Chapter 21
Amya was still sitting, slumped against the wall when she heard the sound, footsteps; her luck was just getting better and better. She was in no state to fight a blind baby otter, let alone a highly accomplished killer. She moved herself slowly and painfully over to the wall next to the door.
Now she was in a position that would give her an advantage. Her aim was, if someone were to come through the door, she would use the air to fling them either into the wall, or out the window. If they refused to either be knocked unconscious or fall out the window, she just hoped that they'd be dazed enough so that she could try again. Great, she'd thought of everything. The only problem was, she really hadn't thought of everything.
When Angela Scraper lazily opened the door, she gave it a nice shove. Now, because Amya was rendered almost helpless, when the door came swinging towards her, she couldn't do a huge amount to stop it. Brilliant, now she not only had a twisted ankle, but also probably a broken nose. Angela strode in and then stopped, obviously wondering why instead of a hard clang that the door should have made when hitting the stone wall, she'd heard a kind of thump.
She turned to see Amya, with blood streaming down her face sitting awkwardly against the wall. Amya looked at her sheepishly,
"Hey." Amya tried. "So I was just looking for my penny, I dropped it somewhere down here…" Angela grinned maniacally.
Amya thrust her hands forward and the air shot towards Angela but she just flipped through it and kicked her hands away. The madwoman then launched another kick at Amya's face, but she moved her head so it just glanced her ear. Amya tried to launch herself forward at Angela, but the madwoman just grabbed her and flung her against the wall.
Amya groaned and lay there, helpless as Angela pulled out a very nasty looking knife from her belt and stalked towards her prey. She knelt down in front of Amya, grabbed her chin and pressed the knife to her cheek. Blood started to trickle down her face as Angela began to pull the knife down slowly, all the while, grinning like a nine year old.
Suddenly, the madwoman was yanked backwards and she disappeared. Amya collapsed to the ground, not even caring about the strangeness of what had just happened, just relieved that she could rest, she closed her eyes and surrendered to the darkness. Then Alasdair was back and he was shaking her and shouting her name.
She groaned and slowly opened her eyes.
"Where did you leave her?" she asked and Alasdair grinned.
"Siberia." He replied and she groaned and closed her eyes again but Alasdair quickly shook her back to reality.
"Can't you just let me sleep?" she asked and he frowned.
"Yeah, cause after getting beaten around the place by a maniac, sleeping's the best thing you can do." Alasdair said sarcastically.
"Actually, it kind of is…" Amya replied.
"Yeah, well…" Alasdair started, but then stopped when the ground beneath them and the entire castle trembled, making Alasdair stumble backwards, losing his balance. "What was that? An earthquake?" he asked shocked.
"I don't think that was just an earthquake." Amya muttered.
"What then?"
"I think Emerson's getting his ass kicked."
Villainous stopped only a few metres in front of them and stood so still that Emerson thought he might've fallen asleep. Just as Emerson was about to try and shake him to see if he was awake, he spoke, probably a good thing, Emerson doubted he'd take too kindly to being shaken vigorously by his sworn enemy's brother.
"Mr Tate, you seem to be in my castle." Villainous pointed out.
"That I do." Emerson said dryly.
"And why would that be?"
"Well…" Emerson hesitated. "I decided that I wanted to actually buy one for myself"
"Is that so?" Villainous asked in mock surprise and Emerson could swear he was raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, isn't that right Jeremy?" Emerson asked and turned to Jeremy who was just staring right at Villainous.
"I said, isn't that right Jeremy?" Emerson repeated and nudged his friend. Jeremy jolted back to reality and looked to Emerson startled.
"Yes." He said immediately.
"See. When we were wondering what we should do I said to Jeremy: You know who has a great castle we could have a look at? Good ole Maelicen."
"He did, he definitely said that." Jeremy confirmed, nodding vigorously.
"Right, that all makes perfect sense." Maelicen agreed gravely. "But one quick question." Emerson nodded for him to go ahead. "What exactly happened to poor Archie here?"
