AN: Sorry for not updating. As you know, our computer crashed, etc, and we had to be careful about using it. Also, we went on mid-winter vacation last week. Hey, does anyone remember when we used to update every other day? Good times. Anyway, here's the chapter.
Chapter 27
I forced my suitcase closed and dragged it downstairs. I still couldn't believe I was being forced to go back to the city. You'd think my parents would get bored of this after a while, but no.
"Come on, Basil. The car's waiting," said Dad. I sighed and headed out the door.
"Bye, Basil," said Daphne. She embraced me tightly, like she always did. Sabrina hugged me too.
"Hank, you don't have to drag people back to the city every time something doesn't go well here," Uncle Jake protested. Dad ignored him.
"We're going, and that's final," he insisted.
"Bye, Basil," said Red shyly.
"We'll see you at Thanksgiving," said Mr. Canis.
"If we live that long," added Puck cheerfully. Everyone looked at him. "What? I'm just trying to be realistic."
And that was the last I saw of Ferryport Landing for a while.
..~0~..
The car trip was three long, awkward hours. Car trips are never much fun in my family to begin with, and this was even worse.
"So should we take the Thruway or the Taconic?" asked Mom, trying to break the silence.
"We could just turn around," I suggested.
"Thruway, then," she decided, as if I hadn't said anything.
"There's probably a ton of traffic," I reminded them.
"I like the Taconic," said Dad.
"The silent treatment? What are you, six?" I asked. They should have known that the silent treatment only served to annoy me. Fine. If they wanted to play that game, I would, too.
I unlocked the car door and opened it. The air whistled past me loudly. "Fine, then. I'll just jump out of the car." Neither of them did anything.
Suddenly, Dad shouted, "That's ridiculous!" and slammed on the brakes. I smirked, thinking that I had won. But he wasn't looking at me. "Four ninety- three per gallon? In New Jersey?" Then he began ranting about the oil tycoons in the Middle East.
I sighed. For the rest of the ride, my parents ignored me. I kept trying to get them to stop. I tried threatening to hitchhike back, reminding them that they left Sabrina and Daphne in Ferryport Landing when they were both younger than me, and I even considered telling them that Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck threw a house party when they were away. Then again, if I told them that, they would never let me go back alone.
..~0~..
I spent about three days back in the city. It actually wasn't that bad being back. I'd actually missed it: the skyline, Central Park, laughing at the way tourists walked around confused and took pictures of everything, and especially the energy.
It was good to see my friends, too—except Jill, who I tried to miss, but I just couldn't. She's always mad at me, and I'm never sure why. Trixie once suggested halfheartedly that it was because she liked me, but I just don't think she does. Once she punched me after Music Appreciation, and I was like, WTF?
Anyway, on my third day back, my mom took pity on me. I guess she understood the desire to take up the family business. Plus, obedience just isn't her thing. She ended up taking me to the Golden Egg when my dad wasn't around. As we entered through the Hans Christian Andersen statue, I got the feeling that we were being followed.
Normally, I walk at least fifteen feet away from my mother when in public. I know, I know: it's rude. But it actually came in handy this time, because I noticed the stalker before she did. It was that creepy homeless girl who I'd seen near the Alice in Wonderland statue. What was it that she called herself? I couldn't quite remember, but I knew she was bad news.
I touched the statue and entered the Golden Egg. It was fairly crowded, since it was the weekend. I scanned the crowd and quickly spotted my mother with a woman with dark brown hair.
"Mom?" I said, approaching them. "Did you by any chance notice a creepy-looking homeless girl following us?"
The other woman turned and looked at me with electric blue eyes, which made me feel like I was being X-rayed. Something about her seemed slightly familiar.
"Of course I noticed. You didn't think I was blind, did you?" Mom asked. She didn't seem too concerned about it.
"No, I've seen her before. Once when I was in the park—"
"Really?" my mother frowned. "Basil, I thought you knew better than to talk to mentally unstable people."
"I didn't know she was. She just shoved me against a tree and threatened me!"
My mom looked as if she was about to say something else; but she didn't, because before she could open her mouth the door to the Golden Egg was smashed down. And guess who stormed inside.
