Chapter Twenty-Six

(Song in this chapter is "My Confession" by Josh Groban).

When I woke up again, I was in my room at the Benbow Inn, and was still in my black dress. Alyss and Catherine were sitting in the other room reading books. I wonder if they had gone to the library.

"Hey," I said sitting up and grabbing their attention.

"You're awake," said Catherine smiling as she set down her book.

"How are you feeling?" Alyss inquired.

I shrugged and stared down at the floor. Honestly, I felt depressed. My best friend had died, after all! I remember going to the funeral, but after that, my memory was a blank. "What happened?"

"You fainted," the girls said simultaneously.

"And Tulio brought you back," added Catherine. I glanced up at them to see Catherine's eyes glinting mischievously. Oh no, not them, too!

"I want to go back to the cemetery," I declared getting out of bed.

"Okay, we'll go with you," said Alyss finally closing her book. I nodded my head and left the room with the girls following behind me.

As I was making my way down the stairs, I heard a guitar playing and someone singing.

"I have been blind

Unwilling

To see the true love

You're giving.

I have ignored every blessing.

I'm on my knees

Confessing"

When I reached the bottom, I came to a complete halt, finding that it was Tulio sitting in a chair in the dining area, his eyes on the guitar. Some people were watching his performance while they ate.

"That I feel myself surrender

Each time I see your face.

I am staggered by your beauty,

Your unassuming grace.

And I feel my heart is turning,

Falling into place.

I can't hide it

Now hear my confession."

His head lifted and his gaze landed on me. Heat entered my face and my heart started fluttering, but I couldn't stop watching his performance.

"I have been wrong about you.

I thought I was strong without you.

For so long

Nothing could move me.

For so long

Nothing could change me.

Now I feel myself surrender

Each time I see your face.

I am captured by your beauty,

Your unassuming grace.

And I feel my heart is turning,

Falling into place.

I can't hide it

Now hear my confession."

"So that's where he went off to," Alyss mused elbowing my arm, "I kind of figured he wouldn't be that far from your side."

"He's not half bad, either." I could hear the smirk in Catherine's remark, but ignored them both.

"You are the air that I breathe.

You're the ground beneath my feet.

When did I stop believing?

Cause I feel myself surrender

Each time I see your face.

I am staggered by your beauty,

Your unassuming grace.

And I feel my heart

Falling into place.

I can't hide it

Now hear my confession.

I can't hide it

Now hear my confession."

"Did you still want to go to the cemetery?" Alyss inquired.

"Hmm?" I said looking back at her blankly.

"To go see Danny," Catherine added.

Danny! Tulio's playing had driven the thought from my mind.

"Hear my confession"

"Yes," I said turning away from Tulio as he was finishing up the tune on the guitar. The girls and I left the inn and made it to the cemetery without a problem. I ran straight to Danny's grave and knelt down before the headstone. Alyss and Catherine stood some distance off and watched silently.

"I'm so sorry, Danny," I said fresh tears spilling from my eyes, "I didn't mean for this to happen." Using the sleeve of my dress, I wiped the tears away. "And I'm sorry to both of you," I added without looking at the sisters, "I didn't mean to drag you into all of this. If you want, I can take you back to the Southern Isles."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Catherine as they joined my side, "We'd much rather be here with you."

"And besides," Alyss added, "After helping you, Tulio, and Flynn, I doubt we'd be welcomed back in the Southern Isles. But, who cares! That part of the royal family is full of douchebags!"

I couldn't help but laugh at that.

Siren needed to vent her anger and what better way than to cause more mayhem to Aralyne's friends? And even better, the little wretch was in Nesidy, so perhaps she could kill Aralyne herself. The villainess transported herself to the middle of the woods right in between Nesidy and the neighboring village.

