Silent Deeds

Fear High

Episode 1:

Silent Deeds

By: Noah R. McDowell

         

Dedicated to my Friends, who

have stuck with my crazy antics, for all these years

~Noah Riley McDowell

Chapter 1: The Revelation

Movers shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be where I am now. Movers should be off on butt kicking spy gigs, not waiting in this trashed apartment waiting for horrible news that could ruin my life.

Brian was tense in his seat, his head was burning, and I could tell what he was going through. He’s a reader, he can read people’s minds, but sometimes he can’t read certain people’s minds, and that always gives him major headaches.

He was having a bad headache right now, the people that were choosing one of our destinies had masks on. Masks that blocked readers from getting inside their minds, they don’t want us to know until they’ve made the decision.

Here’s the run down, during our last mission we lost—well not really but the mayor that we were assigned to keep safe at all times, died. Just because Conner was about to be killed by an angry cyborg, I pushed Conner out of the way, and then the mayor was behind him and got the killer blast.

I got to kill the cyborg though by detaching its life cord, and blowing it up, while Brian and Conner dealt with the cyborg’s minions. Logan was busy contacting the society that our mission was a failure.

And whenever you fail a mission, one of the team members has to be replaced. So the team is Logan the leader and the hi-breed vampire, then Conner the hi-breed werewolf, Brian the reader, Stephen the computer brains, and then me the mover that caused us to fail the mission.

I don’t have a doubt that they won’t kick me off the team, I just hope my replacement does a good job.

I don’t want to think about what they’re talking about in the other room; I know they’re talking about me. Every single vote they make will be towards me going to some lame school.

Then after one year of school, my team will decide whether they want me back and get rid of my replacement. I don’t think my team would do that to me, I’ve been with them for five years, which makes me 15.

Brian glanced at me with a worried stare, “Dude, I can’t let you go!” he said.

“They’ll make the decision, it’s not up to me, if I get voted off the team, then I go. There’s nothing else I can do, I can’t go back through time and let Conner die, and I wouldn’t do anything differently.

“I know, this whole situation is such a downer, to everyone. Everybody will miss the heck out of you. The best part of being a team is that we’re all friends and nothing can break that.” He sighed.       

“Yeah I guess, it’s going to suck being away from all you, though.” I growled, and then the door to the council office opened up.

A stout old man walked out, and announced, “The council has decided between Conner and Dominic, Conner because he shouldn’t have put himself in danger, and Dominic for pushing Conner out of the way and getting the mayor killed. So I believe it’s pretty obvious that Dominic is the one that will be going to Monster High School for a year.” The old man answered my fate. “You may have one day to say good bye.”

Conner, Logan, and Stephen raced to me, where I was trying my hardest to prevent the tears from coming. Brian was already at my side, when they told us the news.

Conner then said, “It’s my entire fault, if I wasn’t standing in front of that stupid cyborg, you wouldn’t have tried to save me!”

“Conner it wasn’t your fault, it was mine.” I whispered.

“Mick, after a year we’ll totally bring you back, your replacement could never really replace you.” Logan breathed. By the way my name’s Dominic but people just call me Mick for short.

“The Nevrade team will never be the same without you, man!” Stephen chimed in with the long list of ‘Miss Yous’.

“Let’s have one more day of excitement, for Mick before he has to go to high school!” Brian then tried to cheer everyone up and I was in for it, I didn’t want them sad for the rest of the year just because I got booted off the team.

“Guys we could defiantly take a ride to the club.” I announced.

“I’m down with that.” Stephen slid his hand over his bald head, the club is a joint where all of the agent teams can just go and hang out, and since it’s a Saturday night it’ll be awesome!

So after that we all hopped into the back of a limo and told the driver to go to the ‘Lake House Club’.

I brushed my thick black hair out of my eyes, and tried to focus on the video game we were playing. Yeah that’s right, we so awesome we have an Xbox 360 right in the back of a limo!

Brian yelled, “Yes I totally just blew your brains out, Logan!”

“Not if I go gangster and rip your controller out of your hands!” Logan grabbed the controller and held it out of Brian’s reach; Logan is so much taller than all of us so he usually gets the advantage in anything we do, from Basketball to Ninja Hunting.

After they wrestled over the controller, we finally arrived at the club, Brian and Stephen had called their girlfriends to meet us there.

Brian’s girl Devin arrived first; the only problem with their relationship is that she’s like a few inches taller than him and she’s blond. Otherwise they’re a pretty cool couple, “Devin, you mind if we hang out with Mick tonight? He was chosen to leave the team…” Brian asked.

“What? Mick has to leave? I’m so sorry dude, I’ll miss you so much!” then she gave me a hug.

Then Stephen’s girl, Anna hopped out of her limo to go meet Stephen, me and Anna don’t really get along so well…

After she was done hugging Stephen, she glanced at me and growled, “What’s up, Goth boy?”

“What’s up, meth head?” I growled back.
            “So which one of you are leaving, the agency?” Anna asked.

“You’re looking at him, bottle blond!” I growled.

“Yes, the Goth kid is leaving!” she cried!

All I could do was growl; you can never admit defeat to the enemy, especially if the enemy is Anna. Then we all walked on into the club, there were people dancing all over the place, the agents usually bring their dates to clubs like these.

Unfortunately yours truly doesn’t have a date, I mean many girls have asked me out, but I’m still looking for that one girl that makes you, you know, happy.

Brian, Devin, Conner, and I were left while Stephen, Anna, and Logan ran off to greet the other agents. Dylan, one of the ‘Jade’ group and Kasey came over to hang out.

Brian, Conner, and Dylan despise Kasey, for some reason, while Devin and I are good friends with her. “So, who’s leaving?” Dylan asked, with a somber feeling, even though he kind of already knew.

“Dylan, it’s me.” I mumbled.

“No!” Kasey cried, then reached out and hugged me good bye, “Why does it have to be you?” Kasey growled.

“Well I saved Conner, and let the beast kill the mayor.” I mumbled.

“Why’d you have to save Conner? He has no life!” Kasey scowled.

“Hey!” Conner snapped.

“Guys, it doesn’t matter anymore, it just matters that this is my last time with you guys. We should have a good night.” I demanded.

“I agree.” Dylan and Kasey both mumbled.

After we had so much fun dancing, and some tears were shed when some of the other teams figured out about my departure, I even fought back a few tears, knowing that all these people, cared about me.

I was worn out and then I took a stool and sat on the bar, Brian took a seat next to me. “You know it’s going to different without you, dude.” Brian whispered, and then chugged his Dr. Pepper.

I took a drink of my Sprite, and said, “I know Brian, but I’ll be in worse condition than you guys. I have to deal with a bunch of monsters for a year. Heck, I’ll be treated like a dang monster!” I screamed.

I didn’t recognize how loud I shouted, everybody had their eyes on me, and then I looked back at Brian and murmured, “Bye.” And then I stormed off, out the back door into the alley.

Right after I stepped my foot out the door, I was ambushed and nailed into the wall. “You are getting ready to pay, for killing my brother!” a familiar voice mumbled.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Aw you don’t remember me, let me remind you of what you did to me, my brother was killed in that fight against the Cyclops. This was a long time ago, maybe before that inhuman Conner joined your little team?!” the voice said.

But then I remembered it all, Luke, the wizard that used to be on our team, but he was killed by a Cyclops on a mission, and then replaced by Conner. “Luke is long dead, dude.” I murmured, realizing that this was Adrian, Luke’s brother.

“So you couldn’t save Luke, but you could save your new friend Conner? Luke was in the same position Conner was in! Why didn’t you let the fricken’ vice president, die? You sure were in a rush to save the mayor!!” Adrian was mad, and brought into tears, “And now, Dominic, I’m going to kill you!” he growled.

“I’m sorry!” I pleaded.

Then suddenly Adrian was flying across the alley and slammed into the wall, it was Logan, he has a special vampire talent that makes him be able to push people with his mind. “Come on, Mick! He’s not going down without a fight.” Logan yelled, and he was right, Adrian had the right to be mad at me, and the right to kill me.

Brian then arrived, with Conner. “Guy’s we’ve got to leave this club, now.” Brian yelled.

Logan and I quickly followed both of them, we squeezed through the dancing teens and Logan jumped in the driver’s seat, the limo driver was waiting outside, “Guys wait!” he yelled.

“In a hurry, dude!” Brian yelled and we all jumped in the limo.

Logan stepped on it and flew down the highway, “Adrian’s back for revenge?” Conner asked, “And where’s Stephen?”

“Yes, he’s back and nearly killed Mick, Stephen is with Anna and Devin.” Logan informed.

“This is just sudden, so Adrian wants me dead because I didn’t save Luke?” I questioned.

“Yeah it sounds like it.” Logan said.

“We have to drop you off at your apartment Mick; we had some guys to bring your stuff over there.” Logan said.

“I have an apartment?” I asked stunned.

“Yeah, we’ll figure a way to stop Adrian, why’ll we’re working on this, you stay put!” Logan growled, knowing I really wanted to help.

“Ugh” I grumbled but didn’t complain, I knew this would happen today, just not this way.

Logan began to drive slowly, when came up to an apartment building, and I knew my time on the Nevrade team was up. I slumped out of the limo, and waved at the dudes.

Brian, Conner, and Logan somberly waved me good-bye and I waited on the sidewalk for the limo to drive off. I didn’t know how bad I would miss them, but for some reason, some totally bizarre reason, this is my fate…

Chapter Two: Schooled

        This day was probably the worst day, of all the days I’ve encountered a day at a time. When I walked into my apartment, the place was empty; my stuff was set aside in a corner, waiting to be stored in their new home.

            Never thought I’d have to live without the guys before, and go and live in a lonely place all alone, a feeling that is shattered by bad memories and just with no one to talk to, or hang out with.

            This had to be the worst feeling I’ve ever had to feel in my life, and this wasn’t right. A piece of this puzzle is missing, something’s not right. Why would Adrian wait until now to take his revenge?

            Is it just because I saved Conner, and not Luke? That was five years ago, when the Nevrade team was first formed. It was just Logan, Brian, Luke, and Me. This was before the agency passed a law that all teams had to have a tech dude, this law was place two year after this time period, so that’s when Stephen came into the picture.

            Luke was a wizard, a pretty young wizard still in his training stage, so we were ordered to go on a quest to the City of Jewels; there were rumors that there was a Minotaur there trying to steal the Hidden Diamond that was hidden deep under the city, to use for its own evil purposes. I have no clue why he would want that, since nobody knows what the Hidden Diamond does.

            That mission, we successfully defeated the foolish Minotaur, but we never found the hidden diamond, and Luke fell to the wrath of that Minotaur by being thrown off a cliff and fell into a river with many sharp rocks.

            And I was right there next to Luke, but wasn’t brave enough to save him, but when I lost Luke, I left for a month by myself and prepared myself if it were to happen again, and that’s why I saved Conner.

            That is why Adrian wants me dead, and I’m pretty sure I know why he’s coming just now, he’s probably gone through multiple training session, preparing to avenge Luke and kill me. I just wish there was some way, I could prevent that because after I’m dead, Adrian will move on to the rest of the team, and I cannot let that happen!

            Anyways I found myself, off in my own world, connecting to the deep inner core of my brain and moving all my stuff and the furniture all into its correct places. It feels so good when I’m moving stuff in my mind; it feels like I can control the world, the world is at my fingertips.

            Though I haven’t acquired my full powers yet, like I can move anything with my mind except for animals and humans, when I get that far I’ll be able to go onto solo missions.

            When I finally finished decorating the apartment, which has a bedroom, small kitchen, bathroom, closet, and living room. So since I used to live in the Nevrade Mansion, this apartment is a bit of a putdown.

            I took a quick shower and then sat in front of the couch, waiting for the cell phone to ring, to give me any information about the new school I’d have to attend tomorrow.

            Nothing happened, nothing rang, there was just a dead silence, and then I grew tired and finally drifted off.

            I was startled when an unfamiliar noise screamed into my ear; it was the phone that was hooked up to the apartment. I didn’t realize that they wouldn’t call my cell phone.

            I glanced at the time; it was 10:30 p.m. I grabbed the phone and said “Hello?” the voice was Brian’s.

            “Hey Mick, how’s the apartment?” he asked.

            “It’s awesome; do you have any info on Adrian, yet?”

            “Nah dude, it completely vanished when we went back to the club, he was gone. There was absolutely no sign of him; hey you notice anything at your place?”

            “Nope, so how am I supposed to get to school tomorrow?” I asked.

            “Oh Spencer will bring you, your book bag with everything you’ll need in the morning and give you a ride to school. You’ll have to be ready by 7:00 to leave.” Brian informed, and Spencer is the Nevrade’s butler.

            “What are you kidding me? 7:00?”I complained.

            “Sorry dude, we’ll be up all night, searching for Adrian. Don’t forget, you’re not alone in this. We’ll be with you all the way.” Brian encouraged.

            “Yeah I know, I just want to help you guys out, you could find him quicker with my help.”

            “Aw my little Goth friend, hang in there dude. We’ll miss you, dude.” He said and hung up, probably knowing that I wouldn’t stop complaining.

            I sighed and then brushed my teeth and threw my t-shirt off and slid into a pair of basketball shorts. Then I tossed and turned for the rest of the night, thinking about the monsters that were probably going to pick on me for getting kicked off the Nevrade team. One of the most popular teams in the world, wonder what will happen to it with me gone?

            What do I care? I’m not even on it anymore. Ugh this stinks!

            The alarm I set last night woke me up at 6:30, I grouched out of my bed, dreading for just a few more minutes of the comfort in my bed. I brushed my hair and then made an egg omelet, after breakfast was over. I looked in my drawer to see what clothes I had to wear, I found a black t-shirt, which I used to use in training sessions, and then pulled on a pair of jeans. Then a pair of black Nike’s would have to do, it was 6:58 and the doorbell rang.

            I rushed to let Spencer in, “How’s the apartment, Master Mick?” he asked, “here’s your book bag, I thought you would rather black.” He said.

            “The apartment is cool and thanks for helping me out. I’ve just been stressing out over going to this school, and your help is just really awesome!” I said, we then walked out of the apartment and I jumped inside the back of the limo.

            Then it was silent for the rest of the ride and nothing in common with Spencer to talk about. It’s just that awkward moment when you’re in a car with someone you don’t really have anything in common with and all you have to do is sit there.

            When we finally arrived, I told Spencer thanks for the ride, and then hopped out. Then Spencer drove off and left me standing at the gate of Monster High School. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life.

            There were numbers of monsters there, Frankenstein’s sons, witches, wizards, hi-breed vampires and werewolves, cyborg’s, minotaur’s, numbers of mutants, and rejected agents like me and so much more.

            I opened the gate and fairies flew by me and fluttered around my head, I swatted them way and dodged a spit ball from a mutant. Two Minotaur teenagers were picking on a two poor satyrs. I then moved a large tree branch with my mind and threw it on one of the Minotaur’s.

            “You mess with Greg, you mess with Owen!” the Minotaur charged, I then moved a bench with my mind and pushed Owen away with the bench. “Ugh, what kind of mutant are you?” he growled.

            “I’m not a mutant, I’m a mover.” I said triumphantly. The two satyrs rushed next to me, galloping their goat feet.

            “How can we ever repay you, for saving us from yet another torture from Owen and Greg?” the short brown haired one said, and if you think about it these satyrs are twins!

            “Aw, there’s no need for you to repay me, it was nothing.” I said, brushing my shoulder.

            “Then want to be friends?” the long curly haired satyr asked.

            “Sure thing, what are your names?” I asked.

            “This is Gregor.” He pointed at the short haired satyr with glasses, “And I’m Geoffrey. We’re twins.” He informed, he was the one with no glasses and long brown hair with tiny curls.

            “Nice to meet you guys, you can call me Mick” I smiled.

            “You probably need to go and get your schedule from the office, we’ll show you!” Gregor offered.

            “Thanks.” I smiled and then followed them, I hadn’t noticed until now that people were staring at me and the two Minotaur bullies down on the ground. I gave a half smile to all the monsters with their jaw dropped staring at me.

            Before I knew it we were a group of four, a blond hair girl with glasses was right next to me, she came out of nowhere. “Hey my name is Roslyn, but you can call me Roslyn. She grinned, “I’m a rejected agent, as well.”

            “How’d you know I was a reject?” I asked.

            “Uh well it was pretty obvious, you’re from the most popular team in the whole agency, the Nevrade team!! Don’t you know me from the Jay team? Oh yeah you probably don’t because I only lasted one year before I was kicked out, I’m a reader.” She smiled.

            “Roslyn, you still haven’t gained your full powers yet, and it usually takes Readers about two years to get it after they go to the agency. You’ve had five years and it still hasn’t come to you yet!” Geoffrey informed.

            “Who asked you?” she growled.

            This was like a maze; I have no clue how I’m going to make it through ninth grade, at this school. And I have no clue, how I would survive Roslyn, Geoffrey and Gregor! They’re kind of crazy, but anyhow I’m a crazy Goth, so the puzzle is beginning to fall together.

            When we finally made it past the numerous lockers and monsters, we finally arrived at the office. A tall red headed lady sat in front of a desk, typing on a typewriter. She flicked her head towards us, and said, “You must be Dominic Parker. Let me find your schedule.” She shined a white smile at me, when she bent over to look in her files; I saw a lizard tail flick out.

            I chuckled under my breath, and Roslyn rolled her eyes at me. She finally popped up from under the desk, with my schedule, “Here you go sir, and I hope you have a good year at Monster High School.” She grinned

            When we finally got out of there, Roslyn scolded me, “It was just a lizard tail, and she’s only a mutant!” Roslyn glared. And then all four of us cracked up with laughter, Geoffrey even neighed with laughter.

            “Looks like I have Greek Mythology, first.” I said, and then Roslyn and the twins also had Greek Mythology.

            On the top of my schedule were my locker number, and the combo. I left the others planning to meet at the class. My locker 523 on the east side of the school; I dialed in the combination, and opened my book bag and pulled out my Greek textbook, and a composition notebook, for notes.

            “You new here?” the girl next to me asked. She had straight frizzed hair, and big blue eyes.

            “Yes my names Mick, yours?” I replied.

            “Mines Casey, I’m a hi-breed werewolf. What type of monster are you?” she asked.

            “Oh I’m not a monster, just a reject from the Nevrade team.” I answered.

            “Oh I don’t pay attention to all the agency stuff, I like to keep to myself most of the time.”

            And that would explain the notebook chocked full of anime drawings, and doodles. She clutched a Greek Mythology text book to her hip. “Aw you have Mythology first period. Me too, can you show me where it is?” I asked.

            Casey and I walked to Mr. Grogan’s class, and she took her seat and I looked around the room to find a seat, the only seat left was between a feline mutant girl and an obvious hi-breed vampire dude.

            Mr. Grogan wrote his name on the board and turned around to the class, “You know students, that you aren’t the only monsters in the world. That there are the Greek mythological monsters out there, some of you even fall into that category. Such as the satyrs, and Minotaur’s the only Greek monsters allowed at this school. I will be teaching you about most of the monsters in Greek Mythology, this year. First we will learn everyone’s name and their hobby.” He announced.

            He started with Geoffrey, “It’s Geoffrey and my hobby is playing the piano.”

            Then it was Gregor’s turn, “My name is Gregor, and my hobby is I like to figure out stuff about other religions, such as Hindu, Buddhism, and many more.”

            “Ok then, that’s very impressive.” Mr. Grogan sighed.

            Casey then said she like to draw, then Roslyn said that she like to work on her powers. Then the hi-breed vampire, whose name is Caleb said that he likes to suck blood, the tan half cat girl is Lexis and she likes to learn about Egypt, and then it was my turn.

            Truthfully I don’t really know what my hobby is, so I just said, “My name is Mick, and I used to go on missions with the Nevrade team until I was booted for letting the mayor die.”

            After that all eyes were watching me, the new toy at this school, the stranger, the one who’s not even supposed to be here! And that’s right I shouldn’t be here, I should be out fighting Adrian, and working to prove the agency that I can be tough, I can be a part of the agency!

            And still I have to live out the rest of the year here and hope that Adrian doesn’t kill me in my sleep. I can’t believe that I’m this torn up; a few minutes ago I was cheerful making a bunch of new friends, what happened to me?

            And I know what happened to me, I remembered what happened, just yesterday, and I pretty sure everyone remembers now.

            The rest of the class period, Mr. Grogan told us about where the Greek happens, and it happens in New York. New York is actually controlled by Zeus and all the other gods and goddesses.

            He also told us that there was going to be a class field trip before Christmas Break to New York and the bad part is a project we have to do on our favorite god or goddess. It’s a partner’s project, and I ended up with Caleb, then after we selected our partners the period was over and we had science, and language arts.

            Before lunch, I asked the others which now consisted of Casey, Roslyn, Geoffrey, Gregor, Caleb, and Casey’s good friend Lexis, “Why isn’t there a math class on this schedule?”

            “Well all the math classes are over, we don’t take math in high school here, you take it during elementary and middle school, but not here.” Geoffrey said.

            Besides Caleb had sort of a bowl cut style hair and bright blue eyes, then Lexis has long curly black hair that brought out her big chocolate filled eyes. The only kind of weird part about Lexis is her tan tail.

            “That’s going to make this school year so much easier, now.” I replied to Geoffrey since math is my most hated subject in school.

            All of us then grabbed a table at lunch and Lexis then asked us, “So whose going to the August Ball, tonight?”

            “There’s a dance?” I asked, dumbfounded.

            “Yeah, duh there’s always a dance at the beginning of the year. You should come, it’s at 7:00” She replied, it also looked like everyone at the table was going, so why not?

            After school ended, Spencer drove me home; I made sure to ask him if he would drive me to the August Ball. Then I rushed home and dived on the bed, thinking about the awesome day I had, except for my almost nervous breakdown during Greek class. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad, after all?

Chapter Three: The August Ball

          I tossed my hair to the side, ready to go to the dance, tonight should be fun. I still can’t believe all the friends I’ve made so far. It’s unbelievable, well to tell you the truth I haven’t had any friends outside of the agency. So it’s really cool to have Casey, Geoffrey, Gregor, Lexis, Caleb, and Roslyn as friends now.

            As soon as Spencer rang the door bell, I had on a pair of plaid shorts and a tight black shirt; I also had a twenty in my wallet for snacks. Well being an agent you get paid a lot of money, like 700,000 per year. And my parents left me their inheritance after they were both killed on a mission when I was six. I didn’t really know them well; all I knew about them was that they loved me.

             I’ve missed them so much, since. I missed their constant letters asking me about school and training, and how they always cared so much about me. They cared about my grades, they cared about my health, and they always cared about me as a person. Even though I never saw them, I still loved them.

            Spencer dropped me off at the school. Lexis ran out to greet me; she was wearing a tan satin dress. “Hey Mick, I’m glad you could come! Everybody else is inside, come on!” she urged.

            Inside the school, music was playing softly, it was the music they play as everyone is filing in and saying how to friends, before they begin to dance.

            We saw the others, Casey was dressed in a black dress, and Caleb was dressed in normal clothes, and Geoffrey and Gregor were both dressed in tuxes. Roslyn wasn’t with them, I looked over my shoulder and I saw her standing next to a beautiful girl. Roslyn and her friend jogged over to us, “Hey guys this is my cousin, Blair. She’s a vampire.” She introduced.

