Wooo! Another review from PrincessLilly!
Ok, so, the story is winding up! It'll be finished this week, I promise, because it's SPRING BREAK! WOOOOOOOOOOO!
I love the following chapter, I hope you like it too :)
ONCE AGAIN, vote for your favorite Odd, even if you have already and your opinion has changed!
And the identity of someone by the penname Crazy Samurai is still unknown, so if you are this person, PLEASE REVIEW!
Oh, and telepathic messages are in bold.
Chapter 42
Hermione, Matt, Jonny and Harry found themselves inside what looked like a mine. They were in a cave-like room that led down many different halls that looked like the room they were in. They found their friends staring down the hall directly in front of them. Everyone was standing in stunned silence.
"Where are we?" Rachelle asked finally.
"With him," Tiffany said in a tone of calmness that did not fit the topic.
Rachelle's expression grew frantic.
"How do we get out?" she asked quietly, in fear of someone hearing her.
"We can't. Not by ourselves, anyways," Tiffany said in the same tone.
"Who do we get to help, then?" Harry asked.
"No one. We'll know what to do by the time we're done…by the time some of us are gone…"
"Do you mean someone is going to die?" Rachelle asked incredulously.
"More than one," Tiffany corrected her.
Normally this phrase would have sent Tiffany and Rachelle laughing happily, but not this time. This time the phrase caused a deep, impenetrable silence.
"We might as well go," Tiffany said, walking through a random hall.
"What are we going to go do? I hate when you act all mysterious and stuff," Rachelle said.
"We'll do what we have to do and I act how I act," Tiffany answered.
Rachelle sighed and followed Tiffany with the rest of the group behind her.
After they walked for about ten minutes, Tiffany came to a sudden halt and Rachelle almost knocked her over.
"What is it?" Rachelle asked nervously.
Tiffany stared ahead, unblinking. Rachelle stared, too. In front of them was a menacing-looking figured dressed all in black, sitting on what resembled a throne while conversing very quietly to a short, plump woman with ugly dirty blonde hair at his side. They couldn't get a good lookat the two people from this distance and because it was so dark in the cave-like shelter, but The Odds just knew it was Zastrin with one of his assistants, though they had never come face-to-face with him before.
Zastrin and the woman seemed to notice their presence because they suddenly stopped talking to one another and looked down the hall.
"Why, hello dearies!" the woman said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Come in, come in!"
The group didn't move.
Zastrin seemed as if he wasn't going to go through all of that pretending to be sweet nonsense and just yelled at them.
"Get over here right now or we can just skip to the part where I kill all of you!"
"Ok, ok, sheesh," Tiffany said as if she were talking to Mr. Vilner and not The Odds' worst enemy, though Rachelle heard a slight tremble in her voice.
Tiffany led the frightened group to Zastrin and the woman. When they were closer and could see Zastrin's face better, they could see that he looked how they had always pictured villains. He seemed to be tall, but it was hard to tell since he was sitting. He looked like he was in his forties and had a very scarred face. This was exactly how they pictured villains in all of the books they read…they never thought that they'd be face to face with one of those villains, fearing for their own lives like the heroes and heroines in the books did. Even though Mr. Vilner had warned them numerous times of Zastrin's danger, they never truly thought they'd have to fight him for their lives.
Zastrin suddenly smiled as they approached and looked at someone in the group. No one could tell for sure who he was looking at, at first, because the group stuck very close together in their fear.
"You did well, Alfonso," Zastrin said, still looking at someone in the group.
"What…? We don't know an –" Tiffany began, but stopped as Jonny walked forward.
Everyone was too stunned to speak.
"It was easy…" Jonny told Zastrin, trying to sound modest.
"You're…" Rachelle began, but her voice faded into nothingness.
"Why?" Tiffany asked, glaring at him.
"Zastrin said he was going to give us, his assistants, any more powers he steals," Jonny (now known as Alfonso) said.
"No, he's going to keep them for himself!" Rachelle said.
"Why would he? He already has other powers he's stolen," Alfonso said.
"Actually…the girl is right," Zastrin said.
Alfonso turned to him. "What?" he asked incredulously.
"I do have powers, but the more I get, the more I can control them," Zastrin explained.
"But…you said you would go into training!" Alfonso said.
"Oh, it's so much faster this way! Don't worry though, I'll give the next ones to you. I promise," Zastrin said, smiling wickedly.
Bita burst into tears.
"That means I really am the last lemon, and I'm going to die!" she cried.
Tiffany and Rachelle glared at Alfonso and Rachelle went to comfort Bita.
"That must mean you've been spying on us…that's how you got Alfonso here to get to Bita," Tiffany said.
"I've been getting inside information, actually," said Zastrin. "But enough talk! We need to get some business taken care of…Lisa and I -," he motioned to the woman next to him, "will lead the way and Alfonso will stay behind you all."
Alfonso glared at Zastrin, but took his place behind the group. Rachelle brought Bita to the front of the group next to Tiffany and The Odds led the way. They followed Zastrin down the hall they had come, into the big cave-like room where they started, and down another hall. When they began walking down the other hall, Tiffany motioned Rachelle and Bita to stay where they were and slipped to the back of the group.
