Chapter 3

"Who is this Nicky?" asked Grumpy.

"Nicholas." replied Elijah.

"Tender Heart, are you sure your brother is in the triple X zone?" asked Bright.

"Woah. You don't have to call me that. I'm just Elijah." said Elijah.

"But to us, your Tender Heart now." said Bright Heart.

"I think it's a sweet name." said Cheer Heart.

"Then call Grumpy "Grumpy Heart."" said Elijah.

"I am Grumpy Heart, but I go by Grumpy." said Grumpy.

"Anyway guys, let's just keep going." said Elijah.

After a couple of hours have passed, Nicky was nowhere to be found, despite other people claiming to have seen him in one area or another.

Most people demanded that he'd pay them back, others claimed to wish to see him once more, while others wished him luck. Elijah was not impressed with how much people knew his brother. He was somewhat disgusted to see how much Nicholas was hiding from him.

"Nicholas, where the hell are you?" thought Elijah to himself.

"I heard that." said Cheer Heart.

"Heart what?" asked Elijah.

"You said a bad word." said Cheer Heart.

"No I didn't…" Elijah silently told her. But then again, Cheer Heart was a mystery to him. She was very pretty, and very savvy. Elijah couldn't help but feel somewhat safe around her.

"Why don't you want to be called Tender Heart?" asked Cheer Heart.

"Elijah is my name. I can't change it." said Elijah.

"Oh no, I'm not asking you to change your name. I'm just curious as to why you don't want to be called by your holy name. The beautiful fairy said you were the chosen one to lead us." said Cheer Heart.

"Lead you all to what? To some promised land over the rainbow? I don't know if that is true or not." said Elijah.

"I have a feeling that sooner or later, your going to do great things." said Cheer Heart with a blush.

"Uh.. thank you." said Elijah, feeling somewhat baffled.

Just then, Elijah felt something. He felt a warmth growing inside his chest. A feeling that made him feel safe and warning him of something.

Cheer Heart stopped and felt it too. Grumpy and Bright Heart felt it as well and they stopped.

"What is this?" asked Elijah.

"I don't know. But….it feels like it's telling us something. Whatever it is we are feeling." said Cheer Heart.

"It's urging us to go straight, then left." said Grumpy.

"But what for?" asked Bright Heart.

"Why don't we follow it? Maybe Nicholas is near!" said Elijah excitedly.

"Don't get your hopes up. Why are we feeling that sensation?" asked Grumpy.

"We don't know Nicholas." said Bright Heart.

"Whatever it is, let's go." said Elijah.

The kids all followed this strange sensation, wherever it was leading them to. Eventually, they reached an apartment complex. It was old, and very beat up, but it still looked like people were living there. Elijah and his friends all felt the sensation of warmth getting stronger the nearer they were to the apartments.

"What is going on?" asked Elijah.

Cheer Heart was about to say something when all of a sudden, she fell to her knees.

"Cheer Heart?!" cried Elijah, and the other two boys quickly tried to help her up.

"My stomach… It's burning. Something is wrong here!" cried Cheer Heart.

"I'm so sorry! Let me go in and see what this is about! I'll stop it so you can be safe! Grumpy, come with me!" demanded Elijah. He stopped himself short and felt terrible for screaming an order to Grumpy. Was it the stress of the situation, or the stress of what they might encounter inside the building. Grumpy walked up beside Elijah without question and waited.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Let's go stop this thing." said Grumpy.

Elijah nodded and the boys quickly ran inside the apartment building. They both walked rather fast and slowly, following the trail to an apartment that was wide open. They both got in without knocking and saw a couple sitting on their table. A little boy was sitting on one end of the table and the parents were both caught into some argument.

"What is this?" asked Grumpy.

"I don't know." replied Elijah.

They looked at the couple fighting, and they didn't realize two strange kids entered their living room. The woman who was fighting started to cry as the man grabbed her by the arms and said terrible things to her.

The boy sitting on the table started to cry too.

"Stop it! You're scaring him!" cried Elijah loudly. The couple stopped fighting and turned to see Elijah, who was standing there with determination.

Grumpy ran over to the boy and realized he was bleeding.

"What did you do to him?" cried Grumpy.

The man then grabbed a plate from the table and hit Elijah on the head.

"What?" cried Grumpy. He didn't have time to react. The man hit him with another plate and he too fell to the ground.

Elijah slowly stood up a couple of seconds later. Cheer Heart was by his side and so was Bright Heart.

"What happened?" asked Elijah.

"An illusion." said Cheer Heart solemnly.

"A what?" asked Elijah.

"An illusion, made by Beastly, a creature of darkness." said Cheer Heart.

"A what?" asked Elijah.

