6
AVERY
Dennis’s house was more like a lab, with white, rubbery tiles pasted onto the floor and the walls painted white. In each corner of the room, there was a big tank fill up to the brim with water, and in the tanks were all sorts of different life forms. In the middle of the white living room stood a long, steel table that stretched from the left side of the room to the other, and was piled with files and beakers filled with different colored liquid.
Danica gazed at the room in wonder, while I stared at Dennis and he smiled. “Sorry,” he said, trying to organize the files scattered on his steel tabletop but not making a very good job out of it. As soon as he piled a huge stack of files into one small stack, the exhaust fan on the ceiling just kept blowing them off. After some time, Dennis gave in and just left to let the papers and files fly.
Danica gazed into each one of the giant tanks, totally and fully absorbed in them. In one of the tanks, there was a huge, and I mean HUGE Tyca squid in it with multiple tentacles sloshing about in the tank. Its rock shell was brown and dappled yellow, like paint had fallen on it. It’s tentacles were dark blue in color and it’s red eyes shone out of it’s rock shell. It breathed out dark purple ink, staining the water purple.
Another tank had a Jasmine bug in it. The Jasmine bug was bigger than the ones we saw in the forest, and was at least the size of a 10 year-old. It’s wings were neatly folded behind it’s back, and a trail of white-blonde hair spilled from atop it’s head. It’s skin was grey and slightly wrinkled, leaf-like clothes plastered to it’s body. It hammered on the glass with it’s hand, desperately trying to free itself.
Dennis caught me gazing at the room in wonder, and he grinned. “I love to examine the animals here,” he said, going over to another tank in the far corner of the room. Inside it, there stood some sort of weird plant that looked like the ones you would find in the sea. It’s trunk looked like coral and on top of it, were the leaves and branches would be, stood multiple tentacle-like branches, swarming around the tank in a frantic fashion. Dennis hammered on the glass, and the tentacle branches settled down, falling to the bottom of the tank where it stood.
Danica walked about the room, stopping at each tank to look, like she was a visitor in a museum. I yawned and stretched. It had been quite a day and I was exhausted, and felt like it had been hours since I last rested. Dennis caught sight of me yawning and said: “Well, Miss Melissa, would you and Miss Forsythia like to rest for now?”
“Just call me Avery,” I said, half yawning. “And yes, I would love to rest, Dennis.” He smiled at me and beckoned me over to a little hallway at the side of the room. As me and Danica stepped into the hall, we realized we were in some sort of Aquarium, a tunnel digging through a world of aquatic life forms. All kinds of fishes and aquatic plants nestled here, their fins batting the water as they swam freely. Me and Danica gazed at the life around us as we walked deeper into the tunnel.
As the tunnel grew deeper, the aquarium around us ended, fading into a zoo type of room, tons of cages scattered around the small area. Inside the little cages, all sort of animals lay. I was enjoying myself until Danica tapped on my shoulder. I whirled around, and Danica looked at me in horror, and pointed to a single cage that stood, alone, away from any other cage on the far side of the room.
At first I couldn’t see what was in there, but when I did, my heart stopped; in the cage were at least two little human boys snuggled close to each other, frightened out of their wits. Dennis caught us staring at them and slapped me in the back, startling me. “Yep,” he said in a cheerful tone. “Those are my little prizes, the humans!! You had no idea how hard it was to catch them!! Sneaky little creatures, humans are!!”
I couldn’t speak. My mouth had gone dry. Dennis bustled me further down the hall and away from the cages, and soon we were standing in front of a huge vault door. We watched as Dennis punch in the combination and unlock the door, then push it open. Inside, we saw a little room, furniture arranged to look like a hotel room. It looked cozy, but I immediately grew afraid. What was with this vault door anyway?
Fortunately, Dennis didn’t give me or Danica any time to think, just pushed us into the room so quickly we stumbled onto the floor of the tiny room. Dennis smiled back at us and said: “Goodnight, your majesties.” We heard the bottom of the vault door screech against the floor as Dennis pushed it closed, locking itself into place. Me and Danica exchanged fearful glances when we as we realized the terrible truth: We were locked in.
*******
That night, locked in Dennis’s Hotel room vault, me and Danica had no choice but to sleep on the beds we had there. We were lucky that on the bed side table there was a big tray of buns and biscuits and a huge jar of water so we wouldn’t thirst or starve, but how long would one dinky little tray last? How long would we even stay in here?
