Chapter Nine
When
Back
in the cleaned training room, Luna scanned the bookshelf for another useful
book. A bright yellow one caught
her eye; every other book on the shelf was faded and dull, but this one was
colorful- like it was out of place.
Curiosity killed the cat-
However,
satisfaction brought it back. Luna
pulled the book off of the shelf and hesitated; the bookshelf didn’t
collapse or burst into flames- so far so good. Taking the book into her arms in a
protective grasp, Luna sat at the wooden table and cracked open the front
cover.
The
title page read: The Way.
“What a stupid title,” Luna remarked to herself, “At
least they have summary…
‘This book is meant to aid in the training of young minds in the
power of sorcery. There are many
different methods for this process, so try each method to find a true
calling.’” Luna
giggled, “Methods? True
calling? What methods can there be-
writing everything down?”
“I
can’t believe I have to write everything down!” Twenty minutes later, after lots of
reading, Luna had ended up only able to call on her power using spelled note
cards and a special pen. Unlike the
mind-powered, Luna now had to learn Latin commands in order to fight. With the cards, she never had to find a
focus; it worked with her blood once she sealed the pen to her.
Good
news: she could help the cause more than before; however, the bad news was that
Luna never learned Latin. She did
have a dictionary in her room…
In seconds, Luna ran to the door and into the hallway.
Luna
knelt on the floor and dug through her drawer once again, this time trying to
find an old Latin dictionary given to her by her father. It had been an early birthday present
for her second birthday back before he began to hate her.
Back
then, he loved her, and had tried to give her the things to succeed as a
sorceress, but then he realized that no amount of training would keep the blood
in the family since she was indeed a girl.
Then, he forgot that she even existed except to hate her with every
fiber of his being.
Flipping
through the pages, Luna looked up logical fighting words. After a few minutes of this, she shoved
the book back into her drawer and straightened.
Curious
because the sky outside the window was dark, Luna checked the watch on top of
the dresser. In what she thought
was half and hour, four hours had passed.
Come to think of it, she was
tired…
The
adrenaline wore off from her achievement, and it was all she could to crawl
into bed. “
* * * * *
When
He
slid into the back door and was immediately tackled by a form from the
shadows. He didn’t hit the
ground, per se, but he hit the wall pretty hard and immediately went into
defense mode. The dark box
skittered across the floor harmlessly.
Karine
stepped into the light from a small lamp, and
“You’re
home,” Karine simply stated, “I’m sorry for the things I said
at dinner. I wasn’t aware you
were outside, however, that doesn’t make it right.”
“Karine,
listen- I’m not that touchy.
Really, I only care about what you said because it was spot on,”
“Why
does that bother you?”
“Only
because you put two-and-two together before me. I don’t often think about my past,
so when I hear it… it hurts,” he admitted.
“Go
to bed,
It
was then, in a time of peace, that it attacked. What was prowling the night in search of
another victim?
It
crept up on
Upstairs,
Luna sat up in the bed on full alert.
Her body kept telling her that something was wrong, but the whole
building was silent. Silent as the grave… he mind
whispered.
“That’s
it!” she exclaimed as she jumped out of bed. The house was never this quiet. Then she realized
She
lurched to the dresser and threw on clothes in record time. Within seconds, Luna raced into the
hallway before realizing the she didn’t have a plan yet. Her face fell, and she dejectedly stood
in the middle of the hall.
Suddenly,
she knew what had happened and where the omelet had taken
“What
do you need, Luna? It’s five
in the morning…” Karine
asked while she stretched.
“I
don’t know how I know this,” Luna began shakily, “but the
omelet abducted
“That’s
absurd, Hon; we don’t have a basement here.”
“I
saw the door; it’s hidden on a blank wall under the table edge,”
she started. Karine shrugged. Luna took that as a positive reply and
pulled the other girl down the staircase.
In
the kitchen, Karine rounded on Luna with her arms crossed. “Don’t look at me like that!” Luna crouched next to the table,
“if you flick this and press that…”
A
door popped open across from them.
The edges were faintly dusty, yet bore signs of previous passage. This was definitely it!