            Blair had on a white flowing shirt and a pair of black jeans; she had flowing black hair and a pair of the most gorgeous brown eyes. She also had the prettiest white smile ever.

            “Hey Blair”, I breathed.

            “Mick? Is that you? I have your teams’ poster on my wall! The Nevrade team is awesome!” she said.
            “Yeah it’s me.” I nodded, not knowing what to do when you’re talking to the hottest girl in the world.

            “Wait why you aren’t with the rest of the team, are the others with you?” She asked.

            “Well I got kicked off the team.” I nodded, that’s when her jaw dropped.

            “What do you mean, how did this happen?” she asked, I then explained the whole story to her with all the details. “That’s awful, and so unfair!” she muttered. I hadn’t noticed that all my friends had left us and went off to dance.

            “Yeah it sucks really badly, and this just happened yesterday. Hey you want some punch?” I asked.

            “Sure.” She blushed.

            When I was pouring us both some punch, Caleb trotted over next to me and sang, “Mick and Blair sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Mick with a baby—OW!” he yelled after I punched him in the arm. “What? You know you like her, I saw the look in your eyes when you laid your eyes on her, and you like her!”

            “That doesn’t mean anything….” I grumbled.

            “Yes it does!”

            “Okay maybe it does, but keep your mouth shut!” I growled.

            “I knew it, you like her!” he taunted.

            “This is the time you shut up!”

            “Okay, but you should ask her to dance with you.”

            “Well maybe I will, I’ll ask her when a slow song comes on, to cherish the moment.” I said to maybe get him to shut up for a while.

            I carefully walked back over to Blair with the punch. “Thanks” she gestured, all I could do was watch her take a sip. She’s breath taking, I couldn’t help but nearly stare at her the whole time.

            Before I knew it, I was drinking a soda with a sour straw, nearly sugar drunk with Caleb, while the others were laughing at us acting crazy, the funny part was when Caleb and I started a conga line, which almost everyone joined it, it was so awesome!

            And before I knew it the conga line had ended, and the dance was nearly over, Spencer will be picking me up any moment now. I quickly headed to the DJ and requested a slow song.

            “You party animals, we’re going to end this night with a slow song. And to all your lovebirds out there get ready to dance!” the DJ called out.

            “What if I told you it was all meant to be? Would you believe me, would you agree? It’s almost that feeling that we've met before so tell me that you don’t think I’m crazy when I tell your love is here and now.” Kelly Clarkson sang through the stereo.

            I quickly ducked a fairy and made my way to Blair, “Hey Blair.” I smiled; she gave the normal crystal white smile back at me.

            “Hey Mick.” She grinned, and Roslyn backed away with a huge grin on her face.

            “Would you like to dance?” I asked.

            “I thought you’d never ask.” She smiled, and I was surprised she said yes! Oh gosh, we’re actually about to slow dance, and this is our song!

            She grasped my back and I held her waist, then we stepped to the music, and she grinned up at me, with a sparkle in her eyes, and I granted her a smile back.

            “So does this mean we’re going out now?” she asked.

            “Well that’s for you to decide, will you go out with me?” I asked.

            “Yes, of course I will. I was hoping you would ask!” Blair said excited, she gave me a hug when the song was over. And all I could think of was that I had the perfect friends, the hot girlfriend, and my life has kind of gotten better since I was kicked out. Maybe it’s just good Karma?

            Blair and Roslyn left after that, and then I was left behind as each one of my friends left. And I was the last one left; it was way after the time Spencer was supposed to pick me up. It was the first time Spencer forgot about something.                                            

            Finally I trudged through the cold night air, at night the school gets beyond creepy. There were bats flying in the air, catching their prey, a bug at a time.

            I finally found my way to the apartment, from looking outside the window of the limo, I’d figured out the directions. The apartment had an eerie feeling about it, and then I noticed Spencer’s limo was here, that’s odd. It wasn’t parked or anything, it was just sitting on the side of the road.

            I glanced inside the window and quickly regretted it, it was Spencer and he was breathing anymore, a gun wound was lodged in his chest. Somebody murdered him.

            I quickly pulled out my cell phone and dialed Brian’s number, “Hello?” he answered.

            “Brian you and the team have to get here now, I just found Spencer dead!” I screamed into the cell phone.

            “What do you mean, Spencer’s dead? Oh Gosh, I’ll be there right now, the other guys are out.” He said and hung up. It wasn’t until a few minutes later I heard his motorcycle churning down the road. He parked it and looked inside the limo, “Ouch.”, he grumbled. “I’ve got to call the agency to get them down here to check it out and get rid of it, in the meantime let’s go to your apartment.” He murmured his brain was obviously on other things.

            As soon as we walked into the apartment, it was ransacked, the couches were thrown over, and everything was either out of place or shattered, “This must the work of the same person who shot Spencer.” I growled.

            “It must have been Adrian, who else would it be?” Brian asked.

            “Or perhaps one of his minions?” I suggested.

            “Or even worse, someone else who wants you dead?” Brian suggested.

            The agency cops came and took away the body and the limo, and they told me that I’d have to find a friend to stay over at their house. I dialed Caleb’s number and he was more than willing to help me out, he already had a couch ready.

            That night turned out horrible, I still don’t understand any of this, and ugh I hate Adrian! I tried to block away the picture of Spencer’s dead body, floating around in my mind, but I couldn’t. But finally I found a picture of Blair in my mind and concentrated on that picture of her, and it made everything better….

Chapter Four: Physical Education Monsterfied.

          When the alarm that I brought from my old apartment shouted in my ear, I quickly snapped my eyes open, ready for day twenty of Monster High School. It’s been twenty days since Spencer died, and there’s been no word of Adrian. I sat up and cracked my back; it stinks sleeping on a couch all night.

            I wiped my eyes, and stood up. Caleb gave me my own walk-in closet to change into and keep some of my stuff in. I quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, my usual.

            When I walked in the kitchen, Caleb had a spoonful of Rice Krispies stuffed in his mouth.  If you looked inside that cereal bowl you could find globs of blood hidden in it, “And why not just suck blood out of a packet?” I asked.

            “I’m a hi-breed vampire, Mick! That means I need at least some human food in me every day and a balance of blood in my diet.” He shrugged.

            “That’s great; I’m going to stick with toast.” I said.

            “Hey you want to come with me to the video game store and stand in line to get, “Ninja Smasher 2”?It’s the awesome sequel that I’ve been waiting for after the first one came out!” Caleb asked.

            “Sure thing dude, but today, you, Casey, and I get to go to the training session first thing when we get to school.” I informed him.

            “Oh yeah, I can’t wait! It should be extra exhilarating after they gave it an upgrade, we’ll be the first to try it out!” Caleb cheered.

            I stuck my books in my book bag and Caleb and I walked out to wait for the bus. The grumpy old Chinese bus driver grunted at us, that’s Mr. Po, he’s not the nicest bus driver you’ve ever met.

            When I got on the bus, I was surprised to see Blair sitting there with an empty seat, “Well what are you doing here?” I asked.

            “Well I decided to enroll to Fear High, my old school was vampires only, but I figured since Caleb is a vampire too, it’d be okay that I could come here as well.” She grinned at me.

            I then took my seat in the back sitting right next to Blair and I squeezed her hand tightly, the twins sat in front of us, Casey and Caleb sat next to us, then Roslyn and Lexis sat together. We never really talk as a group, just with the person sitting next to you.

            Blair and I began to talk, we could’ve of talked the whole day away, we would about a variety of things, our past, homework, school, the agency, Adrian, and her feelings. It’s quite enjoyable talking to her, just to hear her soothing voice. And I didn’t even know that she was a vampire at the August Ball, I don’t think I really cared…

            The bad part is, is that I only get to see her on the bus; we don’t share any of the same classes. Once the bus stopped at the high school, we walked our separate ways and I headed to my locker. Casey was digging through her messy locker, trying to find her journal.

            I grabbed my stuff for Mythological class and pulled Casey’s journal from the top of her pile, “Thanks!” she grinned, “My locker is about the same at Mount Everest these days…

            “You never came off as a unorganized type of person Casey, but I can clearly see that now.” I grinned.

            I walked into the class room and took a seat to wait till all the other students arrive. Once everyone got here Mr. Grogan began his lesson, “Ok students, we’ll be discussing Aphrodite today. Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty and not to be messed with. Because young men like some of you, are very easy targets. Once you gaze upon her gorgeous reflection, you will be submitted into a very long and deep trance, that most never wake from. There is one way to break through the trance; one must be distracted from the gaze of their true love. Now that I want you to partner up in a group of three and make a timeline of Aphrodite, oh and Mick, Casey, and Caleb need to report to the training grounds!” he ordered.         

            Once outside of his door Caleb cheered, “I finally get to release the vampire inside of me!”

            “Yeah and I haven’t got the chance to go werewolf in months!” Casey shrieked a loud.

            “I use my ability all the time, getting milk out of the fridge and organizing stuff, blocking Minotaur’s with benches.” I recalled the first day of school.

            “Yeah lucky you, you never have to move a muscle, I have to get up and get a carton of milk and then walk over to the counter to get a glass to poor the milk in then put the milk back in the fridge then drink the milk then later I have to wash the glass! Seriously you want to switch powers? Because I’m a big glob of lazy!” she yelled.

            Did I mention Casey is a very lazy person? And did I mention that Caleb hasn’t let his eyes away from her since we walked out of Mr. Grogan’s class room? I believe my suspicions are correct; Casey and Caleb make an excellent couple, now I just have to get them to go out….

            We then made it out to the back of the school where the training grounds are, Greg and Owen were butting horns, and rough housing. We dodged them and made it to our training station.

            There were tons of obstacles, knifes jutting out, hoops to be jumped through, and a bunch of cool lasers. Then a girl about my age walked out, she had black haired tied in a ponytail, and a sun visor on, she came through a tent where the instructors stay.

            “Hello my name is Caitlyn and I’m going to be your instructor this morning, first all three of you will be going in the course at once. You will have to get through the obstacles and make it to the end. Good Luck!” she grinned an evil grin that gave me the creeps.

            Something about this whole training session, gave me a bad feeling. Though I couldn’t let Caleb and Casey down, they were really looking forward to this! So I took one for the team and stepped in the training stage first.

            First up was the simple hoops, I jumped through the first one, and then the next three set on fire! I then moved the hoop upwards with my mind and did the same with the rest of the hoops.

            Caleb had his fangs showing as he flew past me, Casey dashed by too, shining her bright amber brown fur; the facial features looked exactly like Casey with the eyes and the freckles.

            This wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be in the first place, this is actually sort of fun. Until all of a sudden things took a churn for the worst, as the upcoming laser fired at us, it chopped a piece of Casey’s fur off, and caught Caleb’s arm. “Ouch!” he cried holding the burn.

            I quickly moved the lasers away from us, and then we reached the knife room, where a bunch of blades jutted from the walls, it wasn’t until a blade was thrown across the room, when I became afraid.

            I decided to make a run for it, we all did actually, when we made it out I was the only one with a wound, a huge cut was embedded in my leg. There was blood gushing though it, “Oh gosh!” I cried.

            “That’s going to need stitches!” Caleb yelled. Were these training stations really supposed to harm kids? Something wasn’t right.

            I limped to the next obstacle, oh great they decided to make it a mixture of all the other obstacles but in one. There were knifes being thrown, flaming hoops, and lasers everywhere. And at the end was a huge swinging hammer ready to crush its prey.

            Casey was the first to fly through it, she flicked her tail and swerved to the right and to the left, and she was more like a fox than a wolf. She flew through a hoop, and her tail was left strangling to get through, but unfortunately it got too close to the fire and Casey yelped with the sharp pang. Desperately she then dashed through the rest of the course waiting at the end for us to help her get through the large hammer.

            Caleb used his vampire speed and dashed to the end, not receiving a scratch. It was my turn, and I’m not a werewolf or a vampire, this was going to be difficult. I knew I had my only power in my brain, the ability to move stuff with my mind. So I channeled that part of my brain and pushed trying to focus on all the blades, lasers, and hoops.

            And the next thing that happened was unexpected, even to me. I did it. I moved the obstacle aside, and then I just stepped through the course, unharmed. “How the heck did you do that? I thought you could only move one thing at a time with your mind!” Caleb asked.

            “Me too, looks like I’ve channeled my inner mover!” I sighed not trying to rub it in.

            “So how are we supposed to get through the hammer? You can’t move it, it’s way too heavy, it weighs a ton.” Casey grumbled, back in normal form.

            “Truthfully I have no clue; I say we just run through it.” I said.

            “Works for me, I hope you make it out okay!” Caleb yelled and then dashed by the hammer.

            “Ladies first.” I gestured.

            “No thanks Mick, I’ll go last.” She said.

            “Suit yourself.” I said and jumped right by the hammer.

            I met up with Caleb; he was lounging in a chair, aching with all of his new wounds. “That was rigged.” I growled.

            “What do you mean?” he asked, and as soon as he asked that we heard a loud curling shriek from the station. It was Casey!

            We rushed over to the station exit and found Casey sprawled out on the ground her leg bleeding. She was in tears, “It’s not supposed to bend that way!” she cried and tears just rolled down her face.

            Caleb knelt next to her, “Casey hang in there dude.” He said, like she was shot in the heart. She’s going to live!

            I jetted out of there and I found Caitlyn, I then screamed, “You’re with Adrian, aren’t you?”

            “What I have no clue what you mean?” she asked.

            “Don’t play dumb with me! That station was rigged; it was just your plan to kill us!” I yelled.

            “You’re exaggerating this, Mick!” she cried.           

            “Well if I’m exaggerating this, call the nurse to go and fix Casey’s leg!” I screamed.

Chapter Five: Monsters Play Ping Pong

        I ended up getting stitches on my leg; they put a cast on Casey’s leg, turns out to hammer broke her leg in three different places. Adrian tried to kill us once again, by rigging the station and that girl Caitlyn was his minion. Nobody believed us; nobody believed that Adrian had anything to do with this.

            It was thirteen days since the incident, when Roslyn made her announcement. She happily strolled over to the lunch table. Today was like any other day, nothing special, really. “Ok guys, you know since Adrian rigged that station, things have been a little too stressful for everybody, now since we know Adrian may want us dead as well as Mick.”

            “Get to the point Roslyn.” I grumbled not feeling like hearing her ramble on and on.

            “Well my mom said that I could have a party at my place!” Roslyn shrieked.

            “That’s cool, when?” Lexis asked her normal low key type of character.

            “This Saturday, can you guys make it?” she asked.

            “Dude, we all live in apartments barely doing anything at all, we don’t have parents to tell us what to do. I’m sure we’re all going to be able to come.” I grumbled.

            “Yep I agree with Mick, I can come.” Casey cheered.

            “Then I can come!” Caleb butted in hearing Casey could come to the party.

            “We can come too!” Geoffrey and Gregor chimed in.

            “Then it’s settled, lets meet at my house, it’s that far from the school. I don’t live in an apartment like you guys, my parents live close enough to the school so I don’t have to have an apartment.” She sighed.

            It was the day of the party, and something felt odd, I don’t know what it could be, I mean my friends and my totally hot girlfriend is going to be there. I don’t know maybe it’s just that I miss my old friends, Brian, Conner, Logan, and Stephen. This party may be harder than I had thought it would be.

            Everybody was already at the house when Caleb and I walked in, Geoffrey and Gregor were playing ping pong. Casey, Lexis, and Roslyn were in deep discussion. Then Blair ran to me and hugged my neck, “I’m so glad you’re here!”she cheered, “You want to go and play ping pong?” she asked.

            “What’s the point? I’m a mover, I could easily beast anyone at ping pong!” I said.

            “Then let me play you, hotshot!” Geoffrey snarled.

            “Dude, are you serious? I’m a mover!?” I asked.

            “Yeah, I can beat you!” Geoffrey said.

            “Ok then, let’s go!” I said.

            I tossed the ball to him, and said, “You first dude.” He pinged it to me, and I pinged it back, and moved the ball with my mind to score a point, he jumped on it but missed.

            “Point for Visitor!” Caleb announced.                      

            “Hey he cheated!” Geoffrey argued.

            “Impossible, he just pinged it!” Blair laughed.

            “I surrender.” Geoffrey growled, noticing how I won. Roslyn then ran to us with Casey and Lexis at her side.

            “My mom said that we could have the fondue now, and the ice-cream!” she said, and everyone raced to the house.

            Roslyn’s house is very nice, she has three dogs, the Great Dane is my favorite, his name is Kiss. It’s the biggest dog you’ve ever seen before, and it’s a nice kid friendly sort of dog. Everybody served themselves, while I waited at the end of the line talking to Kiss.

            When the line became shorter, I hopped in line and covered my chocolate ice cream with these awesome Oreo sprinkles. And then I grabbed a few strawberries and stuck them in the chocolate fondue. I took a seat next to Blair who was nibbling on a strawberry. “This is nice.” I mentioned to her, the music was playing softly in the background.

            “Yeah Mrs. Weaver is the best cook I know, and the best Aunt I’ve ever had!” Blair said.

            “Thanks Blair!” Mrs. Weaver said while cleaning dishes.

            “Guess where, we’re going tonight!” Roslyn asked everybody.

            “What?” Geoffrey asked.

            “We’re all going to go and see a movie. We just don’t know what movie to see, any suggestions?” she asked.

            “Oh lets go see ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ I’m in the mood to see Freddy and his awesome claws, ready to stab some innocent teenager! Oh the gore!” I said thrilled at the mention of gore.

            Everybody stared at me like I had gone insane, “Honey keep him away from the dogs.” Mrs. Weaver said.

            “Sure thing, mom!” Roslyn said.

            “Actually ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ is not a bad choice, it’s not like other lame pointless horror films, it actually has a good storyline.” Blair said.

            “Ok, everybody who wants to see ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ raise your hand!” Roslyn said. Casey, Lexis, Blair, Caleb, and I all raised our hands. Roslyn, Geoffrey, and Gregor were the odd people out. 

            “Yes, we get to watch ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’; this will be a fun night!” I cheered.

            “This will be interesting.” Gregor sighed.

            At the movie theater, it was 5:30 and the doors opens at 5:45, “Lexis and I will go get popcorn and drinks, guys.” Roslyn said and trotted into the theater.

            “Dudes this movie is going to give me nightmares!” Geoffrey urged.

            “Oh stop being a big baby!” Casey growled.

            Blair was at the water fountain; she came up from the water fountain and gave me a smile. Then a motorcycle rode up and the driver pulled off his helmet showing his spiky black hair, and his tan Hispanic face. One word. Adrian.

            Blair looked over her shoulder to see what I was looking at, and then he grabbed her. Adrian had her wrapped in his arms! I then ran as hard as I could, “Caleb, help he almost has her!” I screamed.

            Caleb saw what was happening and used his vampire speed to make it there in less than thirty seconds. Adrian had Blair tied to his motorcycle, “Mick!! Help me!! Help!!” Blair cried.

            I finally managed to get next to the motorcycle, when Adrian punched Caleb in the face, he fell backwards and I reached to grab the handle of the motorcycle. Adrian kicked me in the chest and knocked the breath out of me. I was losing her, I couldn’t let that happen to her, and she’s too innocent!

            Adrian is trying to ruin my life, like I ruined his by letting Luke die, against that Cyclops. I kind of felt bad for him, if my brother died I’d want revenge too, but stealing my girl is going too far! Adrian had been gone for a while, after he rode off with Blair, I couldn’t save her, and it was too late.

            Oh why did she have to separate from the group, she could have stayed with us and not gotten herself captured. Before she left I yelled, “I’ll come and find you even if I have to sacrifice my life!” And that’s exactly what I was planning to do; nobody was going to steal Blair away from me….not this way.

Chapter Six: The Realization

            Its Halloween, a big occasion for Monster High School students, I don’t know what I should prepare for. It’s been tough with Blair gone, but the group and I have promised each other not to speak a word of it to anybody. If they can’t believe us about Adrian rigging that training session to try to kill us, they won’t believe us now. If only there was something that we could do.

            The field trip to New York is next week, and tomorrow is Spencer’s funeral, his birthday. This might be a tough week, with Spencer’s funeral and going on that field trip for a week doesn’t give us time to look for Blair! Who knows maybe Adrian planned to bring her to New York, and use her as bait to kill me. Aw this is not good, not good at all!

            I was on the couch at Caleb’s and my head was pounding, there was just too much stress in my life right now, I couldn’t contain it anymore! Caleb then strolled on into the living room, “Hey a bunch of us are going to an annual Halloween party, you want to come?” he asked.

            “Don’t you know what happened at the last party we went to? Adrian took Blair from me; does it sound like I’d go to a party again?” I asked.

            Was he crazy? I will not ever go to another party; Blair was one of the best things that have ever happened to me! And she deserved better, than knowing that I can party while she’s been kidnapped by a person that wants me dead. And also that I have no way to be able to even find him and it’d be harder to fight him off and save her from that no good girlfriend stealing beast! He did have a reason to hold a grudge against me though; with the whole I letting him die to the wrath of a cyborg!

            “Listen dude, I’ve been on your side since day one, but you really need to stop moping and get over her! She’s just a girl, and you’ll probably get her back sooner or later!” Caleb yelled at me.

            “Well what would you have done if Casey was in Blair’s place right now? You’d be overly upset too!” I yelled back.

            “Fine, if you’re going to be that way, I’m going to the party! You can just stay in your spot and mope all you want about Blair, instead of trying to have a good time!” Caleb spat back and he grabbed his coat and threw it over his shoulders, and then slammed the door shut.

            How could Caleb yell at me like that, it was so unlike him, well Caleb is an odd dude? Is he right? Should I go to the party and take Blair out of my mind? No I can’t. I love Blair; she will always be engraved in my mind. That was a fact that couldn’t be tampered with.

            It didn’t mean that I can’t still go to the party and still have a fun time with her still on my mind! I looked down at what I was wearing, pajamas. Great.

            After I slid on the usual jeans and since it was late October I wore a black hoodie. And I slipped out the door, Caleb had already left so I grabbed my skateboard and was off. To tell you the truth I didn’t even know where the Halloween party was. So I took a stroll down the streets and finally found Caleb’s car, at Monster High kids can drive if they have a car. Unfortunately I haven’t needed to buy a car, I’ve always had Spencer to drive me, but he’s gone now…

            I finally found Caleb’s truck alongside many other trucks at this house. I wondered if Casey and the others would be here. I hope Caleb hasn’t told them how I acted at his apartment yet! I rushed inside; to find a bunch of people I didn’t know dancing.  Then I finally found Casey sitting in a corner with a tear rolling down her face. “Caster, what’s the matter?” I asked, sitting down next to her.

            “Caleb stood me up, he invited me to the party on a date and he never showed up.” Casey cried.

            “What? He told me that he was coming to the party. He even yelled at me when I told him I didn’t want to go to anymore parties because of Blair!” I gasped.

            “What do you mean, then he should be here by now!?” Casey growled.

            “I’m so confused, what could have happened to him between the time that me and him had that argument. I mean his car is parked outside!”

            “His Car is here? That would have been some good information, let’s go and check it out!” Casey said astonished.

            Casey and I started to rush out when Greg and Owen stopped us in our tracks, “Are the two Goth kids trying to ditch the party? We just got started.” Owen said.