I pushed the thoughts from my mind as I snuggled into the duvet, pulling the sheets up to my chin. I could hear Danica snoring softly on the bed beside me, and I sighed. I didn’t know how she could sleep so easily when we were stuck in this situation.
My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t eating for who knew how long already. I grabbed a bun from the tray and slowly nibbled on it like a mouse, trying to conserve our food. Gulping down a small mouthful of bread, I wondered why Dennis locked us in here. Perhaps this was the only room for guest in his crazy lab house, and he accidentally locked the door?
That made sense. I shook the blankets off and headed towards the steel vault door standing in front of our beds, putting my ear close to it. I could hear Dennis’s muffled voice at the other side, but the vault door was just thick enough for me to not be able to hear his words. He was talking to someone, a woman judging by her soft voice, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
I leaned against the metallic door, hoping that elves had sharp hearing. Luckily, the door wasn’t as thick as other vault doors, and I was just able to hear their words, though some words were still unclear, I could make out their conversation:
“Serene, I’m glad you managed to make it today.” That was Dennis’s voice.
I heard Serene grunt, then said: “Well, what is it then? What is so important you have to make me leave my work?”
Dennis chuckled, then continued: “Well, my dear, I have two elves locked up in my vault.” I stiffened. He was talking about us!!! I listened closely as the conversation continued.
“Hmmm, intrephie,” Serene said something, but it was muffled and all I could hear was: “Intrephie, very intrephie.” Dennis chuckled again, and Serene said: “Well, then,” she said, and I heard her knock on the cold metallic vault door, and I froze. “If that is the case, we faeries might emerge victorious in this great war if these two are the heirs.”
“Oh, but they are!!” Dennis said, his voice sounded far away. I could hear their footsteps as they left the vicinity of the vault, and it was harder to hear the conversation. “It would be phice is we maphage to fake over Felpharda.”
Serene said something, and laughed, but they were too far away to hear. I leaned my back against the steel wall that cut us off from the outside world, my heart pounding hard against my ribcage. Dennis, and that Serene person were both Faeries, and they plan to take over Elvaeda while they leave us to rot!! We can’t allow that!! We must find a way out!!
I hopped onto Danica’s bed and shook her. “Danica, Danica, wake up!!!” She stirred slightly, but to my annoyance just fell back asleep. I tugged at the duvet she was hiding under. “DANICA FORSYTHIA!!!” I roared, and Danica immediately shot out of bed, staring at me with her big green eyes.
“What?” she asked groggily, stretching. After explaining to her, her eyes grew big and round. “Oh god,” she muttered, clambering off the bed in lightning speed. “We have got to get out of here!!!”
She hammered on the door, but it didn’t budge. As she was going to pound the door again, I stopped her. “Danica, that won’t work,” I crossed my hands over my chest and sighed. “This is hopeless….”
Suddenly, an alarm sounded, startling us. A red light that mimicked a police car alarm blinked off and on in warning, and a mechanized voice said in a calm tone: “Alert! Alert! An intruder has breached the lab! Alert! Alert!”
Danica and me exchanged fearful glances. What kind of intruder? Suddenly, Dennis’s voice ran out, shrill and alarming: “Serene!! It’s headed towards the vault!! Serene!! SERENE!!!”
Me and Danica froze. The intruder was coming here? We watched helplessly as a sword, shining radiantly like it was made out of light penetrated the thick metal door, slicing it in half.
The two parts of the door fell to the floor with a metallic clang, and we could hear Dennis swearing. Me and Danica looked up, and we gaped in shock and disbelief at the wielder of the sword. She had black hair, brown eyes, the familiar Avril Lavigne rucksack slung over her shoulder.
Jackie.
MERCEDES
“Mercedes?” a soft voice said my name, and I looked back. There stood Aria, her long fringe falling across her face, her long blue dress trailing behind her. It had been a long time since I saw her, and I smiled.
Aria smiled, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I thought it was you,” she said, heading over to me. I focused back my gaze on the sky, the fluffy white clouds rolling past. Was heaven honestly this perfect?
Aria’s white-blonde hair swayed in the breeze as she said: “I never thought I’d see you here, in heaven. What will become of your town?”
I frowned, and buried my face in my hands. That was one of the questions I wanted to know too, whether my town, my people, will be alright. I never expected the curse to end my life so soon.
Aria gazed back at me, her pale blue eyes boring into mine, expecting an answer. I sighed, then said:
“I hope it’s alright.”
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