A huge mob, armed with every weapon possible, smashed their way in. There were goblins, trolls, witches, and a whole horde of other monsters—so many, and so weird looking that I didn't know what to call them. They had fangs, fur, claws, and some wickedly sharp blades. At the head was the creepy street girl I'd seen before.
"Moth!" yelled the woman.
Moth looked at her and sneered. "Surprised? You shouldn't be. I was tossed in prison by thy guards and treated as if I were no better than a peasant! When I finally got released from prison, you turned me out on the street. Royalty should never be treated like that. I was supposed to be a queen."
"Please. You never would have become queen anyway. You may have royal blood, but you're not noble," Mustardseed said. I hadn't noticed him before, but there he was, standing on top of the bar, holding a crossbow. "Leave now, or you'll regret this."
Moth didn't hesitate. She turned to an ugly troll. "You know what you're looking for. Go!" The mob roared and all hell broke loose.
They charged through the bar, breaking glass and splintering wood, and slashing with their razor-sharp swords. In the midst of it all, Mustardseed and the woman seemed to have disappeared. But a bunch of fairies who looked a lot like him started leaping onto table, firing their crossbows at the invaders.
The crowd started pushing and shoving, trying desperately to get to the door. I pushed past them, trying to get to the mob.
"Go!" shouted one of the fairies. "It's too dangerous for civilians!"
"I'm not a civilian, I'm a Grimm!" I yelled. I started to run forward, but then someone grabbed me, blindfolded me, and dragged me away. I tried to twist away, but whoever was dragging me had hands like iron. I couldn't see whoever it was, so I elbowed them as hard as I could in their general direction.
"Ow!" said a familiar voice.
"Mustardseed? Is that you?" I asked. He pulled off my blindfold.
"Sorry about that, Basil, but I couldn't let you see where we're going," he replied.
"What's so special about here?" I asked. We were standing in small room with a few dusty looking crates. I could still hear the mob breaking something somewhere above us.
"We can't be overheard," said the woman that my mother was talking to before, who was sitting on one of the crates. My mom was there too.
"I think you already know my mother," Mustardseed added. I hadn't actually met her before, but I remembered her from the story.
"Titania, right?" I asked her.
"That would be correct. We don't have much time, so you must listen to me," Titania commanded. Huh; so this is Sabrina's mother-in-law. She continued, "Do you know why this group has invaded the Faerie?" She didn't give me a chance to answer. "They are looking for something; something that could let them out of Ferryport Landing. We keep this item under lock and key, but it's only a matter of time before they find it."
"What, exactly?" asked my mother.
"The Crystal Coffin," said Titania. She must have noticed my expression, because she added, "Of course, you probably wouldn't know what that is. I'll explain. It's part of a story in the Green Fairy Book. There's no time to explain it now, but the main thing is that there's a glass coffin. Which can be used as a portal. And from that, I think you can guess why the Scarlet Hand wants it and is currently in the process of ransacking the bar in order to find it."
"Shouldn't you be trying to hide it?" I questioned.
She rolled her eyes. "There's no need for that. It's in one of the hidden rooms, but they can't get in. It's locked with a powerful enchantment that only a special key can open. But the Scarlet Hand didn't know that. I think they're relying on Moth to figure it out for them."
"And Moth doesn't know it's an enchanted key," added Mustardseed. "Besides the four of us and Puck, no one does. Actually, Puck has the key with him in Ferryport Landing."
"So why are you telling this to us?" I wondered out loud. If there's anything I've learned from mystery movies, it's that no one lets you in on a secret without ulterior motives.
"We need you to destroy it. Besides, you're Grimms. It's your unofficial, time-consuming, stress-inducing, non-paying, pain-in-the-ass job to do this kind of thing. Now, stop asking questions. We have to get the Scarlet Hand out of here. You should leave quickly, before I burst into flames," ordered Titania briskly.
"You should go," warned Mustardseed. "Before things get worse."