            “Listen I don’t have time for this!” I yelled at them!

            “Oh but we do! Now boys, get them!” Owen yelled at a few football players. And all I was thinking, was we have a football team? I then thought fast and moved the couch with my mind and slammed the football players and Greg and Owen with it. Then I slid the couch under Casey and I, she was so shocked, when I pulled the couch out the front door and barricaded the door with it.

            We slid off the couch and ran to Caleb’s truck, it was empty nobody was there. “Where should we go next?” Casey asked.

            “We need to see if the others are okay!” I said.

            “Mick but why?” she asked.

            “Because Adrian took Caleb, just like he kidnapped Blair!” I growled.

            “That makes so much sense now; Adrian is behind all of this!” Casey exclaimed. I then got on my skateboard and she followed me with her bike. “I’m calling, Lexis and Roslyn!” Casey informed.

            “I’ll call Geoffrey and Gregor!”

            I then called there phone number and nobody answered, and then the answering machine spoke in a familiar voice but it wasn’t Geoffrey or Gregor’s, “If you’re looking for Geoffrey and Gregor, they’re with me in New York.”

            And I knew it was Adrian, Adrian kidnapped them just like Blair and Caleb. I looked back to Casey, “Lexis’s answering machine was Adrian’s voice, and Roslyn’s mom hasn’t seen Roslyn all day. What are we going to do?” Casey asked.

            “Simple, we have to stay together and not let each other out of our sight, because if we do, Casey, Adrian will get you. He won’t go for me; his plan is working too well for him to go for me.  So I can’t save all of you by myself, oh and you have to come to Spencer’s funeral tomorrow.” I demanded.

            This day couldn’t have gone much worse; it was now up to Casey and me to save our friends and defeat Adrian once and for all. Casey and I can’t do it by ourselves, we needed somebody else. Somebody that is trustworthy, somebody that is strong, and somebody who is a good friend.

            I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number; I waited for it to ring, and then it stopped and he answered, “Hey Mick? What’s up?” he asked.

            “Hey Brian, I need your help. All my friends have been kidnapped by Adrian; he brought them to New York. He’s using them as bait to capture me on our field trip this week!” I urged.

            “Ok the team is on it!” Brian declared.

            “No, I don’t want the team’s help; if we have too many people he’ll suspect something. I need you to meet me at the funeral tomorrow night, and then stay over with Casey and I. So we can go to New York, Tuesday.” I insisted.

            “Wait you’ve got a girl with you? Who is this girl, a friend of yours?” Brian asked.

            “No we’re not dating, I’m dating Blair she was one of the ones who got kidnapped.  And oh can you bring Devin, so Casey can have another girl to hang with, beside just me and you?” I asked.

            “Sure thing, dude! Devin is really longing for a night away from her team. Their team has issues.” Brian said.

            “Awesome!”

            “Oh and have you met a girl named Caitlyn?” he asked.

            “Yes why?”

            “Well because we have news that she’s affiliated with Adrian. You know that training session that you believed was rigged? Well it was rigged and Caitlyn was a part of that. You have to find her and turn her into the agency; she’s wanted in France for escaping a prison.” Brian said.

            “Ok I think we can manage, do you know what apartment she lives in?” I asked.

            “Yeah apartment 202. Good Luck! I have to go!”

            “Bye.” And I hung up.

            “Come on Casey we have to go and find Caitlyn! She’s wanted in France!” I groaned.

            “Wow no wonder she broke my leg, the French are vicious!” Casey hissed. We made it to apartment 202, Casey knocked and nobody answered. “Nobody’s here.” Casey uttered.

            We began to go home when we heard a bark behind us; it was Caitlyn walking her dog. “Are you guys still insisting that I rigged that stupid training session of yours?” she asked.

            And then I said the only word that would get her to know why we’re here, “Bonjour.” I breathed through my clenched teeth.

            “No way!” she quivered and made a run for it, Casey went wolf and sliced the dog’s leash with her claw. “Tough luck in catching me, I’m a ghost!” she howled and then suddenly disappeared.

            Casey turned to the dog but it was gone too, this was just getting more and more confusing by the second. It made partial sense that she was a ghost, but one thing to ask, is how do you get rid of a ghost?

             I dialed Brian’s phone number again, “Any news, dude?” he asked.

            “Well I just figured out that Caitlyn, is a monster but the more difficult part is that she’s a ghost.” I stammered.

            “So she disappeared? Well yeah this makes this job way harder. I could get a ghost hunter?” Brian asked.

            “Naw lets just forget about her and focus on rescuing my friends. Adrian is a bigger priority than Caitlyn. Caitlyn we can deal with later.” I said.

            “Ok I got to go, it’s pizza night! See yah!” Brian hung up.

            “Ok Casey, let’s go to my place and eat some grub, then you can stay in Caleb’s room, I’ll crash on the couch.” I said.

            “I don’t have any fresh clothes though, let’s stop at my place and get me some clothes then do what you said.” Casey requested.

            “Sure thing” I said.

            Once we got Casey’s clothes and ate dinner, she went to Caleb’s room and I crashed on the couch like I planned. And I lied there thinking of how I placed my friends in jeopardy and let them get captured by Adrian, and I could have saved Caleb, as well! I could have left to go to that party with him. And I was just love drunk and didn’t want to; ugh everything’s my fault….I then drifted off into a deep sleep…

            A man was in each corner, he was after me, something was wrong, Geoffrey was a stone statue and so were Gregor and Roslyn. I heard Blair scream, “Mick let’s get out of here! HELP! HELP!”

            Then Casey’s cry for help was next, “Caleb, Mick, Blair, where are you guys?? Hello? Hello? AGGHH A GIANT, HELP!! HELP!”

            Then Lexis’s voice came next, “I suppose it’s a hi-breed giant, those things can just look at you and turn you to stone. That must have been what got the other three.”

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            I woke up quivering, it was just a dream. I walked to Casey’s bedroom to see if she was okay. I peered in and she was peacefully asleep. “Good.”I murmured to myself, and then crashed back on the couch.

             

Chapter 7: Funeral

            Today was going to be a sad day, because of Spencer. I just can’t wait to get this day over with. Tomorrow Casey, Brian, and I are going on the field trip to save my friends and defeat Adrian, once and for all.

            Casey was in the kitchen, dressed in a black dress, which is something new, Casey never wears dresses, never ever; this must be the only dress she has! I may be mistaken this may be the only dress she’s ever had in her life!

            “Whoa!” I said staring at her.

            “What it’s the first time since my mom was dressing me that I’ve worn a dress? Do you think it looks bad?” she asked scratching her neck.

            “No, no you look great Casey!” I insisted.

            “Thanks and you look good in that tux yourself. Just you need to tighten the bow.” She indicated and fixed the bow herself.

            “Casey can I tell you something?” I asked.

            “Anything.” She confirmed.

            “Caleb really likes you, do you like him?” I asked.

            “You mean Caleb likes me, of all people? I’m not even attractive!” she assured me.

            “Don’t tell yourself that, you’re a very attractive girl, and Caleb finally noticed something, you haven’t. So do you like him?” I asked

            “Maybe a little, but if you tell him, so help me I will tear you limb from limb, dude!”She fumed.

            “Ok I promise!” I exclaimed when Brian and Devin walked in, the door was open. I took a second glance at Brian, “Dude what happened to your hair?” I gasped.

            “I cut it off, yesterday while playing soccer; it got really hot, so I had Henry my butler go to the barber shop with me to get it cut off. Not that it doesn’t look good.” He smirked at Devin who giggled.

            “Hey Mick, so how’s school?”Devin asked

            “Pretty good except for my friends and new hot girlfriend getting kidnapped” I sighed.

            “No time for chatting, we’ve got to get this show on the road, and head down to the receiving.” Brian butted in and pushed all three of us to the door.

            Henry, Brian’s butler was at the wheel, Casey and Devin began to engage in girl talk. Brian and I sat together in the limo. Brian asked me, “So you really like this girl?”

            “Yeah, it’s hard to glance away from a girl so drop dead gorgeous; she’s incredibly bright, kind, funny, and so natural, not some girl with tons of make up.” I sighed now thinking about Blair.

            “You’re doing the right thing of going back for her then.” Brian assured me.

            “Thanks dude, you and Devin are an awesome couple as well, you complement each other. And that’s the beginning of a good relationship.” I said.

            At the receiving, I remembered I hate funerals, especially the open coffin ones, where everyone walks by and you get to see the deceased family or good friends cry. Who wants to watch people cry? Though I had to pay my respects to Spencer, since it was kind of my fault for his death.

            How come it’s always my fault now-a-days when something goes wrong, it’s like all the bad stuff orbits around me! I do not like being orbited by bad stuff, can’t I just be normal? Wait why would I ever want that, normal is way over rated!

            Once the four of us made it to the casket, I felt six tears drip down my face, yes I’m such a freak that I counted. Spencer’s hand was over his heart, his eyes nestled shut, and his skin was so pale and when I dared myself to touch his hands, they were so cold, you never know what to do or say when you’re looking at one of the deceased, so I just whispered, “See ya in another lifetime, brother.” Knowing ‘Lost’ was his favorite TV show.

            I looked over at Brian, who had a few tears shed; Devin and Casey were just wearing their neutral faces not knowing Spencer at all. All they could do was shudder and move on. I then nodded to Spencer and walked off; I didn’t want to shake hands with the friends nor the family, all I wanted to do was go home.

            Before I could actually go home, Spencer’s wife Hannah stopped me, “You’re not leaving are you? I was hoping you could say a word about Spencer.” She pleaded.

            I sighed, and then said, “Sure.” And then she handed me the microphone, I thought for a second and then said, “May I have everybody’s attention? I just wanted to say a few words about Spencer before I leave. Spencer was a wonderful friend, father, husband, son, and just a great butler to me. Spencer impacted mine and I’m pretty sure everybody else’s life. He was always giving complements to everyone making your day just a bit brighter. I’ll already miss him so much, R.I.P”

            After that I grabbed the other and ran off and hopped back into the limo, Casey reached over and hugged me, “Mick I’m so sorry for your loss, and don’t give up hope. We’ll find Blair and everybody else, and soon Adrian won’t be a problem anymore, will he?” she asked.

            “No, Adrian won’t be a problem anymore.” I growled.

            Yep I’m not done fighting Adrian, there’s still a long road ahead of me but soon, he’ll soon be out of my head. And soon I’ll be at his funeral! I thought to myself.

            Brian patted my shoulder, “Hang in there, because you know I’ll always be behind you. And you know if Logan, Conner, or Stephen would say if they were here, they would say to be strong and keep persevering and we all know you’ll find your way out of these situations, you always do. This was just one bump in the road, don’t focus on Spencer’s death, and focus on you, focus on what’s going to make you a better person. And I really think finding Blair will heal a lot of your issues right now.” Brian assured me.                                                                                

            And I believe he may be on to something, God always knew when Spencer was going to fall, and it wasn’t my fault he died. It was his just his destiny speaking to him…

           

Chapter Eight: Escaping the Olympians

        Everyone knew the plan, Casey and would ride the bus to New York with the rest of the students. Devin and Brian will ride Brian’s truck to New York, following us there. Then we’ll slip away from the group and find Adrian and our friends, we’ll have to fight Adrian off long enough to save our friends, because our friends lives mean much more than killing Adrian off yet. Though one day, I will kill that jerk, but not today.

            Casey and I were dressed normally, normal enough to kick some wizard butt. I guess it’s kind of like how it used to be, ‘Mick saves the day!’ I haven’t really missed that feeling, though and that’s really shocking to me. Maybe all I wanted was to be a normal kid after all?

            Anyways Devin and Brian hopped in Brian’s BMW, to prepare to be back up against Adrian. Casey and I then hopped on the bus, and dashed to the back row. “So we separate from the group and go find Adrian?” Casey asked.

            “That’s the plan. We can’t tell anybody, understood?” I demanded.

            “You’re going to sneak away from the group, on a field trip?” A nerdy kid moved seats and sat next to us.

            “Don’t tell anybody!” I growled.

            “No I won’t, but I want in.” the kid said.

            “No it’s too dangerous!” I breathed.

            “Then I’ll tell the teachers.” He ordered.

            “Alright you can come, what’s your name?” Casey asked.

            “Zeke.”

            “CASEY! You can’t let him come!” I growled at her.

            “Mick settle your horses, if we didn’t let him come, then he would have told the teachers and we wouldn’t have been able to save them!” Casey said.

            “Fine, but Zeke this guy is dangerous. I won’t be surprised if you get hurt.” I tried to scare him.

            “Don’t worry I’m one of Frankenstein’s sons, technically I’m already dead.” Zeke giggled.

            “So you could die.” I warned.

            “Highly unlikely.” He sighed.

            “Ok, people are going to hear us. Let’s just tell him the plan and get on with things.” I whispered to Casey. Casey then whispered the whole plan to Zeke, and then as normal as possible we made it to Mr. Grogan’s classroom.

            Mr. Grogan had everybody sit down in their assigned seats, “Hmm that’s odd we’re missing Geoffrey, Gregor, Caleb, Lexis, and Bryanna. Wonder if they ditched? Does anybody know what happened to them?” Mr. Grogan asked.

            I had no clue what to say, we didn’t plan for this. Should I just not say anything and just hope he doesn’t do anything about it? Luckily Casey saved me, “Mr. Grogan they all went on vacation, Mick and I were invited but my parents said no, and his agency declined it.”

            “Aw well they missed out on the field trip, we’re going to have fun today.” Mr. Grogan shared a smile to the class, and there were several groans from the back of the classroom. “Well then, everybody buddy up into groups of three. These are the groups that you will be with for the rest of the day. Keep an extra eye out for each of your group members. It’ll be your fault if anything happens to them. Understood?” Mr. Grogan asked, and again a bunch of grumbled ‘Yes Sirs’

            I was actually glad Zeke knew everything, because if he wasn’t there we’d be stuck with some other kid. And who knows their reaction?

            Zeke, Casey, and I sat together on the bus. Zeke kept asking questions about why Adrian wanted me dead. “So why was the Cyclops hunting for the hidden diamond? And why did you want to stop him from doing so?” Zeke asked.

            “Because if he found the diamond, who knows what he could have used it for. Perhaps using it to take over the agency, or even worse!” I answered.

            “What does the hidden diamond actually do?” he asked.

            “Everybody has their theories, but the most popular theory is actually told like a story.” I answered.

            “What’s the story?” Casey asked.

            “Well it’s actually just a legend. It starts with this great and very poor wizard named Diablo, he had the most simplest of stones, just a normal stone. Diablo wanted to find a spell to change the stone into a diamond. So he left to go to this ancient city called the City of Jewels.” I began.

            “The City of Jewels is the quest that you went on!” Zeke exclaimed.

            “Yes, so Diablo wanted to go there because the elder of the city had an ancient spell book. The elder has last seen it tossed in a cave, after a spell the elder tried had failed. And the spell book was hit by the blast the spell left and flew off into a cave, where it hasn’t been found yet. So Diablo left on an adventure to find the spell book, to turn his stone into a diamond to sell it to buy wealth for his family. He searched for days without food and water until he finally found the spell book in a long lost cave. He then found a spell to change a stone into diamond, with a slight smudge on most of the words. Unluckily when he tried the spell, the stone turned into a diamond, but the beauty of the diamond cast a brilliant flash of yellow light, Diablo was holding the diamond and he vanished. And the light grew so big and covered the whole island, wiping out all the citizens, they’re bodies just dropped dead then and there. Diablo’s body was nowhere to be found after that, and the diamond was missing.” I wrapped up the story.

            “Poor Diablo.” Zeke breathed in amazement.

            “So did you ever find Luke’s body?” Casey asked.

            I shook my head and breathed, “Just a bunch of ashes.” And I blinked a tear away from my eyes.

            The bus finally arrived in New York, after we played a few games of Speed; we strolled out followed by the rest of the class. “Ok kids the Olympians live in the Statue of Liberty.” Mr. Grogan announced. I didn’t notice at first but we’re standing at the foot of one of the most magnificent statues known to mankind. I looked up at the green lady, holding the lighted torch.

            Then my cell phone vibrated in my pocket, it was a text from Brian, I peered down and looked at what it said, ‘Meet us at an old warehouse, we’ve found his motorcycle, and released the air from the tires. It’s a few blocks away from the Statue of Liberty, we’ll be waiting in front of the warehouse. Be there soon, but take your time and don’t get caught!’
            I really wanted to go now, the quicker the better.

Mr. Grogan called us all to file in the statue, which is quite ironic that there’s a door to get in the Statue of Liberty. “The door is only shown to monsters; humans aren’t allowed to see it because of a spell cast upon it such long ago. Oh and Poseidon the god of the sea will be our tour guide, this afternoon.” Mr. Grogan announced as each kid filed into the door, with many gasps.
            We planned to stay at the back of the line, which is easier to get out. Mr. Grogan made sure that all the kids were inside, before he rushed to the front, standing next to a man that seemed to be in his thirties. He turned around and smiled to the class, “Now let’s begin your tour, kids. First up we’ll meet Athena the goddess of wisdom, she’s the smartest woman you’ll ever meet.” Poseidon drained on and on.
            Poseidon looked like a very nice guy, and I would love to continue the tour, except we had to get out of here. With Athena around she’ll notice us trying to escape. So as the rest of the class was walking into the next room, Poseidon let Mr. Grogan go and have a coffee break down at the nearest coffee shop. Mr. Grogan quickly rushed outside.
            Into the door ahead of us everything was gold, and it was so large. It was very tempting to go inside, but we had to go now, Casey and Zeke had their jaw dropped in amazement, heading toward the door. I quickly grabbed their arms and pulled them backwards, and the golden room’s door shut, when Poseidon saw that there were no more kids.
            Casey, Zeke, and I were hidden in the dark, huddled. “Guys we have to go, now!” I demanded.
            “Aw wanted to go into the shiny room.” Casey sighed.
            “Sorry, but saving Blai-I mean our friends are bigger than going into the shiny room.” I stuttered.
            “Aw you miss Blair.” Casey grinned.
            “Shush it and let’s get a move on!” I demanded and the three of us hurried to get out of there. We were almost safe until a dark figure jumped in front of us. Zeke let out a scream which was hushed when Casey slapped her hand over his mouth.
            “Oh look what we have here, some kiddies.” the dark man grinned. None of us said a word. “Hmm, my name is Hades, if you haven’t guessed that by now.” he grinned, his evil pointed face showed. He looked so ragged, with a black beard, unabrow, and a mustache.
            “Don’t hurt us.” I breathed.
            “Oh why would I hurt you? I’m only the god of death!” Hades laughed.
            “Please.” Casey breathed.
            “Ok, maybe let me see, I’m going to read your future, here it is!” he concentrated placing his hands on his temples. “Looks like two of you, or your friends will be murdered, when you attempt to face Adrian today.” Hades laughed.
            “You liar!” I yelled.
            “Ok, call me a liar. Just go and figure it out yourself.” Hades grinned and then like he was never there, he vanished.
            “Mick, what if two of us do die? This is risky, should we just go back to the class?” Casey asked.
            “Don’t listen to him, he’s a liar. None of us will die.” I said, knowing that it was actually a lie. Two of us will die, like Hades said, I had to do everything I could to save Blair though.
            We then rushed out of there and ran trying to find the warehouse, and just like Brian said, they were there. Waiting for us to go in and face Adrian....

Chapter Nine: Fight with the Wizard

            Finding Brian and Devin gave me a breath of fresh air, because we finally made it here. “Mick, how are we supposed to get in without Adrian ambushing us, and killing up all with the ‘Death Spell’ this could be more dangerous than we planned.” Brian asked.

            “I say we bust through the window, Devin you and Casey could handle that, can you?” I asked.

            “No problem.” Devin smirked, Devin’s a werewolf. Though she’s very special, because she’s blond coated, no werewolves have ever had blond hair, except for her. And she’s probably the toughest werewolf you’ve ever met; she can kick some butt, maybe not Casey though. I’d like to see how it turns out with them against each other.

            While Casey and Devin bursted through the window and I elbowed Brian in the ribs and asked, “Is it a bad thing, your girlfriend is stronger than you?”

            “You stink.” He laughed and clubbed my shoulder. After that Zeke, Brian, and I jumped through the window. Zeke smashed his face into the floor, while jumping. I looked up at my practically arch enemy Adrian.

            Behind him was each of my friends hanging by ropes tied around their chests with their arm inside the ropes. Roslyn was trying to shake away tears as she looked up at us ready to save them. “This is what you bring me, two pointless werewolves, a vampire, one of Frankenstein’s descendants and, a lousy rejected mover? I’m very unimpressed by this Mick. I thought you would have made better friends in school, but I guess not.” Adrian grinned as I growled.

            “I’m going to try this once, give me my friends and we’ll leave.” I protested.

            “Never, I only want your blood, Mick. If I can use their blood to get to yours, then so be it!” he smirked at Blair, and she turned away from him.

            “Get him.” I ordered.

            Brian stood where he was a read his mind, he turned to me and said, “Go to your right quick!” and I dodged a strike of dark magic coming my way.

            Adrian then yelled, “Asordar!” and pointed his grey wand that he pulled out at Brian. Brian yelled and then fell limp onto the ground.

            Devin then glanced at Brian with a worried look in her werewolf eyes. She then roared, and pounced toward Adrian, he shrieked and yelled the same word that he did with Brian, and Devin went back to her normal body, and fell back.

            Casey shrieked at what he had done with Devin, and rushed toward Caleb and with her sharp teeth, broke the rope that was hanging Caleb, he jumped down, flexing to get the rest of the rope off of him.

            Caleb was behind Adrian, and he grabbed his neck, and then a figure pounced on him. Caitlyn.

            Casey whimpered and pounced on Caitlyn, and Zeke rushed toward them, he pulled Caitlyn off of Casey, and then she vanished in midair in Zeke’s hand.

            Caitlyn then popped back in the real world and grabbed Zeke’s body and threw it across the room. Zeke’s back smashed into the wall; I couldn’t tell if he was unconscious or not which worried me. I couldn’t help but focusing on them fighting Caitlyn, that when I felt a thrush of pain in my face, I realized Adrian had just punched.

            “Look at me when I’m about to kill you” he grimaced, as he held my chin, and drew his wand backward, aiming it at my face.

            Was I really going to fail and lose to Adrian? Don’t the good guys win? Was this the part when my life flashes before my eyes? If I was about to die, why wasn’t my life flashing before me? That’s because I wasn’t going to die today or anytime soon?

            I focused on Adrian’s wand and moved it with my mind across the room, Adrian gasped as I kicked him in the chest. He roared and rushed to grab his wand, easily pulling away from me.

            I grabbed my pocketknife out of my pocket and ran to slice as many ropes as I could, Gregor, Geoffrey, Roslyn, Lexis, and then finally my girl Blair.

            She then hugged me. And I wished I could hold onto her longer, but Adrian was furious, the twins tried to attack him with their hoofs, but that only annoyed him. He then grabbed Geoffrey under his arm. “It’s not them you want, it’s me!” I yelled.

            Adrian nodded and let go of Geoffrey, but then pulled his wand and aimed it at him, grinning and yelled, “Muerte” a different word than before.

