Obtaining the scroll took a bit of negotiating on Missy's part. The elders were reluctant to share any information about The Sizzle House Nightclub, but in the end, Missy proved to be a talented adversary rendering her possession of the scroll of the suspected underground location.

The only problem regarding the map was the fact that it was centuries old. There were no markers indicating the tall skyscrapers towering above and it appeared as if the shore of Lake Michigan extended, burying Grant Park beneath.

Since she had many successful assignments under her belt and had earned herself the stature of team leader, on this particular holiday she was granted the ability to materialize and dissolve.

Melissa roamed aimlessly shifting directions, trying to consider who could help her locate the proximity that Jeanne Wishgiven had detailed in scattered fragments after her first capture by Lucas.

The city was oblivious to the evil lurking many miles beneath. Many of Chicago's residents were aware of the enormous stretch of tunnels containing underground shops and subway entrances, but no one was privy to the knowledge that a covert army lay in wait ready to snatch as many human souls as possible.

It was a fight, a war divided by light and darkness. The Sizzle House was one of many such establishments hidden within the cold recesses far below the hustle and bustle of worldwide-populated cities.

The demons thrived in crowded areas...they preferred chaos, crime, dishonest government and people down on their luck. Every city was packed with such people. It was all in the numbers and within a huge metropolitan area, there were victims for the plucking, an infinite stock of desperate souls ready to succumb to the quick fix of instant gratification. Temptation for the weak was the dark realm's best lure. Team evil was so slick that if one were to pull the rug out from beneath a victim, the person would remain unaware until they lay shattered on the floor, except the floor in this case was the great dungeon the humans regarded as hell.

Missy began to loose heart as she reached the corner of Randolph and Michigan Avenue. She stood for a moment watching the afternoon commuters hike towards public transportation after a long day of work. There was one character in particular that stood out. His presence was powerful and instead of appearing worn out, he marched with impressive confidence. Unlike everyone else whose aura was exhausted by that hour, his energy appeared in a vibrant maroon surrounding him from head to boot tip.

Missy sensed that she should follow him.

The man gazed at her as he passed, his amazing brown eyes locked with hers for a brief moment. He nodded and a sheepish grin fell across his perfectly sculpted face.

"Lucas." Missy whispered under her breath, recognizing him from the drawing the elders produced just prior to her departure.

The demon turned about and he raised one eyebrow studying Melissa with scrutiny. There was something about his appearance that sent an icy chill throughout her spirit. Melissa shifted her attention to another section of the train station below. Everything within Melissa tensed and with good reason. No one, including Jeanne Wishgiven had ever survived a direct confrontation with the evil one.

Satisfied that he was not being followed, Lucas slid behind a sheet of plywood blocking the entrance to a shoe repair shop that was in the process of being remodeled. The shop was located directly below the street, a modest cutout within a cluster of businesses surrounding the train station. Construction workers traipsed into the same entrance where moments before the demon had vanished.

"Bud did you see that guy swing in here?"

"Guy? What guy? Have you been drinkin' something stronger than coffee with your lunch my friend?"

They both chuckled in deep gut rolling laughs as they continued lugging materials through the wall to work on the renovation.

Convinced that there was some sort of entrance porthole, Melissa slid into the dimly lit area behind them. The sawdust was thick, gathering near light bulbs encased by miniature cages overhead. The area fell silent as the racket from the construction crew faded away. Melissa wondered if this was in fact an entrance to a chamber of passing?

Missy felt undeniable panic. She wondered if she was the unsuspecting worm dangling on a hook before a hungry school of fish, soon to be eaten.

In an instant Missy dissolved. She recalled something that Dwane her team leader had shared during her brief training period as a genie. "When in doubt, just blend in." He had instructed.

