Stones

Part 11

“Jeez Erica.” Gabe glared at her. “You’re in a cheery mood. Have a heart, girl. They haven’t seen each other in like-- Since birth!”
“Well-- This war is ruining my life!” She ran off.
“Gabe...” I asked. “What was that all about?”
“Her boyfriend- Michael- was sent to fight in the war. He’s a, um, half-horse. Forgot the official name for it. But anyway, the soldiers didn’t wanna walk all the way on foot... He’s their alternative.” I tried not to laugh. But I did.
“SHUT UP.” I heard Erica scream from down the hall. Oops.
“So, Karen.” I decided it was time to change the subject, before Erica strangled us all. “Tell me about yourself.” We all went to the HUGE living room, and sat on the couches. I’m serious when I say, that it was like sitting on a cloud. I never wanted to get up. Karen told us her life story.
“Since the day I was born, people told me I was different. I have a photographic memory, like a lot of other fairies or pucks or whatever we are. Anyway, I did exceptionally well in school, and my family’s rich, so I had everything handed to me. Some called me spoiled. I call it at an advantage. But every night, when I was trying to sleep, that memory would come back. I (having such an excellent memory) remembered the day I was born. I remembered my REAL mom, and my sister. But it was so long ago... I started to doubt myself. But it wouldn’t go away. So I asked my parents if I was adopted. They lied. They told me I had my mother’s eyes, and my father’s nose, and no way was I adopted.”
“Danika has blue eyes...” I mumbled to myself. “You remembered me?”
“Well, sort of.” She was beginning to look troubled. “I remembered your aura. But, of course, I didn’t know what it was until yesterday. I don’t even know how to describe it, though. When I was 6, my father- perhaps you’ve heard of him. Fred Nelson? He owns almost half of the world’s oil companies. Very wealthy man- disappeared. Not really like MISSING, though. I mean, he left me and my mother, and married a snobby, evil woman who hated children. He sent me a large check every week to make up for it. But nothing can make up for what he did. To me, and more importantly, to my ‘mother’. The more hate-mail I sent him, the more cash he sent back. Until one day, he came to visit. He made sure my mother wouldn’t be home, and he only stayed for two hours. But it meant the world to me.”
“Can we just move past the father-daughter troubles story?” Gabe asked. I slapped him in the arm, and he said, “Fine. Whatever. Continue with your touching story. Please.” I nearly strangled him.
“No, it’s fine. Moving on. He told me that I was adopted. This was what like 5 years ago? I was eleven. And I ran away. Of course, they found me, my mom sued my father for who-knows-what, and things went back to normal. Until Danika found me.”
“Yeah, Danika tends to change peoples lives... Not necessarily for the better.” I sighed and thought of my own “dad”. It was kinda depressing to find out that your whole life has been a lie. By kinda, I mean very. I wanted to think at least I have Israel, but he was out fighting and I wasn’t even sure he would make it back alive. I must’ve looked really love-sick, or Karen could read minds, because she almost immediately noticed how fidgety I was.
“Alex,” She looked at me with great concern. “What’s wrong? What- no, who- is it?”
“Oh, nothing, just...” I gave in. I guess I needed to talk to someone about it, and Karen really seemed to understand what I was going through. “Actually, there’s this guy, I’ve been with him for a couple months, and we’re super close. But he’s out fighting for Danika...” I stopped there. I didn’t wanna cry green tears in front of my long-lost sister.
“You poor thing.” She put an arm around me, looking like she was gonna start crying, too. “It’ll all be okay. After the war is over, things will go back to normal. No, better than normal. It’ll be the start of a new era!” I could sense some enthusiasm in her tone, but she mostly seemed as scared as I was.
“But... But what if he never makes it home? What if Erica’s boyfriend Michael makes it home, but Israel doesn’t?!” And the green began.
“He will. I promise.” She tucked a strand of perfect, shiny, dark hair behind her ear, and sighed. I wanted argue with her, tell her that she couldn’t promise that, because there was almost nothing she could do, but it would’ve just been selfish. Like Victoria. Her disappearance caused everyone a lot of stress, but Gabe was worried sick. Whenever I mentioned her, or anything to do with her, he went all psycho. He’d throw stuff, scream, and cry. I hated to see him cry. Karen (who didn’t even know Victoria), tried to comfort him, but he treated her like crap in return. It got to the point where nobody felt bad for him; just angry.
Then, she showed up again. Just as mysteriously as she’d disappeared, she was back. With a whole gang of police. They arrested Gabe, while Victoria just smirked. She told us that Gabe had recently robbed over 12 banks, and bragged about it to her. Having overcome her bad side, she went right to the cops. Which explained why she hadn’t said goodbye; she wanted to avoid a dangerous situation with Gabe. Best not to argue with creatures of darkness. After wondering whether or not to trust Victoria for like ever, I finally decided she was trustworthy again. But, just to make sure, we made a pact. No secrets, and especially no secret plans. A shared knowledge. We ankle-shook on it.