            Geoffrey gasped, and held his lungs, and his face full of freckles went white, he yelled for air, and then his body dropped. Gregor roared, “Geoffrey!! No!!” He knelt over his twin’s body, with tears streaming down his face like rain. “Geoffrey… this can’t be happening. You’re my brother! I was supposed to take care of you!” he cried but it was useless to cry. Geoffrey had died.

            Adrian was making his way to us, Roslyn took several steps back from him, and I pushed Blair behind me. “See what happened to Geoffrey? I can make that a whole lot worse.”Adrian cackled, in my face.

            I was shocked when Blair pushed me out of the way, and slapped him, “You..” midway she was cut off as the door slammed open.

            A familiar figure stepped in, Mr. Grogan. He quickly ran in front of Blair and pushed us aside, he then pointed his wand at him. “Leave these kids alone, you dark wizard.” He demanded.

            “Over my dead body, that kid let my brother die”, Adrian pointed his wand straight at my face. I held Blair’s hand tight. I then moved Adrian’s wand across the room again. And suddenly, Mr. Grogan kicked Adrian in the stomach, knocking him down.

            Adrian sat up and looked for his wand, and Mr. Grogan did aim his wand at Adrian once again. Adrian then panicked and dived to get his wand, and then he broke through another window of the warehouse, and only for a second he turned back and yelled at me, “I’ll be back for your blood!” he yelled.

            Roslyn then rushed to Mr. Grogan and gaped, “I didn’t know you were a wizard? That must be so cool!”

            “No I’m a retired wizard, I have no powers. Though Adrian didn’t know that so he thought I could kill him at any second, since he’s but a beginner. So what damage do we have here?” he asked.

            I then took a turn and glanced around the room, Gregor weeping over Geoffrey, Zeke was lying against the wall, Casey and Caleb were gasping. Caitlyn must have vanished again. And then Brian and Devin were passed out on the floor.

            I then rushed to lean over my best friend, “Mr. Grogan is Brian and Devin going to be okay?” I glanced at him.

            “Yes I’m positive they’ll be ok, they’ve been stunned, in another hour they’ll be awake, except Zeke may be in critical condition.” He breathed and ran acRoslyn the room and pulled him out of the corner.

            I could hear his wheezing, and I knew he shouldn’t have come; it was too dangerous for a Frankenstein’s descendent to be here. I ran over and knelt beside Mr. Grogan. “This is my entire fault, with Geoffrey and Zeke, ugh I feel terrible” I shouted.

            “Mick it was never your fault, it may be your fault that you have good friends that will risk their lives for you? Even thought there were two casualties, you guys won’t let this between you, I just know it.” Mr. Grogan patted my back.

            Zeke then wheezed, “It’s not your fault Mick, I decided my fate. If this hadn’t of happened, I would have committed suicide tonight. I had it planned, and when your situation came up, I was willing to risk my life. Life sucks being an orphan, tonight you saved me from hanging myself….” Zeke wheezed, with blood staining his hair.

            “Zeke, you can’t die!” I cried to him.

            “Bye…Mick…” Zeke wheezed one last time before he closed his eyes. I felt bad for only knowing him for one day. Zeke sounds like a really awesome kid, except for the suicidal part.

            I stood up and Blair was staring at me with her big chocolate eyes, I smiled and walked up to her and hugged her. Then I noticed I forgot something, Geoffrey. Blair and I ran over to the crowded circle around Geoffrey. Lexis, Roslyn, Casey, Caleb, Gregor were sobbing over his cold pale body.

            Mr. Grogan appeared behind me, “Adrian used the Muerte curse, the most powerful curse known to mankind, and it sucks the soul out of a person, and then slowly kills them. It’s a tragedy Geoffrey had to fall to it.” He tried to encourage.

            “Why’d Adrian kill him?” Gregor then made a somber look towards me.

            “I think he wanted to prove that he could kill me, he was showing off his powers, and how he planned to kill me.” I murmured, knowing that it was true, and a tear strung down my face.

            I may have only known Geoffrey for two semesters of Monster High School as a nerdy satyr with glasses, and an awesome kid who loves to have fun being himself. He loved to play games, and laugh. His laughed ringed in your ears for a few minutes, but the moment you saw him you could tell that he was an excited person.

            It really is a tragedy he had to die; the world has just lost a bit of happiness.

            I turned to Mr. Grogan looking for what’s going to happen next. “Umm, we should get Geoffrey and Zeke’s bodies, and put them in the back of my van. Lexis, Gregor, Roslyn, Brian, and Devin will ride with me. I’ll make arrangements for Blair to be placed in my class, and Caleb you’ll join them and say you came in late. Sounds good?” he asked.

            “Zeke’s an orphan so who do we give the body to? And our mom will be horrified to hear what happened to Geoffrey.” Gregor grumped the mood.

            “I’ll take care of that.” Mr. Grogan sighed, “When I think of an idea to handle that.” He then picked up Geoffrey and went outside with the others, and Blair, Caleb, Casey, and I were left.

            Mr. Grogan came back for Zeke’s body, and two more returns for Brian and Devin. The engine in the school bus we drove in to get to New York was starting and then they left.

            Casey then put her arms around Caleb and sobbed into his shirt. After a few moments of quite, we had to leave and go back to the field trip….

           

Chapter Ten: Aphrodite’s Trance

            The urge to shout to the high heavens in my head was drastic. I mean why did Geoffrey and Zeke have to die? That wasn’t supposed to happen! We were all supposed to live happily ever after and kill Adrian! Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? Right?
            No. My life is not some fairy tale full of dwarfs and lost slippers. My life is way cooler than that, with bombs, heroes, friends, and a drastic ending to my life. Not some happily ever after, like you read in children’s stories.

            I held Blair’s hand like I would never be able to hold it again. We had to walk back to the statue of liberty and take a ferry to get there. The four of us, me, Caleb, and Blair snuck past the tourists snapping pictures like never before, to the hidden door inside the statue.

            It was strange when Casey and Caleb were talking and I came in to see what they were talking about, they would quickly change the subject. They could be hiding something which is unlikely or they could be discussing their relationship. I would really be glad if they were talking about that.

            Casey gently pulled the door open and the normal golden corridors showed themselves. Caleb and Blair’s jaws dropped at the gorgeous sight. “Come on guys” I sighed, pretending like the view was nothing.

            Casey and I began walking straight, but we then noticed that Blair and Caleb weren’t following us. I turned around and asked, “Guys?”

            “You two are just going to walk into a wall, there’s nothing there?” Blair asked with a confused look on her face. And I realized the entrance to the golden room was gone!

            “What do you mean it’s gone?” Casey shivered.

            “It’s supposed to be right there!” I pointed to the blank wall, “And it’s not there! Let’s go back and find Mr. Grogan!” I shouted and turned to go out, but once again that door had vanished.

            “We’re in a room with no way out! How’d that happen?” Caleb shouted, and you could now hear his voice echo.

            “This is bad, really bad.” Blair freaked out, I rushed next to them and Casey followed me. I grasped Blair’s hand.

            “We’re going to get out of here, I promise.” I tried to cheer her up. I then closed my eyes, and tried to think of options, but I was clueless. There was no way to get out of here!

            I then suddenly blinked my eyes open, and then there was magically a silver staircase right in front of me, in the middle of the room. Casey then shrieked, “This is freakier than Adam Lambert, in a Kiss outfit!”

            “I agree with Casey!” Caleb bursted.

            “Umm maybe we should just go up the staircase, maybe it leads to the class?” Blair asked.

            “Okay let’s just go up.” I suggested, taking the lead and walking half way up the stairs, Blaire clasped my shoulders with fright, and Casey and Caleb shivered walking behind us.

            It seemed like the climb up the stairs was taking forever, we finally found silver door. Taking a deep breath, I grasped the doorknob and twisted it. It was locked and I heard Casey swear under her breath.

            “We could try knocking?” Caleb breathed.

            Blaire then knocked on the door with an awesome rhythm, just another reason why she is amazing. Then I believe all four of our hearts stopped, as suddenly the door creaked open.

            The walls to the room were painted white, in every wall.  And everything was white, the two couches, the bed, the vanity table, and everything. And then lounged on the couch, like a supermodel, was without a doubt the prettiest woman in the world, even prettier than Blaire. She had curly blond hair, crimson eyes, and a perfect smile and a white gown.

            I fell in love all over again, this woman was amazing. Blaire and Casey looked in shock. And I was guessing Caleb had the same look on his face as mine. Both our jaws had dropped.

            My heart nearly banged against my chest, when she stood up and strutted toward us. She held out her hand to me, and then with an angel like voice, “My name is Aphrodite.” She grinned.

            I wanted to sing to the heavens as I touched her palm; I wanted to propose to her then and there. I wanted to be with this woman forever, I didn’t take my eyes off of her. She was too beautiful.

            “We don’t need these girls, do we?” she calmly breathed.

            “No we don’t” Caleb and I breathed at the same time, and suddenly after a snap of Aphrodite’s fingers, Blaire and Casey were chained up against a corner.

            Aphrodite then grasped our shoulders and pulled us to the couch, she tickled each of our chins. “You can stay with me forever.” She spoke like a prettier version of Paris Hilton.

            Paris Hilton was nothing compared to Aphrodite, it was as if Paris was just a standee and Aphrodite was the person you’d wish you could marry. Then interrupting our gazing at Aphrodite was a beep from the pocket of her white gown. She sighed and pulled the cell phone out, it was on speaker phone.

            And a robotic voice breathed in, “We’re having a meeting about taking over M.H.S. Zeus has decided to have the war in two years according to the prophecy, which Hermes finally was able to read. Hades is against it, we need you to talk some sense in him. Now.”

            Her eyebrows bulged open, “You must leave, now!” she demanded, she put her fingers to her temples, “Lucky me.” She giggled and with her fingertips pointed our sight to Blair and Casey.

            At the look of Blair, something snapped. I remembered what Mr. Grogan said about Aphrodite, that she only wants to seduce men. And the glance at your love is the only thing that can heal you.

            I wasn’t goo-goo for Aphrodite anymore; I was now focused on how mad Blaire is going to be when she figures out. Then I realized, that she already knows, she was in the corner of the room the whole time. I jumped up and untied her, and Caleb did the same with Casey.

            Casey shrieked, “Their going to take over Monster High School!”

            Aphrodite clamped a hand over her mouth, “I’m on your side, that’s all I can tell you, you have to trust me!” she said and then snapped her fingers once more, and all four of us was with the rest of our class.

            I just knew that I had to tell Mr. Grogan about this, unless he already knows! The Greeks want to overpower the monsters, but why? This was too confusing, my friends looked at me with a worried stare, and all I could do was shrug. For once, I had no idea how to solve this problem.

            I’m just a kid, did this whole experience with sending me to Monster High School, just a big part of my destiny? Was I meant to save this school? I didn’t know how to answer that but, I would have to figure out very soon.

            As soon as I talk to Mr. Grogan and get some answers…

           

                                                                                                     

Chapter Eleven: The Snow Ball

            Weeks by Weeks passed after the incident with Adrian, subsided in all of our memories. There were many random crying outbreaks amongst us; I was near one this morning getting ready for school. I remembered the incident, how Geoffrey’s body had been turned into a lifeless corpse. Same thing with the suicidal Zeke, his life ended as well, the way he wanted.

            And then there was the overwhelming fact fogging everybody’s brain, that the Greeks will take over Monster High School soon, we had to stop it.

            It was now lunch time, a day before the big winter break. I was playing with my food, swirling my fork around my spaghetti. Lunchtime has been very quite now a days, without Geoffrey and Gregor’s loud laughing. Gregor was now so silent; I would have never had known he existed, if I hadn’t met known he was there.

            It must be traumatizing to lose a twin, a person you’ve been with since the beginning of everything, and then for them to totally vanish is the scariest part of all.

            And after thinking, I realized I barely knew Geoffrey at all. I mean of course we were friends, but seriously he usually pretended to be nice to me sometimes. I don’t think we were actually friends at all, he was there for a moment and then he was gone. Just like that, and I’m going to try like heck never to let that happen to any of my friends again.

            Roslyn then pulled me aside after lunch. “Mick, there’s something important, I have to tell you.” She said.

            “Can it wait? I have to make it to my Gargoyle Language class. It’s really hard; you have to say ‘BAWDS GOF SOAERP’. It’s just really hard.” I said.

            “What does that even mean? Ugh never mind, Blaire’s vamp-!” Roslyn was interrupted by the loud speaker, telling kids that Monster Drama Club is now open.

            “Listen I got to go.” I said then rushed off.

            In the class Lexis quickly passed me a note. ‘You taking Blair to the Snow Ball?” the note read.

            I wrote back, “Snow Ball, tonight? Well I guess, I’ll call her at home.”

            She then wrote a paragraph, “I think Blair wants you to kiss her, and she told me last night about it. You should kiss her at the snow ball! You’ve been dating for most of the year now; I think it’s about time you kiss her.”

            “Ugh maybe, I’ll think about it. See you at the ball.” I wrote back and class ended.

            Once I was finally home, Caleb had already laid out something nice for him to wear to the ball. “Dude so when you going to ask Casey out? You know you like her, well we all do.” I finally said.

            “Ugh well, I’ve never really had a girlfriend before.” He finally spit out.

            “Dude? Seriously? You just have to find a girl that you’re comfortable with, like me and Blair. And we all know Casey was the one to break the curse against Aphrodite.  This means she loves you back.” I grinned.

            “I know, that’s been on my mind for a while now, I mean it’s quite a big thing, ya know?” he sighed.

            “Dude it’s not that hard, just you ask her out and let it flow.” I said, and he sighed and kept changing his mind about the type of tie he wanted.

            Bravo to Mick for giving dating advice, after I sort of lost my girlfriend once to a revengeful brat her nearly killed her, until I got there in time to save her life.

            Then I remembered I had to call her, I quickly dialed her number into my cell phone. “Hello?” She answered.

            “Hey babe, are you going to the Snow Ball tonight?” I asked.

            “Well if you’re going to be there, then duh.” She cooed.

            “Yes I’m going. I’ll see you there, I still have to get my suit on. Love you” I grinned, even though she can’t see me through the phone.

            “Love you too.” And she hung up. I sighed and then finally put on my suit and yelled to Caleb, “You ready?”

            “Umm yeah.” He called back and then we got in his car and left to go to the school for the big Snow Ball. Ugh I still hate dances.

            “I’m going to kiss Blair today.” I told him.

            “Bro, that’s awesome, you going to do just a peck or full on the lips make out session?” he said making out with his hand.

            “Watch the road!” I yelled as he quickly turned out of the way as a person was in the middle of the road. I turned around to see if they were still there. But whoever it was, they had vanished completely.

            “Please tell me I didn’t hit them!?” Caleb yelled

            “No, whoever they were, they sort of just vanished.” I told him.

            “Ok, that sounds really freaky, wonder if it was our ghost friend Caitlyn?” he asked and kept driving.

            “Yeah, I hope so.” I sighed and we pulled up to the school.

            I walked in with Caleb, Casey ran out. “Guys this is an awesome jam, Caleb come on!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. I was about to follow them till Blair came out.

            “Hey Blair” I grinned.

            “Hey Mick let’s stay out here for a while.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side of the school, and the lantern turned on.

            “So how’s things been going?” I asked with my right hand pressed against the lantern pole, and she was leaning against it.

            She was messing with my collar, and bit her lip. “Things just got better.” She blushed.

            “Since when did vampires learn how to blush?” I asked grinning.

            “As soon as they learned how to kiss.” She said and then suddenly her lips grazed against mine in perfect rhythm. She then surprisingly licked my lips with her tongue. I kept kissing her cheek over and over again as she licked down my lips toward my neck.

            I then felt a sharp pang against my throat, as I was being drained of blood. But I let it happen as I continued to kiss her cheek. Then suddenly I felt weak, really weak, I felt wheezy, and somebody tugged me off of Blair, I saw a blonde figure pushing Blair away. 

            She began to sob, and then my sweet heart ran away. I didn’t know who had stopped this, I felt rage, I wanted it to continue. I wanted to feel her lips again, they were velvet soft. I yearned for them again.

            Until I finally passed out cold….

Chapter Twelve: The Cave

            The gust of the branches soothed my black hair. It felt so refreshing, the grass cooled my scalp. Lying there, motionless felt so good; I didn’t even remember that Blair, had just sucked blood from me, and Roslyn had to push her off, until I did remember.

            When I started thinking about that, I started thinking about how cold I was on the ground. I sat up freezing. Why hadn’t somebody found me by now? Had the Snow Ball ended?

            I stood up, and then felt the bite mark on my neck, and I remembered the pain of what I had to go through during that one long stupid kiss. I knew it wasn’t Blair’s fault, being a vampire, she had needs.

            I then solemnly walked around the High School, looking around.  I then levitated the lock on the front of the door to the high school to unlock it. I then walked in. The halls were dark and nobody was there, I kept walking down the hall, then walking turned into running, I didn’t know what to do.

            Where’d everybody go? Tears rushed down my face. Then the hallway finally ended, it felt like it had taken forever. And then there was a figure at the end, it was dark, cold figure. I wanted to stop running, I wanted to go back with Blair, be with my friends. I didn’t want to face this dark figure.

            It inched closer and closer, as I ran as fast as a jackrabbit, heading to its prey. The prey was waiting like a cat about to attack a innocent bird. I screamed when I saw the figure’s face.

            I was afraid, very afraid. It was Adrian, the guy who had kidnapped my girlfriend, and killed two of my friends; Gregor, and Zeke, because his brother had been sacrificed.

            “Hello Mick. I hold a message.” Adrian grinned.

            “What on earth would that be?” I hissed at him.

            “Good News, if I can’t kill you, then your precious Nevrade team will fall, just like Luke had to face death. So they’ll die, and sooner or later you will perish.” Adrian sounded so evil saying that.

            “Adrian, you don’t have to do this, Luke knew what he signed up for. He knew there was a possibility he could die!” I pleaded.

            “Then Conner should be long gone as well, shouldn’t he?” Adrian asked.

            “Conner wasn’t supposed to die; it wasn’t his time to go. Everybody has a time to go! Just like Luke! And Gregor, Zeke, and Spencer…”I trailed off.

            “Gregor and Zeke thought they could fight me, but they failed, didn’t they? Oh and Spencer didn’t fall to my hands, I’m pretty sure Caitlyn took him out.” Adrian laughed, as an elegant girl floated into the room.

            “Don’t run over ghosts.” She winked, letting me know it was her in the middle of the road, which nearly gave Caleb a heart attack.

            “Why don’t you kill me now? Let this end; go back to where you came from!”I asked, hopeless. The Nevrade team couldn’t be taken out, Brian, Logan, Stephen, and Conner didn’t deserve to die…

            “Well what would be the fun in that?” Adrian cackled. “Oh I can’t wait till the war of the Greek Gods vs. Monsters. It’ll be a fun watch.”

            “Don’t do this…” I pleaded.

            “Let’s go Caitlyn.” He took her hand and then the two of them vanished into thin air. And once again, I was alone.

            “Mick, is that you there?” I heard Mr. Grogan coming toward me; I quickly wiped away the tear I shed, after Adrian left.

            “Mr. Grogan, Blair bit me, I passed out and then nobody found me, and then I woke up and Adrian was there, and Caitlyn his ghost friend. There’s going to be a war of the Monsters and the Greek Gods!” I found myself talking so quickly I stumbled over my words.

            “Mick, talk clearer, what exactly happened?” Mr. Grogan, asked, and I explained everything from the bite to Adrian and Caitlyn.

            He thought about it for a bit then with wide eyes, and grinned a mischievous smile. “This would be the perfect time to show you what I’ve been working on for a while now. Come with me, Mick.” He guided me to the door.

            Outside the door, we went behind the school, which I have never been. All I saw were the gates finishing closing in the school, and the back door of the school. “Mr. Grogan, what’s so special?” I asked.

            “Watch this.” He found a rock under some tussled grass, and then he picked it up and then threw it on the ground. Then as if it were an earthquake the earth opened up, which shocked me, and I fell down a shoot.

            It was a narrow metal shoot; my black hair slapped my face as I fell down. It felt like falling from a cliff, and then instead of the thud, I fell on a nice soft patted surface. I turned and saw Mr. Grogan was already down.

            “What did you think of that?” he asked.

            “That was freaking awesome!” I said the first thing that popped in my mind, he then gestured to the rest of the room. There was a huge old rug, under two brown couches, and a few chairs around it, which made it look like a lounge.

            “A hangout spot for the gang?” I asked.

            “Not just that, but it’s the gang’s secret lair. Watch this.” He said and lifted up the arm of a chair, and there was a big, round, red button. Then when he pressed it, then the whole lounge flipped over and turned into a lab. There were eight computers, each with a different picture on it.

            There were pictures of: Brian, Casey, Caleb, Roslyn, Geoffrey, Lexis, Blair, and me on each of the screens of the computers. Then there was a huge computer desk, with a really nice hi tech computer in the center, on it had a picture of Mr. Grogan.

            “This will be our workstations, for our new secret team, called the, ‘The Outcasts’ I thought it’d be a good name, since each of us have been an outcast once or twice in our lifetimes. And we’ll call this ‘The Cave’. So what do you think” Mr. Grogan glanced at me.

            “That I want to start kicking some Greek butt, and cast them down to Tarturas.” I yelled.

            “Aww you’ve learned about Tarturas, the lower region of the earth, where the gods themselves cast their own father Kronos into.” Mr. Grogan flashed an impressed look.

            “Well only cause I’ve got a smart kick butt teacher like you. Now let’s hurry and tell the others, I can’t wait for them to see this place!” I said.

            The others quickly showed up, Caleb, Casey, Lexis, and Gregor came in. No sign of Roslyn or Brian. Brian may have already left to the Nevrade team again. Roslyn may be with Blair, after the bite last night...

            “Noah I need to talk to you!” Lexis ran to me and grabbed my wrist.

            “Yeah?”

            “Ok this lair is really cool and all, but the deal with last night, you disappeared, Blaire never showed up, Roslyn said she had some major things to do! What happened? And did you see the news this morning…” Lexis exclaimed.

            This was the loudest I’ve ever heard Lexis, she’s usually as quite as a mouse. “Lexi hold on. I’ll tell you guys what happened last night, later. But what happened in the news!” I asked.

            “I think Brian can tell you himself….” Lexis gulped, and then Brian came out of the shadows.

            “Hey Mick.” He called.

            “Brian? What happened?” I asked.

            “Mick its… about the Nevrade team…” Brian said solemnly.

            “What? The Nevrade team… Somebody spill out some answers real soon!” I stammered.

            “Mick, Brian was kicked off the Nevrade team.” Mr. Grogan strolled down some stairs and placed his hand on my shoulder, and Adrian was placed on the team in his place. Brian’s coming to Fear High.

            “Oh no, how’d that happen? Bro I’m so sorry.” I uttered silently. I was actually excited that my best friend was going to be there with the team. And maybe he could help me get over Blaire.

            “It’s alright dude. I’m just worried about Logan, Conner, and Stephen. What’s Adrian going to do to them?” Brian stated.

            “We don’t know, Brian. But I’ll try my best to protect them, like I’m trying to protect all of you. We will get rid of this Adrian pest sooner or later, but we need to focus on the true goal here. Take over the Olympians!” Mr. Grogan

            “Right on Man!” Casey shrieked.