I didn't get it. Why did everyone always want to run away when things were just getting exciting? But my mom grabbed my arm and dragged me to the door, which opened to reveal a tiny, dark corridor. I could still hear the sounds of fighting somewhere above us as we went down it. We turned several corners, each leading into dark rooms full of crates, closets, old furniture and some other things that I could barely see because it was so dark. How large was this place?
Suddenly, I heard a noise to our left and was instantly alert.
"You'd better have given us the right directions, princess," growled a low voice that didn't sound quite human. More like a wolf's would.
"In here!" whispered my mom. I turned and saw her vanish into a large wardrobe in the corner. I climbed in after her and closed the door.
"I have," said a girl—probably Moth—in a snippy voice. "It should be in just a few turns to the left, and one to the right."
"You're lying," whispered a raspy voice. It had an odd, disembodied quality to it.
"I'm not!" protested Moth.
"If you aren't lying, then why haven't we gotten there yet?" hissed the voice. Something about it reminded me of just about every ghost movie I'd ever seen—a haunting, threatening, echoing thing that seemed to bring to mind deep, dark fears.
"We just haven't, okay?" she snapped, trying to sound confident, but I heard her voice waver.
"If you can't help us, then you know what's coming," the voice said in an almost singsong way. "You know what she will do to you…"
The footsteps faded until I could no longer hear them. Cautiously, I stepped out of the closet.
"Be very quiet," my mother whispered. She took my arm again and led me past several more rooms. Finally, we came to a door and listened for more Hand members, but all seemed quiet. My mom pushed the door open, and bright sunlight flooded in, practically blinding me after spending so long in the dark.
We stepped out and found ourselves near the statue of William Shakespeare in the park. It felt almost surreal after hiding in a wardrobe, listening to a ghost.
"Well, that was interesting," I remarked.
My mother sighed. "I'll meet you in the apartment for dinner. We'll have to talk about what happened today. And we need to get a copy of your school transcript."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because if you're going to go to Ferryport Landing and destroy the key, it means you'll end up staying there for a while. And I don't care what your excuse is, you are not going to go there without attending school. You'll have to transfer to Ferryport Landing High School."
I stared. "Wait. Really?"
She shrugged. "I can't keep you here forever, Basil. This kind of thing is in your blood."
..~0~..
Authors' Note: I'd forgotten how fun this was. Again, extremely sorry for the lack of updating. But we told you, we're not giving up on this story, no matter how long it takes.
Lea and Cal Read Reviews
Curlscat: Thanks for congratulating us. And we'd like to apologize for the lack of updating. Oh, and sophomores don't actually have orientation. That was just his parents trying to create an excuse. And we had no idea that you could write on the site. We couldn't figure out how it works.
ANannyMouse: I never understood the point of taxidermy. It doesn't look good at all to have a dead deer in your bedroom. Then again, maybe it's a conversation piece?
We're sorry for not updating.
RockSuperstar: We actually did make a oneshot about Henry and the hat: What Not to Do With the Golden Cap. And sorry for not updating.
ImANargleHunter: I love you penname! It reminds me of Luna Lovegood. And it doesn't bother us if people criticize our characterization, but thank you for being so kind about it. And we're sorry for not updating.
GreekHuntress: Actually, I heard the word 'Moopy' on a cartoon called Kim Possible when I was younger. And taxidermy never fails to creep people out.
EvilScrapbooker: After not updating for two months, we can't get mad at you for not reviewing. I hate it when schools are like that. They seem to assume that getting into college is the whole point of life. And about our randomness: we find that when we work together, it's hard not to be random. We have to add a little of it in somewhere, because a lot of people don't realize that real life is random, so it's okay to be random once in a while when you're writing a story. Just once in a while, though. And yes, after Book 5, things started to get pretty dark. I guess it was necessary, but I still miss the fun. We're glad you liked the sentimental scene. It was a change from our regular writing, but it was interesting to write. I also have a hard time picturing Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck as adults. Even in Book 5, it was strange. And by the way, only a few of Cinderella's animal friends are in the taxidermy closet.
HollyRose: I don't like mushy Puck. It seems so weird, especially when I read the books and see their actual conversations. We're glad you enjoyed the proposal. And we're so sorry for not updating.