Emerson looked at the massive, unconscious form behind Villainous and frowned. Turning to Jeremy he said.
"That is a very good question, what did happen to poor Archie, we just came round the corner and there he was, lying unconscious on the floor."
"Could be slacking off duty?" Jeremy suggested.
"Yeah, or you could have a really bad rat infestation…" Emerson tried and then looked over at the huge prone body of Archie Bellows. "Or maybe, like a bear infestation…"
"I have actually noticed some other strange things around the place." Maelicen mused. "The front door seemed to have spontaneously flown off its hinges which I thought must've been strange as it was really quite a heavy door and must've taken a lot of force to move it completely off."
"Oh, it did." Emerson muttered smugly and Jeremy rolled his eyes.
"Also, my pet creature happened to have been unconscious earlier. A bear infestation definitely seems plausible." Villainous continued.
"Yeah." Emerson agreed. "Nasty things bears, almost as bad as wombats…" Emerson trailed off. "I really hate wombats…" he muttered.
"Well this has been a scintillating chat, but I really must be off, I have a prisoner who needs attending to." The masked man explained sounding genuinely apologetic.
"Ah yes, this prisoner, you don't happen to mind if we quickly just take him out for a little while?"
"And why would you want to do that?"
"Well, you see…" Emerson hesitated, struggling for an explanation. "It's actually National Pi Day tomorrow. Caiden's a bit of a maths geek, so he'd be completely devastated if he missed it as usually we tend to spend the day with our grandparents doing Sudoku's and stuff. If you ask me, it's the most spectacularly boring day of the entire year, but for Caiden it's a tradition, and he is big on tradition." Emerson explained as convincingly as he could.
"Yes, well as that may be, I'm not sure we can really let him out anytime soon, but if he's really that desperate, then we could probably get your brother a few Sudoku's." Maelicen replied as regretfully as he could.
"He hates to do Sudoku's without our grandparents…" Emerson prompted.
"Well I guess we could probably gather up your grandparents for the day…" Maelicen suggested.
"I doubt it," Emerson replied. "They both died in a newt accident two years ago."
"A newt accident? What would that consist of?" Maelicen asked, confused.
"Well, when I say a newt accident, I guess that isn't wholly true." Emerson considered and Jeremy frowned. "The newt didn't really do anything." Jeremy's frown deepened. "In fact I don't even think there was a newt…" Emerson too, frowned. "It could've been a car crash…" Jeremy face-palmed.
"So if your grandparents are dead," Maelicen started. "How were you and Caiden planning to spend National Pi Day?"
"Ah… yes, there is that…" Emerson agreed. "Jeremy, it seems we've been rumbled." Jeremy added his other palm.
"I guess now that we're done with the chatter, we should probably get down to the violence…" Maelicen figured and he thrust his hand straight into the wall as if it were liquid and ripped off a huge chunk of stone. Before Emerson could react, the stone was flying towards him. He tried to dodge, but it caught him in the shoulder and he was flung backwards. Jeremy heard him hit the ground hard.
"So, I guess I should probably kill you now then." Maelicen said casually and Jeremy removed his hands from his face. He knew that if he tried to run to Emerson, he'd be dead before he moved much more than a step; he'd seen the speed at which the masked man had casually lobbed a mountain at his friend. He knew he'd have to stay put, and hope that Emerson would get up. Either that, or Maelicen would spend hours talking and someone else would arrive to help. Apparently, Villainous wasn't a fan of talking.
The large man stamped his foot and a huge seismic blast launched Jeremy off his feet, Villainous laughed as the entire castle shuddered.
"Now this is power." Villainous muttered with a grin beneath his mask. "I should use it more often."
Jeremy was dazed. He'd hit his head when he'd fell and he thought he could feel blood coming from a wound on the back. He tried to get up, but a wave of nausea overtook him and he slumped to the ground again. Through the daze, he could see Villainous striding towards him, he had to move or he would die. His body was useless, nothing seemed to work and he was paralysed as Villainous stood above him.
