AAAAAAND HERE WE ARE.
This chapter was A BLAST because ever since I laid eyes on the Keeper's NAMES I've wanted to write them in a serious and almost dark-humor-ee way. And I've never had a chance until NOW. THE TIME HAS COME! *runs through door*
Which is THE PERFECT EXCUSE to write TOUGH AMANDA! (yes dear Jessie, I need something to hold onto 'til you update COUGH)
So I'm gonna add onto my list of challenges for this story and attempt to create an SUPERMEGAFOXYAWESOMEHOT tough Mandy. 'Cause she's just an insane joy to write when she's got that extra punch in her. 'Kay? 'Kay. (And a little bit of Mother Hen Mandy to Kris…she has that mature leaderly way to her, right?)
A NOTE ABOUT THE WAY I'M GONNA DO THINGS: I have a couple little me-fanons. Alright? Me-fanons meaning facts about a certain topic I believe to be true EVEN THOUGH they've been established in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAY. In this, I'm gonna describe the Keepers the way I see them. Nothing against the already amazing published words of Mr. Pearson…this is how they're gonna be for this story. It's called fanfiction ;P
ALSO: Okay, I know I messed up the tenses in this. The first two chapters are past and the rest is present-I know is doesn't flow right. And, quite frankly, if I had the ability to manipulate the English language, I would have some verbs present and some verbs past in this. (I probably could, but it's a bad habit and will get me nowhere in English IV.) I hate correcting my past verbs to be present in this because, in my insane grammar-rules-nowhere mind, some verbs are MEANT to be a certain way in tenses. BUT. Think of this as the present, and when she wasn't in WDW as...the past. See what I mean? Ugh, I'm created more problems than solving them.
SONG CONNECTIONS: THIS CHAPTER: "Me and My Big Mouth" from Lost AT THE STAR IN THIS till 0:25. The tiny change of song flow can be wherever you want but I read it with the last two lines and that went well. I needed something to close and this fit PERFECTLY.
i suggest we stick to the shadows chapter 6: returning to the shadows
"So," says one of them, pointing a blue sparkling stick to the wall map. "This is what we know."
I shift uncomfortably in my seat, a box on the right of the girl who spoke up earlier. The boy with the stick—it looked more like something that sold in the princess section of a costume store—gestures to the picture of the castle on the wall, then looking to me.
"You got a new wand?" the girl next to me asks the boy, smiling profusely, twirling a finger around her hair.
"Shut up. You're the one with the powers." the boy snarls, looking away from me and staring daggers at her.
She then wiped all joking off her face and almost looked like she was going to stand up, but was stopped by the girl on her left, who hisses, "Hey! Easy."
The girl sitting across from us stifles a snicker with her finger but then looks away. I try to make it look like I wasn't interested in their brief episode.
"Okay!" Philby claps, and points to the wall map, ready to move things along. He was standing against a mountain of boxes covered by a sheet, phone in hand. "Enough of that. Continue?"
"Alright then," the boy with the pointer says, pretty agitated with the interruptions as well. Philby went back to his phone. "Let's regroup. So we got a little problem with…um…uh…you?" He now points to me. "What's your name?"
I turn to face the rest of the teenagers. I give a small wave.
It just screamed awkward. "Kristine." Another one. "Hi."
"Okay." He offers a smile. But it was gone quicker than I could notice it. "So, Kristine." He points to an area on the map that has clumps of trees and a river running through it. Something gray stood in the middle of it. "And sister Carolina was spotted here—"
"It's Georgia." I correct.
He stops. Then he says, "Okay. So Wyoming—"
"It's Georgia," I say coolly.
On my own "You need to see this through." Pretending Who am I? In whatever's left of tonight
Now he faces me and puts his arms in an I surrender position. "Okay." he mumbles. "No joking. Alright then."
He continues. "Spotted here. So Philbo here texted us, and at that point we were in in T-Land." His pointer directed to a circle white building. I recognize it from when I first crossed over. "We booked it to here." He slammed the stick's bottom to the floor. "Our little hidey-hole.The Hide-out."