            “Oh right Casey…Going hippie on us?” Caleb grinned.

            “No Caleb I believe your wrong, the definition of hippie is a person, of the late 1960s, who rejected establishedinstitutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personalrelations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, oftenexpressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing andof beads, headbands, used garments…” Gregor babbled.

            “Wow….the fact that your that smart scares me…” Caleb grinned.

            “GUYS!” Roslyn suddenly ran into the room.

            “More bad news?” I sighed.

            “Guys, listen to me! Blair has heard that the Principal Johnson is in cahoots with Adrian! We have to stop this, before Adrian overcomes Fear High!” Roslyn shrieked.

            “Roslyn, how did you get in here?” Mr. Grogan asked.

            “Lexis texted me how to get in. But guys, this is serious; we need to get rid of Principal Johnson as well!” Roslyn yelped.

            “This is serious, looks like we know your first mission. It will involve spying and lying. Everyone okay with that?”  Mr. Grogan asked.

            Everyone nodded, except for Geoffrey. “I’m a horrible liar…” he sighed.

            “Then you can stay with me in the Cave, while the others go.” Mr. Grogan assured him.

            “Wait a minute; we don’t all have to go. Maybe just a few of us should go, less chance of getting caught.” Brian pointed out.

            “Yes I suppose your right, Casey, Caleb, and Roslyn will stay in the Cave as well. Mick, Brian, Lexis, and Blair will go. If Blair decides to join the ‘Outcasts”

Chapter 13: Teenage Spies

            Obviously Blair didn’t show up, and to tell you the truth, I’m worried about her. So what if she’s a vampire? I can freaking move things with my mind. Who’s the bigger freak?

            Brian and Lexis trailed behind me out of the Cave; they knew I was going through hard times, with this Blair issue. I was mainly worried about Blair, she probably feels terrible about what she did. If only I could get a hold of her, and kiss her again, it would make everything better again.

            “So how are we going to do this whole spying thing? What if Principal Johnson isn’t even in there?” Lexis asked.

            “Ransack his office?” Brian asked.

            “Exactly. Hopefully he won’t be in there.” I confirmed. We were in the school right next to the principal’s office.

            “Ok, so I knock on the door and pretend like I’m taking a survey?” Lexis asked

            “Yes but only if he’s there, if not we’ll find another way to get in.” I ordered.

            And Brian and I took watch at the nearby boys bathroom, I could see Lexis knock on the door, after no answer her long leopard tail came up and then shaped into the shape of a key.

            Brian’s mouth dropped in amazement, so did mine. Lexis opened the door, then she motioned for Brian and I to follow her. We both slipped into the office without anybody noticing, and Lexis shut the door behind her. I slid in to the desk and started flipping through the papers on his desk.

            This was going to be hard, this guy was a pig, my eyes flicked back and forth reading the papers, some of it was the schools bills, conference, calendar, and ton of other documents, and then I blinked at horror at a heading of the paper. Brian looked over at me; he must have been reading both of our minds.

            He walked next to me, Lexis followed him and they both looked at the paper, it read, “Student Blair Moore, found for being a Vampire Spy.” Then there was some other stuff, explaining everything…I couldn’t bear to look. “Student ran away from government officials. No hints left behind, the Bradford’s, will be looking for her. And she will be put to death…”

            I’m not sure how many tears flowed down my cheek right then, I couldn’t take it. This was not how it was supposed to happen, Blair and I were supposed to end up together! Isn’t that how love’s supposed to go? Perfect and dandy? Why is this happening to me then?

            Lexis hugged me, “I’m so sorry Mick, and we’ll find her. They’re not going to hurt her. I’m just wondering why Roslyn didn’t tell us anything about this…” Lexis pondered.

            Brian patted my shoulder, and then said, “I have to talk to Mick alone, Lexis can you keep looking in places we haven’t checked?”

            “Yeah, I will. Sorry Mick, so sorry I don’t know how bad you feel right now.” She apologized again.

            Brian walked to the other corner of the  room, I followed, wiping a dozen tears away. “Hey bro, I know I shouldn’t have been listening in but I heard what you were thinking about love. And I know I wish love, did end perfect and dandy, there will be some bumps along the road. But if we don’t find Blair, you’ll find someone else, I promise you. Devin and I didn’t end up together right then and there, there was somebody before her, you should know, it was Anna…” he slowed down.

            “Yeah it was the worst mistake of your life, it’s a good thing Stephen has to deal with her now...” I brightened up a smile, poor, poor Stephen.

            “Yeah not the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me, but it ended out well. Devin and I are together. And you’ll find your girl too, maybe Blair isn’t the girl, and maybe the next, and the next, and the next…” Brian droned off.

            “And the next and the next and the next… I know that, when am I going to find the one. The one that takes my breath away like Devin does with you…” Another tear fought its way out of my fortress, men are not supposed to cry! Especially when I’m trying to save the world, now that’s just not cool.

            “You’ll find the one, whenever you find her, it’s that simple. And it’s all right to cry, a lot of stress has been on your shoulders, don’t freak out about this, you have friends, you can look to us if you ever need help, understood?” Brian asked.

            “You sound like my dad, gosh! Just kidding, let’s go and kick Adrian’s ass!” I yelled with a smile which pushed the tears away.

            “Found something!” Lexis shrieked, she was kneeling over the trash can holding a wrinkled piece of paper.

            “What is it?” I gasped, I guess I was feeling lazy, because I just moved the piece of paper over to me, and clasped it, on the paper, it said only thirteen words. Yep thirteen the highly unlucky number, that can end up being very lucky in the end. “Meet me at Shady Oaks Hill Sunday 7 sharp. I have the girl.”

            Adrian has Blair! AGAIN? Seriously, can we even try to change this story up some; the bad guy gets the girl. I would like to meet the author of my life story, because he really needs to mix up the plot of this jacked up story.

            “So now we know where Principal Johnson is heading to meet Adrian, we have to go and tell the others, quickly, tomorrows Sunday!” Brian hurried the pace and ran out of Principal’s office.

            We kind of forgot that the secretary would still be here, this early in the day, and she was, “What are you three doing here?” she glanced at the door we came out of. “What were you doing there?” she snapped in a high shrill voice.

            The worst thing we could have done was run, and we did, we ran like hell broke loose, Lexis jumped into cat form, I never saw that side of her, she was a large leopard, and she was so graceful with her vivid ringed dark spots all over her.

            The secretary, whom for some reason I think her name is Becky… then yelled, “SECURITY”, and she trotted over to a fire alarm like thing in the wall and pulled it down. I know this is a very serious thing going on, but it was just hilarious watching her run in high heel stilettos.

            I didn’t know what the security thing meant; I didn’t know the school had a security system. We continued to run, until we reached the end of that hallway, and I could hear moaning and groaning, and really dead feeling sounds. I was wondering, what the heck is going on?

            Then I saw them, the school did have a security system alright, there were about fourteen of them heading to us. They had dry mouths like they haven’t eaten in a while, but they were all drooping, some of them were missing arms. I gasped at the bones and gore slipped out. If only movies were like this, total hardcore gore, and especially zombies.

            Yes you heard me right, Zombies, these were real zombies. I kind of wish they weren’t after me, so I could ask them for an autograph, I love zombie movies, books, and anything considering zombies!

            I then realized I needed to get back into real world, Brian and Lexis were looking at me for help, they didn’t know what to do. They were looking to me for leadership…wow that’s not something I’m used to, it’s usually Logan always in charge. I was never really in charge before in my life. This felt awesome, and I was going to do this right.

            “Ok we have to get out of this, let’s just run in the opposite way, if they’re there, we’ll just have to fight them.” I ordered.

            Lexis quickly transformed back to human at the sound of that, “What? We are not prepared to fight zombies? You need a gun to get rid of them for a mere second, and we do not have a gun. And number two they’re undead! UNDEAD!” Lexis shouted.

            “I understand Lexis, but it’s the only way, if you get bitten by one, you turn into a zombie, you don’t want that happening do you?” Brian said.

            “Yeah that would be the worst case scenario, whatever, let’s get out of here quick!” Lexis yelled, while we were all backing away the zombies were getting closer.

            “Let’s go now!” I yelled and we all started running in the opposite way we were heading. The zombies were now in a sprint running after us; they were hungry, for our flesh. Man if I wasn’t about to die, this would be so awesome!

            We arrived at the other end of the hall way, we found the snappy secretary, shaking with fear, the zombies were there. “I don’t know what I’ve done, the zombies…they’re so hungry, they aren’t usually like this.” She cowered behind Brian, he backed off.

            “Umm…a plan…” I thought aloud, then I looked up at the ceiling our last mean of escape and it was just our luck, there was a vent right above Brian’s head. “A vent! Let’s shimmy up there, and make it to the tenth grade part of the school, there’s an exit there. We can get out.” I screamed in the midst of the thrill, and then I realized zombies react to loud things faster.

             I then opened up the vent with my mind, then I came acRoslyn one problem, how to get up there. Moaning grew louder, the four of us were surrounded by zombies, and we huddled together. “Come up with a plan genius.” The secretary shrieked as a zombie nearly grabbed her.

            We were going to die, the zombies were coming closer, one of them reached out and clawed my arm, I yelled out in pain. This was how it was going to end, killed by zombies. Just great.

            I stared at the floor defeated, Lexis and Brian were kicking off the clawing zombies, Becky was yelling out in pain, not doing anything turned to the center of the group and the zombies were clawing her back.

            At a sudden instant I looked down and suddenly the floor ripped apart, like a door being ripped off its hinges. The floor was floating into the air; the zombies were beneath us now.

            It then occurred to me what I was doing, I was lifting the floor with my mind, I had just saved us all. “Dude, how the heck did you do that?” Brian asked.

            “I’m not sure…” I gasped.

            I then looked up at the vent, I could grab it now, I then grabbed the vent handle and pulled myself up still making sure the floor was floating, this was the easy part, ripping it out of the ground was the difficult section.

            Lexis then climbed into the vent, I let her go pass me, then Brian, and he went pass me too. Becky grabbed for my hand, and I was pulling her up, then the vent started to creak, and suddenly it smashed into the floor that was floating knocking it down and it crushed some zombie.

            Becky and I were sliding down the vent now, Brian and Lexis had already got through, I was grabbing at the edge of the vent with all my might, holding onto Becky’s hand.

            Zombies were clawing for her to be their next meal, her shoe was ripped off, revealing green scales, it turned out she was a lizard lady. The zombies began to eat at her foot, and I knew she was done for.

            “Help! Help!” She screamed in a blood curling tone, her waist was nearly gone, it was like piranhas eating at her spleens and insides. “Don’t let go of me! Please! I don’t want to die!” she yelled.

            I shook my head, and then breathed, “I’m so sorry.” Then I released her hand, and her remains were attacked by hundreds of zombies ripping and chewing at her flesh… It was hard to watch.

            I reached up and pulled myself up to the stable part of the vent, Lexis and Brian were sitting there, with faces of horror on their face. “That lady…she died…didn’t she?” Lexis coughed and a tear fell down her cheek.

            “Yes.” I nodded solemnly.

            We all crawled through the vent, looking down through a vent whole every now and then to see if we were in the tenth grade hall way yet. We finally, slid out of the vent, and everything was quiet, too quiet.

            I turned around and one zombie had lost its way from the appetizer and had found his dinner, not again! With so much frustration and anger, about losing Becky, I then with all my force kicked the zombie straight in the face, his head ended up like a soccer ball rolling down the hallway.

            “Hurry come on, let’s get out of this hell house!” Brian yelled and we all ran out of the door, finally.

            Immediately we heard gun fires, zombies had covered the school grounds; Casey had a pistol shooting all the zombies in their crotches, she was back to back with Caleb shooting at all the zombies in their way.

            I let out a yell, “Casey! Caleb!” I saw that Casey glanced at me; she grinned and shot one zombie chick in the head.

            “Come over here! We need to get back into the Cave!” Casey yelled at us. We all took cover of our heads, and ran to where Casey and Caleb were, and then all five of us entered the Cave.

            Gregor was the first one we saw, he was filling up ammunition of a gun. “Oh good, you guys are alive. None of you have been bitten or anything, have you?” he asked.

            “No, we were just caught by a stupid secretary, who called security. Nobody told us, the security employees, were flesh eating Zombies!” Lexis yelled. “I’m taking a nap!”

            “Well she’s in a good mood…” Gregor sighed.

            “We have some good news.” I shoved the piece of paper into his hands, he looked down and read it.

            “That is good news, and we can save Blair too. We have to show Mr. Grogan this; he’s downstairs fixing up the jet right now.” Gregor grinned.

            “Jet?” Brian asked, Gregor nodded.

            “We have a JET?” I yelled in shock.

           

Chapter 14: Training

            I then discovered from Gregor, that the Cave has stairs, I jogged down them. I turned around the edge of the corner, and then saw the clearly most magnificent thing I’d ever sat my eyes on. It was Saturn blue such a huge aircraft.

            The door of it slid open; Mr. Grogan stepped out with a huge grin planted on his face. “How do you like it?” he asked.

            “It’s awesome, how in the Sam heck did you get it?” I asked, gliding my hand along the side of it, it was so neat, and perfect for our team to use to go to Arizona. Wait did I just say team? I’m not sure, what was going through my mind, well a lot of things are going through my mind I think. I haven’t been on a team in like more than half a year now.

            “Well, Mick. You aren’t the only one that came from one of the Government agencies. I inherited this from my old team.” Mr. Grogan acknowledged.

            “Really, this old man was once an agent? You’ve got to be kidding me, what team were you on?” I asked.

            “Well I was on the Nevrade team, Mick. When the whole team retired, Jeremy another member on my team had a baby named Logan. And that’s how the Nevrade team got its name back. How cool is that? Those were the good old days” Mr. Grogan sighed.

            “Wait, you were once on my team, your one of the retired Nevrade members? Holy crap, Mr. Grogan that is insane” I shouted.

            “Well you two, and Brian weren’t the only people on a Government agency, I was on a Russian team titled Cеребро which is Silver in Russian.” Roslyn followed Mr. Grogan out of the Jet.

            “Well we have three former Nevrade members, a recent Silver member, a werewolf, leopard, vampire, and a satyr on the team. Pretty diverse I would say, that reminds me I need to gather up a team meeting. Gather them up, will you Mick?” he asked.

            “Of course.” I trotted off to find them; I sent Lexis, Brian, Casey, and Caleb to Mr. Grogan.

            I found Gregor at his new computer, “Hey bro, Mr. Grogan wants to gather up a meeting, we need you there dude.” I informed.

            “Dude…I just got an e-death message from Adrian…” Gregor’s voice trailed off and I swear I saw a tear escape. What is up with all this crying, lately?

            “What? Let me look!” he got up and let me slide into the chair, I scrolled down the message.

Dear Gregor Stamey,

            You know about how I killed your brother, well he’s not dead. I faked the death spell. And I can wake him up from his sleep at any time I need to, but if you want your twin back, you have to join my side. Meet me at your brother’s grave, next Thursday at midnight. Oh and if you don’t, I will kill you personally the next time I meet you.

                                                                                                      It’s a live or Death Situation,

                                                                                                                        Adrian Hawthorn

            I blinked at the message, what in the world could Adrian want with Gregor? Could Geoffrey still be alive, is that even possible? I asked myself.

            “If there’s a chance I can get my brother back, I’m going. I’m sorry Mick.” Gregor interrupted my thoughts.

            “What?” I asked.

            “If he’s alive, I’m going to join Adrian. I got that message this morning… I’ve been thinking about it, and I think that joining Adrian would be the best decision.” Gregor sighed.

            I stood up and grabbed his shoulders, “Dude Adrian is a liar, and he’s a cheater. There’s something not right about this, he’s not telling the whole truth. You have to trust me.” I begged.

            “You know what; this is all so surreal to me. My parents would be worried about me, I have to go. Sorry about this, I’m not the person who would do this.” Gregor pointed out.

            “You can’t bail on us now; after all we’ve been through dude!” I stormed.
            “Yeah and my brother is dead, all this has gotten me is a dead brother, and a bad headache. You should have known I would have been out of here soon. Mick, I quit!” he screamed

            “You can’t do this Gregor! You can’t leave your friends, Adrian will kill you!” I yelled.

            “Bye, Mick.” Gregor said. It was too late; he dashed out of the Cave. I can’t believe this, how could anything else go horribly wrong? I’m not sure which is worse, the fact that one of my friends betrayed me or my girlfriend turned out to be a vampire spy!

            Vampire Spy, defiantly. Wait if she was a vampire spy, did she gather any information on us? Then it hit me like a bullet, Roslyn was close relatives with Blair, which makes sense why she’s always covering up for Blair.

            Could Roslyn be a spy as well, or was I just going crazy? I’m not sure now, but I do know that I shouldn’t trust Roslyn anymore. Something was up. I’m not going to say anything to her, but if she is some kind of Russian spy, the smartest thing to do now is to get rid of her.

            I jostled down back up to the Jet, and found Caleb in some kind of karate position. “Guys?” I asked.

            “Oh wonderful you’re here, Mick. We had begun without you, where is Gregor?” Mr. Grogan asked.

            “Umm…I have some bad news and good news to share with everybody.” I gulped.

            “Please, inform us about this.” Mr. Grogan studied my face wondering what I was about to say.

            “Ok let’s start off with the good news; well it’s kind of bad at the same time. It has to do with Blaire. It was printed in the paper that she was confirmed a vampire spy, So Principal James wants to turn her in for the reward. That’s why he is meeting Adrian in Arizona, on Sunday. I have no clue what Adrian wants in return but I’m sure its high in value.” I let the words roll off my tongue, because I knew they had to be said.

            There were plenty of gasps in the room, “That is bull; Blaire is not a vampire spy. It’s just Adrian placing that in all of our minds.” Roslyn stood up.

            “I never said that I believed she was a vampire spy either, though I was getting ready to ask you a few questions Roslyn.” I looked up into her eyes. Her face was pale, and her short blond hair was tied up into a ponytail.

            “I get it, now if my cousin is a spy; you’re going to accuse me of being a spy as well!” Roslyn yelled at me, I forgot she was a reader…

            Mr. Grogan stood up standing between us, “Listen in this team there is no accusing people. Now Mick please go on and tell us the bad news.” Mr. Grogan ordered.

            “Ok…this is going to be hard for you to handle, but it makes sense after you think of it for a while. Gregor quit.

            “Do what?” Lexis’s eyes bulged.

            “Gregor got a death message from Adrian, which he had to meet him at Geoffrey’s grave and come onto Adrian’s side if he was going to reawake Geoffrey from the dead. If he didn’t, Adrian would kill Gregor.” I spat out.

            “Are you serious?” Casey gasped.

            “That’s unbelievable, where is he now. Maybe I can catch up to him and talk him out of it.” Lexis stood up starting to head toward the door.

            “No, I don’t think he’ll go through with it, he should be back. We should just give him some time to think about it. Maybe he’ll come to his senses and come back.” I sighed, trying to be optimistic about it. Lexis was really good friends with Geoffrey and Gregor, which I never really understood that clearly.

            “You don’t understand Gregor will be stupid enough to go to Adrian and get himself killed. He may be really smart, but this death of his brother has really hurt him. I’m just worried about him…” Lexis said, a tear dripping down her face.

            I didn’t know what else to say, so I instinctively hugged her, “It’s going to be okay, Lexis. I’m going to miss him too.”

            “Mick, I think we need to inform you on why I called this meeting. The deal is we need to be able to kick butt when we need to. So I’m going to train you guys so we can take down Adrian with no disadvantages.” Mr. Grogan confronted.

            “Ok, then how are Lexis and I going to train? We’re creatures with four legs. Kind of hard to train, it usually comes with instincts; you know diving for the necks.” Casey said.

            “Umm…yeah you just try to go for Adrian’s neck…” I grinned picturing that if it did happen. Wow I do have an evil mind.

            “Mick, he’s just a kid, we can’t kill him!” Mr. Grogan snapped at me.

            “Wait what? I thought the whole plan was to kill him?” I barked. Seriously, how am I going to get my happily ever after if he doesn’t die?!

            “We’ll talk about that later Dominic. Right now, we all need some training, let’s start us off with some push-ups.” He had used my real name, usually when that happens he means business. That’s happened in his class loads of time, when I wasn’t listening; I was way focused on something completely different.

            We each had to do fifty push-ups, when that was done we all had to do fifty sit-ups, before he actually let us start training.

            “Ok guys, I’m going to teach you some moves in Kung Fu. Like we had started earlier, Caleb I’ll use you as a demonstration again, this is called the Crescent Kick.” Mr. Grogan trailed on explaining the Crescent Kicks.

            There’s two types of crescent kicks, the inside Crescent kick, and the outside. Both of these were mildly easy, since I’ve been training to fight ever since I was a little boy.   

            I had already mastered the roundhouse kick a couple years ago, it was also easy. Actually I have mastered Karate, not Kung Fu yet, but hopefully Mr. Grogan will continue to teach us it.

            After training Mr. Grogan gathered us all around him, to lay out the plan for tomorrow’s ambush. “Ok, I will teach you some more Kung Fu moves another time, we need to get back on the main thing we have to be focused on. Tomorrow we will ride on the Jet to Arizona. We will all fight him, though we need to dodge the death spells, if he uses it again. You guys remember what happened to Geoffrey and Zeke, don’t you?”

            “Well that’s not going to happen to any of you, I will make sure of it. And I need to make sure you kids know that whatever happens tomorrow, don’t try to be a hero. Don’t risk your life over something, if we don’t get rid of Adrian tomorrow, there’s always another time. Understand?” Mr. Grogan asked.

            “Yes I understand, so we go to Arizona like any ordinary deal? We’re not going to camouflage the Jet with anything?” Caleb asked.                                           

            “No unless you have an idea for that.” Mr. Grogan grinned.

            “Well you should know that I do have another thing up my sleeve. I’ve already told you about this Mr. Grogan. But I think I should announce it to the others, that I was given this chip from my father on my birthday last year.” Caleb then held out a chip for all of us to see.

            “So what does the chip do?” I asked puzzled.

            “I’m glad you asked.” Caleb then threw the chip on me; I saw it latch onto my shirt.

            “What happened? I don’t see anything?” I asked in confusion.          

            “Holy crap! That is the coolest thing in the world!” Casey yelled.

            “Wait what’s the coolest thing in the world?” I questioned then looked behind me to see if it had gone through me.

            “Mick, look down at your hands.” Caleb had a big smile on his face, supposedly it was a very triumphant smile, and I hadn’t noticed anything different about me. Then I looked down at my hands. And realized that my hands were gone!

            “WOAH? Where the heck did my hands go?” I yelled, then ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. “HOLY SHIZ, I’M INVISIBLE!” I yelled throughout the whole Jet.

            I came out and then pulled the chip off my shirt. “So now you see, all we have to do is attach the chip to the Jet, and the Jet will become invisible, then we can easily get past Arizona without Adrian even seeing us.” Caleb announced.

            “Bravo, Caleb. Very helpful tool.” Mr. Grogan patted Caleb on the back.

            “Let me try it on!” Casey grabbed for the chip.

            “No, not now, we all need to turn in and get some sleep, we’re leaving first thing in the morning, and everybody has to be ready.” Mr. Grogan announced, there were many grunts and sighs.