"I can't believe you," she said, disgusted, to Alfonso once she had gone to the back of the group. "Don't you have parents or some kind of family? What do they think about this?"
"No, I'm an orphan like you…One of Zastrin's assistants took me in like Mr. Vilner took you guys in…I've never had a chance to help out before. Until now, Zastrin thought I was too young to be of any use," he talked as if talking to himself and not Tiffany.
"Helping? Pretending to be nice in order to lead a bunch of girls to their deaths? Who is that possibly helping?" Tiffany asked.
"I don't know! This is just how I was brought up, knowing that eventually I'd do something like this. What else was I supposed to do? I didn't have a choice. I'm really sorry…you and the other ones might not believe it, but I am. Zastrin's already powerful…after he gets your powers he might be powerful enough to take over the planet. Do you really think I'm looking forward to that?"
"If you want to help, help us escape. If you don't want the world taken over or possibly destroyed by Zastrin, please."
Alfonso looked sadly at the rest of the group.
"Ok," he said.
Tiffany slipped back to the front of the group where Bita was still crying and Rachelle was still trying to comfort her.
"It's going to be ok. We'll get out of this soon," she whispered so no one else heard her.
They suddenly stopped as Zastrin and Lisa stopped in another cave-like room. This room was filled with equipment that the group had never seen before in their lives and didn't want to know what it was for.
"Here we will perform the ritual. The ritual must be done before we can kill you," Zastrin explained as if he were giving some kind of tour.
Tiffany glanced back at Alfonso who was looking at one of the walls of the cave nervously.
"Now, you all stay here, and Lisa and I will go prepare for the ritual. And…don't try to escape. You can't," Zastrin said with an evil chuckle.
When Zastrin and Lisa walked away from them to the far side of the room, Tiffany went back to where Alfonso was standing.
"So? Any ideas?" she whispered.
"Yeah…that wall over there -," he pointed to the wall he had been looking nervously at before, "has a secret door that blends in. It's your only hope. It's the only way out of here…but I'll have to open it for you. It only opens for Zastrin or one of his assistants. We'll have to go now, while they're preparing."
"Are you going to come with us?" Tiffany asked him.
"No, I can't. All of Zastrin's assistants have a tracking device implanted somewhere, in case we all leave Zastrin to go tell the world his secrets. He's really paranoid…He'll find you if I go," said Alfonso.
"But he'll know that you helped us!" Tiffany exclaimed.
"No, I'll come up with something…just worry about getting out of here alive," he said, smiling weakly.
Tiffany went back to the front of the group and sent telepathic messages to Rachelle and Bita about the plan.
Won't Zastrin kill Alfonso, though? Rachelle asked.
He'll be fine, don't worry, Tiffany answered.
How are we gonna do this? Rachelle asked, wanting to change the subject.
No one's watching us because Zastrin doesn't think we know about the door…so let's go to wall and the rest will follow, Tiffany sent.
Ok, Rachelle sent.
With a deep breath, Rachelle, Tiffany, and Bita made their way over to the nearest wall and edged toward the wall Alfonso had said held the door. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Matt seemed to catch on and hurried quietly towards them, though they looked slightly confused.
What if Alfonso's just trying to trick us? Rachelle asked suddenly.
He's not, don't worry, Tiffany sent surely.
Alfonso was the last one to go over to where The Odds were standing. He led the rest of the way to the secret door and stopped.
"Here it is," he said so quietly that they almost didn't hear him.
He placed a hand on the wall and a section of it slid silently open. It led into complete blackness.
"Just keep going down this tunnel and you'll get to the grounds. Don't worry, you'll be fine. I promise," he added when he saw their looks of uncertainty.
Matt went in first, followed by Hermione, Ron, and Harry. The Odds stayed behind for a few moments.
"Thanks…we would have died without you," Rachelle whispered.
"You're not evil after all!" Bita said happily, the hugged him.
"Good luck," said Tiffany. She was starting to feel guilty, putting Alfonso in danger so she and the rest could escape.
The Odds went inside the tunnel but didn't move forward.
"Hurry up," Alfonso rushed them. "Really, don't worry! We'll all be fine."
"You should come with us…we'll find someone to take out the tracking implant…it'll be safer!" Rachelle said.
"No, I have to stay here. That'll be safer for you."
"How do we close the door?" Tiffany asked suddenly.
"I'll close it behind you, just -," began Alfonso, but he was cut off.
"What…ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRH! HE'S LETTING THEM GO!" screamed the voice of Zastrin.
"GO!" Tiffany, who was the last in the tunnel, yelled at everyone.
Before they even had a chance to turn around to face the front of the tunnel, however, a long, pointy knife flew right past the entrance to the secret tunnel that led out of Zastrin's lair. It was apparently controlled by telekinesis. The Odds gasped as the knife hit Alfonso right in his heart area. He fell to the ground and stopped breathing.
The Odds stared at his unmoving figure, completely shocked.
"Go!" Tiffany yelled again, yet less loudly than the first time and with a shaky voice.
Everyone moved forward through the tunnel, and suddenly Zastrin and Lisa appeared at the entrance.
"We can still get them!" Zastrin said, and climbed into the tunnel with Lisa right behind him.