The war continued for another week, before Victoria and Karen and Erica and I became too bored to sit around. Karen tried to remind us of Danika’s strict orders to not leave the castle, but even she wanted to bust outta that place. Who knew a huge, magical castle could be so boring? We dug through all the rooms we were instructed not to go into, and found some interesting stuff. Battle gear; everything from shields to knives to swords to full-body suits of armour. Soldier uniforms from every nationality, and every war. Another room was filled to the brim with weird gadgets; pens that turned to pepper-spray, bracelets that turned into jet-packs, you name it. We loaded up as much stuff as we could get into bags, with infinite space. Like Mary Poppins had. We all dressed in different uniforms, so nobody would know we were a team. Erica had a blue Union Army suit, with a matching hat. Karen was wearing a tan, Australian uniform, with plenty of badges. Victoria had a green camo uniform on, with a cute cropped army jacket, so it was more fashionable than formal. My outfit wasn’t from a past war. In fact, I wasn’t sure if it was from a war at all. I felt ridiculous wearing it, too. Tight, black, leather pants, with a camo tank-top, and black sport jacket. Of course, the look wasn’t complete without a shiny handgun and holster.
After they finally convinced me that I didn’t look too stupid, we did what any group of girls would’ve done; we did each others hair. Erica and I french-braided Karen’s long, dark hair. Victoria gave Erica a super cute plaited hair-do. I wanted to add to Victoria’s cute look, so I tied her dirty-blown hair into two ribbons. When it was my turn, they blindfolded me. I could feel them tugging and cutting... Cutting! I tried to tell them to stop, but they refused.
“Don’t worry, Alex!” Erica insisted. “It’ll be cute!” Snip, snip. I could feel locks of my hair fall around me.
“OMG.” I heard Karen say, before Victoria put a hand over her mouth. When they took off the blindfold and spun me around to look in the mirror, I was speechless. My long, blond hair was now cut choppy (but cute) just below my shoulders,, and I had purple bangs! I flipped my head around, to reveal green and blue and pink highlights. It looked almost emo, with a hint of movie star. It looked pretty darn cute with the ninja/soldier outfit. I could hear Karen and Erica whispering, Told ya so! in the background. We were officially ready for battle! We went outside to look for some cars (Karen had a license, and Erica had a learner’s permit), but there were none. Instead, there were stables. But no horses. Unicorns!
When I say unicorns, I mean real, living, colorful, breathtaking unicorns. And I’m not exaggerating when I say they glittered. There were 7 in all. One pink, three blue, two purple, and one gold. Karen, who apparently had mad skills with horses and similar creatures, called out the name Flamethrower, and the gold unicorn came running... Or flying... Or floating. I got the pink one. Erica and Victoria got the two purple ones. The three blue ones tagged along behind us.
It took about two days to get to the camp where the soldiers were staying. We left the unicorns a couple hundred yards from sight, and snuck into one of the cabins through the window. It was 1:00 in the morning, so we crashed on a couple of empty beds. We put on old-lady style nightgowns, so our outfits would be fresh for later. I woke up later, to find Israel, in full armour, sitting at the foot of my bed. Holding a dozen red roses. It was such a cliche moment.
“Israel?” I said, as I sat up. “Is that you?!”
“Who else would it be?” He grinned. I could feel my face turning redder. I was still in the raggedy old-lady pajamas, and my hair was a colorful mess. I was even pretty sure I had Erica’s dirty sock on my forehead. “You look... Beautiful as ever.” Was he kidding? I was sure he was kidding. But he didn’t look like he was kidding.
“Uh,” I managed to say. “Thanks. You look... Stunning. My knight in shining armour.”
“These are for you.” He handed me the roses. “My beautiful princess. In case I don’t make it out of all this alive....”
“DON’T say that!” I shrieked. “Don’t you dare say that.” I shot up and pressed my face against the cold, hard, metal armour. I could see my green tears running down the shiny suit, sparkling in the early morning light. I couldn’t bare to think of losing the one thing I had left. I’d lost Gabe. I’d lost my way of life. My sense of purpose. My view on reality.
“I know....” He closed his eyes, and gently put a metal-covered arm around me. “I know, Alex. But- don’t hate me for saying this- if something happened to me, and I never saw you again... I just want you to know that you’re reason I’m doing this. You’re my everything.”
“I don’t want to be the reason you die. I want to be the reason you live. I’d rather die than have to live without you.” I sat in his lap, and looked deep into his eyes. “Do what you think is right. I trust you.” I leaned in and kissed him. It wasn’t like any of the many kisses I’d had before. It was almost... Magic. My whole body went numb, and my heart skipped a beat. We kissed, then we kissed again. We kept on kissing until we heard the noise of shuffling feet. Crap! I’d completely forgotten there were other people in the cabin! In fact, I’d totally forgotten about everything in the world but Israel.
“Oh my god...” I heard as I swung around, sadly separating myself from the man of my dreams. “When did he get here?” I heard another voice ask.
