Disclaimer: I don't own Huntik: Secrets & Seekers.
LOCATION: VENICE, ITALY, CASTERWILL MANSION
Lok was peering through a keyhole, inwardly sighing with relief.
"Uh oh." He forced down the corners of his mouth. "It looks like she locked it this time. What can we do?"
Sophie didn't look convinced. "It wasn't locked last time?"
"Uh-huh. I guess I just got lucky."
"Oh, really?" An eyebrow went up. "Your name is Lok and you can't even pick a lock."
"Whoops. I guess Mom chose the wrong name."
"Or..." A lightbulb went off; her fingers snapped. "Springer! Invoke him."
Lok paled. "Um."
Sophie placed her hands on her hips, feigning anger. "You're choosing Zhalia over me?"
"Nononono, that's not it!" Lok looked panicked. "Sophie, I really like you and-"
Her shoulders were shaking.
"Soph, are you crying?" He tried to hug her, stiffening in surprise when she collapsed on him. "Soph, whatever I said, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." Lok looked positively distressed.
Sophie began shaking harder.
"Ooh, do you like kittens? I'll buy you a kitty. Hey, you can name it 'Lok' after me, your favoritest person in the whole universe!"
Sophie snorted.
Lok paused. Maybe she was really a cat person and she was just so overjoyed she busted out laughing. He carefully pried away her hands from her face. A rock the size of a meteor sank to the bottom of his stomach and settled there, poking into his insides uncomfortably.
"You were laughing at me...this entire time?" Lok stuttered, giving her a wounded look.
Sophie batted her eyelashes and flung her arms around his neck. "You want to buy me a kitty? Aww, Lok, I'm flattered."
He calmly removed her body from his and backed up a few steps, tackling her. Screaming a war cry, he chased her into the nearest room, which happened to be the kitchen.
There were frosted cupcakes on the table.
Sophie used his momentary distraction to pin him to the refrigerator.
Lok flinched.
The strawberry blonde laughed breathlessly, sucking in air so she could properly gloat her victory.
Lok took the opportunity to dart under her legs and escape to the table, grabbing a cupcake in each hand and fleeing, all the while bellowing: "Intermission! Intermission!"
Sophie shook her head, leaning against the fridge, out of breath. Then she waited a couple of minutes, moving to stand guard at the cupcakes. She saw a tuft of his blond hair and carefully chose the one with the most frosting, licking it off slowly, tantalizingly. She moaned, closing her eyes with exaggerated relish. She peeked and saw him staring at her cupcake hungrily. She moved it to the right, then to the left to check of she had his full attention. Yup, his eyes followed. Then she promptly shoved it in her mouth and tried to swallow without choking. She succeeded, though her face was a little red when she was finished.
Sophie began to reach for another; Lok yelled: "I surrender, I surrender! The victory is yours, O Great Queen!" He dipped his head in a mock-bow and fluidly stole the cupcake from her hand.
Zhalia walked into a scene that could only be described as chaotic. The living room was a mess of frosting, sugar, flour, eggs, and other mysterious substances; and from what she could see of it, the kitchen was just as bad, if not worse. Sophie was straddling Lok and cramming cupcake after cupcake onto his face (she was missing his mouth entirely - and was that frosting in his ear?)
Zhalia cringed, touching her own ear gingerly.
Her brother -
No, no, she didn't have a brother. Nuh-uh -
used to give her -
Zhalia Moon never had a brother. Nope -
those what-were-they-called -
"Wet willies, Zhaal. My name is William. It was destined to happen," said he, smiling too smugly for a little ten-year-old. Oh, and he was short too. Maybe two inches taller than her six-year-old self.
"Nobody even calls you William, Liam! Not even Mom!" she shrieked, lunging at him, teeth bared.
"Grandma does. And she calls you -"
She gasped, mouth forming a perfect 'O'. "Don't you dare, William Christopher Moon! I will end you. I swear, I will kill -"
"Zee Zee. Darling, wittle, ickle, cutesy Zee Zee, honey bear. Aww, what a pwecious -" Liam screamed, rubbing his arm angrily.
"Ha! Hahahahaha!" Zhalia crowed triumphantly, sticking out her tongue. Then she ran like the world was ending. "Hey, Grandma, I think I want that bath now! I mean, like, right now! Grandma, where are you?"
Liam cackled, rubbing his hands together evilly.
"Grandma!" Zhalia only had enough time to breathe while her brother tackled her, screeching out a war cry.
Zhalia fisted her hands and watched the trembling gradually come to a still.
No. William Christopher Moon never existed. He had died to her a long, long, long time ago.
Well, fuck. She hadn't thought about her nonexistent brother in fourteen years. With him, her father was dredging up all these other unpleasant memories. She took in a deep breath and focused on the present, namely two teenagers who were most certainly not acting their age.
"What are you two doing?" Zhalia tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but by Sophie's indignant glare, she knew she failed. So, condescension then. "Whatever." She rolled her eyes, a natural, easy, practiced action. See? She wasn't entirely pathetic. "I just stopped by to pick up some of my stuff. Dante knows the details, ask him to explain." Not exactly. She'd left him a short note, maybe three sentences. Or less. She couldn't remember. "I'll be back in a week, anyway."
She walked into 'her' room. It was just another guest room with some of her clothes and belongings stashed inside. People knew they weren't allowed in and they - Wait a second, were those crumbs? Chocolate cupcake crumbs, to be specific? She critically thought back to Lok and Sophie's disheveled appearances and the state of the house in general. Chocolate. Cupcakes. Baking stuff. World War III. It didn't take a genius to guess what happened. Luckily for Zhalia, she was a genius too.
She checked the time. 7:26. Damn. No time to properly chew them out. It'd be 9:26 there and she wasn't up for night stalking. Night-vision goggles were expensive, and it wasn't like Dante to go for second best, so of course he bought the latest models with all those neat gadgets and gizmos. Which meant they were off-limits and with Lok and Sophie around, that meant they were hidden and locked up. Thoughtspectre would be too exhausting for that long of a distance and a plane ride would be about four hours - but that would be for Moscow and that'd still be out of her price range. She'd given herself a week, which was more than enough time to satisfy a whim of hers. She could easily cross it off her list...but he was her father, after all. Though that hardly meant anything. She hadn't taken into consideration she didn't have a clue about where he was and that she was guessing Russia because that was where Klaus was from and he claimed he saw her many times before he adopted her when she still had a family.
He told her that her mother died and her father fell apart. He and her father used to work together or maybe against each other, but they were frequently in contact with one another. Klaus said something about liking her aunt romantically (ew) and that he was friendly with everyone (yeah right). Then the story got really weird and hard to follow and she was only six, for heavens' sake, so she didn't quite follow and Klaus wasn't too fond of questions anyway. So apparently her mother got sick and died, her father attempted suicide and failed, and Klaus was there to help him deal, and then somebody divorced and there was a huge fight and everyone was angry and her dad ran away and abandoned her in Italy because he was on the run and took a quick detour for her. So she was on her own for a few months, was bullied the whole time, and miraculously, Klaus was there to make it all better.
Yeah. Zhalia still didn't get it. She was going on a wild goose chase based on a hunch just to satisfy her curiosity. She opened the suitcase she'd been staring through as she was thinking and tossed in some toiletries and clothes. Zhalia wondered how much money she'd need. All her important stuff were at Dante's and she had very limited time. She stuffed a wad of hundreds in her purse and a few other random bills.
Whatever. She'd improvise.