I recommend rereading the last chapter so you can remember where we left off. One or two more chapters left! I feel so nostalgic!

And, by the way, I sincerely hope it is easy to understand the characters you are not familiar with. I cannot stress that enough. Please tell me if it is hard.

Chapter 14: In Need of Chocolate

We stood, frozen, as the shriek continued. It did not stop or waver in the slightest. My heart stopped.

It was Angel's voice.

And unlike any sound I'd ever heard her make. It was one earsplitting scream.

Something was terribly wrong.

The blue-eyed boy and I did not even glance at each other; we raced downstairs as fast as we could. Being much faster, I flew down the stairwell and shoved the door open first.

The cards were strewn on the coffee table as they had been before when everyone had been playing cards. Except now there was terror on everyone's faces.

Angel's scream didn't stop. She was bone pale, staring at something by the front door. I looked but couldn't see anything in the dark. For some reason, the lamp had gone out.

"Did you do something to her?" I roared at the blue-eyed boy.

He shook his head, composure slipping.

There was only one thing to do. I ran into the room and scooped up Angel.

She stopped screaming immediately and fell unconscious.

There was a ringing silence. And it wasn't a relieved one. I shivered. Had the room suddenly dropped a few degrees?

Cages. Experiments. Needles. The school.

I shut down my mind. What was happening?

Something was in the room. The flock, Jacob, Harry, and Percy were pressing themselves against the far wall in fear. I could feel it too. Immense misery.

"Who's there?" Probably a stupid question, but I couldn't see anything.

"Max," Fang said, barely audible. "It's not human."

"What?" I asked, breaking my concentration from the far side of the room.

"It's a monster."

How he knew, I had no clue.

Guessing my thoughts, he added, "Harry Potter here told us."

I raised an eyebrow. Glancing at the dark end of the room, I said to Harry, "Explain. Make it quick."

He took a shaky breath. "Dementor. Sent here by someone. Suck the happiness out of everyone. I don't have my wand; it's upstairs."

I rolled my eyes. "Great. A magical creature from a fictional world that's a killjoy. What else is new?"

He shushed me. "Stop it. Think happy thoughts."

"I've got none," I retorted. But he was right. The Demented, or whatever, was definitely making me feel bitter. But why did it matter? There was no point in doing anything. The scientists…

I mentally slapped myself. Looking at Angel in my arms strengthened my resolve. "So do something."

If someone could have replied, the words would have died in their throat, for at that moment, the movie monster slid from the shadows. It was like a floating cloak, and the air suddenly grew a thousand times colder.

"You know what?" I said shakily without breaking my gaze. "I think I believe that you're Harry Potter now."

"Took you long enough," he said, launching himself across the room.

The Dementor seemed to actually draw in his life as he dashed past. Struggling, he made it to the stairwell and darted upstairs.

The Dementor made a low moaning sound as it glided towards the door. Finding it locked, it turned on us.

"…Right." The blue-eyed guy stared at the living nightmare with unmasked fear on his face.

I shook him. "Come on! We've got to… I don't know… do something!"

"Max?" Nudge looked at me with wide eyes. Tears were streaking down her face. "Are we going to die?"

"What? No! Come on, we have to distract that thing!" I shouted.

But the flock was being affected by the Dementor. As it glided forwards, they looked more and more worn out.

Jacob cursed. "It's bringing up bad memories, I think. That's what it does. We have to do something."

I tried to think, but as the Dementor came closer, it became harder to concentrate. My thoughts slid back to terrible things, flashes of light and pain, monsters ripping their prey, killing Ari…

"YAH!" I slammed the proverbial door on my brain and charged forward.

"Max!"

I didn't know who cried out, but, leaving Angel on a chair, I rammed into the Dementor with all the force I had.

I immediately wished I hadn't done that.

It was like flying into a cloud; my sense of direction, up and down, disappeared, and I felt as though I'd plunged into a bucket of ice water. Just as quickly, I came out of it, like it was a ghost or something.

Harry came down the stairs, holding his wand triumphantly. "Got it – oh, no…"

I was sucked into a dark vortex, slowly losing consciousness, and the last thing I saw was a bright, blinding light before I blacked out.

"Max? Are you awake?"

"Somebody throw water on her!"

"Give her chocolate, it'll help…"

"If she passes on simply from that, I will personally file a complaint with the scientists who designed her."

That irritating comment made me open my eyes. "You're an idiot."

The blue-eyed boy seemed amused. "Quite the opposite, actually."

Sitting up, I became aware of the flock also sitting around me. They were all eating chocolate.

"Here, have this," said Harry, handing me some too. When I hesitated, he exclaimed, "Oops! Sorry! I remember, you don't like having food from other people –"

"It's okay," I said, surprising myself. But after all that, they must have been semi-trustworthy.

After fighting that Harry Potter creature… the Dementor!

"What happened to the Dementor?" I asked, glancing around.

Harry waved a hand. "We got rid of it. But wow, you actually attacked it! I've never heard of that before."

I shrugged. Remembering something else, I jumped up, wings fanning out behind me. "Where's Angel?"

"She's over there," said Fang, motioning with his head. Angel was lying on the orange sofa, still asleep.

"Is she okay?" My heart was hammering again.

Fang nodded. Almost immediately, Nudge tackled me in a hug. "Max! That was crazy! I wonder if Hermione Granger is real, too!"

Seeing Harry avoid my gaze, I replied, "Now's not the time for that."

The flock, gathering around, sat on the rug while I faced the Time Association. "Will you tell me your name now?" I asked the blue-eyed boy. Angel was still sleeping; she couldn't tell me.

A pause. Then he nodded. "All right. I am Artemis Fowl the Second." The name sent a chill up my spine. Glancing at his friends, he added, "Would you like to know their names?"

I shrugged with a guilty smile. "I kind of already know."

Artemis Fowl's eyes widened slightly. Jacob, Percy, and Harry almost fell out of their chairs. "How?"

I grinned. "I did my research."

He smiled. "Well said. Any last questions?"

I thought. What else? "…In the subway tunnel, what were you doing there in the first place?"

Percy answered this one. "We had a meeting with our other faction that could only happen in the New York City subway. We were waiting with the disguise of the people around us." He laughed. "But we kind of had to blow them off when Opal found us."

The flock smiled, and Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge went to clean up their disrupted card game. Fang and I stayed.

"Does the time machine work?" Fang asked unexpectedly.

The Time Association shrugged collectively. "Still working on it," Jacob said.

I thought hard for another question. "What sort of part did each of you have in creating it?"

"I used wizard magic," said Harry, "and the Time Turner." I assumed this was the name of the device.

"I know someone who can manipulate time," Jacob said. He didn't elaborate.

"So do I," said Artemis. "Except he can send people back in time."

We looked at Percy.

He raised his eyebrows. "Isn't it obvious?" he said. "I'm in this because I'm awesome."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, that's all good. But what if a catastrophe happens and you can't stop it?"

Artemis scowled at me. "Our whole purpose is to stop catastrophes. It is highly unlikely that we won't be able to."

I shrugged. Just then, Angel woke up with a start. She began screaming shrilly again, and we covered our ears, but once she realized what was happening, the scream petered out.

"Max – it was horrible!" she gasped.

I rushed to her side. "Angel?" I said worriedly.

She took some shuddering breaths. "It – it was thinking so many horrible things!"

I patted her sweaty blonde curls. "You're okay, sweetie. We're all okay."

I realized that, with the ability to mind read, Angel probably was affected more by the Dementor than us. I handed her some chocolate.