." Max said, his eyes widening as he saw Kira pull out her paw and move it to her face. "Don't lick it!"

     Kira stopped with her mouth open and her tongue out.

     "It's suspicious. Whatever is in this jar, it can't be chocolate. It wouldn't be liquid anymore."

     Max sighed with relief when Kira lowered her paw.

     "Maybe Wizzle is still around," Ally whispered, waving her torch around the room. The blue light was so faint, it did nothing to illuminate the corners.

     "Or his Chia friend," Kira added. "Maybe the Chia is trying to make itself a chocolate friend."

     Max suppressed a shiver. He knew the ghost story wasn't true. Yet, he couldn't stop himself from glancing over his shoulder. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this. Maybe that stuff on your paw is not chocolate. It could be something else."

     "It smells like chocolate," Kira replied, sniffing her paw.

     Max sighed. "Let me find you some tissues or a towel, so you can clean up."

     The last thing he wanted was for Kira to lick that strange chocolate and end up with a disease or curse. It was bad enough that Ally had already eaten a chocolate ball. Max glanced at her, half expecting her to grow giant feet or start sneezing madly, but so far, she seemed fine.

     Now where could they have towels?

     At the back of the laboratory, he found a small room looking like a supply closet. A broom, completely covered in cobwebs, blocked the entrance.

     "Ewww." Max shuddered as he moved the broom out of the way, trying to touch it as little as possible. He was looking forward to a hot shower once they came home.

     Stepping into the closet, he moved his torch to see the shelves stocked with supplies.

     "A bucket, more beakers, a mortar and pestle..."

     With a bang, the door fell shut behind him. Max jumped, dropping his torch. The light flickered, then everything went black.

     For a moment, Max froze.

     "Hello?" His voice wavered. He cleared his throat, then called out again. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

     No reply. Max carefully knelt down, feeling around the floor for his torch.

     "Ally? Kira?" He called, louder this time. All he heard in reply was silence.

     "This is not funny," he finally called. His fingers bumped into something, and he sighed with relief, but when he reached to grab it, the object was far too soft to be his torch. With a shriek, he dropped whatever he had found, falling back on his behind in the process.

     "Ouch."

     "Are you okay in there?" Ally's voice called out to him. A moment later, the door opened, and a beam of blue light shone in his face.

     "Perfectly fine," Max grumbled, getting up and rubbing his back. "The door fell shut, and it's very dark in here."

     Despite the little light that Ally's torch offered, it was enough that he could make out his Blue Kacheek Torch. He picked it up, then also grabbed the towel he had found next to it. That must be what he had accidentally touched earlier.

     "Come on. Let's help Kira, and then we should get out of here. We need to be home before our parents come home from the ball."

     "We did not close the door," Kira spoke up from behind Ally. Max held out the towel to her, so she could clean her paw.

     "Maybe it was the Chia." Ally's eyes gleamed in the darkness. "Or Wizzle."

     "Or a draft of air," Max retorted. But even before he looked around, he knew there wasn't a window or anything that could have caused a draft in the supply closet. "Let's just go."

     "You're no fun." But despite her protests, Kira wiped her paw and followed Max and Ally out of the building.

     They had almost reached the exit when Kira reached out and grabbed Max's arm. "Wait, did you hear that?"

     "Hear what?"

     "I heard footsteps. Somewhere above us."

     Ally shone her torch at the ceiling, as if that would help them see anyone on the upper floor.

     Max shook his head. "I didn't hear anything."

     Even Ally looked doubtful. "Maybe it was the wind?"

     They looked at each other, shrugged, and walked towards the exit.

     "This was pretty cool, wasn't it?" Kira exclaimed as they left the building. "We found Wizzle's secret laboratory."

     Max didn't point out that if it was so easy to find, it wasn't exactly secret. Instead, he threw an arm around her shoulder. "Let's see how quickly we can go home. If my parents aren't there yet, maybe we can still have that hot chocolate we talked about."

     Laughing and bickering, they walked down the hill. None of them noticed the Chia watching them from a window on the second floor.

     The End.