With incredible luck, she had become transparent just as Lucas slid through an adjoining wall. He gazed about and his face contorted from stunning good looks to that of an evil force. Pustules trickling slime oozed into gaping craters along both of his cheeks. His skin radiated a horrible crimson, veins bulged from beneath and his eyebrows reshaped to a single thick wedge on a disfigured forehead. A nose that was moments before pleasant to the eye, became enormous resembling a wolf. Canine incisors in crooked alignment replaced pearls of human perfection. He was a beast and Melissa kept her fear under wraps as the hideous monster sniffed the air in several abrupt swings. He was searching for fear, her fear.

Satisfied, he shifted once again.... Shifted back to the human form, to the all good-looking man of all men.

Missy remained in her state of invisibility. She felt her best strategy was to position herself out of sight just in the event that Lucas was hiding in wait.

It was then she noticed a peculiarity just beneath her stance. There was a slight shift in the soil a few feet under.

Lucas? She wondered overwrought with panic.

Tapping into unused senses, she felt the presence of two beings. This was upsetting to her since she was naive in many ways and as the elders pointed out during their debate on whether to allow her access to the map, inexperienced. Many genies, adults and children alike had been in the form of wishgivers for several generations. Missy was in no way as prepared as such. If forced to confront a single demon, she was certain to meet her demise and somehow she knew a pair of destructive creatures was rising to the surface....rising to the surface to gobble her up and spit out her remains. She had to think fast or meet a certain doom.

I've got to stop them. She thought to herself.

Propelling herself at a bullet type speed she penetrated the thin layer of protective plywood. Passing over the heads of thousands of commuters, she flew with incredible velocity in the direction of Madison Street. In an instant, she was standing before a building tucked in between two skyscrapers. There was a crucifix chopped into the center of St. Peter's, but in no way did it resemble a traditional Chicago church. It was lacking the century old style of architecture with a steeple erected reaching towards heaven.

Missy slid inside the church using the slight crack surrounding the door. Hurrying to the entryway, she placed her lips to the bowl that was filled with holy water. Inhaling she pulled the entire contents within her non-human cheeks. Working in a methodical way, she emptied each and every drop within the church, including a few gallons of baptismal water from the ornate fountain.

Melissa's face was outrageously bloated making it difficult for her to keep her balance on the flight back. The weight of the water slowed her considerably. She felt on edge, knowing that at any moment the demons would surface. She was no longer fearful for her own safety, but her concerns were for the crowds of humans passing through the Randolph Street Station.

The ground was visibly shifting as Missy entered the shoe repair storefront. Without any human's about, Melissa grabbed an empty five-gallon bucket and spat the blessed water within. Doubling back, she located a wheelbarrow filled to the brim with concrete powder. Missy struggled as she lifted the handles, grunting in the process. It exhausted most of her spirit to maneuver the wheel over the threshold of the doorway.

Dumping the holy water within, Melissa kneaded the liquid into the dry mixture soiling her hands in the process. With every ounce of energy remaining, Missy tilted the contents spilling the quick dry cement onto the ground. A delicate fingertip that had surfaced from below was suddenly covered within the thick sludge.

"Take that!" Missy directed towards the demons below. She wondered if her idea for adding holy water would succeed as a barrier to keep evil under capture. She recalled her time as a child and how her father was an avid horror movie enthusiast. Reasoning that holy water worked to thwart crazed vampires, she imagined it should neutralize the demons as well.

Melissa spent moments studying the crevices of the shoe repair shop, but in the end, gave up all hope for finding the entrance to the Sizzle House Nightclub. In truth, the knowledge of a doorway existing to such a place aided in her decision to head on back to safety. I'm not strong enough to take on that army...no genie is. She reasoned as she retreated back through the dimension.

________

"I know I was close to locating the nightclub. If only I could've managed to follow Lucas through the dimension wall....I just know Jeanne Wishgiven is somehow down there." Melissa claimed as she stood in the meeting room before the elders. All eyes fell on Melissa with sympathy.

"We appreciate the enthusiasm of youth." One of the elders said. "The truth is, if there was ever a way to infiltrate the Sizzle House, it would've been accomplished many centuries ago. NO. You learned a valuable lesson Miss Bland, you managed to escape without Lucas getting his claws into you."