            It made me feel like I had finally found a dad in Mr. Grogan. My dad had been dead a long time; I never really knew how it felt to actually have a dad. Mr. Grogan led us all to our bedrooms; we couldn’t go home, because the zombies were still being evacuated. I shared a room with Brian and Caleb, we were all worn out, from the events of today, and I still remembered the fright I had before I was nearly eaten by a killer zombie. Aw…good times.

            I had fallen asleep for a good six hours until I heard a thud against the top the Cave. I woke up startled, staring at the ceiling, and then I figured it was probably just the janitor picking up trash and he happened to be around the top of the Cave.

            Though still, my imagination rushed at all the other possible things it could have been, maybe Adrian was looking for me, to deliver another message… I fell asleep again, with a slender flaming hot tear scraping my cheek.

Chapter 15: Ghostly Crash         

            I woke up again, with someone shaking my shoulders; I rubbed my eyes awake and saw that it was only Casey. “Get up; we need to start up the Jet now.” Casey yelled into my ears.

            I looked at the alarm clock, “At seven o’clock in the morning?” I groaned, and then realized that today was the day. I jumped off my bed, and saw Brian still asleep, I kicked him in the back.

            “I’m awake! Gosh!” he yelled.

            “It’s time to go now!” I yelled. We all ran to the Jet, we saw Mr. Grogan operating the ship.

            “Prepare for takeoff!” Mr. Grogan said into the microphone, and the Jet door closed behind us. I looked out the window and saw the top of the cave opening up. And then the Jet, leaned upward, I looked at the others having their seat belts on, Casey, Brian, and I forgot about ours.

            I was falling back, trying to latch onto something, the plane was going up and periodically I was plummeting down to the bottom of the jet. I slammed into a chair, and then the jet started steering vertical again. I looked up at the others, Casey was blushing, and she had landed in Caleb’s lap. Brian was hanging onto a chair leg.

            “Did you really have to start right when we got on the jet? Are we that much in a hurry?” Brian snapped.

            “We just had to leave at that very instant if we were going to make it in time, sorry about that.” Mr. Grogan apologized.

             “Jerk.” Brian still grumbled.

            I looked around, nobody was in the mood for talking, they were all nervous and using whatever they could to get them through it. Roslyn was drawing in a notebook, Lexis was writing poetry, Caleb reading a comic book, Casey had just begun to fall back asleep, and Brian was listening to his iPod.

            I didn’t know what to do to pass the time, maybe cringe in fear the whole time. Mr. Grogan got up from his seat; I guess he put the jet on autopilot. Wish I could put my life on autopilot once in a while.

            I saw that Mr. Grogan had a package in his hand and was walking toward me, and then he sat down in the seat next to me. “Hey Mick.” He said.

            “Hey.” I said awkwardly.

            “I have to tell you a few things about your…umm dad.” Mr. Grogan sighed, and twiddled with his thumbs.

            “Like what?” a thousand of nerves just came upon me, I hadn’t known much about my dad. All I knew was that he was once in the Nevrade team, and that’s the only reason I’m here now.

            “Before I get into much of anything, he left this for you, well its two things actually.” Mr. Grogan handed me the two packages, they were both wrapped with red ribbon and a brown package.

            I undid the ribbon smoothly and carefully removed the package, the first thing was a book, I opened it and the pages were full of lines, it was a journal. “This was a treasure he had found in a deserted island called Titan Isle. It was something that he scavenged out of the destruction. Right then and there he decided to leave it for his son.” Mr. Grogan grinned.

            I held the journal in my palms, it was yellow leather, the pages had dirt stains from the destruction at Titan Isle, which I believe was destroyed by the Olympians, many years ago.    

            I then moved on to the next package in my hands, and carefully opened it the same way I did the first one. In this one, it was a tiny silver transparent bottle. It had a bit more than an ounce of blue water nestled under the cork that opened it.                                   

            “Now this is a very special item, your father believed that this is pure Stardust and has a legend that it could cure any brokenness in your life. But you must use it wisely, when the world is about to collapse under your shoulders is the greatest time to use it. Be very careful with this, if this ends up in bad hands, I’m not sure what will become of the world.” Mr. Grogan sighed.

            I was speechless; I didn’t have any words to say. “Ok well Mick, you keep them in a safe space, and be careful during this fight today. I’m sure that’s what it’ll end up to, a bloody fight.” Mr. Grogan sighed and walked away.

            “Wait Mr. Grogan, I thought you were going to tell me some stuff about my dad!” I yelled.

            “Yes…maybe some other time, Mick. Think about those things I’ve given you, they should be very useful in the end.” Mr. Grogan walked back up to the cockpit.

            I bit my lip and looked back to the bottle and the journal, great now I’m even in trapped in more confusion. If you’re listening to my cries author of my life, make this go alright.

            I wondered how Blair was feeling right now, in Adrian’s clutches again. How could I of let this happen again…stupid, stupid, stupid me. I groaned out loud, and then decided to rest a bit more before the big fight.

            All I heard was a huge bang; I was pushed into the front of the seat in front of me. It was like a car collision, everyone jerked forward, and my mind was jumbled in shock.      I quickly unbuckled my seat belt, and got a clear vision of the whole jet. I ran to the cock pit, Mr. Grogan was passed out in the pilot’s chair.

            A bunch of wires were cut, I realized we were zooming straight into the ground; a surge of panic came over me.

            “Hello Mick, nice to see you again.” The voice of Caitlyn came behind me. I twisted around and there she was, standing there with a blade in her hand, she smiled me an evil smile.

            Oh crap, there had to be a way to get out of here. I then glanced at Mr. Grogan, I couldn’t let him stay here and die, I had to think of something quick, or we would both die.

            Caleb flashed a worried look to Casey who was sitting across the aisle; he then realized she wasn’t there. He looked at the ground and she was curled up, blood was dripping down her lip.

            Fight it off; Caleb told himself, he had to fight his urge for blood; Casey was too special to him. He had a huge crush on her, ever since he had laid eyes on her, and now she was close to her death.

            Caleb had to do something, he struggled over next to Casey, and grabbed her hand, and he then pulled her over his shoulder. He looked to the closest exit, it was the entrance.

            He slammed against it and with his cold rock hard skin the door busted up and he fell out of the jet with Casey nestled on his back. Roslyn huddled with Lexis in fear; Brian pulled himself over to the girls.

            None of them could possibly survive the jump; they all had a very low chance of surviving, the Jet was getting closer and closer to crashing, Brian got up and began digging in droors looking. He was looking for parachutes; wouldn’t Mr. Grogan have installed parachutes?

            Brian grew frustrated and smashed his knuckles against an emergency box, bewildered inside he only found one parachute, they could all jump off, quickly he strapped it on and tossed one to Roslyn.

            Roslyn strapped hers on and then without hesitation dove into the air, Brian then latched onto Lexis and jumped off, they began to jump but were jerked backward, a string had hooked onto the door.

            Brian couldn’t reach it; Lexis then turned just her head into a leopard and cut the string with her tough jaws. They plummeted back into the air leaving the jet behind, completely forgetting about Mick and Mr. Grogan, still left aboard the jet.

            I moved the passenger’s seat at Caitlyn, it slammed into her knocking her into the wall, and then she suddenly became transparent and slid through the seat, and kicked her leg up in the air aimed at my face. I grabbed her leg and flipped her over; her face collided against the floor, her mouth was oozing blood.

            She quickly got up on her feet and then kicked me square in the chest, I was thrown backward and smashed into the front window, glass flung everywhere, I kicked the window open and then began to scale the side of the jet. It was still invisible so it was extremely difficult to see where I was stepping.

            I heard footsteps behind me, Caitlyn was following me. Of course, I knew she wouldn’t give up this easily. I glanced over my shoulder and saw she was pulling out something. A gun.

            Oh god, time to start hyperventilating…I’m highly afraid of guns. I’ve never been real comfortable with the fact that with the pull of a trigger, someone’s life could be stolen. Let’s just pray that life isn’t mine.

            I then climbed to what I thought could be the roof, dang that freaking invisibility, not really helping me out right now, is it? Or could it? I saw the chip on the very center of the roof; slowly I started moving toward it. The wind kept holding me back, I then grabbed the chip and latched it onto myself.

            The jet became clear, but I was invisible, I saw that Caitlyn was looking for me. Carefully not trying to make a sound I roundhouse kicked her in the face. She stepped back dazed. Then I crescent kicked her in the chest, she was almost to the edge…if only I could throw her off.

            Without warning she did it for me, she dove off the Jet, confusing the heck out of me. Did she just commit suicide? Well she is a ghost, can ghosts even die? I wasn’t sure.

            Though I was sure that the Jet wasn’t falling any more, somehow it went back to a vertical pace again. Mr. Grogan must of woke up, or maybe Brian took control of the shift.

            I carefully jumped back through the front window, Mr. Grogan was driving the jet, he had just woken up. “Did you get rid of Caitlyn?” he asked.

            “Yeah… not really the way I expected though, I was about to shove her off the jet, but then she just willingly dove off.” I said with a puzzled look.

            “Are the others okay?” he asked.

            I opened the cockpit door and looked to the main area, they were gone, “They probably jumped, they aren’t there. Hey how’d you fix the jet? I thought she cut the wires.” I asked.

            “The Jet has two systems, a main one and a backup one. I just switched to the backup one.” Mr. Grogan answered.

            “What now?” I questioned.

            “We land!” he yelled. “Turns out we’re above Arizona right now, it’s not seven yet, but that’ll give us time to find the others.” Mr. Grogan said.

            “Ok, then lets land, and find the others, they shouldn’t be too far.” I yelled sitting in the navigator’s seat.

            Mr. Grogan then started to narrow the plane downward, nearing a wide open plain we could land in. I closed my eyes, scared that we could land wrong, a wheel could get stuck and flip the whole jet over? Or was my imagination getting too ahead of itself?

            We landed fine, there was nothing to worry about, and I jumped out the door of the plane, and then looked around the area. It was darker than I thought it would be, there was a mysterious fog. Mr. Grogan hustled out of the plane.

            “Oh great, this is just great.” Mr. Grogan grumbled.

            “Wait what’s the matter with this?” I asked.            

            “Just look around at the trees, son. We’re in the Petrified Forest, the land of the fallen comrades in the World War l. During that war there was a huge war between monsters and the ones with powers, such as you and me. After that war, all of the deceased were petrified. Though they wake up at night exactly around 6’ish, to fight for revenge. It’s a horrible place, indeed.” Mr. Grogan hissed.         

            “Wait, can’t they leave the forest?” I asked.

            “No, they are stuck inside the forest, if they try to leave the grounds, they will turn into dust.” Mr. Grogan said then yelled out, “CALEB!”

            “And what about humans, can’t they see them?” I asked.

            “No, there’s an enchantment on all humans, you should know that. Humans don’t see monsters, it’s just that. If that ever happened, we would sure be in trouble.” Mr. Grogan grumbled to himself.

            “Ok then we better start looking for them before it gets too dark and the soldiers come to get us.” I murmured and tore into the woods.

            “Casey! Roslyn! Lexis! Brian! Caleb!” I yelled out, with no answer. I solemnly kept walking, Mr. Grogan followed behind me. “You know, this could ruin our chance to destroy Adrian and save Blair.” I hissed.

            “I know, they had a good reason to jump, they thought the plane was getting ready to crash, oh and one thing, there’s a giant that was killed in this war named Wilson. He did have one strange power, we should watch out for.” Mr. Grogan recalled.

            “And what would that be?” I asked.

            “Turning people into stone, and I should know, my great, great grandfather was turned to stone in this war.” He said grimly.

            “What happened after that was he saved?” I asked.

            “Yeah, he was brought to the Dead Wash stream, and the stone dripped off of him. The Dead Wash stream is the only place that can cure Wilson’s spit.” Mr. Grogan sighed.

            “Wait what, Wilson’s spit?” I said alarmed.

            “Yes, Wilson’s spit is what turns people into stone, didn’t I already say that?” he asked.

            “No you didn’t sir.” I shrugged, I could tell that Mr. Grogan was old and maybe he was losing his spark. He was an old wizard, it’s hard for him to recall this stuff, and maybe I should just stop asking him questions…

            We continued walking with no sign of any of the team, until I heard a girl’s scream. It sounded like Casey’s, I then rushed to the sound of it, and “Mr. Grogan you should stay here!” I called back at him.

            I found a clearing, and there Casey and Caleb were sitting down, Casey had some blood on her ankle, Caleb was rubbing it with a piece of his shirt that he had torn off. “Mick!” Caleb’s eyes brightened with happiness.

            “Oh Mick, I thought we were going to be lost here forever! I’m glad you’re alive!” Casey grinned and then sitting down she reached out to hug me, I kneeled down and hugged her back.

            Caleb looked at me with jealous eyes, I gave him the, Not my fault look and he just shrugged.

            “Do you guys know where the others are?” I asked.

            “Not really, they jumped soon after I did, but we haven’t seen them yet.” Caleb sighed.

            “Well we need to find them, Casey, how’s that ankle?” I asked.        

            “It was just scratched by some of this wood, what kind of trees are these anyways?” she picked up a twig and tried to break it but couldn’t.

            “We’re in the Petrified Forest.” I explained then told them all about the dead soldiers in this forest. They took it quite well…

            “WHAT? You mean there are stone monsters roaming around! I’m not ready for this at all; I thought we were just going to fight Adrian and the principal! What type of creature is the principal anyway?” She didn’t let me answer, “Oh gosh, I’m about to hyperventilate, I could be turned to stone forever! Oh crap, oh crap!” Casey wailed.                           

            Caleb then grabbed her and turned her to face her and then kissed her, I saw her kiss back a little, and then she separated and walked away without saying another word. “Wait!” Caleb yelled and ran after her.

            Bold move.

            Caleb chased after Casey, he found her sitting down at a tree, and he sat down next to her. “I’m sorry. It was instinctive, and it was just…I don’t know. If you don’t have feelings for me, I understand.” Caleb babbled

            Casey then looked into Caleb’s eyes, “That was a very pleasant way to get me to shut up. Now it’s my turn.” Casey kissed him back she wrapped her arms around him and he held her waist, and kissed her back.  

            Suddenly a drop of some water like substance dripped onto Caleb’s nose. Caleb’s eyes widened when he looked up and saw that Casey was not leaned up against a tree…

            Caleb then casually turned to stone; Casey didn’t realize this until she was kissing stone lips. “What the…”Casey asked herself, and then tried to get up, but Caleb’s stone hands were trapped around her waist, she couldn’t move. Casey wailed out loud, she yelled for help.

            The ‘tree’ then stepped away; Casey realized that it was the giant that Mick had warned her about. Now she could be trapped there in Caleb’s arms forever. “HELP” she yelled out constantly hoping Mick would hear her cries.

            I heard somebody yelling, it sounded like Casey’s voice, and then I heard a shriek from Roslyn. I started to run toward Casey since Roslyn was untrustworthy, then I heard Brian scream, “MICK!”

            Crap, when I heard Lexis yelled, I headed in the direction of their voices. I was running at fast pace, trying to listen to their screams. Though I kept getting interrupted my whispering, and my running started to slow for some reason. It was like I was in slow motion.

            The whispering kept banging in my earlobe, it got louder and louder! I couldn’t take any of it. I was sick of this forest, I was ready to kick Adrian’s butt, save Blair, and get my bum home.

            The whispering became unbearable; I collapsed on my knees and grasped my head, trying to get the noises out. There was just so much pain, it was unbearable, I screamed and shouted and kicked my feet like it would make a difference.

            I felt my face getting paler, my lungs closing, it was happening so fast. Flashes of images came across me. I saw a picture of Blair and I flying a kite, her cuddled into my chest on the bus, her laughing at one of my jokes. And there was many more, I wanted to grip onto each of them and hold them with me forever.

            The pictures vanished from sight, and everything was black, except for one tiny dot that kept getting bigger. In a minute I saw it was Blair coming toward me, she had on a white silk dress.

            Soon she was right next to me, and she held my neck and our noses were touching, I think tears were dripping down my face. Her lips then rubbed against mine, I wanted this moment to last forever.

            She brushed her nose down my neck and she kissed my shoulder, then a sharp pang in my neck grasped me. I yelled in pain. I pushed Blair off me and clutched my neck.

            Her doe-eyed face then transformed into the ugliest face I had ever seen, her teeth were long and sharp. She then hissed at me, I looked off into the darkness and there were slashes of white lines. My crazy demon girlfriend cowered at the brightness of the white lines, the blackness was nearly gone.

            I saw Brian’s face when I collapsed onto the ground, what just happened? I asked myself over and over again, when my eyes flickered open, I looked straight into Mr. Grogan’s eyes. “Please tell me what just happen! Am I dead?” I whimpered. I realized I was shivering and sweat was dripping down my forehead.

            “It sounds like a pixie attack. Brian fought them off with a sword he found stuck in the ground. You were almost dead back there.” Mr. Grogan said.

            “But Casey…was screaming. Did you save her? What happened?” I asked still shivering covered with fear.

            “Yeah, well she had a giant incident; she was stuck in Caleb’s grasp when he turned to stone.” Mr. Grogan sighed.

            “Oh my god, is he okay?!” I demanded and answer.

            “Yes, yes, he is okay; I brought him to the Dead Wash Stream. He is better than ever, even with his new girlfriend. Casey should brighten him up just a bit.” Mr. Grogan chuckled.

            “Wow, that’s amazing. But what about Blair, I must of saw her while being attacked by the pixies. She tried to bite me!” I said.

            “Pixies show you biggest loved one trying to kill you, normal pixie stuff. Blair is still in Adrian’s clutches. She should be okay, but the battle is in an hour, so you should wash up and get ready.” Mr. Grogan inputted, and then walked away.

            I saw that I was lying on a cot, I looked around me, Caleb was asleep on another cot, Casey was bent down over him, holding his hand. “Hey Casey.” I said.

            “Hey Mick.” She grinned. “You feeling better?” she asked.

            “I’m feeling super; a near death experience doesn’t bother me much anymore.” I grinned.

            “Yeah…so how long did you know about Caleb liking me?” She asked.

            “I was the first to know actually, he had a huge crush on you for a long time, I was surprised you had the same feelings for him today.” I smiled.                   

            “Well, I always had feelings for him. I guess in the end it all worked out for the best.” She looked back into Caleb’s eyes, I looked too, and I swear I saw him wince. He was listening to our conversation, I don’t think Casey knew though, or she just didn’t say anything.

            I had bigger things to be worried about; the fight with Adrian, if Caitlyn found our jet, then Adrian would know that we knew about the meeting. This is soon to be a meeting disaster…

            Even if he did know, it was too late to change the plans. We were going to go there, and now with all of us together, we’ll knock him into Tokyo. He may have got away last time, but he’s definitely going to lose this time.

            I walked out of the room with Casey and Caleb, Caleb still hasn’t woke up yet, so there was no point to sit and wait around. I saw Brian, Lexis, and Roslyn playing poker.

            I strolled over to them, “Mind if I can buy in?” I asked. They said yes, but Lexis and I ran out of money quick. Never play poker with two mind readers, it’s just depressing. Though whenever Brian turned around, I flipped his card over with my power, but that wasn’t good enough, he still beat me every time. He knew when to fold, when to go, and everything.

            After that I stared out the window, looking through the clearing, the jet was already cloaked. We were waiting for Adrian or either Principal Johnson to show up, we didn’t know what they would be arriving on, we just knew they would be there.

            I just hope they don’t bump in to the jet, and find that we were there the whole time. That would be a disadvantage to us, but it was highly unlikely because we parked several yards away.

            Then I got a glance of his spiky black hair step into a meadow, he had someone following behind him, when they got closer, I saw it was Blair, her lovely hair was ratty and oily. The look on her face was full of terror, and many tears draped her slender face. She was wearing a gradient blue dress, and worn out converses.

            I wanted to run out to her and hug her, but we had to stay still until Principal Johnson got here.  It was long before a chubby fat guy with grey hair and a big bald spot on the top of his head came out, with him was a slender woman, she was my math teacher, Mrs. Black.

            Killing her was going to be so enjoyable, though my target was Adrian. He had a problem with me; he didn’t have a problem with the rest of the team. He was my problem, and I was going to end this problem right then and there.

            I slipped a small blade into my pocket, it was just in case Caitlyn showed up, I also borrowed some rattlesnake poison from Mr. Grogan. Rumor says it’s supposed to be the only thing to kill a ghost.

            I then stepped out of the jet and came out of the clearing, I was dying to see Adrian’s face when he finds out I was there. My team followed behind me, in all of their glory. They’ll be happy I speak so highly of them; I really do love them though in a friendly sort of way.

            Even though I don’t trust Roslyn at all, I still love in a friendly way, but somewhere in the bottom of my heart, I just hope she takes a knife today. Not in a mean way, just I really don’t want to be the one to kill her if she really is a Russian spy.

            This was it. Step 1 to saving the monster world. Step 2 is a long way to come.        

           

           

Chapter 16: Life or Death

            Adrian didn’t look as frightened as I hoped he would, Principal Johnson was very surprised though, “Mr. Grogan, what are you doing here?” he gasped.

            “Just the question I was getting ready to ask you, Mr. Johnson. Would you happen to be using the school’s money to buy this young vampire spy?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

            “No, why would you think that?” Principal Johnson lied and pushed a big black suitcase behind his back. He sure did have room to hide it, if you know what I mean…

            “Why don’t you open that suitcase of yours, the one you’re hiding behind your fat?” Lexis suddenly shocked us all. She was normally quiet and shy, to say something like that, was like the headlines for the school paper!

            “Why Miss Pennington, I see you have a new mouth on you. It’s none of your business to be poking around my suitcase.” He stammered.                       

            I then moved the suitcase in the hair, “What?” he tried to reach up to grab it, but his arms were not very proportional to his fat body. I quickly moved it higher out of Mrs. Black’s hands.

            “Wait! Adrian!” Casey yelped I glanced at Adrian he suddenly leaped in the air; he sprung into a flip and snatched the suitcase.

            “Well Adrian, you just don’t know me well, you haven’t seen my new power” I smirked, and then I moved my power from the suitcase to Adrian. He was still in the air and now he was kicking in the air. I then slung him into a tree.

            That didn’t bother him much at all; he merely stood up and brushed off his shoulders and his pants. “Young, young Mick, you think your movement trickery is going to be any help to you. Though you are wrong, amigo, you will never beat this Spanish magician.” Adrian hissed.

            “Wait when the heck did Adrian become a Mexican?” Caleb barked, Casey punched him in the arm. I rolled my eyes, Suddenly Adrian ran toward me and jumped into a leap and kicked me straight in the face.

            I could taste the blood on my lips. This war was on.

            I recoiled quickly and roundhouse kicked him in the gut, a sharp metal pang vibrated throughout my leg. “Oh gosh.” I whimpered. I think I broke my leg.

            I held it and fell to the ground, anybody with that much rock hard abs, is faking it. “Mick, you think you and your friends actually had a chance of defeating me, well I’d like to confirm. You were dead wrong.” He smirked.

            I was aching in pain, I was a bloody mess. Casey threw a punch at Adrian’s face. And I saw a dint in his cheek, did I hear myself clearly? A dint? What the heck was going on?