"Time to get this party started," she sneered waving her hand over the ground. The earth around her shook and cracked open, scarlet light shooting up from below her feet. When the quake stopped, a sickly gray webbed hand emerged from the crevice. Dr. Facilier crawled out from the depths of Tartarus, his clothes torn, his top hat tilted to the side covering a hole on the right side of his skull. His eyes were an inky black and pale yellow, his hair having clumps of dirt in it. Facilier's mouth was twisted in a horrible grin, his dark gray tongue stretching out to three feet, dripping black saliva.

"You know what to do," Siren giggled crossing her arms over her chest. With her dark magic, her transformed herself into a black shadow and followed her new toy around.

They didn't get far when they heard two voices speaking and Siren zoomed past her zombie to see who the victims were to be. Naveen and Kidagakash. This was going to be fun!

"I heard so many were being killed by an evil force," said Kida, "Do you think we'll be able to do anything to help?"

"We've got to do something," Naveen replied, "These are my friends being attacked, and it must stop."

And that's when Zombie Facilier struck. He moved much faster than the other undead Siren had created and was on top of Naveen and Kida in a moment.

"What is that?!" Kida cried as they stared at the creature in horror.

"Faldi faldonza!" Naveen gasped.

Facilier's disgusting tongue shot out and wrapped around Kida, pinning her arms to her side.

"Kida!" Naveen shouted running to her rescue, pulling out a sword from the scabbard attached to his belt.

Facilier simply smirked, reached into his pants pocket, and held up several tarot cards. The zombie tossed the cards at Naveen and he dodged most of them. One, however, became embedded in left thigh and he looked down horrified to see the card had razor sharp edges. Even worse, the picture had a voodoo doll filled with pins and right below it was the word REVENGE. After pulling the tarot card out of his leg, he glanced back up to see Faciler held one more card. The picture was of a skull and in the word was DEATH.

"Naveen, look out!" Kida shouted, struggling to reach her own sword.

Facilier flicked his wrist and the Death card soared towards Naveen. He didn't get a chance to move before it sliced right through his neck, the head soaring through the air. The zombie chuckled as it picked up the head from the mud and tied it to his pants.

"NO!" Kida shrieked finally grabbing her sword. With a final twist, she managed to get her arm free and sliced at Facilier's slimy tongue. The zombie hissed before releasing his captive and sprinting off in the direction of Nesidy.

Still in her shadow form, Siren giggled and followed her minion all the way to the town. She had arrived in time to see everyone's reaction to another zombie attack. The sound of horrified screams was just bliss.

And that's when she saw Tulio running out of the Benbow Inn. She stared at him for a moment in disbelief. He was supposed to be dead! With a cry of rage, Siren spun around and transported herself back to her castle, no longer in her shadow form.

"HOOK!" she roared, causing the whole building to shake. Bits of debris and dust fell from the ceiling.

The pirate she wanted never showed up, instead it was Chernabog that entered her room.

"Where is Hook?!" she screeched her eyes flashing dangerously.

"He's dead, Mistress of the darkness," replied the giant black demon, "Killed by Aralyne and Peter Pan."

"WHAT?!" Siren then screamed long and loud, her whole body glowing red and her hair standing up on end.

A few seconds after laughing at Alyss's remark on the Southern Isles royal family, Aralyne suddenly froze, her eyes flashing scarlet. The sisters watched her warily, aware of what was happening. At the same time, they heard screaming coming from Nesidy.

"Not again," said Catherine nervously.

Aralyne cried out in rage before screaming at the top of her lungs, "HOOK!" A few seconds went by and she continued, "Where is Hook?!" A few more seconds passed. "WHAT?!" And she screamed like the women in horror movies possessed by demons. What scared the sisters, however, was the fact that Aralyne started glowing red and her short curls stood up.

"Aralyne!" a voice shouted, and they turned to see Tulio racing towards them. Reaching their side, he grasped Aralyne by the shoulders, and the glow faded. Her scream died out, her hair flopped back down, and she slumped against him, her eyes closing.