“Morning, girls.” I blushed as I said it.
“Looks like it was pretty good for you, huh?” Erica joked. I just giggled and shrugged. I was still partially in a trance from the epic kiss.
“Wow, Alex. Nice dress... What are you, 80?!” Victoria had a way of embarrassing me at just the right (or wrong) moments.
“Oh come on, guys. Give her a break!” Karen laughed. “Look at the poor girl... She’s in shock!”
“Am not!” I protested weakly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna change into something decent and get going. If we’re gonna make it to the underworld by sunset, we’d better get moving!” And so the group dispersed. I said goodbye to my knight in shining armour, and put on my (ridiculous; as I said before... but I was starting to think it was kinda cute...) outfit. While Victoria and Erica were busy flirting with the guys around camp, Karen and I had another heart-to-heart talk. About how our lives had been a lie. About the stupid war. About our plan.
“What exactly IS the plan?” She asked. “I mean, why’d we come all the way out here? What are we trying to accomplish?”
“You know...” I paused to think. “I’m not quite sure. I think Erica said something about assassinating Gale, and freeing Shelby. But I don’t really understand how we’re gonna do that... How do you even GET to the underworld? And once we’re there, we still have no official plan. Or prior knowledge about murder. And what if normal weapons don’t kill Gale? He’s a pretty tough guy...”
“Oh great. So pretty much, what you’re telling me is... We’re screwed?” Karen glared at the wall and clenched her fists. “Well then, Alex, let’s make a choice. You can continue on the suicide mission, or you can join me, and get out alive.”
“But--” I wanted to go. I really did. I was soooo tempted to just take off and ditch my friends. But then it hit me: Karen had charmspeak. “NO!” I finally screamed. “I am sooo not ditching my friends. Did you see how many people- creatures, whatever- are fighting for this cause?! I might be able to save their lives!”
“But they don’t need your help! That’s why Danika left you at the palace instead of ordering you to fight. That’s why Danika LEFT you with your ‘parents’.” That girl just crossed the line. She had no right to bring my family into this. She wasn’t my sister (okay, maybe biologically she was, but not emotionally). I stuck my hand into a drawer under the bed, and pulled out a Taser Gun. I pointed it straight at Karen, and asked her if she wanted to change her mind. She refused, so I told her to run. And to never come back. So she did. But I read her mind as she was leaving (which was quite difficult, since she kept blocking me out.). She was planning to beat us to the underworld, and reveal our ideas. Trade sides so she had a better chance of living. Didn’t she understand that she’d be killed, too, if Gale succeeded?
By the time I tracked down Victoria and Erica and told them what had happened, it was too late. Karen had taken off, WITH the unicorns. We had no cell phones (I know what you’re thinking, “Three teenage girls and not a single cell phone?” But they project signals that Gale could most likely detect, and we couldn’t afford to take the risk), and therefore no transportation. We were sitting around, feeling doomed, when a lightbulb went off in Erica’s head.
“Devin.” She announced. “Devin can get us out of here!” Victoria and I gave her suspicious glares.
“And who is Devin?” I finally asked, pretending to pay attention as she described what a dork he was, his exact haircut and style, and must’ve missed the important part. Next thing I knew, we were all crammed into a smart car with a strange, geeky boy, about our age, maybe a year older. It was 10 o’clock at night, and we were driving as far South as we could.
“How do you know where the Underworld is?” Victoria asked, averting her eyes from Devin’s flirtatious smile (complete with braces). He blinked a couple times, behind thick-lensed glasses, with clunky red frames.
“Well everyone says it’s down,” his breath smelled like rotting carcass. “And technically, South is down. If we keep driving south, into the ocean, off the tip of South America, we’ll get there.” Into the ocean?!?!?! He noticed Victoria’s startled expression right away. “Don’t worry, sweetcheeks, it’s completely safe.” She scowled and barely resisted slapping him.
“Into the ocean?!?!” I interrupted the awkwardness with my panicked squeal. “We’re gonna die!!!!” Well, I’m not proud of what I did next. It definitely slowed down the whole operation... I flailed my arms and legs like a sugar glider on steroids, screaming like a tortured chicken. Erica tried to get me to calm down and shut my mouth, but I bit her hand. I was turning into a psychopath. Poor Devin drove off the road, into a big rock, and his smart car was totally ruined. I dug my unusually un-painted nails into his back, and shrieked, “OPEN THE DOOOOR!!!!!” The door swung open and I flew out. Followed by two concerned friends and a scared (most likely peeing his pants) nerd. He was short a smart car, and I was short my sanity. My skin was neon purple, my eyes were filled with green tears, and my half blonde, half rainbow hair was frizzy and tangled. I looked more like a circus freak than either a fairy or a human. One look at me, and Devin passed out. I stood there, staring at my reflection in the smashed car mirror, avoiding the pitiful stares of my still loyal friends. At least we weren’t at the bottom of the ocean!
We used the remains of Devin’s (sad excuse of a) car to build a camp.