"What we both saw was not real, Elijah. Beastly made it. He was luring us into a trap." said Grumpy Heart.

"Who's Beastly?" asked Elijah.

"He's a bully and he never like our camp. Despite seeing the miracle of being clean and having good food and friends, he never liked any of it. So he left, but not without taking something that we were forbidden to touch." said Bright Heart.

"Close to the statue back in the camp, there was a staff with a warning on it. It told us never to touch it for it was crafted by the shadow. Or something like that. Beastly didn't care. He used it and he played tricks on us back home. After he was tired, he left." said Cheer Heart.

"How do you guys know all of this was fake?" asked Elijah.

"When we arrived, he was dancing on the table there, holding a mannequin. In fact, the family you saw here were mannequins!" said Bright Heart.

"So he does magic, like Nicholas. Okay. We'll be extra careful." said Elijah.

"OH YOU WILL WOULD YOU!?" boomed a voice.

Everyone looked up at the ceiling and Beastly himself came crashing down on the table. He eventually hurt himself upon landing there and cursed.

"Oh damn." said Beastly.

He stood up and Elijah was stunned to see that it was indeed a boy, wearing some sort of creature suit. It was fuzzy, green with purple polka dots and his face was almost covered up with the suit. Only one of his beady eyes could be seen as well as his mess of hair.

"Beastly. You coward." said Bright Heart.

"Well if it isn't the little angels? What are you guys doing in the big city?" asked Beastly with a sneer.

"None of your business loser." said Grumpy.

"I thought you guys "cared." I guess not. You're all douchebags." said Beastly.

"You did this illusion? Why?" asked Elijah.

"For fun. And I've got nothing better to do with my time." said Beastly.

"Well we don't have time for you." said Cheer Heart as she helped Elijah up.

"What's the rush? We are just getting started." said Beastly. He used his staff and closed the doors tight! He then swinged his staff around and the furniture in the room began to move.

"I'll crush you all like bugs! I can't wait to hear the sound of your bones crack!" cried Beastly with a double voice.

"What is he? A demon?!" cried Elijah.

"I guess he's turned into one!" cried Bright Heart.

"Let's run for it! Run upstairs!" cried Grumpy. The kids all stood up and ran quickly to the stairs. Unfortunately, the stair then went flat and the kids slid down back to the ground.

"One hundred dollar bills! One hundred dollar bills bitch!" cried Beastly as he danced around in the room.

"Get cancer you little…." Grumpy was about to say.

"Grumpy! NO! He feeds on that!" cried Cheer Heart.

"Feeds on what?" cried Elijah.

"Negativity. If we all show him we are not getting along, he gets more powerful." said Cheer Heart.

"Then we are screwed!" cried Bright Heart.

"Not necessarily. I got an idea. Everyone, follow my lead!" said Cheer Heart.

The kids went with Cheer Heart towards the locked doors and she turned to see the dancing Beastly.

"Give up?" he asked.

"You want to dance, let's dance. I'll lead." said Cheer Heart as she ran up to Beastly and held both his hands.

"What are you doing?" cried Beastly.

"Giving you what you want! A dance partner." said Cheer Heart with a wink. She moved Beastly all around in the dance, while stepping on his feet.

"You mother…!" cried Beastly curses.

As this was happening, the magic in the room was stopping and with that, Grumpy opened the doors.

"Cheer Heart!" cried Elijah.

Cheer then kicked Beastly under the belt and he fell to the ground.

"See ya. I don't wanna be ya." said Cheer Heart. She quickly ran with the others outside and Beastly stood up angrily.

"Just wait you losers! I will have my revenge and you will all have your hearts ripped out of your bodies and I will drink all your blood!" cried Beastly.

Elijah turned around and gave him the finger. "In your dreams bitch." he said aloud.

Beastly cursed out loud and slammed the doors.

"Well that ruined his day." said Elijah.

"That was awesome! You showed that creep who's boss Cheer Heart!" cried Bright Heart.

"Thank you, thank you. I was good, wasn't I." said Cheer Heart.

"Careful with pride. You are starting to sound like a certain cat person I know." said Grumpy.

"Still, we must be extra careful guys. I didn't know such a powerful magic person existed. I hope Nicholas is okay." said Elijah.

"I'm sure he is. We'll just keep on asking for Nicky." said Cheer Heart.

"That was brave of you back there. Thanks." said Elijah.

"I was happy to put that creep in his place." said Cheer Heart.

The kids all let out a sigh of relief and they went back into town, looking for more clues.

Meanwhile, Beastly stepped outside and looked at the kids from afar.

"You won't get away with this. The next illusion is going to give you all heartbreak." he said with a sinister voice as he toyed with his staff.