The
door led down a dusty tunnel; not to mention the fact that it was pitch
black. Stairs faded into oblivion,
and their shadows in the kitchen light made grotesque shapes bend and move on
the walls. Scuttling noises were
the only sounds from the abyss.
“Do
we really have to go down there?”
Karine pleaded. Luna shoved
a flashlight from a drawer into her hands, “I take that as a
yes…”
The
door swung shut about halfway down into the abyss, leaving what little light
filtered from the kitchen on the other side of the heavy steel door. Karine jumped, but continued on; Luna
followed with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
At
the bottom of the stairs, a tight hallway ended with two doors of equal
standing. “You try the left
one,” Karine stated, finally taking charge, “and I’ll go for
the right.” Luna nodded in
the dim light, and they were off.
Luna
quietly pushed the left door open and stopped. Every inch of the wall was covered with
various shadowed objects; one had canned foods, another showcased racks of dark
cloth, while the rest contained hundreds of weapons and target practice
aids. She made a quick check, and
“Pst! Luna!” Karine called in a whisper, “You
have to see this!” Luna met
her at the door and dropped the flashlight on the hard cement. This room was the proverbial treasure
trove.
In
the center of the room, a cylinder of liquid bubbled harmlessly while
“So
you’ve found my chamber…” a dry voice squeaked from behind
the cylinder, “Do you like me methods? Young Merrick is held captive only by
his mind; there is no lid and no guard, yet he remains there. Explain that!”
“I
know what you can explain! Who the
hell are you, and why did you take him in the first place?” Karine asked blindly into the dark room.
“I
must have gotten ahead of myself…
I am Pierre L’Omelet,” it answered, stepping out of the
shadows, “and if I told you my plot, I would be a very bad villain,
wouldn’t I?”
The
omelet stood only inches away from the ground and wore a tiny fedora and
explorer suit. He didn’t look
armed, with wit or otherwise, so Luna decided he would be easy to outwit,
“So,
“Um,
thanks? Anyway, let’s just
pretend you were a horrible, tacky villain like the ones in comic books. Can you do that for me?” Luna asked as she got down to her
adversary’s level.
“I
got it- this imagination thing is fun!”
“Yeah,
uh, that’s good… Now,
if you kidnapped someone like, oh,
“I
would explain that I captured him using a vamp tranquilizer dart when he
wasn’t looking and used the magic ability I have to move him into a
double tank!” the omelet squealed excitedly.
“That’s
very good,
He
thought for a moment, and then his face lit up, “I would tell you all
about my reasons. I hate being weak,
so I take the fears of other and improve on them. The boy I swallowed earlier, for
example, was an idiot, and his family waited years in another reality to help
him.”
“Can
you tell me more about that?”
“His
family is cursed, so the older generations must train the younger in order to
be strong and fight well. This boy
is cursed twice over…
Oh! I would say that my task
was to defeat
By
this time, Karine had wandered her way behind him with a glass jar in her
hands. In one quick motion, she
placed the jar over his head and scooped him up; the lid was spun on in
seconds.
“Good
catch,” Luna remarked while Karine held her prize on one hand, “I
tried to distract him as long as I could, but you picked the exact moment to
get him. Wasn’t he so
annoying?”
“I
agree; what do we do with him?” she asked, pointing to the center of the
room.
“What
do you think? Come and help
me…”
* * * * *
After
a long struggle, the three of them were upstairs. Merrick, who awakened part-way up the
stairs, took a seat at the kitchen table staring blankly at the wall behind
Karine’s head while the other two exchanged worried glances. Luna sat as close as possible to him
without touching.
Karine
broke the silence, “We need to get rid of this guy, and you’re the
only one who can get into the enemy’s headquarters and back out
again. Do you think you’re up
to that?”
Quietly,
he mumbled a response unintelligible to the human ear. Luna moved closer, took his hand, and
asked, “Can you repeat that louder?”
“I
said, give me the jar.” He
repeated in an even tone without inflections.
Luna
flinched and reached up to put a hand delicately on the side of his face,
“Are you sure? We can just
toss it and run if you can’t…”
His
eyes flickered in an unearthly manner, “Give me the fucking jar.”
* * * * *