Facilier had used black voodoo magic to turn Louis the alligator into a zombie. The reptile's eyes turned an eerie scarlet, and he doubled in size. The flesh around his head fell off in pieces, exposing his skull, his fangs dripped with black poison. As if by some dark instinct, he turned and began attacking people.

Tiana tried escaping from the deadly alligator, but it was useless. The zombie reptile clamped his jaws about her waist, taking a huge chunk out of her side. Tiana screamed, feeling the black poison burn through her veins. She collapsed and writhed on the ground as she began her transformation. Her skin turned a sickly gray and her eyes now became black and a pale yellow. When she stopped moving, she slowly sat up, and grabbed Lottie's ankle as she ran by. Lottie fell to the ground and screamed when she saw what had tripped her. Tiana crawled closer, pinning Lottie down, and bit the blonde's throat. Grabbing Lottie's head, Tiana twisted until the head snapped off, and she slowly stood, blood dripping from her lips as she went for her next victim.

Kida had followed Facilier to Nesidy, completely distraught of what happened to Naveen, and she wanted revenge. Upon her arrival, she found the town in chaos, and quickly followed the screaming crowd to her target. She snuck up behind the zombie and raised her sword to strike him down, but it was almost like he knew she was there. In one swift movement, he swiveled around and pressed a tarot card upon her skin. Kida froze as a cold sensation swept over her. The card was absorbed into her skin, glowing an eerie white. From there, white cracks appeared all over her body looking like veins and her eyes turned a blinding white. Just like the other monsters, she was now under Siren's power, and turned to do her mistress's bidding. Dropping her sword, she turned and walked through the screaming crowd. With each person she passed, she simply placed a hand upon them, and they turned into giant crystals. As a side affect, she herself began to turn into a walking crystal little by little.

I felt dizzy and was glad someone was holding me up or I would have fallen. Through the fog in my brain I could hear people screaming, but I didn't know why.

"Tulio, what's going on?" I heard Alyss say.

Tulio?

"Not sure," Tulio's voice rumbled from beside my ear, "It looked like a zombie attack."

Zombie attack? I vaguely remember Doctor Possible telling me about Belle turning into a zombie. Could the same thing be happening again?

I weakly pushed myself away from Tulio and tried standing on my own. "Have to... help..." I muttered. I teetered on my feet and Alyss grabbed me before I toppled over.

"No, we need to get you out of here," Tulio said, "You're too weak to do anything."

Too weak? I couldn't remember what happened during the past few minutes, but my throat hurt as if I had been screaming and I felt drained.

"Tulio, look out!" Catherine shouted.

I glanced up to see Kida half crystallized, and her eyes glowing white as she stalked towards us. "Die," she hissed as she left an odd crystal trail behind her. Tulio dodged out of the way, grabbing a branch from a nearby tree and broke it off. He turned and swung the branch at her head. Her hand shot up, catching the wood, and it suddenly turned into crystal. Startled, Tulio dropped the branch.

"Get Aralyne out of here," Tulio shouted as he pulled out his sword.

Catherine grabbed my hand and the two sisters began running with me tow. I was still disoriented and kept tripping over my own feet. Suddenly, we heard Tulio grunt, and a crystal wall formed before us, blocking our path.

"Crap," said Alyss. We turned to see Tulio laying on the ground, his sword nearby entirely crystallized. Kida slowly moved towards us, her hand stretched out. We were trapped. Kida shot crystals at us, and the blast struck the sisters, knocking them to the ground. With no one and nothing to hold me up now, I collapsed, the world spinning. I weakly reached behind me to grab Excalibur, but couldn't get a firm hold on it.

"Aralyne!" someone voice shouted.

Right before Kida could touch me, I saw a black and white blur and the next thing I knew I had been scooped up into someone's arms and was flying away from the danger. Below, Alyss and Catherine gaped up at me in surprise before jumping to their feet and running away from Kida. I turned my head to find myself gazing into a pair of glowing green eyes. I shook my head to try and focus, and when my mind felt clear I stared at my rescuer in disbelief.

"Danny?!"