The man muttered something inaudible and a stream of energy flung him off his feet. Emerson staggered forward, in obvious pain.
"This really isn't my day." He muttered as Villainous stood up across from him, his body mending itself.
Emerson readied himself for another stream but didn't get a chance. The handle of the revolver hit him right in the back of the head and he collapsed forward to the ground unconscious.
"What, you didn't think I had any spares?" Angelo Scraper asked no-one in particular. "These are my life." Scraper said indicating his two brand new revolvers. "Well, that and murder."
"Yes, and some might say that's rather unhealthy." Villainous muttered and Angelo shrugged. "But no matter, now you're all here." Maelicen continued, turning his attention to Jeremy. "I guess we're going to have to vacate the premises."
Archie stood up, obviously back to full consciousness and glared at Jeremy. "If we're going to leave now, can we kill the boy?" he asked Maelicen.
"No, it's more fun with more people chasing us." The masked man replied and Archie's shoulders slumped, looking truly devastated, almost making Jeremy want to go and comfort him, almost.
"What shall we do with him then?" Angelo asked and Maelicen frowned.
"I'm not actually sure…" Villainous replied and then looked up at Jeremy. "Would you mind just staying here; or something while we fetch our prisoner and leave?" he asked awkwardly.
"Of course! Yes! I'll do that! Won't move a muscle!" Jeremy replied a little too quickly making the relief all too obvious in his voice.
"Ok, well I guess we'll just leave then…" Villainous said and began to make his way down the corridor to the door, with Archie and Angelo behind him. Angelo kept sending wary glances behind him at Jeremy which Jeremy thought was kind of unneeded as if Jeremy did make any move to stop him; any one of the three could completely destroy him before he made it more than a step.
When the three psychopaths had left, Jeremy rushed to Emerson's side, he wasn't moving, but he was breathing lightly, that was a good sign. Jeremy wasn't entirely sure what to do next; he couldn't try and follow Villainous and the others, he'd be murdered, he considered running away, but quickly banished the idea, he couldn't leave Emerson like this.
His thoughts were interrupted by Alasdair and Amya appearing right next to him. He let loose a not very masculine squeal and leapt up in surprise. Amya noticed Jeremy and the unconscious body of Emerson and immediately rushed to Emerson's side.
"What happened!?" she demanded.
"Villainous." Jeremy said the one word all he needed to say.
"Where is he now?" Alasdair asked.
"They went to fetch Caiden before they left." Amya looked confused.
"They?" she asked.
"Yeah, he had Angelo and Archie with him."
"Bugger!" Amya cursed. "Right, well we'll have to go after him. You stay here with Emerson, make sure he doesn't die and we'll probably be back in a minute, heroically having retreated." She nodded to Alasdair and they disappeared.
Jeremy stood there awkwardly and glanced at the prone form of Emerson. Then suddenly Amya and Alasdair were back, Amya berating him about something and Jeremy let loose yet another squeal.
"Why would you think I'd want to go there?" he heard her demand. Amya was holding something strange in her hand and brandishing it violently at Alasdair.
"I don't know! I wasn't really concentrating, so when you nodded to me, I just 'jumped' to the first place that popped into my head." Alasdair insisted, desperately trying to calm down the furious woman.
"Yeah, but why there?"
"As I said: the first place that came into my head."
"Where did he take you?" Jeremy asked tentatively and Amya scowled at him, now decided to point the object towards him, so that he could just about see what it was. "Is that…" Jeremy started.
"Yes," Amya agreed. "It's a toy salmon!"
"Herring actually." Alasdair interjected, but Amya ignored him. She was in fact holding a soft, cuddly toy herring. She turned her murderous gaze back to Alasdair who shrunk back a little.
"This idiot decided the best way to help Caiden was to go to an aquarium and I don't know, 'ask the mighty tuna for guidance?'" Amya ranted.
"It was the first place that came into my head, I promise!" Alasdair insisted for the fifth time.
