Hey! Here's the next chapter…..
We landed, well I have no idea where we landed, because everything looked exactly the same. Same burned, black plains stretching out around us as far as the eye could see.
"We have arrived," Brady said in a strange accent I couldn't identify.
A giggle escaped me. I couldn't help it, that voice had been just too funny.
A flicker of a smile crossed his face, then it reverted back to being cast in shadows.
I stood there, watching him, but he stayed stationary, staring at the ground.
Finally my dad said, "We should probably get going. Brady, can you lead the way?"
He gave a little start and looked up, then nodded swiftly. "Follow me." He turned and began leading us through the black plain, his pace faster than a walk but not fast enough to be a run. When it because apparent that he wasn't planning on slowing down, my dad and Dr. Amélie started to lag behind.
I sped up a bit and fell in step with him. "So where are we going?"
He squinted up at the sun, probably trying to find our position. "The castle. Or, at least, where it use to be."
I nodded slowly, then asked, "Brady, why didn't you talk when you first got to ASSULF?" That question had been bothering me for a long time now.
"Would you be a chatterbox if your family and friends had just been murdered, your home had been destroyed, and you were the only survivor?" His voice was tired and heavy.
"I guess not…"
We walked in silence for a minute.
"Were you a chatterbox before?" I asked.
He smiled slightly. "Yeah. Yeah I was."
I grinned. "I'd have liked to have seen that."
His smile widened. "I'm sure you would have." He glanced sideways at me. "Mikayla, can I say something crazy?"
"Absolutely."
"I don't know why this is… but it feels almost like you belong here. Like you're from here. When I first met you, that time you visited me, I sensed that you where from Kinkow. That's why I looked up, because I thought somehow, someone from home had survived, just like me. But I was wrong, you're not from here. You're from… there."
"Does it still feel like that? Like I'm from here?"
He nodded. "The feeling just keeps getting stronger."
I frowned. "That's so weird. I've never been here before in my life."
"I know. I said it was crazy."
We went back to walking in silence.
I looked over at him as we walked. On the outside, he looked like a normal teenage boy, except for the shadow that now darkened his face. Shaggy dark hair, cute face, and nicely built, not too buff but not to stick-like either. Typical high school popular boy. But he wasn't like any boy I'd ever met. Not even close.
He saw me looking. "What are you thinking?" He asked.
"Do you even really want to know?" I asked. "No one ever does."
"Well, I do." His hazel eyes were fixed on me, his gaze steady and unwavering.
"Water!" Dr. Amélie voice cried from behind us.
I turned around and ran back to her. A minute later I almost stumbled over the edge of the island into the sea. I leaned over the smooth surface of the water and looked at my reflection. My clothes were all still intact, but my hair badly needed a brushing.
Brady's reflection appeared beside mine and I glanced up at him.
"What are you looking at?" He asked me.
I shrugged. "Nothing. It doesn't matter. Come on, let's keep going."
We continued walking the former castle site, my dad and Dr. Amélie keeping pace with us this time. When we finally got there, I looked around and said, "This is it? I don't see anything." It was true, the site looked the same as everywhere else, burned and blackened and flat.
Brady didn't answer, just started walking around, probably searching for some remains of his home. But there wasn't anything to be found, I could already tell. Nothing was left of the Royal Kinkowan Castle.
"Brady!" I called to him. "There's nothing left, there's no point in even looking. Come back!'
He shook his head.
"Brady!" I yelled.
No response.
I ran over to him and said, "Brady, please." I felt tears fill my eyes. "I'm sorry, but it's all gone." I grabbed his hand.
Instantly, a shock ran through me, starting for my hand and rapidly snaking out over my entire body. I gave a short scream of pain and suddenly everything went black.
~XXX~
I was standing in the middle of a village square, little island kids playing and laughing around me, their mothers doing laundry and chatting with their neighbors.
What's going on? Where am I? I thought, confused.
"Brady!" A little African-American boy, about eight, called, waving wildly. "I'm open!"
Brady? I whirled around and saw another eight year old boy with shaggy dark hair running towards the other boy.
"Boomer!" He yelled, throwing the ball he was clutching to Boomer.
Boomer? That's Brady's brother's name! Wait… what if when I touched Brady I got transported into his memories?
"Boz!" Boomer yelled, throwing the ball to a tall orange haired boy. The third brother!
Out of the corner of my eye I saw two extremely buff men wearing too little clothing walking towards the boys. Probably guards.
"Prince Brady, Prince Boomer, Prince Boz," the first guard said. "Your mother requested you come home now."
"Now?" Boomer whined. "Five more minutes please?"
Before I could hear the guard's reply, the scene shifted, replaced by a room I remembered Brady describing, the Throne Room. I saw the same boys, a few years older, playing King of the Hill with the throne. They were all trying to sit on it, but they were also trying to push each other off, so it looked more like a wrestling match.
The Throne Room door swung open and a beautiful African-American woman walked in, wearing a gorgeous purple dress and a golden crown.
"Boys!" She exclaimed. "No wrestling on the throne!"
And then the scene changed again, and I saw the castle courtyard. The sky was dark and stormy, ravens flying around everywhere. A circle of people stood in the courtyard, Brady and the woman and his brothers and who I assumed to be his father, cousin, and brother's girlfriend.
"What do we do?" His brother's girlfriend asked, her voice high and panicky.
Boomer wrapped his arm around her.
"I don't know, Rebecca, but I promise you'll be safe. I wouldn't let anything harm any of my subjects," Brady's father said. He looked like his son.
"But what can we do?" Brady demanded. "How do we fight him? The rings wouldn't work."
His mother shook her head. "I have no idea."
The scene changed again, but I could tell little time had passed between memories. Brady was running through the jungle, panting heavily, his shirt and hair damp with sweat. The black sky boomed and cracked with thunder and lightning overhead.
A particularly loud crack rang out, the white bolt splitting the sky and shooting down to earth, headed straight for Brady.
He yelled and tried to run faster, but it hit him, sending volts of electricity running up and down his body, sending him crashing to the ground where he lay there, his eyes closed and his face peaceful.
I screamed and my vision went black again.
~XXX~
"Mikayla! Mikayla! Wake up!"
"What?" I asked, sitting up. My head was still spinning from what I'd just seen.
Dr. Amélie grabbed my arm and pulled me up to a sitting position.
Brady stood a few feet away, watching me anxiously but too scared to touch me.
"When Brady touched you, you screamed and then you blacked out," Dr. Amélie explained.
"I'm fine," I assured them. "Fine," I said again, giving my dad a look.
Brady still looked worried.
"I'm okay," I told him.
"I'm so sorry, Mikayla," he whispered, a tear running down his cheek.
"It's okay," I told him gently. "I'm fine."
"But not for long," a cold, deep voice said from behind us.
We all whirled around, except for me, I just looked around.
A black hooded figure stood about ten feet away from us, watching us.
"You!" Brady snarled, trying to charge him, but my dad grabbed him and held him back.
"What do you want?" Dr. Amélie asked coldly.
"To finish my mission," the figure replied. "To kill the last of the Kinkowan Royal Family, so I can then complete my plan of world domination."
Dun, dun, DUN!