*Chapter 1: Prologue*
Will didn't know how she had ended up in this situation. It had all been a blur to her, just a blink of an eye.
She was imprisoned in a single, dark room, locked away with her team, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin. Also, promptly enough, she was hanging upside down. By her feet.
Her face red and eyes phasing in and out of focus, Will tried to remember how she had gotten here. It just seemed like one second she was in the Silver Dragon, and the next, she was here.
But how? Who did it? Phobos? Cedric? Nerissa? No, that didn't seem right.
Will jerked her head around, trying to locate her fellow teammates. They, like herself, were hanging upside, but unlike her, they were sound asleep. Will could even swear she heard Hay Lin snoring a few feet away.
Now, back to how she had gotten here? Was she teletransported here? No. She would have noticed.
Oh, what was it—oh wait, now she remembered. It had only happened a few moments ago, while she was in the Silver Dragon . . .
"Will! Can you help me with these?" Hay Lin pleaded from a towering pile of dishes.
"Coming!" Will jumped out of her chair and helped the young Chinese descant set the dishes in the dish-washer.
"Pfph!" Hay Lin sighed, leaning against the wall. "That is hard work."
"Don't look now, Hay Lin," Taranee warned, waving her finger at Caleb, "but here comes more work."
Hay Lin groaned loudly and stomped off to where Caleb handed her the dirty dishes and rushed off to serve another customer.
"Poor Hay Lin," Irma smirked. "She even has to work on weekends."
"Well, you can make this more manageable if you'd help!" Hay Lin snapped as she set another pile down.
Cornelia looked at her nails and said, "I'd love to, Hay Lin, but I just got my nails done. You don't want them to be ruined, don't you?"
"Well . . ."
"Great!" Cornelia gestured casually over at the others. "I'm sure the others would love to help you."
Hay Lin looked at her friends, hoping one of them would jump out of her seat and offer a full steed of help. But Irma, her best friend, said, "Sorry, Hay Lin, but Taranee is helping me study for a test. I've got to ace this one, or I'm grounded."
"And we can't have that happen," Taranee added.
Hay Lin looked pitifully at Will. Sighing, Will got up, but not without glaring at the others, and helped Hay Lin out.
It was well into the evening before the crowd left and things began to settle down.
And just when Will thought the customers had left, there was a chiming bell, and a man stepped through.
He was oddly dressed, wearing a large, navy top hat, a navy blue suit with tails, navy blue dress pants, and polished, black shoes. He also carried an old fashioned cane, had white gloved hands, his face was hidden in the shadows cast by his hat, and he greatly reminded Will of those old gentlemen from the 20s. Will stared at the man strangely and wondered if he was waiting to be seated. Hay Lin, noticing the strange figure, stepped toward him and asked, "Can I help you?"
"I was hoping so!" The man had high voice, light and bubbly, lightly accented with high manners. "I am looking for five young women. Do you know of any?"
"Uh, what are their names?" Will could tell Hay Lin was trying to be polite. The small frown on her face obviously did not match her tone.
"Hmm, yes, what are their names?" The gentleman tapped his chin thoughtfully with his gloved hands. He then snapped his fingers and held out his left hand, the one not holding the cane. "I remember! You and your little friends."
"Uh . . ." Hay Lin glanced over at Will. The redhead shook her head furiously, and Hay Lin thankfully got the message. She quickly said, "Um, sir, do you know us?"
"No, I can't say I do." The man chuckled to himself and said slyly, "But I know people you know. I can tell who you are."
"What's my name?"
"Hay Lin, of course." He pointed a finger at Will. "And this is Wilma Vandom, formerly known as Will."
Will blushed at her full name. But what shocked her was how this man knew that.
The man pointed his cane at the girls seated at a far table. "And there is Irma Lair, Taranee Cook, and Cornelia Hale. Your initials spell WITCH, I believe." He turned back to Hay Lin. "Am I right?"
Hay Lin's mouth gapped. Will took a step toward the man and said, "Hey, how do you know that?"
"Oh, I know many things." The man tipped his hat off. His face was hideously. Blank and totally void of any true emotions, minus the creepy smile and over-creepy gleeful eyes, he stared at her with a super-pale face. It was like a mask. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. "You're Guardians," the man was saying. "I would like to invite you all to a little game."
"A game?" Will asked uncertainly. "What kind of a game?"
"I'm glad you asked that!" The man took a step forward, but when he did, something strange happened. They were back at the table with the others, and Will and Hay Lin were sitting. The man took his hat off and bowed. His hair was white as snow, which was odd, but then again, this man was odd. Very odd. He placed his hat again on his white head and tucked his cane under his arm. "You see, I am a very bored man, and I am in need of much needed company and entertainment. And you," he pointed at each with his cane, "can cure my problem."
"Look, buddy," Cornelia said, "we don't know who you are or what you want, but you can just forget it."
"I was hoping for a different answer, now," the man said sadly. "But you see, you have no choice."
"And what makes you say that?" Taranee asked. Her eyes were already on fire.
The man chuckled gleefully, and spun around in a circle. "Oh, I do love these little games you make up! They're so much entertainment!" He winked at them and said coyly, "Well, I don't know how to put it to you, but you see . . . you're a little chained up."
"Wha—" But before Hay Lin could finish her sentence she saw her ankle was shackled to a huge iron ball. The others were in similar situations.
"Hey!" Irma cried out.
"What's going on?" Will demanded.
The man smiled again. "You're all coming with me, don't you see? And to a majestic place we will go tonight, so don't be in a fright!"
"What did he just say?" Irma asked Hay Lin. The air Guardian could only shrug her shoulders.
The man tapped his cane and said, "Now, onward we go!"
And this is how Will had ended up upside down, hanging by her ankle. The weight ball that had been shackled to her ankle was, amazingly, floating in midair, leviating her up and away from the ground. Wonderful.
Now, Will thought, to figure out a way to get down . . .