"Well, are we gonna do something?" the girl who tried not laugh earlier asks. "I mean, we gotta find her."
"We're not making any decisions until he's back," Philby answers right away. He sighs and shakes his head. "Which may be never."
Next to me, the girl looks down and bites her lip. She proceeds to pick her already mostly-off black nail polish, which lead me to sneak a look at mine, at a better condition than hers. The girl to her left finds her hand and held it without a word, her attention unnerving.
But the girl's head was down for only a matter of seconds, and she'd brought it up again, snapping on that over-confident look again. She kept the girl's hand for a little bit then let go.
Her shoulder-length, poker straight hair, color identical to mine, was down. Tan. The black camisole and pants she were wearing set off her ocean eyes. Her sudden mood change but immediate bounce back to normal made me feel uncomfortable. I could tell it wasn't just as easy as throwing a look on. I knew it for a fact it wasn't easy pretending you were okay. And she did it so…effortlessly.
And the girl who had her hand shared her features except for the paleness and the black V-neck and the broken, hurt green eyes. She hadn't spoken much in the past few minutes and something told me she wasn't planning to.
Amanda and Jessica Lockhart. Sisters.
Fairlies.
Out of all the mysteries of this series I loved…the question of Fairlies pounded in my head the most.
And it fascinated me.
"Yeah, but he has to be getting back soon," the girl across from us rationalizes. "We would've gotten a text if he was held up."
"Okay, but we didn't." Philby was getting tired of this, I could tell. "I don't know how else to put it."
The girl almost objected but stopped, clamping her mouth shut and looking back to the boy with the pointer for something else. Her brown hair was parted, and every so often she nervously combed through it with her fingers. Fitted henley t-shirt and the darkest brown eyes I've seen.
Isabella Angelo. They call her Willa.
"If I didn't know any better, Dell, I'd think you're trying to replace somebody." a girl I almost completely forgot about remarks, her expression the very face of scorn.
"Yeah. That's the last thing I need," Philby fires back.
The questioner had blonde hair, crystal perfect blue eyes, over the shoulder black top and an air that read loud and clear she wasn't all that impressed. She leaned against the wall on her box, her knees to her chest and arms slung over them.
Charlene Turner.
And the boy, who had now started to argue with Willa and at the look of it wasn't stopping anytime time soon had dark skin, short hair and a confident stance. Ready to make a joke. Or pick a fight.
Terrence Maybeck. But we were to call him by his surname. Yet, judging by how the girls had been addressing him, I wasn't sure what the deal was anymore.
As Charlene and Philby started to voice their opinions on the other side of the room, Amanda gently taps the side of my leg.
"Dancer," she says, staring me down playfully.
I shake my head. I wasn't surprised she thought that. "No."
"Aw." she pouts. "Okay." She looks to the other side of the room and thinks. Then she turns to me. "Writer."
I'm startled but don't show it. Slowly I shake my head yes and a ghost of a smile grows on my face. "Yeah," I admit.
"That's cool," she compliments. "You don't see that a lot. I never would've guessed."
"A lot of people say that," I smile, embarrassed, to the floor. I don't think she heard me.
Amanda then looks over to her sister. Jess's face still didn't show any welcome. Amanda then stands up, walking to her and whispering something. They talk like this for a while, Amanda glancing toward me every couple moments.
I turned away from them and put my chin in my hands and my elbows on my knees. This was going to be a long night of secrets.
My eyes had gone to Willa as I scanned the room. She smiles and waves. "Hey. I'm Willa."
"Kristine." I nod.
"Yeah," she says. "Sorry about them," she apologizes, gesturing to Philby, Maybeck, and Charlene, who were shouting at each other behind her. "You always need to keep them occupied. Otherwise this happens."
"I see." I grin.
All was silent as she looked at me, her eyes full of remorse. My eyes had trailed away.
