-Chapter 4: Zia Uses a Pay Phone-

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[That's it, I'm taking the mic.] Honestly, Carter and Chris have just simply been hogging the mic. This recording business is so much harder when there's more than two people telling the story. [That's right Chris, I'm talking to YOU.] Anyway, I guess I should start the day after Anubis visited Carter. (Which I didn't know about until Carter said it during his turn.) It was storming outside, so that put a bit of a damper on things. Khufu was insisting that Carter go out and play basketball with him anyway, but my brother kept saying if they did, then they would get struck by lightning. As if on cue, after he said that, we all saw a huge bolt of lightning crack across the sky, making Khufu jump about seven feet into the air.

"Agh!" He screeched, then ran towards the kitchen.

"See, I told you!" Carter called to him.

"Quite a storm isnt it?" A voice said behind me.

I sat up from the couch and looked behind me to see a woman in a leopard jump suit with cat eyes. It was our chaperone/goddess Bast, the goddess of cats, who had been inside of my beloved cat Muffin for most of my childhood.

"No kidding," Carter said while sitting on the other couch in front of the TV, watching ESPN.

"There's nothing to do except sit around and watch TV," he complained, then let out a yawn.

"Can't we go somewhere?" I asked. "To the movies, or the bowling alley, or something?"

"You know we can't," Bast said, a can of friskies appearing in her hand. "We have to be here when this Riker boy you told me about gets here, if he gets here."

"What do you mean if?" I asked, surprised. "Why wouldn't he come? He knows that we need our help."

"Well, if he doesn't come, it's probably because he's not looking forward to meeting you," Carter said, trying not to grin.

I glared at him for a few seconds, then turned back to Bast.

"Sadie," she started. "We're not the only ones trying to recruite potential magicians. You must remember that The House of Life are not exactly fans of ours. I know that they will try to get Riker before we do."

Well, she had a point. Bast ripped open the can of friskies with one of her long, sharp knives and started chomping on the strange food. I hadn't had brekfeast yet, so I went into the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of frosted flakes. I sat there, eating the sweet tasting cereal. The only sounds in the house were the TV and me munching on my cereal. Bast had finished her friskies and was curled up on a pillow in front of the fire place, taking a cat nap. It was weird seeing her human form in that position, and it made me chuckle to myself. It made me remember all of the times she had been in that position sleeping on my bed while Muffin was hosting her. I put my bowl and spoon into the sink and started walking to my room. Carter was passed out on the couch, Khufu was barking at the sky, probably telling it to stop raining, and Bast was sleeping next to the fire place.

I went into my room to find Muffin curled up on my bed, dead asleep. Well, that was a weird coincidence, everyone in the house except Khufu was sleeping. I was about to pull up the internet on the new computer I had bought with my savings about a week before, but then I heard the phone ring from the kitchen. I was thinking that Carter would probably answer it, but then I remembered that he was asleep. I ran into the kitchen, almost slipping on the tiled floor in there. I grabbed the phone and answered it on the third ring.

"Hullo?" I said, a little winded from the short run I had taken to the phone.

"Sadie Kane?" Asked a very familiar voice.

"Yes, this is she," I said, starting to get a headache.

Why couldn't I remember?

"This is Zia Rashid. The real one, not the shabti fake."

"Zia?" I asked, totally stunned. "I thought you were in some far off place where no one could find you?"

"I was," she replied. "I have been asleep for a very long time. Right now I'm at an airport found somewhere in the United Kingdom. I'm about to board a plance bound for Eagle Ridge, Connecticut. I have to find Chris Riker, then I'm going to Brooklyn to meet up with you and Carter."

"You know about the Riker guy?" I asked, shocked.

"A man told me about him. He is the same man who woke me up. He hasn't bothered to tell me his name yet, but he must have good reasons."

There was an awkaward silence. I knew she was working up the nerve to ask, so I decided to ask for her.

"Do you want to speak to him?"

'Yes," was her simple answer.

"Okay, one second," I said as I started walking towards my sleeping brother.

"Carter," I said in his ear.

No response. I shook him a little, but he didn't budge.

"Carter," I said, louder this time.

No response. I then noticed that Khufu had passed out next to the window and had his head on his basketball.

"Bast?" I said as I ran over to the cat goddess.

I shook her as hard as I could, but she didn't stir. I then had the horrifying realization.

"Zia, I have to go," I said, then hung up.

I stood in the middle of the living room, staying alert.

"Come out. I know you are here!" I shouted as loud as I could.

"I guess you figured it out," a voice said.

I turned around to see a man come out of a closet near Uncle Amos's room. It was a House of Life magician. It looked like they wanted to have Riker to themselves.

"You will not be gaining Chris Riker as an ally," he said, his cold blue eyes sending shivers down my spine.

How was this possible? There was magic protecting the Twenty-First Nome. There was no way he could have broken it.

"How did you get here?" I demanded.

"That's classified," he said with no emotion. "Now it is about time for you to take a little nap. Don't worry, we'll take good care of our future prodigy, Chris Riker."

A wand appeared in his hand. I looked at the ceiling above him. It looked like it would be enough to knock him out, so I made a split-second decision. I focused all of my energy on the ceiling above him.

"Ha-di!" I shouted, praying that it would work.

It did.

Masses of debris landed on his head, knocking him off of his feet. As he fell, I heard a crack somewhere on his head. Oh god, had I just commited murder? I ran over to the magician to inspect him for any critical damage. I realized what had happened when I saw a huge hole in the back of his head. It was a shabti. It was like the ones Carter and I had fought a while back when we had first met Thoth. It looked like The House of Life didn't want to do their own dirty work, and just decided to send fake magicians to kill us.

I heard Carter groan. I turned to see him getting up from the couch, rubbing his head.

"What did I eat last night?" He asked, then saw the big hole in the ceiling. "Aw man, not again."

"Look," I said, pointing at the broken shabti. "That thing put you all to sleep. If I hadn't realized it sooner, he would have gotten me as well."

I grabbed the phone, ready to call Zia back, but when I checked the caller ID, it said UNKNOWN NAME, UNKNOWN NUMBER. She must have been using a pay phone.

"We have to be more careful from now on," Carter said, running a hand through his hair. "We can't afford to lose Chris Riker to The House of Life."

(A/N: Whoo, my first Sadie chapter. Tell me if she's OCC at all. I'm not very good writing from a girl's point of view, let alone a BRITISH girl's point of view. Next chapter we go back to Eagle Ridge to see what Chris is up to. How am I doing on point of view switches? I know I'm writing in Chris's point of view most of the time. Should I give the Kanes more time? Or is what I'm doing fine?