"That is something to be proud of and we give you credit for trying."

As Melissa slid through the protective layer and into the children's dimension, she felt an overwhelming sense that she had somehow failed Jeanne Wishgiven.

I did my best. She thought to herself.

Just past the partition, Clara Sharp greeted Melissa. Missy chose to forget her failures and to enjoy the remaining time of her holiday, sharing in the rides of the greatest water slide park ever. Laughter and screams of delight echoed throughout the chamber as the two friends put aside all worries. The sharing of innocent fun seemed to be the perfect solution in every world and dimension.

____________

Lucas stood above the newly poured square of cement. He was sniffing the air, sniffing for the genies that had nearly managed an escape from below. He had been monitoring the upward movements of Jeanne Wishgiven and "Dwane the pain."

Although the thick layer of concrete slowed the progression of their escape, Lucas stood in wait. At any given moment they would materialize. In that instant he would grab the meddlesome dual and cast them back to the nightclub to neutralize them for good.

Minutes trickled away as two lumps slowly arose from within the green toned mixture. Faces, necks, shoulders, full formed bodies. Two genies stood before Lucas, their view obstructed from the thick substance covering every square inch of their being.

"I've got you now!" Lucas exclaimed flinging his arms to capture the startled genies.

In the instant that his hands made connection with the slime, a powerful surge of energy rendered him helpless. The sound was three times that of a mosquito connecting to a bug zapper. SNAP echoed throughout the train station as the overhead lights dimmed.

Lucas's scream shook the entire region in the form of earth trembling thunder. To Jeanne and Dwane the sound was more distinctive...Lucas disappeared through the chamber wall, overwrought with incredible misery.

"What was that all about?" Dwaine questioned Jeanne.

"Have you ever heard of a demon reacting to wet concrete in such a manner?" Jeanne wondered aloud.

"Interesting...." Dwane added.

"Now, how do we get back to surf, sand and beach?" Dwane asked.

"We are powerless here. Our only hope is to make it to Three Corners and wait for Robert to return for a holiday." Jeanne announced.

"How do we travel there?"

"I suppose we'll hop the South Shore train like everyone else heading in that direction."

"They won't allow us on a commuter train looking like this." Dwane said swiping the thick sludge from his face.

"I doubt if the humans have the ability to see us." Jeanne whispered as she hurried through the door of the repair shop.

____

On the 5:10 train heading away from the downtown Loop, there was standing room only. Dwane and Jeanne stood along a great row using the seats in the aisle to balance against the bumpy movement. People were wedged in around them, so many people that a can of sardines would appear more spacious.

The genies remained invisible to the commuters. The only proof of their existence was the impression of filth that became embedded on those passing. Expensive dark clothing became abstract canvases outlining fragments of the stowaway's presence.

"How much longer?" Dwane whispered to Jeanne after the train made the sixth stop.

"We're almost there. It's quite a trek after we reach the Dune Park station."

"I'm just grateful to be away from that night club." Dwane announced.

"Yes, but I have a feeling that Lucas and his team will be searching for us now. We must be careful and not trust anyone...we are vulnerable since we are absent of all powers." Jeanne said stating her concerns.

"When in doubt, blend in." Dwane muttered as they approached the station.

People hurried from the train and rushed through the parking lot locating their automobiles. Unlike the previous time that Jeanne had taken the train in an ancient form of herself, she was now unseen to the human eye. She and Dwane began the impossible walk to Three Corners.

Instead of relying on the highway and back roads, Jeanne felt it best to hike the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Once they located the state beach, both genies plunged themselves into the icy spray in order to cleanse the layer of concrete that was weighing down their every movement.

"What a relief this is!" Dwane giggled as he kicked a splash onto Jeanne.

Jeanne responded by spraying a water wall towards Dwane who submerged himself just after it pelted him.

The traveling genies enjoyed the beach even though night would soon canvas the sky overhead. They were no longer prisoners suspended within the dungeon of evil and a bit of play was just what was needed to regain their depleted spirits, and so they did.