"We'll find her." Willa says.
I, startled, turn to her again.
"We're gonna find her. You see them, they don't believe you. But I do," she says. "I know what a worried sister looks like."
I smile gratefully. "Thank you."
Suddenly, the door bursts open. The Keepers instinctively jerk around. Maybeck held something I couldn't see completely.
The candles had gone out with the sudden gust of wind. Darkness. All I can hear is heavy breathing from all of us.
Philby shines his phone to the door and we see an figure, illuminated by the ghostly, fake white light.
It was a boy, tall, brown hair, bright green eyes. He held his phone.
"Oh my God," Amanda chokes out, runs to him, and holds him tightly. The boy shuts the door behind him before he returns the embrace and whispers in her ear.
She rocks back and forth, repeating over and over again, "I didn't know where you were. I didn't know where you were and I was so scared—"
"Amanda, I'm okay now," Finn Whitman says, pulling away and placing his hands on her face. "I got back. I'm safe, see?"
She laughs through tears. "Don't you scare me."
"Okay, lovebird reunite done." Maybeck says. Philby had lit the candles again. Maybeck, aggravated, continues. "What did you do with him, Finn?"
"Are you joking? I get a 'anyone know a Kingell?' on my phone with no explanation. I'm gonna leave Aladdin to fix his own problems."
Finn now directs this to me, his arm around Amanda and her head on his shoulder. "So you're her?"
"She's Krissie," Amanda says immediately after. "She's a writer."
I instantly feel my face go red and my hands begin to find each other to wring. That's not really a thing I share with people, I want to tell her.
"Oh, God no. You're not one of those creepy fanfiction writers who does those insane pairings," Willa says from the back.
I laugh. "Haha. Sorry, no." It was true. Paritally.
"Good." She grins.
"Okay, Krissie," Finn says, using the nickname that Amanda had so openly given me. "We've decided we're gonna help you."
And the room erupts in argument as soon as the words reach everyone's ears. I'm confused by the commotion and squint my eyes shut, my head down.
"SHUT UP!" Amanda yells. Everyone quiets considerably.
But Charlene doesn't. "You're joking." she says. After seeing serious faces, she mutters. "You've got to be kidding me…"
She smiles sarcastically. "Okay, right. Sure." She now looks to us. "You're telling me we're gonna waste a night and help this little ten year old while we can be helping people we canactually hear speaking."
"It's the least we can do, she lost her sister—" Finn tries to explain but is interrupted.
"We don't even know how she got here!" Charlene raises her hands.
"Charlie!" Willa scolds.
"Don't Charlie me," she seethes.
"What if it was Marie?" Finn says to Charlene.
Silence.
"What if it was your sister?" he repeats. Charlene awkwardly plays with the hem of her shirt.
"Yeah," Finn continued, triumphant. "If it was little Maura I would be scared too." He looks to me.
"Look, I get annoyed by my sister, but no matter much that happens I would be insane out of my mind if she was lost. I imagine you're the same way too."
"She's my…everything," I whisper, looking down, blinking back tears, overwhelmed by the thought of Georgia gone.
"And that's why we're gonna help you." he says, now squeezing Amanda's hand. Willa's hand was rubbing my shoulder. "We're going to find her."
*Maybeck grabs the thing he had earlier again. I'm able to see now it's a silver blade.
Finn has our unwavering attention. He looks to Amanda for consent. She encouragingly nods, her eyes meeting mine.
Finn speaks. "We're going out there."
The expression of solemn eagerness on everyone's face matches mine.
Review? Concrit is accepted and appreciated ;)
Anything confusing? Tell me. I'd be more than happy to clear things up. :)
P.S. I needed to give the sisters names. That's what the two-derivitives-of-Mary are all about. (I like to think Charlene's French and Finn's Irish...yeah.) I don't recall Finn's sister being officially named. If she was outside of the series, oh well, I JUST GOT A ME-FANON.
