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Shooting a glance at Lucas one last time to double-check that he understood that he was to wait here, I drifted out of the water and began liftingclose to the shadoalls--until I was al slowly, and sticking to the edges of the cavern, because I did not want to attract their attention just yet I wanted to get to the furthest corner away from the vortex first; I needed them to focus their attention as far away fro in the open noas only halfway across the cave toward houl spotted h they took delight in seeingthe torture that would soon follow… if I let them

Improvise Improvise! The task had seemed simpler ere still in the safety of the lake Now that I was here in the open, my mind froze and I didn’t have the first clue what to do So I stopped thinking, and just started doing I began spinning in circles as two of the dozen ghouls began approaching me

Thankfully, they appeared to be in no particular hurry, and as I zoo so to be enjoying e faster and tried to execute other kinds of acrobatics in the air--houls were still watching houls just needed to keep their distance froh…

I dared not avertto see where she was nohether shethe portal--but I couldn’t risk drawing the ghouls’ attention to her I kept aze firmly away from her corner of the cavern and continued to put on my display of bizarre acrobatics

My heart pluain They were seeing through s up a bit I racked my mind frantically for s I had I could use hts and just did the first thing that canity I still had left in the process

I began to sing, even as I mockedI didn’t think I had a particularly bad voice, but it was an unpracticed one And the first thing that spurted fro I don’t even listen to country s that surfaced in tiht in their frolickingso quickly and paused, hovering in the air Then they began to clap Ugh I shuddered at the creepy glea owner after seeing his beloved pet perfor them to throw me a treat Their beady eyes were filled with ad" went downhill fast I ran out of words and ether so the tune sound all theto non-words, but they didn’t seeain I changed song, to one I knew a bit better--soft rock, this time But to my disdain, my audience didn’t appreciate rock as ain They were now disco to track Kailyn with houls closest tonear the portal They had been watchingto lose their attention, too Daood time for Uncle Lucas to join the act…

Soon after I’d had the thought, he did I caught sight of his forood distance away froan to spin around and around, in a si and clapping ensued, their eyes non to Lucas--the new object of their creepy affection

Come on, Kailyn

Where are you?

I didn’t even know yet whether or not she had escaped Lucas and I just had to keep this circus going as long as we possibly could until they eventually got bored and snatched us I hoped against hope that by then, Kailyn would be gone

I quickly shifted to another act, causing sohouls a mild confusion as to which of their pets to observe I started doing a weird kind of star dance infro up and doith the s in my chest sank into the pit of my stomach

Kailyn yelped

No No!

For the first time, I allowed houl She was so close to the entrance, perhaps six feet away But one of the ghouls hovering near it just had not been distracted enough by us These ghouls were sharper than we had hoped they would be Maybe a group of ghosts had even tried this sort of stupid atteht Kailyn

The gahouls, previously distracted and being entertained by Lucas and ether and realized that Kailyn had beena move to escape They kne that it had all been a trick, not so dependents