            Adrian grabbed at my collar, and picked me up in the air, “Mick it is time for you to be taken out of this picture. You thought it was me the whole time that should be destroyed. But trust me; I’m not the bad guy. Your girlfriend even agrees with me, oops well let’s make that ex.” He spat in my face.

            “What the hell are you talking about?” I growled then spit in his face, in anger. He didn’t even reach to wipe it off, which was a little odd, but I didn’t say anything.

            Instead I looked over at Principal Johnson and Mrs. Black. Mrs. Black had clutched the briefcase and was bringing Blair away. Blair looked at me and yelled, “HELP!”

            “Guys! They’re trying to escape! Get them!” I yelled.

            Adrian turned around and glanced at them, “Caitlyn get them!”  he yelled, at Caitlyn who wasn’t even there… Then she popped out of the trees, and punched Mrs. Black in the face.

            Caleb, Roslyn, and Lexis ran over to join the fight. Mr. Grogan yelled, “Mick, Adrian is a robot. Magic has no use against metal, I’m sorry; I have no help to aid you!” Mr. Grogan yelled.

            Very helpful Mr. Grogan, I growled to myself. I couldn’t do anything.  My powers wouldn’t work, the pain was too much, it blocked out my power. I seriously think I broke my leg. Thank God, Casey is a vampire, or she would of broke her hand.

            “So you want to know what I’m talking about, Mick? Your little girlfriend is on my side now. She likes me; I wasn’t going to tell you this, because it would shatter your heart to pieces. But I like breaking hearts, Blair is dating me.” Adrian snarled.

            I looked over at Brian, to see if it was true, “I’m sorry man, I can’t read his mind. Its blocked.” He sighed.

            “ITS NOT TRUE!” I spat in his face, a low growling sound erupted from his lungs and he threw me into a tree.

            I was falling to toward the tree then I to use my powers to pick me up, I was seconds from colliding with my fate. I knew I couldn’t last another hit like that when I was a second from colliding; I just closed my eyes and stopped thinking.

            I was expecting a huge pain, but nothing came. I was shocked, is what happens when you die? I asked myself, I needed to talk to Blair one more time. I couldn’t go this way…

            I then opened my right eye, and then heaved out a sigh; all I could see was blue skies, and sunny clouds. This is a very nice way to die, right? Just floating up and up and up… All the way to Heaven, I suppose.

            When I looked down, I groaned, I could see the tops of my friends heads. Adrian was looking up at me, in awe. The fight with Principal Johnson, and Mrs. Black was still going on. I only saw one person lying down.

            I felt a sharp pain in my chest, when I could make out of details of the person, it was Blair. She was knocked out cold, just lying on the grass. What happened to her?

            How do I get down there? I asked myself. I tried doing things with my hands, but nothing was working. And then a huge rage filled up inside me, I yelled inside my mind, and I cursed a string of colorful words…

            Anger boiled inside of me, Adrian. I needed to get rid of that damn kid! He’s been causing all my problems all along. My eyes flashed red with rage and resentment, and I soared downward at Adrian and grabbed his collar. “Put me down you arrogant brat!” he yelled.

            What a sissy? I flew through the trees; the air flowing through my hair was incredible. This is what I’ve have been needing the whole time, to be able to fly. I felt so open in the vast skies of blue.

            This would’ve been special if Adrian wasn’t kicking his legs underneath me, I had a firm grip on his collar, and he wasn’t going anywhere. Every once in a while I flew down right above the treetops and let him get smacked around a bit.

            To tell the truth exactly, I have no clue where I’m going. Somewhere where I can get rid of Adrian for good! The idea came to me instantly and I was set on it, I soared over the trees and houses, Adrian yelled, “Mick, where are we going?! Let me down you pitiful insult for a human being!”

            “Adrian, I think you need to learn some respect, and live and forget!” I snapped back.

            “You let my brother die! Luke would still be alive now if you would of saved him! He needed a hero, you bastard!” Adrian shouted over the roaring winds of the air, it felt good slapping my shaggy black hair into the sides of my face.

            Luke was a nice guy, he was a little darker than usual, he was very tan and he had a deep Hispanic accent. During the fight at The City of Jewels, it all went by so fast, when I saw Luke’s predicament with the cyborg, I was weak and tired. I began to try to save him, but I wasn’t fast enough.

            The cyborg zapped him instantly, and he turned to ashes, later to be blown away by the wind. I still remember his face, when he stood up against the cyborg a look of intensity was on his face. The kind of look that he must of wanted to die, could Luke’s death really just be a simple suicide?

            I’m not so sure, all I could say to Adrian is, “Sorry.” I leaned down and looked into his eyes, his pain stricken eyes. “Sorry.” I said again, Adrian was just a troubled kid, he didn’t ask for this.

            I looked down and saw that we were here; an ocean breeze slapped my face, The City of Jewels. Not really a city anymore, most of it burnt down to rubble ever since Diablo’s accident.

            I floated down to a stop and dropped Adrian into a pile of rubble; he quickly stood up and growled. “How dare you bring me here? Don’t you remember this is where Luke was killed?” Adrian screamed.

            “Yes I do, and this is where all this crap is going to end! Adrian, I’m sorry about your brother, but there’s nothing we can do about it now!” I yelled and my eyes flinched when I glanced at a sharp jagged stone jutting out of the side of some rubble. “Fight me, Adrian. Let’s have a fair fight.” I rubbed the blood that had begun to solid on my lip away with the back of my hand.

            “Fine I’ll just use the death spell on you!” Adrian pulled out a wand and started to yell, “Mue-!”

            I quickly picked him up with my mind and threw him into the jagged rock, “NO!” he yelled as the jagged rock pierced right through his stomach. Adrian was dead, I walked closer to him and then noticed that, grey blood seeped out of the wound, I had to question myself about it.

            I peered through and then yanked Adrian out of the rock and set him gently on the ground, tons of mechanisms were loose inside his body. This wasn’t the real Adrian! This was a robot, the whole time? Which made since because when I tried to kick him my leg broke, I should of realized that he was as hard as…metal.

            Then where was the real Adrian? Did I do all of this for nothing? What was the entire point of this whole thing?! We were going to kill Adrian and this would be over, right?

            The questions in my head, quickly ended, when I heard Adrian’s voice, “Hello Mick.” The tan faced, beady eyed, black haired Adrian came out of the clearing, wearing a mike, grinning from ear to ear. “You destroyed my robot clone, didn’t you?” Adrian grinned.

            “You know that is a sick thing to conjure up in your demented little brain! This was all set up wasn’t it? Just to single me out of the picture, and kill me, isn’t it? I should of saw this sooner.” I growled.

            “Oh you don’t see the big picture, do you? Let me ask you something, why am I even here?” Adrian asked.

            “Uh…eh…Why am I answering your questions? You should be answering mine, why’d you kidnap Blair and say she was your girlfriend?” I yelled.

            “All will be answered in the end, but let me tell you why I’m here Adrian. I believe that when you let Luke die, he was placed inside the diamond, Diablo tried to make. I think Luke is still alive.” Adrian hissed in victory.

            “Alright you can think that, but you’ll never find the diamond! Nobody has ever found it, it’s been lost forever!” I shouted.

            “Mick, get with the picture, I’ve been looking for it ever since Luke died, and luckily you were kicked off your agency so I could have an excuse to blame you for Luke’s death. Because now I’m going to open up the diamond and switch you with Luke, and you’ll be trapped inside the diamond for the rest of eternity alongside Diablo.” Adrian cackled like a mad scientist and then reached in his pocket and brought out a shiny red object, the diamond.

            “It’ll never work, you don’t know the spell to open it up, and you don’t have the spell book.” I triumphed, my victory dance didn’t quite start, because he grinned and yanked out an old dusty book from his other pocket, the old man’s spell book.

            “See Mick, I have this all planned out. Traiga Blair!” Adrian shouted and a puff of magic became Blair, standing there in all her glory. “Yes, Blair can watch your failure as well, and the resurrection of Luke!”

            “Adrian, isn’t this all just a bit too far?” Blair breathed…I can’t watch this, I’m surprised tears haven’t flooded my eyes yet.

            “Are you going back on our deal? Blair I thought you loved me, because if you don’t I will be more than happy to switch your butt out with Diablo.” Adrian threatened her.

            “No…I do love you Adrian.” Blair mumbled, playing with her knuckles quietly. Then I realized that she didn’t love Adrian at all, she was scared of him, no not that word, and she was horrified of him.

            I just hope for my sanity that she still loves me, I was going to fight for Blair though, I couldn’t let this happen. “You bitch!” I yelled at Adrian.

            “Come again?” he hissed through his teeth.

            “You’re forcing her to love you; no you’re scaring her into loving you! What kind of threat did you pull on her to get her to go through with this?” I snapped at Adrian then looked over at Blair, “Did you know that everybody, monsters, Greek gods, and the agency thinks you’re a vampire spy?” I asked her.

            She quietly nodded her head yes, I pitied her. I wanted to run over to her and embrace her and kiss till dawn. This is such a mess.

            “It’s no threat, Blair and I go far back, we were best friends, she helped me think of this idea. Get over it Mick she doesn’t love you, her love has always been for me.” Adrian smirked.

            “I give up, Adrian you’re not allowed to say who I love and who I don’t love! You’ve been controlling me since the beginning, and I’m just sick of it. I don’t love you anymore, I love Mick. And you’re not using him to bring your brother out of that diamond.” Blair stunned us both; I think we were both gaping.

            “Really?” I asked Blair, with hopeful eyes.

            “Really.” She grinned and grabbed my hand, and smiled, I squeezed it tightly, I could never lose this precious girl again.

            “I love you.” I grinned.

            “I love you too.” She grinned and a tear slipped down her fragile face, I brushed it away.

            “I’m sorry it had to come to this.” Adrian threw the diamond in the air and while looking in the spell book, yelled, “Flotador!” the diamond floated and shimmered a light blue. The light was blinding, I shielded my eyes with my right palm, my left hand still connected with Blair’s.

            Adrian then yelled, “Me sacrifico Blair y Mick.” I glanced at Blair, she was shimmering green, I glanced at my palm, I was shimmering green. It was working…I had to be strong. For us.

            Adrian finally shouted, “Cambio de todos los presos!” and a bright light gaped from the diamond, and I believe time was altered then and there. I lost the feeling of Blair’s hand, my skin tingled and I felt like I was being pushed back, pushed far away from reality.

            The light was so bright, it looked white, I swear that after this I would be blinded after this, even if I was lost in a magical diamond, at least I would be lost with my dear Blair.

            And then I woke up slapped in the face by that darn ocean breeze again, was I trapped in the diamond? I slowly opened my eyes, I had to blink twice, and everything was fine. I was exactly where I was standing before, just laying down.

            WHERES BLAIR? I shouted in my head, I looked around, and Blair was nowhere to be found. I walked around the rubble, and out of the glance of my eye, a piercingly shiny object glistened blue in the rubble. It quickly returned to its original color red, I leaned over to pick it up, it was the diamond.

            A tear slipped down my face, I knew that Blair was trapped inside the diamond, but who did she replace? “Mick?” a long forgotten voice echoed in my head, I turned around, and standing right there in the clearing was Luke, with his shaggy black hair, hanging at his shoulder’s, and his Hispanic accent was the same as I remember though he was still the same, he still looked like a thirteen year old kid.

            “Luke? You’re alive?” I gasped.

            “Yes, where are the other team mates? Logan?” Luke yelled.

            “Luke…things have happened…” I started to say, I looked around, where was Adrian and Blair? Was she inside the diamond?

            “Like the fact your old dude?” Luke asked.

            “Luke, you’re supposed to be dead; you’ve been trapped in a magical diamond for 5 years. You should be 18 around now, you brother Adrian-…” I gasped for air; I just realized I was out of breath.

            “What about my brother?” Luke interrupted me.

            “He tried to kill me on occasions then he tried to switch me with you, leaving me in the diamond, and you out. He kept on fighting for you, and he killed people…”I choked on my own words.

            “Adrian would never do that, even if I were dead…” Luke’s smile let away for a bit, and he scratched the back of his neck.

            “Well maybe, you can talk some sense into him before he tries to kill me again, he should be somewhere around here. When he tried the exchange between me and you, there was a mess up. Somehow I’m still here.” I gaped when I realized something awful. I tried to shove it out of my head, but it was glued there, what if I was stuck in the diamond?
            That couldn’t be true…I fought the thought away. It was a possibility, if I’m with Luke and Adrian can’t be found…Blair may be around here somewhere, but that wouldn’t help…

            “BLAIR!” I yelled out, and my voice echoed among the vast plains, of nothing. “Come on we’re going to look for her in the skies.” I urged then grabbed Luke’s hand.

            “What do you mean?” he shouted then, yelled out loud when his feet were picked up off the ground, I was in the air again. It was becoming easier to fly, but I still needed to practice. “This is ah-mazing!” Luke gasped at the new feeling.

            When we were high enough I scanned the grounds, immediately I saw a blue shape in the rubble. Blair, I quickly flew down there, and sat next to her, “Whose she?” Luke winced at her pale face, with no emotions.

            Was she dead? No I could hear her breathing…and plus she was a vampire. I held her hand and, it was warmer than usual. I flipped it up, and I gasped in shock, her hand was beginning to be covered into a black looking rash.

            “What’s happened to her?” Luke cringed.

            “I’m not sure, but I’m sure that Mr. Grogan should know about this, we have to bring her with us. If we can…” I mumbled under my breath.

            “Who’s Mr. Grogan?” Luke asked.

            “He’s a very good guy, he’s our mentor or leader like, you’ll meet him later, but first we need to save Blair. This could be life or death.” I mumbled and cradled Blair in my arms. How was I supposed to bring Blair and Luke back to Mr. Grogan, “Grab my foot Luke, as I’m flying up, okay?” I said.

            I soared up into the air like a graceful hawk in the wind, “This is i-incredible!” Luke yelled, “I-I’ve never felt so alive!”

            “I’m just getting used to it too; I just got this power today.” I called down at him, he was clutching onto to my leg like he was drowning and it was his life ring. Blair was still unconscious. I had to save her and fast before the rash got any worse.

            I flew right above the meadow we were fighting on; I saw Casey and Caleb leaning against the jet together. I can’t help but to go ‘Aww’ whenever I see them together, right now I figured that my whole relationship could be over, if Blair could die. And there I go again, thinking that my girlfriend is going to die, ‘Think positive Mick!’ I told myself.

            Mr. Grogan waved at me down below, I flew down, and Luke jumped down at jumping distance. I looked at Mr. Grogan with worried eyes, he glance at Blair and a look of horror struck his face.

            “LUKE!” Brian came out of the clearing and ran up to Luke picking him up in a big bear hug.

            “I think my vertebra is breaking.” Luke gasped.

            “Dude, I thought you were dead! Where have you been hiding all this time?” Brian asked, then he glanced at me, he read my mind. Then his face grew darker, “Oh…”

            “From the looks of it, I’ve been trapped in a mystical diamond.” Luke shrugged it off, Luke always had been very positive about things…

            At least I’m not trapped in the diamond, I sighed to myself. “So did you guys feel the earthquake?” Roslyn joined the conversation.

            “What earthquake?” I asked confused.

            “About ten minutes ago.” Roslyn shrugged, “BLAIR” she yelled, she finally noticed Blair in my arms. She rushed toward me and brushed a strand of hair out of Blair’s face. “What’s happened to her, is she dead?”

            “No she’s not dead…Mr. Grogan she does have this weird rash, and she won’t wake up…”I said to my teacher, who had a confused look on his face, I then flipped Blair’s hand over and he saw the black rash.

            It was like no expression I’ve ever seen Mr. Grogan make, his face grew darker and it looked like his bags under his eyes, suddenly grew darker. “What is it?” I winced.

            “Zeus’s Curse…”Mr. Grogan took a step back. “You have to explain to all of us exactly what happened wherever you went with Adrian, and how in the world Luke is here now.” He snapped at me with confidence.

            I began to explain to everybody clearly what happened at The City of Jewels in great detail. I choked up at the part where I found Blair unconscious, and barely breathing…

            “Oh no…”Casey murmured under her breath, she was tucked into Caleb’s shoulder trying not to cry.

            “What happened with Principal Johnson and Mrs. Black?” I asked, trying to bring up a new conversation.

            “Mr. Grogan used the killing curse on them; we thought it’d be better if they were just out of the picture.” Brian sighed.

            “And I was allowed to rip their heads off one by one and suck them dry of their blood!” Caleb growled at Mr. Grogan.

            “Well at least when the family finds them dead, they’ll have a clean body to place in the coffin. For your information, I was against killing them; Mrs. Black had kids, now her kids’ lives are going to suck just as bad as ours did.” Brian hissed at Caleb then stormed off.

            “I think we should all start heading home, it’s been a long day, and we need to find out what to do with Blair and Luke.” Mr. Grogan ordered.

            “Can’t I go back on the team? I didn’t do anything to get kicked off.” Luke said to himself. Roslyn, Casey, and Caleb went inside the jet.

            Lexis knelt down on one knee in front of Luke, “You can’t go back to the agency Luke everything has changed. I know how you feel, I’ve felt lost in my life, my parents were killed by an evil clan of werewolves when I was just a toddler. Do you know where your parents are?” Lexis asked.

            “I don’t have any parents; I never met them before in my life. Adrian tells me that they left us and put us up for adoption. Do you think we’ll find Adrian?” Luke asked.

            “I’m not sure, I am going to go and fix us some hot chocolate, would you like some?” Lexis asked.

            “Sure.” Luke followed Lexis into the Jet.

            I still had Blair in my hands; I didn’t want to let her go. There was no way I’m going to let her die. “Mick…we need to talk about what happened today, between you, Adrian, Blair, and Luke.” He said.

            “Sure lets go and set Blair down, and talk in the lounge.” I sighed, and walked into the jet. I found the perfect spot on the couch right next to the fireplace, she could lie down.

            I stared at Blair’s beauty, I can never lose her again, and even while the rash is spreading…I will always love her.

            Mr. Grogan then came in a sat down in the chair opposite of me, his black hair had streaks of grey; his face was getting wrinkled by the hour. Mr. Grogan was getting older. I always saw leadership in him though, he was glad to be leading this team. But I think he knows way more about this than us. Stuff he’s not telling us…

            “Mick, I have to tell you what really happened when Adrian tried to put you in the diamond…” he sighed. I nodded and let him continue, “When Adrian said that spell, Zeus then decided to cast a curse on the four of you. This curse, has four elements, first one is that Luke is cast out of the diamond, the second one is Blair will be suffering with this rash until it covers her whole body and she dies, the third one is Adrian, he’s been reincarnated into the body of a minor god.”

            “What? Adrian’s a minor god? That’s terrible now he has immunity and the power to kill all of us!” I gaped in horror.

            “I know…though you have the biggest element, if you die…the other three will die immediately. So if Adrian tries to kill you, he’s killing himself, his brother Luke, and Blair…” Mr. Grogan went silent.

            I have to find a way to save Blair, she can’t die. I keep telling myself that, but then again she got the worst end of this curse. She had the highest likelihood of dyeing… “How do I save Blair?” I breathed and held her cold hand tight against mine.

            “If Blair dies, everything goes back to normal, if you can cast Adrian down to Tartarus that will awaken Blair’s curse.” Mr. Grogan said solemnly.             

            I would just have to go up against Adrian again…it’s the only way to save Luke and Blair at once. Adrian has to go down once and for all…

            Luke and Lexis walked into the room then, Luke had a glass of hot chocolate in his hands. He had on one of Brian’s T’s and some pajama bottoms that looked like a dress on him.

            He was thirteen and he still had his childish features, and we have thought that he was dead for five whole years. I wonder if he could do anything in that diamond, I wonder if he remembered what it was like…

            “Mr. Grogan?” I asked.

            “Call me Kreg.” He grinned at me, and in the back of my mind, I was yelling at myself for being on a first name basis with my teacher, well he wasn’t a teacher, he was more like a mentor or maybe even father like. I’ve never had a real father…

            “I think we should let Luke know about this, he deserves some answers about why he is here and what is going to happen soon.” I said confident.

            “I agree.” Mr. Grogan said and then explained everything all over again, Luke’s face filled with horror by each word.

            “My brother can’t die!” he yelled right into Mr. Grogan’s face.

            “We don’t want your brother to die, Luke. It’s the only way for everything to go back to normal.” I said.

            “Let her die then, my big brother is everything to me, you don’t realize that he is the only person I have left in my jacked up life! I can’t let go of him as well, I understand that he’s been a jerk but…he can’t die…”Luke’s eyes were flooded with tears.

            Lexis tried to hug him, Luke pushed her away and ran off back to his room, but I did feel bad for the kid. He’s the only one that actually likes Adrian; I understand that Adrian is his last relative left…

            “You kids probably need to just go to bed; we’ll talk about this in the morning.” Mr. Grogan sighed.

            In the hallway I started talking to Lexis, “Am I being selfish for wanting to save Blair over Adrian?” I asked.

            “I don’t think so…Adrian is the only person that Luke has left, unless he joins our team. He would have us, but you have to be gentle with him, he still thinks that yesterday he was in the agency. Today everything he once had is lost.” Lexis answered, Lexis is very wise for a sixteen year old, maybe it’s from all her time being so quiet and absorbing everything.

            “I agree, I can’t lose Blair though, she’s my girlfriend. And besides I don’t have any family members, and I’m doing fine.” I shrugged.

            “Yeah but look at yourself in the mirror once in a while, you’re kind of gothic. Maybe your just like that, or the fact that your family is gone, it’s really hurting you inside. Think about it.” Lexis said and walked into her room.

            Great, I’m more confused than ever now. Suddenly the walls of the jet began to shake, was Mr. Grogan starting the plane? No it couldn’t be this was a rougher shake than the first time. Suddenly a huge puff of smoke stunned me and pushed me down on the ground.

            The smoke was icy against my skin, I shivered, what was this? I asked myself. When the smoke cleared all I could see was a six-foot man in his late forties, he had black shaggy hair and a beard, I could see that his hair was very icy; he was wearing a very long billowing cloak. In his right hand he held a conch shell, and in his left hand was Luke!

            I gasped, Luke was an ice sculpture, and his face was cringed in fear. “Hello Mick, we meet again. This time, I’m afraid I can’t kill you, but I can retrieve my little brother back.” Adrian cackled, I was still trying to put my finger on which minor god he was exactly.

            “Adrian! You have to help me save Blair; it could be her only chance!” I yelled, it was the only thing I could think of to say.

            “Too late, I don’t usually help people, unless I get something in return. It’s nice that we had this little chat, now I have to run. I have a whole kingdom to run in Quebec!” Adrian then blew in his conch horn and another icy puff of smoke took his place.

            “No…”was the only word I could say before I passed out…

Chapter 17: Silent Deeds

Caleb found me passed out on the floor, don’t worry I wasn’t drunk or anything. Adrian…he’s back! And now Luke is some kind of frozen popsicle, and Blair is like Sleeping Beauty. Less and less beauty every hour, as her body begins turn blacker and blacker.

            “NO, we’re not going to kill me so we can end all of this!” I snapped at Roslyn, that little…

            “Well we need to focus on the main mission! The Greek gods have to go, and now we have a big old curse on our hands. This is your fault, Mick. You had your chance to kill Adrian back when he kidnapped all of us. Why didn’t you?” Roslyn yelled back at me.