"It really doesn't matter." Jeremy said quickly before Amya could retort. "How about you just go and help Caiden?"
Amya scowled, but nodded to Alasdair and they disappeared. Jeremy stood there for a few seconds in case they suddenly appeared again, but nothing happened, so he knelt back down next to Emerson, trying to find any signs of consciousness.
When they reappeared, Amya and Alasdair were in the room which led to the dungeons of the castle. They'd been in it before when searching for Emerson and Jeremy. As soon as they appeared, Amya turned to the door and used the air to rip it off its hinges, so that it flew into the wall behind them. Amya then began to storm down the steps that were uncovered. Alasdair followed, not saying a word.
When they reached the bottom, they heard voices coming from the corridor on the left. At the bottom of the steps, there were two corridors, perpendicular to the steps, that each went off in the opposite direction. The one on the left curved to the right the further down it got and both slowly veered further and further into the ground.
Alasdair could just make out Scraper talking to what must've been Archie Bellows. Amya led the way carefully down the corridor, each footstep bringing them closer and closer to evil, further and further down into the darkness.
When they reached the end of the corridor, there was a corner going off to the right which Amya slowly began to peer round. Alasdair could still hear the voices; he could make out the words now and that was when he realised they were screwed. Angelo and Archie were just saying random words that had absolutely no connection to each other, they knew they were there.
Alasdair grabbed Amya back just as her head poked out from behind the corner and the bullet missed her head by an inch. She gasped, and then nodded her thanks.
"So here we are…" Scraper shouted over to them. "Isn't this nice?"
There was silence.
"Well I think it's nice." Angelo said. "And you know what?"
"No, I don't, shut up." Villainous said and Angelo shut up. "If you'd like to let us leave, no-one will get hurt." Villainous said he had no need to shout.
"I don't believe that's in our best interests." Alasdair shouted back. "We came here for Caiden; we're not going to leave without him.
"Yes you are," Villainous said back. "The question is will you actually leave? Or if you do, how many limbs will you still have?" he continued and Archie sniggered.
Alasdair looked at Amya and they exchanged a silent conversation. They came to an agreement with a nod.
"Ok, you win Villainous, but we'll be back for Caiden!" Alasdair shouted.
"Oh I'm sure you will, but we have no wish to let go of Mr Tate." Villainous replied.
Alasdair grabbed Amya's arm and they disappeared
They reappeared next to Jeremy who was talking to Ryker with Emerson still lying unconscious on the ground. Jeremy jumped in shock, letting loose another squeal of manliness and Ryker just nodded to them.
"What happened?" the shadow manipulator asked. "Where's Tate?"
"They have him." Amya said. "But I have a plan." Ryker nodded for her to proceed but Alasdair interjected.
"Well, it was kind of both of our plan, I helped think it up, and you know… formulate it…" Alasdair trailed off because everyone was staring at him, Ryker and Amya in contempt and Jeremy in pity.
Amya waited until he was finished, and then gave it another few seconds just to make sure until she started.
"It's simple." She said and was about to continue when Alasdair interrupted.
"Well, I wouldn't say simple…" Amya looked back at him, her glare penetrating into his very soul. "Sorry…" he whimpered.
"As I was saying, it's simple. All we have to do, is grab whoever we can find, alone from the Bloody Murderers and trade them for Caiden… in other words, only Sickening?" she realised.
"Well Angela's in Siberia…"
"Sickening's here." Ryker confirmed. "And I know where he is."
A/N: So it's finally here!... Sorry? So I've failed again, but that's cause I've had a lot on… Ok, so I'm just lazy. I've had a lot of spare time recently and I haven't really been able to get around to writing. This was gonna be my last chapter till I had a big break from this story and try some other projects while I thought about where this could go, but I'm gonna write another one, cause this is a crap place to leave it… and then I might continue, I haven't decided. Thanks so much for reading!(and if you have reviewing!), but honestly please review. Thanks so much you miniscule amount of people who have read this, I love you for it.
Mangobean.