            “He ran away, and I didn’t want blood on my hands, that kind of stuff would haunt me forever!” I yelled.

            Roslyn turned her head away from me in disgust, well you know what Roslyn? I don’t even like you! I said inside my head. We were in the middle of explaining to the others the predicament we were in. (The whole curse nonsense)

            “Now if Mick dies, all three of them die. So from now on, two of you will have to guard Mick at all times. We’ll have a schedule for who gets him, whatever hours.” Mr. Grogan continued on with his speech, everybody groaned.

            I would of groaned too if I had to guard me for like two hours a day.

            After the schedule was calculated, it was time to go back to Fear High…oh great. I was walking with Brian and Alexis. At the gate of the school, everything seemed just a little bit too odd…

            The school looked darker than usual, the kids were chatting like crazy. I felt like a sheep in a lions den walking torward the front door. Suddenly a short little kid with freckles and glasses jumped right in front of us snapping away at his camera like crazy.

            “Mick the principal killer! And his two sidekicks Alexis Penningway and Brian Von! So are there more of you principal killers on the team? Maybe we can set up an interview for the school paper before you three are sent to Carcera? Whadya say?!?” this little guy had a big mouth for his size.

            “What the heck are you talking about?” I asked the kid, we were both in spanish class together…if only I could remember the twirps name.

            “YOU! You killed Principal Johnson! You’re the leader of the Outcast team, aren’t ya? Your secret is out!” he rambled. I lost him at secret, people know about the outcast team? You’ve got to be kidding me!

            “He’s a news reporter elf name Nathaniel Swallow. Not worth our time, he lives on the gossip mill.” Brian whispered into my ear, he must of read the kids mind.

            “MICK!” a hollar came from the far right of me, it was Casey’s voice. Some big guy was next to her and Caleb. Two sets of handcuffs were slapped on both of there wrists.

            The crowd grew silent, Casey and Caleb were being arrested. The big guy tossed them both on his shoulders, he turned around…and that’s not just some big guy. His face was green and horrid! Ogre! The ogre was wearing some kind of metal clad armor.

            “Theres four of them!” a deep voice sounded in my eardrum, goosebumps spread on my arm like a wildfire. Four of them?

            Two husky ogres came out of a big black van, that was hiding from sight behind a handful of trees.

            They marched over closer to us, my heart was pounding so fast, I thought I might just die at that very instant. How in the world did people know about us getting rid of Principal Johnson? Nobody saw it!

            I took a step backward, “FREEZE” a big ogre growled a piece of green muddy slobber slapped me in the face.  I instantly put my hands up, praying for everything to be alright.

            And then he grabbed Alexis’s arm and turned her around adjusting the handcuffs on her. She reminded me of a pale mouse being caught by a mousetrap, she squeaked as the ogre shoved her torward the other ogre. The ogre that handcuffed Casey and Caleb  and  pushed them in the van, roughly.

            How many ogres were there? Where was Roslyn? Brian was handcuffed, and then surprisingly the ogre grabbed Nathaniel, “Hey bud! I’m not on the Outcast team, leave me alone!” Nathaniel complained then pulled himself out of the ogres hand and snapped his fingers. Nathaniel poofed into thin air before my very eyes.

            “Are we being arrested?” I said dumbfoundly. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He tightened the hand cuffs my handcuffs nearly popping my shoulder blade out of place.

            The ogre picked me up and then literally threw me into the van, I landed on my side groaning. “SHUT  UP!” the deep voice of the ogre growled at me again. And the van was driving out of the gates. Kids were looking throught the windows trying to see what gossip they should spread to their friends.

            “I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE AN EXPLAINATION FOR THIS! You big hairy troll!” I yelled, squirming trying to sit up.

            “The stupid boy just called us trolls?” one ogre said.

            “That little devil must die…”

            “Lets eat him.”

            “Answer me TROLLS!” I yelled.

            “Did he just call us trolls again?!” the ogre roared!

            “Yes he must have, Twinky.”

            “Lets eat him.”

            “I wish we could Rocko, but we have to deliver all of them to Carcera.” Twinky the biggest ogre growled in his deep monotone voice, “Domingo slap him in the face!” Twinky roared.

            Domingo looked over the seat and reached with his long arm and slapped me in the face. “What the freak man!?” I snapped back.

            “Mick, just shut the freak up!” Casey yelled at me.

            “Wait a second, we only have one… two… three… four… FIVE? We’re missing two! The old man and the blond one we had to get!” Domingo gasped.

            The five of us huggled together in the back of the van holding eachothers hands. This could be the end of our journey, we could go to Carcera and be hanged or imprisoned for the rest of our lifes!

            Carcera is the highest guarded prison in the monster universe, its heavily guarded with ogres and magnificent weapons. Theres no way to get out, it hasn’t happened in monster history!

            And great a couple of teenagers are being sent there for killing their principal…  wow I’m such a bad ass lately. The ogres were supposed to get Mr. Grogan and Roslyn as well, I couldn’t help worrying that something terrible was happening to them. Did they find a safe place to hide? Are they safe, and what about Blair’s body? Did they find it?

            And isn’t it kind of stupid for the high command of monsters to send three ogres named, Twinky, Rocko, and Domingo? They didn’t even bring home all of their targets? I’d consider that a failed mission.

            “Twinky, stay on the path! Why don’t you ever let me drive? I drive way better and you know it!” Domingo scowled.

            “Domingo, we all know whose rightfully in charge of this arrest. That would be me! Now shut up!” Twinky yelled.

            “Can we eat them now?” Rocko’s stomach rumbled causing the whole van to shake.

            “NO!” Twinky and Domingo yelled in unison.

            These idiots… I groaned to myself. I was in the middle of Alexis and Caleb. I felt like an animal. The windows were barred and we were scared and we all had the sense of complete solitude. The only people we had were ourselves, and holding hands with everybody through the handcuffs may be our only case of sanity. Well my only case of sanity, I’m very claustrophobic...

            We all kept our mouths closed and didn’t dare whisper a word. The ogres kept fightinga about completely random stuff. Who had the best toe nail clipper? Mostly Domingo and Twinky fought, Rocko just said, “Can we eat them?” or “Lets eat them now.”

            I’m afraid Twinky is going to go overboard and actually let Rocko eat one of our arms off. It didn’t seem like the ogres would ever stop argueing until we pulled up to the most horrific driveway ever… We were at Carcera!

            Every little detail about it looked menacing, from the jailers in orange jumpsuit doing a work out session/P90X in the front yard to the frightening gargoyles cooing off the perches.

            I’m serious…the gargoyles were real! Some flying in circles around their nest, and then worst of all was there hainous fangs, their teeth were jagged and rigged. If one of those got a hold of you and bit your neck, you would die immediately!

            The van pulled out to a stop, and the ogres got out the front seats. Rocko slid open the van doors and said, “Lets eat them now.”

            “ROCKO! Stop, you’ll have your satyr at break time.” Twinky scolded, Domingo shoved us all out of the van and then whistled and ear curling sound.

            The gargoyles swarmed around us, one came down it tried to grab at my arms with its claws. “NO!” I held the gargoyle still with my mind. “Whats going on? Your not feeding us to the gargoyles are you?!” I yelled, the others were cowering back in full-fledged fright.

            “How else are you five going to get to the top of the tower if you don’t let the gargoyle fly you there. Don’t worry they are highly trained, they will only snap your neck when I tell them too.” Domingo said darkly.

            “Woah wait a second here. Those gargoyles are going to fly us up to the top of the tower? I know I’m lazy and crap but isn’t there an elevator we could use, or maybe even a flight of stairs. I don’t like flying one bit…” Casey complained.

            Twinky chuckled then whistled again, and a gargoyle came from its perch and flew down and wrapped its talons around the chain of Casey’s handcuffs. “NO! AHHH! Put me down, damn’t! I don’t like hights!” Casey yelled.

            “CASEY!” Caleb yelled caused a whole herd of four gargoyles to come down, and snatched us each. I couldn’t use my powers, a bird wing punched me in the face. Freaking jerks…

            “Goodbye children, till we meet again!” Twinky yelled.

            “We probably won’t meet them again, they’ve been charged with murder…and doesn’t that cause for hanging? They’re goners, Twinky.” Domingo explained to Twinky.

            “NO! The gargoyled get to eat them…”a tear slips down Rocko’s face, Twinky pats his back.

            My feet dangled in the sky, this wasn’t anything like flying by myself. I actually have some sort of control then, but here I have no control what so ever! I’m freaking out. I estimated about a 70 foot drop below me and we havent even reached the top of the tower. I’m not sure whats at the top of the tower…but it must be bad if we have to ride on gargoyles to get there.

            I looked up ahead at the others, Casey’s gargoyle had already reached the top, he threw her on the a long ledge of the tower. I didn’t see how we could get into the tower unless there was a secret door like there was at the Statue of Liberty. Casey was lost and frightened on the ledge, then something terrible started to happen.

            The ledge started moving in closer to the cylinder tower about to go through a slot and shove Casey off the 80 foot drop. “NO!” I yelled in horror.

            Casey shrieked and yelled, and started running down the ledge like a tredmeal. She hugged the concrete walls praying for dear life. Casey can not die, we can’t lose another team member. Then I thought…if Casey dies it would really matter because we all have the same fate. I may have the only chance of living since I can fly…

            No! I can’t lose my friends, I’ll drop down the eighty feet as well. And when the ledge almost reached the wall, the wall opened up and a door appeared. Casey slid through the door, I took in a big sigh of relief. We would live another day! You know, unless we get hanged and murdered like the ogres were talking about…theres always that chance.

            After the gargoyles dropped each of us off at the ledge, we all bundled together. “Everythings going to be okay…They’ll probably charge us with murder…but that’s all. I mean who actually killed the principal and Mrs. Black?” I asked.

            “Mr. Grogan did, he said he didn’t want us to have blood on our hands this early in our childhood. So we should all be in the clear, right?” Caleb said.

            “So that’s our plan, blame Mr. Grogan? He’ll think that we betrayed him. Let me do the talking. I’ll get all of our butts out of this. Lets just go now, Casey is probably freaking the shiz out.” I said.

            “I’ll read their mind and transfer information to you, Mick. We have to get out of this, I have to make it back to see Devin.” Brian whispered.

            I nodded my head instantly thinking about Blair, will I ever get to hear that soft, loving voice ever again? I sure hope I do…

            At the entrance to the room, I could tell one single thing, the whole room was a big circle. There was no exits, no stairs, and for Casey’s concern no elevators. We all saw a pale face Casey standing at the podium.

            “So did you or did you not kill Principal Johnson and Mrs. Black!?” A stern judge stared her in the eyes, his name tag said, Emerson. There were two rows of monsters to the right of the judge, they must be the jury.

            “I…but…I…” Casey was freaking out.

            We’re at court? You’ve got to be kidding me… uh, Mick put on your goth/poker face, I told myself. “Your Honor, the rest of us are here, can you state our charges?” I asked.  Maybe I’ve been watching too many re-runs of Law & Order, it’s one of the odl human made television shows back in their era.

            “You must be Mick,  Mick Roosevelt. The one that was recently kicked out of the Monster Agency for letting a mayor die!” Judge Emerson yelled.

            “Your Honor, it was for-,” I said before he interupted me.

            “Did I give you permission to talk? Are you on the podium? No Casey Watson is on the podium, so sit down and wait for your turn!” he yelled in my face. It was hard to tell what kind of monster he was, he looked so…human. He may be gifted (mind reader, mover, hacker, ect.) but you can’t really tell which.

            “Your honor, I’ve been voted to be the speaker of the group. Please just let me explain!” I yelped, why in the world did I just say that? I talked back to a judge… I don’t know what was going on with me, it rolled right off my tongue!

            “Fine. But I’m watching you, theres no way you can pull a trick on me, I’m a mind reader, so there will be NO lies in my courthouse.” Judge Emerson grinned from ear to ear. Well DUH he’s a mind reader, should of thought of that, a mind reading judge is perfect! That would of helped America with its Lindsey Lohan issue, I learned about in my class on Human Lifeform.

            I patted Casey’s back as I stepped up on the podium, my palms were sweaty already. “Umm…so where would you like me to start?” I asked, “Your Honor!” I quickly blurted in after that.

            “You and your friends have been charged with two murders agains Mrs. Veronica Black and James Johnson. Also, you each have missed ten days of school, I hope whatever you have been doing is worth your Grade Point Average. So why do Veronica and James just suddenly end up dead last night, tell me that. I have a text message from Veronica proving a lot.

            I wanted to tell him that my friends were kidnapped by a some crazy mexican dude, and that my girlfriend was being bought for something she didn’t do, and the crazy mexican was going to sell her to Mr. Johnson, and also Zeus cast me, the crazy mexican dude, the crazy mexican dudes’s brother, and my vampire girlfriend under a spell. Which some of us may DIE from it. Oh and the fact that the Greek gods are planning to take over Monster World and become the main species! This affects our world! That would have been a kicker speech…but I had to come up with the safest plan.

            “Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Black were going to Shady Oaks Hill on Sunday to buy Blair Hawthorn, the Russian spy that everybodys been talking about in the news. And let me tell you something, Blair is not a Russian spy, the person selling her, Adrian, spread that rumor! He had them place it in the newspaper to get attention, Mr. Johnson was going to buy her from Adrian and turn her in. Blair is a decent girl, and I love her. And it came to some circumstances that Mrs. Black and Mr. Johnson had to come to their end, while saving her. Its not our fault, I swear.” I said, my voice was cracky, and I choked on a tear.

            “I believe you…probably because I’m a mind reader and everything you said was true, a few things were edgy and you know it. I think you and your friends will help the monster world and bring us to justice. This is the first I’ve known about the Greek gods, but I will make sure you won’t be brought to this court house again. If some lives may be lost during this, so be it. Please go back to class and resume your studies at Fear High, each of your cards are wiped clean for absences, try not to miss so many days next time. We don’t need a jury’s vote, I declare Mick Roosevelt, Casey Watsin, Alexis Penningway, Brian Von Whitmor, Caleb Proctor and we are missing two, Roslyn Weaver and Kreg Grogan. They will be found talked to at a later time, but by your mindset Roslyn may be sketchy and will have to be talked to, Kreg killed the two so he will get a fine. Now children, you may leave now.” Judge Emerson kindly asked us.

            I’ve just saved all of our butts…this could have been way worse than what actually happened. I ran back off the podium and wrapped my arms around Brian and Casey and squeezed them both. “YES!” I nearly screamed!

            “You did it Mick!” Alexis smiled.

            When we arrived back at the Cave, the mood seemed to take turn for the worse. Mr. Grogan and Roslyn weren’t even there. Everybody was freaking out about their disappearence.

            “What happened to them? Did they go into hiding or something?” Brian asked.

            “MARCO!” Caleb yelled.

            “Caleb, they’re not playing marco polo, I can assure you of that.” Casey said and playfully punched him on the shoulder.

            I immediately called Mr. Grogan’s cell phone and got no answer, then I called Roslyn’s cell phone. Casey heard it go off in her room, I went inside the room to search it. First of all I noticed a strange pile of pillows. I removed the top pillow and found Roslyn asleep underneath.

            I quickly shook her, “Wake up Roslyn! Wake up!” I yelled in her ear, and then she woke up. Maybe I shouldn’t of been standing too close… She woke up in a fright and punched me in the face. “Oh gosh!” I shrieked.

            “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Mick!” She said worriedly.

            “Oh my darn freaking nose.” I whimpered. “What the heck were you doing under there, dude?”

            “I saw all of you five being arrested, I ran back here and hid. It’s the only thing I thought would be best. And then…Gregor came!” Roslyn gulped.

            “What did he do? Did he say where he was at? Did he find Geoffrey?” I gasped begging for answers.

            “He only, ‘WHERES MICK! MICK! ADRIAN WANTS YOU!’ And then I confronted him and said ‘Gregor, chillout! Whats the matter with you?’ and then he said, ‘Geoffrey is dead, got to go!’ and that ended the whole conversation. He left… I couldn’t do anything about it. I thought I was the next to be arrested! I was so scared.” Roslyn sobbed.

            “We don’t have to worry about being arrested anymore, they looked at our story and found us innocent.” I let a half grin escape.

            “That quickly?” she asked.

            “Yeah it turned out the judge was a mind reader, he read my mind and said good luck with helping out the monster universe. Pretty good I guess, we need to find Mr. Grogan though! Have any idea where he might be?” I asked.

            “No. He wasn’t here when I ran back.”

            Ok, Mick think. Where would Mr. Grogan be? Where?! Truthfully I didn’t know Mr. Grogan all that well to actually know where he goes on a daily basis. He’s always been like a mentor to me, not like a buddy.

            I went back in the hallway, the others were quite as night. “Looks like Roslyn came out of hiding.” Brian said.

            “Ok, Mr. Grogan is probably exspecting us to all come home like usual, right? So lets just go to school and hopefully he’ll be there when we get back. Hopefully…” I tried to cheer up the others.

            Everybody reluctantly agreed and walked out of the Cave, I grimly walked to my locker and stuffed my book bag into it. Wait! Mr. Grogan is a teacher, he must be teaching…duh! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place? With all this stuff going on, I completely forgot that he taught my Mythology class.

            When I walked in the classroom, hoping to see Mr. Grogan sitting at his desk worried sick about why none of us came to school for the first period. Instead a louzy sub was sitting at his seat. “CRAP!” I blurted out.

            The substitute looked at me like I was in need of pills, “I’m sorry… your just not the person, I wanted you to be.” I breathed.

            “Sit down young man, if I hear another word like that again, you will go straight to the principal’s office.” The substitute snapped at me.

            “But… the principal died last night…” I said.

            “Well why don’t you go tell the new principal, you’ve been disbehaving in my class. Probably earned you detention young man.”

            “But… what? Fine.” I growled. Stupid substitute, what a jerk?

            I marched all the way to the reception counter, “I’ve been sent to the principal.” I told the lizard lady at the counter typing.

            “Right through that door.” She continued typing.

            I opened up the door, and glanced through. I remember searching this room just a while ago. I looked up at the new principal sitting at his fancy desk. Mr. Grogan! “KREG!” I yelled and ran over and hugged him. “We were worried sick, all of us besides Roslyn, were arrested this morning!” I reported.

            “What?” he said astonished.

            I then took ten minutes to explain what a hectic morning it was and all the details, from the ogres to hidden Roslyn. “Looks like I missed out…” he grinned, “But I’m not surprised, you’re a smart boy, you know how to get out of something like that.”

            “Ok, so now I’ve explained, now you explain how in the world you wound up being principal of Fear High?!” I begged.

            “Well it kind of just fell on my lap, it took me for surprise too. They asked me about right when I walked in here this morning. I was afraid they knew that I killed Mr. Johnson. But no, they offered me a job and I took it, now I can moniter everything that goes on here with you kids. The less you guys get out of trouble, the more we can accomplish to save the whole Monster Nation! This is a great thing for the Outcast team!” Mr. Grogan smiled.

            Suddenly there was a knock on the door, “Come in!” Mr. Grogan yelled, and then came in the lizard lady.

            “Sir one of our former students Gregor Snouze wound up dead right over his brothers grave.” The lizard lady said and then  looking at our blank faces, shrugged and walked away.

            “Gregors dead?” I said blankly, I couldn’t believe it. I kind of got over him leaving the team, but dead? That’s terrible!

            “It seems so, want to come to the cemetary with me and see if we can find out who killed him?” Mr. Grogan asked.

            I was too shocked to move, but I nodded my head softly and after Mr. Grogan put on his coat, I followed him out of the door. We walked out to the eastern part of the back of the school to the teacher’s parking lot. Mr. Grogan opened up the door to his blue camaro and I slid into the passengers seat.

            “I’m sure Adrian killed him, now that he’s in the body of a minor god, he’s unstoppable. I don’t know how we’re going to save Blair and Luke from that curse, and now he’s killed off Gregor. He crossed the line right there!” I rambled.

            “I agree with you Mick, but you’ve got to understand, Adrian is a kid, and hes your age too. He’s lived a life full of neglect, his parents werent that rich and now Luke his little brother was supposedably killed until we found him in that stone. I feel bad for him…” Mr. Grogan confessed.

            “I don’t, he tried to kill everybody that I cared for. And now he killed Zeke, and the twins. This has gone too far!” I nearly yelled.

            Mr. Grogan didn’t say anything on the rest of the drive, he doesn’t talk at all when he’s thinking… We pulled into a parking space at the cemetary, I jogged to where Geoffrey’s grave was. A dozen cop cars surrounded the scene, caution tape was everywhere.

            I pushed my way through the crowds and reached the grave behind the caution tape. I didn’t dare cross the line, but I saw it clear as day. Right under the grave stone that said Geoffrey Snouze, Gregor’s body was sprawled out. And a melting icesickle like sword was pierced into Gregors heart.

            A tear or so pushed its way down my face…Gregor’s eyes were still open. His skin was pale looking almost icy, and a puddle of blood surrounded his body. This was cold blooded murder!

            Adrian would pay for this, I’ll save my girlfriend and Luke, and send Adrian down to Tarturas once and for all! Nobody does this sort of thing to my friends, and I’m going to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

            I turned around, Mr. Grogan was standing there looking at Gregor’s body, I used his shirt as a tissue and bawled into his chest. I couldn’t believe this… “Please take me home… now!” I pleaded.

            Mr. Grogan patted my back and we silently walked back to the car, I jumped into the passengers seat and on the way back to school, I asked, “Can I just go back to the Cave instead of the going to school. I’ve had a rough day… I need a moment with Blair’s body and some time to think about…everything.”

            “Sure Mick… I have no clue all the suffering you’ve been through. I’ve never had to go through this type of stuff when I was fifteen. I was off on missions, I was never kicked off my team and basically put through all this… torture. Dude, but I have something else to tell you. I am completely positive that your going to save this race in the near future. I can’t promise you, but I can promise you that I do believe in you. Your power will grow stronger and stronger by day.”

            “Thanks.” I said wiping away my last tear. I stared out the window the rest of the ride home. Then I went back in the Cave and sat next to Blair.

            “If only you could still talk Blair…I need you most of all now. I’m not sure what I’m going to end up doing to save you. This curse will not take your life, I swear against it Blair! I will find one way or another to save you, even if it means taking my own life!” I told the lifeless body of Blair.

            It came to the point that I couldn’t bare to look at her lifeless body anymore. I ran to the kitchen and out of clear instinct grabbed the knife out of the droor and walked to my bedroom.

            I layed down on the bed tracing the knife down my fingers and to the top of my wrist. Easily I could take my life and end three others… I then took the knife and deepened it into my wrist, the sting was unbearable. And like magic the emotional pain began to fly away.

            I made deeper cuts along my wrist, I yelled out in agony. The blood poored out hestitantly, sliding down my arms in droplets mixed with tears… I couldn’t keep going…I can’t do this to myself any longer. I yelled for no reason and flung the blood covered knife across the room.

            “MY LIFE IS A ALREADY HELL AND I HAVEN’T DIED YET!” I yelled  outloud, tasting the salty tears in my mouth. I rubbed my wrist against my mouth, the metallic blood flowed against my lips. This whole time Adrian had been committing Silent Deeds and I didn’t realize it till now.

            Screw it all.